Let's Vote on the Worst Game

[Oscar G.]

I can't believe there are no votes for Carnival (yet). Does anyone have anything positive to say about it?

Yep, me. I actually like Carnival. The secret is to use your first bullet to hit the music box and stop the music.

 

Actually the music is not that bad, what makes it unbearable is that the melody restarts after each hit. So one never gets to enjoy the quite beautiful melody.

[+thegoldenband]

Feyer raises some good points, and his proposed criteria make sense. Certainly a ton of games are hamstrung by bad controls; I'll never understand the praise for Demon Attack, given how erratic the controls can be -- which to me is an unforgivable trait in a shooter game.

 

Another way of looking at the issue is to always start with three questions:

 

1) What are the goals of this game? (In other words, what experience were the designers/programmers trying to offer?)

2) Did it achieve those goals?

3) Are those goals of any interest to me? (And if not, am I really qualified to evaluate this game?)

 

I'm hesitant to judge a game when the answer to #3 is "no", because the problem might be me and my own blind spots. I can't really evaluate a football game, for example, and an educational game isn't meant for me anyway. OTOH if someone doesn't like checkers, chess, backgammon or Othello/reversi, or doesn't know how to play those games, they probably should look elsewhere for their "worst" picks.

 

Roulette was a stupid idea for a game, but it basically does what it set out to do, albeit only barely. Star Wars: ESB, on the other hand, fails to offer the experience it claims to deliver. Maybe I need to replay the VCS version (which I thought was decent though not great), but I remember it handling fluidly and playing smoothly, whereas the Intellivision version just felt clunky and joyless.

 

I need to replay Kool-Aid Man too; I suspect it's even worse than I remember. OTOH, I can't get anywhere with Vectron, but enough people do like it that it's obviously playable, so I figure it's a decent game that's just not for me (at least not yet). I'm still not convinced that the two "non-deadly" Tron games have any meat on the bone, though.

 

Pole Position and Turbo both border on the unplayable, though I briefly started to figure out Pole Position. But in both cases I wonder if the control scheme is just too compromised for a player to become genuinely fluent and achieve mastery.

[+wongojack]

Isn't voting for what's the WORST game too subjective?

 

 

Without criteria any poll is 100% subjective. Have fun with it for what it is.

 

I think TGB's point around trying to evaluate if the game accomplishes its goal is a good test, but this is just a vote for votes sake kinda poll.

[Feyer]

Yeah, I understand the informal vote but I thought it may be more interesting to really think about it with some criteria. Because we already know which games we "hate" so to speak- Donkey Kong for INTV, E.T. for the 2600, and so on.

 

But think about it- does Donkey Kong accomplish it's goal of bringing Donkey Kong to the Intellivision? Imagine if we didn't have the arcade and other versions to compare it to. Would it still be a "bad" game? My opinion, it's not a bad game, just a disappointing version of Donkey Kong when compared to the original (which is unfair for its sake).

 

thegoldenband brings up some other great ideas as well with setting/achieving goals but I think that criteria is more for the programmers rather than for the users, though we do benefit from it in the end.

[+wongojack]

But think about it- does Donkey Kong accomplish it's goal of bringing Donkey Kong to the Intellivision?

 

I don't think it does. If you widen out and ask, "does it bring a platformer to the Intellivision" then the answer becomes maybe. But the controls are difficult at times (ladder stuckedness) which is critical for that type of game.

[Eric7100]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54WfKvx7hak

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKDBBWMZfx8

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBqyjl1gkVw

 

 

Watch the videos - enough said!

 

DK is NOT the answer to this vote...

[+DZ-Jay]

Yep, me. I actually like Carnival. The secret is to use your first bullet to hit the music box and stop the music.

 

Actually the music is not that bad, what makes it unbearable is that the melody restarts after each hit. So one never gets to enjoy the quite beautiful melody.

 

I played Carnival quite a lot when I was a kid, and I actually enjoyed it. Like you, I feel the music is not bad except for the constant interruptions after every hit. I used to just let it play on for a few minutes to listen to it fully.

 

Then again, I also liked Electric Company Math Fun.

 

-dZ.

[darthkur]

I can't believe there are no votes for Carnival (yet). Does anyone have anything positive to say about it?

 

I'm a fan of Carnival in all of it's ports. The INTV version presents it's own unique challenge.

Even though DK isn't a shining gem it's still alright. Then again I'm a DK fanatic and enjoy playing the Vic-20 and Speccy ports to it as well.

Pole Position is a disappointment. The sloppy controls make it practically unplayable.

[SoulBlazer]

I'd say Donkey Kong, Turbo, Pole Position, and Roulette are the worst games.

[+DZ-Jay]

I'd say Donkey Kong, Turbo, Pole Position, and Roulette are the worst games.

 

Personally, I find Ice Trek unplayable. However, I know that some people here like it, so I guess it's not a popular opinion. To me, sluggish controls are the worst thing on a game, and a game with sluggish controls that relies on quick reflexes and exact-timing is just plain evil. I didn't feel Coleco's Donkey Kong fell into that category, though. As with others here, it was a big disappointment to me when compared to the arcade or even the ColecoVision version; but I did play it quite a bit and enjoyed it.

 

Most of the old Intellivision games have very sluggish controls because they were dependent on the buggy EXEC operating system. However, they had rather good tolerances in timing and positioning. For instance, Dracula is not the most responsive game in the pack, but you don't have to position your avatar in specific places or be at specific distances, just get around the general area of a victim and press a button. That allowed the game to be at least somewhat fun.

 

-dZ.

Edited June 29, 2014 by DZ-Jay

[Eric7100]

What about Horse Racing? I think that game should be added to the list.

[+wongojack]

 

Personally, I find Ice Trek unplayable.

 

Yeah, I had a little rant about Ice Trek during the tournament, but it seems many other people like this game, and they like it quite a bit.

 

 

What about Horse Racing? I think that game should be added to the list.

 

Horse Racing has a lot of fans around here, and it finished ahead of some of the games on this list. It's actually a nice little simulation that requires you to learn about the horses from race to race. Played with multiple people it is very entertaining. It certainly accomplishes its goal and manages to be fun at the same time. It also has replayability as the horse attributes change from game to game.

[Feyer]

I like Horse Racing as well. It was the best game of it's kind at the time up until Gallop Racer for PlayStation- IMHO.

 

The issue with many Intellivision games is that if you come across a cart (or ROM) and you don't have either the instructions and/or the overlays to understand what buttons do what, a game can appear to be bad or frustrating to the point of exclaiming "this sucks!".

[Games For Your Intellivision]

Horse Racing was a game that my grandmother could play. She looked at the stats and bet based on that....my brother and I controlled the two horses we could control......it was a fun group game. Not sure how fun it would be solo, because we never played it solo.

 

Vectron....could never figure it out and had no desire to. It might be fun to play. I don't know.

 

Roulette.....no game play....it isn't a game. I regretted buying this one. Kind of like those 'slots' video games.....if no skill is required, it isn't a game. Totally pointless.

 

Maze A Tron .....again, wasn't keen to figure it out by reading the manual, and never played it long enough to find out.

 

I think that some of the more complicated games MAY be fun, but I don't know for sure.

 

For me, I personally loathed Space Hawk, because it was mind numbing. However, considering the dog that it was made from (Meteor) I have more respect for it.

 

Donkey Kong .......I think it is the worst game on the system, because of the following reasons.

It only has 2 of the 4 screens....sluggish controls...the barrel jumping does not give you the same feeling as other DK ports. .Mario looks like porky pig and DK like the ginger bread man. sound effects are bad...the music is off key. repetitive. I was an adult when I bought this. I played it for a few minutes, deemed it crap, and went out and bought the Atari 400/800 version. I never was 'forced' to play it because I was some kid who had nothing better. I never 'learned to like it'. I didn't play it long enough. So, maybe I am wrong, but the difficulty does not seem to change, at least for the first bunch of screens. I don't know, I can't stomach it past a couple of repeats. Sure, there seems to be some people who choose other games as 'worse', but I can be sure that Donkey Kong would definitely be on everyone's 'most disappointing' list. And, I disagree that it is the 'ET' of the Intellivision. (Not that bad but has a bad reputation). DK deserves all of the hate it gets. One positive thing that I will say about it, is that Carl Mueller told me something to the effect that when he started writing his version of DK, he thought that Coleco Kong was so bad, that it would be a piece of piss to improve upon it. He found out that it was a lot more difficult than he expected, and that he had more respect for the version than when he began.

[jaybird3rd]

It's hardly a surprise choice, but Coleco Donkey Kong for me as well. D2K is an amazing improvement in every way.

 

I haven't had the chance to really sit down with games like Vectron and TRON Maze-a-Tron, so as William says, I don't really know enough about them to say whether they're "good" or "bad". A non-obvious game isn't necessarily "bad".

 

As for the games in Mattel's "Gaming Network" and "Strategy Network" (Roulette, the card and board games, and Horse Racing) ... remember that the Intellivision was being marketed to general audiences in the late 70s as more of a "thinking man's console" than the arcade-centric Atari VCS—hence the ads in Playboy and the choice of George Plimpton as its commercial spokesman. So, while these aren't the games I reach for the most often, I have a hard time choosing them as the "worst" because I recognize their importance in building a market for the Intellivision in its early years. They gave skeptical consumers the comfort of something they already recognized, convincing them to buy their first console (for over $900 of today's dollars!) and paving the way for the consoles and computers that followed. Plus, truth be told, the Intellivision versions aren't bad implementations of these games: the Intellivision's keypad and disc, and its superior graphics, made it better able at the time than the VCS to do them justice.

[Eric7100]

Horse Racing was a game that my grandmother could play. She looked at the stats and bet based on that....my brother and I controlled the two horses we could control......it was a fun group game. Not sure how fun it would be solo, because we never played it solo.

 

Vectron....could never figure it out and had no desire to. It might be fun to play. I don't know.

 

Roulette.....no game play....it isn't a game. I regretted buying this one. Kind of like those 'slots' video games.....if no skill is required, it isn't a game. Totally pointless.

 

Maze A Tron .....again, wasn't keen to figure it out by reading the manual, and never played it long enough to find out.

 

I think that some of the more complicated games MAY be fun, but I don't know for sure.

 

For me, I personally loathed Space Hawk, because it was mind numbing. However, considering the dog that it was made from (Meteor) I have more respect for it.

 

Donkey Kong .......I think it is the worst game on the system, because of the following reasons.

It only has 2 of the 4 screens....sluggish controls...the barrel jumping does not give you the same feeling as other DK ports. .Mario looks like porky pig and DK like the ginger bread man. sound effects are bad...the music is off key. repetitive. I was an adult when I bought this. I played it for a few minutes, deemed it crap, and went out and bought the Atari 400/800 version. I never was 'forced' to play it because I was some kid who had nothing better. I never 'learned to like it'. I didn't play it long enough. So, maybe I am wrong, but the difficulty does not seem to change, at least for the first bunch of screens. I don't know, I can't stomach it past a couple of repeats. Sure, there seems to be some people who choose other games as 'worse', but I can be sure that Donkey Kong would definitely be on everyone's 'most disappointing' list. And, I disagree that it is the 'ET' of the Intellivision. (Not that bad but has a bad reputation). DK deserves all of the hate it gets. One positive thing that I will say about it, is that Carl Mueller told me something to the effect that when he started writing his version of DK, he thought that Coleco Kong was so bad, that it would be a piece of piss to improve upon it. He found out that it was a lot more difficult than he expected, and that he had more respect for the version than when he began.

 

I would love to hear your thoughts about Kool-Aid Man.

[Games For Your Intellivision]

I've not played Kool Aid Man, and I did watch the videos posted earlier.....

 

The graphics seem good, the music well done.....obviously, the game play looks a bit lack luster and half baked, probably not well thought out. However, it looks like there are some tasks, and some 'enemies' to avoid. i don't know how it plays on the more difficult levels or if there ARE more difficult levels.

 

So, I really can't comment too much on it, but for me personally, it looks to have more 'depth' than the 2 screens of DK, or the monotony of Space Hawk....

 

Carrying out a task with some antagonists seems to at least have the elements of a fun game. That one probably deserves to be on the list of 'worst games' but it certainly looks like some effort was put into it.

[HunterZero]

 

Personally, I find Ice Trek unplayable. However, I know that some people here like it, so I guess it's not a popular opinion.

 

The caribou and castle levels in Ice Trek are pretty ordinary, but there was just something really satisfying about building the ice bridge. Once you got the hang of the controls in that stage, it was pretty fun. You could become very accurate when throwing the grapple and defending the bridge with fireballs. That ice bridge stage was the game for me.

 

If Donkey Kong wasn't a conversion, it would still be a very bad game. I keep comparing Donkey Kong to Burgertime. Burgertime had seven varied levels. Fluid controls. Great sound. Very nice characterful graphics. Donkey Kong just sucked. 2 sucky boring levels. Sucky fiddly controls. Weird jumping. Sucky irritating sounds. Only 2 levels - one barely passable effort, the other just boring. Bland graphics. Even the 2600 version had Jumpman looking like Jumpman.

 

Hey, if we ignored every other game on the Intellivision, Donkey Kong would be the best game on the system! But you can't ignore that Donkey Kong is a poor conversion, far better platformers exist, and it is arguably poorer than every other platform game on the system, except maybe Kool Aid Man. It's so bad Coleco was accused of intentionally making it bad, so their Colecovision would have a very obviously superior version.

 

While disappointment may affect voting for this game, note that the reverse could be true. Some could be forming their opinion of Inty DK on the fact it WAS at least a version of Donkey Kong for the Intellivision, convincing themselves it was a good game, and forcing themselves to play it BITD. There may be some who have nostalgia and rose tinted glasses for it. If it didn't have the DK name, this game would be less appealing for those people.

 

I think it's a pretty close race to the bottom with Kool Aid Man and Donkey Kong.

 

- J

[IntellivisionDude]

Dammit i had to google BITD

 

I have a hard time remembering abbreviations. I have googled the same abbreviations over and over because i just can't memorize them. lol

[+intvsteve]

Some games, like Vectron and Ice Trek, live or die with the controller. Slight glitches or dead spots in any of the 16 directions can ruin the playability. I love both of those games.

 

For me, it was a close call between Las Vegas Roulette and Donkey Kong. Ended up voting Roulette. At least with DK you played. In Roulette, sure, you pick a spot to play, but there's not anything compelling. Don't know if our copy was funky, but I swear that on rare occasions, the ball would 'jump the track' and wander around the screen. I can't think of any redeeming qualities. It just barely out-sucks DK. We had Beauty & the Beast, so even back then it was obvious that DK could have been so much better. We all know just how much better, now, of course.

 

As much as I hate Turbo, and to some extent, Pole Position, I couldn't go with either one simply because I haven't played them enough. The controls just were so frustrating that I never had the patience to learn the games. And Turbo just ... I guess I resent that one the most because I paid too much for a beat up copy and it sucked on top of that. So unfair to compare it to the CV version w/ the steering wheel controller.... Zaxxon, for me, fits in with this crowd. Safecracker and Tarmin proved you could pull off perspective on the Intellivision. Zaxxon just looked too cartoony and seemed really choppy.

Edited July 1, 2014 by intvsteve

[Eric7100]

I think it's a pretty close race to the bottom with Kool Aid Man and Donkey Kong.

 

I agree, but sadly, the votes are not showing this at all.

[Eric7100]

I've not played Kool Aid Man, and I did watch the videos posted earlier.....

 

The graphics seem good, the music well done.....obviously, the game play looks a bit lack luster and half baked, probably not well thought out. However, it looks like there are some tasks, and some 'enemies' to avoid. i don't know how it plays on the more difficult levels or if there ARE more difficult levels.

 

There are only two levels in Kool-Aid Man, much like DK.

[SoulBlazer]

Kool Aid Man is a BAD game on the Intelivision (it's pretty good on the Atari 2600, actually), but the WORST game? No way. The gameplay is actually pretty decent is if you give it a chance and overlook the limited graphics and sound and the silly game idea.

[Robert Sublett]

I wanted to vote decathlon so bad. As a one handed gamer due to cp, the thing that set the INTV apart was that the controller was perfect for one handed play. Decathlon was one of last new games that was purchased from INTV catalog in '88 or '89 for me. Matter of fact it may have been a freebie because my order was over $150. Whatever the case I never could get the hang of running. But DK was so incredibly bad, and it says a lot that I picked it up in the discount bin at Kay-Bee for a $1.99 around the time of the crash and it wasn't worth what was paid for it. Looking back on it wished I would have had the money to clean those bins out.

[HunterZero]

Dammit i had to google BITD

 

I have a hard time remembering abbreviations. I have googled the same abbreviations over and over because i just can't memorize them. lol

 

Props for reading the whole post