Blog:Crappy games Wiki helped me in project, again

Hello fellas! King Dice here! Similar to a past project, I decided to make another project based on technology. This time was “Bad video games: They are important in Modern Pop culture”. I would like to share my achievement with all of you.

Note: This was originally in Spanish, but I put the English translation here.

Approach
Since the beginning of the development of these, video games have given several quality titles. Regardless if they are in 8-bit, 3D or handmade art; horror, platform, RPG or open world; If it was done by a large or medium company or by three people; or if they have been on the market for a month or more than forty years, the video game industry has been known modernly as something bigger than even movies and sports in the US. While there are several acclaimed titles such as the original Silent Hill trilogy, the indie hit Undertale, or the groundbreaking Super Mario Bros. for the NES or Famicom, there have been several games that gamers, journalists, or even the company itself try to forget.

Listing the games that have been infamous for their terrible controls, lackluster graphics, bland storylines, poor level design, awful gameplay, lots of glitches, trying to lure the audience in with false promises and not delivering what was promised or unoriginal ideas would be too long. . These usually fall into two categories: "Bootleg" and "Shovelware", although there are some that do not fall into either of these.
 * "Shovelware" games are games made with little budget, little time and sometimes with small teams that are made due to the lack of control of certain stores, especially digital. Examples of consoles with too much Shovelware include Steam, PlayStation, Atari2600, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Wii, with the latter being crowned "The Queen of Shovelware." Examples of games that fall into this category include:
 * Ninjabread Man, Anubis II, Myth Makers: Trixie in Toyland and Rock 'n' Roll Adventures (Essentially the same game, just different settings)
 * Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing
 * Peppa Pig: The Game
 * Several games made in RPG Maker
 * Revolution 60
 * In multimedia, a "bootleg" (or pirate version) is an unauthorized edition of something that attempts to pass itself off as such. Most of these are ROMHACKs of existing games, but for another console, usually a rival or last generation. They are also games made without a license and with stolen content. Several 8-bit and 16-bit consoles have various bootlegs in their catalogs, as well as unofficial mobile games. Some examples are:
 * Super Mario World for the Famicom (unofficial port of Super Mario World for SNES and Super Famicom
 * Felix The Cat for the Sega Mega Drive (Unofficial Port of Felix The Cat from the NES)
 * 7 Grand Dad
 * Somari for the Famicom (Unofficial Port of Sonic The Hedgehog from Sega Genesis)
 * Terrifying 9.11

Hypothesis
Although several people have wanted to forget these titles, I consider that remembering them would be much better than pretending that they never existed; because that could make many past mistakes no longer repeated. Some examples of this case would be E.T: the Extra-Terrestrial for the Atari2600 and the port of Pac-Man for the same console; games that were one of the main factors for the Video Game Crisis of 83, which lasted for two years until the launch and subsequent success of the NES in the United States. After the crash, several companies began to release better quality games and avoid overcrowding consoles, to prevent the disaster from happening again.

Another reason would be to see the offensive and propagandist content some of them have shown, showing how players have questioned the developers when necessary. A game called ValiDate: Struggling Singles in your Area was horribly received because the creators of the game displayed racist messages towards the white community in the product, as well as in their personal accounts, attempting to add extremist liberal political agendas, and flat characters made to appeal. to social justice in the wrong way (through hatred and contempt for white people). Another would be ZOG's Nightmare and its sequel, video games where the main objective is to kill Jewish people, homosexuals and even includes images of the KKK committing murders and the Holocaust.

It also serves to show the double standards of gaming journalism and the corruption found within it. The most infamous game would be Depression Quest, which received rave reviews from game journalists, but was heavily despised by gamers due to its poor gameplay and boring story. It would later be revealed that Zoë Quinn (the developer) did various favors for reporters to get her game to get good ratings. Other notable cases would be the sports games made by EA (FIFA and Madden), as they usually receive mixed to favorable reviews from journalists while gamers have criticized the fact that the content of these games is too lazy and repetitive.

Surprisingly, also several games that have been banned in various countries or even illegal have been recognized on the internet due to their content, but also because of the symbolism that some have shown. The Sad Satan game is a clear example of this, because despite showing real photos of murders and other heinous crimes, several people who have played it have suspicions and theories because they have identified multiple photos, distorted audio and self-made content to that the viewer theorizes that the main theme is child abuse. Another game would be Demonophobia, which the creator has confirmed was made this way to subvert several of the common tropes in video games.

Also several companies that have made bad games have changed their habits and have learned to make higher quality games. Japanese adult game company Illusion Soft; creators of the Jinkō Shōjo (Artificial Girl) franchise, RapeLay and SchoolMate, began developing Shovelware that brought mixed to extremely negative reception until the creation of Koikatsu which was well received among the public and since then the company has released better games. Another would be the Polish company CI Games, which was mainly dedicated to publishing games made with low budgets at a small cost, until the release of Sniper: Ghost Warrior, where they began to put higher quality in their projects.

Several of the bad video games would go on to become internet memes and icons of popular culture. One of them is Calculator for the Nintendo Switch, where several users have given favorable "reviews" in an effort to make fun of its low quality. A similar case is the game Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing, which has received almost 500 positive reviews due to its broken gameplay and low quality. Similarly, Plumbers Don't Wear Ties, a game from 1993, has been a cult success due to its bizarre story and poor performance, to the point that at E3 2021 Limited Run Games announced a re-release in physical format for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch and PC.

Multiple video games have been made bad on purpose, with the mere fact of making the viewer laugh out loud from the player and learn a little about the development of one. Baldi's Basic in Education and Learning is a parody game made with the intention of being a mockery of the educational games of the 90s. Hong Kong 97 and The Story of Kamikuishiki Village are games made by Kowloon journalist Kurosawa as a satire towards the video game industry and the Aum Shinrikyo cult respectively. They were developed between two days and two weeks each one.

Conclusion
Although there is still debate about whether video games can be considered art or not, if they really cause violence or other unknowns, the impact that this industry has had in recent years and how much it has changed the world is undeniable. Many people see low-quality video games as a bad thing. But in my opinion it is much better to keep them in order to learn from the good and the bad of these titles and thus develop better games. Maybe a game had terrible controls, lackluster story, and forgettable graphics, but an amazing soundtrack, good level design, and likable characters. You have to remember that even the best movies have bad qualities and that not everything is perfect.

Games I talked about and I mentioned

 * Ninjabread Man
 * Anubis II
 * Myth Makers: Trixie in Toyland
 * Rock'n'Roll Adventures
 * Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing
 * Peppa Pig: The Game
 * Revolution 60
 * Super Mario World (Famicom)
 * Felix The Cat (Sega Mega Drive)
 * 7 Grand Dad
 * Somari
 * Terrifying 9.11
 * E.T: the Extra-Terrestrial (Atari2600)
 * Pac-Man (Atari2600)
 * ValidDate: Struggling Singles in your Area
 * ZOG's Nightmare and ZOG's Nightmare 2: The War Continues
 * Depression Quest
 * The series of FIFA and Madden
 * Sad Satan
 * Demonophobia
 * The Jinkō Shōjo series
 * RapeLay
 * SchoolMate
 * Koikatsu
 * Sniper: Ghost Warrior
 * Calculator (2021)
 * Baldi's Basic in Education and Learning
 * Hong Kong 97
 * The Story of Kamikuishiki Village