The Beauty in the Bad

We all love the AAA hits and the indie darlings that are posted on every website, blog, and Twitter page, but what about the games that fade away without making any noise in the media? For example, looking through a game system's full library will often introduce you to a multitude of games that slipped under your radar. I play a lot of games that failed to launch and even more that many people would consider bad, but I do this because of the meta game in the act itself.

What I mean by this is that there is a certain amount of fun derived from playing a completely unknown title. You jump in blind and dissect the game to find the intention of the developer, what ideas work and which ones don't. You are almost guaranteed to find a hidden gem using this practice. I personally have found some fantastic games while doing this. Titles such as Singularity, Binary Domain, Tron Evolution, El Shaddai, Peter Jackson's King Kong, and the Game Boy Color version of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone are just a few that I found to execute certain things fantastically despite low sales or review scores.

This meta game of playing bad games is similar to bargain hunting at thrift stores or flea markets. You dig through piles of uninteresting or downright disgusting trash until you discover the hidden treasure buried within that makes it all worth it. You gain a greater sense of satisfaction from this having felt that you had to work for the pay off. Also you get an expanded library of games to reference while playing a new title. For example, you could say "Game X was good, but Game Y did it a little better 3 years ago," or "This game had this mechanic years before it became popular."

In the future, if you don't know what to play next and no new releases are catching your eye, hit the bargain bin and grab a handful of unknowns to start on your own adventure. You never know what you will enjoy. Even undeniably terrible games(*cough*Ride to Hell*cough*) can be incredibly fun when approached from the right perspective, so approach these titles with an open mind. Worst case scenario you end up wasting about 5 bucks on a dud, but it's worth it when you find the games you can have a blast with on the cheap.

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