What awful retro game do you have an attachment to?

These days you have countless youtube personalities, websites and bloggers trying to show you "hidden gems" and overlooked games on every system. But what about those games that no one really tries to champion and which are generally regarded as awful and not classics in any way. Do you feel like the only person that still enjoys playing a particular game?

Battle Arena Toshinden 1 on the playstation is one of these for me. I think the opinion of most is that it was a cool launch era game that was quickly overshadowed in every way by other 3d fighters and has no real redeaming value to play these days. My personal take: the graphics and gameplay amazed me back in 1996, and even now, by my eyes, the graphics and gameplay still seem quite good for the PS1. Outside of nostalgia, I love the music and the aesthetic, and as already mentioned, the graphics and gameplay.

Race Drivin' on the genesis is another one for me. Perhaps it was a technical marvel at the time to port this game to any of the systems out at the time, but pretty much all ports of these games drastically failed to deliver the smooth framerate and fun controls of the arcade machine and none of the ports seem to be regarded as classic or fun by most people. Nevertheless, I get a lot of entertainment out of the genesis port of Race Drivin', which has a playable framerate, a track editor, multiple cars, and really is a neat 3D showcase for the genesis without add ons. I heard that a 32X port was considered, and I certainly would have welcomed that.

 

I actually found Shadow the Hedgehog for GameCube to be thoroughly enjoyable. The controls aren't anywhere near as bad as people say, and some of the gameplay is actually really awesome.

 

Frogger 2 was very meh, but as a kid that's all I had to play while everyone else was on Marvel vs Capcom too and such. It was one of those games where you go back to when you get older and it bores you to tears, but the nostalgia hits pretty hard so it still holds a place in my heart.

I enjoyed that game when it was out a few years ago. The last few levels got too hard for me too beat though. Unlocking endings and all of that I had no patience for it.

 

I really like Sonic 3D Blast for the Saturn. I get why people hate it, it's a pain the ass in later levels, and I'll never beat this game without cheating. Honestly though the first few levels I enjoy and I freakin love the Bonus Stages. Not to mention this game has some awesome music.
Of course this could be due to nostalgia, I remember playing this game whenever going to one cousins house, and just being amazed by how clear and awesome the music sounded (even at like 10 or 11 I appreciated high quality components!). I also liked Sonic so it was cool to play such a different game

 

I gave that game so many chances, but I just couldn't get into it.

 

Mercedes World racing for the original Xbox and PC was quite bad. From a neutral perspective, it's a repetitive, boring game with lots of missing features and just a huge ad for Mercedes.

As a kid, I put over 200 hours in that game. The main thing that kept me playing was the huge amount of cars and to this day, still an awesome cockpit view. And my parents had a Mercedes and I wanted a Mercedes. It's still fun to get back to, but now I can see how flawed the game actually is.

 

I always found Ian Livingstones Deathtrap Dungeon to be an excellent game. People complain about the controls and third-person camera, but despite it's learning curve and difficulty, it's totally playable.

 

I used to play this all the time. I've beaten it 100% many times and to this day appreciate it. I only hope others have done the same...

Spoiler: You've been warned

 

Sonic Chaos.

I've already beaten the game, and I found it fun and pretty impressive, since it was made for a portable 8-bit Game Gear.

 

Jaws on the NES

 

^^^

I too loved Jaws on the NES.

Also, due to an ad I saw, I actually owned and played the hell out of Rise of the Robots as a kid. Such a bizarre multiplayer approach though given that someone (player 1) always had to be the robot you played as through the single player mode. And of course there was the cheat code to play as the boss, who had a move that could refill her HP completely. Such a poorly designed fighting game...

I also have a soft spot for Primal Rage and a ton of Atari Jaguar games (Ultra Vortek, Attack of the Mutant Penguins, Iron Soldier, I-War, etc.).

Edit:

Also, I too loved Sonic 3D Blast, and I actually beat it!

 

I also enjoyed Sonic 3D Blast. I dumped a decent amount of time into that.

Home Alone for the NES and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York for the SNES. I can't tell you how many times I've finished HA2. I guess since as a kid I grew up loving the movies that I just gravitated toward the games. They're not very good at all, especially HA1.

 

I really didn't like 3D Blast on the Genesis. Mostly because I chose that over Sonic 3. It's not terrible, but my child-like (because I was but a child at this point) brain was hoping for Crash Bandicoot.

 

I-I liked going through the rings in Superman 64 and flying around the city. The missions after that however where you're enclosed in these tight spaces I hated (camera jank was massive).

 

Superman for Atari 2600

 

I have the Saturn version and I have to say it is much better. Well, except for no saves. What's up with that?

 

Bubsy.

I played the shit out of that game.

 

Top Gun NES.

Used to play the heck out of it, unlike the AVGN videos it's pretty easy to land/refuel if you follow the numbers. Usually play it every time I pull out my top-loader.

And 4x4 Evolution, so much so I now run a project patching it/digging up it's history.

 

What about the horribly slow loading time when you die? For such a graphically simple game there was really no reason for it.

 

Don't die, git gud! Haha kidding. I guess the answer is disc-based loading. While not incredibly comparable, the release of Final Fantasy VI for the PS1 had dreadful loading times when entering a menu or starting a battle. Silly considering the game is what, 4-5 MBs? The PS1 had 2MB ram, with 1MB being reserved. Yet somehow it takes a good 5 seconds just to access something as simple as a menu.

God, I loved Bubsy 2 as a kid. I was shocked when I saw how piss-poor the reviews were for it.