Those patient enough to suffer through the initial gameplay inadequacies are rewarded with horrible, low-quality cutscenes, a “special” Accelerator Suit ability that often drains during said cutscenes, unreachable power-ups that hover just out of grasp, the worst vehicle controls I’ve used in years, and voice overacting that makes the guy who says “killing spree” in Unreal Tournament sound understated.

Back on the N64, the world-twisting gimmick may have been enough to make Flip's Twisted World stand out. These days, though, it feels like a one-off idea that Super Mario Galaxy 2 might have used on a single level before abandoning for even wilder gameplay tricks. In fact, being in such incredible company on the Wii is possibly the game's biggest mistake; on a console flooded with platformers, Flip's Twisted World is among the worst.

Tears of joy rolled down my cheeks at the exact moment that I ejected this game from my Xbox. I then proceeded to toss it on the floor and violently smash it with a sledgehamer into a thousand little pieces. [Jan 2003, p.114]

Trite dialogue, mindless quests, bland gameplay, and boring textures. [Nov 2003, p.170]

It pains me to say this, but turn off your TV and just read the book or head to your local theater. This is a story everyone must experience, just don’t try interacting with it.

It pains me to say this, but turn off your TV and just read the book or head to your local theater. This is a story everyone must experience, just don’t try interacting with it.

It pains me to say this, but turn off your TV and just read the book or head to your local theater. This is a story everyone must experience, just don’t try interacting with it.

Given just how unresponsive and sticky the gameplay is, a strong case can be made that a turd in a toilet has far greater functionalty than the controls in this game. [Dec 2004, p.177]

Like those vacuum-powered hair trimmers, this one sucks while it cuts. [July 2004, p.116]

Like a waterlogged corpse afloat in a handheld sea, Jack Sparrow's PSP adventure stinks. [Sept. 2006, p.100]

Simply put, this game is bad and I hate it. [Nov. 2006, p.140]

About as soulless as the faceless Activision suit that signed off on its feast of mundane side-scrolling. [Oct 2002, p.94]

The story is delivered witih all the emotion of a grade school play. This woldn't be such a bad thing, if the gameplay weren't absolutely abysmal. [Dec 2002, p.122]

With the number of average-to-outstanding FPS titles available on next-gen consoles, there’s absolutely no reason to waste your time with this disaster. [Apr 2008, p.86]

The mech-combat genre isn't overflowing with alternatives, but they do exist. Save yourself the aggravation and pick any one of those. You won't do any worse.

As a downloadable title, I wasn't expecting Amy to measure up against the triple-A juggernauts of the survival horror genre. However, I was expecting a game that was at least playable and contained some kind of entertainment. Make no mistake: Whether Amy is delivered to you via download, retail SKU, direct brain wave, or retinal implant, it is terrible and should be avoided.

Crime Boss: Rockay City is proof that star power isn’t everything. In fact, it’s a reminder that a celebrity cast does nothing for a game when it’s void of anything interesting or fun to support it. When run-ending bugs appear, Crime Boss is miserable, but even when I’m running a mission bug-free, I lay witness to a painfully dull take on organized crime. At its best, Crime Boss functions – I can shoot weapons at enemies, empty bank vaults and warehouses for loot, watch cutscenes with recognizable faces and voices, and grow my empire – but it never captures my attention in a meaningful or memorable way. Instead, it pushes me further and further away, leaving me with no desire to ever return to Rockay City.

Perhaps developer Natsume Atari intended to replicate the experience of wearing a Godzilla costume while filming a movie, but no gamer should ever have to endure gameplay this cumbersome and poorly designed.

Offering police pursuit races, takedown-focused bouts, and several other modes doesn't help Asphalt 3D's cause in the least. It's a buggy mess, and the controls are awful enough to make it a chore even when the game is functioning correctly.

Playing this game is like someone shoving a wire brush down your esophagus then pulling it out your you-know-what. [Jan 2003, p.102]

Rarely do [fishing games] just stink like rotting fish guts after five days roasting in the sun. Which, coincidentally, is how bad this game stinks. [July 2003, p.107]

The nuts and bolts of gameplay are apocalyptic failures, but the awfulness doesn't stop there. Managing games is utterly pointless. [Feb 2009, p.85]

Please don't do any more games like this, The Rock. You deserve better. [Nov. 2006, p.130]

The nuts and bolts of gameplay are apocalyptic failures, but the awfulness doesn't stop there. Managing games is utterly pointless. [Feb 2009, p.85]

This game doesn't even live up to the first four PSX titles in the series. It's that bad. I just feel dirty playing it, and Sony should feel worse for publishing it. [Jan 2002, p.88]

If anything, the game did show me how much torment I can put up with before breaking down, sobbing, and pleading to make it stop. [Dec 2002, p.125]

The nuts and bolts of gameplay are apocalyptic failures, but the awfulness doesn't stop there. Managing games is utterly pointless. [Feb 2009, p.85]

If youre seriously interested in this "game," you're probably a loser who's embarrassed to buy porn, and way too chicken to actually talk to a real girl. [Oct 2004, p.129]

This isn’t a premier blend of pulp fiction. It’s just a pulpy mess.

This sucks rocks...Avoid this stinker at all costs. [Oct 2002, p.87]

Laughably bad dialogue combines with broken combat and tedious gameplay to create one of the worst games in years. Choose the Wii version, and you’re in for a special form of torture, as your camera wildly wheels about and an added layer of stupidity is included while aiming a weapon.

Thank God. Now I can stop pretending that I was having fun rocking out to Metallica and live my dream of playing backup cowbell in a cruise ship band version of “Yankee Doodle.”

If youre seriously interested in this "game," you're probably a loser who's embarrassed to buy porn, and way too chicken to actually talk to a real girl. [Oct 2004, p.129]

It looks like a freakin' "Doom II" mode, except the framerate isn't as good. [Jan 2004, p.157]

There's really only one way to sum it all up. This game just sucks. [Sept. 2006, p.97]

Please don't do any more games like this, The Rock. You deserve better. [Nov. 2006, p.130]

There are absolutely no redeeming qualities to Double Dragon II. The only people I can recommend this to are gamers that enjoy hate-playing the worst stuff just to make fun of it or Double Dragon fans who can't help but play every release no matter how terrible.

This isn’t a premier blend of pulp fiction. It’s just a pulpy mess.

If you play Fear Factor: Unleashed, you deserve to find forgiveness in the heart of no man. [Feb 2005, p.125]

The game, on the other hand, is just plain gruesome, and for all the wrong reasons. Avoid it like the plague. [Nov 2001, p.131]

Unlike "Gauntlet," Black Stone is so poorly executed, that it is absolutely no fun to play. [Feb 2003, p.104]

Dragon's Lair is a lot like the chicken pox. It's probable that you'll experience it once in your lifetime, and that's more than enough.

With the number of average-to-outstanding FPS titles available on next-gen consoles, there’s absolutely no reason to waste your time with this disaster.

These games might have been fun portables 20 years ago, but now they're too simple and boring. [Feb 2003, p.110]

As a comic book fan, games like this reduce me to a quivering, broken mess - laying in the fetal position under my desk with tears streaming down my face like a lost child. [Dec 2003, p.187]

I have to go to the courthouse and file a restraining order so this crappy game cannot get within 1,000 fee of me ever again. [August 2002, p.91]

I love the ideas at play here, but the horrific implementation adds complexity and obfuscation with little commensurate gain in strategic depth. I hope Kerberos' constant patching (the week-plus since launch has already seen several updates) will eventually turn this into the game it could be. Right now, it's a mess that everyone should avoid.

If I’m going to spend a long period of time with my hand wrapped around an oblong object, moving my arm rapidly up and down, it sure won’t be with this game.

Foremost among these flaws is the camera, which is so poor that it almost defies imagination. [Dec 2001, p.113]

The leader in sports [ESPN] and the company behind "Metal Gear Solid" should just go their separate ways. [Mar 2002, p.85]

A absolute mess...Call of Duty: Black Ops: Declassified is appalling. In dramatic fashion, it completely fails to live up to the high bar of quality gamers expect from the Call of Duty name. It's also a discouraging sign for gamers like me who shelled out $250 for a Vita in the hopes of console-quality experiences on handheld.

I want to call The Quiet Man a farce, but farces are funny. This game is just a conceptual catastrophe that does everything wrong and nothing interesting.

This is a quirky Japanese kissing game. I say kiss it goodbye, because it’s not worth your time. Some games are just made broken. I don’t mean broken in the bug-riddled sense, but Chulip is probably one of the most poorly designed games I have ever played.

The worst part is that, for all the simplistic level goals and unimaginable gameplay, the horrible control almost manages to make this inane garbage somewhat challenging. [May 2002, p.88]

Ju-On: The Grudge fails to inspire terror, relying on tired jump-scares, that over-used croaking sound, and random, cheesy scares via a second controller.

Speaking of lack of combat, the first boss battle doesn’t even kick in until level nine – and it sucks!

With the number of average-to-outstanding FPS titles available on next-gen consoles, there’s absolutely no reason to waste your time with this disaster.

But instead of choosing between a co-op or AI partner, you should just avoid playing this game. The only thing of any value that Cursed Crusade has left me with is a blight that will remain on my Xbox Gamerscore until the end of time.

If you're a huge Dead Space fan, you may want to put two hours aside to play through this game to get the Hacker Suit. If your interest lies solely with how Ignition serves as a prelude to Dead Space 2, you're missing nothing interesting. I doubt the "that's what she said" joke or Franco Delille's story will be referenced extensively when Isaac returns.

The story and setting are fun, but after 10 minutes of wrestling with wonky controls, the nostalgia wore off. A little later, after Conrad’s body somehow fused with a platform and forced me to restart, the contempt began.

A description of Eco-Creature’s controls could easily read like a manual on how not to design an RTS.

Officially the worst Xbox game I've ever played... Play this title only if you don't have Dr. Kevorkian's number handy. [Feb 2003, p.105]

The simplistic flick-your-wrist-and-sometimes-press-a-button interface is probably great for testing the motor skills of chimpanzees, but humans should do themselves a favor and use this same arm motion to fling this Hudson game into the Hudson River.

As a downloadable title, I wasn't expecting Amy to measure up against the triple-A juggernauts of the survival horror genre. However, I was expecting a game that was at least playable and contained some kind of entertainment. Make no mistake: Whether Amy is delivered to you via download, retail SKU, direct brain wave, or retinal implant, it is terrible and should be avoided.

Sarcasm aside, I wouldn't burn this game for warmth if a vat of dry ice got dumped on my head. [Jan 2004, p.135]

Playing the Predator's new game is about as much fun as being stabbed in the groin with his wrist blades, and then having the wound peed on. [June 2005, p.126]

Playing the Predator's new game is about as much fun as being stabbed in the groin with his wrist blades, and then having the wound peed on. [June 2005, p.126]

There are a lot of poor fighting games out there, but few are this shallow and boring. [Jan 2004, p.151]

Through unresponsive controls, poorly designed worlds, and atrocious animations, it would seem this title was created with the specific purpose of torturing those who play. [Jan 2002, p.83]

If the single-player campaign isn’t painful enough, Hour of Victory offers a multiplayer component so poorly constructed that just trying to shoot another person makes you feel as stupid and incompetent as the game’s AI. At the very most, Hour of Victory is deserving of Worst Game of the Year honors.

I'd avoid picking up the box for fear of contracting something, to say nothing of actually paying for this abomination. [March 2005, p.138]

In utter honesty, there are few titles that have inspired such immediate and long-lasting malice in my heart and mind. [Nov 2003, p.157]

It's virtually void of driving freedom - the map blows. It has no trademark Simpsons charm, either. The gameplay is apocalyptically bad. [Aug 2003, p.104]

The framerate chugs along to a point where many of the stages should be classified as unplayable. I'd be surprised if this game pushes more than 10 frames per second at any given time. [Jan 2004, p.160]

South Park fans will be disappointed by the pandering references and lazy writing, and platforming fans will hate the awful level design. This is a game for no one.

This title is exactly what all the haters were afraid of when the DS was originally announced: boring, tired game design with crappy touch screen control tacked on. [Jun 2006, p.118]

This game is nothing short of an embarrassment. [Sept 2003, p.113]

If you want a multiplayer-only shooter without spending $60, there are plenty of options for cheap (Gotham City Impostors) or completely free (Team Fortress 2). Normally, this is the part of the review where I’d reiterate that you should not play Rekoil under any circumstance, but from the abundance of deserted maps I saw, it seems that most gamers have already received that memo.

Call me crazy, but punching an enemy while doing the doggy paddle doesn't exactly generate a whole lot of excitement. [Oct 2003, p.131]

I'd say it was as horrible as the N64 "Superman" atrocity, but since Aquaman has always been a lame character, having a crappy game is at least conceptually sound, given the subject matter. [Oct 2003, p.139]

Bad games are sometimes described as “trash,” but even that doesn’t seem vile enough for this grievous affront. Kengo is a tall glass of garbage water – the viscous, beige fluid that collects at the bottom of trash bins...the refuse of waste.

Whatever strange, mirror universe insanity might lead you to play a video game version of Jenga rather than the real thing, you are unlikely to advance past the first few games.

Even diehard fans of the original Fear Effect should stay away from this mess of broken gameplay, system-breaking bugs, and slapdash narrative.

The only good that this game serves is that it keeps Fuzion Frenzy’s legacy of being synonymous with “bad game” alive for another generation. Even if Microsoft offers it as a five dollar download on Xbox Live Arcade, pass on it – unless, of course, you collect Worst Games of the Year.

Blackwater is an awful game on all fronts. It's a transparent attempt to lure uninformed Kinect owners into purchasing a nearly-broken, tedious, two-hour experience under the guise of being an action-heavy FPS. Play the trailer again and mock it with friends...you'll save $50 and probably have more fun.

Shrek can burp and light his farts! Well, so can my old college roommates and I don't see you paying 50 bucks to hand out with them. [Jan 2002, p.86]

While playing through Escape Dead Island, I was continually offended that anyone would be asked to pay for this experience. Any number of developmental issues could have caused this train wreck, from budgetary problems or creative crises, and we'll likely never know the whole truth. But as it stands, Escape Dead Island is worth nobody's time.

Terrible, and offers nothing as a video game or even as a piece of nostalgia. The ugly turtle models didn’t bring back any memories of the fun cartoon of my youth, and the gameplay is among the most unenjoyable experiences I’ve had during my time as a gamer. There is no circumstance under which anyone should play this train wreck of a game.

It sucks in a vomitous, spirit-crushing kind of way. [March 2005, p.137]

Kinect owners have been clamoring for new games since the peripheral's launch, but I think we'd all prefer developers take a little more time figuring out its tech if it means less games like this abomination.

R.B.I. Baseball 17 is the prime example of a series being milked to death. What started off as a great idea of bringing arcade baseball back into the limelight has turned into a bona fide disaster, the likes of which we rarely see. I feel sorry for anyone who picks up this game assuming it would be better (or even different) than last year’s installment.

Just when you thought the updates and lack of people online couldn't make PlanetSide any worse, Sony Online Entertainment drops perhaps its biggest turd in history: Core Combat. [Jan 2004, p.157]

I'd say the physics were bad, but I'm afraid that Albert Einstein would rise from his grave and stab me with a protractor for using the word "physics" in the same sentence as Gravity Games. [Sept 2002, p.81]

The fun of these party games wears thin rather quickly. [Dec 2002, p.144]

The only laughs come from knowing your friends are suffering the same punishment you are...They're cursing this to anyone within earshot, just like you. [Dec 2003, p.154]

Features level design that would have been sub-par 15 years ago, terrible graphics, and wretched control. [Dec 2003, p.159]

One of the most pathetic jobs of porting a PC game to the console I have ever seen in this horrid little life of mine. [June 2003, p.114]

The arcade died years ago, but this is surely an uncalled-for goober spit on its grave. [Feb 2003, p110]