The 5 Worst Video Games of 2014
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
Actually, when it comes to these five games, it was just the worst of times.
What happened? No one really sets out to make a terrible game. But bad design, buggy graphics, and broken gameplay happen anyway, and they happened in a big way to the following thumb-crushing disasters.
1. Dungeon Keeper (iOS)
For 50 gems, I’ll tell you why Dungeon Keeper, the penny-pinching mobile remake of a beloved 17-year-old strategy game, is bad news. You can get five gems for 10 gold coins, by the way, and if you click here you can buy packs of gold coins for $4.99 apiece. Or you could just go play the game, though you’ll need some Red Jewels if you want to take more than five turns per day. Those cost 12 gems apiece. Remember when you could just download and play a video game? By the way, that memory costs 100 Black Pearls. Do you have your credit card handy?
Related: The 20 Best Games of 2014
2. Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric (Wii U)
Pity poor Sonic. Instead of letting the overworked mascot enjoy his retirement, Sega keeps sticking him in bad games. This year they really outdid themselves. His latest disaster, Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric, is part of an all-out media blitz that includes a TV show, comics, a toy line, and, yep, games. Spreading yourself thin is never a great way to make a good video game, and Rise of Lyric, with its broken, buggy platforming, repetitive action, and irritating characters, is not a good video game.
3. SoulCalibur: Lost Swords (PS3)
The swords aren’t the only things Bandai Namco lost while making this lousy fighter. They also lost the point of SoulCalibur, one of the greatest fighting franchises ever, by shamelessly converting it into a microtransaction-heavy, free-to-play mess with massive load times and zero multiplayer. Our souls are weeping.
4. Rambo: The Video Game (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
Remember Ikari Warriors? It was an old-school coin-op game that had a cool little rotating joystick and two-player support and pretty much let you rampage around as a wannabe Rambo. This new game is totally different, mostly in that it’s terrible. Presumably funded via tickets won at a skee-ball machine, this unstable shooter takes you through “memorable” scenes from the three Rambo films by gluing you to a rail and making you blast anything that moves. We’d be angry too, Rambo.
5. Escape Dead Island (Xbox 60, PS3, PC)
Challenge accepted! Although really, we’d just like to escape playing this brain-dead zombie game. It’s infested with bugs, for one thing, though worse is the game’s combo of boring action and impossibly steep difficulty. Actually, the interminable fetch quests are worse. No, wait, the glitchy graphics. We can’t decide. Escape!
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