8 Games We Recommend AVOIDING

Video games are a huge time commitment. Sometimes you can finish shorter ones in a few hours, while others demand your full attention and will see you dedicating over one hundred hours of your time to see them through. With so many great games available to play, choosing which ones you spend your free time playing can be a really big deal. Work, school, family—there is a lot to squeeze into a day, and no one wants to waste their little bit of leisure time on something not worth it.

So, for today's list, we are looking at eight games we would personally recommend that you avoid! Not necessarily because these games are completely horrible 1/5 games, but because they are not really worth the time and effort it takes to play them. Of course, there are a few games we'd easily consider "some of the worst of all time" on this list as well, but we always recommend using your own judgment before dismissing a game as being bad.

If something below still sounds fun to you, then go for it! Just don't say we didn't warn you ahead of time.

Valhalla Knights 3

The Valhalla Knights series isn't bad per se, but it also isn't a must-play for RPG fans. The best way to describe it is an MMO for kids to play on the go, complete with online multiplayer features. They were games with basic stories that allowed you to create your own characters and then set out to kill mobs of enemies. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with them, but the third game released on the Wii was especially a step back and not really worth mentioning. However, despite being the third entry in the series, it wasn't the game known as Valhalla Knights 3, and it's not the game we're kicking this list off with. No, Valhalla Knights 3 is something much worse—a game that everyone really should avoid.

To put the game in simple terms: it's an action RPG where you build a party of seven custom characters and once again set out into the world to kill enemies and complete quests. That's pretty much it! You customize your party's looks, name them, pick their class, and then go out into the open fields to take down your current quest target or complete other goals. It isn't the nicest-looking game, and some of the animations are awkward, but there's a solid core here for fans of the genre. The game even has a seemingly interesting story since it's set within a prison, but unfortunately most people who start this game will never even see what the story develops into.

Why?

Because this is a broken game that asks you to dedicate hundreds of hours of your life to achieve nothing.

The first put-off players will encounter is the loading times. Many games out there are known for their infamous periods of waiting—Sonic 06 comes to mind—but the difference with most of those games is that you actually get to play for long periods of time between loading screens. Valhalla Knights 3, on the other hand, has a world that's broken up into many, MANY, different rooms, and each one has a long wait time. These screens can last anywhere from 10 to 20 seconds (and possibly even 30, depending on what's loading), and they pop up a lot. With a little patience, you can get through them, but it really adds up quickly, especially when you pass through five loading screens within what would've been 30 seconds of playing without them.

Moving past this, however, the biggest issue comes with the game's grind. You gain a single experience point per kill, and you need thousands to level up your characters' classes. You have a party of seven to think about here, and you need to constantly unlock and level up new classes. These classes start over again at level 1, so it's back to killing the same enemies for hours to catch back up to where you left off. This grind was so bad that DLC was released to give you experience for every in-game step you took, but even then, the grind is extremely repetitive.

To top it all off, many may have issues with how classes are actually unlocked in the game. The PlayStation Vita was home to many "adult" games that pushed nudity and sexual content to Sony's limits, but Valhalla Knights 3 was one of the few to take it even further and require up-close and personal mini-games. These mini-games had you getting close to every "street worker" and using the touch screen to "make them happy." Do it enough, and they eventually take you back to the hotel, where you can read dialogue that confirms what is happening, and then you unlock the new class to use. It's a small part of the game, but it's required, and not everyone is going to be okay with this. It's also completely unexpected, considering the first two games were family-friendly, with only the Wii release receiving a T rating here in the West.

Even if this part of the game doesn't bother you, it doesn't change the fact that the rest of the game is held back by the grind, loading screens, poor performance, and non-stop repetitive gameplay. The jump in difficulty is very quick as well, so you get to grinding basically right from the opening hours.

To make things worse for us in the West, in Japan, a Gold Edition was released which fixed a lot of this. It included faster loading times, faster and improved combat, new story content, online multiplayer, a weather system, updates for the PlayStation TV, and for those who enjoy the Red Light District, that aspect of the game was upgraded as well. Overall, it actually made Valhalla Knights 3 playable, but that doesn't mean it became an RPG to choose over the other offerings on the Vita.

Still, for everyone in the West, do yourself a favor and avoid this game.

Pokemon Dash

When the Nintendo DS was on its way, everyone was scrambling to find a way to bring their IP to the new console. Touch controls were a completely new idea at the time, and the whole "Touching is Good" campaign led developers to really double down on how this could be used. Series like Pac-Man let you draw your own Pac-Man to eat ghosts, mini-game collections like Feel the Magic experimented with the feature, and Nintendo's very own IPs offered touchscreen controls alongside the standard button layout. Of course, some of these games were outstanding and would become known as classics, while others were clearly trying to cash in on the gimmick and were not worth the time of day.

My personal disappointment came from Yoshi Touch & Go, but this wasn't a bad game in the slightest. It's just my 14-year-old self was hoping for something a little more than an endless runner where you protected Yoshi. Games like Pokemon Dash, on the other hand? Better off pretending they never happened.

I was lucky enough not to own this game as a teen, as my focus was on other games at the time, but my Netto's Game Room co-worker, Jonsku, cannot say the same. So I asked him for his thoughts on this one, since he was there at launch day.

Pokemon Dash was meant to be a big brand launch title for the original Nintendo DS. It fully wanted to utilize the new touchscreen controls to make a... racing game.

Indeed, as a kid who got this game due to being a big Pokemon fan, I was originally blown away by the 3D Pikachu that greeted me on a handheld console. You could poke it and stretch its cheeks, which was fairly amusing. This sadly was the only good thing about the game. Dash was mostly a glorified tech demo for the DS with bare-bones gameplay where you tapped rapidly on your DS screen with the pen to make Pikachu move. You couldn’t play as anyone other than Pikachu, even in multiplayer! Eventually, your wrist would start to hurt with the constant tapping, and in some cases, you would scratch the screen if you pressed too hard.

The sad truth is that it could have been a decent game if it just had a bit more time in the oven, so to speak, but for what it is and what it cost, it was not at all worth my time, and I would suggest most to stay away from it.

Knack

To be perfectly clear, I do not hate Knack! In fact, Knack was the first PlayStation 4 game I ever played, thanks to a demo, and it was one of the games I bought when the PlayStation 4 finally came out. I have some bad memories of playing it the day I got the call that my uncle in the hospital took a turn for the worse, but I also have great memories of streaming it to friends and other writers here at Netto's Game Room as they laughed at my suffering. But that's just it—my suffering! At the end of the day I had fun, but it still isn't a game I can recommend. In fact, you might just be better off avoiding it in general.

As a launch title, I can say that Knack was impressive simply due to how many objects made up his body. It didn't look visually striking, but it gave us an idea of what the PlayStation 4 would eventually be able to do. The cutscene quality, on the other hand, was nice and reminded me of some of the earlier CGI movies, which also gave me hope for the future of the console. The gameplay, though? Now that was mind-numbing, and I'm still not completely sure who this game was aimed at.

The easiest way to explain what Knack is: it's classic God of War, but for kids. Knack has almost the same control scheme as Kratos (even using the right stick to dodge), but he doesn't really have any cool abilities or attacks to go along with that. It's a simple button-masher for basic hit combos, and you make your way through stages with fixed camera angles and non-stop enemies to take down. There are puzzles from time to time, but everything is extremely basic and much more suited for kids who are playing Knack as their first game in this action-platforming genre. Even then, there are much better games out there to play, but there are sure to be kids who still enjoyed this one just the same. Who knows, over 12 years later, maybe this game is a great childhood memory for some? It's just... the difficulty might be a put-off.

Despite being a game for "everyone," Knack is filled with non-stop cheap shots that will kill you and make you repeat everything you just did.

It isn't as noticeable at first, but Knack is extremely fragile, and it's easy for even the most basic of enemies to kill you. Just play smart and hit first, and you should be good! However, the real issues come into play when ranged enemies start to show up, and you need to dodge non-stop while also jumping from platform to platform. Shots start flying like crazy, you have to jump and move around them as you attempt to get closer to the enemies to attack them, and Knack has no control once he leaves the ground. Jumping to avoid one shot can mean you've just lined yourself up for the second enemy to shoot you, and now you're dead. The easiest solution to avoid this is to simply not jump, but the game doesn't give you that option, as it loves to place ranged enemies on higher ground. So the moment you jump to reach that next platform? You're dead before Knack's feet ever touch the ground.

It's a lot of trial and error and a lot of practice to get through such segments, and it only gets worse as the game goes on. In theory, this non-stop action should be fun and keep you on your toes, but when the game is so basic and repetitive, it just starts to drag. It gets even more annoying, however, when the fixed camera angle blocks pitfalls in your path, and Knack falls to his death before you even know what hit you. I now know where such areas are, but that doesn't mean I don't still fall for them from time to time... Literally.

Again, Knack isn't a game I hate, but it is a game I will tell most people to avoid. Check it out if you find it dirt cheap and you really want to experience it for yourself, but otherwise, this is one of those games best avoided. It is for sure better suited for kids, but the difficulty might prove to be too much. (Then again, little kid me had to put up with the nightmares on NES and SNES, so who knows? If you are someone who grew up on Knack, feel free to reach out below and let us know how you felt about it! I'm really curious.)

Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric

From one generic platforming game to the next, Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric is a low point for the Sonic series, and it isn't even entirely the game's fault. The game was developed by Big Red Button, which was founded by ex-Naughty Dog employee Bob Rafei. With this game, the team was given the task of developing a new universe based on Sonic the Hedgehog, which also gave them the creative freedom to change character designs. While some of these changes were not well received, they were a part of their vision for this new series and would go on to be used for the TV series as well.

The real problem was that the team couldn't truly do what they wanted with Sonic Boom, and they were forced to make many major changes to even make the game work. Sonic Boom was being developed using the CRYENGINE with a focus on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, but that's when SEGA themselves struck an exclusive deal with Nintendo. The next several Sonic games would be Nintendo exclusive, and that meant Sonic Boom had to shift development to the Wii U—a console that couldn't handle the team's original plans.

So, after gutting Sonic Boom and making the CRYENGINE work on a platform it didn't support, they had to make further changes to the game's story. Some pieces of dialogue from the original plans remained in the final product (making some story events confusing), but ultimately a new, simplified plot was used. This, mixed with the generic platforming, slow-paced gameplay, and focus on button-mashing combat—all of which go against Sonic's very core—resulted in one of the worst Sonic games in the series' history.

Looking at the game objectively, it did have a solid foundation that could've been used to make something great. Sure, not everyone would like the new designs, but the developer's original plans didn't seem to have the issues the final product has. Of course, we'll never know for sure, as all we have for reference is the developer's word, but simply playing the game makes its shortcomings very obvious. There's even a moment where the other characters go speeding past in the background, and the characters you play as comment about how "at least someone is having fun." It's like the game is self-aware with how repetitive and generic it ended up being, and that is both funny and sad at the same time.

Either way, Sonic Boom is a game you really should avoid. There's some fun to be had here, but it really isn't worth it. The TV show, on the other hand? Now that's gold! If you haven't watched it, then you have no idea what you're missing out on.

Postal III

Next up on our list is a series my fellow Netto's Game Room writer Cat is very fond of. It's something she and I would talk about quite often, and one particular entry in the series is universally known as one of the worst games of all time. In fact, it's so bad that in the game's actual story, it has been passed off as being a "Bad Dream."

The Postal series is pure adult entertainment. You can do whatever you want, be as crude as you want, and you have absolute freedom when it comes to the missions. Postal III, however? There's a morality system that limits what you can or cannot do, missions are repetitive, the game is very broken to play, and simply doesn't work. It was such a poor release that the developers behind the rest of the series had to release an official statement.

And here it is:

Disclaimer of Shame

Postal III is a third-person shooter in which you ... ehh ... uhm ...

Alright I'm going to level with you - don't buy Postal III. Seriously, you'd regret it. Hell, you'd regret playing it for free. It's a borderline- broken, boring, frustrating, unfinished mess, and there was nothing we could do stop it.

What happened is that we agreed to let a big Russian publisher develop and publish a third Postal game, which we would handle the design for. It was actually going well for the initial development time, but then the economy crashed especially hard in Russia and the project was handed to a smaller, less experienced team that didn't have the skill or resources to make the game we designed, and they were forced to rush development to meet unreasonable deadlines. Corners were cut severely, dramatic changes to our design were made, and the game was put out in an unfinished barely-Alpha state. The game is simply unfinished and broken. And when it does work, the game is just boring and frustrating to play. The sad part is that the publisher made little-to-no effort to fix it themselves, nor did they ever give us access so that we could try patching it up for them. We are stuck with Postal III as it is.

You're a responsible adult (we hope), so I'm sure you're capable of making your own purchasing decisions. I just want you to consider all of the above, before you make the leap of regret into paying real hard-earned money for this title. We don't own the game, we canʼt support it and we don't get anything from its sales, so if you decide to risk the purchase - you're on your own.

This honestly says it all. Everything fans loved about the previous entries wasn't here in the "sequel," and you really shouldn't play it. Instead feel free to check out Postal 2, which is a fan favorite for a reason! (In fact, Postal 2 received DLC showing our main character waking up from his Postal III nightmare. So that's a fun callback.)  

Bomberman: Act Zero

How can you mess up Bomberman? That's exactly what many of us thought back during the Xbox 360 era.

The Bomberman series has seen a lot of great games. You have the classic-styled games where you walk around a maze, drop bombs, and try to take out all the enemies without blowing yourself up. You clear the map, move onto the next, and then repeat the process. Different map designs and power-ups keep the game from getting repetitive, and it gets harder and harder as you go.

Other Bomberman titles, on the other hand, are full RPG adventures, seeing White Bomber (or even his brother Mighty) go on an adventure across the world as they power themselves up to solve puzzles and take care of Pokémon-like creatures called Charabom. Then you also have the 3D platforming adventure games, which tend to contain some RPG elements but focus more on exploring stages and reaching the goal. Some of these games also include classic Bomberman modes, including the mini-game-based Bomberman Land series, which greatly extends the playtime of each one and allows for friends to get together for multiplayer battles in an otherwise single-player game. 

All of these titles are fun in their own right and are the reason Bomberman is so popular. However, for Bomberman: Act Zero, they decided to go in a different direction, and we're still beating our heads against the wall wondering why anyone thought this was a good idea.

Instead of using the Bomberman we all know and love, Act Zero embraced the "edgy" side of the Xbox 360 and gave us a dystopian future where humanoid "Bombermen" (and Bomberwomen) are trapped underground and must fight their way to the surface to survive. The game uses the classic Bomberman gameplay of setting bombs to blow up objects and enemies, but that's all the game actually is. It's the same map, 99 times, doing the same thing over and over again, and all without the ability to save. The moment you die, it's back to level 1.

That's it. There's nothing else to this game, and it featured an awkward 3D camera that made it hard to see. There were multiplayer modes as well, but it wasn't really any different than just going through the game solo, as it never evolves past what you see in the first screen. Yes, you get power-ups to make yourself stronger, but it also makes it easier to blow yourself up and have to restart. At least there are health upgrades too, but once you reach the top floor (which can take a few hours), all you have left to do is do it all over again.

Anyone interested in completing everything the game has to offer and obtaining all the achievements will have possibly 500 hours of grinding to look forward to, but it may be possible to complete it faster. It all depends on how fast each run goes and if anything gets missed along the way.

While attempting a new sub-series for Bomberman isn't a bad idea on its own, it's the way this game is handled and the lack of content that completely ruins it. You can either play the same stage 99 times in a row in Act Zero, or you could replay the first stage of the original Bomberman 99 times in a row; you'll get basically the same experience, but might still have more fun with the original despite the difficulty not changing. Act Zero also lacked a local multiplayer mode, so all the party play options the rest of the series offers are absent here. It's just... a game that really doesn't need to exist, as you can literally pick up any other game in the series and get everything this one had to offer, plus more (minus the darker setting, of course).

Balan Wonderworld

I don't even know where to begin with the sheer disappointment Balan Wonderworld brought.

When Balan Wonderworld was first announced, I was genuinely excited. I loved the art from Naoto Ohshima, and the clear influences Yuji Naka brought over from Sonic the Hedgehog and NiGHTS. We knew from the get-go that the game would be different, leaning into a more standard 3D platformer style. However, what we couldn't have known was just how bare-bones and utterly bad it would truly be.

The physical packaging itself was a nice touch, I'll admit. It featured an invitation to this new world, giving the impression that something grand awaited. This felt like a piece of history, Yuji Naka's next big step. Of course, that did end up being true, though Naka's "next step" was unfortunately getting into trouble for insider trading during his time at Square Enix while working on the game.

The reality is, Wonderworld was anything but a wonder. It was an extremely basic, one-button platformer. You simply move and press the action button to use your current costume's ability. This means you can't even jump without a costume specifically designed for it, and most costumes ended up being either pointless or needlessly difficult to use. The level design was nothing special, yet forced you to use annoying costumes, and the story felt utterly pointless.

One might argue this is just a kids' game, but children deserve better than this. It's wrong to dismiss something with "they're just kids, it doesn't matter," because children are people too, with developing minds. We were all there once, and would you really want to put your younger self through a game like this? Most likely not.

This is truly all Balan Wonderworld is: extremely basic, incredibly repetitive, and plagued by annoying gameplay. It's simply not worth the time and effort it demands. And with 12 main chapters, it's not a game you can just power through in a few hours either. You're looking at at least 10 hours with the main story, and an additional 20 or so if you truly want to do everything. But why would you?

Final Fantasy All The Bravest

Thankfully, this one was finally removed in 2023, but for those who had the misfortune of playing it or even hearing about it:

Final Fantasy All The Bravest was Square Enix's first attempt at a Final Fantasy mobile game. This was before gacha games had become what they are today, and Square wanted to do something else with their long-running IP. For whatever reason, they thought it was a good idea to make a game where you rub your screen, watch characters die, and then either wait or pay real money to keep on going.

This is the entire game.

To accurately explain the game: it is a tap-based Final Fantasy title where you build a large party to fight enemies and monsters from across the series. You unlock and purchase more characters as you go, and you simply tap on the character to make them attack. An ATB bar controls when you can attack, but not attacking as much as possible will result in your characters dying. A dead character must wait three minutes before they can be revived, and they are put into the queue behind whoever died before them. This means an entire party will take a very long time to revive unless you pay real cash to speed things up.

Despite how it may seem, what characters you had didn't really matter much either, so ideally, you just tap as fast as possible, or slide your finger up and down on the touchscreen to use as many characters as quickly as you can. Eventually, you face off against bosses, which simply means more of your characters will die faster, and you'll just have to wait longer to continue.

It was not a good game in the slightest, and Square Enix fans looking for mobile games were better off playing Final Fantasy Dimensions or The World Ends With You. These were actual games.

 

And there you have it, our picks for 8 Games We Recommend AVOIDING! Do you agree with our list or have something you feel like we should've added? Let us know in the comments below!