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Are there "so bad it's good" games?

Sonic 2006 and Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric comes to mind. Bad in the sense that they're both just very un-engaging bores of games, but their lack of glitches you can pull off / exploit for laughs allows can allow them to transcend into "so bad it's good" territory.

I think Sonic Boom has the edge on Sonic 2006 on this department though, it seems to be considerably less polished than Sonic 2006 was (which is saying a lot).

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Resident Evil 6 has been the best bad game I've played in a long time, it's hilariously bad but fun thanks to the co-op. I'm surprised no one mentioned it until the 89th post; I would imagine that that's the consensus for those that enjoy the game. Seriously though, RE6 has had my co-op buddy and I in tears at various points throughout the game, it's been a really fun experience and I've come to love the game in an odd way.
 
Disagree about Deadly Premonition being So Bad It's Good because I genuinely think it's actually really good. It's flawed, but the charming, bizarre story is intentional rather than being accidentally entertaining. It's a really, really good game that might be my favorite game ever...and it has terrible mechanics because of its low budget.

But the game is genuinely great at what it tries to do. Except like, the uh...shooty bits. Those suck. Like, a lot. But the game is still awesome.

Hell, I'm gonna go one step further:

Deadly Premonition is amazing in spite of being bad, not because of it. It does what it wants to do so well that it can make up for the things it really, really doesn't want to do. The shooting feels and plays like an afterthought, but you can tell what got most of the love during development, and those parts are the ones that shine.
 
Hopeford said:
Disagree about Deadly Premonition being So Bad It's Good because I genuinely think it's actually really good. It's flawed, but the charming, bizarre story is intentional rather than being accidentally entertaining. It's a really, really good game that might be my favorite game ever...and it has terrible mechanics because of its low budget.

But the game is genuinely great at what it tries to do. Except like, the uh...shooty bits. Those suck. Like, a lot. But the game is still awesome.

Hell, I'm gonna go one step further:

Deadly Premonition is amazing in spite of being bad, not because of it. It does what it wants to do so well that it can make up for the things it really, really doesn't want to do. The shooting feels and plays like an afterthought, but you can tell what got most of the love during development, and those parts are the ones that shine.
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.

I don't think it was intentional but the shooting sections playing like some terrible throwback to RE tank controls adds to the unease that the rest of the night scenes try to instill. If the game had a modern control scheme that was smooth/responsive it wouldn't give nearly the same level of tension. Deadly Premonition on a whole is about taking player expectations and flipping the script; IMO the uneven graphics and weirdly paced/controlled shooting sections add to that.

Or, you know, 10/10 because LOL so bad it's good PS fuck IGN.
 
deadly premonition i feel hits a point where it becomes its own artform. its jank as all hell, but more than enough people will tell you that its a blast all the way through for that reason and for just how absurd it can be, and it has a lot of heart

i played the sonic adventure games on GCN when i was young and always had a good time with them. theyve sort of taught me to attribute a good 3D sonic game with a strong level of jank and shittiness. it builds character, or something

earth defense force is a really good one, too
 
Yeah I'd go with Earth Defense Force. To me a "so bad it's good" game has to at least be functional, EDF is janky, cheap, cheesy and not great to look at but it works so in that sense it can be "so bad it's good". I wouldn't say games that are just straight up broken are "so bad they're good", they're just bad.

Like I wouldn't say Sonic '06 is "so bad it's good" because it barely works, it's an absolute chore to play. The fact that games are interactive make picking a game that's "so bad it's good" more difficult.
 
Gex: Enter the Gecko. I mean, objectively it was a pretty low quality 90s 3D platformer, but it did a really good job of parodying the genre during its heyday. I see it as a bit of a postmodern commentary on 90s TV culture.
 
Disaster: Day of Crisis comes to mind.
Not a bad game by any means, more like average that is really fun to play when approached with open mind.

Really bad games are branded that, mostly because they're unplayable or have serious technical issues. So it's near impossible to find a game "so bad it's good".

Finding games that got bad rep but are actually decent to good is way easier.
 
EDF for me. you show that game to someone and say it's amazing and they look at you funny. it's about as basic as it gets in regards to gameplay. the weapons have no real impact, it's graphics are terrible. it animates horribly, the voice acting is hilariously bad, no real story. it's a real struggle to get people to even look at it, let alone play it. but once they do they all seem to agree it's super fun.
 
I think the crucial difference is that a movie requires no input from you, so you can sit back, relax, and watch the beautiful mess unfold in front of you. A game requires you to interact with it, and if it's truly a bad game (not a decent game with ridiculous elements, which is most of what is being mentioned in the thread), it's simply unpleasant to play.
 
A significant portion of every David Cage game belongs comfortably in this category. And I love them for it.

I'd argue the narrative elements of Metal Gear could be included too.
 
Hopeford said:
Disagree about Deadly Premonition being So Bad It's Good because I genuinely think it's actually really good. It's flawed, but the charming, bizarre story is intentional rather than being accidentally entertaining. It's a really, really good game that might be my favorite game ever...and it has terrible mechanics because of its low budget.

But the game is genuinely great at what it tries to do. Except like, the uh...shooty bits. Those suck. Like, a lot. But the game is still awesome.

Hell, I'm gonna go one step further:

Deadly Premonition is amazing in spite of being bad, not because of it. It does what it wants to do so well that it can make up for the things it really, really doesn't want to do. The shooting feels and plays like an afterthought, but you can tell what got most of the love during development, and those parts are the ones that shine.
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I agree in big part. Here's my lengthy little review of Deadly Premonition:

I had originally played Deadly Premonition on the 360 during May of 2010. I was visiting my grandmother and was out with the family at Best Buy, where an uncle of mine was considering getting a printer. Being the dork I am, I went to go check out the video game section, and there were a few copies of Deadly Premonition lined on the shelves. The cover caught my interest as a horror fan, and the cheap $20 price tag sold me on it to make a blind purchase. When we got back from our day out, I put it into the 360 and started to play.

The first thing I noticed about Deadly Premonition, and something that has remained true, is that I love its soundtrack. A few select tracks are used maybe a little too often, but the music perfectly fits the odd tone of the game, and is pretty damn catchy. Even as I am writing this review, I find myself humming a few of its tunes. This is a case where the soundtrack isn't just good, but is a big part of this game. I am convinced the game may not have been as well received by as many if it didn't have this off-kilter soundtrack that really gets you into the mood for the oddness the game throws at you.

The next thing I and about anyone else will notice is that this game looks dated. It's something of a miracle that a game in this graphical condition was released as a published disk-based console title in this day and age. It looks dated, but then controversially I would say the look fits the game. It sort of sets you into a set of expectations for the sort of game you're about to play. This may be backwards logic, but if the game had looked amazing I feel a lot of people would of found the actuality of the game to be lackluster to its looks. And as the game goes on, the odd facial expressions and clunky animations become very amusing. Notably, the Director's Cut does update the graphics some, but honestly its hardly noticeable.

The rest rolls from there. The controls are a bit awkward, but you adjust. The first chapter isn't all that great, but it gets better. And before you know it, you start getting hooked into the game. I know I did. And it's the type of game you want to talk about.

Heavily inspired by Twin Peaks (to a point in development the game got in legal trouble for far too many similarities that they had to change it, back when the game was known as Rainy Woods), the story follows the same basic premise; An FBI agent goes to investigate the homicide of a local high school beauty in a small pacific-northwestern town, but the town has a darker side the FBI agent discovers as he gets deeper into the case. The town is Greenvale, and our character in Deadly Premonition is Agent Francis York Morgan (but just call him York, that's what everybody calls him), an offbeat FBI agent who solves cases through odd measures, particularly of note in the fact he uses a system he calls profiling (that basically results to magic to figure out what happened by collecting clues), and see's shapes and messages in his morning coffee and newspaper that gives him clues to things to investigate. He also talks regularly to some unseen person named Zach. Many will quickly put together that 'Zach' is actually York's way of talking to the player, who only he seems to realize is watching everything, and who only he interacts with.

Deadly Premonition has unforgettable characters. York stands out, as the player really begins to form a connection with their odd agent, but the rest of the cast are just as good. The likes of Emily, George, Thomas, Mr. Stewart, Polly, and the rest of the colorful cast will last with you long after the game has been completed. And the story legitimately begins to get gripping. Like the rest of the game, Deadly Premonition tells an odd tale, and honestly some of what occurs in the game is absolutely ridiculous, but somehow you'll legitimately care what's going on. That is when you're not laughing your ass off, as the game is somehow both intentionally and unintentionally hilarious at the same time.

But it's more than just that, this game manages to actually be touching, and I found myself more emotionally involved with this game's story and characters than most any other game I've played in the last few years. And while I don't want to get ahead of myself, the last few hours of the game's story are unforgettable. Saying bye to York and the rest of Greenvale is up there as one of the hardest things I had to do as a gamer upon coming to the close of the game.

Deadly Premonition is not just, 'so bad it's good' (though definitely parts of the game are just that). The game does some things absolutely wonderfully, really stellar and uniquely. But it does other things terribly, absolutely horribly. It has flaws, a lot of them. But somehow most of these flaws become strangely part of the whole experience. They sort of blend in with everything else and become part of the overall experience of Deadly Premonition. Not everyone will like Deadly Premonition, but the title since I've played it has taken on a fairly big cult following, and for good reason.

Deadly Premonition is more than the sum of its parts. The game has obviously a lot of heart in it, and it shows. But it also is loaded with flaws, and that also shows. But somehow, the heart put into this game and the elements that make it amazing shine above the cumbersome driving, or the glitches the game has, or the fact the game has a few annoying QTEs. The term, 'experience', in games gets thrown around a lot these days, but this truly is what Deadly Premonition is. An experience.

And it's not a short one either. The game should take someone 15-20 hours to complete the first time. To do the side-quests easily adds another 5-20 hours (and you should do the side-quests, they're rather fun and most all of them add additional cutscenes and character depth, plus some of them reward you with handy items, like quick-travel or a weather doll or infinite ammo weapons, or even just new cars and suits).

The PC port has plenty of flaws. There are many fan-made work around's and patches made to help, but these still exist. I was lucky that I didn't run into much, but the game did crash a couple of times for me, and there's this weird thing with the game where the longer you play it without closing it and re-launching it, the slower over time the FPS will get. It's hardly a perfect port, and some will definitely be turned off by this.

But it's also definitely the best version of the game. And if you haven't experienced Deadly Premonition before, you definitely ought to at least give it a try, maybe stick around for the coffee.

Deadly Premonition is not a masterpiece in a traditional sense, and it's too flawed in ways to be named a good game (maybe okay at best). But Deadly Premonition is probably one of the best gaming experiences you could have that's released in the last few years. You'll laugh, you'll cringe, you'll be hit with feels, and you'll panic. When all is said and done, we need more games like Deadly Premonition. It's the mid-tier game in one of the purest forms, flawed and arguably bad, but with so much heart and enjoyable elements you may not care, and hardly any game will put a smile on your face as much as DP does.
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One might say Far Cry 3 :/

You're the biggest douche imaginable, still you're being celebrated as a great warrior and hero.
 
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Technically awful, but legit one of the most hilarious multiplayer games ever. We still hold semi-regular tournaments. So much random shit happens. It's wonderful. Frolf is the best.
 
Dusk Golem said:
I'm just gonna' say you need to play more video games if Sonic Racing Transformed, Dark Souls, and Shadow of the Colossus are what you consider 'bad'.

A game having some 'jank' (one of GAF's favorite terms) =/= bad.
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Actually if you will refer to the thread title I think they're all good! They have glaring flaws and design choices that should make them bad games but those flaws define them and make them compelling
 
Not so much the game it's self, but:

Shadow of Mordor: Stealth Mechanics.

They were so loose and janky, it was one of the best parts of the game.
 
Trio the Punch is by no means a good arcade brawler, but it's wild fucking fever dream and I wouldn't have it any other way.

There's a boss fight against drumstick-chucking Colonel Sanders (who turns into a chicken demon halfway through the fight). The first level has you fighting a giant Karnov statue that's being held up by tiny Karnovs. There's SMB3 Bowser style level where you're dodging a Monty Python-esque foot.

It's great.
 
The Last of Us.

Serious answer: The Order: 1886 for me. It was bad in its linearity but I loved it. Or is that not what the OP means?
 
I don't know about it being so bad it's good but Sonic 06 is so bad it makes for hilarious Let's Plays. Just recently stumbled upon the GameInformer crew doing a Let's play of that and it's really funny.
 
I love every Cruis'n game on N64 so much, despite them all being pretty bad. Janky steering mechanics, gross graphics (even for the time), and total cheesedick challenges. They didn't even have officially licensed cars, yet I absolutely adore the games. Exotica is probably the pinnacle of this, I felt like with that one they really leaned in on the fact they'll never make a great arcade racer, so might as well go balls out stupid with it. It's amazing.
 
omgwtfbentime said:
I love every Cruis'n game on N64 so much, despite them all being pretty bad. Janky steering mechanics, gross graphics (even for the time), and total cheesedick challenges. They didn't even have officially licensed cars, yet I absolutely adore the games. Exotica is probably the pinnacle of this, I felt like with that one they really leaned in on the fact they'll never make a great arcade racer, so might as well go balls out stupid with it. It's amazing.
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Cruis'n Blast has potential, but it's real light on content. Only five tracks and eight cars. Hopefully there's a content update for it in the future.
 
My friend and I had a good laugh at the Razor Freestyle Scooter game 15~ years ago... the best part was the bonus video of people in animal costumes riding the subway and stuff.
 
For me it was Death to Spies 2: Moment of truth.
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It's a WW2 themed Hitman clone made by a russian company and released in 2009. It has hilariously bad cutscenes, terrible animation, bad UI, AI that ranges from ok to "wtf is happening", graphics not up to the standarts, and other funny quirks. Here's a must-watch video from it's predecessor, but it's basically the same.

Despite it's flaws in every department, it's still feels like a Hitman game and it's actually fun to play. The game has very little (too little sometimes) handholding, so after completing a mission you fell like you've accomplished something.

It has also a sequel Alekhine's gun released last year. It looks bad.
 
Lollipop Chainsaw maybe?

Definitely Deadly Premonition.

This is a hard category for gaming, if something is bad and highly unpleasant to play it's usually hard to get through it enough even if the rest of it is enjoyable in the "so bad it's good" way
 
There was a gun-game on the Wii, House of the Dead? House of the Damned? It was definitely in the category of so bad it was good.

EDIT: House of the Dead Overkill
 
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