Modern gaming is a very diverse form of entertainment. There are countless genres and subgenres for players to enjoy, filled with games looking to entertain and immerse their audience in vastly different ways. Despite this, there is one thing that almost every game ever made has in common; they are all designed with the intention of being the best they can be.
There are outliers, however, as there are games that fall deliberately short in one or more areas. This may be for fun, as some games deliberately aim for a “so bad it’s good” experience; alternatively, it could be to prove some point, as a few games on this list did.
6 Goat Simulator
Goat Simulator is an example of a game that is intentionally bad for fun. The game was released in 2014, a time when the simulator genre was booming in popularity. Players began to see the value of games like Euro Truck Simulator 2 and the Farming Simulator series, which offers realistic gameplay around a seemingly mundane job. Jokes were once made about the genre, but in 2014, many people discovered that the style of the game could be quite addictive.
So when people encountered Goat Simulator, they may have thought that for some reason Coffee Stain Studios decided to make a realistic game about being a goat. Instead, it’s a ridiculously over-the-top action game full of absurd tasks that are great nonsensical fun. A continuation on Goat Simulator was recently revealed in one of the cruelest ways, as the announcement trailer initially appeared to be for a new Dead Island game. Instead it was for Goat Simulator 3which is expected to be released in late 2022.
5 Diaries of a Spaceport Concierge
Unlike Goat Simulator, Diaries of a Spaceport Concierge is an example of a game that was intentionally bad to make a point. The release of Sundae Month in 2016 is commonly referred to as an “anti-adventure” game because although it is set in a sci-fi world where adventures take place, the player is merely a janitor who clears up trash and has to endure abuse of the game’s police.
Players should expect that at some point the game will let them break free and embark on an exciting mission, although this moment never comes. In addition to commentaries on capitalism, the game also has themes of mental health issues.
4 Octodad: Dadliest Catch
Bringing this list back to the “bad for fun” side of the spectrum is: Octodad: Dadliest Catch. The game was released in 2014 by Young Horses, the same team behind it bugsnax.
As the name suggests, the game puts players in control of an octopus that pretends to be not only a human, but also a husband and father. The theme alone is enough to get a lot of laughs, but the ridiculously clunky controls make it all the funnier, especially when you’re trying to pose as a regular human being. Despite the deliberately poor controls, the game has been warmly received by fans, as evidenced by the Very Positive All Reviews score on Steam.
3 don’t buy this
don’t buy this was released all the way back in 1985 on the ZX Spectrum. After receiving so many bad game submissions, Firebird publishers got fed up and decided that instead of turning down a handful of games, they would put them in a compilation and sell them under the name don’t buy this as a rather cruel way to mock the developers.
don’t buy this features five games that Firebird openly criticized, and the publisher even encouraged players to pirate the game. Funnily enough, despite the title and overt criticism from the publisher, Do not buy This one was a commercial success.
2 Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy
Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy was developed by the person in the title, Bennett Foddy, and was first released on PC in October 2017.
The platform game puts players in control of a person trapped in a cauldron, who must climb a mountain using only a hammer. This already sounds heavy on paper and unfortunately the controls make it even more difficult. Despite how frustrating Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy is, it generated a huge number of players shortly after its release, thanks in no small part to how popular it was among streamers and YouTubers. The game was the successor to QWOPanother intentionally clunky game to control.
1 Operation Simulator
Operation Simulator was developed by Bossa Studios, a team that consisted of four people, Jack Good, Tom Jackson, Luke Williams and James Broadley. The game was made in just 48 hours as part of Global Game Jam, a period when the team was understandably sleep deprived. Because they had so little sleep, they didn’t know if the game was as funny as they thought.
However, they soon realized that it wasn’t just a lack of sleep that made their game funny, as the nonsensical surgery game became a huge success and a huge hit on YouTube. The game is a perfect example of how a game can intentionally make itself “so bad it’s good.”
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