The methods in which I discover and pick games, which includes using itch.io's "most recent" tab, intristically results in me playing a ton of bad games. Perhaps you could say that is a conditia sine qua non of my ability to discover and highlight unknown masterpieces, and for that, I am willing to make the tradeoff.

As a result of playing so many bad games, most of whom I would place on this list but unfortunately cannot due to them not being on IGDB, I have learned quite a lot about what makes a game bad. Most games are bad because they are bland. Some games are bad because they are buggy. And some games simply don't live up to their functional objectives.

However, those games tend to drown, like snow in a Finger Lakes gorge, into the rushing water of my consciousness. The games that are here did not. They linger on without being thrown out -- well after the expiration date. During one of my days of imprudent youth, I had a bad acid trip during a party. That in of itself would not be worth any particular introspection: as a budding bohemian and writer, that came with the territory. What stood out was the severity of the trip, the mental spikes of damage that rumbled in my (very blurred) vision. The entries down below are the video game version of that terrible acid trip. Aesthetically disgusting, morally depraved, pathetically unambitious, and ludologically a failure. An affront to the video game as an artistic artefact.

As tempting as it might be, please do not play these games for any reason. They are on here for a reason.