Weekly Kusoge

I talked about Pachio-Kun some time ago for my Famicom Friday column because I thought the idea of an anthropomorphic pachinko mascot was amusing. Back then, I noted the staggering number of games in the series: at least 12. I own more of…

We’re friends, right? I can be honest with you. I know it. I was going to follow up my earlier list, 10 bad games you should play, with a similar list around the same time of year. However, I don’t have a kusoge chambered for today, so I’m…

On paper, 1995’s Cool Riders sounds great. It was the follow-up to 1993’s Outrunners, which itself was a multiplayer follow-up to 1986’s Out Run. Only this time, it’s on motorized bikes. Then you see it, and you realize Cool Riders is one…

Primal Rage maybe wasn’t the best fighting game to hit arcades in 1994, but I have some fond memories of playing it with friends. I wish we could get some sort of re-release, or maybe even a release of the canceled (but apparently…

Money is really depressing to me. Not only have recent events left me with a deep anxiety about finances, it seems that a lot of people are struggling, and the best you can hope for is to struggle less. I don’t want to discuss this on a…

Let’s take a moment to show some appreciation for the publishers who have the guts to keep kusoge available for purchase. Ziggurat. Nightdive. Thank you for giving me a megaphone to cry for help. Hopefully, someone will hear my pleas. I’ve…

I keep a mental list of kusoge I want to cover in this column, and near the top of them is 1998’s Extreme Paintbrawl. Supposedly the worst game to ever be created using Ken Silverman’s Build Engine. The Build Engine may not get as much…

The early days of reality television were embarrassing for all of us. Actually, no, reality television is still embarrassing for us. Every time I visit my parents, where they still have cable, there’s some show about detailing cars or…

We’re a lot closer to living in the future that RoboCop predicted than we are to the one in The Terminator. Sure, some smart, rich people say that we have to watch out for AI killing us all, but I’m pretty sure they’re just trying to make…