In today’s fast-paced, technologically-impressive world, video games are more common than ever and getting bigger and bigger budgets. But that increasingly means they require our attention and money.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, there are critics available who can guide us away from games which are bad or even completely unplayable. Here are the most harshly judged games available for the PS4 according to the critic’s reviews on Metacritic:
5. Rugby World Cup 2015
25 metascore
Choose from among the 20 teams in the World Cup and take part in the most prestigious competition in rugby.
This game suffered from an inconsistent application of rules, with a broken gameplay loop and even game-breaking bugs.
“I could go on. I could mention how the way the game handles camera rotations and, subsequently, rucks in end-on perspective destroys momentum and further damages already finicky gameplay systems. I could go on about the delay between a button press and its actual recognition, which destroys the limited immersion during rare moments of forward momentum.”
— IGN
4. Yasai Ninja
23 metascore
Yasai Ninja is a hack & slash game set in feudal Japan where Kaoru Tamanegi and Broccoli Joe face the most terrible vegetables. Play in 1 or 2 player mode and finish the adventure.
This game suffered from poor co-op and because of an unruly camera, actions like jumping were hit-and-miss, controls were wonky, gameplay mechanics felt poorly-timed, and the level design was poor and repetitive.
“For those among you feeling mean enough to subject a friend to the torturous local co-op, you’ll see something really special as Yasai Ninja fails to cope with the demand of two active players. In one of our co-op playthroughs, the second player’s camera angle glitched, rendering them useless in combat as the camera pointed upwards, unable to be corrected; in another, the sound looped while the second character was unlocking a door, creating an unbearable soundtrack of keys jangling. Friendships will be tested to their limits, make no mistake.”
— Push Square
3. Energy Hook
22 metascore
This game challenges you to chain together sequences of tricks, wall-runs, and stylish moves for massive scores. Bust through time challenges by using tricks to gain speed and seek out collectibles hidden throughout the levels.
Energy Hook had technical issues, was seen as unenjoyable and even unplayable, with plenty of bugs and non-existent plot.
“Energy Hook is simply atrocious. When I call it a “glitchy PS1-era tech demo”, I mean that in the most literal sense possible. The entirety of the game is one awful-looking character swinging around a couple of empty, nondescript environments. There’s no plot. There are no other people. It’s just you, swinging around, trying to pull off achievements and tasks that are explained to you via floating blocks of 3D text.”
— Gaming Age
2. Afro Samurai 2: Revenge of Kuma Volume One
21 metascore
Head out on a journey of redemption, driven by bitter-sweet revenge. The saga of Afro Samurai continues, but this time follows the path of Kuma, one of Afro’s closest childhood friends.
Afro Samurai suffered from various technical issues, poor skill progression, sloppy combat, offensive dialogue and poor voice acting, and completely random game rules.
“Revenge of Kuma isn’t worth your time, and I haven’t even mentioned the confusing world map, the abrupt transitions between cutscenes and gameplay, the horrible frame rate, the dumbed-down boss fights, and the litany of technical glitches I encountered, including getting stuck in geometry or having to restart the game because it crashed altogether.”
— Gamespot
1. Rugby 15
19 metascore
In this game, you take the helm of official teams and clubs from the most prestigious leagues around the world: the Aviva Premiership Rugby, the PRO 12 and the TOP 14 and PRO D2.
Rugby 15 was penalized for having poor graphics, broken gameplay rules, tons of nasty programming bugs, and was even completely unplayable on the PlayStation 3.
“I went in to Rugby 15 with the hope that the arcade presentation would result in a fun, pick-up-and-play rugby game, but my expectations were quickly tackled by a never-ending stream of bugs and paradoxical design decisions”
— IGN
Those were the worst 5 games on the PS4 according to average review scores. Know any others that deserve similar infamy? Let us know in the comments.
