The Worst Retro Games I’ve Played so far

I’ve looked back at some of the best games that I’ve played in different genres, mostly the ones that I enjoy. This time I want to look at some of the worst games I’ve played. This won’t be limited to a specific genre and will draw from games I’ve played for my YouTube channel as well as my blog.

I probably don’t need to say this, and I’m fully aware that it probably won’t make a difference, but this is just my opinion. You might like some of the games on this list, which is fine. I can only speak to my experiences with the games, which might be different from yours.

This isn’t going to be limited to a particular time period or console. It will just be the 10 to 15 games that I didn’t enjoy when I played them. Not all of these are bad games; they’re just the ones that I didn’t like.

TLDR: A List of the Worst Games I’ve Played so Far

Maze (Atari 2600)

This is an odd one, and it tends to be confused with other games made and published by Atari. Maze is a crappy version of Combat, at least that is what I think is happening in this game. There isn’t much to this game, and it is largely forgettable.

This game is so obscure that the internet has largely ignored it. It doesn’t help that there is a similarly named and much better Atari game out there, Maze Craze. I don’t think this is some tragic loss, as the game really isn’t too different from Combat. You and a friend navigate a maze in what I think are cars and shoot at each other.

Games like this aren’t inherently bad. Maze is just a lazy game that isn’t as good as the two previous games Atari made with the same gameplay. The controls aren’t great, but at least the graphics were fine for the time.

X-Men (NES)

This is as close to a broken game as you can get. X-Men is a bizarre assembly of terrible levels that don’t feel like they’re connected. It does have a nice roster of characters, but that is about it.

The controls are terrible, the graphics don’t feel finished, and there is some cryptic BS that you have to do so you can see the end. My biggest problem is having to select two characters, even if you’re playing by yourself. Three characters can shoot, and three are worthless.

This is one of those games that screams “We just have to make something to fulfill a contract.” The end product is very bad. It’s not an impossible game to beat; I’m just not sure why anyone would want to. This game is very close to being the worst LJN game in the NES library.

WCW Nitro (N64)

I really hated this. There are a lot of bad wrestling games that I could’ve put on this list, and I’m going to try to keep them to a minimum. WCW Nitro on the N64 has terrible controls, bad gameplay, and it took the worst parts from the two PS1 games and mashed them together.

This is a wrestling game that doesn’t have lock-ups. It was a baffling decision by the development team, and the overall gameplay isn’t helped by being way too fast. Everything in this version of the game just feels off, and the only thing I liked from the PS1 games had to be removed.

This version of the game has almost no redeemable features. I just couldn’t find anything that I liked about it, and the bad gameplay didn’t help much. WCW Nitro is one of the worst things I’ve played.

The Tick (SNES)

The Tick is one of the most disappointing beat’em ups I’ve played. It is a single player beat’em up, which had a lot of potential. Ultimately, a very repetitive style, bad hit detection, and just boring gameplay sunk this game.

You fight a lot of ninjas in this game. Narratively, there is a very good reason for this, but that doesn’t make things better. It only adds to how repetitive things are. They try to break up the gameplay, but what is presented isn’t fun either. The game is 44 levels long, which is absurd for a beat’em up in the 1990s.

The best things I can say about this game is that the graphics are nice and the comic’s sense of humor is here. Unfortunately, the gameplay doesn’t match up. This really is a shame because there are so many goofy superhero parodies they could’ve included as playable characters. For whatever reason, they didn’t.  

WCW Backstage Assault (N64)

WCW Backstage Assault should’ve been a game mode in a larger game. It has a big roster and a lot of unlockables. The downside is that there is only one game mode. Everything is a hardcore match.

There just isn’t much of a game here. The graphics aren’t all that great, the controls are fine, and there isn’t a story mode. This game felt like a huge step back from a developer that made a decent game with Mayhem.

If it wasn’t for WCW Nitro, this would’ve been the worst wrestling game on the N64. At a time when wrestling games were getting more complex and including story and career modes, Backstage Assault feels like a game that was more of an obligation. It was released at a time when WCW was close to being sold. Everything about this game screams “rushed development.”

Tecmo’s Secret of the Stars (SNES)

I actually like this game, but not for the reasons that the developers intended. The game’s translation absolutely kills the story. While parts of it are funny due to the horrific translation, the ending is nearly incomprehensible.

It does have good ideas. The duel party system is pretty fun, but they didn’t really do much with it. The main characters have way more to do than the B Team. The only thing the other party does is go on fetch quests and open doors.

When I first played this game, I thought it was going to be some underappreciated game. Then I got further into it, and a whole bunch of problems piled up. While I had fun with it, there are plenty of other RPGs I would rather play.

Paladin’s Quest (SNES)

Much like Secret of the Stars, the developers tried something different with this game. It took me a very long time to get into this game, and the more I played it, the less I liked it. It has very good graphics, but the gameplay is more annoying than anything else.

I hate the magic system in this game. You don’t have magic points, so you lose health when you cast spells. Instead of healing magic, you have to use items. The combat screen is overly complicated, as you have to choose which arm to attack with. The ending also gets overly confusing at the end, mostly because the translation starts to fall apart.

This is one of the games that I first played on an emulator. I kept trying to play it, but couldn’t get into it. When I finally sat down to play it a few years ago, it felt like I had to force myself to finish it. At the end of the day, it just wasn’t fun for me.

Captain America and the Avengers (SNES)

I have no idea what happened to this game. Beat’em ups are some of my favorite games, and many of the superhero-themed games in this genre are quite good. The Genesis version of the game is one of my favorites on that console, but the SNES port is really bad.

The controls and difficulty make this a rough game to get through. What really surprised me was that the graphics looked worse than those on the Genesis. Everything about this version of the game was a disappointment.

I was expecting to play something close to the Genesis version of the game. The SNES version is just not as good. I even liked the NES version more, and that is a totally different type of game. If the controls were better, then I would’ve enjoyed this more.

Wabbit (Atari 2600)

There is almost nothing redeemable about this game. It is an Atari 2600 game, so I wasn’t expecting all that much. This was just a boring game that left me confused.

The Atari 2600 has quite a few games that are fun! Many of them are shoot’em ups, which is the genre that Wabbit falls into. Its biggest problems have to do with it not being as good as all the other games like it on the console.

The controls are fine, but the gameplay is pretty awful. I would rather play the ports of Moon Patrol or Missile Command. There are also some fun adventure games, such as Adventure and Haunted House. Wabbit is a simple shoot’em up that feels like an inferior version of a carnival shooting game.

Super Thunder Blade (Genesis)

This is simply one of the games that I didn’t like at all. Just about all of the problems I had with this game have to do with the controls. This game was just a frustrating experience.

I can’t totally blame the developers for this one. Super Thunder Blade is a bad arcade port. The arcade game used a joystick, which didn’t translate too well to the Genesis controller. The graphics are fine, but the one hit deaths and awful controls killed it for me.

This was a launch title for the Genesis. That is about the only thing memorable about it. Super Thunder Blade is a serious downgrade from the arcade game, but it is at least better than the Master System version.

Superman (NES)

This is one of the more disappointing NES games that I’ve played. Superman, as a character, can make for a fun video game, and the developers tried to include many of his powers. It just has an awkward control scheme.

The bones of a fun adventure game are here. It just isn’t a good Superman game. I had similar feelings about this game as I did when I played Simon’s Quest. There is just something holding it back, but in this case, it is holding it back from being good.

The goofy graphics, awful control scheme, and frustrating gameplay really make this an annoying game to play. I can see someone enjoying it because there are some good things in it. None of those good things made this game enjoyable for me.

Conclusion

I usually don’t review games that I don’t like. When I come across a game that I’m not enjoying, I normally move on to something else. The games on this list were different because I was trying to like them, or they were part of a larger project.

Some of these games are fine, but I didn’t enjoy them that much. Others are simply bad games or not as good as the other games in the same genre on their respective systems. There are other games that I was disappointed in, which I might get to at some point.

This was a difficult list to put together. I wanted to grab games from a few different genres, and I was trying not to be too harsh with some of these games. There are a lot of Atari 2600 games that I don’t like, which has more to do with the types of games that I enjoy.

At some point, I’ll have to go back over a few of the Atari games that I reviewed for YouTube and make blog entries for them. There are a bunch of them, especially from when I was doing research projects on the various publishers for that console. I’ll get back to them at some point.

If you like this post, check out some of my other lists. Such as My favorite Beat’em Ups so Far or My favorite RPGs so far.