The 10 WORST GameMill Games

10 Worst GameMill Games

Welcome to MojoPlays and 2023 might be the year that put GameMill on the map in all the wrong ways, but the company has been churning out duds for many more years than players might expect.

“G.I. Joe: Operation Blackout” (2020)

The G.I. Joe series and toys feature some of the industry’s most recognizable characters and the property has had a surprising amount of staying power with fans in the years since its debut all the way back in the 60s. However, Operation Blackout is a G.I. Joe game in name alone and almost feels like it began life as another game altogether before being reskinned to make use of the license. The game does manage to incorporate each Joe and Cobra Commander’s specific abilities but that doesn’t make up for the shallow and boring shooting mechanics and objectives that amount to little more than shooting unending waves of enemies until the game tells you that you’re done and can move on to the next shooting gallery. The game’s interesting premise of playing both sides of the conflict is wasted on a generic story told through static cutscenes. This one’s a no-go, Joe.

“Puppy Luv” (2007)

Nintendogs became a runaway success for Nintendo and the DS with numerous iterations offering even more breeds of dogs for players to care for and train while also doting all of their love on their digital pups. Puppy Luv looked to capitalize on this popularity by making use of the Wiimote to bring players closer than ever to their onscreen puppers. However, unlike Nintendogs, Puppy Luv was created with no love whatsoever. It had broken controls, even by Wii standards, barely anything to do with your dog and somehow even worse graphics than its handheld competitor. Alongside most of the interactions with your virtual dog being nothing more than recycled cutscenes, what is on offer can barely be qualified as a pet simulator let alone even a budget priced game.

“Disney’s Frozen: Olaf’s Quest” (2013)

Frozen might be one of the most successful Disney franchises of all time, but don’t think that means they’re going to dip into the Disney vault to actually put some money behind one of their most popular IPs’ video game adaptations. Olaf’s Frozen Quest follows the titular snowman as he casually strolls through numerous 2D levels collecting various items and searching for “hidden” flowers. While the game itself is as inoffensive as an adaptation of a popular license can get, and Olaf himself is well animated for the game being a 3DS exclusive, there’s little here even for the most die-hard of Frozen fans. With no dialogue, no other characters and no story to speak of, even the game’s target audience will be bored before they see the end of Olaf’s Quest, and the overly simplistic gameplay will have older fans wishing for summer just to watch the snowman melt.

“Miraculous: Rise of the Sphinx” (2022)

The Miraculous series has been a surprise hit that came out of nowhere and developed a deeply loyal fanbase almost overnight, so naturally there was eventually going to be a video game for it. Unfortunately for fans, GameMill was given the license. To their credit however, Developer Magic Pockets did manage to recreate the look and feel of the show and even got the original voice actors for both the English and French versions to reprise their roles in the game. Sadly, everything else about the game is as generic as it can get. Boring beat ‘em up combat, terrible camera angles, and repetitive gameplay and upgrades that upgrade virtually nothing at all. Even by budget game standards, the price is too high and no Miraculous can save this title from Hawk Moth’s evil Akumas.

“Nerf Legends” (2021)

There is hardly any kid alive who hasn’t fired off a Nerf gun at some point in their life and the thrill of hunting your friends is countered only by having to meticulously pick up each dart to reload and keep playing. And yet even that mundane task is more fun than playing Nerf Legends. Much like their real-life counterparts, the guns and darts fired in the game have no real impact and the stakes of the game (simply trying to take on the Nerf Legend Masters) is barely enough to keep most players going through its generic and boring environments while mindlessly shooting the same robots over and over ad nauseum. This would all be bad enough, but the game is marred by endless bugs and glitches that can make it unplayable, and its multiplayer is completely broken - not that you would want anyone else to endure this game alongside you.

“Zombieland: Double Tap - Road Trip” (2019)

Zombies have become a staple enemy of video games and movies for decades and Zombieland brilliantly satirized the tired old tropes of the shuffling undead enough to warrant a decent sequel and, unfortunately, a video game tie-in. However, instead of adapting a more appropriate formula akin to the Dead Rising series, fans were instead subjected to a top-down shoot ‘em up with none of the charm of its namesake. The game is mercifully but also ridiculously short for the price of entry and the gameplay and level design are as generic as you can imagine. Shockingly, the devs did manage to somehow convince Abigail Breslin to reprise her role as Little Rock, but the rest of the film’s cast had enough sense to stay far, far away from this rotting apocalyptic disaster.

“Skull Island: Rise of Kong” (2023)

Reportedly, developer IguanaBee was given only a year to build the game from scratch, and worse yet, the team was forced to crunch at all hours of the day to meet the deadline set by GameMill. The results speak for themselves as corners were clearly cut to make the release date in everything from the core design of the game to the graphics, environments and cutscenes, one of which just features a JPEG image in place of a flashback scene. Naturally the game was riddled with bugs and technical issues as GameMill rushed the unfinished game out the door in a barely alpha stage and had the nerve to charge almost full retail price. The game was universally panned and along with another late 2023 release, put the spotlight squarely on GameMill and their horrible practices. The fact the developers got anything out the door is itself a miracle.

“Avatar: The Last Airbender - Quest for Balance” (2023)

Avatar: The Last Airbender already hadn’t had the best luck in video games, but Quest for Balance might just be the worst of the bunch. The game claims to be a faithful retelling of the almost two-decade old story fans have come to love. It takes far too many liberties with the source material to even be called “faithful”. Often choosing the most boring story elements of the series to focus on, players explore empty areas while a text box or static cutscene highlights the exciting moments they wanted to experience. Players can share their suffering by playing the game in co-op, but no matter who you choose, combat is a slog with zero impact and most of the use of Aang’s powers are reserved for the game’s many, many sliding block puzzles. Quest for Balance makes Shyamalan's film retrospectively better when compared to this poor excuse of an adaptation.

“The Walking Dead: Destinies” (2023)

The Walking Dead franchise not only reinvigorated the zombie genre but also put Telltale on the map with its adaptation of Robert Kirkman’s zombie apocalypse. Since then, there have been a multitude of video games set in this universe and each one, besides a rarity, has been worse than the last, but Destinies might make Kirkman rethink adapting his beloved property ever again. Hands down one of the worst games of 2023, Destinies attempts to give players the option to rewrite the beloved series and make choices that deviate from the established canon. A novel concept, its implementation is horrendous, built around a barely playable and extremely boring and broken game with none of the emotional impact of the source material, told through (yet again) static cutscenes. There is absolutely nothing redeemable about this rotting corpse that makes a real zombie apocalypse seem enjoyable by comparison.

“Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing” (2003)

In terms of an actual game, Big Rigs is barely even pre-alpha. Nothing more than a litany of bugs and glitches, the game gained notoriety for its broken state and unintentionally gained more popularity because of it. Although marketed as a racing game, the player’s opponent never leaves the finish line and the player will routinely clip through the game’s environment allowing them to cross the finish line in record breaking time only to be met with the message, “You’re Winner”. The game also doesn’t appear to have normal video game boundaries as players discovered they were able to set off and drive in any direction for as long as they wanted. Even more bizarrely (or hilariously), the game doesn’t cap how fast the player can drive in reverse, essentially allowing gamers to break the sound barrier, and the game, even more than it was already.