Games that you knew were bad but were worse than you expected.

[jeffhlewis]

I had low expectations going in to Sword of Sodan and Techno Cop, even thouh each time it was before any reviews had been published. In both cases I remember thinking "wow, this is even worse than I expected".

Imagine racing down the stairs on Xmas morning and opening that new Genesis game and it's...Sword of Sodan. It was like my parents were punishing me.

The game looked so cool in the screenshots but was such a turd.

My vote for worse-than-I-expected was EVERY arcade-to-PC port in the late 80's/early 90's. We used to play the PC port of Double Dragon in EGA. I fired that thing up in DosBox a while back and literally have no clue how I was able to derive fun out of that game as a kid.

This is so true. The screenshots for arcade-PC ports would look decent*, but the actual games were often horrendous (scrolling, refresh, controls, lag, etc.)

*Of course, the publisher only put the nicest looking screenshots on package...unless you had the best video/sound card, you were never quite sure what you would end up with.

For reference:

EGA Double Dragon:

Sword of Sodan:

[TheClash603]

I never had a PC growing up, I always had an Apple II C+.  I will say that the arcade ports were pretty awesome on that thing.  I especially liked playing Bad Dudes and Victory Road.

Is my judgement clouded by nostalgia, or were Apple II ports better than PC ports back in the day?

[Mishran]

The PC port of Double Dragon 2 was worse than the first. Think that is bad, try the Bad Dudes PC game. Back of the box showed arcade quality graphics. What a let down.

Talk about lousy PC games... anyone ever play Blood 2? What a joke.

[jeffhlewis]

The PC port of Double Dragon 2 was worse than the first. Think that is bad, try the Bad Dudes PC game. Back of the box showed arcade quality graphics. What a let down.

Talk about lousy PC games... anyone ever play Blood 2? What a joke.

Yup I had DD2 and it was almost unplayable - it ran at like 5fps. I also had Robocop (which actually wasn't that bad), the Megaman port by Hi-tech expressions (again not terrible surprisingly), Capcom's Trojan (garbage), Dragon's Lair (barf) and a bunch of others.

On the flipside I also had Silpheed, Thexder and Zeliard - all badass Game Arts titles that Sierra published for the US PC market that wound up in my local bargain bin. Best $5 I ever spent.

[vestcoat]

Wait, you got through NES Hydlide?

Yeah. Bought it cart-only for $15 at a used kids' clothing store in '90. It sucked at first, but after playing it for an hour and I started having fun (today I would never have the patience, but back then I only owned six games). Got through it with one of Jeff Rovin's picture-less books. OLD SCHOOL.

[esadajr]

Megaman 3 for PC. I knew it was going to be bad but not that bad. Just (censored) sucks

[Mishran]

Ninja Gaiden for PC. Lol

Graphics were shameful, but the game was a port of the arcade rather than the NES version. Controls weren't half bad and the game was actually moderately amusing.

[vestcoat]

edit: wrong thread

[esteban]

edit: wrong thread

Pay attention, dammit!

[wildfruit]

transbot for master system
it has 2 levels that just repeat it never ends

[esteban]

I knew that Time Soldiers for SMS wasn't going to be like the awesome arcade game, but when I finally got Time Soldiers SMS I was like, "WTF is this?" Because it really had nothing to do with the arcade game and was just a sad, sad game. I would have been OK with a generic home port but it is simply RUDE and disrespectful to attach "Time Soldiers" to the damn SMS cart.

[Mishran]

I brought this up before once upon a time, but has anyone ever did a comparison of the NES and SMS versions of Rampage? Shows just how much more capable the master system was compared to the NES. NES makes the eyes bleed after playing the SMS version.

[Black Tiger]

I brought this up before once upon a time, but has anyone ever did a comparison of the NES and SMS versions of Rampage? Shows just how much more capable the master system was compared to the NES. NES makes the eyes bleed after playing the SMS version.

The SMS version also has great FM sound.

[lukester]

I knew that Time Soldiers for SMS wasn't going to be like the awesome arcade game, but when I finally got Time Soldiers SMS I was like, "WTF is this?" Because it really had nothing to do with the arcade game and was just a sad, sad game. I would have been OK with a generic home port but it is simply RUDE and disrespectful to attach "Time Soldiers" to the damn SMS cart.

Similar to Ikari Warriors on NES? Silly ADK and SNK.

[esteban]

I knew that Time Soldiers for SMS wasn't going to be like the awesome arcade game, but when I finally got Time Soldiers SMS I was like, "WTF is this?" Because it really had nothing to do with the arcade game and was just a sad, sad game. I would have been OK with a generic home port but it is simply RUDE and disrespectful to attach "Time Soldiers" to the damn SMS cart.

Similar to Ikari Warriors on NES? Silly ADK and SNK.

Yes, except that even arcade Ikari Warriors was clunky (the NES port is abominable, though).

Time Soldiers, on the other hand, played great (nice  control, not perfect, but it felt good)...so they took a nice arcade game but made it poppy for SMS port. Every aspect of SMS is crappier.