What are your cursed games? Do you love a game despite its many, seemingly insurmountable flaws and general awfulness? You just can’t help it. It’s in your gut. There is a cursed game for everyone, and it almost always evokes a strong feeling of Schadenfreude, too.
A cursed videogame is, I think, any game that feels like it should be a Simpsons background gag or the game people are playing on-screen in a videogame-themed episode of Law & Order: SVU. The Mystery of the Druids, Limbo of the Lost, the Eragon movie tie-in, Golf Magazine: 36 Great Holes Starring Fred Couples, and the 2014 Thief reboot, there is a case to be made for “cursed” status for all these games.
We all have them, though. One of the cursed games is probably The Spongebob Squarepants Movie: The Game, released for sixth generation consoles and based on the Battle for Bikini Bottom engine that also underpins Doom. A crystalized memory of being nine years old, sat on the floor of parents’ finished basement in front of one of those massive aughts-era rear projection TVs. Playing The Spongebob Squarepants Movie: The Game on original Xbox, but listening to dad’s CD of the U2 album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, on dad’s old Sony Discman.
We asked around the PC Game Spotlight office what their cursed games were, and there have been answers shared in our forum, too. Here are the answers, as well as some from the community.
Robin Valentine, Senior Editor
“Cursed” is definitely the word Robin would use to describe Let It Die. Played for hours, and still thinks it’s terrible. But can’t stop.
Mollie Taylor, Features Producer
What if The Sims was all boobs and also really, really bad?
Lauren Aitken, Guides Editor
Not sure everyone would agree it’s cursed, but for Lauren, Spore definitely was. Another would probably be Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time. Not necessarily a curse, but still has an emotional attachment to it.
Rich Stanton, Senior Editor
Rich's secret shame is a mobile game: Deer Hunter. Has spent $200 on it.
Evan Lahti, Editor-in-Chief
Sure, since y’asked nice, Evan will gab about a game that broke his heart: reviewed LawBreakers.
Harvey Randall, Staff Writer
When Harvey was a kid, played the hell out of Adventure Quest’s flash version. Then there was Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue for the PS1.
Jacob Ridley, Senior Hardware Editor
Jacob played a whole lot of Xbox 360 arcade game ‘No Luca No’ in his younger years.
And a few more from our forum:
“I spent so much time on Dark Age of Camelot,” says Mr_Whispie. “The game was terrible, but I’d play it for hours and hours.”
“I spent hours on Guitar Hero 2 back in the day,” says Dr_Zomboss. “As a drummer, I was pretty good, but the game itself was a bit of a mess.”
