Worst Nintendo games?

[nocturnal YL]

I've been thinking of talking about this for a while. If you've tried searching what Nintendo games do fans regard as being the worst, chances are that you'll find lots of mentions of Urban Champion. That's pretty bad; but what else do you have in mind when it comes to the worst Nintendo games?

Boxing (Game & Watch)
Well, if Urban Champion is bad, a game that offers a subset of pretty much the same stuff is probably worse, right? The Modern version in Gallery 4 is much better, though.

Game Boy Gallery (Europe / Australia)
Before the pretty fun Game & Watch Gallery series, we got this. Five games, horrible graphics, unclear game design goals (it doesn't look like it wants to modernise Game & Watch or be a faithful remake), and worst of all, Cement Factory without Mario. What were TOSE and NOE thinking?

Donkey Kong Jr. Math
I'm pretty sure most preschool children don't have the concept of directed numbers (+ve and -ve) or integer division (10÷4=2). And no true single player mode, either.

Color TV-Game 6 / Color TV-Game 15
Pong popularised the light tennis genre in 1972. Color TV-Game came out in 1977.

That's it for now. I think it's actually pretty hard to find Nintendo-published games that are worse than Urban Champion, especially since they started paying attention to the games' quality since around 1985. Which makes Game Boy Gallery's existence even more baffling.

[Leon]

I don't know if it's the worst game Nintendo ever released, but Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival is definitely in that tier of shame. They created a board game, but took out all the elements that made Mario Party fun.

[kirbychu]

I don't get the hate for amiibo Festival. It's a board game, and as a board game it's pretty fun. Seems like gamers just don't realise that normal board games don't have minigames between turns.

amiibo Festival was a video board game I could play with the older members of my family who struggle with the concept of a controller too much to win a Mario Party minigame. Animal Crossing has never exactly been a series aimed at gamers. They succeeded in what they set out to do.

[Boo Destroyer]

Sept 4, 2017 17:21:20 GMT -5 kirbychu said:

I don't get the hate for amiibo Festival.

Probably because it's not a "real Animal Crossing game" or some shit.

[Manspeed]

amiibo Festival was more of an actual game than regular Animal Crossing, so it gets my approval.

[Leon]

There's nothing wrong with board games, but when you make a video game, you need to create something that takes advantage of the medium. You can have a much more pleasant experience by buying an actual board game, and not needing to spend money on a bunch of amiibo. Judging by the commercial and critical reception, most people agree.

[Da Robot]

Sept 4, 2017 12:39:10 GMT -5 nocturnal YL said:

Boxing (Game & Watch)
Well, if Urban Champion is bad, a game that offers a subset of pretty much the same stuff is probably worse, right? The Modern version in Gallery 4 is much better, though.

Donkey Kong Jr. Math
I'm pretty sure most preschool children don't have the concept of directed numbers (+ve and -ve) or integer division (10÷4=2). And no true single player mode, either.

I do remember the classic G&W Boxing from G&W4/A to be pretty bland, but I think was designed as more of a multiplayer game.

DKJ Math is weird, the multiplayer can be a little bit fun but always seemed a unbalanced to the player who had the multiplication sign nearest to their starting position. And possibly players who don't understand DK Jr's one/two hand vine climbing mechanics, or that falling two feet kills you. I feel like the idea of having players compete to create math sums could work for a fun multiplayer game in possibly something like Pikmin's vs mode. In the end though it had very little content and it's negative reception killed off Nintendo ideas for more "educational" NES titles, so it's their own fault for not trying better when there are other educational titles out there like Oregon Trail or Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? that were longer, had more depth while still being educational and being remembered positively to this day.


Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival
Sometimes I wonder if Nintendo ever looks at their portfolio of game and ever notices that they have an overabundance of certain genres like party games. "Hey, lets get the team that made Wii Party U and Mario Party 10 to make ANOTHER party game, this time to justify the creation of AC amiibo!" It looks like it could be fun and it was good to see the Desert Island Escape minigame be salvaged from it (considered to be the best minigame in it) and put into New Leaf in last years Welcome amiibo free update.

Another reason I think the game is hated, fans were expecting a proper Wii U AC title and got this spin off instead with forced amiibo usage to make it more costly which pissed off fans even more. Even the AC wiki's have very little info about the other minigames, was the fanbase that annoyed that hardly any of them played it?

[kirbychu]

Sept 5, 2017 20:20:30 GMT -5 Leon said:

There's nothing wrong with board games, but when you make a video game, you need to create something that takes advantage of the medium. You can have a much more pleasant experience by buying an actual board game, and not needing to spend money on a bunch of amiibo. Judging by the commercial and critical reception, most people agree.

Oh sure, I know most people agree, I just don't get it. If you remove the price of the two amiibo that came with it, amiibo Festival cost £5. For a £5 game, it's not bad. Each person who wants to play can buy their own amiibo for it, and you're done. It's cheaper than a physical board game, and you get some nice visuals and music to compliment the experience.

Like, if you buy a Monopoly game for the Wii U, would you expect it to have minigames? I feel like people who bought it would be mad if it did. amiibo Festival is a party game for people who play Animal Crossing, and like Manspeed said, it's actually more of a game than Animal Crossing is. People being mad that it didn't have elements of Mario Party is like being mad that Mario 3D World didn't have elements of Grand Theft Auto. They're totally different games for different audiences.

Too many people don't understand the difference between 'this wasn't meant for me' and 'this is bad'. amiibo Festival wasn't bad, it just wasn't made for us.

[Leon]

When amiibo Festival released in Canada, it was sold at $69.99 retail. Remove the cost of the amiibo, and that's still a $39.99 game. Compare that to just buying a monopoly set, and there's just no value to be had. Add in all the cumbersome amiibo usage, and it's just not a good set.

[kirbychu]

Sept 10, 2017 14:05:10 GMT -5 Leon said:

When amiibo Festival released in Canada, it was sold at $69.99 retail. Remove the cost of the amiibo, and that's still a $39.99 game. Compare that to just buying a monopoly set, and there's just no value to be had. Add in all the cumbersome amiibo usage, and it's just not a good set.

$69.99?! Are you sure about that? It was only $19.99 in America (compared to a standard Wii U game price of $59.99), I can't believe the price would vary that massively across one border.

If that's how much it was selling for in Canada, then I agree with you, it's not worth that. Over here in Europe, amiibo Festival was cheaper than buying a Monopoly board game set, even WITH the two amiibo.

[Leon]

I went back and checked my invoice before I posted, because I knew it was expensive. What happened with that game, was it was regular Wii U software price, but then it wasn't moving any unit or the AC amiibo, so Nintendo slashed the price after a few months.

[Boo Destroyer]

Sept 5, 2017 5:44:37 GMT -5 Manspeed said:

amiibo Festival was more of an actual game than regular Animal Crossing, so it gets my approval.

Sept 10, 2017 5:56:15 GMT -5 kirbychu said:

and like Manspeed said, it's actually more of a game than Animal Crossing is.

They should definitely make a 2D sidescroller for Animal Crossing someday.

[The Qu]

They made one of Pikmin, anything is possible at this point.

[Leon]

If there's one thing Nintendo's catalogue does not need, it's more 2d platformers.