Say something positive about a game universally regarded as abysmal

[PeteProdge]

Renegade III
The AY music's alright.

Double Dragon
You can still hold your head high in front of C64 owners.

Sqij
You get a free copy of Ocean's Laser BASIC (£14.95 RRP) with this two pound game!

[Daveysloan]

World Cup Carnival.

It had one of the best Wallcharts ever.

Cassette 50

Ski Jump was fun.

[zup]

Sqij - If makes you to learn how to hack/poke games.
Cassette 50 - With 50 games, it wouldn't be hard to find a game that deserves his price tag. Oh, wait...
Don't buy this game - A very honest title.
Some text adventures - You'll learn many new words while trying to find the exact one.
Almost every abysmal game - You won't have to pay for DLCs, you've got the game complete.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

Kung Fu Master - Another brilliant loading screen by F. David Thorpe

[Matt_B]

Voyage into the Unknown has nice cover art.

Most of those early Mastertronic releases did.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

Voyage into the Unknown has nice cover art.

Most of those early Mastertronic releases did.

Many early works by CRL were poor, but their inlays by Phil Gascoine were just brilliant. Here an example:

[Sokurah]

Renegade III
The AY music's alright.

Actually, I think it's pretty great codingwise. Sure, gamedesign and gameplay sucks, but technically it's excellent.

[uglifruit]

The Great Space Race had an impressive box.

[bluespikey]

Cassette 50 - It came with a calculator watch! Its like buying Cyberpunk 2077 and getting an Iphone X thrown in.

Airwolf - It was too easy but it did look pretty.

[lister_of_smeg]

Outrun - It has an AY rendition of Magical Sound Shower on the 128k.

Renegade III - Taught school children everywhere that positive reviews in 'reputable' publications could be bought.

Cassette 50 - Without it there would be no CSSCGC.

[RWAC]

Rick Dangerous is a fun game.

[p13z]

The Great Space Race had an impressive box.

Also - the hype and scandal surrounding The Great Space Race led a few to stumble on this virtually unknown gem in the archives:
Space Racer

[Jbizzel]

Rick Dangerous is a fun game.

This was a great game. Is it really regarded as abysmal?

The spectrum port always seemed impressive to me

[Jbizzel]

The cassette 50 version of frogger is a diamond in the rough.

Also, making the whole family play cassette 50 round the main TV in the front room is hilarious.

[Morkin]

C-Tech's Krazy Kong actually only has 2 screens rather than the advertised 3, so you don't have to play it for as long.

[PeteProdge]

Rick Dangerous is a fun game.

This was a great game. Is it really regarded as abysmal?

The spectrum port always seemed impressive to me

I'm with you there. Never got the hate for it.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

One on One or the joy of pressing the reset button (if you have a Plus model, obvs)

[uglifruit]

In Grange Hill, you can move around much quicker by jumping everywhere. (This gives the impression that Luke "Gonch" Gardener is in training for the Olympic Triple Jump).

Also - in the 128k version of the game - using the windowed menu system will (thankful) temporarily silence David Whittaker's repetitive music.

[RWAC]

Rick Dangerous is a fun game.

This was a great game. Is it really regarded as abysmal?

The spectrum port always seemed impressive to me

Mainly by critics. I've never seen a good review in any magazine. Our friend Mr Campbell was a particularly harsh critic but then he gave St Dragon 29% in Your Sinclair so what does he know?

Rick Dangerous 2 was good as well. One of the few games I managed to complete.

[AndyC]

This was a great game. Is it really regarded as abysmal?

The spectrum port always seemed impressive to me

I'm with you there. Never got the hate for it.

It's a bit "Die unexpectedly, remember how and where. Play again. Die unexpectedly slightly further along ..."

I still love it though

[firelord]

Kung Fu Master -Spectrum version- has the same name as the Original Arcade Game!

[Vampyre]

EDIT: Nuts! Someone got here way before me with World Cup Carnival.

Maria's Christmas Box - at least the box it came in wasn't such a challenging w**k.

[clebin]

Hard Drivin' - it has instant replays of your crashes like the arcade. And you get to see plenty of them.

[toot_toot]

World Cup Carnival.

It had one of the best Wallcharts ever.

Cassette 50

Ski Jump was fun.

World Cup Carnival had AMAZING packaging, but then I’m certain the packaging was all produced when it was supposed to be a rebranded & updated version of Match Day that was going to be the actual game (imagine how great it would have been if World Cup Carnival was International Match Day?)

Cassette 50 was also great fun for BREAKing into the games (because they were all basic) and hacking it to include rude stuff, or your mate’s names. Good way to learn basic!

Here’s a couple that I don’t think have been mentioned:

Highlander

Amazing film, incredible Bob Wakelin cover art and unbelievable crap game.



Miami Vice
Again, incredible Bob Wakelin cover art. Absolutely terrible game. Except Don Johnson’s agent complained that DJ doesn’t “do” paintings, so they had to replace it with a photo based cover. Thankfully the original adverts used Bob Wakelin’s art.

[AndyC]

Miami Vice was a great idea for a game and, if implemented well, could easily have been oft cited as a forerunner to games like GTA.