Winner: Sonic the Hedgehog
Sega |Xbox 360
Sonic the Hedgehog may not have been the absolute worst game of the year, but it was - without a doubt - the most disappointing. Who wasn't rooting for our old blue buddy to pull off a triumphant return? After years of sliding quality and questionable characters taking the spotlight, we would have been ecstatic with even a slightly above-average outing.
Instead, we got the exact antithesis of a classic Sonic game. The finicky controls and pitfall-strewn level design actually discourage speed, the very element that made the series famous. The characters include every tiresome sidekick and repetitive rival we thought we'd escaped. And when the game does focus on Sonic, the only one of these talking rodents we give a damn about, it's to weigh him down with a ridiculously overwrought story that culminates in the most bizarrely cringe-worthy kiss in video game history.
Read back through the rest of the categories and count how many times the new Sonic the Hedgehog qualifies. It's embarrassing... and for every fan that held the tiniest shred of hope their beloved childhood icon might be back, it's heartbreaking. And it's about to happen to the PS3.
Collateral Damage: American McGee's Bad Day LA
Aspyr | PC
This is the absolute worst game of the year. With vulgar toilet humor, flat satire, appalling stereotypical characters, dreadfully deficient gameplay and the word "bad" right in the title, it's almost as if the game was designed to end up on this list. If so... congratulations, guys, you did it!
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