Worst arcade games ever

[Serguei2]

I have a crazy idea. I wonder if they made really bad arcade games with bad graphics or even bad gameplay. All I get from Google is workst worst arcade games converted to computer/video games but not arcade game themselve.

 

Of course. unlike videogames, programmers would care more making arcade games since no one would pay to play awful games I guess.

[+FujiSkunk]

Companies had to be really careful about the kinds of games that could easily sink tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, maybe even millions of dollars, before the first dime of sales would be seen. A lot of arcade games can be accused being boring and generic, but very few actually got out the door that could be called "terrible."

 

But, some are indeed out there. My vote is for Survival Arts, a really bad Mortal Kombat wannabe with even worse digitized animation than Pit Fighter.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOj-Rh0c9RY

[Cynicaster]

A few weeks ago I played all the way through the Robocop arcade game after the guys at the No Quarter podcast discussed it in a recent episode. Holy bleedin' hell is that game awful. I played it here and there back in the 80's and never cared for it much then, but playing it now and seeing how stupid the game gets in the later stages... wow.

[+save2600]

Don't know if I believe they are the worst "ever", but a few arcade games that I've always thought totally sucked are:

 

Hard Drivin'/Race Drivin'

Aerosmith's Revolution X

 

...Hard Drivin' is probably my least favorite driving game ever. Even back when it was new, just looked and felt ugly and drab. Thought it was overkill and cheesy that they bothered to have you turn a faux ignition key. Somebody obviously felt the game was worth that frivolous feature. Never got a sense of speed either or otherwise had much fun with it at all. Especially hate the FM synthesis sounds of most all of the Atari arcade games of the time too. The home computer ports of Hard Drivin' are even worse. Jaguar's Checkered Flag even beats these duds. lmao

 

Pit Fighter deserves honorable mention as a pretty shitty game IMO too. Didn't like it then and don't like it now. Blech!

[Crimefighter]

Ikari Warriors 3 - mainly for the controls and these spinner joysticks which makes it hard to fight.

[Foxsolo2000]

I agree with Hard Driving. The car couldn't even take a corner without sliding off the road. Double Dragon 3 has to be on the list too for who thought it was a good idea to actually buy extra men in the first place. The game was just terrible

[Rybags]

Don't think I ever played it, but Crush Roller looked and sounded pretty bad.

 

Uni War S was a pretty bad Galaxian type game.

[riffraff]

It's probably because you guys didn't play the sit-down cabinet version of Hard Drivin'. Although never really a favorite of mine, it was pretty cool how you could "feel" the tires through the steering wheel and could tell when you were losing friction, taking a turn too hard etc. I don't think I'd put this among the worst of all time.

 

You know it's pretty difficult to think of bad arcade games. Maybe because I always had the preconceived notion when playing them that they "HAD" to be good or they wouldn't be getting quarters. I'd like to think that looking back at them now I'd be able to pick out at least 1 or 2. I do remember finding a Toobin' loaded up with 99 credits at a Showbiz Pizza Place near my house when I was a kid. I left the game for something else before using too many credits

 

I never understood the appeal of Super Mario Bros when it was in the arcade either... until I got to play the NES version home, which was almost identical. Liked the game quite a bit after that.

 

Hmm I'm annoyed now that I can't think of a really bad coin-op.

[VectorGamer]

The only one I can think of is Vectorbeam's Barrier. A lot of people think it sucks but I actually enjoy playing it in MAME using the arrows on my keyboard.

[+FujiSkunk]

I had a college friend who absolutely loved Hard Drivin'. The force-feedback steering wheel was still a novel concept at the time, and he also liked how it required a clutch when driving a manual, pretty much the only such game anywhere at the time. Yes, Hard Drivin' seems unfair in how it frequently sent cars off road seemingly more often than it should have, but I believe that's just because it is trying to simulate real driving, and the average arcade player is spoiled on "arcade physics." There's a reason why later games like Gran Turismo offer "arcade mode" and "simulation mode."

[DZ-Jay]

What about the stupid Journey game. Announced as some sort of revolution with digitized images of the band members, but it looked silly and played like crap.

 

dZ.

[Serguei2]

Time Killer is not a good fighting game.

[riffraff]

Someone came up with the name "Time Killer" and decided.. yeah let's go with that? lol

[Chuck D. Head]

At the time. the term "tech demo" was not in my vocabulary, but I would say that is how I thought of Hard Drivin'. It surely was not a good game, but a very interesting tech demo and, so did get a few fistfulls of quarters from me.

[Serguei2]

Someone came up with the name "Time Killer" and decided.. yeah let's go with that? lol

 

I mean Time Killers amd I might confusing with the genesis version.

[+FujiSkunk]

Genesis Time Killers was a port of the arcade game. The arcade game was no prize, so even if you are confusing the Genesis version, there are still people who would agree with you.

 

The fascinating thing about Time Killers is, lack of actual quality aside, it has interesting characters with some of the most fleshed out back story I've ever seen in a fighting game. Of course only those who actually read the arcade owner's manual would know the back stories. For some reason my college rec area had a copy of even though they didn't actually own the machines. Time Killers also offers some unique fighting abilities, including its infamous "armless victories." There was obviously some effort put into the game, and that keeps me from writing it completely off, even if it is still pretty bad.

[Classic Pac]

You want a bad one nothing can be worse than the edutainment arcade game Professor Pac-Man. I played it once it was horrible.

[Serguei2]

An educational coin-op game? Are there religion arcade games as well?

[+bennybingo]

What about the stupid Journey game. Announced as some sort of revolution with digitized images of the band members, but it looked silly and played like crap.

 

dZ.

I actually like that game. I thought the gameplay was pretty fun, but maybe my memory from 30 years ago is foggy...

[Lauren Tyler]

Tag Team Wrestling. I can't believe that game got a home port.

[RickR]

Does anyone remember that laser disk game "Firefox"? It was based on a Clint Eastwood movie featuring a jet fighter mission. Great graphics, a really cool cabinet, but the game was just no fun at all, and I remember it costing a whole freaking dollar back in the 80's.

[Cynicaster]

Tag Team Wrestling. I can't believe that game got a home port.

I actually used to like this game. Then, I picked up a copy for NES a few years ago and... yikes. Scrolling through menus to select a move is kind of terrible, to put it mildly.

 

Still, it's the spiritual predecessor to Mat Mania, which is a landmark game in the genre.

[R.O.T.S]

Logger (Century)

 

Knuckle Joe (Seibu Kaihatsu )

 

Knuckle Heads (Namco)

 

Battle Rangers (Nihon Bussan)