Shockingly Terrible GBA Games

[@abw1317]

I remember delivering 500 phone books when I was a kid to get 20$ and I bought DBZ Taiketsu, and that was when I realized what buyers remorse was.

[@lucylu3342]

Jesus Christ, that's like the most painful version of buyer's remorse lol

[@B727X]

It wasn’t that bad. Looking back I did get bored super quick tho

[@Dragonfire511]

That's when you felt the real horror!.

[@cupofrice]

I bought it as a kid and yeah I quickly realized the difference between my DBZ Taiketsu and my friend's copy of DBZ Legacy of Goku...

[@InterstellarCloudd]

That’s fucking rough my dude

[@fromthe90s21]

When you put the MK advance cartridge in the RetroN5, you've got the message: "Are you sure you want to play this game?" That was actually the best things about both MK advance and the RetroN5.

[@thatvideogamesshow]

Haha that’s brilliant 😅

[@AlexTenThousand]

Knowing the backstory to Dragon Ball Z Taiketsu, I'm honestly willing to cut the developers some slack. Webfoot Technologies had been assigned the game basically out of nowhere, after Atari, the licenseholder for Dragon Ball games in North America, noticed just how much money the Japanese-developed fighting games were making, all of this while they were busy developing The Legacy of Goku 2. Webfoot Technologies was a very small development team without many resources, and to develop The Legacy of Goku 2 and improve the gameplay significantly, they had to hire additional workforce, which had to be split once again to deliver the game Atari had commissioned them, using what resources they had and working in an incredible rush, with rendered sprites made from a cancelled PS2 game.

[@user1hdud62htus5]

andit isnt even that bad of a game. i personally feel this is a great fighter in the time

[@noisepollution4473]

That Sonic port was so zoomed in it started to make me motion sick I've never felt motion sick from a 2D game before Maybe being super zoomed in on a game about going fast is a bad idea, especially if it's constantly speeding up and slowing down haphazardly

[@boogaloobender3462]

The Advance games were so much easier on the eyes, despite having the same problem (albeit to a lesser degree)

[@matthewbraith0411]

That Medal of Honor game might just be the worst looking GBA game I have ever seen and I thought Star Wars: Flight of the Falcon looked bad.

[@thatvideogamesshow]

It’s is so bad man… literally got a head ache recording it 😅

[@jimmyredd]

I can't believe that game is from 2002. It looks (and plays) significantly worse than the old DOS Wolfenstein games from '92! Next time someone tells you video games aren't art, show them this impressionist painting of a shooter.

[@Lilbeanspork]

even as a kid i never bothered getting passed the first level. its so ugly its hard to look at

[@Lucirby93]

I would love to see more terrible games from all kinds of systems. Keep up the amazing work.

[@thatvideogamesshow]

More in the works! 🙂

[@the-engneer]

@@thatvideogamesshow I really enjoy them as well!

[@AnthonyRiddle]

This is definitely a very cool theme for content. We've seen the best of the best games for every system over and over. Sometimes it's nice to see the biggest pieces of shit for the consoles too

[@Blernster]

Fear factor for gameboy is one of the worst games ever

[@Pink_Elephants_on_Parade]

Thank you for adding the upper right banner back. It helps me write down the games title when it's super long or hard to spell.

[@hawshimagical]

this guy's apathetic voice combined with his informative dialogue, personal thoughts, and witty comments sprinkled throughout the video is VERY entertaining lol

[@davidjsaul]

Ooh, that Medal of Honour port looked rough af

[@ROMBomb001]

I just went through all of your GBA videos and discovered 11 games I never knew I wanted, so THANK YOU for making these videos!

[@thatvideogamesshow]

More on the way 🙂

[@SorcererLance]

13:17 - alternatively the first two Genesis Sonic games on the 3DS that were given a neat 3D effect, at least while the 3DS shop is still open... and Sonic Classics Collection on the DS, which was one of the last rereleases we had of Sonic 3 & Knuckles before Sonic Origins with its music changes, as long as you don't mind some screen crunch and the pause button being on the touch screen

[@the-engneer]

It's a shame R-Type has such a terrible hit detection, because the graphics are amazing. I understand that being a deal breaker in a shmup, because it's life or death, and part of the reason people like that type of game including myself

[@OZdoesArt]

The Game Cube version of Gauntlet: Dark Legacy is one of my absolute favorite games, and I remember being excited to learn it also got a GBA port. Glad I never was excited enough to buy it because nothing I've heard about it has been good. The Game Cube game is a fast-paced, badass slaughterfest with an AWESOME soundtrack, well worth playing. The GBA slows that all down and simplifies the level designs, and I guess has issues where only a small number of enemies can spawn on the screen at once.

[@jamesfrankiewicz5768]

The GC version is outstanding. I had multiple parties having buddies over for some four player action on that one. The N64 Gauntlet Legends is pretty good, too; Dark Legacy (GC) actually clones a lot of stuff from the N64 games, but both the graphics and controls are better on GC and there is more content to boot. Although the "everyone bring your own memory card/character" was a pretty cool feature on the N64 that is mostly lost on GC (with only two card slots). The GBA version doesn't even look fun. Part of the fun on the N64 or GC is the pure frenetic action of wading through massive hordes of nearly endless enemies.

[@FabBrigade]

I have the Xbox version myself. Still pretty great, I think.

[@acolytetojippity]

I remember the Gauntlet Dark Legacy version from the *dreamcast*. That's the one me and my friends played the hell out of back in the day. But yeah the GBA version was ass. THOUGH...in fairness it is actually a relatively faithful adaptation. missing some features, but it does have the core gameplay loop. Turns out when the enemy quantity and speed of the game is brought down it loses its charm haha.

[@GameCubeGalaxy]

Wow, there are some really bad games here. Mortal Kombat Advance is by far the worst GBA game I ever played. I remember getting it for Christmas when it came out, and was stoked to play it! Then I played it…and oh boy, was it utter garbage (and that’s putting it nicely lol). Another excellent video man!

[@PikaLink91]

Did I ever tell you how chill and cozy your intro theme is :-)

[@thatvideogamesshow]

Haha thanks Pika!

[@ebesonen]

I had no idea that the GBA had these shockingly bad games for it, only one I did know about was MK3 because my cousin has it when we were early teens back in the early 2000s, thank you for showing us these shockingly bad GBA games TVGS you did a real nice job 👍

[@thatvideogamesshow]

Thanks for watching man!

[@nicnew]

Great video as always. IMO, when it generally comes to bad games, we usually don't talk about the ones on handheld consoles so it's great to see some here!

[@DaCaptainDerpy]

I'm glad Mortal Kombat was on this list

[@brendanroberts1310]

I am not I brought the bloody thing.

[@jessragan6714]

How could it not be?!

[@Detective_L]

Most of the games on this list actually look nice from a graphics point of view. The entire time I kept thinking it has so much potential to be good if they just fixed the bugs or had a bigger budget, more time or if the GBA had more buttons. The background for Gauntlet for example looks awesome (from a gba perspective) and I just saw a video that explored a little behind the scenes on that DBZ game. They had to make the game extremely quick due to cooperate pressure and I’m pretty sure they were making Legacy of Goku 2 at the same time.

[@doha057]

Lets have a moment of silence in the memory of all the people who actually bought one or more of these games

[@Nobodyfrom2003]

I mean I loved Rock Them Sock Them

[@whentheworldwasatwar8717]

@@Nobodyfrom2003 thats the shittiest one on the list LOL

[@Nobodyfrom2003]

@@whentheworldwasatwar8717 lol, probably. Mean, I could probably agree, but man if I had so much fun back then. I remember that I used to go with my mom and Aunt from Mexico to the U.S where they worked and then to my Dad's house and the trip was literally me in my GBA playing games non-stop, and me getting new games (even bad ones) was like a dream. I really appreciate most games, if not all of the ones I had, even when they were horrible. I even disliked a few but learned to love them haha

[@tb3411]

I ended up buying Sonic Genesis not realizing how much of a watered down port it was. The mostly butchered soundtrack, the bizarre zoomed in screen, and the crazy lag definitely showed how butchered this port was. On the bright side, it has a level select so you don't have to go through the whole game in one sitting

[@doha057]

@@tb3411 My first game for GBA was Scorpion King, which isn't the best game or anything but it was a beautiful game to look at, I was in awe just to think about that kind of graphics was even possible in a handheld at that time, I also had the idea that fast games like Sonic would never work in GBA because of the tiny screen, but the Sonic Advance series proved me wrong, sadly the Genesis port was a lousy job no doubt.

[@kill_repeat8491]

It would be cool if you offered alternatives to the bad games in this style of video. For instance, Legacy of Goku 2 or Medal of Honor Infiltrator

[@thatvideogamesshow]

That’s a good suggestion. I’ll work it in for the next episode in the terrible games series. Thanks for the tip!

[@beewell1600]

For your information, Gauntlet Legends is a series of games exxisted long before gba, and in every console or arcade it came out, it has the same features... its not a bad port just because its on gba, its teh mechanics of the game itself

[@SandroSensei]

While Blackthorne plays the same as his snes counterpart. I cant get over the fact that they turnt up the brightness by such a high digree. Its so bright! Oke, the snes game was dark, but come on. What do you think of the classic game blackthorne, and his gba counterpart? 🙋🏽‍♂️

[@PeruvianPotato]

Fortunately there's a patch that restored the original colors

[@SeekerLancer]

R-Type III could have been great on GBA but they weren't allowed access to the original source code so they had to do it from scratch and of course, that didn't end well.

[@sloppynyuszi]

That’s probably better though, as straight ports don’t work, due to the GBA architecture and screen resolution. The GBA has a lot more horse power than the snes, and had original games the SNES couldn’t dream of doing, but snes conversions many times came off worse as things had to be designed to work in that low resolution and also no backlight. Why Donkey Kong Country looks crap in an emulator. Rare had to redo the game from scratch, because how different it was. The initial process wasn’t the fault, it’s just everything afterwards. Probably Super street fighter 2 is the better example of how GBA ports should be done. The UI had an overhaul. Create new beackgrounds, and keep the snes sprites because they look huge in that low res screen.

[@chikish]

The production quality of your content is top notch 👏🏻👏🏻

[@thatvideogamesshow]

Thanks Zero!

[@lpfan4491]

That Shrek racing game looks like Mario kart, except worse. 12:00 This is the definition of a meme-game. I actually played it as a joke and had fun, somewhat at least, but only because it is so not-good and an uphill battle. The most ironic thing is that the worst parts of this are the labyrinth zone-boss and the special stages, both of which aren't really that much better in any other version of Sonic 1.

[@bastiwen]

Love the Tekken 2 music in the intro ! I don't know why but it seems a lot of youtubers have been using Tekken music in their videos in the past few months and I love it !

[@5brags455]

Man I couldnt get mario kart on the gba at the time and ended up getting shrek swamp kart for my birthday

[@craiganderson7986]

I was thinking just last week that you must go through a load of crap games to find the hidden gems. “He should do some lists of games to avoid,” I sez to meself. Lo and behold, here’s a list! But don’t start on bad Wii games bc there are waaaay too many!

[@gawbe]

Watching footage of these games does not represent how bad they looked on a screen, with no backlight, smaller than my fist. On batteries.

[@Kousaburo]

With Medal of Honor: Underground I was about to say at least they tries to squeeze an FPS onto the GBA but then I remembered Ecks vs Sever 1& 2 and Doom. Rebellion shit the bed with that one. They should've made it top down like MOH: Infiltrator which is fantastic.

[@Scooby-bf4bp]

The 1st fps ever runs better than one thar came out 7 years later

[@Theguyunderyourbed22]

The sad part is that I'd played a lot of these back in the day, thankfully not mine though. You know kids would get together with a little pouch full of cartridges and trade games around for a while. All those poor kids, armed only with whatever brand or title they could remember having seen from others, older cousins, friends and the like, maybe swayed by posters and ads on magazines, maybe even just going by the cover art on the box, having money only for one game and choosing one of those hoping they made the right choice.

[@dabradmp1]

I would have to add to this list. Altered Beast gba and jazz jackrabbit gba

[@YoMateo.]

Whoever's reading this, i pray that whatever you're going through gets better and whatever you're struggling with or worrying about is going to be fine and that everyone has a fantastic day! Amen

[@NigelXW]

Right back atcha!

[@kafkachampin]

thank you

[@leikeylosh]

Man, that Sonic port drives me insane. Aside for the complete lack of new features, the camera is so zoomed in on Sonic that you are literally running blind. What a waste of a port.

[@bluetarantulaproductions6179]

I would add "The Ripping Friends: The world's most manliest men!" on this list, loved the adult cartoon by John K. (Same dude who created Ren and Stimpy), but this game has to be the worst beat 'em up I have ever played on Game Boy Advance (or any system ever).

[@DragoonMS]

Yeeeaaah, MK1 & MK3 on the GB and MK4 on the GBC are probably equally as bad as MKA on GBA. MKII, however, was amazing for the limitations of the GB. But what are your thoughts on the GBA port of MK: Deadly Alliance, chopped up into MK:DA & MK: Tournament Edition, or Tekken Advance?

[@shhlimy6737]

That’s the best intro song ever , and great video as always

[@yamigekusu]

1:53 I still have my copy of Shrek Swamp Kart Speedway. I bought it from a Sam's Club in 2003 and played the hell out of it even though I knew it was absolute garbage. The sound design was atrocious, the powerups were confusing and not explained well. Shit, I have the INTACT box it came in sitting on my desk right now

[@zachfournier3727]

“If someone offers you this game for free, you can bet that they hate you” 😂🤣💀

[@theultimategamer95]

I didn't even know Shrek had a kart racer, WHAT? Game looks decent though imo (unironically), but turning/drifting looks like an absolute nightmare. Didn't even know Medal of Honor Underground existed (looks awful though tbf), I assumed it was just Infiltrator for GBA (which was the one I grew up on). 5:45 20 HITS!? Tf devs? 11:53 I was actually gonna riot if this one wasn't on here lol. Easily one of the worst games I've ever played. Nice choice of music you used for this section though! :)

[@thatvideogamesshow]

Haha it’s worth playing that Shrek game, for the shits and giggles alone 😅

[@acolytetojippity]

...in all fairness to Gauntlet...that's Gauntlet. Dark Legacy was excellent, and the GBA port was...not good, but a decent adaptation. obviously the console version was much quicker, and allowed for special skills and magic potion casting, but on the whole...you run around and throw/shoot your weapon at things.

[@KaylaJoyGunn]

Shrek's go cart racer for Gameboy was terrible??!! I never would have guessed that just from the concept.

[@juanduplays]

I'm a huge fan of the presentation of these videos, so smooth and pleasant!

[@timmer919hep]

im definitely shocked at how shockingly terrible these bad gba games are

[@laylaalder2251]

I agree on most of these, but with Gautlet Dark Legacy, all you did was complain about how the Gauntlet games work. If I'm getting the GBA game, maybe compare it to GDL on other consoles and explain how it fails to hold up to them.

[@SerdceDanko]

Im surprised you didn't include Cruis'n Velocity, this thing was absolutely terrible.

[@ThatSavoieDude]

I love your guys' content. Keep up the good work

[@thatvideogamesshow]

Thanks Jesse! I’m just one guy though 😅🙂

[@eightcoins4401]

What should be noted is that the GBA port of R-TYPE III also has worse music than the original.

[@DanaKishimoto]

I remember playing Elf Bowling back in the day. Dunno why I did, I had other better options but I sure did play that game. A core memory has been unlocked for sure

[@Angledevoid]

Recent subscriber and while I've watched a good number of the recent videos, I wasn't expecting a F-Bomb during the Shrek Karr racer segment.

[@exaltedb]

Although it wasn’t an amazing game, the first GBA MoH game still at least made an attempt to make a fps on the GBA and try something with the hardware

[@fedorjavagamer]

Shrek Swamp Kart Speedway is greatest videogame of all time with beautiful music

[@Nobodyfrom2003]

As a kid I TOTALLY LOVED Rock Them Sock Them. As a grown up I still have love for it. I can see why the game wasn't too deep, however I still like the game a lot imo

[@xvii-romaaa4825]

Great vid🔥

[@thatvideogamesshow]

Thanks!

[@brandonsmith7827]

You should cover the first legacy of goku game if you haven’t already. Subbed because cool videos

[@RDLDR0]

anyways… HI JAMESS

[@thatvideogamesshow]

Hellllooo 🙂

[@RDLDR0]

@@thatvideogamesshow HIII

[@ophidianmind333]

It's interesting to see all of these awful games, but I feel fortunate that I am not someone who ended up spending money on any of them. Especially since some of them look okay on the surface and you probably wouldn't realize they're bad until you had actually played them.

[@brandonsmith7827]

That’s how I feel about the first legacy of goku game.

[@thenachowithchi7113]

I love how he immediately gets to roasting. Starting off right lmao

[@soulreaver6546]

The nostalgia of Mucha lucha, wow

[@williamrosenberg8061]

Elf bowling is the greatest game ever made

[@davidwiley4953]

Just before watching this video, I watched a video praising the Sonic Gameboy Advanced released and now this video bashes it. That's hilarious.

[@thatvideogamesshow]

🤣

[@TheIrkenEmpire420]

Honourable Mention: The GBA demake of Kao The Kangaroo (Kao Advance)

[@Kenzo-sj9xb]

Great video tvgs

[@MedoJumel]

Nothing says 90s like the tekken 2 intro ❤

[@OGM_OriginalGameMusic]

jesus some of those backgrounds in shrek kart are jarring!

[@unknownfactor6489]

DBZ one felt like a robott chicken short that they just did not put effort to the dolls

[@Gowaa1]

MK2 on Gameboy I have.. its actually playable. 😂

[@loganford3921]

The developers of Rtype 3 didn't have the source code if I remember righr? I was going buy it back in the day but after hearing How bad it was I didn't bother.

[@hunchoquon60]

DBZ was fun to me as a kid. I just loved anything DBZ except that card game one 😂

[@greensun1334]

I'm sure, Mortal Kombat 3 Advance (or what's the exact name?) has a place in this list... (Edit: And it was there. It would have been a wonder to be not included, it's really the worst MK ever!)

[@michaeljarvisakasleepyjarv1698]

Yes make part two , and three and four etc. etc. , I like these videos !!

[@duckgiraffe2803]

That mario kart rip off was hilarious 😂

[@AllanBitzero]

Great list!

[@ジース-z7p]

Not sure why the thumbnail includes a beautiful woman, as if that's a bad thing. Pretty sure most gamers will agree that a beautiful woman is usually a good thing. Not a detriment. But, it is the current year.

[@amyleyshon2884]

You can be beautiful and still be shit ;)

[@ande6191]

I am making a comic series and uploading it on KZbin. Please review once.

[@Simoss13]

Given the recent uploads of GBA I assuming at long last you are smashing that backlog for the system

[@thatvideogamesshow]

Having a great time doing so! Such a great handheld 🙂

[@danpatrick7176]

I like seeing good games a lot more than seeing terrible games. But good video nonetheless

[@21minute]

Yo, I remember playing the elf bowling on my pc as a kid. Hahaha

[@roguerifter9724]

I had a couple of these. I agree that Medal of Honor Underground was horrible (I think I tossed it in a container once I got the PS1 version a few weeks after getting my PS2) but I didn't think Gauntlet Dar Legacy was awful. Not great by any means but not horrible either IMO.

[@akifrivaldo]

Just opened youtube and wow 😍 Been a while but I think I need check these game in my miyoo mini

[@thewitchpolyglot6625]

These are all better than Thunderbird (2004). I rented it and completely ruined my summer

[@mvpheat]

MUCHA LUCHA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MUCHA LUCHA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@sammy61187]

Shrek racing looks horrible can't distinguish between the track and the background my goodness

[@OGM_OriginalGameMusic]

a game that's too easy with an auto aim mechanic that makes it almost impossible to hit enemies. thats definitely a ''you know you fucked up'' moment XD

[@jesseinfinite]

I can guarantee that Quad Desert Fury is worse than all the games on this list.

[@marcelchrist4069]

Two games deserves a place on this liste tetris world and spyro a new beginning. Such bad games.

[@thatvideogamesshow]

Thanks for the suggestions! I’ll add them for part 2 🙂

[@crazyivan030983]

Oh... destroying even not good game is not good :(

[@kurtsimon7530]

oh gosh this was the hardest video to watch

[@Satiator123]

Dungeons and Dragons Eye of the Beholder should be #1 on this list.

[@BILLTHORPE]

I knew I would own at least one of these!

[@thatvideogamesshow]

😅

[@hunchoquon60]

Now I see why I was bad at r type 3 as a kid 😂

[@the_gmer1955]

He-Man: The Power of Grayskull deserves to be on this list. This game is horrible.

[@thatvideogamesshow]

Good suggestion! I’ll add it to part 2!

[@PixelsNcreatureS]

Ha, I have the Rock Em Sock Em game on my shelf next to the Rock Em Sock Em Hotwheels cars

[@RDLDR0]

NOOO IM NOT FIRSTT

[@nobalkain624]

If you bought a fighter on Handhelds you should know that your getting crap.

[@Tasuke]

OOF! Starting off with Taiketsu is rough lol! I forced myself to play it and get all the characters and I can safely say it was a giant waste of time.

[@thatvideogamesshow]

Haha I’ll second that, was such a chore!

[@tungtr681]

I know there was DBZ Taiketsu even without watching the video.

[@bobtom1495]

No Urban Yeti?...

[@UnlockedANDunleashed]

What are you nuts? Mario kart ripped off shrek, not the other way around