Well it’s been one heck of a year. Say what you will about the current political climate, but in terms of video games, 2017 was amazing. There were way too many great games to play, but I did my best to sample at least seventy, or so. Can you believe that’s probably only half of this year’s biggest releases? Maybe that’s over exaggerating a bit, but I’m not far off. Now of these awesome titles we have Nintendo who has had a tremendous comeback after years of poor Wii U sales due to either bad games attached to the system, or none at all. The Switch has proven to be a lucrative gamble on their part. Sales have been more than stellar with stock still hard to keep on the shelves.
And what about their lineup of games for the Switch? The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is probably my personal game of the year though I’m still undecided. Either way, it hooked me back into the series in a way I never thought possible and the same goes for Super Mario Odyssey. Even the indie scene has been great on it. That said there are also a lot of stinkers out there you probably forgot about since the good far outshines the bad. I’m not just talking about the Switch either, but the 3DS as well. If you were planning on playing any of these games in the near future think again. These are the fifteen worst Nintendo games of the year.
15 Up In Arms
Nintendo’s biggest fighting game of the year was their own new IP: Arms. It looked a little silly, but I was willing to give it a try. The only other fighting games Nintendo has ever made were Super Smash Bros. and Punch-Out, and the latter of the two is more of a puzzle game technically. Anyway, I was hoping for the best and while Arms’ excellent soundtrack, roster of fighters, and overall design, was excellent, the core game didn’t strike me as fun. Nintendo emphasized using the motion controls to play and while they work they’re not the most effective way to play. It’s not the motion either as using a normal layout is also tricky. Simply moving around and punching just isn’t as tactile as you’d want it to be for a fighting game.
14 On Fire, In A Bad Way
Fire Emblem is the next in line to get Koei Tecmo’s Dynasty Warriors treatment. They started with Hyrule Warriors and apparently hit it off pretty well since they’re tackling another Nintendo property. As a mindless hack and slash game, Fire Emblem Warriors isn’t bad. Pretty fun actually and it has co-op too. That is to say, it’s fine on the Switch. The 3DS version, on the other hand, is a mess. The frame rate is choppy as are the visuals. The crazy action slows down the speed of the game since it can’t handle the processing power as fast as the Switch can. It’s a port that boggles my mind. It’s only like one of three New Nintendo 3DS/2DS exclusive titles. What a weird system.
13 This Party Stinks
The 3DS has carried Nintendo financially through the dark years of the Wii U. Year after year the best of Nintendo’s lineup often fell to this miraculous handheld. This year, however, we finally saw its death knell. There are so many terrible 3DS games it makes me depressed. First let’s talk Mario Party, a series that has never been good. It’s tolerable with the right group of friends and some drinks, but I wouldn’t exactly call it THE party game to pop out unless you want to break up the party. So, creating a portable version of just mini-games from the entire series just seems like poor management. Who approved this one? Without a TV and friends, it’s just a waste of a cartridge.
12 Don’t Force Yourself To Play It
Wow, where to start with this one? Well, first of all, it’s a pretty depressing opening. The story makes it seem like Sonic dies and the world is lost except for literally everyone but Sonic. You can create your own horrifying animal hero to live out your fan fiction as Sonic’s best friend (and probably lover). It’s glitchy as all heck. The level design feels like you’re on a roller coaster without much in terms of variety. The soundtrack is hilariously bad with the main theme performed by Hoobastank, a band I thought had withered away with the early 2000s. There’s really not a whole lot going on in this game. There are numerous black screens with white text to convey story elements. It’s messy and feels unfinished.
11 No One’s Fighting To Play This
Street Fighter II is a brilliant game that put fighting games on the map. If you’ve never played it, this version is based on the HD remaster that came to the PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2008. At launch, it was $15. What was the Switch version at launch? $40! They barely even added anything to justify that price. Two “new” characters being evil versions of Ryu and Ken. There’s a co-op boss mode that isn’t fun or well thought out. The biggest addition was the Way of the Hado, which was a first-person survival horde-based mode where enemies charged at you and you shot back with Hadoken blasts. It’s about as fun as it sounds. Again, great core game, but this port is lacking.
10 Hitting A Sour Note
Despite not growing up with a Nintendo 64 and its roster of platformers including Banjo-Kazooie and Super Mario 64, I was insanely hyped for Yooka-Laylee. Unfortunately, it’s a game that seems to have stayed stuck in the 90s with modern visuals. It is astounding at how much it mirrors Banjo-Kazooie directly. Not as an homage, but as an exact copy. The way you unlock worlds, collect items, and even your move set, is eerily similar. Playtonic didn’t try to make a new platformer in 2017. They made at 90s game in 2017 with all of that decade’s faults. The most annoying thing is the voices that seemed charming at first but quickly grew to annoy me. You can hear me rant about it more in my review.
9 This Game Bombed
With Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain launching and Kojima leaving the company, it seemed like Konami was done making video games. Then, out of the blue, Super Bomberman R came. The series hasn’t been seen since 2010’s Bomberman Live: Battlefest. So fans were kind of hoping for a return to form and while it is more of the same Bomberman puzzle action game you’ve come to know and love, it’s also pretty lackluster as an overall package. There’s simply not a lot of content in the game, which would be fine if it was a downloadable title, but this received a physical edition and sold for $50 initially. Now Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers doesn’t seem so bad.
8 Leave The Sports To EA
Mario Sports Superstars seems like a great way to make an attempt at a sports game. The collection includes soccer, baseball, tennis, golf, and horse racing. Except for horse racing, the other sports all have established spinoff franchises that are usually pretty good. So why create versions of them on a smaller scale that feel like glorified mini-games? It just seems like another useless waste of shelf space and resources. Just make another mainline game based on baseball, soccer, or what have you. It’s not like these mini-games are bad, or anything. They’re just that. Mini-games, and ones on a handheld not really meant for big party gatherings. If this was on the console then maybe it’d be more enticing. That’s a big maybe though.
7 Making Game Making A Bad Experience
I love RPGs and have often dreamed of making my own. I tried getting into the RPG Maker franchise on PS2, but it’s so complicated. I was hoping this new version would be simpler to follow, but I found it just as challenging. Creating text on that tiny bottom screen is a nightmare. Okay so I couldn’t make my own game, but I was hoping I could play some cool campaigns via the share option. I was kind of hoping this thing would blow up like how Super Mario Maker did, but it launched with barely a sizzle. It was released and forgotten. Guess no one else could stand the mechanics either. RPG Maker FES is not so much bad as it is just poorly managed.
6 A Dismal RPG
For a good while I was addicted to using the 3DS’ StreetPass functionality, especially at anime or gaming conventions. The mini-games built within the Street Plaza were simple yet fun and they gave you cool ways to interact with random strangers. One of the best original games was Find Mii, which was a very basic RPG. Miitopia is like an expansion on this concept and boy does it feel like a stretch. What worked for the mini-game does not work for a full-fledged RPG campaign. The story doesn’t give you any reason to go forward other than to see your friends’ Miis do ridiculous stuff. It’s a novelty at best, but mechanically it’s a weak RPG and maybe the worst on the 3DS.
5 Hey! No Thanks!
I’m a big advocate of series taking a risk on seemingly weird genres for that franchise to sort of shake things up. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Hey! Pikmin is an example of the latter. First of all, it’s super awkward to control. You move Olimar with the Circle Pad, or D-Pad and aim the Pikmin with your stylus. It’s just clunky and it can be a pretty hefty one-hand balance with some of those beefier 3DS models. Overall the speed of the game’s progression through levels is slow. It’s not even hard either. Sure some of the puzzles require a bit of thought, but not much, and the enemies are practically docile. This should have been called Hey! We Barely Tried: The Game.
4 An Epicly Boring Story
Telltale started out from small beginnings. Weird, obscure properties that didn’t amount to much, but then they hit critical review pay dirt with the first season of The Walking Dead. Say what you will about their engine, and boy what a piece of junk it is, their stories are second to none. Yet, the more properties they tackle, the less interested I got. I think the pinnacle of pointless adaptations was Minecraft Story Mode. I cannot believe this exists and is getting a second season. And hey, I gave it a fair shake since I love Patton Oswalt, but dang is it boring. Nothing happens, the stakes are low, and the characters are one-note. Overall Minecraft just isn’t an interesting setting for an “epic” story.
3 LEGO Worlds
Before Minecraft, there was the ultimate creation toy: LEGO. I loved LEGO growing up, even more so than video games. Now, this is where my creativity shined. Somehow it didn’t transfer to video games even though Minecraft is basically a LEGO-like experience. Anyway, I was hoping LEGO Worlds was going to be the game to finally teach how to build cool stuff, but it was a letdown. It wasn’t a good building game and it certainly wasn’t a good MMO type experience. I really don’t know what I was expecting. I mean, I haven’t liked the LEGO games since the first two Star Wars trilogies back in High School. Maybe this one is a shame on me for getting my hopes up.
2 Cartoon Network: Battle Crashers
The only thing keeping beat’em ups alive are the indie developers and to a lesser, more broad extent, Dynasty Warriors, and its aforementioned many spinoffs. So whenever a brawler rolls around I get excited, especially when it involves properties I adore. Cartoon Network: Battle Crashers features a few notable stars including Steven Universe and Finn and Jake from Adventure Time. Good IP. Good genre. What could go wrong? Turns out, plenty. It feels like a flash game that got ported to a Switch cartridge. It does little to celebrate its stars; the visuals are janky, it’s slow, and just not fun to punch stuff. The budget feels less than $100. I mean how hard is it to make a good brawler? It also lacked a good roster.
1 1-2-Switch
Finally, the worst game of the year for Nintendo is its own 1-2-Swtich for a variety of reasons. Let’s take price into consideration once again, along with the legacy of Nintendo’s consoles. The Wii was an experiment. Nintendo wanted to get a system into every home be it kids, or their grandparents. How did they ensure people who bought one understood the system’s capabilities? Simple. They included Wii Sports. Without it, I don’t think the system would have been the phenomenon as it was. 1-2-Switch would have been a novel pack-in game, but as a stand-alone $50 title it’s not worth the plastic it’s printed on. The most sinful offense is that it barely utilizes the Switch at all. In fact, most of the mini-games require little to no screen time. This could have been a better board game with an interactive DVD.
