What Are The Worst Videogames Ever?!? | Game/Show | PBS Digital Studios
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- Опубликовано: 9 апр 2014
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Why are bad games SO BAD? Be it crappy voice acting, confusing AI, or bad stories, there seems to be an unending list of ways games can fail, and an unending list of games that exemplify them. We've all played 'em: lazy knockoffs, terrible media crossovers, Duke Nukem Forever... but maybe we can learn from these games, and heed the lessons of failure. So what are the worst games of all time, and why are they so bad? Watch the episode and find out!
E.T. videogame:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Am...
killscreendaily.com/articles/i...
Links:
0:41 Angry Gamers - This is why I don't play video games
• Angry Gamers - This is...
1:14 angry kid throws controller to door playing black ops 2
• Video
1:48 PrioVR at CES 2014
• PrioVR at CES 2014
5:16 Steel Battalion Heavy Armor - "How To" Trailer
• Steel Battalion Heavy ...
5:47 Why Are Hard Games Better Than Easy Games?
• Why Are Hard Games Bet...
7:25 The Perfect Solution to Flappy Bird
• The Perfect Solution T...
7:31 The Greatest Angry Gamers Tribute Montage Part 4
• The Greatest Angry Gam...
7:33 Elders React to Flappy Bird
• ELDERS REACT TO FLAPPY...
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MUSIC:
"Oh Damn!" by CJVSO
/ cjvso-oh-damn
"Digital Sonar" by Brink
"Mindphuck" by Known To Be Lethal
• Video
"After Hours"
"Lakes" by Chooga
• Chooga - 3170 Lakes
"Beautiful Days" by Extan
/ beautiful-days
"Spectrum Subdiffusion Mix" by Foniqz
/ foniqz-spectrum-subdif...
"Good Way Song" by Electronic Rescue
"Alice y Bob" by Javier Rubio and Parsec
archive.org/details/escala19_...
"Sleet" by Kubbi
/ kubbi-sleet
"Toaster" by Kubbi
/ toaster
"Patriotic Songs of America" by New York Military Band and the American Quartet
freemusicarchive.org/music/New...
"Lets Go Back To The Rock" by Outsider
www.jamendo.com/en/artist/440...
"Run" by Outsider
www.jamendo.com/en/artist/440...
"Fame" by Statue of Diveo
www.jamendo.com/en/artist/352...
"Freedom Weekends" by Statue of Diveo
www.jamendo.com/en/artist/352...
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And thanks to Iain Andrews for the use of his photos in the background: / enwandrews
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Hosted by Jamin Warren (@jaminwar)
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Made by Kornhaber Brown (www.kornhaberbrown.com)
And regarding my glasses:
• Has League of Legends ...
Why does this man have no glass in his glasses?
He talks about it in another video. It's because of glare. He wears those same frames with actual lenses in real life.
booschman
Why doesn't he take them off then?
booschman It's also at the very end of videos. It could have to do with headaches, or maybe he just likes how he looks in them.
Also, anyone who wears glasses could tell you they get ticks when you take them off. The urge to adjust your non-existent frames throw me off whenever I don't wear them.
Hes a hipster dufus.
What? Carmaggedon a bad game!? I better don't see you walking in the sidewalk while I'm driving!
PBS Game/Show So PBS is fine showing me a buff guy beating people to death but a woman in a bikini is unacceptable.
So women are more unacceptable than rampant violence. TIL.
We could argue that its the sexualization of women that is the problem. But then that loops back to beating someone to death with your hands is fine, no censorship, women in Bikinis censorship. Violence should always trump sexuality and yet it almost never does in the US.
As for your final question. Guilty Gears Dust Strikers is probably one of the worst games I've ever played. Naughty Bear is another contestant. Basically all mobile games being the third category.
I think he was being ironic
That's a fair critique. We'll try to tone down the violence to be consistent across the board. And yes, we were also being ironic.
PBS Game/Show I'll bite that you are that clever :p.
I personally don't subscribe to toning down either. Life is best approached with open eyes and hearts. No need to try and bury things beneath the dirt. They'll just resurface the next time a flood comes.
***** Glare from the camera can be pretty bad. That's why some photographers ask that I take off my glasses if I'm pretty close to the camera.
***** Can't tell if you are joking or just trolling...
oi! Carmageddon was so awesome! Nobody thought i was an antisocial murder machine! no one alive at least.
Hating on DoA,Carmageddon and DD Neon. This show reached new levels of pleb.
This guy seems to be the kind of person that "doesn't get it".
I'd hate to see what he considers good.
Eh I'm on the level with him. Must of hurt your feelings on the flappy bird comment lol.
Hey there! I'm right here. Always watching...
Love your show PBS. Keep up the good work.
Miles Bridges Ha! Mobile gaming.
***** I think he is just saying how some game designers try to replace real game play and content with violence and sex.
Since when do video games have to have some sort of moral obligation? Books, movies and tv shows are equally used as crazy fantasy simulators yet how much flack do they get for violence and gore? And since when did a game have to have some sort of social commentary to be good? I thought games were about having fun- not telling me about the horrors of violence. Games don't have to be deep or provocative: they can be but don't have to be. They can tell me about the horrors of violence, but nothing obligates them to. There's nothing that requires games to stay within real world social guide lines or boundaries- for example: GTA. The vast majority of people don't murder, torture, get into fights, steal or go recklessly over the speed limit but these things are common in GTA. Does this make GTA or the people that play it awful? Not in my opinion no and the same goes for everyone that watches action flicks, watches wrestling or reads murder mysteries. The presence of violence in these things is not a bad thing simply by default and any commentary on the subject does not somehow magically elevate these things. Games are for fun- they are good as long as they are enjoyable and bad when they are unenjoyable. Unless a game's venture into what irl we consider strange, unusual or wrong is to a genuinely repugnant level then the game's use of things such as violence and sexuality are not necessarily bad things.
GTA is consistently one of the more preachy releases in the games industry. Games are bad when they are neither fun, are exploitative and/or offensive. No one called GTA a bad game for any of those things anyway, because they're fun and hold a mirror successfully to reality, even though they're becoming increasingly trite.
I think you'll find bad books and bad films do get called out though. What a terrible argument.
Adam Woods
The extremes of film/book I can think of that have gotten called out in recent memory don't match up to the levels of the games that get called out. 50 Shades of Grey for sexuality and Serbian Film/Human Centipede for insane gore/violence. But in games the only similar things I can think of is Manhunt for violence and Ride to Retribution for badly done sexuality. In gaming things like Mass Effect and Dragon Age get called out in popular media for stuff that isn't nearly as bad- you remember when there was a thing over being able to have 'relationships' with npc's? Heck years ago D&D (table top game, I know) got called out for witchcraft and causing people to commit suicide. COD gets called out for turning people into murderers. The respective levels of extreme content versus media coverage is very different between games and other mediums.
It seems to me like that's only because it's a newer medium. Music, movies, and books have all been incredibly vilified at times. Remember all the bullshit the PMRC kicked up? Not to mention book burnings.
Let's not forget Big Rigs over the road Racing, Superman64, and Sonic Boom!
+CoolDudeClem BBBIIIIIGG RIIIGGGS
Also, Takeshi's Challenge
+Xx_sphagetti_xX nonscoper No. It's bad. In fact, it was purposely designed to be bad.
Dead or Alive isn't "morally bad"
It's just goofy fan service
A morally bad game is Ethnic Cleansing (silvermania has a LP of it)
I find DOA morally bad. A matter of perspective.
fair enough!
Kellmachine I can't help but find it weird when I see a girl defending DOA to a guy. Neat seeing a change from what might be considered "the norm" though.
I defend is yes and no
The concept of the game is about sexually objectifying women
But on the other hand is a half naked woman so obscene it must be blurred out? Why aren't the blood and guts in this video blurred out? How is that any better? That brings up a whole other side of the objectifying issue
I'm kinda torn
I've seen people LP this game and it's honestly just goofy and pretty innocent compared to most games of a similar nature
and the fact that it even has so many female characters I can't hate the game
I never played DOA, because i really have no interest in those kinds of games, but to me they don't seem that dangerous. I doubt that anyone takes them too seriously for it to really matter, it is like you said really goofy
You can actually win Carmageddon in three different ways, racing, killing people or destroying the other cars.
I quite liked Carmageddon. :s
MMDE Me too, I'm looking forward to the new one.
Did you know there is an Android port of Carmageddon? I just played it through and it was still an extremely entertaining game.
Add there's the fact that Flappy Bird is ONLY popular BECAUSE of the addiction.
The programming is AWFUL in it. Notice how many times you CLEARLY die when you DON'T HIT ANYTHING. The programming screams that this was a game put together in a matter of weeks and pushed out for a cash grab, (much like Angry Birds, except even AB had a little more time and effort put in) and it worked, AMAZINGLY.
Gone Home; It's painfully short, the plot is minuscule and uninteresting, the writing is juvenile, the music is terrible, but it's greatest crime is the absence of anything even remotely resembling actual gameplay.
Couldn't you just chalk up games like Dead or Alive: Beach Volleyball and Carmageddon as guilty pleasures? It's not like DoA: Beach Volleyball or Carmageddon ever tried to make the case that there's substance in their gameplay.
Not everything we experience needs to have substance in it. You yourself even say, when addressing Steel Battalion's overly complex controls, "I don't want to take months of study to learn how to drive an actual tank. I want to drive around, and I want to blow things up." That sounds an awful lot like titillation for titillation's sake. But you know what? There's nothing wrong with that.
Some people like senseless mayhem in an environment where they know people won't get hurt. Some people like fictional boobies.......... Some people just want to drive around in a tank and blow things up.
Big Rigs anyone?
A common response!
I wouldn't call Flappy Bird the worst ever, since I actually played awful shit like Superman 64 and ET (seriously, ET was the FIRST GAME I OWNED), but I'm totally in agreement with the horrible situation it has caused. The App Store is littered with clones after the maker took it down, and I've met so many people that use it as a point of reference for games now. I was playing Bravely Default the other day at a bus stop and someone came by asking if I was playing Flappy Bird on it. I of course said no, showed them it was Bravely Default, and the response I got was "why would you want something that complicated?"
I died a little inside that day.
*sees a clip from Squid Girl*
*+5 respect*
Digged on Double Dragon Neon -10 respect
Both of you forgot your wands at home. *-5 points from Gryffindor*
Flappy Bird just being functional keeps it from being the worst game of all time.
Big Rigs Racing anyone?
For more bad games, watch the Angry Video Game Nerd.
Okay.. next time remember to put the lenses on your glasses....
Carmageddon was ace, and wrong, its possible to complete that game without killing anyone. You win each race by either running everyone over, defeat all racers by ramming them or.... complete the race by passing through all the checkpoints.
+kudosbudo if fact its almost impossible and in some cases actually impossible to win by running everyone over because even on small maps there are A LOT of people and the game design doesn't really focus on making them all accessible. I usually like these videos but that comment smacks of never playing the game but instead reading news articles written on it.
*****
Not everyone takes the time to run everyone over but whatever. Only played them all.....to death...but whatever.
+kudosbudo sorry i can see how that could have been misread i mean the comment made in the video about Carmageddon being a bad game not your comment your 100% right in your comment i just wanted to expand on it
Ok ok, no probs.
Okay, you missed one archetype of bad games. The"Poorly Coded and Rushed Games". And in that, Ride To Hell:Retribution and Big Rigs:Over the Road Racing.
Not to mention the most (un)popular one, SONIC '06.
Sean Fronteras Actually big rigs over the road racing is the lowest rated game ever made. It got 1 from almost every reviewer ever.
applefacemoron There was even reviewers who refused to give it a score of not being able to rate it lower than 0
I'm not even sure Big Rigs counts as a game. It's certainly not a racing game.
Fun fact, the 'coder' for Big Rigs, Sergei Titov went on to make WarZ.
Floydthefuckbag Also, another fun fact, they released it in it's pre-alpha stage to make profits. And that Big Rigs was Stellar Stones best selling video game with 26,000 copies sold.
Worst games are games that don't work. Case in point, Big Rigs: Over The Road Racing.
By the way, I think this is relevant:
"An artist's responsibility is to be irresponsible. As soon as you start to think about social or political responsibility, you've amputated the best limbs you've got as an artist. You are plugging into a very restrictive system that is going to push and mold you, and is going to make your art totally useless and ineffective." - David Cronenberg
Couldn't have said better myself.
This should really be "What are my worst videogames ever?".
This IS PBS. Better not push the envelope, don't show those digital boobs. Followed by some guy exploding in carmageddon.
uhh I actually loved double dragon neon. It was fun, had good gameplay, was a constant parody of the 80's, and had a great soundtrack.
When the host mentioned Double Dragon Neon, I thought he was going to segue into the 360 "remake" of Double Dragon 2. When he went on to trash Neon, I immediately paused and disliked the video, then went down to the comments to see if I was the crazy one or if the host was. Thank you for affirming that the host is the crazy one, Neon was awesome!
EDIT: 2 seconds after unpausing, the host goes on to talk about how cool and gritty the original game was in the 80s...while showing footage of Super Double Dragon on SNES, released in the 90s. Fuck this guy.
Skeletroy . I like his thought provoking videos, but his tastes in games are kinda shit.
Carmageddon was awesome!!!
yeah i played it as a little kid, funny how i haven't committed mass murder... YET
lol
LOL They media overreacts to things like that. Also, in the video the guy states that all you have to do is run people over. This is false however. There are three different ways to win.
Who thinks Flappy Bird is Zen like? The only game where I've been able to get into a zen like trance is Flower.
Thank you for speaking truth about Flappy Bird.
I kind of disagree with you on Carmageddon. Senseless violence is silly, but anyone who even believes that video gamers become more violent due to video games will become offended at anything.
There's nothing conceptually wrong with Carmageddon, it's a simple arcade style game. Essentially any video with fighting in it "promotes" violence in the eyes of those who look for it.
Ok, take for example unreal tournament. It's a renown game, praised for it's excellent design. It has amazing music, mechanics, maps, and replayability. It doesn't, however, have any *real* story. Yes, there's some cool background information that tie in with the other games, but there's no character progression.
It is also considerably more violent than Carmageddon, at least based on the clip of Carmageddon it is. That doesn't mean Carmageddon is a good game, it's just you should not determine a games quality from the amount of blood and gore on the screen.
Unreal tournament is a phenomenal game. We should not rate the quality of games based on the violence inside them, just the age restriction (if even that).
***** There is a plethora of studies showing that video games have little effect on the behavior of anyone. The only correlation with aggressiveness and video games were with the frustrating video games (such as I Want To Be The Guy), not violent ones.
One study proves little, but there are hundreds out there that agree. I never said that video games correlate with antisocial behaviour.
I was trying to make a point that Carmageddon may not be great, but that's not because it's violent. Many amazing games are far more gruesome.
My point is violence, in no way, determines the quality of a video game. It has nothing to do with whether people think it causes antisocial behavior.
ET didn't kill Atari. Atari killed Atari. They didn't know how to do business. Watch Atari: Game Over (its on Netflix) and the guys who ran Atari will tell you why ET isn't a bad game and why it didn't kill their business.
^ This. Although E.T. was a bad game, it wasn't responsible for the gaming bubble collapse.
+TheMechanicalReaper ET was a bad game it was so bad that they buried it in the Mohave Desert and then denied they did so for years
+TheMechanicalReaper ET isn't a bad game, by atari standards and it only killed Atari, because they made a horrible business decision, by making too many copys of the game without proper research how the game will sell. There where so many bad atari games out there by 3th party developers, that the mainstream market just lost interest in buying another 60-100$ game that will just turn out to be a waste of money.
You lost me in carmageddon, and even more on flappy bird
I still have an Atari 2600 that still works, and, yes, I have ET that still works. When I was little, I didn't really understand how the game and the movie were at all connected other than the name.
OK I got it
I think there is a disparity between popularly bad games and the actual worst games ever made. Really, really terrible games are painful to play. They can be uneventful, poorly laid-out, and full of game-breaking bugs, as opposed to the sort of "bad games" that the community tends to pick up like Ride to Hell: Retribution or Superman 64 that are bad in ways that are particularly entertaining. (Also I'm not defending Ride to Hell. Screw that game.)
>Carmageddon is bad
... Now you're just saying any shooter is bad.
At least most shooters people are shooting back at you, there is some general reason for all the brutal murder.
enFUSIED There is a reason in Carmageddon too. I've only played Carma2, but the object of the game is either to finish the race first, destroy the cars of all your opponents (like in Demolition Derby) or kill all the pedestrians in the level. Doing the first is impossible because you have too little time to do it and the only way to get more time is to do the other two things for bonus time. Killing all the pedestrians requires A LOT of time, so usually the best way to win the game is to destroy the cars of other drivers. And that's a lot of fun.
As for the moral questionability: it's gore for gore's sake. The same reason slasher films exist and why currently a lot of intentionally bad films (like Iron Sky) still manage to draw crowds who are consciously willing to pay for it and not being suckered into it, like with rip-off games. It is really not any more or less morally questionable than running around with a gun in a game and killing enemy soldiers. Or zombies. Or aliens. It is a game about doing what no normal sane person would do in real life and that's what makes it fun.
B-sting.nl Good point, but i guess its the thing of having a "positive" objective that i would say is the uncertainty. Personally i'm not a fan of gore for gore's sake but when it helps deliver a certain experience it helps. (Games like Dead Space needed it to establish the degree of horror and the ideas of it being a traumatic experience). I'm not quite sure about running over innocent pedestrians as an objective (brace for nobility crap) less morally objectionable of an objective as perhaps "saving the world" and protecting innocents. (Goes into deep conversation about morality in terms of computer games)
breast physics or best physics. Love the butt jiggle.
Why the hate for Carmageddon? I know it's quite violent, but the game is very well executed. It has problems, but it is fun as hell. Besides, Carmageddon never once takes itself seriously. If you want a truly morally reprehensible game look at something like Ethnic Cleansing, which is basically neo-nazi propaganda. Oh, and DOA Beach Volleyball is kinda sexist, but it's far from the most sexist game out there. Not so bad.
+mrturret01 The volleyball was pretty decent too, definately wasn't bad or non existent plus I had fun with the rpgish elements of buying different outifits and so on.
+mrturret01 The volleyball was actually pretty decent, definitely wasn't bad or non existent, I remember feeling like it was quite polished. Plus I had fun with the rpgish elements of buying different outifits and so on.
I dont think its sexist so much as objectifying but you know, it is what it is and bikini babes aside the visuals and settings were quite stunning.
He must hate Grindhouse and Martin Scorsese films.
I like the Squid Girl reference, although the context of the clip was that she was so strong she actually crushed the controller on accident.
I don't think that "Custards Last Stand" the Arcade game should have ever been made... I just... why?
Carmageddan was great. I love that game.
"everyone loved E.T." i strongly disagree!
ET is the most scary thing ive ever see in any media, its the most horrifying creature that i ever seen. felt like that when i was 5 and still feel like it today. /cry
same here, my dad used to scare me with ET images :P
i more mean like the mean dad that just trolls his kids with mean/stupid jokes all the time. im not saying he should die or anything >.
Who would wear glasses without lenses in .... seriously?
this episode is a lot better than your last few, thanks for improving
I don't think Double Dragon Neon was a terrible game. I played the original back in the arcades and it was a blast. Neon was a good rendition, not a good one, but with a friend to play with a good time. It's just meh in the worst scenario.
A bad DD game was DD3 or the 1 on 1 fighting DD game :/
how is "dead or alive beach volleyball" morally reprehensible? I mean, who doesn't like boobs.
I consider bad games those which does not reach my expectations, but really, with this one you already know what you are gonna get, and if you do get it, is because you like it, it's a good boob game, for those who like boob games.
I'm not really sure why you tossed QWOP in there at the beginning, lumping it in with Duke Nukem Forever because it has "frustrating controls"...which is true of course. But it doesn't even come close to being a BAD game. It doesn't even meet much of your own criteria for what usually makes a bad game. It's free to play, doesn't attempt to meet any expectations, and is incredibly memorable. We can all relate to thinking of the "I'll just make him do the splits and then wiggle my way to the finish line" strategy. It's badness (ie. being frustrating) is really part of the fun. Anyhow, cheers dude! I love this channel!
Metroid Other M vs Metroid Prime is an interesting study. I remember when Prime came out everyone was outraged because "Metroids ain't no FPS!" Nowadays it's a classic because it was a well designed game with great atmosphere, music, and gameplay. Other M was a more faithful 3D version of the 2D games like Super Metroid, but everyone hated it. Personally, I thought the gameplay (stupid controls aside) was decent. But it was the lame story, misogyny, lack of new items and ideas, and some annoying segments that made it really annoying to play.
I don't understand why "morally reprehensible" is a subcategory of "bad games". I really hope that it isn't being said that "good games" and "morally reprehensible games" are mutually exclusive.
I find that there's a huge difference between games that are guilty pleasures and games that are just trash that have a few gimmicks to move sales. For example, games that have elements that are immensely enjoyable, like well executed gratuitous violence or finely tuned breast physics, but are mediocre in other aspects like story and character development, would be guilty pleasures.
On the other hand, games that have a selling point that's poorly executed and don't any other redeeming qualities would be bad games that are "morally reprehensible".
For example, If you could transplant GTA 5's rampages into a game like Ride To Hell as a mode accessible from the start menu, I believe that there would be a decent number of people who would revisit the game, if for no other reason than just to kill time between Xbox Live or Steam downloads. It won't be game of the year, but who'd pass up a chance to mow down hordes of hipsters?
There is a game available on the App Store, an endless runner called Dead Ahead. Basically, it's an arcade-like game where you ride on a motorcycle and dodge obstacles while shooting zombies, that's it -- no story or characters, no nothing, just upgradable weapons and bikes and a handful of unlockable stages. I suppose, at least for myself, that killing humanoid figures wouldn't be "morally reprehensible" because they exist as zombies, some of which chase you while just as many are just standing around minding their own business and contemplating their own existence; it's pretty satisfying, even if it stirs up the perennial finger-waggers who frown at distasteful games that use bloody, chunky explosions as premise with nothing more to offer. I only bring up Dead Ahead specifically because it sounds similar to Carmageddon, though I haven't played it myself and I'm only going by the description. Also, if there is a question of whether or not Dead Ahead is a "bad game", it currently has a rating of 4.5/5 as an average of 758 reviews.
I fully agree with you. Like I said in my comment, Carmaggedon's objective isn't even running people over... People are time/score bonus. You win each stage by destroying the other cars, it's a demolition derby. So, their choice of words leads me to believe they didn't even play Carmaggedon and are just venting based on hearsay.
Same goes for DoA XBV. The game is clearly a fanservice game in the line of so many japanese echii games. You give gifts, you raise the amount a character likes you, you have casino games, and rhythm games. Volleyball is just one of the many minigame like activities, because the focus is the fanservice. Saying playboy is a bad magazine because the recipe in page 12 isn't up to par with a cook book, is obviously missing the point.
Wow, did you ever get the facts of how ET played a role in the 83 crash WRONG! First, claiming it almost destroyed the video game industry as a whole is completely inaccurate: 1) The crash was a US-only event; the industry was booming in Europe and Japan. 2) The crash only involved the US console market; US arcade and computer titles were still making very good profits.
Second, the game is definitely playable, IF one took the time to read the manual. It had a few glitches, which were easy enough to adapt to, but did detract a bit from gameplay. Overall, it was merely a sub-par title with a highly-repetitive exploration theme. It also sold exceedingly well at 1.5 million units, and is one of the 2600's top-selling titles of all-time.
The problems come from management decisions- Warshaw was only given a few weeks to crank out a game, which meant it was unpolished with minimal testing (as most games took several months to code in for the VCS). Atari also spent millions on licensing, plus millions more on advertising, and even more on producing about 4 million ET cartridges. Lower than expected sales figures combined with excess inventory caused Atari to take a huge financial hit, with $25 million in sales, but a loss of $100 million.
ET was also not the only mistake by Atari which forced them to sell their holdings. The 2600 port of Pac-Man was another snafu, one which also involved a short production period leading to a sub-par product, over-spending on licensing and advertising, and over-production of cartridges (this one they actually produced more Pac-Man carts than there were Atari VCS consoles in existence). Further, Atari blew even more cash on their Swordquest contest- advertising, prizes, coordinating finals, etc. In short, Atari thought themselves invincible and ended up spending more money than they were making.
Unlicensed titles for the 2600 also cut into Atari's profits- ranging from the quality Activision classics, to the really horrid budget titles from Mythicon. Possibly the most infamous of the unlicensed titles was one paid for by Ralston/Purina: Chase the Chuck Wagon, a game based off of dog food.
Finally, new competition put another strain on Atari's finances. Colecovision, Intellivision, Vectrex, and others cut into Atari's bottom-line by breaking their near-monopoly on the video game console market. This was the final straw, which forced Atari to sell many of their holdings. All these factors combined caused retailers to lose faith in the video game console market, cutting prices, thus ushering in the United States Video Game Console Crash of 1983/84.
5:00 I must say it does sound like he's just parroting what's popular internet folklore, especially since his research links clearly state there were other factors involved. Just blindly go with the herd, and popularity will follow. Anywho.....
ET is definitely one of my most hated games, but that's more because of my own nostalgic feelings towards it. As a kid, I couldn't figure out what the hell I was supposed to do, but, just like you said, that was due to me not reading the manual (even though I had the manual jammed in my Sears thingy that held like 64 games or so). Having read the manual as an adult, I can attest to it being "playable," but the redundancy of falling into those pits over and over isn't my thing. Makes me irk just thinking about it.
kamaleon9176 That's a bit harsh of an assessment. Although it is ironic he builds it up in this video, then his link says otherwise (singular, since I've grown to distrust using Wikipedia as a source, even when they get it right). Still, this looks more like a case of skimming over one's source instead of taking the time to fully comprehend.
this man is a hack game journalist. Double Dragon Neon wuz made 4 the fans an not a cash grab. Releasing 4 CODs a year is a cash grab. DOA volleyball was dead on wit it volleyball physics. when he say "Carmaggeddon makes us murderers," he sound jus lyk Bill O'Ryley n Fox News, lyk all da game he praises dont kill ppl. ET sux, but Atari do some stupid stuff besides ET he didnt critisize. PBS Game/Show is lamestream media tryin 2 get views.
klimdar100 That bit about Carmageddon did sound a bit motivated by CNN/Fox-style reporting of the video game industry born of some need to defend it from them (much like some of his references to GTA and the like in other videos). It does seem like he doesn't know he doesn't have to defend the industry to his target audience at times. But, calling him a hack journalist is uncalled for- the central theme to this channel is more shaped around ideas. As such, real journalism takes a back seat to the quasi-philosophy. Though, I was hoping for being in the PBS brand, he'd at least get SOME of the history right. Sigh...
Personally I disagree with your take on Carmageddon. While it certainly isn't teaching me a valuable life lesson, the game doesn't take itself seriously whatsoever. It's a game built around total ridiculous chaos. Also, there are other ways to win the races in Carmageddon, like destroying the other drivers' cars or completing the race itself. Killing pedestrians is probably the hardest and most time consuming way to win.
Those... glasses aren't actually glasses, are they?
No Superman 64?
Superman 64?
Yeah, but the problem with Superman 64 was that it did not work. If it did work, it would probably be okay, but it didn't, leading to it's atrocity. Duke Nukem Forever did work in gameplay and graphic terms, but it was crap. I would rather be falling off the edge of the map over and over than play the piece of garbage.
Garrett Oflaherty No, it would still be crap. If I wanted to fly through rings for half a game I'd play Starfox.
Floydthefuckbag Hey, man, you never know!
Carmageddon 2 is probably my favorite game with cars. But if I do remember correctly, I had zombies instead of people in my version. But I don't think I would love it less if there was people. Because we love game not only because of themes. We love game mechanics, atmosphere and a lot more other things in games.
hehe, i remember getting many enjoyable hours out of carmageddon 2, maybe it was the idea of unlocking new cars that i looked forward too and the huge environments.
Nice job on your speaking volume level during the last few episodes by the way! Episodes were cool as always!
"This is PBS afterall." Huh, so that one documentary that had horses mating with a vivid shot of semen flying everywhere is okay, but a game about female over sexualization is not. Umm, what are the PBS standards for content?
Why on earth do you wear glasses without the lenses. If they cause glare just take the off. Why would you wear empty frames. If they are not empty frames they are the clearest glasses I have ever seen.
A Koala with Shades Glasses are cool
KaratePichu In the future, able people are going to be rolling around in wheel-chairs because they look really cool.
paranoidude They probably are. Wheel-chairs are cool.
A Koala with Shades hipsters gonna hipster
A Koala with Shades Contact lenses.
Let's not overlook the fact that there are no lenses in his frames
Someone hasn't played Guise of the wolf.
for morally reprehensible JFK reloaded is the worst
dude...cant you be objective? you refuse to look at this deeper! why EXACLY is flappy bird bad?....yeah thats what i thought!
I agree with you. I feel like games such as flappy bird and doodle jump are not good but just mainstream. Pop culture and trends play a big role in society and if something goes viral it will be seen as interesting or enjoyable no matter what
I love Deadly Premonition so much and I can't explain why. There's just so many irredeemable aspects to it that it looped around and became incredible.
COD MW3. it was just. . . ugh, so bad.
Flappy bird because it added nothing new. it was just. . . rubbish
Day One Garrys Incident, and although i never played it, i know its bad.
FFX. (or 10) just horrible. horrible acting, horrible mechanics, horrible story. HORRIBLE.
and just as a shoutout to spoony, VCR GOLF. it's technically a video game. its on a vhs, so it counts.
100% agree with everything said in this episode.
Makes me think of that quote from Anna Karenina: "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Same for games perhaps...
0:41 that clip was in angry joe's Dragon Age 2 review...
your glasses have no lenses? why ? ?
I was just thinking that! What's the deal?!
+Wesley Barnhill Maybe to avoid glare? Like they did in Harry Potter?
+Julia Bacak hmm true.... But why wear them then?
+Wesley Barnhill because they don't? :o
+Gitars25 hmmm yes
That seems like a silly reason to hate a game when it comes to flappy bird. You proclaim it to be the worst game ever because it reinforces negative stereotypes about games being a waste of time, but it sounds like you're making the assumption that the creator KNEW the game was going to be popular when if anything, all he expected some minor traffic and add revenue. The creator had no agenda when developing the game, or at least nothing like that.
If you look at the game in a vacuum it's just a game with really simple mechanics and no lasting appeal. So yes, it's a bad game, but the worst game ever? That seems hyperbolic to say the least (ha, irony on my part).
I get that it's an opinion and completely subjective but it seems like an irrational one, given that while it could potentially reinforce stereotypes, you're essentially saying the game is the worst thing ever due to it's popularity. I'm not saying you claimed that specifically but I don't see you hating on games that serve the same purpose, like QWOP. Do you believe that reinforces the same stereotypes? How about Helicopter, which is mechanically identical to this game?
Carmageddon was an amazing game. I still play it today.
It was designed to be moraly reprehensible. It was made to show the difference to the non gamer public who scream about the sadistic nature of all games that there is nothing wrong with zelda or resident evil when compared to carma. Carma was a showcase for just how filthy a game could be, plus a middle finger to anyone without a sense of humour. Film makers do this all the time and nothing ever gets said about them.
Why was this video not called "What makes bad games bad", it was barely mentioning actual bad games. Also Carmaggedon was actually freaking awesome.
This has to be the worst list ever and your wrong on almost all of it for example e.t didn't nearly kill the video game industry, the video game industry killed itself and considering e.t was made in about six weeks is quite an accomplishment. As for flappy bird being the "worst game ever" is a bit of a joke, it was made by one guy and shows anyone can make a game in which case should be applauded, oh and fyi if it wasn't for carmaggedon we probably wouldn't have had gta, crazy taxi, burnout, driver, saints row etc.
Looks like you haven't played Carmageddon/Carmageddon Splat pack/ Carpocalypse now/TDR 2000... The game isn't only about murdering people, and it doesn't take itself to serious
One of the missions in Carmageddon TDR 2000 is collecting pieces of something to bring to life a giant mechanical monkey to later escape of the level.
It is a violent game but it uses that for a lot of jokes and parodies, it isn't like Manhunt or Hitman (I love both of them, but they are only about murdering people.)
Isn't Hitman about killing a specific target, with civilian deaths detracting from your score?
I think Flappy Bird was successful because it was a nearly perfect casual game. All the unnecessary extras were stripped away. Wanting something casual doesn’t mean wanting something easy, and FB provided a challenge. And lack of depth can be a feature in a casual game.
It is a guilty pleasure, but every summer I break out Dead or Alive Extreme for the 360. First beyond the -you know- , the volleyball is really fun. Moreover what is wrong with it? I mean people read trashy romance novels and the idea behind it is just the same: escapism.
Also carmageddon is a nothing more besides a toned down Cannonball Run. In the movie Cannonball Run .. rest homes would role there oldest out in the streets just to get hit by cars. Why does something like that not mess up movies as in general.
These are just two example .. I hate how video games are treated so differentially then anything else.
Morally reprehensible should NOT have been a category. Games are a world where morals are completely irrelevant because no real people can actually be hurt in any way. To impose moral restrictions onto them is pathetic and pointless.
Now, games where the gameplay actually suffered due to the focus on being provocative are one thing. But if the gameplay is good, then morals are irrelevant.
No morals definitely have a role to play in any art form. if your book encourages and justifies genocide then it is a bad book, Birth of a Nation was a technical marvel of cinema as as well as a piece of horrible KKK propaganda, and when your game has an achievement for *killing black people* like call of juarez, then that is a morally reprehensible game.
SketchyHippopotamus If that book that encourages genocide was actually a truly great book aside from it's morals, it would still be a great book. If the gameplay itself is good enough to stand on it's own, the morals of the game are irrelevant to quality. Call of Juarez having an achievement for killing black people is certainly reprehensible, but if the gameplay was incredible (Which it wasn't), that would have excused it.
then why don't we consider birth of a nation a classic?
No one looks at Gta's behavior and thinks it's a realistic perception of life. It's the background assumptions of a work that we have to watch. Sure Gta lets you kill dozens of people. But it also doesn't portray black people in a particularly racist way, which would be very easy to do.
doing the first one doesn't make you morally reprehensible, but *not* doing the second one does.
How is Flappy Bird the worst game ever? There are probably worst games that can come out of the app store than this game. Saying the popularity made it bad is like saying PewDiePie is the worst youtuber ever. Your second arguement against the game can go with most games today. Is pong the worst game ever because of these same reasons? Flappy bird is not the best or the worst game ever because it had a goal in mind and accomplished it.
... But Pew is the worst ever? And he earned that title when Fred closed up shop
***** No, not even close, you're an idiot.
Can it be that flappy bird is so bad that becomes so good?
I for one think that Carmageddon only exists because some dev wanted to use the word Carmageddon.
Your list of "bad" games:
Flappy bird
Double Dragon Neon
WarZ
Dead or Alive Volleyball
Carmageddon
ET
Street Fighter: the Movie: The Game
Steel Battalion
China Miner
DDN wasn't bad, I'd give it around a 7/10. Carmageddon wasn't meant to be taken seriously. With your logic, Wolfenstein 3D is just as bad because of how you kill hundreds of humans. DOA: V was a decent volleyball game with fanservice, and fanservice is not bad unless that's the only reason to play a game. Not sure about the rest.
Jamin's logic on video games is different from mine, so yeah. His list is just completely based on his own bias, even though he thinks it is science behind all that(maybe, except for Flappy Bird and that game at last). I hardly played any games he mentioned, but Carmagedon is a bad game? It looks like just another game that just intends to give the players a whole lot of gore, nothing else. If Jamin considers a game that delivers nothing but mindless gore, a bad game, won't games like Wolfenstein 3D be a bad game as well? Finally, Jamin's conclusion, oh god, he just spends 30 seconds with a quote to justify , what I consider, harsh criticisms as a so-called "celebration?"
joshua33112
I guess he's one of those "mature games for mature gamers like myself" or "video games are art" people, as the ones I defended aren't meant to be taken seriously at all.
Also, it's highly contradictory to desire that games should be considered art, and then complain about the style of the game.
Flappy Bird? Really?! Come on... That's just stupid. It's a very simple game with a very simple premise. It does what it does exactly the way it wants to. It does not aim higher, it does not need more, it's okay the way it is.
On the other hand you have horrible shitty cash grabs like Dungeon Keeper Mobile that are as abhorrent as anything you can imagine. But hey, Flappy Bird. Because people are talking about.
You're just the opposite side of the whole bandwagon.
*****
That's just not true. You have absolutely no evidence for that except for "I think it's true so it must be true".
***** Pewdiepie only HELPED MAKE Flappy Bird popular. People weren't playing it because Pewdiepie played it, people played it because they saw him play it, thought it looked interesting, and got it themselves. Then, if they LIKED playing it, they showed it to their friends. If their friends liked it, they would show it to their friends. Etc, etc. The fact that it helps people "fit in" is just a nice bonus.
Vouk73 WELCOME TO GAME THEORY WATCH THE VIDEO :3 Game theory explains why he's kinda right. But hey it's just a theory a tame theory thanks for "reading".
Vouk73 There's a Game Theory video that explains it. Also, just because a game has everything it needs to function doesn't mean it can't be bad. Duke Nukem forever was solid and it lacked content, but it was still shit.
Flappy Bird is the definition of a cash grab. They just exploited Mario, Angry Birds, and The Helicopter Game to make money. Deplorable.
one of my friends called dead or alive a boob physics simulator
I just wanna say that I would love to take months of study to drive an actual tank... but that could just be me.
Why do you wear glasses with no lenses?
Headaches from glare but im pretty sure he wears them normally i think
My worst game series of all time is GTA, for the reasons you cited Carmageddon.
I know there is a whole universe of subtlety to GTA games that isn't in Carmageddon but the core problem, to me, stays the same: people play it to "blow off some steam" living a fantasized "antisocial violent" life. I wouldn't say gamers are that antisocial cliché as a whole, but to appreciate a game like this, that has for principal message that "crime is cool", you have to have this antisocial part in you, and pouring water and sunlight on this plant is not gonna kill it.
The fact that the biggest gaming budgets go into games with so little philosophical meaning is, for me, a big big obstacle to the perception of videogames as art, for people outside of the gaming community.
In that sense, I believe Carmageddon is not as much of a problem, because it's still a cheap, stupid game with little impact.
GTA V is the immensely expensive and well-crafted version of Carmageddon that everybody plays, and that disturbs me a lot.
Hope you find my thoughts interesting. Keep up the good work!
It's not because "crime is cool" it's because it's fun to play? Matter of fact how do you get "crime is cool" from it? One, committing crimes such as murder leads waves of officers in cars, helicopters and tanks, and two, one of the characters only starts committing crimes and heists to pay off a debt. And it's only the insane character who enjoys murder. I doubt you've played the game because their's a lot more to it than *drive around and hit people*
SuperRoadrunner12 A game is supposed to be made of fun. So the things that the player has to do in them must be seen as fun. I played the game, until I was forced to torture an innocent man to fully complete a mission.
So committing a crime leads to being pursued by policemen, which is inherently tons of fun, just fleeing them.
That's my perception of it, and I wouldn't want to force anybody to agree with me, but using the "completely innocent family-friendly game" on this series is just level 100 of BS.
MinorCirrus
Well a game isn't necessarily meant to be made for fun, games can intentionally inspire a range of emotions. That said, I would never deny that 'fun' isn't part of the intention with GTA. I think your comments are fair but I also feel that the emphasis has moved away from this as the series has grown up. Progressively since GTA3 it's been aspiring to be the videogame equivalent of a gritty crime drama. If there's anything to criticise it for, it's the disconnect the plot has with the gameplay. Anyway, outside of the story, the decision to commit crime is down to the player.
+MinorCirrus You are aware that not all games were made with fun in mind right? Ever played a rage game such as Mario 2 or Super Meatboy or VVVVVV? These games are difficult. Very difficult. They're *smash the monitor and crush the controller* difficult. To some, that's fun to others, that's the exact opposite of fun.
And fun overall is subjective. I know people who find GTA V boring and I know people who think Shadow the Hedgehog is the best game ever. But the reason big budget games aren't that philosophical is because not as many people want creativity. The best selling games are sequels with updated gameplay, not completely new gameplay styles. Look at CoD for example. But I like GTA because it's an excellently crafted sequel that not only follows the gameplay formula from 4 but at the same time is so much more expansive and in depth. It's not *artsy* or *fun* enough for you but for most people it is at least more than fun enough for them.
You also could think through disappointment with Heideggers Equipment, the ready-to-hand, present-at-hand, not-ready-to-hand etc.
I don't think Flappy is really the worst. The game is actually a "normal" casual game that can be played on regular free time. But it's how the social treat it that makes the game feels unenjoyable. That some people can played it to the very end and makes the others who struggle in the very beginning annoyed as it seems easy yet they can't afford what the others can. But I do agree that the sound effect and flashing screen on game over do shock me a lot and anyone could get angry out of that.
I disagree game like carmegedon are venting games. No less valid than say jason or generic 90's action movie. Manhunt amazing game. It is horror. But you play jason rather than run form him. But it also has deeper meaning. I looks at society. How the disenfranchised are objectified. and it put you in a no win situation. Or postal 2. Yes is its immature, so is south park. Which the running gang you killed kenny you bastard or venture bros preclone lab destruction or any time brock samson gets murder wood. they do have value in that they can be used to vent frustration or do stupid stuff.
I'm sorry, but you start to sound like David Cage when condemning games like DOA Extreme Beach Volleyball and Carmageddon. Sure they are basically exploitation, but so are tons and tons of movies as well. Just because you don't like that, it doesn't mean they don't have the right to exist. And no, games like these don't constitute anything to "gamer stereotypes". Stereotypical gamers' behavior does.
This is the game show? What a blatant mischaracterization of Carmageddon. It's a racing game where you also run over pedestrians. How is this different to GTA?
He never said that they had no right to exist.
And I didn't say he did. Though he said the sole aim of the game is to run down pedestrians.
First time seeing your videos. Now new subscriber. :)
I have had so much much playing Carmageddon II: Carpocalypse Now. I tried the first one but if I remember correctly the controls were too stiff and it wasn't fun at all, so I didn't bother spending much time with it.
Carmageddon II, however, is almost like a sandbox game, but with cars. You can go pretty much anywhere, and some of the maps are so huge it can take you hours to explore. Sure, there's only a point in doing so if you're aiming to find upgrades and just get a kick out of finding hidden places, which is my case. It's not just about running people over, it just gives you that option. You can also race and try to, and with almost all certainty, finish first, because your opponents quickly get busy crashing against each others or just get lost and drive around a bit aimlessly, so racing ends up not being that much fun most of the time, but you can always do it even if just to "chill" by cruising around. And you can play to just cause as much destruction as possible and win by ultimately, after having explored for as long as you felt like it and ran over many pedestrians, getting to that one opponent that's left that's so damaged it can hardly move, and just destroy it to win the "race". I found myself doing a little bit of everything most of the time, and setting goals for myself as plain as getting to the top of a certain building. The controls were also really good. I don't I ever had such a smooth gaming experience in a driving game. Then again, I don't care much for driving games unless they offer something other than just racing. I liked Speed Devils, for example. That was fun.
I disagree with this list.
You try and categorize bad games in archetypes, but within these archetypes there are games that are good. So how can an archetype for bad games also be a construct of good/popular games. Some of these game might night be "the best" but they are far from "BAD"
"games with characters that are for shows t.v."
this means that duck tales (original), marvel vs capcom, Lion king (genesis), Golden eye, Lego series
"games too much violence or games that are overtly sexy" - Doom, wolfenstein, mortal kombat, GTA, dead space, bayonetta, Dead or alive, lolipop chainsaw
"Cheap knockoffs"- no idea about this. most of the time the same people work on the second version of the game. but there are some strong mario clones.
"Impossible difficult game"- castlevania, battle toads, ghost and goblins, ghouls and ghosts. These are HARD games. They don't fuck around.
and lastly "games with high expectations but fail"- I agree with the games that fall flat on their face are bad, their intent has nothing to do with it. A game works or it doesn't. Which brings me to what I think makes a game good or bad. The game has to have good design and well executed mechanics and all these other peripherals fall to the side.
I agree with you. I think the last archetype is the important one though. The ones PBS put up was in the same archetypes as the ones you put up but didn't meet the expectations of a good game within that archetype. This also takes some personal preference into account since not everyone expects the same from different archetypes.
In short: what you said :P
Though I would add one more. I would add games that makes the promise of depicting reality but then delivers false facts about what happens. You could call these "racist" games or just "lying" games. This is one reason I prefer games that are played in a clearly other world than ours.
Maybe it can exists bad and good games in this archetype too. You could argue that GTA almost claims that they depict reality and that they don't present false facts. In a way you could argue that a lot of games could be believed to depict reality. Still... I think some are quite clear on defining their departure from our world (GTA gunfights must by most be described as a spectacle).
Extra Creditz had an episode on this I think. They describe it much better than I do. Think it was called "Racism in games" or something like that.
why americans are so afraid and angry on DoA volleyball?
but that's this game selling point I found it hilarious its absurd and sexy
The thing is they spent so much time on the boobs that they ignored, you know, making a compelling and fun video game that could compete with other volleyball titles.
SrGurkman I think it's game about tits... It is a soft porn game: saing to "spent so mouch time on boobs" it's like saying that FPS has to big focus on shooting.
Dawid
Thank you, for god sake the sequel didn't even put the word "volleyball" in the damn title. Team Ninja knew what they were doing and so did their straight male fanbase who were already invested in the jiggle.
Actually thinking it was a legit volleyball game means you probably weren't the intended audience to begin with.
The Dynast Queen
Actually, the volleyball in the first one wasn't all that bad. Yes it was a bit shallow, but it was playable and somewhat enjoyable. The problem was the volleyball somehow got worse in the sequel, which doesn't make since all they really needed to do was port it over from the original.
Even though I didn't like any of these games, I found this episode to be really bad. The biggest problem, I think, is this underlying assumption that there exists some kind of absolute, objective "badness", something that's just not true.
Forgot 'Rapelay' as king of the morally ambiguous games. Carmaggeddon is a joy though. The game was made for stupid fun and only has it's notoriety today because it was an early target in the 90's of the great American-led 'moral panic over games'.
(Trigger warning.) Ride to Hell is about as bad as it gets. You play as a shallow, poorly acted psychopath in a universe where women (literally) reward you with sex when you save them from being sexually assaulted. At times in the same room that you *murdered* the person that attacked them.
Really? You think that's bad? No no no, true digital diarrhea would be Custer's Revenge. Sure, there is the unfunny absurdity in the situation presented in Ride to Hell. However, it's a lot better than playing as a rapist who violent thrusts into a woman. Custer's Revenge in a nutshell, cowboy rapes native woman. I like dark humor and all, but Custer's Revenge should never have been thought up. Even with the overly simplistic graphics, that is just nasty.
"Better" doesn't really apply when we're talking about *any* poor usage of sexual assault in a video game (or any media). It's a violent and invasive crime that does lasting psychological damage to the victim; there's no value in trying to paint it as "dark humor" or "absurdity." This is very sensitive subject matter and it really shouldn't be thrown around this way. It gives the enemies of video games a lot of ammo against the entire medium and it potentially hurts people. :(
Thade
I'm saying better because the main character isn't conducting the sexual assault. I don't imply that the game is any good. I'm not saying it isn't lewd and pathetic, either. I'm just saying it's better than playing as the rapist. Ride to Hell does have problems, but it's still not as bad as any of the crap from Mystique's games, with Custer's Revenge being the worst of the lot. How can you not identify a game where you rape a woman who's tied to a cactus as the worst game ever?
Oh, and I said "unfunny absurdity", not just absurdity. I'm implying that the content is not entertaining because it's absolutely ridiculous. Absurdity doesn't always apply to something that is laughable. Obviously, the various caricatures are just that, ridiculous and not entertaining.
One other thing. I said I'm into dark humor. I didn't label any of the games as dark humor. My intent in mentioning my interest is to show that while I like disturbing content, I don't like what is presented. People do pay more attention when a racy comedian says something is messed up then they do a "prude". It's also part of the reason why I used the word "diarrhea" in my comment. Although a lewd comment, it is done to give a better impression of how poor I consider Custer's Revenge. Also why I say Custer's Revenge is the worst game ever.
Neko Vermillion I think what people fail to forget is that Custer's Revenge was a porn game. People have a thing for rape porn, so there's Custer's Revenge for them. Then again, I have no idea why anyone would want to get their jolly's off at the game, if that was even possible at the time period, but hey, whatever floats their boat.
Sexual assault is evil. Period. Sexual assault used in an entertainment medium, whether it's the focus or not, whether "someone is into watching it" or not, whether it's "just acting", nothing negates the fact that it's evil and deviant.
Don't defend it.
Disliked because of your hopeless and inaccurate review of a game you've clearly never played. I assume you know which game I mean. Maybe you've never played any of them. Who knows?
Carmageddon isn't a bad game and its main objective was not just running people over...
Saying that flappy bird damages the image of videogames is like saying that paddle balls do the same to racket sports.