Critical failures that you enjoy

I've been binging a bunch of my old games in preparation for the new console I'll be buying tomorrow, and earlier today I started playing South Park for the PS1.

For those that aren't familiar with the game, here's its review on this site: https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/south-park-review/1900-2549391/

It's the 4th lowest rated PS1 game on GameSpot and was universally panned, though the N64 version was somewhat better received.

I was a little kid the first time I played it, and being a big South Park fan at the time, I remember liking the multiplayer a lot. I never really played the story mode back then, but I played through the entire game today.

The story mode is, well... not good. I didn't hate playing it, but it wasn't exactly riveting gameplay. I haven't watched South Park since about 2004, so I didn't really care about any of it. I was about ready to switch to another game when I decided to ask my wife for some multiplayer action.

I wasn't expecting much, but we both had a blast! One match led to another and the next thing I knew, two hours had gone by. It's not a great game by any means. I'd struggle to even call it good, but if I'm ever looking for some cheap multiplayer fun, heck yeah I'll pick it up again!

What are some critical failures that you like? Maybe some guilty pleasures?

Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse is probably my best example. It got like a 4 overall but I had some fun with it. Sure, it looked like a PS2 game (that was on the PS3) and the gameplay was simple. But I, in part, enjoyed it for its simplicity and just the simple fact that it was Family Guy. I wouldn't call it a great game by any stretch, but it was a fun rental.

Another would be True Crime: New York City. I played it when I was a lot younger but I put a good amount of time into it and thought it was more enjoyable than Streets of L.A., even if it was a hell of a lot buggier.

Lastly, there's Backyard Football on the gamecube. Not sure what year, assuming there are multiple versions. But anyway it was another game I enjoyed for its simplicity since I can't for the life of me figure out how to play a real football game.

I was going to keep in line with the cartoon themes and mention any number of Simpson games but then an absolute gem popped into my mind:

That's right, the unsung football hero of the 00s. The This is Football games lacked Fifas big money offerings and a lot of the nuances of PES but boy were they packed with game modes (I remember a school team mode), classic teams, sp and mp...og and two of the greatest inclusions ever - diving and purposefully dangerous fouls. Both were actually really clever tactical additions and added more realism then you would expect.

Trailing 2 goals behind and in desperate need of an attack? How about diving at just the right time, maybe the ref will be fooled (they often werent) and get yourself a free kick or penalty. Angry at the class of the opposition, why not take out their bets player. After all, this is more of an occurrence in modern football than it was back when these games were first released.

A series that should make a come back.

Ride to Hell Retribution post-patch was an enjoyable experience to me. It's the The Room of videogames.

I'm honestly not sure. I've played a lot of odd games over the years and I'm sure some of them must have had poor critical receptions. I don't pay much attention to review scores though.

A good recent example is no man's sky - I got more-or-less exactly what i expected out if the game and have enjoyed it a lot. It's not something I play when I want intense action or tough puzzles or deep narrative - it's almost a meditative experience. A bit like why I used to play minecraft

Speaking of the Simpsons games, I did another playthrough of Hit & Run last week. I played that and Road Rage all the time back in the day. I actually prefer Hit & Run to GTA.

No man's sky. M'waiting for what they gonna fix next.

if we're going off gamespot ratings, mario kart 64 gave me and my mates 100s of hours of fun over the years and is still great now. it only scored a 6.4 here

https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/mario-kart-64-review/1900-2544773/

Postal 2 is pretty fun.

@loudonwiii: Thats a bit crazy lol but I did enjoy hit n run, it was quite fun

@Macutchi: Reading that review, I have to somewhat agree, in particular when talking about playing against AI on wide tracks...they are just way too easy, as was the case with double dash on the GC. Having said that, 4 player was a lot of fun but it didnt really hit the heights of many other games around at the time.

Fallout 4. It's awful but I keep finding myself trying to play it again...

Two Worlds 2

Too Human and the Bionic Commando reboot are two games that I enjoyed.

@bmanva: Two Worlds 1 and 2 were excellent games imo.

As for mine, well, it'd have to be Alpha Protocol

I enjoyed lords of shadow 2

In the ps1 era I loved the army men games which were all critically panned to no end, there was also a game called ninja which got like 3's and i loved that game.

I thought golden axe for xbox was a lot of fun

Probably a trillion more that I am not currently thinking of.

I'm with you on the bionic commando reboot, that game gets a lot of unnecessary hate

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines was a buggy mess but it's bonkers fun.

-Byshop

Used to think that this was a good game back in the day.

Remember me 2013

Godfather 2. Still better than Mafia 3.

I've played a lot of odd games over the years and I'm sure some of them must have had poor critical receptions. I don't pay much attention to review scores though.

I like it more than Sleeping Dogs. You could do so much things in NY while SD was so repetitive.

I also enjoy playing Death By Degrees.

Another one is The Evil Within 1.(Which the internet loves to hate)

Internet also hates Indiana Jones and the infernal machine but I consider it as a masterpiece and better than Fate Of Atlantis.

I sunk a lot of time into Too Human. Very fun game, and it doesn't hurt I find Norse Mythology interesting.

In what? Two Worlds, or Alpha Protocol?

In the former, I've come to just accept that any European games (especially German, Austrian) are going to automatically have really, terrible, god-awful voice-overs when they translate them to English. Period. Piranha Bytes, Blue Byte, etc

Someone mentioned the Army Men games and I remember playing one of them on my PS1. It was actually a lot of fun.