While many players can overlook a game's flaws if the plot is enjoyable, there are some that were too hard to ignore.
There are plenty of games today that are described as broken upon their release since it often contains a number of issues, including glitches and how smoothly they run. However, a handful of games over the medium's history have managed to transcend this description, with many players considering these products to be fully broken, to the point that it is a challenge simply to play them.
These games are nigh impossible to beat (and in some cases, literally impossible to beat), but not due to any traditional difficulty curves that are increasingly popular in games like the Dark Souls franchise. Instead, these games are insanely challenging to control or difficult to play due to glitches or bizarre design philosophy.
Although it isn't the most notorious game on the NES, Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde has garnered a reputation for being one of the worst games on the classic console. Based on the novel of the same name, this game has players taking control of the title characters, transforming between the two to dodge obstacles on the way to church.
The gameplay is incredibly confusing and complex, as Jekyll's anger meter goes up when he runs into obstacles, leading him to transform into Hyde. However, if Hyde goes past the farthest point Jekyll has reached, he will die. This bizarrely complex loop combines with the fact that it's unclear what will and won't hurt players to create an experience that many will give up on before seeing the end of.
The final Tomb Raider game before the series' first reboot and shift of developers, Tomb Raider: The Angel Of Darkness is not remembered as an auspicious end to the original series. Players continue the story of Lara Croft in this game, as she journeys across Paris and Prague solving mysteries and exploring ruins.
The Angel Of Darkness expands the gameplay of the series to include elements like stealth and a stamina meter. However, these changes brought with them frustrating controls and intrusive glitches, which make the game much harder than it is intended to be, making it a pain to beat for most.
In the 1989 NES game Friday The 13th, the insanely popular horror film franchise got transformed into a tense, challenging game. In this game, players control a group of camp counselors, who must search Crystal Lake for Jason Voorhees and defeat him three times. However, this gameplay doesn't necessarily work well in practice.
This game is notoriously difficult, as Jason pops up every once in a while to attack one of the other counselors, requiring players to drop everything to save them. Besides Jason, the game throws plenty of obstacles like zombies and Jason's mother (as a disembodied head), adding to the frustrating gameplay.
Known for its strange blend of cartoonishness with realism and its unfortunate bugginess, Sonic The Hedgehog (aka Sonic '06) has become an infamous game for the difficulty Sonic fans have even playing it. The game initially promised a return to more classic Sonic gameplay for a new generation but ended up disappointing the players.
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Players will have to guide Sonic, Shadow, and Silver through plenty of diverse environments with levels ranging from traditional platforming to escort missions. However, an abundance of glitches and frustrating camera controls make even the easier levels an exercise in frustration, so the end of the game is nearly impossible.
Although the Bubsy series is not the most well-remembered platforming series in gaming history, its fourth installment made history as one of the earliest 3D games in the genre. Unfortunately, Bubsy 3D is widely regarded as a failure that is more known for its challenging controls and high difficulty than its pioneering nature.
The visuals are difficult to read, which makes platforming challenging. However, the real issue is with the controls. The game has players controlling Bubsy based on the direction he is facing and not based on the orientation of the camera, which makes movement a challenge. This, combined with Bubsy's slow movement, make the game a nightmare to play, let alone beat.
Otherwise known as Superman 64, this Nintendo 64 title has become known as one of the worst Superman games for being incredibly difficult for all the wrong reasons. Players in this game take control of Superman as he attempts to take down the dastardly Lex Luthor by fighting enemies, protecting innocent civilians, and flying over Metropolis.
While this all sounds very exciting for fans of the hero, the controls in the game are so unresponsive and difficult to master that the game becomes nearly impossible. The flying sections are especially known for their difficulty as it is tricky to maneuver a flying Superman through rings in three dimensions. That's not even taking into account the many bugs that make this game even tougher to get through.
Named for and created by comedian Takeshi Kitano (of Takeshi's Castle fame), this NES game is incredibly bizarre by any standard. Casting players as a salaryman in search of treasure on a distant island, Takeshi's Challenge incorporates both difficult combat segments and puzzle-solving that requires tons of forethought from players.
Much of the game's difficulty is supposed to frustrate and amuse, but certain sections of the game push the envelope into impossible territory. In order to progress, players must leave the game untouched for lengthy periods, sing into the controller, and complete a checklist of prerequisites before leaving for the island, most of which players need to discover (or guess) for themselves.
The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles side-scrolling game is often remembered fondly by those with nostalgia for its high difficulty level and action-packed gameplay. However, the DOS and Amiga versions of the game took this difficulty a tad too far by being literally impossible to beat.
Going beyond broken, these ports take the already insane difficulty of the game's combat and dreaded underwater level, and compound it with a platforming section that cannot be crossed. While the original version of the game had a fairly simple jump at the end of one of its sewer levels, these ports extend the gap so as to make the jump undoable without cheats, ending players' journeys prematurely.
These days, video games that compile several titles into one tend to involve classic board and card games, or puzzles like Sudoku and crosswords. However, games like Action 52 offer players the chance to play 52 games from across genres, including shooters and platformers.
This particular game, especially in its original NES release, has become known for its unplayability, though. A combination of game-breaking bugs, confusing objectives, and poor controls make it so that many of the included games are unbeatable, with some of them even featuring incomplete or endless levels, rendering them impossible to finish.
Based on the movie of the same name, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial is a historic game for many reasons. Not only did it play a role in the video game industry's financial troubles in 1983 and have a mass burial of Atari cartridges in New Mexico, but it is also perhaps remembered as one of the worst video games ever.
This game is challenging and strangely complicated, requiring players to search wells for parts of a telephone while managing their energy and, later, their time. The pits all over the map that E.T. can fall into offer the largest challenge, as they are easy to fall into with the game's clunky controls. It takes a lot of time and effort to escape them, making it nearly impossible for many to finish the game without tons of practice.
