These are the worst Nintendo games ever released
These are the worst Nintendo games ever released
Posted on July 11, 2026 by Ethan in 3DS, Features, GameCube, General Nintendo, Switch, Wii U
Today, we’re going over some of the worst games Nintendo has ever released
Usually, when we write ranking lists like these, they’re meant to be positive. It’s always “the best games from this series, ranked”, and they finish by giving the top spot a glowing review. It’s very rare that Nintendo makes a truly “bad” game – many of the ones that aren’t great aren’t bad either, and fall somewhere in between. But it’s definitely happened before, and that’s where our list comes in
Do note that we’ll be skipping Hotel Mario and other CD-i games here, as they weren’t developed by Nintendo. And to be honest, they’re almost certainly worse than anything we’re listing here
Honorable mentions
Star Fox Zero is one game that often makes the list of the worst Nintendo games. I haven’t included it on the list for two reasons: for one, I personally haven’t played it! But secondly, after doing a deep dive on research, I don’t think this game is as atrociously egregious as some of the other ones on this list
The two biggest criticisms seem to be as follows: the controls are complicated and take some getting used to, and the story is yet another retelling of the original Star Fox. That last one is definitely a big problem, and one we were hoping we’d avoid with the next Star Fox game. But as for the controls, I’ve also seen people say once you master them, they’re incredibly satisfying. That said, I also get the impression that it takes a long time to get used to the controls – possibly longer than the run time of the game – but maybe someone who’s played it can clue me in. Is Star Fox Zero one of the worst Nintendo games? Or is it undeserving of all the criticism? Let me know!
I’m also guessing that many will say that Pokemon counts here in some way, shape, or form. That being said, I feel like all of the games that made our list are significantly worse. The whole “modern Pokemon games” debate is a bit too complex to sum up in a single paragraph, but I’ll give it a shot: even in the worst mainline Pokemon games, the addictive formula of catching and training Pokemon is still intact. Their main issue is that the graphics are not on par with the world’s highest-grossing media franchise. The titles listed below have problems that run much deeper than graphics, and many of them do not have fun gameplay loops at all. For better or worse, Pokemon’s fun core gameplay loop keeps games flying off the shelves, even if other elements of the games aren’t up to modern standards.
Pokemon Rumble U
This is one of Pokemon’s most forgettable games and also one of its lowest-reviewed. Many might be learning there was a Pokemon Rumble game on Wii U for the first time. Not only is that true, but it also had its own line of NFC figures that actually came before amiibo. Some of the criticisms I’ve seen are levels that are too linear, shallow gameplay, and just a lot of general repetition. I feel like a very, very small number of people played this. If you’re one of them, definitely let us know what you think of the game.
Paper Mario: Sticker Star
Unfortunately, Sticker Star was my very first Paper Mario game – a terrible fate, I know. As a kid, I remember being frustrated at some of its tougher puzzles in the desert world, but other than that, I couldn’t understand why this game was so hated. And then I played Paper Mario on the Nintendo 64, and it all made sense
Indeed, one could argue that Paper Mario: Sticker Star isn’t a bad game, but an incredibly misguided one instead. There are positives to Sticker Star – the graphics are solid and the music is excellent, but the game is nearly ruined by dozens of baffling design choices. No unique character designs, Bowser as a silent main antagonist, an annoying partner character, no in-battle partners at all, and a sticker management system instead of the classic beloved formula
You could argue that Super Paper Mario started the trend of de that it kept what the series is best known for – crazy character designs and a surprisingly deep story for being a Mario game. With Sticker Star, it feels like Nintendo purposefully abandoned all of the things fans loved about the franchise, so the game winds up feeling like a slap in the face
Do note, Paper Mario: Color Splash doesn’t make the list here. Though it doubles down on many of the same design decisions, it’s a much better game than Sticker Star. And now that the Paper Mario franchise is (hopefully) back on track with The Thousand-Year Door remake, it’s easier to play and accept Color Splash for what it is rather than what it isn’t. I’ve beaten the game twice, and it’s not too bad
Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival
Let’s set the scene for a second: the year is 2015, and Nintendo’s E3 presentation is well underway. Everyone wants a new home console Animal Crossing, and hey, wait – that’s an Animal Crossing town in HD! Oh, it’s just a party game. As soon as this moment happened, opinions soured on the game and they never improved. Indeed, the actual game is fairly boring – it’s Mario Party without the mini-games – and although I understand the gimmick, it’s kind of annoying to tap an amiibo every single turn. Overall, this wasn’t the Animal Crossing game fans wanted at the time, and in many ways this just felt like filler for the Wii U to capitalize on the amiibo craze. Unfortunately, the Animal Crossing amiibo didn’t sell well – amiibo were popular because they were Super Smash Bros. figures, not because they were amiibo.
Donkey Kong: Barrel Blast
I know I said I wasn’t including games that weren’t developed by Nintendo on this list, but Barrel Blast feels a bit different than Hotel Mario and the like. This is a relatively recent-ish (in the grand scheme of Nintendo history) Donkey Kong game that released on the Wii, and of course being a DK title it was part of one of Nintendo’s biggest franchises. If you go back and look at critic reviews for the game, just about every single one is overwhelmingly negative. The driving speed was slow, the controls were wonky, the AI was frustrating – just about everything that can go wrong went wrong here.
Notably, Donkey Kong: Barrel Blast is one of Nintendo’s lowest-reviewed titles on Metacritic. This one’s definitely not worth coming back to, but it does at least have some neat character inclusions like Lanky Kong, King K. Rool, and… that’s about it
Chibi-Robo: Zip Lash
I think it’s important for everyone to know that I actually picked up and played this game for the purpose of writing this article. It couldn’t be that bad, right? No, it definitely is
This is another case of design decisions that make absolutely no sense. Earlier this year, I played the original Chibi-Robo on GameCube for the very first time and 100% completed it, and it was a very charming little adventure. So the logical next step for Chibi-Robo… is a 2D platformer? The genre that Mario, Donkey Kong, Yoshi, and Kirby already rule at? It doesn’t make much sense. Not to mention, this isn’t even a good 2D platformer. It feels very bland and uninspired, and I got bored pretty quick. Boring, sure, but not that bad, right?
After a while, I began to think that, and then I encountered the dreaded destination wheel. When you clear a stage in this game, you don’t move on to the next level. You spin a wheel to determine which stage you play next, and you can’t clear the world until every level is finished. The destination wheel often forces you to replay levels you’ve already beaten for no reason other than to extend the game’s run time, which immediately killed the tiny bit of interest I had in playing. I didn’t get much farther than the first world, but that should tell you all you need to know. Zip Lash was not the right move for Chibi-Robo, and I have no idea how Nintendo couldn’t see that.
Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash
This is a definite contender for one of the worst Nintendo sports games, period. It’s tennis with Mega Mushrooms, and that’s literally it. There is almost no meaningful content here whatsoever, and it released in 2016 as one of the last Wii U games. And in many ways, it just felt like this filler release to get something out for the holidays
The tennis matches certainly work, but you can’t even invite friends to play tennis with you online – you’re forced to play against a random opponent. Of course, that doesn’t really matter anymore given that the online has been shut down, but it’s just another point against this bare-bones, empty excuse for a Mario sports game
Usually, when you say that a game is bad online, you see at least one person defending it – which is totally fine. It’s okay to disagree on things. That said, I have never seen a single individual even attempt to defend Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash. If you want to play Mario Tennis, any other game in the franchise does a much better job
Urban Champion
For some reason, Urban Champion got a much-improved 3D Classics edition on Nintendo 3DS. Its incredibly simplistic gameplay was its main criticism – I remember playing this game on the Virtual Console back in the day and I’m just realizing now that I have absolutely nothing to say about it because it’s extremely forgettable. Nintendo does like to reference it every so often, though, which is kind of strange because I don’t feel like Urban Champion was ever positively received
Everybody 1-2 Switch
This is probably Nintendo’s weakest Switch game. In 2022, we actually reported that this game was in development but was performing exceptionally poorly in playtesting groups. The final game isn’t very good either, and likely won’t hold your attention for very long even in a party setting
For one thing, you need a lot of players to have the best possible time with this title, and how are you going to find more than two or three people to play Everybody 1-2 Switch with you? Others can join from their phone, but I still feel like it’d be difficult to get a group going. I also thought the marketing for this game was strangely robust – the trailers were kind of cringeworthy, to be honest, but I’m surprised Nintendo pushed this game despite its apparent poor reception internally.
Do you agree with our list of the worst Nintendo games? Surely, there are a few that didn’t make the list. On the other hand, are there any games on our list that you actually like? Let us know in the comments down below!
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