Editor's note: Cameron's article is a fun exercise that should be taken lightly. I hate Gears of Wars. While it's technically proficient, I think it's repetitive and unnecessarily violent -- just had to get that out there. What dregs from the midden heap got on your good side, and which classics left you cold? -James
It's happened to all of us. A major release hits shelves, we wait in line excitedly to pick up our copy, speed home to get it in the console as quickly as possible, and find ourselves completely unimpressed. It's not that all those gushing critics were wrong; it's just that we aren't feeling it the way they did.
Or maybe it's the other way around. We pick up a game on a lark -- probably out of a discount bin. Though we only expect to get a couple of hours of laughs out of it, ten hours later, we still can't put it down. Just to be sure we aren't crazy, we check Metacritic, and find out that reviews did in fact savage the game. Somehow only we (and maybe the developers) managed to find something to like about it....
These aren't things that are easy to admit to -- especially not on the Internet, where rejection of accepted wisdom tends to go over rather poorly. But we should challenge majority opinion regularly, and this is a fun way to do it. Pick a couple of games people commonly recognize as good -- titles that left you cold. Next, select a couple you know are truly bad but charmed you anyway. These aren't underappreciated gems or overrated disappointments. These are games you love or hate in spite of your own better judgment. Feel free to leave your choices in the comments. Here are mine:
Good Games I Hate
Super Mario Galaxy: I've never heard anyone say a bad word about Super Mario Galaxy, but for my money, it's the least enjoyable of the main series Mario games. I can't really say why -- though I suspect my rabid love of Super Mario Sunshine influenced my opinion. Galaxy does everything a Mario game ought to do -- and looks great doing it -- but I just couldn't bring myself to care about it. Two hours in, I turned the game off in boredom and sadness and never looked back.
Uncharted 2: Hate is a little harsh to describe my feelings for Uncharted 2 because I actually started off liking it. It looks beautiful, and the early levels are pretty fun. But Nathan Drake's appeal was lost on me, and I felt like the level design got stale about half way through. I didn't hate Uncharted 2 from the start, but I ended up feeling like it was an above average game that failed to appeal to me at almost every turn.
Bad Games I Love
Strider: "Wait," you may be thinking, "Strider is a great game!" Yes, the arcade and Genesis versions are awesome. But I'm talking about the NES version, which sought to turn Strider into an action RPG and came up with a mess of slowdown and flicker. Add to that level designs that look like outtakes from Power Blade and a baffling English localization, and you have what you can only charitably call a failed experiment. Yet I still love it -- even more so than the beautiful arcade original. If I could choose one game from the 8-bit era to be remade on a modern console, this would probably be it.
Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity: While my opinion of Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity was better than that of the average critic, I still recognize its flaws. Simplistic level design and shoddy controls keep it from reaching its full potential. But it reminded me just enough of the races from SSX 3 that I found a place for it in my heart. It's definitely not a great game, but it is good for a couple of hours of mindless fun, and sometimes that's all you need.
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Good Games I Hate: UC2, Red Faction Guerilla.
Bad Games I love: Killer7, Sonic Adventure 2.
See, I thought Mario Sunshine was incredibly boring, but not enough for it to make my list. Also, way to cut off my objection to your inclusion of Galaxy by including a screenshot of the worst goddam level in the game. Bonus point awarded.
GGIH: Gears of War -- while it's technically sound, I just don't fucking care. Also, Street Fighter 2, which I'm just not any good at.
BGIL: DEADLY PREMONITION. How did you not include Deadly Premonition?! It's awfulsome. Also Star Wars: Bounty Hunter, although I'm at a loss to explain why.
ET for Atari 2600 wasn't that bad. I finished it a few times with a friend.
Evan: I knew someone would call me on Deadly Premonition. The problem is, that's a GOOD game that I love. :)
Edgar: I agree on E.T. I beat it as a kid, and I think it's far from the worst game ever. At least it had ambition.
You sir, are my hero for bringing up the NES Strider. For I too, am a lover of indecipherable dialog and bosses that are trees with floppy disks turrets.
GGIH: Mario Galaxy- The only game to ever make me motion sick. Mass Effect 2-There's a difference between simplifying things, and switching genres mid-series. Borderlands-Which I hate because my best friend loves it. At least that's what he keeps telling me.
BGIL: Sudeki- REALLY should have been multiplayer. Advent Rising-Flick targeting worked surprisingly well for me. Suikoden 3-Absolutely awful. Play while you're in a patient state of mind however, and its one of the best in the series.
Also; agreed regarding Strider. Except the floppy disk comment. That just made my head hurt.
A lot of people hate MW2.
Sorry for the quick pitch, but if you want to elaborate on two games of the same genre that you loved/hated, you can take a stab at this month's writing challenge that's all about that.
http://www.bitmob.com/articles/bitmob-writing-challenge-this-or-that
Although I don't "hate" it, I agree about Mario Galaxy. I hear a lot of people espouse their profound love for the game, but I don't see it.
Actually, now that I think about it, what most people hate about Zelda (the formulaic design) is how I feel about Mario. They all feel pretty much the same, just with some new feautures thrown in to spice it up.
How about God of War 3? I know it got great ratings. And the graphics are indeed fantastic, but the gameplay and combat is just the same old same old, especially after the much better Bayonetta. I just gave up and traded it in after another cheap jumping instadeath.
I'd say Modern Warfare 2 but I think everyone pretty much agreed the single player part of that was utter crap.
I love/hate the old PC game Ripper. It was the game that made me quit playing PC games, but I actually loved playing it... Once I got it to run. Which took about two weeks of struggling with DOS and searching for drivers and such until I found the exact driver to make the game work. I was so excited for this game that I actually started bashing my keyboard over my head when I brought it home and still could not get it to boot after about 4 hours of work. I finnaly found an obscure driver on an old demo disk that made the game run, but I was forever soured on PC gaming after.
The game itself was a point and click game along the lines of 7th Guest, but with a much grittier R rated style. It featured hella awesome FMVs with people like Christopher Walken. The game media savaged it pretty badly and it was a big budget point and click title released right as they were starting to wane, but it will always hold a special/notorious place in my heart.
Here- watch this demo video of it and bask in its awesomeness!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYbAWZ8yPks
And then read about it on Wiki-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripper_%28video_game%29
PS- I enjoy Mario Galaxy, but cannot express how much I hate the shoe-horned in motion control and lack of Classic Controller support AND I love all versions of Strider, so you just won a special place in my heart as well!
Good game I hate: "hate" is strong, but I'm going with Borderlands. Definitely one of the most irritating gaming experiences I've had in a long, long time. The respawning enemies, unbalanced classes, unbalanced loot, lousy pacing, circle-strafing bad guys, abundance of tiny, swarming creatures that jump at you...OK, maybe "hate" isn't so strong. Sure is pretty, though, and I can see why other people do like it. It just hit on so many of my personal gaming pet-peeves.
Bad game I love: Marc Ecko Presents Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure by Marc Ecko. It is so broken, but I love the evolution of the narrative, going from common tagger to propagandist. To my knowledge, it's the only propagandist game around, but I love with the concept. So much of that game's "greatness" exists only in my own imagination. I came up with my own pretty badass idea (and I don't have many of those) for a game about being a propagandist, but I know it will never be. : (
Also, Advent Rising.
GGIH: Bioshock. I'm not sure why so many people think this game was the best thing since sliced bread: the "story" is mostly told through tape recordings you pick up laying around on the ground, and it felt much more linear than everyone says it is. The atmosphere was great, but that's about the only praise I can lay upon it.
I can't bring to mind any bad games that I loved, but there sure were plenty of mediocre titles I enjoyed the crap out of... Titan Quest comes to mind.
GGIH: Fable 2. Fable 1 was pretty good (and my initial play was a few years after its release), so I was excited about Molyneux kicking it up a notch. But the game just didn't feel all that polished, and I guess I'm just into more hardcore RPGs. (Big BG fan right here, along with ME and tons of others.) Also, the whole idea about separating earning money from adventuring? I don't WANT to chop wood. I want to adventure -- and adventurers should make money because dungeons should have treasure. I don't think I'll be buying Fable III.
GGIH: Ok, I don't HATE it, but I'm not a big fan of Gears of War. They're pretty fun, but that's it. I don't see the hype.
BGIL: Harvest Moon. Although I really only like the good ones (HM64 and Back to Nature), so perhaps you can't call it a bad game. Regardless, lots of people don't like them but I think they're SO great. It's just so rewarding getting your farm going, and I like the freedom.
BGIL: Quest 64. I haven't played it in years but I loved it at the time. Looking back, it was pretty awful. I think I liked it because I was coming to realize I liked RPGs, but only owned an N64, so not much choice. That's why I also liked Aidyn Chronicles.
Great article.
I too loved Strider on the NES. Played the hell out of it.
Good games I hate: Modern Warfare 2. I don't enjoy having my vision constantly ruined every time one of the endless waves of enemies hits me from a mile away. Bah, hate it.
Bioshock. This totally seems like a game I'd love (love good atmosphere and story), but the god awful combat mechanics totally ruined it for me. Shooting just feels disconnected and the plasmid system didn't interest me at all. Made it about 3 hours in and haven't touched it since. Maybe I'll give it another go some day.
And now I'm going to fire up Super Mario Sunshine. Thanks!
For me it would be more accurate to say "Great Games I'm Not In Love With":
Uncharted 1 - too much shooting and not enough puzzles.
Bioshock - System Shock 2 was better.
Dead Space - Wasn't scary at all. I always had way too much ammo.
Beyond Good & Evil - Really don't like the art style.
God of War - Just can't get hyped for it.
Bad Games I Love:
Winback - N64 game that pioneered the cover system feature that's so popular today.
Quest 64 - Only RPG on the N64 and actually a pretty impressive technical achievement for its time.
Deadly Arts (G.A.S.P!! Fighters NEXTream) - Still one of the most developed character creators in fighting games. Great music.
Mortal Kombat Mythologies Sub Zero - I actually think they did a really good job turning MK into a side-scrolling advetnure. Really challenging, and actually pretty inventive.
@Daniel: Winback was definitely a solid game. I remember how cool I thought the cover system was. But was it generally considered a "bad game"?
Good Games I don't like:
- Final Fantasy XIII: I want to say that critics have my back and everyone who loved it is just having that nostalgic memory of when all they did was eat up JRPGs like their the best tasting frosted flakes you can get off the shelf. The storyline got more cheesy with each disc to the point I wanted to start boot-stomping the game if I didn't borrow it from my friend. TL;DR = Story horrible, Squall more than horrible
Bad game I loved:
- Final Fantasy XII: I don't get why people didn't enjoy this game. The graphics were amazing and the story was very sophisticated with all of the political drama. While the gambit system drew alway teveryone who loved it is just having that nostalgic memory of waiting turns to go through menus with all 3 characters, I found it to be a way to streamline the action. TL;DR = Story brilliant; gameplay misunderstood
Good games I hate: Gears of War 1/2[b]. One of the most boring games I've ever played, you just stick to cover, do a little whack-a-mole because if you get off cover then you'll die because of terrible aiming and fire from all angles. The characters are jokes, but sometimes the atmosphere is great underground in part 2.
[b]Uncharted 2. The first Uncharted game was an average game that was hyped because of PS3 owners. The platforming is very automated, so it's hard to compare this game to any decent platformer with challenge. I hate a lot of things about Nathan Drake, not least of which he is a sadistic sociopath. The shooting is better than Gears, you move faster, and there's great levels, whereas 1st game had the jungles that became too repetitive. I explained a lot more in my own article here on Bitmob.
Bad Games I Love: Kane and Lynch. The unpredictable story, complex characters, dark tone, kickass music, and memorable levels totally suck me in. The enemies can get repetitive, but at least they change clothes for each level, like the bikers in the Tokyo level. The levels look almost photorealistic, set in the real world, and just the character interplay during gameplay with everyone bickering is just refreshing after games with lacklustre ally interaction (Uncharted, Gears of War, Army of Two). Let's hope the shooting mechanics are tightened for part 2, so then more people can see the potential of this dark crime thriller franchise.
Another good game I hate is, God of War. The combat is so shallow, even Dante's Inferno has more options and challenge. The platforming is horrid, with bad camera angles causing more deaths than actual fights. The enemy AI is pathetic for an action game in this day and age. And Kratos is such a one-note character that he becomes a caricature in the 3rd game. AAREEEES!
And seriously, screw Quick Time Events or button prompts. Now every action game is ruined by them. Even good games are ruined with God of War's stupid design choices, like Dante's Inferno.
GGIH: Fallout 3. I just can't put in the effort to travel around such a huge land mass while only listening to the same ten songs over and over.
BGIL: Lord of the Rings: The Third Age. The story was mostly made up of footage from the films, the characters were nothing more than the Fellowship's groupies, and literally all you could do was fight( and people say Final Fantasy XIII was linear) but it was still a decent RPG set in Middle-Earth, much better than the atrocities on SNES and GBA.
GGIH: Infamous. I loved the Cooper games and couldn't wait to play this. Popped it in, played through it all, and didn't feel a thing. Just one of those times where the game is mechanically sound and you keep telling yourself "I should love this, this is fun", but I never got hooked.
BGIL: Stuntman. The exact opposite of what I said for Infamous.
Modern Warfare 2 is the most over-rated, repetitive, winding rubbish to have 'graced' the current generation.
But Dark Sector was precisely as good as Bioshock, if not moreso.
I also really struggle to like any of the Persona series, which are often lauded by JRPG enthusiasts, and I don't see how anyone couldn't like Atelier Iris 2, despite it being, well, rubbish.
@Daryl: FFXII is a GREAT game.
Great games I Hate: MW2 (Needs balanced desperately), Borderlands (I just couldn't make myself get into it, it never really hooked me)
Bad games I love: MW2 (When it works it works beautifully), Farmville(Geek cred be damned, that farm is going to be better than Grandmas)
How about a "good" game I LOVE to hate: God of War. Any of them. I'm not choosy.
I loved NES Strider as well. Because the game was considered so bad at the time I received a copy for free because a friend of mine hated it so much.
Good game I LOVE to hate: Metal Gear Solid 2. How could a sequel to a game so good turn out so bad? Replace the main character with a whiny bitch and a story line that felt like a script put in a blender with some everclear that's how.