We’ve all heard the phrase “So bad it’s good.” Sharknado, Troll 2, The Room, they’re all movies that have this reputation and have developed cult followings over the years. I recently went back and watched a video that Doug Walker AKA The Nostalgia Critic discussed what he believes is how a movie becomes a member of this popular phrase and what separates it from just being a normal bad movie. He goes into detail about one of my favorite movies The Room where it’s a drama that is meant to be taken seriously and tries so hard to be taken seriously that it just becomes funny. Add horrible acting and dubbing and you get a so bad it’s good movie. This did get me to wonder something. If a movie can have the title of So Bad It’s Good, why can’t a video game?
Over the past year, we’ve experienced games being released by Indie developers that just by the title sounds like it could be capable of having this title such as Goat Simulator and I Am Bread. With the amount of stupid concepts being spat out that it’s very possible that we can start having these type of So Bad It’s Good type of games. Let’s take a game like Goat Simulator for example; the game was considered bad and below average by critics, but those who played the game were able to find an odd dose of fun when the played it. They looked at the idea and thought this could make for some entertaining moments for YouTube or Twitch and just ran with it. While most would say that it’s not that good of a game at the end of the delay, most thought it wasn’t horrible like most would lead to believe.
One of the best categories for this is by far the dating sims. We’ve had games like Hatoful Boyfriend that was a bird dating sim that just came across as just an April Fools joke gone wrong. Although this does raise another question as to why Hatoful boyfriend would be considered a so bad it’s good game while another dating sim game like Drift Girls isn’t. As somebody who has played Drift Girls I can honestly say that the game is actually very well made. It’s not a masterpiece, but I still find myself going back to play the game and have done so almost everyday since it was released over the Summer. The game goes offline once a week and makes some adjustments, that along with daily goals and a competitive online play has made the game stand up way better.
However, I strongly believe that if there is one game that could be classified as So Bad It’s Good it has to be a little game for 3DO that you might have heard of called Plumbers Don’t Wear Ties. If you watch the Angry Video Game Nerd then odds are you know exactly what this game is. While I’m not going to go into super detail as I plan on giving the game it’s own article next month, I can at least tell you a small bit about it. The game is classified as an adult-oriented romantic comedy graphic adventure game/dating sim (wrap your head around that genre). The game just has a bunch of slideshows that have you pick 2 or 3 options for each scenario and depending on which one you pick you see how it plays out. What makes it laughably bad is that the scenes don’t make any sense whatsoever. One moment you have a girl run around in the streets in her underwear, and in the next slide she’s fully dressed just to have her go back to her underwear in the slide after. Talks about it being very late at night despite looking in the background and clearly seeing that the sun is still out. The most laughable thing is the fact that they left an outtake in the game and left it in. Yeah, there’s a part where one of them gets a line wrong and everyone breaks character and laughs about it. You can even hear the producer and cameraman laughing and talking along with them.
So yes, I believe that we can have games that can be so bad they’re good and with the amount of stupid concepts being cranked out by some indie studios. We’ll probably see an insane amount of these kinds of games in 2016. As far as what they’re about or why, we’ll all just have to wait and see what it brings.
