This is The New Worst Game of 2023 | Rise of Kong

► Kaif Socials: Linktr.ee/Kaiffefe
► SR Socials: Linktr.ee/SaltRaiders
It's like we went back into PS2-era gaming, except it's still an awful game!
Rise of Kong has managed to surpass all expectations in terms of pure awfulness. Join me as I subject myself to this torturous experience, enduring cringe-worthy cutscenes and mind-numbing gameplay

[@crossyright9493]

I feel bad for both Kaif and the dev. This game must've been painful, even i got second hand embarrassment from watching. And i never even made a big game

[@rexex345]

So... Fun fact. The developers were given a year to put this together by their publisher, that includes preproduction. This might as well be an early internal prototype that got forced to market

[@Excellsion]

What was the rush? King Kong is not exactly an extremely active franchise.

[@rexex345]

@@Excellsion probably trying to fit it into the financial quarter

[@kitexz4727]

​@@Excellsion the publisher in question has a history of doing this

[@thegloriouskingkronk8422]

@@kitexz4727 isn't it called "Game Mill" as well?

[@phalamy9180]

One year?! For a whole video game AND preproduction? Fucking hell. And you KNOW those idiot publishers then blamed the devs for the game being bad

[@rapidresponseteam6048]

Just remember it’s almost always the publishers / producers that make a game bad. Devs usually have to make the most of what they’ve been given.

[@basedmonkey-fr3og]

Yep, and they're hanged by deadlines too

[@dylanm1683]

Apparently they only had a year to get this game out As a app dev that knows how to make games (somewhat) that is to short of a deadline let alone one for a indie game that isn’t the same length as fnaf

[@spinnyboi9951]

only game i can think of where that isnt the case is dead by daylight. devs decided to code it entirely with blueprint and now you got an over 40GB game that they're definitely not gonna remake in a less "spaghetti code" language

[@UrielinMountains]

Yeah. After what happened to 2077, I think most of us learned that it's always the publishers problems. They give the unrealistic publish date, and devs just don't have enough time to finish and polish the games

[@sourlab]

It's still the devs who develop the game

[@titan4002]

Besides the obvious glaring bad stuff. King Kong and the monsters are meant to be giant titans....with the size of everything in the game, they just seemed like regular sized monkey and animals. Maybe it started as a gorilla fight game and they threw kong name on to make it "better"

[@mishaa8772]

Seconded

[@atk1152]

from the animation, look more like a drunk man in a gorilla suit fighting some 5 feets Turkeys.

[@lavaavalon]

yeah, I was going to comment that too, it doesn't feel like they are big, it looks like normal sized animals fighting each other the sand worm looked cool, pretty sure that is an free asset though

[@michaelevans4265]

I am strongly convinced that instead of making huge monsters and Kong they deliberately tried the reverse method where they kept landscape scaled to regular creature scaling but shrunk whatever they could to make them still feel like they are half large. I mean the abandoned house cabins were much smaller it seemed for small humans unless they were half buried by dirt (didn't get a good look at them with the time they had on screen) It really doesn't work though because it just makes it feel like there's no grand scale, also feels like they just ripped the general build of hulk in the marvel avengers game

[@alterego9082]

Apparently devs had like less then a year to complete this game

[@Justarandomhere]

For what it's worth i think that this is not as bad as gollum, like don't get me wrong given the IP it should be FAR better than what it is, but like there is at least some semblance of a game in there, if the devs actually had more time and budget it seems like iguanabee could've full well made a really good game

[@mixednarwhal]

For those with arachnophobia. 18:51 For the start of the spider level 24:11 For the end of the spider level

[@FunkyFreshYT]

Legend, also your profile picture disturbs me so much 🤣

[@mixednarwhal]

@@FunkyFreshYT *:)*

[@gigaswardblade7261]

what about the crab?

[@mixednarwhal]

@@gigaswardblade7261 I don’t make up the rules of my fears but apparently crabs are tolerable in games but barely in real life

[@gigaswardblade7261]

@@mixednarwhal when will this discrimination end?

[@IronTigrex]

It's also so funny to think that Skull Island (so where Kong lives canonically) as awesome lore (Kong's story is pretty tragic) and a super diverse fauna... And yet you spend most of the time fighting chicken. Truly a masterpiece.

[@seekerhunts]

This was apparently made by 20 people, overworked for a year...yikes

[@zerothehedgeho]

I feel like I couldn't tell if kong was supposed to be normal sized gorilla or a giant. The area around seems to be in such scale he doesn't feel big.

[@ugandabrudah9878]

God I feel bad for the dev team that had to make this and have their name sullied probably cause the higher-ups wanted it a certain way

[@operationorigami8962]

Between this and "somehow, palpatine returned", always remember folks: the producers are always the problem

[@cloud8813]

I really love Kaif's dedication to try and kill that first boss only for it to force the cutscene

[@GingiiPhoenix]

Thank you for your service and saving many lives from this suffering.

[@Epicfailman666]

It's sad this even came out, the devs were forced to make it in a year and were not given any time to adjust stuff

[@TooneeLunes]

Kaif punching the spider mummy saying "let me kill your mum", I look forward to Kong 2 where you play a badly animated baby spider with ptsd on its journey to kill King Kong.

[@Haz4ler]

I just find it sad that the producers we grew up loving year after year do not fail to produce *worse games than last year* Like theres obviously some good games but gaming as a whole I feel like is starting to go downwards its a fucking concave. Really do hope the big companies start producing some not laughably bad shit and dont just leave actually good gamemaking to indie devs

[@rath3074]

It should be illegal for a company to publish a game as bad as this, and sell it for 40$, straight up scam

[@peterpiper317]

I imagine Kong saying dialogs like "Monke FIGHT!", "Monke Sad!", "Monke dreaming..." when a cutscene happens.

[@leadpaintchips9461]

From what I saw, the dev team were told "You got a year to make this game.". Welcome to the world of "I want shorter games with worse graphics and I'm not kidding.". Get ready to see more what is effectively malicious compliance, and the people not getting screwed walking away with the money that they get from hate playing.

[@AbelDuviant]

You missed the middle half of the quote. It's "I want shorter games with worse graphics *made by people who are paid more to work less* and I'm not kidding."

[@PrincelyDusty]

how to misinterpret a quote any% that quote means that not everything needs triple-a graphics, it's like "more games with stuff like slime rancher levels of graphics", it's literally a quote that's used to tell people to stop making every single game a triple AAA game and focus on stuff like indie titles, or games that -require less of those working on them, so that they can be paid fairly.

[@leadpaintchips9461]

@@PrincelyDusty I know what it is supposed to represent, but I have no confidence that the higher ups at these companies are going to actually do right by their employees, while using that quote to justify a drop in quality.

[@leadpaintchips9461]

@@AbelDuviantYour quote isn't the screenshot I saw making the rounds off of where I frequent on the internet. Yours sounds more likely to be the original quote, but I fully expect people making the financial decisions in these companies to use mine.

[@Sniff86245]

A year of work was not long enough in the slightest. It’s really dumb how no publishing companies have learned from rushed releases EVER.

[@Zer-ec4ly]

This feels like those free to download mobile games from how the UI looks to the texture.

[@tekalh7647]

its amazing how this year has been both the best and the worst for new game releases

[@CaptainCed]

Usually a rushed production like this (only a year from inception to shipping) means the publisher needs to produce an original work in order to reassert their ownership of the IP (see also: Fox Marvel movies). Would not surprise me if this game was born from that need.

[@caretaker2222]

The fact this game is 40 bucks regularly is hilarious

[@thehafen1914]

You know it's bad when they've copied Lego games for the attack animations

[@hilmysriaag]

1:14 dude is that king kong or the monkey teacher from gumball

[@timtahm]

My favorite cutscene was definitely at 15:36 - 15:48. The fast as hell face turn and angry face had me dead. 🤣

[@teo8446]

The cutscenes look like one of those movies you watch in the cinema in GTA V

[@SwiftGale1]

You getting that "Obtain all skillpoints" achievement was probably as simple as them not bothering to code something along the lines of "Check to make sure x skill points obtained" and more "Check if final mob fight finished".

[@poro9084]

it is always sorta sad when you see game where you know people got so much work with that game only to flop... on other side.. this is big publisher.. and this game graphic and buggyness seems like it should be from indie edit: nevermind, saw that they barely got a year to make the game..., poor guys

[@anthonyplacek9703]

I wanna point out, Kaif never got the chance to FINISH gollum, because the game just decided to have some sort of loading zone break, so... Yeah, he got to the place he was supposed to, and the game gave out on him. Lol

[@bibby659]

Remember that the Devs that were forced by their publisher/producers to make this atrocity will be fired while the suits upstairs will give themselves raises or bonuses or both for a "Job well done." Because at the end of the day... this is what societies been reduced to.

[@saltcoatedegg]

23:11 I love that the program is called Monke

[@Richiedoesmc]

Gollum walked so Kong could run.

[@FangzyVR]

While I thank you for playing this so we all don't have to, I am SO sorry you went through this...holy shit...

[@tim2slimjim]

I can't help but think that in like 10 years, there's going to be a huge group of young adults that remember this game as an amazing part of their childhood.

[@benjaminbirch5555]

Kaif at the beginning it genuinely looked like you were going to cry from cringe 😂

[@terrified057t4]

I'm glad we both thought of the Akira meme with that "flashback"

[@troydodson9641]

Yeah, beating a dead horse here, maybe my nostalgia speaks for me, but I remember Ride to Hell: Retribution. It was a grand spectacle and really embarrassing. Mayhap, I'm just more aware of everything around, but it seems these huge embarrassing debacles happen way more, and it takes away from the fail scale by happening more often. We need that bar of shame episode to happen. Deadline comes up, and a "guys, wait, we can't let this through"

[@ILoveforGames]

I feel like every year the budget gets cut by 50%

[@Valethcar]

At least it was very easy to tell what kind of game it is when the model for the enemy took a bit to load in at 3:55 :D

[@blucaliburn]

This game feels like a 2010 game but without what made 2010 games special

[@cromajuhs]

surprisingly, while it is "bad" for only having a year to make this it kind of gives me first Darksiders vibes. It definitely needs work but I still think other game is why worse then this.

[@bobberman4641]

This looks like the kind of game you’d download on your iPod in like 2011

[@zjoee]

As soon as I saw this game, I started looking forward to seeing Kaif play it haha. Thank your for sacrificing your sanity for our entertainment o7

[@haiko9043]

You will never catch my glorious king godzilla like this

[@JackRayyes96]

oh and thank you for playing and doing a video on this 29 mins of laughs 🤣❤

[@walkerroberts3084]

I wonder if forcing someone to play this game could be considered torture

[@ctolcode]

Can we talk about, Kong, Kongs dad and Kongs mom all had the same model. Meaning Kongs mom was a dude, but with brighter hair.

[@balazs2412]

So big bad made you an orphan so you can go around making other creatures orphans on a quest for revenge

[@fluidwolf]

I think I saw in another video on this that grabbing an enemy when they glow red does like an execution kill. Might make things faster for when no one ever goes back to this game lol

[@AgeOldCure]

There is no way they aren't doing this on purpose. It's like a competition to make the shitiest game

[@defnotjam]

This year has been all over the place with games! How do we go from games like Spiderman 2 and whatnot to Gollum and...whatever this is?!?

[@EdTheUndeadHead]

Just remember, they have a paid DLC that puts a colour filter over the game :)

[@orvilleredenpiller338]

When I say "shorter games with worse graphics", I just want a games that doesn't take a Starfield amount of time to make with a Starfield dent in my graphics card, hard drive and a Starfield-sized hole in my wallet. This is not what I asked for. And I'm still not kidding.

[@IDFK1235]

It’s crazy that they were only given a year. The game looks it was just getting into its testing phase to see if the game worked proper. The polish didn’t come in since they didn’t have time.

[@JuanchoBGL]

What a coincidence, I had a dream where I was chased by a gorilla lol

[@dragonscott9]

This game looks like Hulk Ultimate Destruction for the GameCube

[@SakuraKahn]

The devs of Kong probably saw Gollem and said, "Yeah, I think we can top that!" When the devs tried to top Gollem:

[@Mizuryryn]

*Gollum Games series* Lord of the Rings: Gollum (first installment) Gollum: The Last Tower: Quest of Rings Mount Doom: Rise of Gollum Walking Dead: Gollum (upcoming installment)

[@theodorsebastian4272]

Not bad for a 2007 IOS game,I remember that one IPad Avartar game being pretty comparable.

[@jakeking974]

Kaif, it's not fair to say it looks like a university project, I've played games with that quality. In 2005.

[@dougla517]

The bootleg Tyrannid looks pretty cool... Just about the only good thing i can say on the visuals

[@jaidenkoch3487]

So gollum, detective pikachu and now this game. We’re getting some really good games this year and some abysmal ones

[@e.featherfire1999]

Kaif, Yong and Asmon in the same video? is this a crossover episode?

[@Sheeptastrophe]

2:25 Will Smith in the background

[@stormbringer2738]

Yo Kaif if its possible I think you should give the Peter Jackson king kong game a go just to compare this game rushed by the publishers vs the older kong game from like 2005. I have alot of fond memories from it and i think it would be fun if you can stand the shit graphics lol.

[@gigaswardblade7261]

the game over sound sorta sounds like the starting of the temple of time theme from zelda

[@DarkSnake78990]

I'm kind of surprise the file name is "Monke"

[@Waltarwhiet]

The thumbnail...lmao😂

[@weedxat]

6:19 "Leave me alone!"

[@SoupSmith47]

Why does it just look like a regular sized chimp instead of like a titan sized king kong

[@shadowwolf2122]

Last train out of kong town!

[@blobbocus4201]

We thank you for playing this so that we don't have to

[@BugBombs]

isnt kong supposed to be big. this is just a normal gorilla

[@darkursrike3161]

Gollum sucks so much that it can't even win a competition about being the worst game of the year.

[@thejester2934]

This art reminds me of Xavier: Renegade Angel.

[@MordekaiGlint]

Something about this game reminds me of the Fantastic 4 game for the gamecube that came out in 2005.

[@dreri3738]

4:26 This joke almost made me choke

[@randomrobin7773]

Walking Dead Destinies: Enters chat

[@Arthritor]

Watched on low res for much longer than I would like to admit before I noticed kaifs face was blurry. Just thought the game looked like that.

[@Hazel-zz7hj]

If you squint- it looks like an ARK mod

[@noorabraham2921]

Kaif is definitely a masochist if hes Willingly playing bad games

[@alberttrita5858]

we need a prize and title for worst game of the year. Un-GOTY, maybe? And the prize is internet meme status and a $12 debt.

[@vratsukauminotica9603]

6:35 SR people when they fall in the only up like game 😆

[@ShadeGrey]

Man this looks like an amazing mobile game!

[@GodofsomeWorld]

you could tell me this was a 2005 game and i would believe you.

[@de4thscythe613]

I wonder if they made this like 15 years ago and just forgot to release it?

[@TartagliaThe_11th_McDsEmployee]

This could be a really great game! If it was released 20 years ago

[@lchassefang]

The loading screens look like they're for a mobile game, it's so bad

[@TheMinniman120390]

this just looks AI generated and not made by real people

[@BackroomBandit]

"The map looks like its made by a university student" thats a bit harsh on the student dont you think ?

[@macaroniisnice]

22:54 oh jesus I haven't laughed at a video this hard in a *while*

[@SkinnaYTA]

Devs, we don’t blame you, we blame the producers and publishers. They need to sit in the corner and think about what they did

[@ryokiritani28]

the PS2 King Kong game's Kong sections were better looking and played than this entire game

[@7thsealord888]

Maybe people should ask for a Gollum - Kong crossover. Honestly, that could be awesome. :)

[@jynxedc4nd4l36]

This game looks like it should've been released in 2006

[@mr.gandersson2835]

This feels more like a game made by the Bigfoot devs. Except that game has quality

[@flyingwolf1299]

As someone currently in a intro to game design class in college: No, this doesn’t look like it was made as a university project. Our projects look way better than this garbage lmao