For the younger readers amongst you, I suspect that many 3D games from the ‘90s and ‘00s seem rather quaint at best and downright unplayable at worst. It was a period in which the medium was geting to grips with a completely new third dimension; couple this with the limited graphical capabilities of the PlayStation and N64, and you could argue that many titles haven’t aged well.
Me, though? I absolutely love this era. I was six when the PS1 launched in the UK; the perfect age to start enjoying classics like WipEout, Spyro the Dragon, and yes, games that perhaps weren’t suitable for me yet like Metal Gear Solid and Resident Evil. So when I go back and play titles from this era today, I find them reasonably approachable thanks to an intimate familiarity with the period. Even remasters of games that I’ve not experienced before feel oddly comforting in a way that I can’t quite describe.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 hit theatres last week and its co-writers, Pat Casey and Josh Miller, are thriving. We spoke to them at length the day before the release about everything Sonic: Big the Cat, their inspirations, whether or not Chaos are real… you know, the important questions. And we also learned about their dream video game adaptations, which include A Boy and His Blob, Golden Axe, and… The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.
Speaking to IGN, Casey and Miller reminded us that they’re signed on to write a script for an upcoming It Takes Two film adaptation produced by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and also hinted that they were working on some other unannounced adaptations they couldn’t talk about. But as for things they are definitely not currently working on but would love to?
“We’ve talked about Golden Axe,” Casey suggests. “Golden Axe was another good Genesis multiplayer game.”
Miller throws in A Boy and His Blob, and Casey responds with “the 7-Up game about the dot having a platforming adventure.” He’s referring to Cool Spot, a 1993 platformer starring the red dot from the 7-Up logo. But Miller concludes with a far more exciting suggestion: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.
“I think another easy one I think we can answer because the movie’s already happening and we’re already not doing it would be a Zelda,” he says. “I remember always when we played Wind Waker, we were always like, man, I mean, it would probably be weird if they made a Zelda movie to start with Wind Waker versus the more classic Hyrule. But we both loved Wind Waker and it’s so cinematic. Yeah. So after they make this Zelda movie, I guess we’re putting it out there in the world, maybe we can do a Wind Waker spin-off.”
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
Although 2024 was a quieter year for big releases, it still had some fantastic games. But, at the other end of the spectrum, it had its fair share of stinkers too. Of course, reviews are and always have been objective critiques and whatever you might think of a game is your own opinion. You might have even played and enjoyed some of the games on this list – we all have guilty pleasures, right? But honestly, there were some really bad games released in 2024 that we definitely recommend you avoid…
Five – Mediocre
Looking at IGN’s official review scale, fives are considered ‘Mediocre’ games – the “kind of bland, unremarkable games we’ve mostly forgotten about a day after we finish playing.” They’re far from the worst games on the list and aren’t even necessarily “bad” (that’s 4s and lower), but you’re going to have to work hard to get any real fun out of them..
As the most populous score on this list, you’ll find a variety of different games. There are games like Slitterhead, an absurd action-horror game from a team of ex-Silent Hill veterans where humans must fend off parasitic monsters. Sounds fun but unfortunately it’s just dull. Similarly, Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance takes the war against Skynet (great!) and turns it into a mediocre RTS (not so great).
There was also a string of bland strategy games like Millennia, which our reviewer called “Civilization at home” after the McDonald’s at home meme; Sins of a Solar Empire 2, which is a lacklustre sequel to the 2008 4x game in space; and Homeworld: Vast Reaches. Not to be confused with Homeworld 3, Vast Reaches is instead a strategy game built for VR, but feels more like a tech demo than a full game.
There were also several disappointments that received a 5. Games many of us were eagerly looking forward to only to be let down by the final product. The First Descendant is a gorgeous-looking live-service shooter that unfortunately is more looks than substance, and the Until Dawn remake barely justified its existence over the excellent choose-your-own-adventure horror game original.
Developer Supermassive Games didn’t have better luck on The Casting of Frank Stone, a Dead by Daylight spinoff based around one of the killers from the popular online horror game. The sub-six-hour horror adventure is hardly scary and adds nothing to the lore of Dead by Daylight according to our reviewer.
The viral hit Bodycam – which captivated audiences thanks to a trailer featuring super-realistic graphics that looked like footage from a police bodycam – was also more sizzle than steak as the actual game was nothing close to what we saw in the trailer.
Perhaps most noteworthy is Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which was also one of the first 5s IGN handed out this year. We waited almost a decade for a new game from Batman Arkham developers Rocksteady, and sadly the wait was not worth it. Many were already bummed to hear Rocksteady was not developing a new Batman game but rather a Suicide Squad game, but that could have had potential given how fun and zany those characters are. It could have been Rocksteady’s chance to spread its wings and move away from the grimdark Arkham-verse and go for a more colorful route. But ultimately what we got was kind of a letdown, let’s be honest.
Forgoing the single-player goodness of the Batman games, Rocksteady ventured into the world of live-service with a squad-based looter-shooter in which players and friends team up as members of the Suicide Squad like Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, and King Shark. Unfortunately there just wasn’t enough of anything to makeSuicide Squad satisfying. The beloved combat from the Arkham games was completely absent, swapping crunchy melee for running-flying-shooting gameplay that felt okay, nothing more. Even looter-shooter fans would find the missions in Suicide Squad repetitive and bland. A forgettable experience from the decorated developers at Rocksteady.
Another big miss was Mario & Luigi: Brothership. The newest entry into the Mario & Luigi series developed specifically for the Nintendo Switch “misunderstands what made the Mario & Luigi series great,” according to IGN’s reviewer. The first original Mario RPG to be released this year alongside remakes of Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Brothership has none of their charm and plenty of drawbacks such as the “ridiculously chatty dialogue, overbearing hand-holding, and boring, runtime padding fetch quests.” Bummer.
Rounding out the rest of the 5s is Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown, whose original spearheaded the concept of online MMO racing games, but this sequel completely ignores any single-player content in favor of an annoying online-only strategy. There’s also a new SpongeBob Squarepants: The Patrick Star Game, which tries to revive the classic mascot platformer to middling effect, while Unknown 9: Awakening was a “routine action adventure game that probably wouldn’t blow me away even if it was well executed,” according to our review. And let’s not forget Kong: Survivor Instinct, a weird Metroidvania-style game in which you play as a human trying to survive in a city that Kong is destroying
One game that was a personal disappointment was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed, a new game based on the animated film, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. Given the quality of past TMNT games and the quality of the animated film this is based on, the resulting game was unfortunately far short of either.
Four – Bad
With the 5s out of the way, let’s make our way to the genuinely bad games. Literally, our review scale qualifies games that receive a 4 as “bad.” There are only three that received this distinction this year so let’s spend our time going through each of them.
Broken Roads was the first game in 2024 to receive a 4. This turn-based RPG set in post-apocalyptic Australia tried to deliver a more serious RPG experience complete with an ambitious morality system where players decide who lives and who dies. Rather than choosing one of the usual moral alignments like lawful good or neutral evil, Broken Roads gives players a full questionnaire that determines your beliefs in highly specific ways. But the problem is, outside of the questionnaire the system hardly matters.
Per our review, “There are very few conversations involving a moral choice in the first place, and you’re locked out of pretty much all other conversations once you’ve started down a given alignment path, leaving no opportunities to try something drastically different later.”
As interesting as a highly specific morality system is, what good is it if the game doesn’t put it to any use? Even worse, the more you play the faster you realize that Broken Roads is mostly filled with a bunch of fetch quests interrupted by exhausting dialogue. No thanks.
Another game that received a 4 is Endless Ocean Luminous, a remake of the original Endless Ocean first released on the Nintendo Wii. It’s a scuba diving adventure game in which each mission involves diving into a procedurally generated area of the ocean, to catalogue its various sea creatures and landmarks. Unfortunately, all of this becomes repetitive and, frankly, boring real fast.
The procedurally generated maps begin to look strikingly similar to each other almost immediately, and without a huge variety of missions or objectives, you’re effectively going from one part of the ocean to the next, cataloguing creatures until you hit your goal and move on to the next map. Then you repeat for hours. Our reviewer played about 26 hours of the game and were still not close to beating it – maybe that’s why it’s called Endless Ocean – and the kicker is that it was dull for most of that time..
The final game to receive a 4 was one you no doubt saw trailers for. I’m talking about Funko Fusion, an adventure game where you travel through some of pop culture’s biggest movies and TV shows, the twist being you’re playing as the Funko Pops from those various worlds.
Funko Fusion is best compared to the LEGO games, which are simple but enjoyable 3D platformers based on popular bricks. But Funkos don’t have the same charm as LEGO and Funko Fusion is nowhere near as good as even some of the worst LEGO games. The story is all but meaningless, the mission design is repetitive, and you can’t overlook the game-breaking bugs that will stop your progress in its place.
Three – Awful
The good news is that IGN did not award any 2s or 1s this year. Actually, we haven’t given a game a 1 since 2009, but that’s neither here nor there. The bad news is there are three games we gave a 3 to, which in our scale means they’re “Awful.”
The first is Atomic Heart’s Trapped in Limbo DLC. It’s the second of Atomic Heart’s two DLCs and takes place after the events of the main game, and is plagued by two godawful gameplay mechanics.
The first requires players to slide for really long stretches of time, avoiding obstacles and jumping when required. Our reviewer described this particular segment “like playing Tony Hawk with a broken ollie button, and the half-pipe is mined.”
Next, the DLC introduced first-person platform segments but unfortunately Atomic Heart just wasn’t designed for precise, first-person jumping, making them a painful slog right up until the end, which doesn’t take long to get to considering how short this DLC is.
Do you remember there was a new South Park game this year? Me neither, but it’s probably for the best. South Park: Snow Day is the third South Park game in a series that comprises Obsidian’s excellent South Park: The Stick of Truth, and the equally good South Park: The Fractured but Whole, both of which were fun RPGs based on the popular cartoon.
Snow Day ditches the RPG genre and is instead a 3D hack-and-slash, which wouldn’t be so much of an issue if it weren’t for how awkward and clumsy the controls are. Worse still, Snow Day also ditches the one thing the animated series is loved for: the humor.
Per our review, South Park: Snow Day features “appallingly flat writing [that] makes an already bad game not even worth pushing through for a few laughs.”
Our final 3 of the year was handed out to Empire of the Ants’ single-player campaign. A real-time strategy game where players control a colony of ants, this 12-hour adventure is unfortunately a far cry from its potential.
While the trailer showcased hyper-realistic ants moving in real-time, it’s obvious a lot more time was spent on how it looks rather than how it feels to play. With a difficulty curve that goes from easy to impossible in the blink of an eye, the campaign is an exercise in pain tolerance as one moment you’re mind-numbingly bored fighting easy enemies, before suddenly finding yourself defending your nest against a seemingly impossible wave of enemy ants. And without the ability to save mid-mission, failure means you’re starting from the beginning. No thanks.
And there you have it –those are the worst reviewed games of the year according. Be sure to check out our Best Reviewed Games list here as a palette cleanser, and let us know if you played any of the games on this list and how you feel about them.
Matt Kim is IGN’s Senior Features Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.
Our personal picks for the best Switch games of 2024.
As we head into the final week of 2024, it’s time to slay the GOTY monster that devours the Decembers of many a gamer.
While Nintendo itself has been in wind-down mode, with most internal resources focused on the next console and a software lineup to kickstart it, Switch itself has had a pretty great year. Nintendo enlisted its various partner studios to shoulder the first-party load as Switch went into its eighth year, and third parties and indies have continued to keep things interesting.
Here we are, the final voyage of 2024. This is the last advent calendar entry of PC gaming website Rock Paper Shotgun. Days elapsed: 24. Writers employed: 8.
The fell moons rise, and in their cold glare emerges a parcel from the dirt. Bloat and gangrene, crimped as if by tourniquet. A dark promise wriggles within. Grip the fibrous handles, feel its jagged soul imprint upon your palm. Now pull! Rend the sinew, tear muscle from bone, hatch their fetid gift! The yoke draws near! Take up the slip and read the words upon its face.
Time to enjoy your lovely joke!
Q: How can you tell a soulslike fan has fallen in love with a giant ape?
The Good Smile Company has already released all sorts of stunning Fire Emblem figures and the latest reveal is Edelgard from Fire Emblem: Three Houses.
Following Sega’s removal of certain digital titles earlier this month, multiple Cartoon Network Games under the Warner Bros. Discovery label have now been removed from digital stores including Nintendo’s Switch eShop.
There’s no word if they’ll ever return but according to reports, “at least five games” under the Warner Bros. label have been delisted.
It’s the holiday season, which means festive activities, family time, and, most importantly, the Steam Winter Sale. With discounts on everything from massive open world RPGs to pixel-art platformers, it can be tough to limit yourself to just a few games. While I’m all for splurging on 2024 releases, if you’re looking to maximize bang for your buck, you could also pick up a solid bunch of slightly older (but still amazing) PC games. For example, right now you can get over 10 copies of Fallout: New Vegas for the price of one S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2.
A starting point for Steam sales should always be checking your Wishlist, but if you’re looking for something new (or want to make sure you’re not missing an obvious deal), I found 33 of the best PC games for $10 or less.
The Complete Edition of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt for $10
The Witcher 3’s massive open world, compelling characters, and meaningful approach to player decision-making raised the bar for RPGs back in 2015. After The Witcher 4 was revealed at The Game Awards, what better time to play (or replay) one of the greatest RPGs of all time? Especially now that the Complete Edition, which includes the base game and every DLC, is down to just $9.99.
More RPGs Under $10:
If you’re looking for a narrative-driven RPG, I highly recommend Disco Elysium, which is also down to $10. Other RPGs with deep discounts include Bethesda properties like Fallout 4, Fallout: New Vegas, and (of course) Skyrim. Meanwhile, Baldur’s Gate 3 fans who have a hankering for more turn-based combat can pick up one of Larian’s older games, Divinity: Original Sin, for just $3.99.
40% Off Stardew Valley
Leave your office job to inherit your grandfather’s farm and help rebuild (or price out) the local town in Stardew Valley. IGN re-reviewed Stardew Valley after the farming game got a massive update and ended up giving it one of the only 10/10 game reviews for all of 2024. Given that Stardew was somehow my most-played game on Steam and Nintendo Switch, I have to agree that “Masterpiece” is a fair assessment.
More Cozy Games Under $10:
Cozy Grove, which I feel is more like Animal Crossing than Stardew, is on sale for under $5. If you’re the type of person who enjoys organizing, I’d recommend Unpacking, while Spiritfarer brings the management game genre to the afterlife.
DOOM Eternal for $10
The DOOM series was pretty foundational to the FPS genre, and one of the best DOOM games of the modern era has dropped to under $10. In IGN’s 9/10 DOOM Eternal review, Ryan McCaffrey highlights the game’s satisfying difficulty: “This excellent refinement of the already outstanding 2016 reboot makes you an unspoken deal: if you can keep up with it, it will keep up with you.”
More FPS Games Under $10:
For more single-player shooting, you can get six Halo games for $10 with The Master Chief Collection. Multiplayer shooters like Siege and Battlefield 2042 are also under $10 for the time being.
50% Off Hollow Knight
Hollow Knight is one of the most rewarding gaming experiences I’ve had, and also the closest I’ve come to throwing my Switch at the wall in frustration (that’s a positive, by the way). Per IGN’s 9/10 review: “The world of Hallownest is compelling and rich, full of story that’s left for you to discover on your own, and built with branching paths that offer an absurd amount of choice in how you go about discovering it.” Now you can find out why there’s always a chorus of comments begging for a Silksong release date for just $8.
More Platformers Under $10:
Like Hollow Knight, Celeste doesn’t shy away from challenging the player, and additional “B-sides” for every level up the ante for even platforming veterans. I recommend Little Nightmares to any horror fan, while the 2020 Ori sequel offers particularly creative puzzles.
Civilization VI for $2.99
With Civ VII set to release in just a couple of months, most of the Sid Meier franchise is on sale. While I prefer Civ V’s map mechanics, Civ VI, in my experience, is better optimized for setting up multiplayer lobbies. Convince your friends to drop a couple of bucks, and you can all lock into an empire-building marathon that will most likely end in some form of betrayal.
More Strategy and Simulation Games Under $10:
Most Total War games and DLCs are discounted, though one of the best deals is the Warhammer base game for $6. And if you’ve ever wanted to travel across the entirety of Europe for $5, now you can (with Euro Truck Simulator 2).
75% Off Overcooked 2
If you’re looking for something cheap you can convince your friends to pick up and play with you, look no further than Overcooked 2. The cooperative cooking game allows up to four players to hop into a campaign that, with arcade-style levels and goofy physics, will probably lead to some screaming. But, as IGN’s Overcooked 2 review describes, this “frantic and inventive co-op game… manages to turn frustration into charm.”
More Co-op Games Under $10:
For larger groups, I also recommend For the King and Castle Crashers. It Takes Two is one of the best games for two-player co-op, and only one person has to buy the game courtesy of Hazelight Studio’s “Friend’s Pass.” And, of course, Portal 2, down to just $2, will always be a co-op classic.
