Top 20 Worst PlayStation Games of All Time

Star Wars fans (and gamers in general) have a lot of fond memories involving Factor 5’s “Rogue Squadron” series. Players were placed in the cockpit of various iconic ships from the Star Wars series and the result was just a lot of action-packed, high-flying fun. Unfortunately, all the goodwill towards Factor 5 from their previous works seemingly evaporated when they released this extremely disappointing game in 2007 for the PS3, meant to show the strength of the consoles Sixaxis motion controls. Players take to the skies atop a dragon in a third-person flight setup that you’d think would play to the studio’s strengths, but broken motion controls make for a frustrating experience. Reviewers were even given “Reviewer’s Guide” as a form of damage control, which just added fuel to the fire that was the game’s release.

Sports games are big business, with most major franchises getting yearly iterations that not only update the graphics and gameplay, but player rosters and settings. With this pressure to push out new entries, it shouldn’t be surprising that developers occasionally let a half-finished product out the door. This entry, in particular, is thought to have been rushed to market to coincide with the 2015 Rugby World Cup. Suffice it to say, the game’s lack of polishing becomes evident almost immediately. On top of the numerous bugs, the game features outdated gameplay and graphics, no online features to speak of and a serious lack of licensed players and stadiums, making it feel more like a cheap rip-off than a legitimate licensed product.

Thanks to the phenomenal success of the Nintendo Wii in 2006, other video game companies were quick to jump on the motion control bandwagon. PlayStation’s attempt was the PlayStation Move, a motion control system released in 2009. Designed specifically to work with the Move controller, this 2010 game tasks players with navigating the streets of Hong Kong in an office chair, avoiding obstacles and fighting enemies. As was often the problem with early motion control games, it’s nearly impossible to control the characters effectively. The gameplay experience is best described as a whole lot of frustrated controller waggling and inevitable rage quitting. We imagine more than a few Move controllers got thrown across the room along the way.

Sega’s loveable blue hedgehog has survived a number of PR disasters over the years, from terrible games to that terrifying initial design for the live-action “Sonic” movie. But this 2006 entry in the franchise is widely regarded as his lowest point. A half-finished, buggy, frustrating mess of a game, it’s plagued with interminable load times and questionable story choices. The game is still a sore spot for the Sonic fandom and gamers in general. Even if you can get Sonic to sprint successfully through the game’s unintuitive and bug-addled levels, the relationship between the definitely humanoid Princess Elise and the anthropomorphized animal hero will make you wish you hadn’t.

It’s hard not to get excited about revisiting a beloved movie franchise, be it on the big screen or in the form of a game. But this 2006 video game adaptation on the PS2 quickly had fans convinced that ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ was better left in the past. Based on the classic film series starring Eddie Murphy, the game turns Axel Foley’s adventures into a dull and lifeless first-person shooter. Players awkwardly glide around environments gunning down enemy after enemy in a joyless shooting gallery with none of the charm and comedy of the film series. Maybe this experience would be worth it if they’d actually gotten Eddie Murphy back for some snappy dialogue, but he’s nowhere to be seen.

We here at WatchMojo love us some Godzilla, but not even our enduring affection for cinema’s favorite kaiju can blind us to this game’s glaring shortcomings. A 3D fighting game in the spirit of older Godzilla games like ‘Godzilla: Save the Earth” and “Destroy All Monsters Melee”, this entry feels more like a shadow of games past than a fresh start. The graphics are dated and the gameplay is a monotonous procession of slow-paced battles that feel more like shoving matches than the epic brawls they should’ve been. It’s also critically lacking when it comes to length and features, and you can experience everything the game has to offer in just a few short hours.

You’d think that a game where Mickey Rourke voices the main character, and spends most of it spouting over-the-top profanity would be a good time. But despite its bafflingly blue main character, this is one of the most miserable experiences the PS3 has to offer. Based on the exploits of real-life Navy SEAL Richard Marcinko, the game has players infiltrate North Korea, leaving bodies and muttered curses in their wake. A short and barely-functional tactical shooter, the only thing that makes the game even remotely amusing is Rourke’s vocal performance as Marcinko, most of which we can’t even play for you due to the excessive profanity. Good lord, man, cool down.

The ‘Resident Evil’ franchise has seen dark days, and we’re not just talking about the zombie outbreaks. This spin-off is a far cry from the tense survival horror of the main franchise, with a heavier emphasis on squad-based action a la Call of Duty or Rainbow Six. We’re not opposed to franchises breaking away from the established formula, but if you’re going to experiment, at least do it well. This entry doesn’t offer anything new for anybody who's played a squad-based shooter before, and really only succeeded in alienating fans of the core franchise. Capcom, did you learn nothing from ‘Operation: Raccoon City’?

This is one of those ideas that seems great on paper: Springfield’s favorite skateboarding bad-boy in a Tony Hawk-style skating game. Sounds like a winning formula, right? Well, as appealing as the concept was, the game that hit store shelves was a pretty severe wipeout. While players do get to take Bart skateboarding through Springfield, it’s with a barebones arsenal of skate tricks and frustrating, unresponsive controls. The graphics are also downright hideous, with awkward character models that fail to convincingly translate the characters into 3D. The “Treehouse of Horror” episode where Homer stumbles into the third dimension had better graphics. And that came out 7 years earlier than this game!

Video game graphics still had a long way to go back in 1997, but the hardware in the first PlayStation console was definitely capable of better than what we got here! This side scrolling beat ‘em up puts players in the shoes of Marvel’s First Family to punch, kick, stretch and burn their way through evildoers. But you can only do that if you can first manage to figure out what the heck is happening on screen. The muddy, low-fi visuals can make brawls with large groups a confusing mess, made all the more bewildering by the soundtrack, which….well, just listen. Doesn’t exactly seem like a fit for one of Marvel’s most respected superhero teams, huh?

Another game that spins an established franchise off into a whole new game genre… another game that fell completely on its face while doing it. This entry attempted to transplant Mortal Kombat character Jackson “Jax” Briggs into a “Metal Gear Solid” style stealth-em-up, and wound up as the worst things to ever have the Mortal Kombat name attached. Ok... one of the worst things. Originally meant to include both Jax and Sonia Blade, the game’s extremely troubled development led to it being released in an unfinished state, with glitchy gameplay and massive holes in the story. Not exactly what you’d call a flawless victory, this was nearly a fatality for the MK franchise.

Do we even need to say anything? Just look at this mess! Based on the movie franchise of the same name, itself based on the classic ‘70s TV show, this PS2 title has become infamous not just as a terrible movie tie-in game, but a terrible game period. This should already be obvious from the footage you’re seeing, but the game is downright hideous, with the stretched, inhuman looking character models loping around like something out of a nightmare. Gameplay is equally dreadful, with repetitive moves and poor collision detection, two things you absolutely do not want in a third-person beat-em-up.

One of the most disastrous game releases of the 7th console generation, “Aliens: Colonial Marines” drew the ire of both critics and fans of the film franchise. Buggy to an almost ridiculous degree, the game’s busted AI reduces the legendary Xenomorphs - a typically terrifying and nearly unstoppable foe- into shambling, brainless creatures waiting to get shot. As we eventually learned, this was actually the result of a typo in the game’s code that literally broke the enemy AI. Unfortunately, that was far from the only issue; the story was bland and inconsistent with the franchise, while the visuals felt extremely unpolished. Though it initially sold well, terrible reviews and widespread disappointment with the finished product quickly torpedoed the game’s reputation.

Kinda like movies based on games, video games based on movies do not have a great track record. They’re often rushed through production so they can be released alongside the movie, which often leads to a product that either feels unpolished or outright unfinished. While the tie-in to the second ‘Mummy’ film is at least playable, it’s also a short and rather dull affair that feels more stale than a centuries-old mummy. Players get to take control of hero Rick O'Connell or (in a fun little twist) the villainous mummy Imhotep. But apart from that one novelty, and it boasting decent visuals for a 2001 release, “The Mummy Returns” has little to offer gamers or fans of the movies.

We cannot count the hours we spent perfecting our virtual skating abilities in the earlier installments of this once-beloved franchise. But when gamers popped “Pro Skater 5” into their PlayStations, no amount of nostalgia could save it. Despite coming out on the PS4, the game’s graphics look almost a full generation behind, and the game’s systems and controls are fundamentally broken. It immediately becomes clear that it’s about as slapdash and shoddy a release as you can get from an established franchise. Tough it out in these boring levels long enough and you may find the odd moment of fun - only for one of the game’s countless glitches to bring it to screeching halt.

The world’s favorite fashion doll has had countless jobs over the years, and evidently one of them was as a globe-trotting explorer in video game form. But ‘Tomb Raider’, this ain’t. A janky and joyless platformer, the game looks like an unlicensed Crash Bandicoot mod with all the fun ripped out. Players navigate Barbie through dull environments, wrestling with the controls the entire way through. The game charges you with locating priceless artifacts, but the real challenge is managing to find anything about the gameplay in the face of its many technical failings. Barbie fans and gamers alike should avoid this one.

For the uninitiated, Little Britain is a sketch comedy show that debuted in 2000 and helped launch the careers of creator/stars Matt Lucas and David Walliams. If you’re wondering how and why this warrants a video game adaptation...well, join the club. Not only can we NOT figure out how this game giot made, we simultaneously can’t figure out how it could possibly be this bad. Essentially a collection of minigames presented like an episode of the show, the game takes players through a collection of brief and incredibly simple challenges modelled after sketches and characters from the series. Even by PS2 standards, the graphics are incredibly dated, and the humor almost always falls to land.

The transition from 2D to 3D graphics in games was kinda like the transition from silent films to talkies: some people survived it, and others didn’t. While Mario slipped into his new 3D world with grace and ease, 2D platformer character Bubsy the Bobcat lost many of his nine struggling to make the same jump. Bubsy’s 3D debut looks more like a tech demo or a very early work in progress, with the titular bobcat running and jumping through fields of untextured polygons that could only charitably be called levels. The 3D platforming is a nightmare to control, making the game not only hideous but nearly impossible to actually play.

When we think of games that can make full use of the PlayStation 4’s graphical capabilities, ports of phone games are not what comes to mind. Originally released for free on IOS and Android, this game is part of a series that puts players in the paws of wild animals. For mobile games, they’re fine. Boring, graphically primitive, but serviceable. But badly ported onto the PlayStation 4 and given a ten dollar price tag? Who are you kidding, Sony? Maybe, -maybe- if the game had actually been polished and given high-res textures, a whole lot of QA testing and bug-fixes and a better localization, it would -almost- be worth the time and money. But as is? It’s downright offensive.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few dishonorable mentions.

“Motorcycle Club” (2015)
PlayStation 4
For Hurting our Ears

“Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust” (2009)
PlayStation 3
For Unrepentant Sleaze

“Amy” (2012)
PlayStation 3
For Basically Being One Long Escort Mission

“The Guy Game” (2004)
PlayStation 2
For Being Sleazier Than Leisure Suit Larry

One of the most legendarily bad releases in recent memory, this third-person action game for the PS3 will live forever in infamy as one of gaming’s darkest moments. Players take control of biker Jake Conway, who must take revenge after his brother is murdered by a rival gang. But if you’re looking to live out your ‘Sons of Anarchy’ fantasies, look elsewhere. The game is a parade of glitches and bugs, and plays terribly even when it’s running correctly. The writing is laughable, and the game’s portrayal of women is crude and sexist even by the rock-bottom standard of most video games. No PS3 owner should ever let their get console anywhere near this game.