Top 10 Worst Games of 2017

2017 has been an amazing year for games. If you wanna see why, check out my top ten best list. But you’re here to see the worst of the worst and that’s what I’m here to show. Now obviously I don’t have time to play everything that comes out and I’m especially less likely to play game with a bad reputation, so this list won't be exclusively terrible games. That being said, let’s get into the top ten WORST games of 2017!

10. 'The First Tree'

This game is the perfect example of needing to fill out a list. The First Tree isn’t really an awful game. It even has one of the best stories and some of the best voice acting I’ve seen all year. So why is it here? It’s just kinda boring.

When you’re not listening to the bits of story presented sparsely throughout the game, you’ll spend upwards of 15 minutes at a time navigating really empty environments with almost nothing to do. It’s always a shame when a game does something so incredibly right, but bogs it down with poor design decisions in other areas.

If you’re looking for a great story and don’t mind a lot of running through empty environments, you might have fun with this one, but for me, The First Tree falls just a bit too short.

9. 'Rivals of Aether'

Another game that isn’t necessarily bad, but has one major flaw that puts it on the list. Rivals of Aether is a super smash brothers-style fighting game with 2D pixel art and original characters. It’s not terrible.

The characters are all unique and varied and while its focus on competitive viability results in a bit of blandness amongst the stages it could be a genuinely fun game.

Unfortunately, the controls bog this game down a lot. Fighting games need to have flawless controls in order to reach their maximum potential. Maybe it’s just the controller setup I used or something, but Rivals of Aether had a lot of control issues.

Misread directional inputs and button presses, even after fiddling with the menus, and searching online for answers results in a fighting game with a lot of potential that’s left nearly unplayable, especially if you try playing online with lag being a constant issue. If you want to try this game out, I hope it functions for you, because with my setup, it just didn’t work out.

8. 'AER - Memories of Old'

A game that defines all style, no substance. AER - Memories of Old has some great elements to it, but they all end up boiling down to nothing with a confusing and uninteresting story, bland characters, and very little in terms of gameplay.

The flying mechanic is fun, but only makes up a small portion of the game and leaves me asking why such a cool mechanic didn’t end up being the focus of the experience.

If you want to try out a bird simulator, maybe you could have some fun with this game, but otherwise I’d say leave it alone and hope Forgotten Key utilizes their mechanics better in their next game.

7. 'PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds'

And here comes the salt. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is another mixed game. It brought something new to the table and can be really fun and tense, even going as far as to earn an honorable mention on my best of 2017 list. So why is it here? Because as incredible as the high points are, the low points are even worse.

Server issues, bugs, glitches, and the fact that it’s completely devoid of any personality or charm make PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds leave more of a negative impression than a positive one.

Not to mention all of that waiting while the circle slowly closes around a building you’re hiding out in makes for a really disappointing experience as a smaller, more dense map would have made for a more tense and fun experience. Plus the RNG makes the game more based on luck than skill 95 percent of the time.

Even worse is that if you join a squad, the game doesn’t even have the decency to try and pair you with players who speak your language. I have no issue playing with people from around the world, but squad mode in this game is built on proper communication. It just sucks for everyone involved when half of the team can’t communicate with the other half.

All of these reasons combined are why the innovation and scope of the game can be overlooked to earn PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds a much deserved spot on this list. Hopefully, they can patch out these issues and bring out this game’s true potential.

6. Mirage: Arcane Warfare

Again, another game with a cool concept, but messy execution. Made by the same guys that developed Chivalry: Medieval Warfare, this is basically the same game, but with magic taking the focus. And while Chivalry is a fun, if silly melee combat game, Mirage is just… uninspired.

Slow, clunky combat, little to no feedback and really ugly aesthetics make this game stand out as positively average. I was going to review this game for the channel, but I was just so bored by the two hour mark I decided to put it down and move on.

If you need any more proof it deserves a spot on this list, try playing online sometime and take a look at just how many lobbies actually have players in them. The game’s not awful, just kinda meh.

5. 'Yooka-Laylee'

This one hurts to say. Yooka-Laylee isn’t necessarily a bad game. In fact, I had a lot of fun with it this year. The character designs are great and the graphics aren’t terrible, but the worst thing about this game is that it’s just crushingly mediocre.

It’s clear the developers have a love for the old games, but they couldn’t quite get their heads around why those games are still so great to this day.

Combine that with the awful camera, messy control scheme, mandatory grunting voices, the litany of bugs and glitches, people not getting their game copies on time, delaying the switch version a full eight months, and still not having the 64-bit tonic, and you have this year’s fith worst game.

I said in my review that I hope they make a sequel and I do, but if so they better take all of this criticism to heart. Because not only do Yooka and Laylee deserve a better game, but Banjo Kazooie deserves a better spiritual successor.

4. 'Scanner Sombre'

This is yet another game with a cool concept. The whole idea of using colored dots from a gun to light up the environment is brilliant and watching it take effect is absolutely beautiful. If only there was any other redeeming aspect to the game whatsoever.

The story is dull and reveals itself so slowly that it’s not worth the effort. Even the twist ending is contrived and unsurprising. The gameplay has basically nothing to it, just walking around and getting some random bits of plot one at a time with an ending that’s both contrived and lazy, void of any sense of satisfaction.

I said in the Indie Spotlight that this game is worth playing if you want to see it in action, and it is. Especially with the new VR integration, but as anything other than a tech demo, it’s not really worth the time or money.

3. 'Bubsy: The Woolies Strike Back'

Ugh, why won’t this character just die already?! Bubsy: The Woolies Strike Back is a cheap cash grab of a game. A scam.

The people who made it clearly wanted to put in the bare minimum effort needed to be a game with the intention of having streamers and lets players give it a shot just to get some free advertising for a buggy and generic game.

It’s broken, it’s annoying, it’s everything that shouldn’t exist and on top of that, it’s only one hour long! It was so bad that I actually asked for my first refund ever from the Steam store after finishing this game.

Somehow, someway, I know that there was someone behind this project who actually put effort in. There are just enough positive elements to prove that with new uses of Bubsy’s powers and just how proud it is to be a Bubsy title, but it isn’t enough to save this absolute dumpster fire of a game.

2. 'Sonic Forces'

I love Sonic. I really do. Sonic the Hedgehog was the first game I ever owned as a kid, Sonic Generations revitalized my love of the blue blur, and even this year’s Sonic Mania was a great return to form for classic Sonic. But holy shit, Sonic Forces is awful.

If the game just played poorly, it might be lower on the list, but Sonic Team has proven time and time again that they don’t care about quality control when it comes to their games and it’s the repeated cash-grabbing, lazy products that give Sonic Forces its spot on the list.

Look, it’s not as bad as Sonic 06 or Boom, but it does get more insulting with each new entry in the Sonic franchise that treats the fans like idiots who will buy anything with blue spikes attached.

Broken controls, a contrived story, and a three hour long campaign make for one of the worst Sonic experiences yet. I’ll have my full review out for the game soon, but for now I’ll just say I really hope modern Sonic gets his chance to shine again when Sega inevitably decides to make another one.

1. EA

Oh, EA. You had such a promising year in 2016 with games like Titanfall 2, Unravel, and Battlefield 1. For a minute there I thought you might be on the right track but NOPE! Let’s take a look at all their missteps this year.

They started off by butchering a beloved franchise with Mass Effect Andromeda, released in a buggy and broken state, with gameplay so boring that even a functioning game would have been average at best.

Next they decided to close Visceral, the studio behind the 'Dead Space' games, right as they were in the middle of making what would have probably been an incredible Star Wars game simply because it didn’t have multiplayer.

Now add to that the releases of Star Wars Battlefront II and Need for Speed Payback with their egregious use of loot boxes and micro-transactions to coerce customers out of even more money than the $60 they’d already spent. Not only for cosmetic purposes, but for in-game rewards that give certain players an advantage over others who don’t want to pony up the cash.

Their dignity went out the window when the head of the company stated that the reason for the loot boxes was to “give players a sense of accomplishment,” and that they couldn’t do cosmetic loot because it would “mess with Star Wars lore.”

This absolute shit-show doesn’t even seem to be getting better as it has been reported that UFC 3 is going to have loot boxes capable of unlocking even more powerful jabs and attacks. The situation got so bad that multiple governmental bodies came together to begin looking into how loot boxes relate to gambling and the legalities of the situation.

Personally, I have no problem with loot boxes as long as everything can be unlocked at a reasonable rate and the randomized loot doesn’t affect gameplay. If Overwatch didn’t have duplicates it would make for the perfect example of loot boxes done in an acceptable way, but EA clearly has no concerns over whether or not their practices are deemed “acceptable.”

With A Way Out, Biomutant, and Fe coming next year, one can only hope that these games aren’t subject to the same greedy practices, but as long as people keep paying for games based on name recognition and empty promises alone, EA will likely continue their manipulation and exploitation of their customers, which is why EA is the worst thing to happen to gaming in 2017.

Conclusion

I gotta tell you, making lists like this isn’t fun. Sure, it’s a bit cathartic to dig into companies and games that leave a negative impression, but bad games are just that—bad for you, bad for me, bad for the developers and bad for the gaming industry as a whole. Luckily, 2017 has generally been an amazing year for games, which leaves some hope for the future. If you want to see my favorite games of the year, be sure to check out my top ten best list. And if you enjoyed this video and want to see more, subscribe to see all of the reviews, dissections, and other gaming goodness I’ve got coming this year (including some of the games on this list). And as always, have a mightynifty day 2018!

And here’s a list of every game I played that came out this year from start to finish, for perspective:

• A Hat In Time
• AER - Memories of Old
• Bubsy: The Woolies Strike Back
• Cuphead
• Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony
• Dawn
• Doki Doki Literature Club
• Fumiko!
• Gorogoa
• Gravity Rush 2
• Hex
• Horizon Zero Dawn
• Little Nightmares
• Mirage: Arcane Warfare
• Monument Valley II
• Nioh
• OLDTV
• Persona 5
• Player Unknown's Battlegrounds
• Resident Evil 7: Biohazard
• Rivals of Aether
• Scanner Sombre
• Snipperclips
• Sonic Forces
• Sonic Mania
• Stick Fight: The Game
• Super Fancy Pants Adventure
• Super Mario Odyssey
• Sword with Sauce
• The First Tree
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• The Sexy Brutale
• Ultimate Epic Battle Simulator
• What Remains of Edith Finch
• Yooka Laylee