Top 10 Video Games With the Worst Voice Acting

There’s several branching paths in this tactical RPG, but unfortunately, none of them are particularly well acted. Instead, the vocal performances range from wildly overblown to the essence of wooden, with little middle ground to speak of. In a cast this big, a few duds are to be expected. But, “Triangle Strategy” has a lot more misses than hits, and that’s most apparent in its main cast. It’s as if none of the actors were given proper context on the plot or setting. As a result, most line reads feel completely out of place. Suffice it to say, it’s hard to invest in the plight of this fantasy nation when even its hero seems bored.

It’s hard to say who’s the real culprit here: the writing, the director, or the actors themselves. Either way, the result is a gaming experience that’s more enjoyable when played on mute. The performances just never quite match the intensity of any given scene, which makes the entire story fall flat on its face. To be fair, it’s hard to channel any compelling character traits when the whole script is just endless expletives and cringey quips. And don’t even get us started on the Russian accents. They’re so laughably bad, that it makes you wonder why they bothered to dub this game into English at all.

The biggest issue with these performances aren’t that they’re all bad, but that they’re wildly inconsistent. For example, Batman and most of his iconic villains are brought to life by some very committed voicework. So, it’s a shame that quality doesn’t extend to the game’s leads. Since they’re the only playable characters, you’ll be hearing a lot of them, too. The Gotham Knights never sound like they know whether a scene is supposed to be serious or funny. As a result, their performances fail to accomplish either. They’re work is lackluster at best, and when sharing the screen with some of the best voice actors in the business, that’s just not good enough.

When you think of Samus, the words strong, experienced, and effective probably come to mind. Ironically, that’s just about everything that this version of the character lacks. Right from the get-go, Samus’ narration sounds like she’s reciting a homeowner’s manual. The in-game efforts aren’t much better, either. It’s all due to Jessica Martin’s dubious take on the character, which comes across meek and awkward. And that’s when she manages to sound convincing at all. The inconsistent delivery aside, the main issue is that this uninspired voicework doesn’t even sound like it’s Samus. One of gaming’s most iconic characters deserved much, much better.

Apparently, “gotta go fast” was also the motto for this game’s English voice track. That’s the only way to explain how one of the most influential titles in Sonic’s history ended up with some of gaming’s most wince-inducing performances. Even for the 90s, the line delivery here is cartoony to the point of absurdity. The worst part of it all is there’s no way to escape it. During every level, these characters seemingly never stop talking. The eye-rolling voicework is a grating sin on an otherwise iconic game. So, while this isn’t the first Sonic title to use English voices, it sure made us wish it would be the last.

One of the biggest parts of voice acting is, naturally, the “acting” part. Except, somehow, “Ride to Hell: Retribution” completely missed that step. There’s very little in the form of real emoting going on here. Mainly, it all boils down to bad accents, questionable line delivery, and some poor excuses at jokes. It’s simply bad, no way around it. The characters would honestly feel more lively if they didn’t have voice acting at all. Maybe then, they wouldn’t come across as robotic caricatures. At the very least, the rest of the game is so broken, that the voice acting somehow isn’t even the worst part.

The phrase “unintentional comedy” gets thrown around a lot. But, truly, the only way to justify these performances is if the actors thought they were in a parody. Although, it’s hard to say if this voicework would even pass in a farce. The syllables are stressed in all the wrong places, and when paired with laughable attempts at fear, make for a complete butchering of “Resident Evil’s” tone. To be fair, it’s definitely in the realm of so-bad-it’s-good, but that doesn’t excuse the fact that it pretty much ruins the first game’s immersion. At a certain point, it’s hard to decide which is scarier: the zombies, or the voice acting.

By the time the credits roll on this Capcom game, there’s only one burning question remaining: what went wrong with its voiceover? After all, it takes some actual effort to turn in a finished product this woefully misguided. The characters all sound like they’re half-asleep, and that’s putting it nicely. Through cutscenes, gameplay, and everything in between, it’s genuinely difficult to find a single good voiced line of dialogue. It goes far beyond the word “bad” and heads straight into complete embarrassment. Apparently, Dr. Wily isn’t Mega Man’s biggest threat anymore - it’s bad localization. And, in this case, Mega Man definitely lost.

Nowadays, most Nintendo characters have a pretty reliable bench of great voice actors. But that wasn’t always the case. Like the Phillips CD-i games, which delivered what might just be the worst VO ever recorded. The only impressive thing about it is that across several games and franchises, it’s all equally awful. From Mario’s horrid accent to Zelda’s asinine voice, there’s simply no redeeming qualities in any corner of these games. However, the most inexcusable part is that, by the time these misfires hit the shelves, Charles Martinet had already begun his tenure as Mario’s de-facto voice. But, instead of using him here, players got… whatever this is. It’s a wonder Nintendo ever recovered.

There’s acting that’s clearly butchered by a poor script or bad direction. Then, there’s performances that single handedly ruin everything all on their own. “Chaos Wars” is the latter. It’s mind-boggling how anyone approved this monstrosity - let alone actually charged money for it. Although, the real victims are the ones who paid these quote-unquote actors, since they did just about everything but act. The only explanation fans have found is cold, hard nepotism. Allegedly, the dubbing studio’s CEO got his own family to do a few roles, and boy does it show. Still, “Chaos Wars” can hold its head high that it became a cult classic, even if it’s for all the wrong reasons.