Areala Asks: What Is The Worst SNES Game Ever Made? (20160303)

[Areala]

I've spent plenty of time over the course of my life attacking and defending various NES games from the moniker "worst game for the system", but I've spent remarkably little time, if any, trying to determine the answer to this question. So help your resident Warrior Nun out and enter the fray.

What IS the worst Super Nintendo game ever made, and why do you feel that way? This need not objectively be THE worst SNES game ever released, I'm actually more interested in personal experiences where a given Super Nintendo game just disappointed the hell out of you. A game can be objectively good but still rank as a horrible game for you for any number of reasons. An example would be Mortal Kombat: the Super NES version looks, sounds, controls, and plays better than the Genesis/Mega Drive version by any metric, but Nintendo's censorship policy neutered what should have been a kick-ass arcade-to-home experience and resulted in a huge failure.

This is just an example. It's not my personal choice.

So regale me with your tales of video game woe. What game for the Super Nintendo just sucked so bad it was irredeemable in your eyes? Was it a port gone wrong? Was the difficulty too absurd? The control not there? Could it not live up to the ad hype surrounding it? Did it touch you in the wrong place?

Let's play the blame game. You've got one week, starting now, to post your replies, earn some credits, and get some hard-core bitching off your chest and into the open. Ready...Aim...FIRE!!

*huggles*
Areala

[urko948]

One of the worst I've tried is Mario Is Missing. I never really understood it. I remember renting it as a child and being disappointed. We didn't often rent games so it made it even worse. Wasted a weekend. Its still better than the NES version.

[miketheratguy]

There's a bad Super NES game?

Actually Mortal Kombat is a fine example. Great graphics, great sound, fairly accurate to the arcade. ...Minus the single most famous feature that made the game popular in the first place. I'll never forget when I was hanging out at the local video store with a bunch of the local kids and the FedEx boxes of Mortal Kombat came in. We all gathered excitedly and waited for the proprietor to set up his SNES in the store for us to check the game out. I was elected to be the first player since everyone there knew that I was good at the arcade game. Five minutes later we were left in utter confusion as to why Sub-Zero froze a dude and broke him instead of ripping off his head with the vertebrae still attached. The five or six copies of Mortal Kombat for the Genesis flew out of the store pretty much immediately.

I'm tempted to say Rap Jam or Wayne's World but I'd rather choose something that I've actually played. Similarly it would be easy to say something like Shag Fu or Mario is Missing but the former is a multiplatform game and the latter is meant for an entirely different audience. I'm also tempted to say Drakkhen - which I did play, several times - but despite the fact that it's incredibly obscure and nigh-unplayable for newcomers, there's a lot about the game that I like.

Hmm, you know what, off the top of my head I'm going to say American Gladiators. I don't really know what I expected with that game, I just know that it really sucked. It's one of the few SNES games that I remember renting blindly, based on my love of the source material, and having absolutely no fun with.

I'll throw in a different game later if I can think of one that I really hated.

[miketheratguy]

One of the worst I've tried is Mario Is Missing.

Wow, speak of the devil...

[urko948]

Damn Shaq Fu was awful. The graphics impressed me though. The animation and detail on the characters was good, I have to give it that. And Wayne's World was insane. I have no idea what they were smoking with that one. I never was any good at those old Mortal Kombat games. Once they made the jump to the PS2 I started getting better at them. The latest one is great though. And is Rap Jam the one that has rappers playing basketball?

[miketheratguy]

And is Rap Jam the one that has rappers playing basketball?

For some reason, yes.

[urko948]

I remember that one. To me there isn't gonna be a better basketball game than Looney Tunes B-Ball on the SNES. That game was the shit. I would rent it all the time. Another bad one would have to be Mario's Time Machine. I can't imagine it did well on the NES why they would waste time porting it and upgrading it to the SNES hardware I guess nobody will ever know.

[Areala]

There are a lot of really bad SNES games, many of which have already been mentioned, but I've managed to avoid playing many of them and have no desire to start now.

My personal worst for the Super Nintendo has to go to a game that isn't terrible so much as it was just horribly, horribly disappointing. I'm going with Doom.

I LOVED Doom on the PC but I didn't have a computer capable of playing it, so when I heard there would be a version on the Super Nintendo, I was thrilled! I'd finally be able to play it whenever I wanted, instead of waiting to go over to a friend's house or babysit for the family that had it on their computer (though I had to wait for the kids to go to bed before I played).

It's probably the most disappointed I've ever been in a game. While I admire what they were able to do from a technical standpoint, so much of what made the game fun was excised that it's hard to see the point. Ceiling and floor textures were gone, but I could live with that. The SuperFX chip clearly helped with the scaling and rotation effects that Mode 7 couldn't accomplish by itself, but it still struggled to run at a respectable frame rate. The sound was muted. Levels were missing. The controls took a LOT of getting used to. But worst of all, when I went to quit the first time, I realized to my horror that the feature most lacking from the PC version was the ability to save the game.

Doom on the SNES has no battery backup and no password system. You either beat the game, all 22 levels of it, in one go or you started all the way back at Knee-Deep in the Dead the next time you turned on the system. Talk about bringing Hell into the living room...

*huggles*
Areala

[urko948]

I didn't know the Doom on SNES didn't have a save feature. How much of the game was on it, was it just the first bit? I got Doom 3 a while back and was surprised to find out that it had the original trilogy on there. Doom 3 sucks but at least those original ones are on there and they're still great. I'm really excited for the new one that's coming out. And I recently had the displeasure of trying out Super 3D Noah's Ark on the SNES at this retro store I go to. It runs on the Doom I think, and it's just terrible. The story behind it is that the guys who made Doom were pissed because of how bad the port to the SNES was that they sold the engine for it to Wisdom Tree to make that really bad game. They were asking $160 for it, I don't think they're gonna get it.

[Areala]

I didn't know the Doom on SNES didn't have a save feature. How much of the game was on it, was it just the first bit?

22 of the 27 levels available in the original Doom were ported to the SNES, although one of them is a direct copy of an earlier level, so it's more like you get 21 levels and one duplicate. It's also weird how you access the different chapters. Access to "The Shores of Hell" and "Inferno" (chapters 2 and 3) are only granted based on the difficulty level you choose to play on. If you play on the lowest difficulty level, you can only play "Knee-Deep in the Dead". Playing on the second-highest difficulty will see you play through both it and "Shores of Hell", and only by picking the third or higher difficulty can you access "Inferno". Difficulties higher than 3 (if I recall correctly, it might be difficulties higher than 2) let you pick which of the three missions to start on, and you will progress through the game in order, but that means if you aren't a very good player or want an easier time of it in the third mission, you're hosed because you can't play through it in any easier mode than "Bring 'Em On".

Episode 4, from The Ultimate Doom (Thy Flesh Consumed) is missing entirely, but that's not surprising.

Nightmare mode is available as a difficulty level choice, but the enemies don't respawn so there's no real difference between picking it over Ultra Violence. There's also no multi-player mode available, so this is a one-marine-only, single-player mission without even a Deathmatch option.

The game kinda has a save function in that when you die, you don't restart the level with your pistol, 50 bullets, 0 armour, and 100 health like you do on the PC. Instead you begin the level with the same weapons, ammo and armour level you had when you entered it, and with your health reset to 100%. That's it though. No checkpoints, no waypoints. You have infinite lives effectively, but depending on how well you did in earlier missions, you can still wind up getting 'stuck' in later levels because you lack the necessary resources to deal with the enemies the level throws at you.

Finally, there are no cheat codes at all programmed into the game. No God Mode or All Weapons code for you.

*huggles*

Areala

[urko948]

Lol it makes you wonder why they try doing things sometimes if they know it isn't going to go well. I hear the Sega cd version is one of the best versions for console

[Areala]

The Sega CD never had a version of Doom, so you're either thinking of the Saturn version or the 32X version.

Doom on the 32X is pretty much the worst console version of Doom ever made. It has fewer maps than the SNES version (only seventeen levels from the PC original), and many of those are stripped down versions due to massive memory constraints on the cart. You basically get every level from Knee-Deep in the Dead, and 8 of the 9 levels from "The Shores of Hell". The entire "Inferno" episode is missing.

The Cyberdemon was pulled from the game, and since Inferno doesn't exist, the Spider Mastermind is also missing. The player cannot acquire the BFG-9000 without resorting to cheat codes. While there is a level select option available from the get-go that allows you to hit any of the first 15 levels, starting anywhere but level 1 or using any cheat code will result in you not being able to play the final two maps and prevents you from getting the actual ending of the game. Like the SNES version, it has no save function.

It's like someone looked at the Super Nintendo version of Doom and said, "How can we do this, only worse?" then set out to answer their own question.

The Saturn version, on the other hand, is slightly better although the US release lacks a multiplayer function that is advertised on the box, and it uses the same mapset for the original Doom levels as the Jaguar version which means a lot of the levels are stripped down from their original PC editions. (The Jag maps were also used for the 32X port). Unfortunately this stripping was done hastily and not error checked, because there are some secret rooms that are impossible to enter, and other glitches. On the plus side, there are 8 levels which don't appear in the PC version, so you do get a bit of a surprise in that regard.

Saturn Doom is a version of Doom + Doom II, but is missing some enemies like the Archvile, the SS Officers (the two bonus stages from PC Doom II aren't in this version) and the big final boss at the end of Doom II. On the other hand, if you play on Ultra Violence level, you'll see chaingun guys and other monsters in the original Doom maps where they obviously weren't in the PC version. It doesn't offer game saving function, even with a memory pak plugged in, but it does have a password feature that lets you resume the game on the level where you left off.

If you want a semi-decent Doom console port, stick to the PS1 version. Nintendo's Doom 64 is AWESOME, though it's not a port but a whole new game in its own right. Pretty much every other console version of Doom blows, although it's kinda fun to link up four GBAs and do a deathmatch.

*huggles*
Areala

[HowardBware]

I would have to say for me it would be Home Alone 2 Lost in New York. It's soooo bad. With enemies like Vacuum cleaners and suitcases. The only Game I have ever witness where Keys hurt you when you try and pick them up. Really makes you wonder if they gave game developers money to go research the movie and they spent it on beer instead.

[Areala]

Really makes you wonder if they gave game developers money to go research the movie and they spent it on beer instead.

I dunno...pretty sure that wasn't developed by Ion Storm.

*huggles*

Areala

[twiztor]

i was about to chime in and say that the SNES was never really my favorite system since i didn't have one growing up. I had friends that had one, so it's not like i'd never seen it, but obviously you remember the best games. i was going to mention that i wasn't personally familiar with any bad SNES games.

One of the worst I've tried is Mario Is Missing. I never really understood it. I remember renting it as a child and being disappointed. We didn't often rent games so it made it even worse. Wasted a weekend. Its still better than the NES version.

and then this was posted.

i remember buying SNES when i was about 19 or 20. one of the first games i picked up was Mario Is Missing. i mean, how can it be bad? it's Luigi's first starring role! i've been waiting for him to be in the spotlight for YEARS and now it finally happens. i can't wait to save Mario using Luigi. this will be awesome!
flash forward to playing the game. what a complete pile of garbage. i started playing, thinking that the action/platforming/excitement would start up after this part, or the next part, but it never came. it was a boringly terrible educational title. i was pissed.

so pissed, in fact, that i made it a point to beat the game. i wasn't going to let this piece of shit ruin my dreams. so i played all the way through and beat the game. then, in a final moment of defiance, wrote the final password right on the cartridge itself (the collector in my shudders!) so that i'd never have to suffer the indignity of it again.

in short, fuck that game.

[urko948]

Saturn Doom is a version of Doom + Doom II, but is missing some enemies like the Archvile, the SS Officers (the two bonus stages from PC Doom II aren't in this version) and the big final boss at the end of Doom II. On the other hand, if you play on Ultra Violence level, you'll see chaingun guys and other monsters in the original Doom maps where they obviously weren't in the PC version. It doesn't offer game saving function, even with a memory pak plugged in, but it does have a password feature that lets you resume the game on the level where you left off.

*huggles*

Areala

Yeah I think it was the Saturn version. The N64 version is pretty good I remember renting it as a kid and being like damn this is awesome. lol And isn't the Saturn version without music?

in short, fuck that game.

Damn right fuck that game. have you tried out Mario's Time Machine? lol Or worse yet Captain Novalin I think its called. Its about diabetes f you touch donuts they kill you. Another shitty one is called Rex Ronan Experimental Surgeon. Totally awful. It's about some guy that works at a tobacco company that's dying from smoking and you go inside of him and hes got fuckin' robots and stuff inside of him and you're running around shooting plaque off his cheeks. I think he's got way more to worry about than that with those robots running around on his tongue. Can't taste good.

[MisterXiado]

Doomsday Warrior is pretty terrible. 7th Saga has a bug that makes it stupid hard, but it's not impossible to beat it you know about it in advance.

[twiztor]

have you tried out Mario's Time Machine? lol Or worse yet Captain Novalin I think its called. Its about diabetes f you touch donuts they kill you. Another shitty one is called Rex Ronan Experimental Surgeon. Totally awful. It's about some guy that works at a tobacco company that's dying from smoking and you go inside of him and hes got fuckin' robots and stuff inside of him and you're running around shooting plaque off his cheeks. I think he's got way more to worry about than that with those robots running around on his tongue. Can't taste good.

i will not touch another Nintendo educational game. Mario's Time Machine may as well not exist. i will not give it a chance if my life depended on it.

as for those others, i have never heard of them. i gotta admit, the concept of that second game (moving around inside someone's bloodstream/etc. and attacking viruses and other external nuisances) could actually make for a really interesting game. i'm sure the actual gameplay and presentation of this version sucks ass, but there's a good idea somewhere in there.

[miketheratguy]

My personal worst for the Super Nintendo has to go to a game that isn't terrible so much as it was just horribly, horribly disappointing. I'm going with Doom.

Oh man, Doom for the SNES!!! I LOVED that game! Granted, since I didn't have a PC at the time it was my first introduction to Doom so there's going to be a bias, but I found the game to be great. Outstanding music, excellent use of mode 7 graphics (complete with fancy schmancy FX2 chip!). I thought that it was pretty impressive that a game like that turned out so well on the SNES. Though, granted, the lack of a level select or save feature did indeed suck.

It's a funny coincidence that you bring that one up because after I wrote my post and then headed to bed last night I remembered a different game that disappointed me much more greatly than American Gladiators, because I actually had high hopes for this one. And I played it at exactly the same time that I played SNES Doom, during a memorable and formative time in my youth when, at the tender age of 17, my mom and stepdad and I moved out of my hometown to a completely foreign little hamlet 150 miles away. The house was beautiful but the town was tiny and I was separated from all of my friends and familiar locations. All I could do there was rent video games from the next town over to keep myself from being depressed. I owned (and was probably halfway through) Doom, but as a change of pace one of the very first games that I rented in this new town was The Secret of Evermore, aka "the game where an American team caused Squaresoft to trip and fall right on its face, breaking several teeth".

I hated The Secret of Evermore. It was that rare game that was so dull, so boring, so indistinct and forgettable, so bland of personality that it transcended indifference and became something that actively annoyed. Here was a company that hadn't yet sold out to become "those people who made Final Fantasy VII and apparently nothing else", a company that had produced quality title after quality title of wizards, warriors, swords, sorcery, white magic, crystals, interesting characters, dazzling quests. But with Secret of Evermore? I don't even know. What I remember about the plot is that some stupid towheaded modern kid goes to the movies with his dog and somehow gets transported to the past where the goal is not to be a shitty game, and he fails. A game about traveling to different worlds and time periods? Like a year after Chrono Trigger, one of the most amazing games ever made and which covered the exact same territory? Way to shoot yourself in the foot.

Secret of Evermore was touted heavily as the next Square game because this was at precisely the time when the company's titles like Final Fantasy III (USA) and The Secret of Mana, Evermore's spiritual predecessor, had broken into the public's consciousness and earned Square the reputation as a publisher of consistently solid titles. Before this time its worst-reviewed game was probably Mystic Quest, and only then because that game was designed for the entry-level RPG crowd. In other words everything they touched was pretty much gold, and then they hired out an American team to shit out The Secret of Evermore. I wish I remembered more specific things about it to complain about but I can't because the game was that frighteningly dull. I can still recall puzzles from Final Fantasy Adventure on the Gameboy. I can still recall enemies from the original Final Fantasy NES game from 1990. I hardly got to play Secret of Mana but I still distinctly remember the creepy intro scene. I remember almost nothing about The Secret of Evermore. I remember the dorky blond kid, the dog follower that changes form in each time period, and something about pyramids and a science lab. Oh and the very first boss that you fight which Square was apparently so impressed by that they stuck it on the cover of the box.

I'd seriously never been so underwhelmed by a game that had such a high pedigree. I begrudgingly pushed through the game because I figured that I might as well get the most that I could out of it, and it still didn't leave an impression on me. I quickly sold the game and never touched it again. Meanwhile I spent the rest of that transitional summer playing Doom and Super Mario RPG, totally loving them both. Secret of Evermore? Crap on that stink.

[marktrade]

An example would be Mortal Kombat: the Super NES version looks, sounds, controls, and plays better than the Genesis/Mega Drive version by any metric, but Nintendo's censorship policy neutered what should have been a kick-ass arcade-to-home experience and resulted in a huge failure.

This is just an example. It's not my personal choice.

That was the first game that came to my mind. I never owned a SNES and didn't play many games for it, so that'll be my answer. I also think the music is bad. The Genesis music was even better than the arcade music, IMO, and the SNES sounds like it's choking on the arcade music.

[Kain]

Most of the Movie tie in games and celebrity games are trash. Granted that's been the case for a long time. There are only a few games based on films/Tv and celebrity endorsed that are any good.

[Sean697]

The 32 X Doom while missing levels, actually is probrably the best playing Doom. It looks good and plays good. And has good sound. I really like it. Well until Doom 64. That game is pretty good.

Edited March 7, 2016 by Sean697

[miketheratguy]

The 32 X Doom while missing levels, actually is probrably the best playing Doom. It looks good and plays good. And has good sound. I really like it. Well until Doom 64. That game is pretty good.

Folly! PSX Doom all the way.

[HowardBware]

Did you just cry "Folly!"?

[Areala]

"Cry 'Folly'! And let slip the dogs of meh!"

*huggles*
Areala