The lights are on
Ride to Hell: Retribution is a bad game, but it has an entertainment factor that cannot be denied. It’s the reason our Test Chamber of the game is so entertaining, and why a group of editors stayed up all night live streaming the game. It’s a hilarious train wreck with fully-clothed sex scenes, and you just can’t look away.
There are a number of games like Ride to Hell that are described as, “so bad, it’s good,” but I wonder if the second part of that statement – “It’s good” – is true. Do you actually want to play these types of games by yourself? Is there joy in playing these games without an audience, or is being part of the audience that watches the game be played the only way to truly enjoy it?
Pictured above: Tim Turi severely regretting his decision to play Ride to Hell: Retribution all night, and Ben Hanson. Photo courtesy of GI intern Brian Albert.
I was among the many editors that crowded around Dan Ryckert as he reviewed the game, and I tuned into the live stream to see more of it, but I will never take the time to play the game myself. How about you? It's hilarious, but it's an experience I am perfectly comfortable letting somebody else endure for my own entertainment.
Also, while we're at it, what are some of your favorite hilariously bad games?
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I don't play bad games. I don't have the money, time, or patience.
I rarely play bad games. I think that there are so many good games out nowadays, it's hard to find the time just to play some of those. I only enjoy watching someone play something truly atrocious. Then it can be fun.
Watching bad games like this can be fun but I think it's ridiculous (as was mentioned in the videos multiple times) that games can be this bad and be $30. I do remember getting Star Wars bounty hunter for christmas one year. While not the best game it also wasn't the worst. I love star wars and was still able to have fun with it.
Man vs Wild!
The worst game I've ever accidentally played was "Dukem Nukem Forever"...Bad memories
If the definition of a bad game is a game that has poor sales, then yes, I play bad games all the time.
Not intentionally, but bad games have ended up in my hands more often than I would've liked. I have a finite money supply, so I'm not ever willing to spend it on something even iffy, but games like Sonic and the Secret Rings tricked me into believing they were passable.
Spider-man and the X-men in Arcade's Revenge for SNES. Bought it, loved it, it's terrible.
Dan Ryckert is a bad video game reviewer, can we do a comparison for bad games to his bad reviews?
Yeah but I rent it from gamefly not all "bad" games are bad.
The Sonic Adventure games. Me and a couple of friends who loved 2 as children went back and delighted in how terrible it is. 1 is even worse: it would be a textbook example on how not to make a video game if the design weren't incomprehensible. Donkey Kong 64 is in exactly the same boat, though it's a much better game. It comes down to terrible design decisions. DK64 backs that up with solid gameplay. The need to cycle characters and atrocious minigames are hilarious, so it's kind of a bonus that the game is otherwise bearable to play.
I also play a lot of bad but interesting games. Deadly Premonition is a cool, quirky and detailed adventure game wrapped in a terrible survival horror game. Pathologic is a cool horror story told so effectively it's physically exhausting to play, but the game runs so slowly and is so poorly balanced and translated that it's true brilliance can't shine. Xenogears is a fascinatingly told story with terrible combat, etc.
I started playing Alpha Protocol and as a writer myself, I have to say that the writing is so bad, its good. Otherwise it is a bit of a mess. But there's enough hilariously bad stuff that you can suffer through it with some amount of enjoyment. Like Overblood.
I can't remember...lol
Faery: Legends of Avalon was, what I'd thought, an RPG faery game. But it turned out to be part 1 of what was intended to be a three part series, so the game wasn't even finished, and the combat was terrible. There was no voice acting, many glitches and boring side-quests. But I found the story, while partially made, rather interesting, and I loved flying around the rather tiny worlds.
The vast majority of the time, I prefer to watch other people play bad games. That being said, though, this is the only reason that I'm playing L'Arc Rise Fantasia right now.
I've listened to some reviews when I should have gone with my gut.
I can't say I have ever played a bad game.I only pre-order games I know for certain will deliver. If I don't pre-order, poor reviews for a given game will turn me off from it. I don't know why someone would intentionally play a bad game.
Friday the 13th for the nes. That game was hard as hell and made me jump everytime Jason popped up. I didn't know or think it was a bad game at the time, only in hindsight when i see it talked about online. Back in the old days we just played what we thought was fun...man times have changed.