1. Call of Duty Black Ops
Declassified Probably not a brand you expected to see on a list like this, but if you had the pleasure of owning a PS Vita and this abomination to the Call of Duty franchise, you’d understand why it received so many poor reviews and Worst Video Games.
The entire campaign takes less than an hour to complete and the enemy AI can’t even maneuver their way around the level geometry.
If you wanted to take a break from the horrible story mode and try your hand at multiplayer, you’d have to combat awkward touch-based controls alongside maps so tiny that you’ll literally spawn with enemies in your crosshairs.
Critics describe the game as a “disjointed mess” and a “terrible value for money”. Despite the negative reception, the game debut was the second largest for the PS Vita in 2012.
2. Superman
The New Adventures Also known as Superman 64, the game was originally released in North America on May 31, 1999, for the Nintendo 64.
Due to some licensing issues involving DC Comics and Warner Brothers, development of the game was greatly affected and it resulted in this unfinished, poor quality mess known as Superman: The New Adventures.
However, despite the awful graphics, technical bugs, and extremely difficult gameplay, the game sold well for the time.
Related: Top 10 Most Expensive Steam Items Ever Sold
3. Link: The Faces of Evil Along with its sister release Zelda
The wand of gamelon, these titles are considered to be the worst Zelda games ever released for the brand. Known for its infamous and horribly cheesy cut scenes, laughable voice acting, and sloppy controls it caused most of the Zelda community, including Nintendo, to rarely even acknowledge the games existence.
Although the game received extremely negative reviews after release the gameplay was actually considered to be pretty decent and most of the background images were well drawn.
However, the game was nowhere near the series standard and left a horrible stain that would not easily be forgotten.
4. Custer’s Revenge
The player character in this controversial game is based around General George Armstrong Custer, well known for his defeat at the battle of Little Bighorn.
The man is portrayed wearing nothing but a cavalry hat, boots and a bandana while sporting a visible erection.
Released on September 23, 1982, the game and its developers received significant criticism because of its crude simulation of the rape of a Native American woman.
Not only were groups such as Women against Pornography, and Native American Spokes people upset about the release, but the video game industry in general frowned upon the development of the game and joined in the protests of many others.
Nevertheless, all the media attention the game received for its controversial content provided the company and the game itself a multitude of free advertisement.
This resulted in the purchase of over 80,000 copies of the game, more than twice that of any other adult game the company had produced.
5. Aquaman
Battle for Atlantis Like the underwater hero himself – this game was a huge letdown. Reaching peak ratings of 3/10, the games presentation, graphics, and over all appeal was extremely low.
Players could easily beat a majority of the game by mashing the A button, and although the worlds look large, they’re filled with invisible walls, and are completely void of life.
Not only are the graphics and gameplay uneventful, it’s been reported that the camera following the player character has actually made players feel sick or dizzy.
In addition to as much sound as you would expect to hear being ACTUALLY underwater, the game has 21 levels of flawed, broken, and boring underwater adventures that most people don’t have the motivation to finish.
6. Club drive
Looking for an afternoon full of disappointment? Well you’ve come to the right place with the uncontrollable glitch filled gameplay of Club Drive.
The game is well known for its horrible graphics even for the time period it was release in. With little to no textures at points, the game is built around polygons that give the game a very primitive look.
In addition to an ugly face, the gameplay body of the game is clunky and at times uncontrollable. Mixed with poor physics and terrible audio effects and music, the game has more than earned its position in the top ten worst games of all time.
7. Shaq Fu
Although met with mixed responses at initial release, Shaq Fu has since come to be considered one of the worst games of all time.
The 2D fighting game featuring Shaquille O’Neal was originally released for the Sega Mega Drive and the Sega Genesis. Just about every aspect of the game that could possibly be wrong manages to be worse.
The story doesn’t make sense, the audio is horrible, controls are broken and even the health bar doesn’t work properly.
Not only do people hate this game with a passion, but a website known as ShaqFu.com is dedicated to “liberating the game from existence” by finding as many copies of the game as possible and destroying them.
8. Atari Pac-Man
According to the Guinness book of world records, the Pac-Man we all know and love is not only the most recognized video game character, but the game also holds the record as the most successful coin-operated game in video game history. But that’s not why we’re here.
We’re here to talk about Pac-man’s abomination of a cousin that was released for the Atari 2600. Although this version of the game sold over seven million copies and was the best-selling game on the Atari 2600, the port’s poor gameplay quality, somehow worse graphics, and broken ghosts floating through walls, severely damaged Atari’s reputation.
This left 5 million copies unsold, and was a contributing factor to Atari’s financial decline in 1983 alongside E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
9. Big Rigs
Over the Road Racing Imagine picking up a game in 2003 at the local rental place. The package promises you high speed chase scenes, tons of local police forces trying to hunting you down, and all that while attempting to escape in a huge semi-truck full of illegal goods – sounds like a fun time, right?
Now imagine bringing that game home and finding no police, no such objectives within the game itself, and your truck doesn’t even have a load attached.
In addition to all the shattered childhood dreams, the lack of collision detection, violation of the laws of physics, software bugs, poor visuals, and overall lack of functionality, Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing is widely known as one of the worst video games of all time.
10. E.T the Extra-Terrestrial
A game developed and published in 1982 by Atari based on the famous film with the same title. Atari expected high sales of the game due to the popularity of the movie, but with rights negotiations ending in late July, it only gave developers five weeks to complete the game and release it for the 1982 Christmas Season.
As you can imagine, the short production time didn’t work out too well for our little alien friend. The mixture of bad visuals, frustrating and broken gameplay, as well as seemingly unreachable goals had the game cited as one of the worst games ever released and was one of the biggest commercial failures in video gaming history.
Millions of unsold cartridges have been dumped in a landfill in New Mexico, and the game has even been referenced as a major contributing factor to Atari’s huge financial losses in 1983.