Worst Games Based on Great Franchises

Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)

Rushed out for Sonic's 15th anniversary, this reboot shipped with load-time glitches, a boss you could skip by falling through the floor, and an infamous human-hedgehog kiss. It became the internet's go-to punchline for a franchise stumble, spawning years of 'Sonic '06 is the wor

Release Year: 2006Franchise: Sonic the HedgehogCritic Score: 4.6/10Infamy Level: 9.8/10

added by IJR

Superman 64

Tied to a Superman movie that never got made, this N64 tie-in trapped players flying through endless identical rings in a fog-choked Metropolis. Decades later it's still cited as one of the worst games ever released, period, let alone for a superhero this beloved.

Release Year: 1999Franchise: SupermanCritic Score: 1.9/10Infamy Level: 9.5/10

added by IJR

Aliens: Colonial Marines

Promised as the true sequel to Aliens, it delivered Xenomorphs that walked into walls and a bait-and-switch marketing campaign built on demo footage that never shipped. The backlash was so fierce it triggered a class-action lawsuit against the publisher.

Release Year: 2013Franchise: AliensCritic Score: 4.3/10Infamy Level: 9/10

added by IJRin 2 rankingsAliens: Colonial Marines

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – Definitive Edition

Billed as a lovingly remastered tribute to GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas, it instead launched with rain effects that blinded the whole screen and warped character models straight out of a horror game. Rockstar had to pull it from sale within days to patch the damage.

Release Year: 2021Franchise: Grand Theft AutoCritic Score: 5.4/10Infamy Level: 8.5/10

added by IJR

Duke Nukem Forever

Fifteen years in development hell turned this into gaming's most-anticipated punchline, and the final product felt frozen in 2001 humor and design while shooters had evolved around it. The joke of its existence outlived the excitement for its release.

Release Year: 2011Franchise: Duke NukemCritic Score: 5/10Infamy Level: 8/10

added by IJRin 2 rankingsDuke Nukem Forever

Star Wars Battlefront II (2017)

A genuinely solid shooter buried under pay-to-win loot boxes that made unlocking Darth Vader take dozens of hours unless you paid up. EA's defensive reply became the most downvoted comment in Reddit history and drew attention from actual government regulators.

Release Year: 2017Franchise: Star WarsCritic Score: 6.8/10Infamy Level: 8.3/10

added by IJR

Fallout 76

Launched as an online Fallout with no human NPCs, broken nuke codes, and duplication bugs everywhere, it capped things off by replacing a promised canvas collector's bag with cheap nylon. The 'Nukacola' of PR disasters for a beloved RPG series.

Release Year: 2018Franchise: FalloutCritic Score: 5.2/10Infamy Level: 8/10

added by IJRin 2 rankingsFallout 76

Mass Effect: Andromeda

An otherwise ambitious space RPG got buried by viral facial-animation glitches, dead-eyed lip-syncing, and the 'my face is tired' meme before most players even touched the combat. It quietly ended the mainline series for years afterward.

Release Year: 2017Franchise: Mass EffectCritic Score: 7.1/10Infamy Level: 7.5/10

added by IJR

Final Fantasy XIV (1.0 launch)

The original 2010 release was so broken — empty zones, a nightmare UI, barely any content — that producer Naoki Yoshida publicly apologized and rebuilt the entire game from scratch as A Realm Reborn. Rare case of a franchise disaster becoming a redemption legend.

Release Year: 2010Franchise: Final FantasyCritic Score: 4.9/10Infamy Level: 7/10

added by IJR

Metal Gear Survive

Released right after Hideo Kojima's messy departure from Konami, this zombie-survival spinoff reused Metal Gear Solid V's engine for base-building and grindy crafting instead of the series' signature stealth storytelling. Fans saw it as Konami cashing in on a corpse.

Release Year: 2018Franchise: Metal GearCritic Score: 6.1/10Infamy Level: 6.5/10

added by IJRMetal Gear Survive

WWE 2K20

Wrestlers' faces melted mid-match, models clipped through the ring, and load times crashed the game outright, forcing 2K to skip releasing a new entry the following year entirely. The series' worst-reviewed game by a wide margin.

Release Year: 2019Franchise: WWE 2KCritic Score: 4.2/10Infamy Level: 6.5/10

added by IJRWWE 2K20

Resident Evil 6

Trying to be horror, action, and co-op shooter all at once across four sprawling campaigns and 20+ hours, it diluted everything survival horror fans loved about the series. Capcom itself later admitted it lost its way here before rebooting with RE7.

Release Year: 2012Franchise: Resident EvilCritic Score: 6.6/10Infamy Level: 6/10

added by IJRResident Evil 6

Sonic Forces

Rushed out for another anniversary, it paired a barely-three-hour campaign with a widely mocked custom-avatar mode and heavily recycled level design from prior games. A second high-profile stumble for Sonic within a decade of the 2006 disaster.

Release Year: 2017Franchise: Sonic the HedgehogCritic Score: 5.7/10Infamy Level: 5.5/10

added by IJRSonic Forces

Devil May Cry 2

Following the stylish, over-the-top original, this sequel swapped Dante's cocky charisma for a silent brooding hero and drained the combat of the depth and difficulty fans loved. It nearly killed the franchise before DMC3 saved it two years later.

Release Year: 2003Franchise: Devil May CryCritic Score: 6/10Infamy Level: 5.5/10

added by IJRDevil May Cry 2

Driv3r

The Driver series once rivaled GTA, but this entry's clunky on-foot missions and infamous car-entry AI bugs became a punchline as its rival franchise surged ahead. It marked the beginning of Driver's long fade from relevance.

Release Year: 2004Franchise: DriverCritic Score: 5/10Infamy Level: 5/10

added by IJR

Star Fox Zero

Forcing players to constantly glance between the TV and the Wii U GamePad for gyro-aiming aimed to innovate but instead frustrated longtime fans of the classic Arwing dogfights. Nintendo has left the franchise largely dormant since.

Release Year: 2016Franchise: Star FoxCritic Score: 6.2/10Infamy Level: 5/10

added by IJRStar Fox Zero

Battletoads (2020)

After a 26-year wait, the beloved brawler's comeback swapped its punishing, satisfying combat for simplified button-mashing padded out with tedious mini-games. Longtime fans felt the reboot missed exactly what made the original a cult classic.

Release Year: 2020Franchise: BattletoadsCritic Score: 5.9/10Infamy Level: 4.5/10

added by IJR

Turok: Evolution

Attempting to modernize the dinosaur-hunting FPS for the console shooter boom, it delivered clunky controls and uneven level design that failed to recapture the original N64 classic's magic. The franchise went quiet for years afterward.

Release Year: 2002Franchise: TurokCritic Score: 6.2/10Infamy Level: 4/10

added by IJRTurok: Evolution