Video games as an artistic medium have certainly earned their keep among the likes of novels, film, and the various other methods of storytelling as a
Video games as an artistic medium have certainly earned their keep among the likes of novels, film, and the various other methods of storytelling as an exceptional, striking experience, complete with many masterful works of art that make of its exploit of player control and variance. However, for every truly great game that pushes the medium forward, there are also a handful of notoriously awful games, with some of the very worst being downright shocking in their complete lack of quality.
From awful relics from periods of growth and evolution for the medium to botched games with no budget or direction, several of these games manage to be nearly unplayable in their disastrous executions. The only legacy that they have achieved for themselves is that of downright failure, being arduous to play and completely going against everything that makes video games such a striking and long-lasting medium.
10
‘Ride to Hell: Retribution’ (2013)
Two bikers riding motorcycles while aiming revolvers at each other in the video game ‘Ride to Hell: Retribution’
Following the continued success of games like Grand Theft Auto, there were a wide array of games that wanted to try their own hand at a extensive open world for the player to explore. While Ride to Hell: Retribution originally had plans of being a extensive, open world with grueling roads and biker gangs, the final product abandoned this idea to instead tell a basic, linear story of revenge. Not that an open world would have really done much to save Ride to Hell, as its shoddy execution completely undoes anything that the game was actually trying to achieve.
Plagued by lackluster visuals, bad shooting mechanics, and awful writing and voice acting, Ride to Hell’s only real enjoyment comes from a place of unintentional so-bad-it’s-good comedy. However, with so many disastrous glitches that hinder the player from actually progressing, as well as an array of tasteless, abrupt sex scenes (featuring fully clothed characters), any fun had while playing the game quickly goes away.
9
‘The Lord of the Rings: Gollum’ (2023)
A screenshot from The Lord of the Rings: Gollum
Licensed video games based on pre-existing pop culture can vary massively in terms of quality, as while it can result in exceptionally great games like Insomnia’s Spider-Man or Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, it can also result in absolute disasters like The Lord of the Rings: Gollum. While Gollum is far from the only licensed game to appear on this list, it’s a massive outlier in being the only game released within the past 10 years.
Gollum was an idea that seemed effective as a concept, but as release drew closer players came to realize that it’s strenuous to imagine actually having fun playing as the meek, shifty creature. It didn’t make things better that the actual execution proved to be laughably bad, with terrible visuals worse than the decades-old movies and terrible stealth mechanics. Glitches on release also made the game nearly unplayable, as a buggy mess that constantly crashed and made the entire experience extremely unstable.
8
‘Shaq Fu’ (1994)
Shaquille O’Neal facing off against a woman wearing a red dress in the SNES fighting game ‘Shaq Fu’
While Shaquille O’Neal is still widely celebrated as a beloved celebrity nowadays, his level of dominating star power as an NBA all-star was near inescapable in the 90s. This resulted in him being in a wide array of obnoxious, poorly-made pop culture films, and while films like Steel and Kazaam will forever be infamous as some of the worst 90s movies, Shaq Fu equally stands as one of the worst video games of the 90s.
Especially in an era where fighting games were arguably at their peak with the recent releases of Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat, Shaq Fu is one of the most uncomfortable and sluggish fighting game experiences of all time. It reaches a point where difficulty doesn’t come from any real balancing, but from the pain of actually making sense of the controls and trying to play the game. This doesn’t even go into the chaos of the game itself, where Shaq has to fight a bunch of interdimensional warriors to save a child from an evil mummy.
7
‘Bad Rats’ (2009)
A selection of various different rats each with their own weapons and roles in the video game ‘Bad Rats’
Bad Rats has an engaging legacy as one of the most infamously well-known and surprisingly successful terrible games of the digital era, finding massive popularity as a gag gift for people to send to each other on Steam. The combination of its overwhelming lack of quality, shocking offensive material and bloody violence, and only costing $2 and frequently going on sale, many people bore witness to the complete failures of Bad Rats.
The game fundamentally fails at the structural elements of its core gameplay, being a physics-based puzzle game where the physics often don’t work at all. Without any actually functioning puzzles, the only thing the game has to fall back on is its visuals and presentation, which ironically manage to be even worse than the non-functional game itself. Between the low-quality 3D visuals and the array of racist caricature rats, Bad Rats is little more than a economical gag whose comedy wears off quickly.
6
‘Bubsy 3D’ (1996)
Bubsy the Bobcat standing on a gray, textureless platform in ‘Bubsy 3D’
While the jump from 2D to 3D gaming may have been massively successful for iconic franchises like Mario and Zelda, this massive leap in technological scope and scale wasn’t always met with success, as Bubsy 3D took an already middling platformer franchise and made one of the absolute worst platformers of all time. It features a sluggish, unintuitive method of character and camera control that makes even basic movement an arduous task to overcome.
If it were one of the earliest attempts at platforming in 3D, then maybe the game would have more legs to stand on, but the game is completely blown out of the water by Super Mario 64, which released in North America two months before Bubsy 3D. This direct comparison proved to make the glaring issues of Bubsy 3D all the more apparent, with its tank controls and laughably bad visuals most notably being picked apart by players of the era.
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Atari video game opening screenImage via Atari
For many players, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is the go-to example of one of the worst video games ever made, being so disastrous in its execution that it nearly killed the entire video game industry. It is often touted as one of the biggest commercial failures in video game history and is the defining cautionary tale of rushed development and studio interference. The failure of the game has proven to be so large-scale and infamous that it inspired its own documentary on the topic, going into how unsold copies of the game were buried in the desert to save space.
It’s so ironic that this notoriously terrible game is an adaptation of a notoriously amazing movie, but it’s this exact excitement and beloved nature of the original movie that made the failure of the game that much more catastrophic. The game was confusing in its execution and far from the customary, basic fun games that made Atari successful in the first place. With only five weeks of development time and all of the expectations in the world placed on it, the game was destined for failure more than any other game in history.
4
‘Superman: The New Superman Adventures’ (1999)
A low-polygon Superman flying through a line of rings in ‘Superman 64’
More commonly known as Superman 64 by gamers, Superman: The New Superman Adventures is one of the most glaring, annoying to play games ever made, almost feeling like it was meticulously made to annoy and enrage the player in its failures. For all of the high-flying action and prowess that Superman is capable of doing in the comics and the animated series this adapts, the overwhelming amount of content in Superman 64 is simply flying through rings in a barren, lifeless city full of fog.
This would be bad enough as is, but with unresponsive controls and overwhelming glitches that make the game near-unplayable at times, Superman 64 becomes a grueling test of patience and the absolute worst licensed video game ever made. It’s a game whose failures are not only overwhelmingly apparent and constantly in the player’s face, but these issues frequently and consistently get in the way of playing the game and actually progressing, making the entire experience a repetitive nightmare.
3
‘Action 52’ (1992)
Three anthropomorphic Cheetah Men running into battle in one of the games on notorious multicart video game compilation “Action 52”
One of the most classic styles of bootleg and unlicensed video gaming to draw in players throughout 20th century gaming was that of the multicart, a cartridge containing the files for multiple games, oftentimes previously released games, or in the case of unlicensed carts, pirated games. While it’s sporadic for a multicart in itself to attain notoriety, Action 52 has grown infamous thanks to its absolute failure of function and quality in all 52 of its attempted video games.
At best, games were incredibly generic vertical shooters that were indistinguishable from one another, yet at its worst, many of Action 52’s games were completely unplayable and crashed within minutes of booting them up. Made worse is that even though none of these games were worth even a 52nd of the quality of a customary NES game, the game cost a staggering $199 when it was released, which was overwhelmingly high in price compared to every other game of the era.
2
‘Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing’ (2003)
A low-polygon truck about to partake in a race in ‘Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing’
One would hope that, as video games as an art form had grown throughout the 20th century, the style of bare-bones games completely lacking in care or content would be a thing of the past in the 21st century. However, Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing spits in the face of the inherent quality of racing video games in creating one of the cheapest, most non-existent video game experiences possible. Every aspect of the game screams being incomplete, from basic text graphics to a lack of any physics to some of the worst graphics possible.
Initial releases of the game didn’t even have any real racing, as the opponent truck driver didn’t even begin driving to race and left the player to their own devices to drive on the track as they pleased. With no penalty for going out of bounds and no collision detection, the only bit of fun to be had with the game is by abusing its lack of fundamental features. However, by the time players are done having fun reaching infinitely increasing speeds by going backwards, the finish line treats players with the hilariously inept message of “You’re winner”, a message that is emblematic of the entire game.
1
‘Custer’s Revenge’ (1982)
A naked cowboy looking at a woman tied to a pole on the boxart for controversial video game ‘Custer’s Revenge’
The go-to example of a terrible video game is usually something with bad graphics and gameplay that is actively unfun to play and interact with as a player. While Custer’s Revenge certainly shares this level of bad, uncompelling gameplay, the real factor that makes it the worst video game of all time is its overwhelming offensive and disgusting content, with the very concept of the game feeling vile to even talk about. This pornographic game sees the player controlling General Armstrong Custer in the nude, with the goal of the game being to dodge obstacles to rape a Native American woman tied to a post.
It’s a clear relic of this early, unfiltered era of video game history that Custer’s Revenge was even allowed to be made, but even for the 80s, this type of gross, offensive content was too much for critics and players of the era to sit through. Some may be quick to write off the game’s content due to it being in seemingly innocuous pixels, but this degrading piece of digital sickness doesn’t deserve to be played by anyone, as its existence helped entirely ban many X-rated video games from many regions across the U.S.
Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz
Which Action Hero Would Be
Your Perfect Partner?
Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt
Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn’t work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back.
Rambo
James Bond
Indiana Jones
John McClane
Ethan Hunt
FIND YOUR PARTNER →
01
You’re dropped into a threatening situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner?
The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you.
ASomeone who already has three contingency plans running and is calmly working through all of them.
BSomeone who reads the terrain instinctively and knows exactly how to exploit it against the enemy.
CSomeone who keeps their nerve and their sense of humour when everything is falling apart.
DSomeone who knows the history of wherever we are and what we’re walking into.
ESomeone with the right contact, the right cover identity, and the right exit already arranged.
NEXT QUESTION →
02
You have to get somewhere threatening, rapid. How do you travel?
How you get there is half the mission.
AOn foot through terrain no one else would attempt — I move where vehicles can’t follow.
BOn a motorcycle, a cargo plane, or anything else that gets me there before I think too strenuous about it.
CIn something that belongs to someone else — borrowed, stolen, or improvised under fire.
DFirst class, with a cover identity and a gadget that does something I won’t explain until it’s needed.
EBy whatever means are available — I’ve driven, flown, and once arrived by camel. The destination matters, not the method.
NEXT QUESTION →
03
You’re pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do?
This is when you find out what someone is really made of.
ADisappears into the environment, flanks them silently, and ends it before I’ve reloaded.
BCracks a one-liner, grabs a fire extinguisher or a chair, and improvises something that somehow works.
CProduces a gadget specifically designed for this exact scenario and uses it with infuriating precision.
DPulls out a whip, a pistol, and an archaeological insight that somehow gets us out alive.
ENeutralises the threat with maximum efficiency and minimum words — they were already three moves ahead.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest?
Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are.
AA bar with terrible lighting, frosty beer, and absolutely no questions about feelings.
BThe finest restaurant in the city, a bottle of something pricey, and a conversation that is equal parts brilliant and exhausting.
CA local dig site, a museum after hours, or a long story about why that particular artefact matters to human civilisation.
DPizza. Bad TV. Falling asleep halfway through a movie neither of you were watching anyway.
EA debrief that turns into three hours of contingency planning that somehow becomes the most fun you’ve had all week.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission?
Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability.
APrecise and minimal — tell me what I need to know and nothing else. Every word has a cost.
BDeadpan and droughty — keeping it delicate keeps me edged, even when everything is on fire.
CEnthusiastic and slightly tumultuous — but always with useful information buried somewhere in the noise.
DCalm and controlled through an earpiece, with a plan that covers every variable I haven’t thought of yet.
EBarely at all — silence is a language and they speak it fluently.
NEXT QUESTION →
06
Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them?
The approach to the enemy defines the partnership.
AInfiltrate their inner circle, learn everything, and dismantle them from inside out before they know we’re there.
BStudy the historical pattern — every villain of this type has a weakness written somewhere in the past.
CGet them talking. The more they monologue, the more time I have to figure out how to beat them.
DGo through them. Directly. With as much force as the terrain allows.
EFind the one thing they haven’t accounted for — there’s always one thing — and make sure we’re holding it.
NEXT QUESTION →
07
Things go badly wrong and you’re captured. What do you trust your partner to do?
Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters.
ACome in alone, quietly, and get me out before anyone knows they were there.
BHave already been working on the extraction since the moment I disappeared — the plan is already running.
CCome in deafening, come in rapid, and worry about the collateral damage later — I’d do the same for them.
DUse every resource, every contact, and bend every rule until I’m out — they don’t leave people behind.
ECharm their way in somehow, bluff through the strenuous part, and still manage to look good doing it.
NEXT QUESTION →
08
What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn’t replace?
A great partner fills the gap you didn’t know you had.
ATechnology that shouldn’t exist yet and the training to exploit it under any conditions.
BSurvival instinct so refined it borders on supernatural — and the scars to prove it’s been tested.
CKnowledge of history, language, and culture that makes them invaluable in places where force is useless.
DThe ability to walk into any room in the world and immediately become the most trusted person in it.
EStubbornness that refuses to accept a situation is hopeless — and the improvisational skill to back it up.
NEXT QUESTION →
09
Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with?
No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together.
AA partner who never fully switches off — always watching exits, always calculating threats, even at dinner.
BA partner who gets the job done brilliantly but has the emotional availability of a locked filing cabinet.
CA partner who makes everything ten times more complicated than it needs to be — but who always comes through.
DA partner who gets personally attached to every relic, ruin, and artefact we encounter, which slows everything down.
EA partner who was not built for this and knows it — but shows up anyway, every time, without being asked.
NEXT QUESTION →
10
It’s the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now?
The last question is the most truthful one.
AOne line. Absolutely droughty. Delivered like the world isn’t ending. Then we move.
BNothing said at all — just a look that means we both already know what has to happen.
CA plan I don’t fully understand that somehow accounts for everything, delivered in thirty seconds flat.
DA piece of historical context that reframes the entire situation and tells us exactly what to do next.
ESomeone who steps forward instead of back — because that’s who they’ve always been.
REVEAL MY PARTNER →
Your Partner Has Been Assigned
Your Perfect Partner Is…
Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.
Rambo
Your partner doesn’t talk much, doesn’t need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you’ve finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You’ll never need to ask if he has your back. You’ll just know.
James Bond
Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it’ll take you a moment to remember what’s actually true. James Bond is the most professionally threatening person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You’ll never be bored. You’ll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.
Indiana Jones
Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most vital thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely well-informed partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar’s eye and a brawler’s instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will sluggish you down at least once. It doesn’t matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you’ll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.
John McClane
Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren’t so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more tumultuous than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.
Ethan Hunt
Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you’ve finished reading the briefing, and the plan he’s settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn’t exist. He is not uncomplicated to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ
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