10 Worst Games of the 2000s

The 2000s was a very important decade in gaming.

We saw the birth of key franchises like Halo and Mass Effect. Grand Theft Auto changed the gaming world forever. Metroid Prime blew away GameCube owners. Resident Evil 4 changed survival horror forever.

However, we’re not talking about the great games of the decade. Instead, we’re discussing the worst games of the 2000s.

For all the success gaming saw this decade, a shocking number of bad games and shovelware were released over the years.

10 GoldenEye: Rogue Agent

Not the sequel to a beloved classic

If you promote your new game as a sequel to the beloved N64 classic GoldenEye 007, you had better make sure it can live up to the hype.

Unfortunately, the only thing Rogue Agent has in common with its successor is the name.

It’s clear from the beginning that EA slapped the James Bond license and the GoldenEye name on a generic third-person shooter. There’s nothing redeeming about the game, and had it not had the legendary franchise attached to it, no one would have even cared about the gaming leading up to its release.

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9 The Guy Game

Canceled

The Guy Game is a lackluster trivia game that tries to cash in on male approval.

It’s crass, misogynistic, and an absolute embarrassment. Sure, there’s some gameplay here in terms of trivia, but that’s not the point of The Guy Game. It’s meant to be the video game version of Girls Gone Wild.

Due to its inappropriate content, it’s been banned from Twitch, and it is nearly impossible to find online for purchase.

Ultimately, that’s a good thing; even if the game’s content was appropriate, it also fails as a trivia game. Stick with You Don’t Know Jack.

8 Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust

Sleezebag

Believe it or not, The Guy Game wasn’t the only adult video game targeted at males in the 2000s.

The Leisure Suit Larry franchise has been around since the late 80s as a point-and-click adventure game. The franchise saw two games released in the 2000s: 2004’s Magna Cum Laude and then 2009’s Box Office Bust. Neither of the games are good, but Box Office Bust was up to the task of being a truly bad video game.

There’s nothing redeeming here: the jokes don’t land, the gameplay is boring, and it’s clearly developed for the lowest common denominator, yet still misses the bar.

7 Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing

Broken down

Getting a score of 90+ on Metacritic is hard, but do you know what else is hard? Getting a score of under 10. If that was the goal of Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing, then mission accomplished.

The game doesn’t work at any level. It’s a technical failure across the board; the controls feel like you’re running a marathon while underwater, it’s impossible to lose a race, and collision detection is nearly non-existent. This game does not work.

Worst of all, when you win a race, the message on the screen shouts, “You’re a winner.”

Don’t play this game for the memes; it’s not worth it.

Big Rigs supposedly shipped despite still being in a pre-alpha state. Given how incomplete the game is, I believe this.

6 Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness

Temporarily killed the franchise

Systems

Released

June 20, 2003

Developer(s)

Core Design

Publisher(s)

Eidos Interactive

Engine

Unreal Engine

ESRB

T For Teen // Blood, Violence

How Long To Beat

15 Hours

Expand

For all its success on the PS1, the Tomb Raider franchise had a huge identity crisis in the 2000s. Angel of Darkness is a big reason why.

The PS2-era Tomb Raider games failed to change with the times. Controls and gameplay felt dated, the graphics paled to other similar titles, and the camera was frustrating to deal with.

Worst of all, the game suffered from key bugs and glitches upon launch. It’s one thing when a good game has some bugs. But when a bad game doesn’t work properly? That’s crossing the line.

Angel of Darkness was a massive black spot for the Tomb Raider franchise, which would eventually recover in the 2010s with a successful reboot.

Good luck to the team working on the Angel of Darkness remake.

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5 Batman: Dark Tomorrow

Hibernation

The 2000s were a great time to be a Batman fan. 2005’s Batman Begins helped bring the franchise back to theaters in a big way, and the tie-in game was actually not half bad!

Batman video games would take off at the end of the decade, with 2009’s Batman: Arkham Asylum proving that superhero games could be great. More often than not, though, the genre was dominated by bad games like 2003’s Batman: Dark Tomorrow.

Batman: Dark Tomorrow was a confusing mess, leaving players constantly scratching their heads as they played through the game. It wasn’t ever really clear where you should go next, and achieving the game’s good ending had no proper direction.

It would only release on GameCube and Xbox, as the PS2 version was canceled due to poor reception.

4 Stalin vs. Martians

Alternate Reality

I’m not sure if anyone expected gold from an RTS centered around the 1940s Soviet Union doing battle against Martians. Sure, it’s a cool idea in theory, but let’s be honest: the RTS genre did some pretty cool things in the 2000s with Warcraft III and Rise of Nations.

Sadly, Stalin vs. Martians would have felt more at home in the 1990s, and even then, it would still be a bad game. At least we’re venturing into the “so bad it’s maybe good” territory here.

The soundtrack features techno constantly blasting through your speakers, complete with random cliche Soviet one-liners.

It’s like watching someone embarrass themselves on reality TV: it’s a disaster in every conceivable way, but you can’t help but look away.

3 Mass Effect: Galaxy

A cheap cash-in

Systems

Released

June 23, 2009

Engine

Torque

Mass Effect: Galaxy, released in 2009, is a prequel to Mass Effect 2 and introduces fans to Jacob Taylor.

If you’re like me, though, you immediately told Jacob Taylor to sit on the sidelines while you, Garrus, Miranda, and Grunt went about to save the galaxy from the Reaper invasion.

Mass Effect: Galaxy takes everything that makes the Mass Effect franchise great and throws it out the window. Gone is the narrative-driven RPG experience that plays like a solid third-person shooter. Instead, it’s a clunky top-down shooter that even BioWare said we didn’t need to play to fully understand the story in Mass Effect 2. Mass Effect: Galaxy is a blatant cash grab.

Galaxy would be taken off the iOS App Store three years after its release. Good riddance.

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2 Universal Studios Theme Park Adventure

I wanna go home

It’s Christmas morning 2001. You’ve opened up your brand new Nintendo GameCube and are waiting to see what games you’ll get with it. Luigi’s Mansion is pretty neat. Star Wars Rogue Squadron: Rogue Leader is incredible. Super Smash Bros. Melee will consume the rest of your life.

Nope, you get none of those. Instead, it’s time to explore the worlds of Universal Studios Theme Park Adventure.

Your disappointment is immeasurable. A tear slowly crawls down your cheek as you try to put on a good face and thank your grandparents, who tried their best. You play the game for them, grimacing at the tedious gameplay. Maybe next year, you’ll get Super Mario Sunshine or Animal Crossing.

1 Mortal Kombat Advance

Finish him

The Mortal Kombat franchise had a couple of missteps in the 2000s, most notably Mortal Kombat Advance and Mortal Kombat: Special Forces.

We’re giving the “nod” to Advance here due to the frustrations and limitations of the GameBoy Advance hardware.

Porting Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 seems like a no-brainer until you realize you’re shrinking it down for a smaller screen and porting controls onto a worse D-Pad.

This is arguably the worst entry in the Moral Kombat franchise.

GoldenEye: Rogue Agent

Released

November 22, 2004

ESRB

T For Teen Due To Suggestive Themes, Violence