so bad, yet... so good?

I have to admit something to you. I am one of those weirdos who loves to watch movies that he knows are terrible on purpose. It doesn't seem make sense, right? Who would watch a movie they know is going to be terrible?

I used to wonder the same thing, then I saw a few bad movies that were in fact so bad, they were hilariously good. There is a very specific level of badness that is particularly awesome and when a movie hits that note, its perfect... in its own little bad way. It is usually a film where they tried to stretch a small budget to thin. A real project of love where you can tell someone wanted it to be a great idea but it fell short on so many levels. In fact, watching bad movies has become a very common occurrence amongst my friends and I. There are few better feelings than that of sitting down with your best friends and belittling a terrible film to pieces, wonderful!

Now I know what your thinking: "Hey this has nothing to do with videogames and he didn't label it NVGR!" but stick with me for a moment here!

So they other day I got to thinking about one of my other hobbies, videogames (see!) and I started to wonder: Are there videogames that are so bad, they are hilariously good as well? I mean everyone knows there are bad videogames... but are any of them secretly... good?

Ponder that for a moment...

My conclusion, heck yes, heck yes there is.

I've decided I want to share with you my favorite 3 videogames that are so horrendously terrible they are in fact, totally awesome:



3: Family Feud - NES


Why it's Bad:
Good lord what a game. There are so many things about Family Feud that are terrible. First off game-show based games hardly ever work, especially on the older systems. Then that host guy scares the pants off me, he walks around with a creepy half pedo/half dentist smile going on. Is it just me or does it look like he is leaning in to start making out with each contestant when he's "asking them their name" or whatever.... creepy. DO NOT even get me started on the questions! If you thought some of the questions on the family feud TV show were bad, try this game. Half of the questions are freaking impossible! For the life of me I still cannot figure out a single answer for "Name something that used to be done on University Campuses". What? And yes, I've already tried all the hippie compound answers: Hippie-drugs, hippie-sex, none of them are right!

Why it's secretly Good:
You have to play this game with a friend to get the full effect, and you have to be riled up, no wait the game will do that for you. Just be prepared to yell at the stupid game when you give the obviously most logical answer and the game denies you flat out. In fact the yelling makes it even more fun. This game is even stupid enough to accept "icebox" as a replacement word for "refrigerator" in one question but not another! (and yes, refrigerator was a correct answer for each question).
This game turns your living room into a circus! People will go insane with stupid answers that get accepted for some questions when other, seemingly good ones don't. Take this example: I was playing with my younger brother once and the question was "Name a bird known for it's color" I immediately typed flamingo becuase they are pink and that color tends to stick out. Nope, denied. Then my brother (little !#@$@$ that he is) proceeds to type out "redbird" then "blackbird" then "bluebird" and he gets them all. ... ... ... For an added bonus, try playing while under the influence of alcohol (but you didn't hear that from me).

...and yes I always name my family the "CAC" Family.

2: Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects - xbox/ps2/gamecube


Why it's bad:
Ok if you ever tried this game you are probably thinking... everything about it is bad, and you're just about correct there. This game is truly terrible. First off the "Imperfects" are nothing more than E.A Games designed blatant rip-offs of regular Marvel properties. This is also the most stupidly unbalanced game I have ever played in my life. I think someone at E.A actually hates Marvel and made all the Imperfect characters 5x as strong as them, becuase they are all almost impossible to beat. Some characters moves are almost impossible to block and deal way to much damage. Do not get me started on the single player "campaign", it is stupidly easy and then unimaginably hard at random and none of the missions make sense: "Iron man must go to the roof and kill all the flying saucer things.... becuase they are bad news man!" or something weird like that...

Why it's secretly good:
This game only has one small redeeming factor, and its a bit strange to set up. The only way this game can be fun is if you have a multiplayer "throw-fest" with a friend (the A.I. doesn't get it sadly). You pick either the Thing or Venom as your characters (becuase they are the strongest) and then you proceed to fight on one of the levels that contains mostly junk to throw at your opponent's head, such as the city streets map.
And that is exactly what you do, you each stand there and whip as much crap at the other guy's head as fast as you can, if you are lucky you will knock them into an explosive barrel, that will most likely completely kill them, even if the match just started. This is when you laugh maniacally at the top of your lungs (key). The only other move aloud in a throw-fest is the catch and throw back, often resulting in an awkward game of catch with cars (that will undoubtedly explode after too many tosses... yes, laugh here as well). This is another bad game I play with my brother from time to time and i tell you, he is the best at tossing a lot of crap in a very short period of time, not sure if that's an acquired skill or just his destructive nature...

1: Pepsiman - PS1 (Japan)


Why it's bad:
First off if you have no idea who Pepsiman is let me explain: In the 90's Pepsi of Japan decided it would be a good idea to create a mascot super hero for Pepsi, hence Pepsiman. He is a bumbling idiot who saves the world with... well Pepsi. I know, strange.
This game is terrible-in-the-eyes-of-god terrible. Firstly, IT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE! EVER! Each mission of the game involves you controlling Pepsiman, although he is constantly running, you just have to steer him, as he runs to the rescue of some poor Pepsi-less individuals somewhere. There is honestly one mission where a fire truck is broken on its way to a burning building, so the firefighter asks Pepsiman to go QUENCH THE THIRST OF THE BURNING VICTIMS. Yeah, that just happened. Also, what is up with Pepsi-City? All of the cars try to kill you, every building has Pepsi written on it's walls, and there are passed out Pepsi-addicts on every corner...? Oh yeah, and its stupidly hard to play as well. Like, really stupidly hard to play. Watch this guy be not very awesome at all on the first mission:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNr-szy8fm8

Why it's Good:
Well actually most of the reasons it's bad are also why its good. Everything about this game is completely ridiculous. Where it really stands out with awesomeness is in the "Americanized" cut scenes between each mission (that frankly have nothing to do with the game). Instead, they show a typical large and jolly American man telling you you're doing awesome, eating stuff, drinking Pepsi, and whipping out such sweet catchphrases as "PEPSI -- FOR TV GAME!"... yup, classic bad.



So there you have it, my little list of definitely terrible, secretly awesome videogaming gems. I am very interested in hearing what other games people find to be "so bad they're good!" Let me know!




PS: In case you're curious my top 3 favorite bad movies of all time are:
-Body Rock
-Cool as Ice
-RIKKI OH: The Story of Rikki

But if you want to know why you're just going to have to watch them yourself (Something I whole-heatedly recommend)!