5 Great Games with Bad Reputations

Many people think the Paper Mario series peaked at the GameCube entry, The Thousand Year Door. However, the later entries in the series are not worthy of their bad reputations, especially not Origami King. While Origami King was criticized for its weird battle system that involved rotating the battlefield to line up enemies, the positives far outweigh the negatives. The battles actually get quite engaging and strategic as the game progresses. In addition, the game has a deep story, memorable locations, and characters who might make you shed a little tear.

3. Roller Coaster Tycoon 3

When the popular theme park sim series took its leap into 3D, not everyone was impressed. The game gained a bad reputation for its janky camera and missing features. However, many of those flaws were fixed in the game’s two expansion packs, which also added fun features like pools, waterslides, and zoo exhibits. Both expansion packs are included in the Complete Edition, which is definitely the way to play it. There’s a huge selection of rides that you can ride in a POV mode, a day and night cycle, and fun new features such as VIP visits and customizable fireworks displays. This game definitely doesn’t deserve its bad reputation.

4. Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link

Yes, we have two Zelda games in this list. The second game in the series is generally considered the black sheep in the franchise due to its high difficulty and dramatic change in gameplay from the original. Yes, it is difficult, and its difficulty probably contributed heavily to its bad reputation, but you can level Link up to face harder monsters, and it’s difficult in a satisfying way. This game introduced some staples in the Zelda series, such as towns where you can talk to people for clues, and the music, as always for Zelda games, is wonderful. I’d love for Nintendo to try another side scrolling Zelda game.

5. Castlevania 2: Simon’s Quest

YouTube critics love to tear apart this game’s bad translation and cryptic puzzles, which led to its bad reputation. I can’t defend the translation or how a walkthrough is basically required to get anywhere, but we live in the age of the internet where walkthroughs are easily acquired. In addition, this game gets a lot right. The music is awesome and appropriately creepy, and once you know what to do, you have a great sense of adventure and mystery. It may not be as satisfying as Castlevania or Castlevania 3, but it’s a good time on its own.

Conclusion

If you’re interested in a game, but its bad reputation has steered you away from it, you might want to take another look. Of course, there are some games that fully deserve to be bashed, but others are actually a lot of fun, and the flaws might not be as major as a YouTube video would have you believe. So, if you think you’d enjoy a game, check it out. You might just find a new favorite.