"Bad" games that you loved

Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) and Watchmen: The End is Nigh.

Both of these are probably some of my most played 360 games. I still play them every now and then.

 

Condemned 2: Bloodshot. The story derailed halfway through the game, but I found the first half/two-thirds to be fun.

 

I, unlike many of the people out there, thoroughly enjoyed the hell out of Tenchu Z. I thought that the game was good for many reasons, although it lacked in many ways, especially graphics.

Here is my full review of the game that I have posted on pretty much every game site. Here's the one from gamespot:

www.gamespot.com/.../xbox360

Or you can simply read it here:

I would like to say that I think that most people that review this game are not playing the game like the game intends you to play it, and I think that is why it gets such low scores all across the internet. I have always been a fan of this series, and I
think it is leaps and bounds beyond it's previous installments. A 4.9 is just so low for me, so I decided since I've played the game all the way through about 8 times, I would give an in depth review for a game that I think got shafted, for lack of a better
word. I swear that this game deserves a decent score for fans of the stealth genre, and let's face it, there aren't that many games in that category. Here is my fair review of this fun game that I love.

GAMEPLAY BASICS & COMBAT:

This is a STEALTH game primarily, and if you try to be Ryu Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden, you won't fare too well as you will soon have many guards surrounding you which will most likely lead to your death if you try to kill them all this way. The game's melee
combat leaves much to be desired, and many of the attacks are not very effective. But, at least if you get caught you have some attacks to defend yourself with until you can creep back into the shadows, or grapple up to a roof and hide until the alert goes
away. There are some cool combo moves though. There's one move that resembles Kage from Virtua Fighter's throw that tosses them in the air, then jumps, grabs them, and drops them on their head. You'll want to see all of these combos probably once or twice,
but you'll soon go back to the stealth strategy which is the bread and butter of the game.

The game has a light/dark meter that let's you know if you are completely hidden. The only way to be completely hidden is to get in some brush, or a bush, then you will notice your bar all the way in the dark. From there, you can wait for a chance to run,
or wait for an enemy to walk up to you and immediately stealh kill them (which I recommend). There's also another meter you will notice that has numbers. This means the higher the number, the closest you are to an enemy/citizen. Be very careful not to kill
innocents as it will take your ninja rank down at the end of the mission. If you stick to stealth and remain mostly undetected, while killing a few enemies, then your primary target, you will always get a ninja 5 rank. That is your goal to not only making
more money at the end of each mission, but also unlocks some achievements for getting a ninja 5 rank on all missions on easy, normal, and hard difficulties.

There are many cool items to use like throwing stars, explosives, and one of my favorites, the blow gun, that if shot at an enemy while hidden usually results in an immediate one hit kill (unless it's a boss character). Major boss characters require you
to battle it out. Luckily there are only three of these characters that you are forced to brawl with. The funny thing is, only your character can swim. The bosses will also follow you wherever you go, and if you lure them close to a ledge with water at the
bottom of it, you can easily flip over them and knock them in the water, killing them instantly. Talk about a humiliating way for a warrior to die. I don't know about you, but I think it's awesome that boss characters actually try to relentlessly hunt you
through the entire map. In fact, I don't remember it in any game I've ever played, and I've played MANY. With the way the combat is, the water technique is a perfect way to kill them without even getting hit most of the time, and is always funny watching them
fall to their death and drown.

There are a few really good techniques and abilities that can be equipped that add a lot of versatility to the game as well. There is an ability that you can earn that let's you put your ear to the ground and "hear" enemies heartbeats and steps, which results
in them appearing on your map. This is a must have ability in my opinion and makes it easier to navigate. Another ability I'd like to mention is the dash attack which basically let's you run like the flash and stealth kill an enemy very quickly.

DID I MENTION STEALTH KILLS ARE AWESOME?:

This is how the game is meant to be played, and you will be spending most of your time either jumping from roof to roof, or holding the crouch button and rolling around trying not to be detected. These techniques will give you the best results, and if you
are a fan of sneaking around like you did in the old Metal Gear Solid games you will absolutely love it. The stealth kill setup reminds me of another great game, Manhunt. Just like in that game, when your reticule turns from it's normal color to red, you get
different stealth kills depending on the situation. Just mentioning Manhunt makes me want to dust off my PS2 and play it again, but anyway, here's the rundown on stealth for Tenchu Z.

You will want to keep your weapon sheathed most of the time as running with your sword drawn, attracts more attention. With your weapon sheathed, you can sneak up on an enemy, and put him in a choke hold. From there you can choose to drag him somewhere hidden
and kill him, put him on the ground and snap his neck, or just stick your blade through him right there. After you kill an enemy you can hide their bodies in a shadow area, or just toss them over a ledge into the water if there's water on the map. Be careful
though, as this makes a lot of noise. The best stealth kill with your weapon drawn though is my personal favorite. With your weapon drawn look down on an enemy from atop a roof, do a high jump front flip, then right before you hit the ground, hit your attack
button and come right down on them with your blade. I promise this never gets old. There are many other situation stealth kills such as waiting behind a wall, then waiting for the enemy to walk by. When the stealth kill reticule appears hit the attack button,
which results in you grabbing the enemy, holding them against the wall and stabbing them, or slitting their throats (I believe it's random which of the two you will perform). There are many others, but I would like to point out another useful one where you
hang from a ledge with an enemy above you, then grab them by their feet, hold them with your legs wrapped around their neck while in mid-air, then give them a good ol' slash, dropping their useless corpse to the ground. Talk about awesome. The most common
one you will want to use though, is the crouch stealth kill with your weapon drawn, as it's the quickest kill in the game. It's basically a move where you do a flying leg tackle (similar to a hurricanrana if you're a wrestling fan), then you take your blade
and guillotine them with it. Fantastic. These kills often result in a huge blood spray, that can come off as either awesome, or comical depending if you are a fan of anime (which I am).

CHARACTER CUSTOMIZATION:

This was a very pleasing feature for me, and adds at least 2.5 points to my review. There are a ton of options to customize your male or female ninja to make them look exactly how you would like them to look. You can easily reproduce some of the classic
video game and anime ninjas, such as Kage from Virtua Fighter, Hayabusa from Ninja Gaiden, and Jubei from Ninja Scroll (complete with the straw in his mouth if you wish) along with many others. After you complete the game you even get some military clothes
complete with camo designs that you can equip to make yourself look almost exactly like Solid Snake from the Metal Gear series. In the game you earn money for each mission then purchase items or clothing for your character. Some of my favorites include the
claw that resembles Vega's claw from Street Fighter, and an extra sword to carry or a set of Sai daggers. The in game marketplace also allows you to preview clothing and accesories before purchasing which is a must have feature nowadays. No gripes in this
department for me, since I believe this is the first Tenchu that you can actually make your own character.

GRAPHICS:

Since this game is a first generation Xbox 360 title I didn't really expect the game to look impressive or anything, so the graphics are kind of mediocre. The game doesn't look bad by any means, but the graphics are nothing special. I know that saying it's
a first generation game is kind of a cop out since Oblivion is one of the best looking games for the 360 to this day, and came out around the same time. You have to keep in mind that they probably didn't have the money or time to make the game look that good
as well. The graphics are suited well for the game though, and you can always tell what's going on. I personally don't really have any complaints about how the game looks. There are definitely worse looking games out there for the 360.

SOUND/MUSIC:

The sounds in the game are fitting, but nothing very special. The little music that's in the game is good, but you won't be looking for the soundtrack online for download or anything. It's no Final Fantasy or Zelda in this category for sure. It just get's
the job done. I do find the ability to yell like a woman to get guards attention (even when you're a male ninja) absolutely hilarious though. Also some of the guards death noises and other banter is funny as well.

MULTIPLAYER VIA SYSTEM LINK OR XBOX LIVE:

I have never tried this feature due to lack of another person I know that has the game for system link (probably due to the horrible reviews it's received), and at the moment I have yet to try it online. I have watched youtube videos for live play though.
I have heard/seen both positive things, and negative things. The fun things I have seen are co-op stealth kills, the bad things I hear about are lag, which I guess varies for each user based on internet connection, just like every other game. Not every game
can have the best servers like Halo and Call of Duty, I wish they did. I recommend using this feature at your own risk as I haven't tried it, but I can tell you that you really don't need to play it with other people to have an amazing time killing unsuspecting
guards. I wouldn't think there would be lag via system link though. Every game I've played system link worked fine (Halo 2,3, Saint's row 2, and Gears of War 2). I could be wrong, youtube it if you wish.

FINAL WORD:

If you ever played a Tenchu game and liked/loved it, go get this game at your local gamestop in the bargain bin or whatever right now. I promise you if you play the game with STEALTH in mind you will have a great time. I love this game, and so do a couple
of friends of mine, and we can't understand the brutal scores most people are giving it. I can see some of their points like map recycling, and computer A.I. can be a little stupid sometimes, but this is all besides the point. The point is, you want to be
a ninja. Ninjas rely on stealth and brains in this title, and this game let's you stealth kill enemies in some of the coolest ways I've ever seen. If you want a hack and slash, fast paced action game or something like that get Ninja Gaiden, Devil May Cry,
Bayonetta, or Ninja Blade (the last one made by the same people btw). I think that those games are great too, but this is different, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Adam Sessler from G4's show X-Play knocked the game for it being "too repetitive", which
didn't make much sense to me. You name me one game that isn't repetitive, and I'll be surprised. This is a ninja game, and that's what ninja's do. They kill people over and over. I really hated X-Play and Gamespot's review of this game if you can't tell. I
hope the developers of this underrated game aren't totally discouraged by the horrible reviews this game has received. I would love to see another Tenchu for the Xbox 360 with better graphics, more map varieties, and better combat for the people that complain
about it so much.

Thanks for reading everyone, and if you found this helpful let me know. I always like meeting new friends.

Until next time.

-badron11( is my gamertag now)

 

Other games include Vanquish, Bullet Storm(Steve Blum's voice work was hilarious, you know the guy who voices the cartoon Wolverine lol), Defiance(fun for a little while), Kingdoms of Amalur, Dante's Inferno(to me was more fun than God of War 3), X-Men Origins:
Wolverine, Captain America(had combat that ripped off the Batman games, but the brutal takedowns with the Shield were so painful and gratifying lol, Assassin's Creed III(a lot of people hate this game), and Halo 4(I have friends that won't play it anymore,
saying it makes them "sad"...)

 

@BEASTmmb

Yea, Too Human was awesome. One of my favs. Too bad the company is no more.

@Th3 Tater

Yep, Bulletstorm was fun, bad dialogue, pretty much no story.

@YellowJacket Le

I always wanted to try the godfathers.

@Dilbert88

I also enjoyed the Walking Dead Survival Instinct, crossbow is awesome.

@Marwood II 87

Yea, Fable III story was subpar, but gameplay was very addicting.

@Superman New 52

My friend wanted me to get Tenchu Z, but I forgot lol, might get it later.

 

Golden Axe: Beast Rider. Got slated in reviews but I loved it.

 

A couple people mentioned Deadly Premonition which I think misses the point of the thread. It is by far not a bad game, it is a great game. Its main crime was it was over-ambitious for its budget, because it was indeed a budget title. Its graphics look
old & maybe its combat was not the best, but neither impacted the flow of gameplay or the story and were limitations of budget, not talent. It was very easy to control everything very quickly (even the driving). It is a beautiful love letter to Twin Peaks,
with a fully developed open world in which the NPCs live their own lives when you arent paying attention to them (it has an in game 24 hr clock) and side quests that actually filled in the story most times. Objectively, it is a great game, even with its flaws.

OT, I tried to think of a bad game I enjoyed, but I dont enjoy bad games (even if I waste time and finish some of them).

 

Going back to original xbox, blood wake, and the thing.blood wake's story was lame, but the action was fun. the thing would of bin awesome, if it had better graphics.

 

I also enjoyed Brink, once I found weapons I like and resident evil orc was fun for a while.