10 Worst Games Of 1994

For many of us, 1994 seems like it was only a few years ago, but it has, in fact, been the best part of 30 years since we first got to fire up our SNESes and Mega Drives to play games like Donkey Kong Country, Earthworm Jim, and Super Metroid. But what about those terrible games that hit shelves? Well from Ecstatica to The Death and Return of Superman here are the 10 Worst Games of 1994!
VO: Ashton Matthews (@ScrambledAshton)
Script: Cat Elliot (@cat_elliott_)
#WorstGamesof1994 #Ecstatica #TheDeathandReturnofSuperman
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[@jasonblalock4429]

Ecstatica was actually a pretty decent early survival horror game, inspired by the original Alone In The Dark, but with its own twists. Aside from the slightly silly graphics, I'm a little surprised it scored so low. (And, I mean, AITD looked pretty goofy too.)

[@tomek2736]

I remember how Ecstatica was pretty well received back when it came out too. Also, while it scored 60% on Gamerankings I see that it's based on only 3 reviews (so, no 7 professional reviews minimum reached as stated in the video actually). For contrast, it averaged 86,9% based on 10 reviews on Mobygames (and the "lowest" it got there are three cases of 80%), so I would say that it did indeed do much better than this list lets on.

[@Carlixyz]

Something good it may had because at least they made a sequel...

[@thochaos13]

I liked it too. I found it pretty difficult from memory, and never managed to finish it.

[@mercuryshadow5445]

I loved esctatica, remember having a couple of goofy nights with a friend back in the mid naughties trying not to die in the first 5 minutes

[@AdriftForWeeks]

True! It was scary as hell!

[@AlexTenThousand]

Fun fact, the SNES version of Wolfenstein 3D was originally contracted to a company that went AWOL in a matter of weeks, and when after 9 months the publisher failed to contact them, Id Software itself had to halt everything they were doing and develop the port themselves in just three weeks, resulting in the rather poor port.

[@Lauren_Tyler]

They were especially peeved at Nintendo of America forcing them to censor the game.

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

Those claiming it's terrible have no idea how unsuited the SNES is for sprite scaling. It's a bloody miracle of a port, and thanks to the new automapping feature, I prefer it to the original.

[@ovidiusurubaru9281]

Super Noah arc 3d

[@ashuggtube]

If this is true then it’s amazing

[@AlexTenThousand]

@@juststatedtheobvious9633 oh I'm aware, that's why Yoshi's Island and Doom used additional chips, I'm just saying we shouldn't be surprised they couldn't do more with just a couple of weeks of development time.

[@gfear24]

When only 3 of the 10 worst games scored under 50%, it was a pretty good year.

[@RepKyle95]

I'd say it's more about there being far fewer professional game reviewers, as the true stinkers likely didn't meet the 7 professional reviews criterion for this list.

[@TheGamerFru]

also, it was harder to whine on internet back then

[@lexman7179]

There was probably a lot of crap that year but the reviews aren't around anymore. I'm pretty sure a lot of the games on this list were actually a lot better received than this video makes out.

[@NS-tp8yx]

As someone who actually was there in the nineties this list makes no sense. The Kings Quest game was forgettable but not bad, Ecstatica was actually decent and Dreamweb was a fine game.

[@chrisbg99]

A lot of these have to do with the 7 professional ratings deal. A lot of the real bad games released just kind of went so under the radar they probably weren't even reviewed by more than 1 or 2 outlets if that.

[@jasonblalock4429]

Yeah, if anything this just shows that 1994 was a damn good year for games, when even the "worst" releases are mostly still pretty decent and\or went on to be cult classics.

[@deusprogrammer_thekingofspace]

Games Journalists have never been known for being reliable.

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

@@jasonblalock4429 There were less professional critics back then. No, the games weren't better. Seriously, how gullible are you? They don't even cover the CDi here. Go play Zelda's Adventure, and come back when you can talk sense.

[@licksludgee]

@@jasonblalock4429 agreed, 94 was pretty great

[@CSAudio]

As an unfortunate owner of Rise of the Robots, I can't imagine people giving it ratings high enough for it not to end up on this list

[@mattuw82]

That was the most disappointing game I've ever bought. I remember reading articles hyping that piece of crap for months. I was so excited and it was such a letdown.

[@Phrogly]

Glad to know I wasn’t the most disappointing thing to come out in 94 Edit: My birth is suspiciously close to Shaq Fu though. This can’t be a coincidence!

[@attilathehun0]

The Death and Return of Superman. I'm confident that back in 1994 there were probably 50 games on PC, Console and Hand Helds that were worse.

[@emaheiwa8174]

The Death and Return is a a really good game

[@attilathehun0]

@@emaheiwa8174 Yep!

[@Behon]

2:50 I like how you talk about the game being praised for its sense of humor while showing a bloodied upside-down corpse on a crucifix XD

[@davidmatoushek9111]

I never thought I would see The Journeyman Project on here, but here we are. I sort of grew up with that game back when I had my first computer.

[@TyphonJRT]

Right? My uncle had a copy of Turbo and I played the shit of out of it.

[@Torquenbeans]

Same here

[@currychips]

These lists would be more interesting if they were YOUR choices of 10 worst games, instead of just working off average critic score rankings.

[@mario-mario822]

The fact shaq fu got a sequel and Gitaroo Man hasn't still baffles me lol. I look forward to 1990 worst.

[@Gamesta100]

@@SubxZero94 I loved the demo but never got to play the full game and the game costs too much these days.

[@Mystemo]

These are far FAR from the worst games of 94, a few of them are legit great even.

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

TripleJump is too lazy to care that there's less professional critics back then...especially if you only count surviving reviews.

[@CommodoreFloopjack78]

I used to play 'The Death And Return Of Superman' at a buddy's place all the time and I was freaking in love with that game.

[@austincolenutt]

I loved that game too lol

[@zooropa04]

Ah, the days when EGM editors rated a game low but then still tried to say something kinda nice about it while obviously holding back what they really thought.

[@obzcure]

These lists are always weird. I can't really hold anything against the team for being born too late (or alternatively weren't as into gaming at the time). I understand they are referring to reviews that were likely taken from the time (in some cases professional reviews are still conducted years or decades later) but with out diving into the games yourself they don't exactly get the most accurate representations. I'm not saying these games are good, or even bad, but its hard when even the team aren't sure.

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

The team's just lazy. Playing games like Last Action Hero? Zelda's Adventure? Ballz 3D? You can't possibly be that cruel. It'd be like looking up the number of buttons on a GBA, or honestly reporting the critical reception of Rock N' Roll Racing. It's just asking too much.

[@c.keenan]

The team hasn’t got a clue

[@ClarkeeKat]

Can't believe ecstatica is on this list, that was one of my favourite games as a kid

[@jakerockznoodles]

Me too! I remember when Resident Evil first came out and someone described it to me and I was like "Oh! So it's a bit like Ecstatica!". He had no idea what I was talking about 😭

[@cloudstrife1983]

Point and click game bashed for illogical puzzles? Isn't that a staple of the entire genre though?

[@ShiftyApparition]

"You could've swapped out Superman for basically anyone else" Isn't that sort of what happened in The Death and Return of Superman? Or they tried that because he was "dead" and it went horribly? Oops.

[@tomek2736]

If anything it goes to show how great 1994 was for video gaming when most of these are somewhere between "not half bad" to "okayish" or obscure than outright bad. Even Dreamweb - while reviewed poorly - has it's cult following.

[@andu1854]

The year I graduated from college, and I am still a video game nerd with three kids who also like playing video games

[@alvstar84]

I loved Clayfighter, it’s only in recent years I found out it wasn’t well received. I thought 63 1/3 was awful though and I actually remember not reviewing very well at the time but I still wanted it and I yeah I wish I didn’t but yet funnily enough that one seems generally liked the most by folks today.

[@jesserogalski1402]

See, I was a 64 kid (I'm 30) and remember loving 63 1/3. Replaying it on an emulator a while back, yeah, rose colored glasses. It's not abysmal, but it's not a good fighter.

[@ampjr99]

I had clay fighters in 94 I was 5 going on 6 that year freaking loved it

[@thochaos13]

I had the Mega drive version. It sucked.

[@utopua4all]

This will sound silly, but I have a soft spot for the second Clayfighter on the SNES and consider it the best in the franchise. Yes, it's mainly getting points for the T2 parody, but I guess I just have to roll with my bias on this one.

[@TEEN1DOL]

oh my goodness, The Journeyman Project footage just unlocked some very deep memories that had fallen between the deepest of cracks in my brain. Existential crisis, indeed....

[@Marc_Araujo]

You and me both, brother.

[@austincolenutt]

What in the actual fuck. Death and Return was one of my favorite games as a kid and I VERY fond memories playing it

[@defblinders9585]

I remember renting from Blockbuster (showing my age there) and beating it back in the summer of 1995. I liked it.

[@danielkells6021]

A testament to the quality of 94 that only the "top" 3 drop below 50%

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

A testament to how gullible you are, that you think Ballz 3D and Zelda's Adventure were good games.

[@AQWBlaZer91]

The thing with Wolfenstein 3D for the SNES is that it was a censored port because of Nintendo's strict guidelines at the time where they didn't want the game the Blood and the Nazi content. The developers of the port had a challenge to even get the game to even run on the console as well as having to follow Nintendo's Family Friendly guidelines.

[@MrBeardsley]

The big issue with ClayFighter was it had originally been developed for the SNES, so the controls were horrible on the Genesis unless you had a six-button controller. On the SNES you had separate buttons for each type of punch and kick (quick, medium and brutal), but on the standard Genesis controller the three face buttons only gave you kicks by default and you had to hit the start button to switch over to punches.

[@MrBeardsley]

@nemo pouncey Interplay announced a remaster back in 2015 but nothing ever came of it, and I remember a couple years later some indie dev announcing a remake then quickly turning around and saying they couldn’t get the rights.

[@jeffersonwebster]

Normally these lists are on point, but I have to disagree with all the Genesis and SNES selections. I suspect games like Zelda’s Adventure didn’t have enough ratings because folks couldn’t afford it at the time.

[@juicepouch1]

I think that's the thing. They're pretty uniform on the 7 rating rule, which is usually fine, but with older years like this a lot of crap gets to skate by

[@mrdth1987]

I used to own Shaq-Fu as a kid but on Mega Drive and I actually loved it even though I had no idea until KZbin came a thing that Shaq was a real person.

[@EDifyer881]

for real

[@SurrealisticMadness]

Weird I remember both Ecstatica and Dreamweb being reasonably well received, certainly so for Ecstatica. And Dreamweb was a great game, I remember some puzzles being tough and the UI did suck, but the atmosphere of that game was fantastic.

[@menhirmike]

Maybe it's Nostalgia, or maybe the PC port was exceptionally terrible, but I liked Dreamweb on the Amiga. Not the best game ever, but IMHO a solid 65% game. I liked the Intro track as well, pure 90's moody Amiga Synth.

[@NS-tp8yx]

Amiga or PC, Dreamweb was a good game. I’ll die on that hill.

[@britneyspearsvillarosa]

I was playing Super Street Fighter II on SNES and Mortal Kombat II also on SNES and I was 7 in 1994

[@TLugs]

Anyone interested in The Journeyman Project, Ross's Game Dungeon has a great playthrough. Thanks for the video BAP & James, a lot of games I forgot about in this one.

[@adafrost6276]

I'd watch Ross review a blank screen for an hour, he'd probably come up with something profound about it being about the black depths of humanity.

[@chidiisanerd947]

this was really good, keep up the good work!

[@Bubbowie]

Kings quest VII was my first point and click adventure, so it's very close to my heart. It must've been a good year for gaming if that was one of the worst 1994.

[@jakerockznoodles]

It probably didn't help that it came after the overall best received game in the series. While I don't think 7 is as good as 5 or 6, it's aged better than the earlier games in the series imo. And it really was a good year for gaming. Most of the games on this list really weren't that bad. Mind you, Rise of the Robots wasn't here, and that's thanks to good old corruption in gaming journalism. So perhaps lists based on aggregated review scores aren't the best measure of quality 😉

[@porkchopexpress84]

The voiceover is a bit grating, but that aside triplejump is solid entertainment👏

[@SparkpadArt]

Something worth noting about King's Quest 7: The opening cutscene was done by the same folks behind the bizarre animation of I.M. Meen and the Zelda CD-i games.

[@cumexolaf3276]

It's interesting how Clayfighter became a cult franchise with having only bad games in the series.

[@Ellthom]

Shocked Rise of the Robots wasnt on this list.

[@diecarro79]

Shockingly, it had quite some positive reviews back in the day. Whether that was due to the hype not wearing off until after the review or to appease the publisher and their heavy magazine advertisement campaign is up to the reader to decide.

[@ampjr99]

Clayfighter was freaking awesome I had it as a kid 94 I was what 5 going on 6 and played the crap out of it and when part 2 came out got it instantly freaking miss those 2 games wish we got a new one

[@megavolnutt4629]

0:09 This clip is weird. They're playing Super Scope 6 with controllers instead of a Super Scope and one of the controllers is a Super Famicom controller while everything else is SNES. Also, I guess blurring out every instance of the word Nintendo makes it ok to use as stock footage? Very peculiar indeed.

[@Savannah_Simpson]

I had fun with Clayfighters as a kid. Didn’t know till I was a adult that it was considered “bad”. Haven’t played it in years though so who knows I might agree now.

[@Highretrogamelord]

Glad to see this back. My fav kind of top 10s.

[@walcodebruyn2135]

Damn I'm not usually this guy but just watched your worst games year list for 2010..and you Now uploaded a nice old school one nice.

[@drgonzo123]

I played the death of Superman as a kid because it was a Superman game. I remember all the beat-em-ups from that era and they were all way too hard. As a kid I didn’t know better but now I find out they weren’t just hard but we’re poorly designed. Go figure

[@Zontar82]

Ectsatica worse game?? Are you trolling us or what

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

They're basing it on their refusal to do more research. Either that, or they really love Ballz 3d and the CDi.

[@Zontar82]

@@juststatedtheobvious9633 this. I have no other explanation then

[@AdriftForWeeks]

Ecstatica was basically Resident Evil Village back then

[@chronicallycrude4149]

Are we just going to ignore the dog falling at 6:23 ?

[@crazyeyez6516]

Clayfighters is actually groundbreaking !

[@OvercookedOctopusFeet]

I've had a profound realisation. If life is but a dream... when i eventually wake up i'm going to have to burn my mattress.

[@elliottryan13]

Ahhh Kings Quest VII...Am I the only one who kept fucking with that guy in the desert who wanted water? "WHAT DO YOU WAANT?"

[@CalTheHogNosedBat]

Anyone else noticed that the stock footage of two people playing the SNES at the beginning is that they're using controllers on Super Scope 6? A game that didn't use the SNES controllers.

[@System_Sega]

Ugly American SNES? Sega Genisis? Your English Love!

[@poco_a_poco_music]

*Genesis *You're

[@whiplash81]

One moment in Dreamweb that has forever stuck with me is when Ryan had to gain access to the TV Station building. Did he choose to just go under or hop over the pathetic barrier??.....nope....instead he decided to execute some poor guy just doing his job in order to raise said pathetic barrier..really Ryan.......REALLY???

[@TheMadAfrican1]

Shaq Fu actually got a sequel/remake recently on modern systems, and guess what? The game was probably just as bad, if not worse, than the original!

[@johfunut2529]

Some of these I can understand, but some of these games are actually ok. This was a time for games where it was very trial and error to get things right and wrong. Games had to start somewhere. I can think of much worse games from recent years and they don't have an excuse as games are now at the point where we know exactly what works and what doesn't.

[@FullInstall]

If even half of these are the 'worst' games of 1994 then everything else was beyond sterling.

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

Like Ballz 3D and all those CDi titles! No, games weren't all good back then. They're just too lazy to cover less well known games.

[@nanoua27]

WOW calling ECSTATICA a bad game and putting it right next to the absolute turds on that list, what were you thinking ???

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

"What's the easiest way to finish this list in just a few minutes?"

[@PyrotechnicMooseIV]

It's strange that you talked about the poor reception of SNES Wolfenstein 3D without mentioning the infamous censorship.

[@theironfox2756]

94 was a dope year for videogames.

[@jamison85]

Clayfighter...imagine blowing your pocket money on this game at a flea market as a kid because it looked cool.

[@Dragonpuncher123]

Kings Quest 7 looked amazing back in 94 and had a lot of great humor and writing. Crazy to see it on this list.

[@AdamSMessinger]

Dissapointed to see Death and Return of Superman on this list. I thought the game was a fun beat ‘em up. Yeah, it was fucking redonk hard, but I thought it was fun. It wasn’t quite on par with Maximum Carnage but not that far behind it in my book.

[@leahbeth8335]

Wolf 3D for SNES is basically the OG game if BJ drastically needed an eye exam.

[@DubiousJackson]

Managed to see this 8 seconds after release! Colour me happy!

[@kevinwatson-hoy4182]

I adored Ecstatica. First PC game I bought and I found it really atmospheric at the time.

[@SlapNuts4Life]

Two in one morning? Must be Christmas!

[@SlapNuts4Life]

@@Gatorade69 not anymore, they must’ve made a mistake because the first one’s gone

[@tarasybnios5356]

You know when something is off when Ecstatica is on a "worst games list"

[@jeanpaulsinatra]

I mean, if the sixth worst game of the year averages 57%, either there were no stinkers or no journalists. Both are equally hard to believe tbh

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

The CDi was a thing back then. Check out their library, and wonder why Triple Jump keeps insisting that the review process requires 7 critics.

[@JoJoBeast]

I love kings quest

[@jdmollohan]

I played all of these games except for two around the time of release. The KQ game was really hyped at the time, and in retrospect Ecstatica reminds me of a weird Dark Souls x Resident Evil hybrid.

[@badwolf66]

Ecstatica was ahead of it's time it had no annoying load screens unlike Resident Evil.

[@rottstein3552]

Ecstatica was a great horrorgame and although the graphics look a bit strange now, they looked quite nice back then and definetly had a horror vibe to me..but then again I was 12.

[@djcsdy2]

Rise of the Robots is not on this list. This tells me you should really change your methodology because clearly the current one is producing absurd results.

[@MoneyHoneyBunny]

Clayfighter is the must underrated fighting game of the 90s. Period. I dont care much about the rankings in relation to games like that. Modern gamers don't get how big that game was, even the N64 ones were hugely popular. This is why rankings and ratings dont tell the whole story. Some of the most popular games of all time werent even 60% lol which is funny to think about.

[@shenloken2]

The year of Donkey Kong Country, Super Metroid and Final Fantasy III has been soiled! XD

[@waymonboyer5969]

I liked Shaq fu on the snes. It was mad hard on the Sega though.

[@death5talker45]

I remember Clay Fighter...I never had it, but I had a Genesis...and I remember Shaq Fu also...never had that either

[@kylekostamo1880]

I dunno why so much hate for the NES superman? I Ioved that game as a kid, difficult yes, it's the only superman game I like to this day.

[@PAINNN666]

Fun fact. King's Quest 7 animation partially from Animation Magick. Gyus Behind 2 Zeldas on CDi

[@woogha]

Dreamweb has one thing going for it. That journal. Diary of a (mad?) Man. It is a fascinating read and worth every penny. Seriously.

[@dylanogg347]

You forget Superman's other weaknesses Ashton: Magic and terrible scripts (see Superman IV).

[@tomek2736]

Ecstatica's 60% on Gamerankings is an average based on only 3 reviews (so, no 7 professional reviews minimum reached, as stated in the video actually). For contrast, it averaged 86,9% based on 10 reviews on Mobygames (and it's "lowest" score there were three cases of 80%). I would say it did pretty well as others have already pointed out in the comments and surely was far from being the worst (or worst received) of 1994.

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

So these crackheads can't even keep their own unreasonable review criteria straight? Did they just want to make fun of the graphics? Because they could have gone for Ballz 3D, and made fun of the name as well.

[@CrashLove37]

0:05 Why they playing Super Scope 6 with controllers?

[@jtmcgee]

My Brother, Friends and I had some fun times with Clay Fighter (SNES).

[@dreamguardian8320]

#10. Torin's Passage was much better than King's Quest 7. #3. My family and I played Clayfighter on Super Nintendo and we thought it was OK.

[@NecroBanana]

Finally, a new one of these. :)

[@karlrudd8914]

I was born that year! ..... bad year then

[@kroftek]

Ecstatica being on any "worst game" list is an absolute insult.

[@waynerafferty1048]

Sorry wolfenstein 3d on snes ,does deserve to be on this list. I bought it on release for my snes and it blew me and my friends away. None of us had access to a PC our gaming was on mega drive and SNES and i still own the same copy of wolfenstein today nearly 30 years later and i will never sell it

[@KingKool2099]

"Worst Games" "Ecstatica" EXCUSE ME?

[@Marc_Araujo]

I had the same reaction when she read off the Journeyman Project Turbo.

[@KingKool2099]

@@Marc_Araujo Oh, now THAT is some bullcrap. I guess I dropped out before then. ...Journeyman 1 is BETTER than Ecstatica!

[@Marc_Araujo]

@@KingKool2099 ...and it was Turbo that was listed specifically.

[@PewableShift]

… Poor dog.

[@NebUlaDeigns]

Ahh yes, getting opinions and commentary based on video games that were released before someone was born and never played.

[@mattuw82]

This list is filled with great games. I've played most of these, and a bunch of them are hidden gems. Noctropolis was cool and atmospheric. Ecstatica I really enjoyed and I liked it's weird way of doing 3d. A lot of games get lousy reviews because they're weird, not because they're bad. I like weirdness.

[@ashuggtube]

Seeing King’s Quest 7 getting a well-deserved lashing makes me want to play King’s Quest 6 again - that was pretty good!

[@barrywallace2744]

WHAT Kings Quest 7 was the best in the series, completely undeserved. 6 was still very good just nowhere near as good as 7.

[@tonythesuperperson]

IM STILL YOUNG

[@childofthe80s1981]

Buried in Time is miles better than the first Journeyman Project in every way

[@paulpatti8184]

Ecstatica its a masterpiece, probably One of best game from 1994. Dreamweb its the best horror sci fi game from the DOS era, this girl don't know nothing about these games.

[@markcarey87]

Shaq the bed. Well done.

[@jamesmoss3424]

The Death and Return of Superman 🦸‍♂️ got lots of problems.

[@J_Stamps86]

I had Dreamweb on the Amiga and enjoyed it... but I was young enough to be impressed by the controversy, haha

[@defblinders9585]

I remember getting Clayfighter for SNES.....