Over-hated Games

[Turbo Kid]

You do NOT understand Duke. Duke as a character isn't "edgy f-bombs, sex jokes and unironic testosterone", he is the insane man in a straight-laced world: Ever since Duke 1, he was designed as an explicit parody of macho action heroes, and indeed, if you were to play 3D, you'd realise that Forever missed the point, not just of who Duke is, but of what Duke as a franchise is meant to be.

In 1, 2, 3D, and the spin-offs, most of the jokes were built around either loving homages and nods to the films that inspired the Duke, such as the 3D level "Pigsty" opening up with Duke saying "I'll be back!" as a car rams into a police station, or absurd nods to the culture of the times, such as a billboard in Manhattan Project advertising a show called "I Married a TR**NY!", spoofing shameless, exploitative reality TV from the 2000s, or the entire bit involving the "society for preparation of the canine hamburger" in 3D. And whenever the jokes DID delve into sexual material, it was usually a lot more tasteful and subtle as opposed to what we get in Forever.
Duke Nukem Forever on the other hand ditches any form of tact, art or taste in favour of being a mean-spirited, spiteful parody of modern gaming where most of the humour comes from people being assholes, Duke being treated as the greatest thing in the world, and obsession with the act of placing the penis in the rectum. The "signature of Duke" is NOT there, and if it is, it's been perverted beyond all recognition.
In fact, saying that Forever is just like the original games is WHY Forever killed the series, why the franchise has attracted a slew of anti-SJW douchebags, and why shitmeister Adi Shankar is now going to finish what Forever started and kill the Duke once and for all: Critics of the time (and even today) say that the game is just like the older entries because they had no interest in said entries, and this resulted in casual gamers wanting nothing to do with Duke Nukem as an IP. So yeah. You are wrong on so many levels.

(And don't even compare this to the Star Wars Prequels; those movies are different from the originals, but they still understood the core of Star Wars and are honestly really good. Unlike Duke Nukem Forever.)

 

[Neb Lleb]

Figures a fellow Duke Nukem Forever defender would use a Last Jedi clip. You know what? I'm just gonna leave this video here to show you how wrong you are:

 

[snes9x]

Duke Nukem Forever

It has its flaws like long loading screens and some modern decision like carrying 2 guns (That, imho is not even bad). I would even dare to say that is helped to stay FPS away from the CoD/scripted all present formula and put FPS on a classic design but on modern systems, what will be (badly imo) called "boomer shooter" later. The level design where great and some jokes where fun.

But the gaming media decided they where too enlighten to hear dirty jokes from a character that was known for dirty jokes. so they trashed the game and it become the "cool" thing to do.

the game is really good. I highly recommend it.

Nah, DNF is a tonally confused mess that wants to have its cake and eat it too (ie, framing itself as a badass "boomer" shooter while using the same conventions as the modern shooters it so desperately wants to put itself above.) I don't care about the revisionist culture war shit. It's a bad game.

 

[Neb Lleb]

Nah, DNF is a tonally confused mess that wants to have its cake and eat it too (ie, framing itself as a badass "boomer" shooter while using the same conventions as the modern shooters it so desperately wants to put itself above.) I don't care about the revisionist culture war shit. It's a bad game.

Accurate. Don't even get me started on how spiteful it is with its attempts at "parody" in contrast to more loving and affectionate spoofs featured in Duke titles like 3D, Time To Kill and Manhattan Project.

 

[Graves Ruinwalker]

You do NOT understand Duke. Duke as a character isn't "edgy f-bombs, sex jokes and unironic testosterone", he is the insane man in a straight-laced world: Ever since Duke 1, he was designed as an explicit parody of macho action heroes, and indeed, if you were to play 3D, you'd realise that Forever missed the point, not just of who Duke is, but of what Duke as a franchise is meant to be.

In 1, 2, 3D, and the spin-offs, most of the jokes were built around either loving homages and nods to the films that inspired the Duke, such as the 3D level "Pigsty" opening up with Duke saying "I'll be back!" as a car rams into a police station, or absurd nods to the culture of the times, such as a billboard in Manhattan Project advertising a show called "I Married a TR**NY!", spoofing shameless, exploitative reality TV from the 2000s, or the entire bit involving the "society for preparation of the canine hamburger" in 3D. And whenever the jokes DID delve into sexual material, it was usually a lot more tasteful and subtle as opposed to what we get in Forever.
Duke Nukem Forever on the other hand ditches any form of tact, art or taste in favour of being a mean-spirited, spiteful parody of modern gaming where most of the humour comes from people being assholes, Duke being treated as the greatest thing in the world, and obsession with the act of placing the penis in the rectum. The "signature of Duke" is NOT there, and if it is, it's been perverted beyond all recognition.
In fact, saying that Forever is just like the original games is WHY Forever killed the series, why the franchise has attracted a slew of anti-SJW douchebags, and why shitmeister Adi Shankar is now going to finish what Forever started and kill the Duke once and for all: Critics of the time (and even today) say that the game is just like the older entries because they had no interest in said entries, and this resulted in casual gamers wanting nothing to do with Duke Nukem as an IP. So yeah. You are wrong on so many levels.

(And don't even compare this to the Star Wars Prequels; those movies are different from the originals, but they still understood the core of Star Wars and are honestly really good. Unlike Duke Nukem Forever.)

I agree only partially with you . Forever in the 2000s would be a huge hit but the game we actually got was CoD-slop with an attempt to be like Duke Nukem but with the worst sin they did , was to make a story about him to make him "deeper" which doesnt work and the game had unnecessary moments of stay and wait scripts and gameplay-brakes that wasnt there in the older games and neuters the immensly . Duke Nukem is a superficial badass and not a deep character . The games were always about the gameplay first and the "story" is just set-pieces for the levels and boss-fights that underline the gameplay of it .

I dont like the official Forever because it was extremly linear and the story was utter garbage that never was needed . The CoD gameplay ruined any replayability whatsoever and i only agree that the jokes were very tasteless and not cool in the slightest .

What we saw in the 2000 leaked version of Forever was way much cooler and had such huge potential to be one of the best games ever made but George Bussard didnt stop with his ever increasing ambition and ruined the development in the worst way possible .

Nothing against the people that like the official Forever but they didnt knew what they actually missed out with the 2000s version of the game and so did i till the leak came out . And it was the only Duke Nukem game that got output way later and most people lost the actual point of Duke Nukem . Nothing to blame there just the blind ambition of the developers and Randy Pitchford for taking the mantle when he even lost the point why Duke Nukem was beloved from the beginning .

Playing an 80s action hero with an gameplay that allows to embody their own badassery in all its interactivity , mechanics and level design was the actual mainpoint of the Duke Nukem-games . But the official product was the Anti-approach to it and it failed hard to be an actual timeless classic like DN3D .

 

[BigTony]

Gex nowadays its only know as the punchline to a joke but it was one of my favorites as a kid and i still think they hold up pretty well.

 

[Juiceala]

Gex nowadays its only know as the punchline to a joke but it was one of my favorites as a kid and i still think they hold up pretty well.

I think the general opinion turned around now but I agree, Gex is a lot better than people used to say, it plays nice and the level design is quite hood, also I like how you get booted out of the level upon completing it like Mario 64, it gives a sense of completion, I hate games like DK 64 and Mario Odyssey where they feel like a chore.

 

[King Torro]

- Adult jokes? check, all the way
- Duke silliness? from the "balls box" to the level where you go small on a burger tower
- Reference to other popular IP? Check as well, even giving some hits at Halo and Dead Space (for example)

It will definitely didnt live to the expectations of like 14 years (and like 3 development resets), but saying it has nothing to do us just ridiculous. It feel like a Duke Nukem 3D successor, maybe not the best sequel and it clearly has its flaws, but it fits right there. The "fans" and many other just hated it because it was the popular thing to do back then. Like the Star Wars prequels.

I agree with you largely. I think that the gameplay with the "modern fps" movement and tight gun limit was bad, and the game had severe pacing issues, like the parts where you're wandering around the desert or the innards of the Hoover Damn for way too long because there is very little for Duke to quip about or interact with. Duke Nukem is at it's best when it has Duke making one-liners or corny jokes or presenting references or cheeky situations at the player (like the section when Duke is shrunk and the lady is contemplating possibilities regarding shrunk Duke.

For all it's flaws DNF still has a lot of that Duke charm, and it gives you segments that provide a break from the core gameplay like the wrecking ball (sadly too early then for a Miley Cyrus reference), the forklift sections (if only you could properly lift pallets with the forklift!), a lot of interaction in the strip club, the platforming while shrunken at Duke Burger the RC car sequences. I wish they had

Spoiler: plot / character spoilers

kept the Folsom twins around longer to provide Duke with motivation

but overall the game was decent, even good at the beginning and middle parts before the slog of the desert + dam endgame.
The DLC (Doctor Who Cloned Me) was actually really good as far as the pacing of all the quirky fun parts of Duke Nukem Forever goes, but unfortunately and unsurprisingly the flaws of the basic gameplay are there.

I don't think that Duke Nukem Forever is some kind of a masterpiece, far from it, but considering that so much of the Duke Nukem franchise is bad butchered ports of Duke 3d or thoroughly mediocre stuff like Land of the Babes, in my personal opinion Duke Nukem Forever sits in the upper mid parts of the Duke Nukem pyramid imho. Or at least doesn't deserve to as much of the scorn it receives.

Obviously everyone has their own preferences and rankings of all these various games so not belittling anyone's opinion but I think that as you said / implied in your other post, people have built up an image of Duke Nukem that is somehow more noble / complex / artistically sound than what he actually is. I love Civvie11's vids and he often has sound opinions to go with his comedy, but I think he also did this thing where he elevated Duke in non-Forever games to make the Forever-Duke seem worse by comparison.

"Duke Nukem is your 80s-90s action man hero: he kick asses, he gets the girls and he eat burgers"

Couldn't agree more.

 

[evercaptor]

Any other Devil May Cry 2 apologists out there? The tone was different to 1, but It's no worse playing in my opinion. I also really appreeciated there being a female main character to play (requiring a playthrough to unlock the next difficulty level, even!) Except for 3 and four, I think Devil may cry got better each entry, dMc -Devil May Cry- included. That was a fabulous game to play.

 

[Neb Lleb]

I agree with you largely. I think that the gameplay with the "modern fps" movement and tight gun limit was bad, and the game had severe pacing issues, like the parts where you're wandering around the desert or the innards of the Hoover Damn for way too long because there is very little for Duke to quip about or interact with. Duke Nukem is at it's best when it has Duke making one-liners or corny jokes or presenting references or cheeky situations at the player (like the section when Duke is shrunk and the lady is contemplating possibilities regarding shrunk Duke.

For all it's flaws DNF still has a lot of that Duke charm, and it gives you segments that provide a break from the core gameplay like the wrecking ball (sadly too early then for a Miley Cyrus reference), the forklift sections (if only you could properly lift pallets with the forklift!), a lot of interaction in the strip club, the platforming while shrunken at Duke Burger the RC car sequences. I wish they had

Spoiler: plot / character spoilers

kept the Folsom twins around longer to provide Duke with motivation

but overall the game was decent, even good at the beginning and middle parts before the slog of the desert + dam endgame.
The DLC (Doctor Who Cloned Me) was actually really good as far as the pacing of all the quirky fun parts of Duke Nukem Forever goes, but unfortunately and unsurprisingly the flaws of the basic gameplay are there.

I don't think that Duke Nukem Forever is some kind of a masterpiece, far from it, but considering that so much of the Duke Nukem franchise is bad butchered ports of Duke 3d or thoroughly mediocre stuff like Land of the Babes, in my personal opinion Duke Nukem Forever sits in the upper mid parts of the Duke Nukem pyramid imho. Or at least doesn't deserve to as much of the scorn it receives.

Obviously everyone has their own preferences and rankings of all these various games so not belittling anyone's opinion but I think that as you said / implied in your other post, people have built up an image of Duke Nukem that is somehow more noble / complex / artistically sound than what he actually is. I love Civvie11's vids and he often has sound opinions to go with his comedy, but I think he also did this thing where he elevated Duke in non-Forever games to make the Forever-Duke seem worse by comparison.



Couldn't agree more.

You cannot miss the point this hard.

 

[Juiceala]

 

[moonbits]

Chrono Cross

 

[Anoobis]

FF8. It's still my favorite, with only X as a possible challenger.

 

[shadowcat]

Any other Devil May Cry 2 apologists out there? The tone was different to 1, but It's no worse playing in my opinion. I also really appreeciated there being a female main character to play (requiring a playthrough to unlock the next difficulty level, even!) Except for 3 and four, I think Devil may cry got better each entry, dMc -Devil May Cry- included. That was a fabulous game to play.
View attachment 119274View attachment 119275

dMc is by far the most fun game in the series! It is the only Devil May Cry I have any interest in ever going back to agian.

 

[Ikagura]

View attachment 119583

I don't even recall Hard Corps being disliked.

Saturn 3D Blast was mostly victim of circumstances.

 

[Retro Doomer]

Doom 3 is probably a over hated game the newer version is pretty good but it did stray away from the typical Doom formula and this is why it probably got a lot of hate I think.

The same with the Devil May cry game a new character was all it needed to be hated by many the actual game or gameplay was not important for most at that point but many years later people came to appreciate it a litte bit more.

 

[Ikagura]

Metroid Prime 4.

It's easy to tell it about old games after time went on but that's bold to defend a freshly disliked one.

 

[Bacon Eater64x]

It was a vague number, and more just exaggeration. The game does have an unfair rep though, it’s pretty fun.

Post automatically merged: Dec 4, 2024

I’d also like to highlight my favorite Kirby game. This has an unfair rep because people felt it was a bit slow and didn’t like that copy abilities worked a bit differently. God forbid a Kirby game tries to be original. View attachment 2813

As a Super Star defender and Shinya Kumazaki meat rider, i love Kirby 64 and anybody who hates it is lame and cringe.

Post automatically merged: Dec 13, 2025

View attachment 100118
Taking a different style was something Megaman 7 was all about, and not everyone was down for that. The art style aside, you also had to start on an intro level which set the stage for the introduction to what was going on at a level that was accessible to new fans of the series. They introduced Bass, and featured more dialogue scenes than any in the series before it, and focus was way more on story as well, as well as the exploration and item discovering aspects the series had already been known for. But like I said, some people were just not down for Megaman 7, like as if they wanted it to just continue on the NES forever and stay in that 8-Bit art style every fan has come to know and love.

Mega Man 7 is my favorite classic game and i prefer when Mega Man games change aesthetics to stand apart (which is why im happy DO has a slightly different look than 11) most people who hate on 7, 8, Bass and even 11 are 8-bit purists.

 

[Ikagura]

As a Super Star defender and Shinya Kumazaki meat rider, i love Kirby 64 and anybody who hates it is lame and cringe.

It kinda annoys me that people praise Kumazaki for bringing back le big and dark lore of Kirby that Shimomura has brought without even bothering playing his games.

I can understand Sakurai Fanboys that think only his Kirby games are actually good (or are just the best since Superstar is quite the masterpiece of platformers) yet I think the slanders about him hating modern Kirby is just uncalled for.

 

[Juiceala]

As a Super Star defender and Shinya Kumazaki meat rider, i love Kirby 64 and anybody who hates it is lame and cringe.

Based, Kirby 64 is amazing.

Post automatically merged: Dec 13, 2025

Mega Man 7 is my favorite classic game and i prefer when Mega Man games change aesthetics to stand apart (which is why im happy DO has a slightly different look than 11) most people who hate on 7, 8, Bass and even 11 are 8-bit purists.

I also agree.

 

[zacharinolongpants]

Based, Kirby 64 is amazing.

Post automatically merged: Dec 13, 2025

I also agree.

I came here to also agree and say Kirby 64 was a great time and I think MM7 and 8 are some of the best games in the entire franchise.

 

[Guinea]

I've seen Animal Crossing fans talk so badly about Pocket Camp, like it's Amiibo Festival 2.0 or something. Well, I've played it more than I've played New Horizons, it's my favorite in the series and the best mobile game out there, IMO.

 

[BiriCross]

For me, its Need For Speed: Most Wanted 2012.
The game itself isn't bad; I actually enjoyed it.
I know, the game has "Most Wanted" in its name and it doesn't look like the original, but it has good gameplay and music.

(If I remember correctly, it was going to be a sequel to the original, but I don't know what happened and they decided to make the game as it is now)

 

[Bacon Eater64x]

It kinda annoys me that people praise Kumazaki for bringing back le big and dark lore of Kirby that Shimomura has brought without even bothering playing his games.

I can understand Sakurai Fanboys that think only his Kirby games are actually good (or are just the best since Superstar is quite the masterpiece of platformers) yet I think the slanders about him hating modern Kirby is just uncalled for.

Honestly when i think of overhated Kirby games, my mind goes to the Flagship titles. Those were my introduction to the Kirby franchise and i still love them to this day. Their easy-going nature is more of a benefit for me since i like Kirby as a fun game to pass time. I also think its the best the Kirby series ever looked.

 

[Guinea]

There's no such thing as a bad Kirby game. There's only bad, wicked people who want to hate kirby, because they worship evil and despise all that is good.