Not actually a bad game, but since you mentioned you enjoyed rhythm games I think you might give BPM: Bullets Per Minute a shot. It's an FPS roguelike where everything you do has to be to the beat such as shooting, reloading, dashing, etc.
I was there too. And I actually loved it so much. And still do. I still play newz to this day. Warz/iss thailand was awesome for a while too! The new z still has a small dedicated community
no, it was hated this much because it was a FULLPRICE game announced, then sold for 3 months before they sold ammo, 2 months later they renamed it and then made it f2p p2w
Vidas (Timore) is a really good example of a game dev that really wanted to make horror games, and pushed through a lot of ridicule to make some really awesome games after learning a lot. Much respect to those kind of devs.
If the spring arm for said camera was properly set up and had some slow-mo applied it would be a really cool "swag" cam. Instead these devs simply made a "vomit" cam.
I can see foot fetishists paying a shitload of money for that. If only the protagonist were female, had nice feet and high-heels... a weirdo's dream come true.
Not really Sure theres some random combination of things every time especially for the dlc bosses but thats what keeps the bosses interesting and not the same exact thing every time Only a real issue if your trying to perfect bosses and even then just get better at dodging the attacks in general
@@generalrabid9572yeah (i know you're joking but it has to be said) but cuphead builds up to it through telegraphing (visual/auditory cues, synchronized). esp in the long procedurally generated run and gun levels in enchanted portals, there's no rhyme or reason to where enemies are placed, no timing, barely any cues. it just ends up looking cluttered and messy (esp if you can see that some enemies have different frame rates or that their sprites are manipulated using the rotate or transform tool). also there's a striking lack of sound design.
The absolute bottom of the barrel has obviously absolute garbage, but sometimes there is some ridiculously bad game. The find of funny trash. Like how bad horror movies can be great comedies. Now the mixed reviews, that is where it gets interesting. Diamonds in the rough. Unpopular genres. Mechanically bad games with a great story. Games with a bad story that are mechanically fine. Stuff like that.
I knew Enchanted Portals looked like a bare minimum budget Cuphead, but I didn't realize it was gonna be that bad. And hearing that you need to change your firepower to take down colored shields is way too much unnecessary busywork.
Not trying to defend them, but considering this being a two-man project, their first release, and probably had very limited funding based on their failed kickstarter. Props for actually releasing it in a working state. I think it would had been seen a lot more favourable hat the gone for a lower-price point and didn't push the cuphead comparison this much. In some way, It reminds me a lot of these old straight do DVD knock-offs of Disney movies.
@@Beepers559 No, it does. Even thou it doesn't seem like it at first Not that it matters a whole lot, because according to someone whose review I watched, their save file just suddenly vanished, forcing them to start all over again...
I actually bought Widower's Sky because of your vid and I've sunk over 2 hours into it now. There's some jank for sure, but it's actually a pretty good game and quite a head scratcher due to zero hand-holding
wow, gotta commend you for being both thorough and fair with each one of these games. when this showed up in my recommendations, i thought it would just be some funny guy trash talking a bunch awful games. but you surprised me by approaching all 10 reviews thoughtfully and with genuine intent to inform folks... plus you're very well-spoken. i shouldn't be so surprised, since you got almost 100K subs so you're obviously legit... but i'm really impressed and subscribing :) cheers!
the reason enchanted portals levels feel bland and has so much enemy spam is actually because the devs were so lazy and thought it was a great idea to make the non boss levels randomly generated
@generalrabid9572 its bad considering that because of the levels being randomly generated most of the time they're just straight lines with no platforming
@@generalrabid9572 Its not bad in a sense that it doesn't 'work'. Like other people have said the parts of the level that are generated are totally playable. Its never non-beatable from what I understand. But it ends up being pretty generic. Its bad in a sense that the things generated end up being a bit boring. Not all generation works this way but in some games, level generation works by creating pieces that all work together, kind of like a puzzle except each piece can connect with several other pieces. The more complicated those pieces get, the more effort you have to put into making sure those pieces don't create something that's impossible to beat like impassable walls and huge pits. By having a lot of variants though, you can help levels seem a lot less generic. Its not impossible to get something like this to work, but it would take a lot of time and skill. So it looks like rather than doing something interesting they made all of their generated aspects as simple as possible, its easy to make playable levels that way. Cuphead's run-and-gun levels are also linear but they have a level of variety that' I'm not sure could work with generation. Each level does something fun though, like in the ocean level you use your parry to move an octopus, and there's quite a few coins you can get using the parry as well. Ideas like that can still be pretty simple, but anything that can get they player to try something new can make a game a LOT more fun. Low effort generated levels miss out on that big time.
oh, i remember reading several reviews of the first Superpower game. it claimed to be "a hyper-realistic simulation of real-world economics and politics." BUT when one reviewer played it, the FIRST thing that happened was Mexico offering the USA a TRILLION dollars of "financial aid." yes, it's actually HILARIOUSLY unrealistic! another reviewer tried to design a better fighter jet, BUT the game wanted him to pay something like 30 Quadrillion dollars for the Prototype. and when he clicked "no", the game crashed! yet another reviewer kept having some small country, i think it was Bolivia, starting nuclear wars, that are always an instant "everyone loses" result.
Nah, the game in question is ''Greed of Man'', New Life is indeed a scam but a way older one with quite the controversial history, with a Kickstarter and everything. BigFry is a channel that is famous for covering that stuff and he also made a video about the ''game'' ua-cam.com/video/Ml4-nffeJaY/v-deo.html
this is a nice video, I like that you shine a spotlight on largely bad games but take into account how it was made, if it's just a cashgrab or if it's something more and look at the developer's other works to give them a fair chance. widdow's sky looks super charming and sails and sacrifice seems like it could really work. for some of the developers mentioned I hope they get another chance to make something that will be received better (and is of better quality)
16:17 the writing and the voice acting. Even the aesthetic is pretty good. The main issue I see just from gameplay is the camera feels wayyyy too zoomed out, your character is barely a dot in the middle of the screen. I get wanting to let players take in the environment but if there's not useful information, zooming in and having a lower camera angle would give a similar effect without making the main player tiny.
I actually misheard what you were saying during the 22:36, and thought it was a whole title: "Driven Out: A Bastard's Tale." I figured this was a compelling story about a denied child of aristocracy. The concept sounded pretty cool in my head, until I watched this again and realized my mistake.
Enchanted portals being bad makes me so sad. I really like the designs and visuals, I would have been completely down for ‘cupheadlikes’ being a genre, even if only for a quick fad like mascot horror. Hopefully the devs take the criticism and give it another shot someday.
I've enjoyed a surprising amount of 'mostly negative' games, so these lists are fascinating! Also it was nice to hear the theme to Legacy of Kane in the background :)
Another thing with o2jam online is that the game was full of bugs and some features that are pretty much necessary for any proper rhythm game like offset configuration was completely broken while also having serious audio problems.
Also ik its unfair to compare but the animation in envhanted portals looks cheap i get they were going for a fairy tale look but it just ends up looking like a goodtimes entertainment film cuphead on the other hand you can tell the animation had a lot of love and attention to every detail and you can also mistake it for a cartoon of the 1930s
I hope Sail and Sacrifice gets a more polished sequel or so. I can see there is something there akin to the acclaimed RPGs of old, but it needs polish to work in 2023 and beyond
I didn't think I would ever hear the name Valofe again. A while back, I used to play a mobile game called Fantasy War Tactics, which was developed by Nexon. The game was pretty well made, with actual plot, unique characters and engaging combat system. Until Valofe bought it, and soon rushed development of empty content, microtransactions, and some of the worst Grammer ever. I deleted the game soon after. I'm surprised Valofe still exists to continue creating terrible games.
You showed up in my recommendations, at first I was intrigued, now after a few videos I'm subscribed. You are thorough in your reviews and well-spoken, and you seem to really give each game a fair chance. Great content!
i love a worst of that engages with the shit instead of just dunking, dunks are fun but they're empty calories. a mix of dunks and 'hey this actually owns' hits the spot nicely
One game I love despite it being rather eurojank is Boiling Point: Road to Hell. It was made by a small Ukrainian team and released in 2005. I think at some point it was on Steam but only because it was a rip of the game and someone had uploaded it onto there as "their product". If I'm not mistaken it can be found on MyAbandonware along with the patches for it. I think it's a rough gem of a game for what it tried to pull off at the time. It has some interesting mechanics and whatnot and if the devs had more time to finish it completely I think it would have been considered a cult classic. Unfortunately it got rushed a bit since Atari didn't want to delay it anymore so it was met poorly by critiques for being janky. And by the time the patches came out to fix some of the bugs for it it was too late for anyone to care. Might not quite fit in the whole poorly reviewed Steam games category but I think it's an interesting game that had potential nonetheless.
Have you seen Tehsnakerer's video on that? He covers a lot of similar games and talks about them as someone who actually finds joy in that type of game.
He says it looks "aesthetically terrible", but I really don't see that. Sure, it's basic, but terrible? I mean outside of the character creator -- that really is atrocious.
Hey son, dad here: I just wanted to say that whilst I still can't wrap my head around the whole reviewing trash steam games thing (pretty sure computers run on electricity not steam) me and your mother still love you and will always support your life choices no matter what. Proud of you sport. You really are the favorite son ❤
if i remember correctly i saw the "new life" game on 1 ads before and they asked for investment into the game pretty much, but the final product was just a scam and everything was so different from the one they promised in the trailer/ kickstarter videos ... right ?
@@Jorvalt look into steam badges, you can combine trading cards into badges for account XP. As you level up your account you get rewards like coupons and you get the ability to add more showcases to your profile or the ability to add more friends
Son is shining even in this cold dark night at the start of the fall. Glad to see you bringing more variety, both for our pleasure and your own sanity. Keep doin' whatcha doin' son.
Could be interesting to briefly interview developers of these types of games, either to include their perspective in your reviews or for some sense of accountability. Could be cool if it encourages some devs as well
this is going to sound slightly crazy, but Sail and Sacrifice seems like a more realistic attempt at Pirate101, which has all the same basic premises - you gather a crew to fight with, can sail between areas using a ship, and explore places that look for the most part very similar (some of the setting remind me a lot of the style used in Skull Island, the first unlocked area in Pirate101). of course, since Kingsisle is responsible for P101, it's a subscription pay-to-play so that's very different, and it has a lot of other differences. Mainly, the play style diverges a lot in Sail and Sacrifice since the combat system is absolutely not the same and the ways you can move around areas is also different. However, it still is very similar to me in terms of basic premise.
Great video, i just wish it showed more jank as you were explaining it. When the ship in sail and sacrifice came to a complete stop i think you were gonna show how it takes off like a sportscar
There's this whole genre of games like Enchanted Portals (usually Kickstarter projects) that are just "worse version knockoff of creative and original modern classics", and they always make me really uncomfortable. Even if they're not technically IP infringement, they sure do feel like it. I genuinely wonder who funds them, too, since I can't imagine big fans of the property being copied being terribly excited about something like Enchanted Portals.
Yeah, people always retort "you cant own an idea" which first doesn't really refute that its a ripoff, just says that its okay; second, there is literally no line of logic you can use to prove if Cuphead didn't exist, Enchanted Portals still would. There WAS nothing and REMAINS nothing on the market like Cuphead that isn't clearly a ripoff.
Should check out how many PC ports of older Konami games actually work straight from purchase, just to look at the opposite side of Steam Garbage. It's kind of shocking when you consider how much money they have to do a good port with bugfixes, even the stuff on GOG has major issues.
It would be interesting to see how much these games have earned, or what their player counts were like. Widower's Sky has 15 reviews right now, so it can't have had that many players. It kind of makes me sad that a game like that is now forever enshrined in a WORST Reviewed Steam Games list. It would almost be better to not be remembered at all. I'd rather play a 2 euro buggy game than a well polished immoral mess. So the worst games I have in my library are The Suicide of Rachel Foster, or perhaps Twelve Minutes.
So, I played Enchanted Portals, and even from a person who has still to try Cuphead, it would be generous for me to even call it 'rough.' The only upside is, when I DO play Cuphead, it can only go up from here.
Hawken Reborn. "Reboot" of a somewhat successful mech team based FPS that is very near and dear to me. The original was shuttered because of devs that got too much investment money and couldnt pay it back without running the game into the ground with microtransactions. Nerdslayer did a "death of a game" video on Hawken a few years ago. The reboot is a trash cash grab that throws everything that made Hawken special right out the window and has a terrible review score on Steam because of it
quite literally the day i am watching this, i randomly redownloaded an old mobile gacha that i used to play called fantasy war tactics, just to see how it was doing. it was made by nexon, the maple story devs and way pretty fun in its heyday. at some point though nexon sold the game off to some other south korean company and the game is somehow still running nearly a decade later, and they added a shit ton of greedy monetization tactics including a battle pass 2 weeks ago. as i'm watching this vid and listening to the segment on O2jam, im like.... wait a minute... south korean company that buys established games and adds awful monetization tactics..? sure enough, i check fantasy war tactics and it is currently owned by valofe!! it sucks seeing games beloved by many get sucked up and turned into shit by these companies.
Hammer of Virtue: Stop invading enemies from destroying the earth and defeat them… by destroying the world around you. That’s reasonable logic I suppose.
Enchanted portals looks like a simple platformer, but not all platformers have to be groundbreaking. It looks like it would be a fun little game if it was free to play. But I’m assuming it probably is not free to play, hence its negative reception.
I originally thought that people were upset that Enchanted Portals "copied Cuphead's artstyle" (Because it of course invented the style in the late 1920's) But then I saw the gameplay and was like "No it really is trying to be Cuphead." I dunno I wanna see an adventure game in that retro cartoon artstyle.
infestation new z was my gem when i was 7th grade. My best moments was fighting on brigde, fighting in military field just to get guns. one time" i met someone and we fougth 4 dude with car in middle of forest " it was so intense i slept that nigth so happy.
Superpower 2 was rather enjoyable for the time of release even if rough around the edges. I didn't know there was a third one, and wow, I can't believe it kept getting worse every with every second anything was happening on screen lol It honestly looks like a heartless cashgrab considering the timing of its release
im honestly amazed anybody is still playing infestation survivor stories, that game has been dead as fuck for what feels like forever. no idea why it even got a rerelease because nobody cares about this game now just like they didnt care about it 10 years ago also, regarding o2jam online, it had absolutely nothing to offer to its existing fans and also had nothing that would bring new players in. o2jam fans either still play o2jam or have moved onto other 7k rhythm games and people new to the genre have no reason to play o2jo when games like osu exist. o2jo simply has no audience
A few additional notes to REALLY hammer home how bad Enchanted Portals is: - The stages are RANDOMLY GENERATED. There’s no way for you to actually strategize when you die, and you’ll end up losing a ton of lives because the game will force you into impossible layouts with unavoidable damage. - Enemies are procedurally generated based on your progression. If you move on faster than the game intends, it will spawn a massive cluster of the same enemy all at once. - The attack telegraphing on some of the bosses is god-awful and depends on you noticing tiny, subtle cues in the animation. - The color matching gimmick comes and goes at random, and the final boss LOOKS like he uses it but actually doesn’t. - There’s little to no cohesion in the storyline itself; it’s basically an excuse plot that strings together a ton of confusingly-themed levels and tries to justify it in the ending… which REALLY doesn’t work when the plot is barely there. - The budget cuts are PAINFULLY obvious in the art style. A few bosses switch art styles at random (but only two iirc) and the platformer levels have this weird mix of hand-drawn and Flash animated enemies that clash awfully.
Enchanted Portals biggest infamy is its controversy with one of the bosses. There’s this boss where you fight against chickens and a bison in a desert. However, the chickens were dressed in racist “Native American” outfits. If I remember correctly, the developers are from Spain and probably weren’t aware that these depictions are problematic. They changed it so that the chickens are now cowboys. If the gameplay somehow didn’t kill the game, this controversy did.
@@mikadosannoji553do you have evidence of this. Did you actually speak to any actual native people and see if they were offended were there actual ones saying they weren’t offended by it. Or are you pulling this out your ass
The War Z was my jam back in the day. The main reason to play was PVP in a city of zombies that run to the nearest gun they hear. You could sit on a roof and hunt based on aggro.
You would somehow think a whispering monotonous blown out old man makes for a great narrator while not seeing the absolute charm in the second games endearingly heavily accented English voice acting.
What's the worst game that you've played on Steam?
Sacred 3 was painful
Terraria
Not actually a bad game, but since you mentioned you enjoyed rhythm games I think you might give BPM: Bullets Per Minute a shot. It's an FPS roguelike where everything you do has to be to the beat such as shooting, reloading, dashing, etc.
I misread the thing. I'm changing my answer to be... uhh. Really anything zombie related. You did cover one in this video.
Evil within 2, just don't get it.
The reason WarZ was so hated is because it sold guns and ammo for real money. I was there.
Me to😅
I played it for a while becouse my Pc back then couldn't handle DayZ.
But thanks god i never spend money on it
oh god I remember arma 2 Dayz just whooping my PCs ass and playing at like 15 fps. Got it to like 20 by running the game off my RAM xD @@Spougll
I was there too. And I actually loved it so much. And still do. I still play newz to this day. Warz/iss thailand was awesome for a while too! The new z still has a small dedicated community
no, it was hated this much because it was a FULLPRICE game announced, then sold for 3 months before they sold ammo, 2 months later they renamed it and then made it f2p p2w
couldn't you buy ammo even when sitting pinned down in a house and would have run out?
Vidas (Timore) is a really good example of a game dev that really wanted to make horror games, and pushed through a lot of ridicule to make some really awesome games after learning a lot. Much respect to those kind of devs.
You start at being bad at a thing before you get good.
Finally a foot-cam. That should be a mandatory feature in every game.
If the spring arm for said camera was properly set up and had some slow-mo applied it would be a really cool "swag" cam. Instead these devs simply made a "vomit" cam.
_Comment by Dan Shneider_
I can see foot fetishists paying a shitload of money for that. If only the protagonist were female, had nice feet and high-heels... a weirdo's dream come true.
The footcam would actually be a good idea for a game like GTA Online. You could have sponsored shoe cosmetics for people to buy and showcase.
you do you bruh
Another big problem with Enchanted Portals is that the Run & Gun levels are randomly generated
A big problem with many of cupheads bosses is that the attacks the bosses do (or even just the attacks themselves) are random
Not really
Sure theres some random combination of things every time especially for the dlc bosses but thats what keeps the bosses interesting and not the same exact thing every time
Only a real issue if your trying to perfect bosses and even then just get better at dodging the attacks in general
@poisonouspeewater2920 I was joking when I said that, because of the original comment complaining about random generation.
@@generalrabid9572yeah (i know you're joking but it has to be said) but cuphead builds up to it through telegraphing (visual/auditory cues, synchronized). esp in the long procedurally generated run and gun levels in enchanted portals, there's no rhyme or reason to where enemies are placed, no timing, barely any cues. it just ends up looking cluttered and messy (esp if you can see that some enemies have different frame rates or that their sprites are manipulated using the rotate or transform tool). also there's a striking lack of sound design.
@achewy7700 I agree a warning should definitely be there for when enemies are coming. Specifically the moving ones.
I'm liking these quick reviews of steam games. Maybe make one about lesser known steam titles that you think deserve attention.
Not a bad idea
Remember the game bloody boobs?
WTF was that all about?
Half naked wemen models running
Around a castle 😂
The absolute bottom of the barrel has obviously absolute garbage, but sometimes there is some ridiculously bad game. The find of funny trash. Like how bad horror movies can be great comedies.
Now the mixed reviews, that is where it gets interesting. Diamonds in the rough. Unpopular genres. Mechanically bad games with a great story. Games with a bad story that are mechanically fine. Stuff like that.
I knew Enchanted Portals looked like a bare minimum budget Cuphead, but I didn't realize it was gonna be that bad. And hearing that you need to change your firepower to take down colored shields is way too much unnecessary busywork.
From what I’ve heard, and even seen, it doesn’t even have a save system
Not at all, it just wasn't executed well, look at Guacamelee for instance.
Not trying to defend them, but considering this being a two-man project, their first release, and probably had very limited funding based on their failed kickstarter. Props for actually releasing it in a working state.
I think it would had been seen a lot more favourable hat the gone for a lower-price point and didn't push the cuphead comparison this much. In some way, It reminds me a lot of these old straight do DVD knock-offs of Disney movies.
@@Beepers559 No, it does. Even thou it doesn't seem like it at first
Not that it matters a whole lot, because according to someone whose review I watched, their save file just suddenly vanished, forcing them to start all over again...
I liked it, but it could have been better. Pretty impressive with how they did it with only a few people.
Widower's sky looks really interesting and it never would have gotten on my radar otherwise I feel. Thanks for that!!
Hopefully this will lead more people to check it out
I agree! It have me big Journey vibes so I'll definitely check it out later!
I actually bought Widower's Sky because of your vid and I've sunk over 2 hours into it now. There's some jank for sure, but it's actually a pretty good game and quite a head scratcher due to zero hand-holding
Glad you're enjoying it!
wow, gotta commend you for being both thorough and fair with each one of these games. when this showed up in my recommendations, i thought it would just be some funny guy trash talking a bunch awful games. but you surprised me by approaching all 10 reviews thoughtfully and with genuine intent to inform folks... plus you're very well-spoken. i shouldn't be so surprised, since you got almost 100K subs so you're obviously legit... but i'm really impressed and subscribing :) cheers!
the reason enchanted portals levels feel bland and has so much enemy spam is actually because the devs were so lazy and thought it was a great idea to make the non boss levels randomly generated
(Unless I'm getting something wrong) the random generation isn't that bad. Just lower the frequency of enemies!
@generalrabid9572 its bad considering that because of the levels being randomly generated most of the time they're just straight lines with no platforming
@@slendy4764 that is a decent enough explanation for me to accept it.
@@generalrabid9572 Its not bad in a sense that it doesn't 'work'. Like other people have said the parts of the level that are generated are totally playable. Its never non-beatable from what I understand. But it ends up being pretty generic. Its bad in a sense that the things generated end up being a bit boring.
Not all generation works this way but in some games, level generation works by creating pieces that all work together, kind of like a puzzle except each piece can connect with several other pieces. The more complicated those pieces get, the more effort you have to put into making sure those pieces don't create something that's impossible to beat like impassable walls and huge pits. By having a lot of variants though, you can help levels seem a lot less generic. Its not impossible to get something like this to work, but it would take a lot of time and skill.
So it looks like rather than doing something interesting they made all of their generated aspects as simple as possible, its easy to make playable levels that way. Cuphead's run-and-gun levels are also linear but they have a level of variety that' I'm not sure could work with generation. Each level does something fun though, like in the ocean level you use your parry to move an octopus, and there's quite a few coins you can get using the parry as well. Ideas like that can still be pretty simple, but anything that can get they player to try something new can make a game a LOT more fun. Low effort generated levels miss out on that big time.
oh, i remember reading several reviews of the first Superpower game.
it claimed to be "a hyper-realistic simulation of real-world economics and politics."
BUT when one reviewer played it, the FIRST thing that happened was Mexico offering the USA a TRILLION dollars of "financial aid."
yes, it's actually HILARIOUSLY unrealistic!
another reviewer tried to design a better fighter jet, BUT the game wanted him to pay something like 30 Quadrillion dollars for the Prototype.
and when he clicked "no", the game crashed!
yet another reviewer kept having some small country, i think it was Bolivia, starting nuclear wars, that are always an instant "everyone loses" result.
Wasn't New Life the scam by a Tiktok user who's done this multiple times?
I did not know that, I'll have to look into it
@@YourFavoriteSon1 I could be wrong, but it looks very similar
It was a kickstarter scam.
Nah, the game in question is ''Greed of Man'', New Life is indeed a scam but a way older one with quite the controversial history, with a Kickstarter and everything. BigFry is a channel that is famous for covering that stuff and he also made a video about the ''game'' ua-cam.com/video/Ml4-nffeJaY/v-deo.html
Koktok is cancer
this is a nice video, I like that you shine a spotlight on largely bad games but take into account how it was made, if it's just a cashgrab or if it's something more and look at the developer's other works to give them a fair chance. widdow's sky looks super charming and sails and sacrifice seems like it could really work. for some of the developers mentioned I hope they get another chance to make something that will be received better (and is of better quality)
16:17 the writing and the voice acting. Even the aesthetic is pretty good.
The main issue I see just from gameplay is the camera feels wayyyy too zoomed out, your character is barely a dot in the middle of the screen. I get wanting to let players take in the environment but if there's not useful information, zooming in and having a lower camera angle would give a similar effect without making the main player tiny.
Id be interested in seeing an episode where you review the worst game from different genres like Platformers, Rhythm, or fighting games.
Great idea
The reason you're my favorite son is because you're to the point while being honest and fair. Great job on this one Son.
Kiss me on the lips Dad
"be a police officer or become a criminal" - man, yet another game offering just the illusion of choice and actually giving the same outcome.
based and tru
The original O2Jam was SO FREAKING GOOD! It was one of the first classic online Rhythm games. This game on steam is just shameful.
the worst part about enchanted portals is that the levels are randomly generated
I actually misheard what you were saying during the 22:36, and thought it was a whole title: "Driven Out: A Bastard's Tale." I figured this was a compelling story about a denied child of aristocracy. The concept sounded pretty cool in my head, until I watched this again and realized my mistake.
Holy shit fellow rerez enjoyer?
Enchanted portals being bad makes me so sad. I really like the designs and visuals, I would have been completely down for ‘cupheadlikes’ being a genre, even if only for a quick fad like mascot horror. Hopefully the devs take the criticism and give it another shot someday.
I've enjoyed a surprising amount of 'mostly negative' games, so these lists are fascinating!
Also it was nice to hear the theme to Legacy of Kane in the background :)
There’s a fine line between “mostly negative because it’s actually bad” and “mostly negative because it left its target audience”
Another thing with o2jam online is that the game was full of bugs and some features that are pretty much necessary for any proper rhythm game like offset configuration was completely broken while also having serious audio problems.
Also ik its unfair to compare but the animation in envhanted portals looks cheap i get they were going for a fairy tale look but it just ends up looking like a goodtimes entertainment film cuphead on the other hand you can tell the animation had a lot of love and attention to every detail and you can also mistake it for a cartoon of the 1930s
Some of the animation for Cuphead was even done by hand on paper first and digitized later
I hope Sail and Sacrifice gets a more polished sequel or so. I can see there is something there akin to the acclaimed RPGs of old, but it needs polish to work in 2023 and beyond
as a developer i think at some point i gonna see my game on one of this lists
Just don't release an absolute turd and you won't be on the turd lists...
LETS GO. Glad you are keeping this series going. Your content is so good man. Keep it up.
I didn't think I would ever hear the name Valofe again. A while back, I used to play a mobile game called Fantasy War Tactics, which was developed by Nexon. The game was pretty well made, with actual plot, unique characters and engaging combat system. Until Valofe bought it, and soon rushed development of empty content, microtransactions, and some of the worst Grammer ever. I deleted the game soon after. I'm surprised Valofe still exists to continue creating terrible games.
Turns out Whaleo posted a trailer 4 weeks ago for a new game so they're still cooking at least.
You showed up in my recommendations, at first I was intrigued, now after a few videos I'm subscribed.
You are thorough in your reviews and well-spoken, and you seem to really give each game a fair chance. Great content!
Last one of these was a change of pace from your normal reviews and a bit of fun. This should be interesting too.
Hope you enjoy!
love the series, can't wait to watch the project you are working on, keep it the awesome work :D
I normally loath lists but I love yours. The depths of Steam are just an untapped and interesting pile of fluff. Subbing and hoping for more
i love a worst of that engages with the shit instead of just dunking, dunks are fun but they're empty calories. a mix of dunks and 'hey this actually owns' hits the spot nicely
One game I love despite it being rather eurojank is Boiling Point: Road to Hell. It was made by a small Ukrainian team and released in 2005. I think at some point it was on Steam but only because it was a rip of the game and someone had uploaded it onto there as "their product". If I'm not mistaken it can be found on MyAbandonware along with the patches for it.
I think it's a rough gem of a game for what it tried to pull off at the time. It has some interesting mechanics and whatnot and if the devs had more time to finish it completely I think it would have been considered a cult classic.
Unfortunately it got rushed a bit since Atari didn't want to delay it anymore so it was met poorly by critiques for being janky. And by the time the patches came out to fix some of the bugs for it it was too late for anyone to care.
Might not quite fit in the whole poorly reviewed Steam games category but I think it's an interesting game that had potential nonetheless.
Have you seen Tehsnakerer's video on that?
He covers a lot of similar games and talks about them as someone who actually finds joy in that type of game.
@@SheepUndefined Yeah, I love his stuff. I'm glad he made his Boiling Point vid since it's a good one.
Its a great game, as well as pseudo sequels Xenus: White Gold and scifi take on the formula The Precursors.
As a Belarus native, it's just shocking to see how the country's name was butchered in Superpower 3.
He says it looks "aesthetically terrible", but I really don't see that. Sure, it's basic, but terrible? I mean outside of the character creator -- that really is atrocious.
Hey son, dad here: I just wanted to say that whilst I still can't wrap my head around the whole reviewing trash steam games thing (pretty sure computers run on electricity not steam) me and your mother still love you and will always support your life choices no matter what. Proud of you sport. You really are the favorite son ❤
at 8:21 is that a skyrim wolf model used for the dog?
if i remember correctly i saw the "new life" game on 1 ads before and they asked for investment into the game pretty much, but the final product was just a scam and everything was so different from the one they promised in the trailer/ kickstarter videos ... right ?
You should play the games you get as steam coupons when leveling up your steam account. I’ve looked at mine and they are some of the most random games
Huh? That's a thing? How does that work?
@@Jorvalt look into steam badges, you can combine trading cards into badges for account XP. As you level up your account you get rewards like coupons and you get the ability to add more showcases to your profile or the ability to add more friends
What's the opposite of review bombing? Let's all do that to the Widower's Sky. = )
review boosting?
@@mikubrotyes,positive review boosting
Ok funny thing about O2Jam’s skin. The flower skin is supposed to be paid. Theres a bug that sets you to it for no reason
So we almost didn't have to burn our eyes looking at it
Son is shining even in this cold dark night at the start of the fall.
Glad to see you bringing more variety, both for our pleasure and your own sanity.
Keep doin' whatcha doin' son.
Cornball
Based schitzo post
Could be interesting to briefly interview developers of these types of games, either to include their perspective in your reviews or for some sense of accountability. Could be cool if it encourages some devs as well
I would like to do that in the future of this series. I reached out to the developer of Widower's Sky for this one, but got no response.
this is going to sound slightly crazy, but Sail and Sacrifice seems like a more realistic attempt at Pirate101, which has all the same basic premises - you gather a crew to fight with, can sail between areas using a ship, and explore places that look for the most part very similar (some of the setting remind me a lot of the style used in Skull Island, the first unlocked area in Pirate101).
of course, since Kingsisle is responsible for P101, it's a subscription pay-to-play so that's very different, and it has a lot of other differences. Mainly, the play style diverges a lot in Sail and Sacrifice since the combat system is absolutely not the same and the ways you can move around areas is also different. However, it still is very similar to me in terms of basic premise.
I used to spend a ton of money on Steam. Now I barely do. I'm finally an adult.
maybe you spent your money on the wrong things
@@Spheraz yes. That's exactly the point of that post. Congrats on learning to read subtle hints.
@@Grinnar idk bro go refund everything and get something actually good
@@Spheraz why do you speak on things you don't understand?
@@Spheraz Cringe☠☠☠
Hammer of Virtue has probably the best fast travel system I've seen so far.
It is quite literal fast travel. You yeet yourself across the map.
Great video, i just wish it showed more jank as you were explaining it. When the ship in sail and sacrifice came to a complete stop i think you were gonna show how it takes off like a sportscar
There's this whole genre of games like Enchanted Portals (usually Kickstarter projects) that are just "worse version knockoff of creative and original modern classics", and they always make me really uncomfortable.
Even if they're not technically IP infringement, they sure do feel like it. I genuinely wonder who funds them, too, since I can't imagine big fans of the property being copied being terribly excited about something like Enchanted Portals.
Yeah, people always retort "you cant own an idea" which first doesn't really refute that its a ripoff, just says that its okay; second, there is literally no line of logic you can use to prove if Cuphead didn't exist, Enchanted Portals still would. There WAS nothing and REMAINS nothing on the market like Cuphead that isn't clearly a ripoff.
Should check out how many PC ports of older Konami games actually work straight from purchase, just to look at the opposite side of Steam Garbage. It's kind of shocking when you consider how much money they have to do a good port with bugfixes, even the stuff on GOG has major issues.
It would be interesting to see how much these games have earned, or what their player counts were like. Widower's Sky has 15 reviews right now, so it can't have had that many players. It kind of makes me sad that a game like that is now forever enshrined in a WORST Reviewed Steam Games list. It would almost be better to not be remembered at all.
I'd rather play a 2 euro buggy game than a well polished immoral mess. So the worst games I have in my library are The Suicide of Rachel Foster, or perhaps Twelve Minutes.
So, I played Enchanted Portals, and even from a person who has still to try Cuphead, it would be generous for me to even call it 'rough.' The only upside is, when I DO play Cuphead, it can only go up from here.
thx for toning down the editing, this one was much better! big fan!
Definitely appreciate these videos between the retrospectives.
What music did you use for this video?
Hawken Reborn. "Reboot" of a somewhat successful mech team based FPS that is very near and dear to me. The original was shuttered because of devs that got too much investment money and couldnt pay it back without running the game into the ground with microtransactions. Nerdslayer did a "death of a game" video on Hawken a few years ago. The reboot is a trash cash grab that throws everything that made Hawken special right out the window and has a terrible review score on Steam because of it
Superpower 3 looks like a Roblox game, honestly.
Unturned WAS a roblox game and yet that games really good
Superpower 3 is a colossal disappointment, when the second game was actually rather fun for an indie grand strategy game.
I tried to write a comment but the dog ate it all and left.
Seeing that bat enemy zip around constantly made me go yea fuck this game that shit looks annoying and tedious
quite literally the day i am watching this, i randomly redownloaded an old mobile gacha that i used to play called fantasy war tactics, just to see how it was doing. it was made by nexon, the maple story devs and way pretty fun in its heyday. at some point though nexon sold the game off to some other south korean company and the game is somehow still running nearly a decade later, and they added a shit ton of greedy monetization tactics including a battle pass 2 weeks ago. as i'm watching this vid and listening to the segment on O2jam, im like.... wait a minute... south korean company that buys established games and adds awful monetization tactics..? sure enough, i check fantasy war tactics and it is currently owned by valofe!! it sucks seeing games beloved by many get sucked up and turned into shit by these companies.
Great video, especially sweet to give Windower's Sky a proper shot-out.
For some reason, the stages in enchanted portals were made to be randomly generated
Hammer of Virtue: Stop invading enemies from destroying the earth and defeat them… by destroying the world around you. That’s reasonable logic I suppose.
Son, I'm back from buying milk. You've made me proud with these videos you make! Keep up the good job!
damn i watched this and realize it was posted 1h ago, only 1460 views, the video was put alot of effort tho, good job !
Didn’t the developer of New Life get sued for copying Dwight Schrute with Second Life?
Enchanted portals looks like a simple platformer, but not all platformers have to be groundbreaking. It looks like it would be a fun little game if it was free to play.
But I’m assuming it probably is not free to play, hence its negative reception.
Not picking help the natives was crazy 💀
This is much better than the JFS documentary, proud of you BOY.
You need the shoe cam to display the drip 💯🥶
There's a good reason i love horror so much. When it is done right and pulls you in it becomes such an unforgettable experience.
I love when I get a notification that you've posted!!
calling enchanted portals a flash game is a little harsh, the art is still alright lol
Hey my favorite son, its your dad! I like what you are doing! I will be returning with the milk soon, dont worry about me
I originally thought that people were upset that Enchanted Portals "copied Cuphead's artstyle" (Because it of course invented the style in the late 1920's)
But then I saw the gameplay and was like "No it really is trying to be Cuphead."
I dunno I wanna see an adventure game in that retro cartoon artstyle.
THE DOG ATE IT ALL AND LEFT NOW I CAN GO OUT EASILY
infestation new z was my gem when i was 7th grade. My best moments was fighting on brigde, fighting in military field just to get guns. one time" i met someone and we fougth 4 dude with car in middle of forest " it was so intense i slept that nigth so happy.
I'm obsessed with how you pronounce projectiles
12:40 Is that.. is that legacy of kain music!?
I don't actually think Dark Years looks that bad. It has a certain style to it. Too bad it seems to be a broken mess otherwise.
15:45 I honestly understood "let him rest intense" at first xD
2:50 oh God, it looks like the walking animation isn't matched up with the movement speed.
"And conned someone to play with me" is a diabolical line to say about a game in a review 🤣🤣😭
When a game only has 20 players I just assume they are all UA-camrs playing making these videos lol
Superpower 2 was rather enjoyable for the time of release even if rough around the edges. I didn't know there was a third one, and wow, I can't believe it kept getting worse every with every second anything was happening on screen lol
It honestly looks like a heartless cashgrab considering the timing of its release
im honestly amazed anybody is still playing infestation survivor stories, that game has been dead as fuck for what feels like forever. no idea why it even got a rerelease because nobody cares about this game now just like they didnt care about it 10 years ago
also, regarding o2jam online, it had absolutely nothing to offer to its existing fans and also had nothing that would bring new players in. o2jam fans either still play o2jam or have moved onto other 7k rhythm games and people new to the genre have no reason to play o2jo when games like osu exist. o2jo simply has no audience
A few additional notes to REALLY hammer home how bad Enchanted Portals is:
- The stages are RANDOMLY GENERATED. There’s no way for you to actually strategize when you die, and you’ll end up losing a ton of lives because the game will force you into impossible layouts with unavoidable damage.
- Enemies are procedurally generated based on your progression. If you move on faster than the game intends, it will spawn a massive cluster of the same enemy all at once.
- The attack telegraphing on some of the bosses is god-awful and depends on you noticing tiny, subtle cues in the animation.
- The color matching gimmick comes and goes at random, and the final boss LOOKS like he uses it but actually doesn’t.
- There’s little to no cohesion in the storyline itself; it’s basically an excuse plot that strings together a ton of confusingly-themed levels and tries to justify it in the ending… which REALLY doesn’t work when the plot is barely there.
- The budget cuts are PAINFULLY obvious in the art style. A few bosses switch art styles at random (but only two iirc) and the platformer levels have this weird mix of hand-drawn and Flash animated enemies that clash awfully.
I dunno if it’s just me, but the animations in enchanted portals just seem… off for the most part
Enchanted Portals biggest infamy is its controversy with one of the bosses. There’s this boss where you fight against chickens and a bison in a desert. However, the chickens were dressed in racist “Native American” outfits. If I remember correctly, the developers are from Spain and probably weren’t aware that these depictions are problematic. They changed it so that the chickens are now cowboys.
If the gameplay somehow didn’t kill the game, this controversy did.
not a single native american was offended by it, just a bunch of twitter users "speaking" for others
@mikadosannoji553 True, game still sucks though
@@mikadosannoji553do you have evidence of this. Did you actually speak to any actual native people and see if they were offended were there actual ones saying they weren’t offended by it. Or are you pulling this out your ass
I’m glad you found a hidden gem in Widower’s Sky!
The War Z was my jam back in the day. The main reason to play was PVP in a city of zombies that run to the nearest gun they hear. You could sit on a roof and hunt based on aggro.
5:37 Why does he sound like Sleet from Sonic Underground lmfao
Ain’t no waaaaaaay
@@TotalDramaHarold Oh hey man. Sorry I couldn't do the YTP Tennis, I tried to do it but I had no ideas.
You would somehow think a whispering monotonous blown out old man makes for a great narrator while not seeing the absolute charm in the second games endearingly heavily accented English voice acting.
Great video! We're proud of you, son.
My favorite son!
man now i want a foot-cam in every game
Let's be fair there's a non-0 chance that the developer of New Life was a victim of the pandemic.
I never did get my refund the The War Z. Thanks for reminding me :( great vid tho