Worst Video Games Of 2019

 

Like most years, 2019 had a handful of good games and a whole of lot of terrible ones.

Here, in no particular order, are the worst and most disappointing video games I played in 2019.

 

Control

Developer: Remedy Entertainment

Publisher: 505 Games

Systems: Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PC

While there are aspects of this third-person sci-fi shooter that I enjoyed — including your Force-like ability to toss office furniture at people — its loose controls and lack of versatility, including being unable to duck for cover, make this feel as dated as a PlayStation 2 game.

SCORE: 6.5/10 (Click here to read my full review.)

 

 

Flippy Race

Developer/Publisher: Ketchapp

Systems: iOS, Android

Some mobile games have bad controls. Others have so many ads that they’re just too annoying to play. This jet ski racing game has the distinction of being both awkward and greedy.

SCORE: 1 star out of 5 (Click here to read my full review.)

 

 

Twist Hit!

Developer/Publisher: SayGames LLC

Systems: iOS, Android

While we’ve all played mobile games that were aggressive with their advertising, this otherwise interesting arcade game is so greedy, so obnoxious in how often it runs its ads, and at all the wrong moments, that it really is unplayable.

SCORE: 1 star out of 5 (Click here to read my full review.)

 

 

Break Bricks – Ball’s Quest

Developer/Publisher: Bin Dong

Systems: iOS, Android

Like Twist Hit!, this arcade game — in which you use a paddle to hit a ball towards some bricks you’d like to break — is way too aggressive with its advertising. But that’s not the real problem. No, the real issue is that as you break those blocks, you get power-ups that release more balls, and thus quickly end up with so many balls flying around that you don’t need to do anything, you can sit back and let the game play itself.

SCORE: 1 star out of 5 (Click here to read my full review.)

 

 

Flip Dunk

Developer/Publisher: Voodoo

Systems: iOS, Android

It’s one thing when a game is so simple that you get bored after an hour or two. And it’s another thing when that same game has so many ads that lasting half an hour, let alone an hour or two, is a struggle. But when your ad algorithm is also bad, and thus has your players watching the same ads over and over and over…well, you land on a list like this one.

SCORE: 1 star out of 5 (Click here to read my full review.)

 

 

Swing Rider!

Developer/Publisher: Voodoo

Systems: iOS

Jetpack Jump

Developer/Publisher: Kwalee

Systems: iOS, Android

Like Flip Dunk, these games were rendered unplayable by an overabundance of ads, ones that, in the former, stuck out even more by having audio while this game is oddly silent. But even if they were ad-free, these games — the former: a low-rent, wannabe Spider-man racing game; the latter: an arcade-style long jump game — would still be terrible thanks to their simplistic and redundant gameplay.

SCORE:

Swing Rider!: 1 star out of 5 (Click here to read my full review.)

Jetpack Jump: 1 star out of 5 (Click here to read my full review.)

 

 

Monkeynauts: Merge Monkeys

Developer/Publisher: HyperBeard Inc

Systems: iOS, Android

While they say it’s good to sometimes do nothing, I don’t think they meant when you’re playing a game. But that’s basically what you do in this game, in which you tap a tube to get a baby monkey, and then drag said monkey to another of the same kind to make a more grown-up monkey, and repeat until two apes in a lab coats take a space ship to the next location, and so on and so forth until you realize you’re basically just waiting for nothing. Well, unless you want to watch some ads…

SCORE: 1 star out of 5 (Click here to read my full review.)

 

 

Ice Scream: Horror Neighborhood / Ice Scream: Horror Adventure

Developer/Publisher: Keplerians Horror Games

Systems: iOS, Android

As much as I love when people turn pleasant childhood memories into objects of terror, you can’t have a scary stealth game without good controls. Something the makers of this game — called Ice Scream: Horror Neighborhood on Android and Ice Scream: Horror Adventure on iOS — clearly don’t understand. Nor do they get why being a bit forgiving when it comes to interacting with objects is a good thing in a game where you’re often being chased by a child predator.

SCORE: 1 star out of 5 (Click here to read my full review.)

 

 

Rocket Buddy

Developer/Publisher: Playgendary Limited

Systems: iOS, Android

Fittingly, I ended the year with a game that was bad in every way possible. Not only was this arcade game wholy unoriginal and lousy with ads, but it was also so stupidly simple that it was devoid of all challenge. And I say that as someone who, to paraphrase Lisa Simpson, wants a challenge…but a challenge I can do.

SCORE: 1 star out of 5 (Click here to read my full review.)

 

And that’s a wrap on 2019. Here’s hoping 2020 will be a better year.