Top 10 Worst Video Game Launch Titles (REDUX)

New console launches are exciting times filled with possibility … but they can also be breeding grounds for some awful, awful games. Welcome to WatchMojo.com, where today we’ll be counting down our picks for the Top 10 Worst Video Game Launch Titles.

For this new and improved redux of an older list, we list we’ll be looking video games released during a console launch period, and as usual, only one game per franchise. Here we go.

Night Trap has earned itself a cult following from the ‘so bad it’s good’ crowd, but make no mistake: Night Trap is bad game. At the time, the Full-Motion Video title was fairly controversial for its portrayal of scantily clad women and violence. That being said, what was deemed risqué for video games in the early 90s is tame as can be by today’s standards. At the end of the day, Night Trap’s biggest problem is that it’s outright boring — it’s nearly impossible to take this hokey shlock seriously.

Probably most famous for its “giant enemy crab”, Genji: Days of the Blade is a character action game that’s based on ancient Japanese history, but doesn’t do a very good job portraying those epic battles. Besides it’s cutting edge visuals (at the time), Genji had nothing to offer action game fans that hadn’t been done better in other titles. As a sequel in a popular genre, there is absolutely no reason for Genji: Days of the Blade to be as bad as it is — early adopters of the PlayStation 3 deserved better. Hey, at least it spawned the popular meme “Attack its weak point for massive damage”.

Believe it or not, Game Party Champions is the fifth Game Party game — and it is the epitome of awful mini-game collections. It’s hard to believe this game released for the Wii U, because aside from HD visuals, this game is as lacklustre and frustrating as an old arcade game designed to steal quarters. Game Party Champions comes packed with eight insufferable mini-games to choose from, most of which are played by swiping your stylus up and down on the screen. New console owners deserve better.

Popular with kids and grown-ups alike, an Avatar: The Last Airbender game should be a slam dunk. Sadly, this take on the popular series that launched alongside the original Wii is an exercise in patience. Mostly due to lackluster combat, and shallow version of the Avatar universe, Avatar: The Last Airbender plays like a carbon copy of so many other child-proof licensed games. It’s a cash grab that preys on fans, kids, and excited new console owners – one that’s almost on par with the M. Night Shamalan disaster based off the same property.

It takes a special kind of bad to make running around in a Gundam suit boring. Mobile Suit Gundam: Crossfire launched alongside the PlayStation 3 with a disjointed story, severe lack of mission variety, and an atrociously low framerate. More to the point, Crossfire feels unfinished; it’s a classic case of a game being rushed to market in time for a console launch with zero consideration for fans of the franchise or their hard earned money. It’s an insult to everyone involved.

Hoping to capitalize on the success of the arcade hit Donkey Kong —and maybe convince some parents to buy a Nintendo Entertainment System along the way— Donkey Kong Jr. Math is what you would expect: a math game featuring Donkey Kong Jr. Unfortunately, the game’s rudimentary puzzle solving is too easy to be any fun, and is made worse by sluggish animations. To put this in perspective: Donkey Kong Jr. Math is an educational game so bad, Nintendo, with a few odd exceptions, halted any attempts to teach for the over twenty-year period between this release in 1983 and the launch of Brain Age for the Nintendo DS in 2006 – which, btw, was marketed towards adults and not kids.

If you’ve ever played a Street Fighter game, you know it’s a series about pixel-perfect animations and quick-fisted combos. Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game is anything but. Grabbing the hilarious, campy, live-action performers from the movie and squeezing them onto a PlayStation disk lead to awful performance on consoles. What’s more, these muddy character models get in the way of the tight hit-boxes and frame-by-frame tactics the series is known for. Street Fighter: The Movie: The Game is a mockery to the series.

And another fighting game plagued with sloppy timing and unresponsive design. The Fighter Within is a Kinect game for the Xbox One that reacts to players punching and kicking thin air. It’s as flimsy a mechanic as you would expect, and to make matters worse most of the game’s characters are lazy stereotypes that leave a bad taste in your mouth. This is truly one of the worst launch games on a console, and that it was released for a modern system, by Ubisoft —a major current publisher— makes it all the more insulting.

Cybermoph feels like a dystopian relic from a world where computers never matured past the Apple II. Sure, its 3D visuals were light years ahead of the original Mario and Zelda games —marking the debut of the Atari Jaguar— but Cybermorph is altogether sterile. There’s nothing remotely interesting going on here, just polygons hovering in space and an obnoxious green face that pops up to dole out sweet pro-tips like, “avoid the ground.” Good one Skylar — I’ll have to try that some time! Cybermorph is an unflinchingly bad launch game.

Before we name our number one, let’s look at some honourable mentions.

“Knack” (2013)

“Red Steel” (2006)

“Combat of Giants: Dinosaurs 3D” (2011)

“Happy Feet” (2006)

“Godzilla Generations" (1998)

Sega published and launched their console —the Sega CD— with a game called Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch: Make. My. Video. Let that sink in. Sure enough, it’s a game that puts Marky ‘Mark’ Wahlberg and YOU at the centre of the action, letting players decide exactly what would make the best Marky Mark music video. Unsurprisingly, there is absolutely nothing redeeming here, from its terrible acting to outright bad quote-unquote gameplay, this unfathomable combination of awful ideas and execution makes it the unquestionable worst console launch game of all-time.

Which of these games have you bought, played and deeply regretted? Did we miss one? Let us know if you agree with our list. Make sure to subscribe to Watchmojo.com for more great Top 10s published daily.