The “These Are Fine” Games
The following games are things I don’t find upsetting really, but maybe that’s worse than being closer to bad? Forgettable, but fine, games perhaps await here:
400) DotA 2
This is a great game but it is absolutely not for me. I do not like denying creep score or the depth to which I have to build my characters each game. I’m sure once I learn it then it’s not a problem, but it has never grabbed me. These days I just don’t want to play a MOBA.
399) Injustice 2
The story mode is compelling as you’re fighting heroes against heroes while an intergalactic villain causes mass destruction. The game is riddled with loot boxes and they affect your character’s strength and special moves so that’s a huge no-no to me.
398) The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
I played this game over ten years after it released without any mods so excuse me if I don’t care for it. I mainlined the story just to see what the fuss was, but I think I’d have to really immerse myself to truly get it and I have no intention of ever doing this.
397) Super Star Wars
Platforming through a movie that is beloved could easily go wrong, but this game does it well. There are a number of times where the controls frustrated me
396) Injustice
The first game of this series was innovative with the interactable background, character abilities mapped to a single button press, and another great story from NetherRealm studios. Lobo is one of the best characters.
395) Super Metroid
Call me a villain, but I don’t like the way this game controls. I find the diagonal aiming not good at all and fighting bosses or powerful enemies consisted of a lot of bumping into shit accidentally. As a casual player of this game I just don’t like it.
394) Diddy Kong Racing
The racing is fine but it never felt great and things get really exasperated when we reach the Silver Coin challenges.
393) Twisted Metal 2
It’s a pretty fun game even if you can’t really aim where you want to and the graphics are terrible by today’s standards. Knocking over the Eiffel Tower is fun, though it’s much more fun with a friend.
392) Heave Ho
This game thrives on co-op play. It’s working together with your friends to cross a huge obstacle that makes this game truly fun. When played alone it is alright, but the magic disappears.
391) Mario Party 7
This game continues the trend of having specific rules for specific maps. The offerings are at least a little better than Mario Party 6th.
390) Metroid: Other M
This game gets a really bad reputation for annihilating the character of Samus Aran and having flimsy game context for why you can’t progress. However, I found it to be one of the Metroid games I liked played. Regardless of Samus saying “the baby” about 24 times I still had a good time.
389) Beyond Oasis
It’s the SEGA answer to Zelda and while that sounds like I’m setting it up to knock it down the game was actually kind of interesting. It wasn’t a bad experience. I’d just never play it again is all.
388) Sonic Unleashed
This game introduced everyone to what is now considered Modern Sonic where you blast through a 3D and sometimes 2D zone with a boost meter. Sadly, even if you like the sound of that a lot of the levels designed for it don’t work well and the other half of the game is a slow PS2 God of War knock-off.
387) Ms. Pac-Man
The fact that some college kids stole Pac-Man, improved it, and put a bow on it to make their own game is pretty cool. It doesn’t do a lot for me these days.
386) Resogun
I was very impressed with this game visually when I got it with my PS4 on its launch date. The game is a fun horizontal scrolling-shooter that is actually all played on a circular loop. Resogun itself is a lot of flash and enough substance to keep me happy for a bit.
385) Mortal Kombat (Genesis)
I didn’t play a whole lot of the first Mortal Kombat compared to the rest. It’s pretty bare bones now, but back then I really liked playing this game.
384) League of Legends
I still can’t believe I spend $130 on this game. It really did consume too much of my young adult life. It’s a fine game, like Dota2. I’ve outgrown it entirely.
383) Legend of Zelda: Cadence of Hyrule
It makes me sad to not like Crypt of the Necrodancer. I had similar feelings about this too until I found the spear and that extra buffer room made this game much more playable to me. It’s still not what I want, and that makes me sad because I love the look and sound of those games. I didn’t play enough of the original game to list it for the record.
382) Donkey Kong 64
I really need to play this game again to properly evaluate it, but it sits here based on my childhood memories. I fear playing it again would tank it way down the list.
381) Jackbox Party Pack 7
I’m not in love with Quiplash, most people I’ve tried the devil game with don’t love it, and besides Champ’d Up the rest of the games are fine. It could be a sign that I’m losing interest / willing participants for Jackbox, but this entry felt weak.
380) Pac-Man Championship Edition DX
It’s the best Pac-Man has ever been, and that’s cool, but it’s still Pac-Man.
379) Ghouls ’n’ Ghosts
One of those NES games that I played and put a lot of time into, but never truly figured out how to beat. I could never clear that final level.
378) Banjo-Kazooie
I got properly Stockholm’d by this game. I didn’t really get it and tried to breeze through, but once I was told I needed to collect more things to get to the final boss I came back to all the levels and it just clicked. I knew these worlds and how to navigate them. My frustrations were gone and I was having a lot of fun. Maybe this is what playing Super Mario 64 was like for the first time. That all ended, however, when I had to keep fighting Gruntilda. All of the problems resurfaced and it was absolute misery.
377) Untitled Goose Game
The charm of this game is undeniable, but it wears off pretty quickly within the second hour. A lot of aimless honking and hitting your wings against things to try to figure out the puzzles led to me losing interest. Being the goose was a fleeting joy.
376) Jetpack Joyride
One of the few endless runners I truly enjoyed.
375) Sonic CD
Sonic CD gets the distinction, to me, as the most overrated game from the standpoint that by designing three levels and layering all on top of each other for the time travel mechanic a lot of things are just not well designed. The amazing soundtrack (in both the US and Japan) saves what is easily a worse game than any of the main Genesis titles.
374) Dive Kick
The idea of a fighting game that only requires two buttons sounds nifty, but not every game is Kirby’s Air Ride. The simple controls had a lot of depth and variety with the multiple characters, but it was never something I wanted to play for an extended period of time.
373) Half Life 2: Episode 1
I didn’t even know Half Life existed until I got the Orange Box so maybe I didn’t have the proper time to let the base game digest. Either way Episode 1’s content is not what made me like Half Life 2.
372) Life Force
Fun horizontal shooter that has a neat theme of being inside of some messed up living organism. Much more fun with the Konami Code..
371) Sonic 3D Blast
They made my boy move so slow. Honestly, it’s not that bad of a game. I think it has some levels that are a little too big and confusing, but it’s really just a neat little spinoff.
370) Mario Party 8
Motion controls worked pretty well for Mario Party. It was kinda weird aesthetically compared to other games almost like they wanted to go realistic fantasy HD.
369) MadWorld
The action and commentary in-game gets repetitive, but the game’s style makes it worth all of that. I would like them to take another stab at MadWorld in the future.
368) Sonic Colors
This game is technically much better than Sonic Unleashed, but I like the way it handled more. I am also not crazy about the wisps, but the overall experience is a good one.
367) MegaMan X5
It feels like they wanted to really keep going and make so many more of these games. I wish they stopped at X4. There isn’t enough new or exciting happening.
366) Blaster Master
Exploring this world was a lot of fun, but as someone who read the Scholastic kids novelization I feel like I had an unfair advantage with the Pro Player Tips that basically made it more accessible due to less secret nonsense.
365) StarFox Adventures
A better game than it gets credit for, but still not a very good game. I liked exploring Dinosaur Planet’s temples.
364) Jungle Hunt
This Atari game is a tightly made experience of swinging from vines, jumping over rocks, swimming past sharks, and saving a girl. That’s the entire game, though.
363) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
My first Call of Duty experience was an okay one. Shooting felt good and the story captivated me enough. I learned quickly I wasn’t a big fan of this franchise.
362) StarFox Assault
The game that tried to blend the 64 game with Adventures does just okay for itself. Some of the story stuff is amazing, but none of it feels as good as the original games.
361) Wii Sports
This game proved the concept of motion controls and is still fun to this day. I wish I liked the golf game but I could never get it to work right for me.
360) Dino Crisis
Taking what worked for a zombie survival game and applying to dinosaurs is a great idea. It mostly works, but never hits the highs of those first few Resident Evil games.
359) Donkey Kong (NES)
The unknown game that launched a beautiful man into stardom is competent enough. For a long time this was my baseline of whether a game was good or bad as I assembled this list so hopefully it’s nowhere but up from here.
358) The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls
The combat really just progression barrier disguised a puzzle disguised as combat and that’s fine since you’re here for the story. The events of this game are fascinating and worth experience.
357) Tecmo Super Bowl
It’s very simple but effective, and that’s all most people could really ask for of an NES American Football game.
356) Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine
It’s Puyo Puyo, but reskinned to look like the Sonic cartoon. No complaints. I particularly like them calling Carbuncle the “has-bean.”
355) Among Us
I had a lot of fun with this game until it felt like the meta was mastered by my opponents which really made any of my bad attempts at lying fall flat. Otherwise it was just walking around doing really simple minigames while my friends argued.
354) Mighty № 9
I will defend this game because it is actually pretty fun and they do some fun ideas with the concepts behind MegaMan. It stumbles towards the end, but I enjoyed hunting down Mighty Numbers 1 through 8.
353) Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Wii U)
I’m looking forward to experiencing this on the Switch at some point with the DLC. The initial package didn’t feel like anything I had to play a lot of to appreciate. Just cute little puzzles that aren’t really that difficult. Maybe it was better as a side-thing in Super Mario 3D World.
352) Streets of Rage 2
Blazing up and down the streets as Hoops is great. One of the best side-scrolling beat-em-ups if you’re looking for a classic example of one.
351) Unravel 2
It lacks the emotional weight of the original, but that’s okay because swinging around like a dumbass with a partner is fine too. You basically go Super Saiyan at the end.
350) Sonic Advance 2
This game isn’t too different from the first Sonic Advance. However, the inclusion of more characters and the great idea for boss battles where you’re constantly on the run is a pleasure.
349) Ristar
Slinging yourself around in this game is a good time, though it’s not a truly memorable experience.
348) DuckTales 2
There’s nothing really wrong with this sequel, but it doesn’t really light the same spark that made the first game ignite. They try some new mechanics out that don’t really do anything for me.
347) God of War: Chains of Olympus
Very impressive for a PSP game. It hangs with the other PS2 games in terms of quality. I appreciate the shorter adventure.
346) Golf Story
It does golf very well if you’re looking for something that feels like Mario Golf but as an RPG. I found some of the early-game to be overly repetitive, but they do a lot with a simple thing like playing golf.
345) Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing
Now this is what Sonic Racing should be. That is to say it does what Mario Kart does very well but with the all-stars of SEGA games. A huge collection of characters and tracks also means a lot of their game’s music which are a delight to listen to. The controls feel great, but ultimately it is in fact a knock-off of Mario Kart and never comes close to surpassing the original.
344) Monster Party
It’s a bizarre game focused on boss battles, but these encounters subvert expectations with unexpected foes or requesting players to simple watch skeletons dance. It’s not memorable beyond that, but the fights are pretty good!
343) Jackbox Party Pack 2
This has one of my favorite Jackbox cooperative games in it, but it gets very hard very quickly and I haven’t found a group willing to solve all of the bombs. Bidiots is a great drawing game because it’s better if you can’t draw. The rest is ho-hum.
342) Sonic Advance 3
Allowing players to make your own team of any two playable characters is a fun idea especially since you get a custom team-up move depending on who you had. I personally liked having Knuckles with Tails as his back-up. Chaos Angel Zone is great.
341) Magical Drop III
Puzzle arcade game where you have to match three. It is a simple premise that can get rather deep due to the ability to chain your magical drops, but playing it ranges from shallow to difficult. You rarely feel like a genius.
340) StarFox Zero
Requiring the gyroscope of the Wii U was a questionable choice, but the game does fun things in this return to form for StarFox. When Star Wolf came down in the middle of one of my missions and challenged me to a 1v1 I was hyped.
339) SSX Tricky
I loved the snowboarding, but really I just loved getting into Tricky Mode.
It’s tricky to rock a rhyme, to rock a rhyme that’s right on time, IT’S TRICKY! It’s tricky (tricky) tricky (tricky).
338) Jackbox Party Pack 6
Press the Button is better than Among Us. Some of the games on here are weaker, however, it is still a great package.
337) Aladdin (Genesis)
Listening to the Aladdin soundtrack while you jump one step at a time through the streets of Agrabah looks and feels good.
336) MegaMan
The original has its flaws, but the fundamentals of what is here are something to really enjoy. It’s a good thing they didn’t keep making levels where you have to climb up most of the time.
335) Bubble Ghost
It’s a wacky obstacle course where you blow a bubble around as a ghost. That alone makes it pretty good.
334) Metroid Fusion
The game-feel is more my style in this GBA game compared to other Metroid titles. The premise and exploration are also really fun though I understand it if people consider it to be a bit linear.
333) Kingdom Hearts
This is my only true exposure to this franchise and I still had trouble understanding it. I never got to beat Sephiroth because my save file got deleted somehow.
332) Twisted Metal Black
My favorite game of the Twisted Metal series and I’ll be completely honest in that it’s partly because of it being based on one of my favorite songs. There are a lot of secrets to look for and combat just feels fun.
331) Jackbox Party Pack 4
Fibbage Enough About You does a great job of making the game personal and fun. Survive the Internet allows people to be as horrible as possible which is a benefit amongst those I play that game with. Civic Doodle is really cool since you have drawing duels and build off each other’s weird ideas. Monster Seeking Monster has flaws but also is cool as hell.
330) Freedom Planet
While this gets compared to Sonic a lot I can see more of a Rocket Knight Adventure inspiration. I should play it more because it’s cool even if I didn’t love the story and the levels are fun but not memorable. Great characters though.
329) TMNT: Mutants in Manhattan
Universally this game was panned and the high cost of admission made it too difficult to get a game going with anyone. I really enjoyed my time with it in single player, though I am a sucker for Platinum Games. It becomes a tad repetitive.
328) Castlevania: Bloodlines
The Genesis entry to the Castlevania series allows them to pull out all the stops for what that console was capable of. It lacks some of the tightness that the NES games had.
327) Beyond: Two Souls
Seeing actors portray characters in a game like this was really fun, The game itself was interesting, but definitely not something that will be remembered beyond the fact that Page and Dafoe were in it. I thought it was cool that you could have a second player control the ghost or you could control the game entirely with a smartphone app.
326) Kirby: Return to Dreamland
It’s a very friendly game to play with friends and that’s the best way to experience it. Nothing really feels threatening and in true Kirby form the mysterious guy you meet ends up not really being your friend after all. The super abilities are nifty, but functionally it’s just a screen clearing tool.
325) Drawful 2
Jackbox tried something different by releasing one of its games by itself. I have it ranked this high because Drawful is fun and doesn’t have other games weighing it down, but the Party Pack games aren’t really meant to be a standalone experience. It’s nice to be able to jump from title to title with ease. You COULD play four hours of just Drawful, but why would you?
324) Super Mario Party
It is a shame that they totally whiffed it on the board aspect of this game with only four maps (one of which is the terrible Four Islands design where you can never get to the star on the other side of the map because you’re stuck running a little loop hoping to land on one specific spot exactly) because there is depth in the characters with their own unique dice and the minigames are very well made.
323) Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
Jonathan and Charlotte jump into paintings but this makes the experience feel so fragmented. It’s the worst time I’ve had exploring Dracula’s castle, not to say it’s a bad game but by making you go to multiple “castles,” it detracts from the experience of the actual castle. Deathula is amazing, though.
322) Alien Hominid
As someone who didn’t really know what Contra was yet the game design appealed to me. I don’t think I’d like it much today. If we’re being honest the little minigame where you played a little black and white platformer on a PDA was my favorite part. It got released to iOS, but bring it to more platforms, please @TheBehemoth?
321) Konami Pixel Puzzle
This was my introduction to Picross, and it’s a very pleasant introduction. While free to play the ads are not intrusive at all. Solving little puzzles to form sprites from classic Konami games is very satisfying.
320) MegaMan X3
All of the music sounds like it was inspired by the X-Men cartoon theme. Whoever made the enemies in this game were really in love with 3D vector graphics.
319) Mighty Switch Force
Really clean graphics and short but fun puzzles. It’s a nice bite-sized game.
318) Frog Fractions
Can’t believe it took me until 2020 to actually play this, but it’s definitely a wild ride. I didn’t pay for the hat DLC. I’m not strong enough.
317) Gravity Rush Remastered
It’s really fun to flip the world around and fly across the sky. Combat wasn’t my favorite, but I liked the story and mechanics of what was happening enough to get through that.
316) Ring Fit Adventure
It’s a little unfair to put this on the list since I haven’t spent a lot of time with it, but I have never played a game that made me want to work out and this game with its colorful RPG trappings has done it. I look forward to shedding some pounds with this in 2021.
315) Lethal League
The concept of this game almost feels like anime pong, but jumping around and slapping the ball into your opponents is a great feeling. There is a desire for more here and luckily you can play the sequel for that.
314) Castlevania Chronicles
While it is a PS1 port of the Sharp X68000 version of Castlevania it shines in its own rights. It is the classic Castlevania experience in a different package and that has value to me.
313) Luigi’s Mansion
Controlling the vacuum isn’t always a great experience, but looking through the mansion for ghosts is a charming experience. All of the Boos with pun names are fun to discover.
312) Parasite Eve 2
While it mechanically improves upon the predecessor it gets bogged down in preexisting story threads that it tries to continue. I am not personally a fan of the new combat style.
311) Street Fighter V
This game failed to deliver on a quality story, failed to utilize the Fight Money economy effectively, and failed to make a strong follow-up to the very successful and well loved Street Fighter IV. It did however provide a strong game regardless that the developers stuck with despite how bad the launch was. They didn’t push the envelope enough and made it simple to a fault without providing enough defensive mechanics, but it’s still a very fun game.
310) The Jungle Book
Massive jungle levels that tend to have multiple routes are made a thrill to jump through with Mowgli’s arsenal of bananas, coconuts, and more to attack enemies.
309) Metal Gear
I enjoyed playing this years after playing other Metal Gear games because it is definitely interesting what is copied from this into Metal Gear Solid. Lacked flair, but was still pretty interesting.
308) Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2
I was never good at Tony Hawk games, but this was the one I put enough time into to warrant being on this list. I just wish it had that song Superman, but When World Collide is fine too.
307) Game & Wario
It never truly took off in my home as a fun game for friends, but the mini-games were definitely enjoyable. The Pictionary was a favorite and I’d like to see it come back as a standalone game or in a sequel.
306) ToeJam & Earl
I didn’t know what a rogue-like was back in the 90s, but this is definitely one of those. It’s a fun co-op game purely because almost the entire game is based on chance just enough where you feel like you can overcome the weird obstacles.
305) Ninja Gaiden II
Keeping the cool themes, pacing, and action of the first game worked for the developers. They add some new gimmicks that are mostly just okay. Something about the level design didn’t make it as fun to run and slash through.
304) Punch-Out! featuring Mike Tyson
It’s fun to attempt fighting Iron Mike, but I’ve never conquered him or a few of the late-game foes. It’s a very responsive game and that always feels great, but I’m also bad at this one so here we are.
303) Metal Gear 2
A good sequel to the original as it took more risks and felt like there were more elaborate moments to be played out.
302) MegaMan Zero
I respect Capcom for taking MegaMan in a direction that made its games hard as nails. It wasn’t always what I wanted nor did I always feel encouraged to try harder by the game. At least it was fun enough to finish.
301) Mario Super Sluggers
Bringing the Mario baseball game I like to the Wii seemed like a good idea, but the motion controls don’t actually make the game more enjoyable. Too many shenanigans that made it too hard to enjoy some solid baseball action.
Next: The Top 300–201 Games that I probably like!
Table of Contents:
• Introduction
• #500-#401
• #400-#301
• #300-#201
• #200–#101
• #100–#11
• The Bottom Ten Games
• The Top Ten Games
