CREDIT: STELLAR STONE, LLC
As if Big Rigs wasn’t hilariously bad enough, this awesomely bad “win” screen sealed the game’s infamy.

Chances are, if you've played video games, you've come across an especially bad one. Whether it bores you to tears or simply comes across as inaccessibly unplayable for whatever reason, a bum deal feels like a bum deal, especially when you've paid full price. Thankfully, there are games whose mediocrity is so special that it ends up being their saving grace.

Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude (Various, 2004)
Al Lowe's Leisure Suit Larry point-and-click adventure games have always been among the best in the genre, with a seamless mix of thought-provoking puzzles and bawdy humour chronicling the eponymous loveable loser's loveless journey before the genre itself bit the dust in the mid-'90s. It was with skepticism that fans eyed the jumpstart to the series, Magna Cum Laude; series creator Al Lowe wasn't even involved. They were kinda right. MCM featured none of the great puzzle gameplay but instead, brain-dead mini-games as the challenge between Larry and various girls on college campus. What makes this game worth playing then? The humour. MCM takes after raunchy '90s teen comedies like American Pie with its plot and situations, and it really does work. If you're into those sorts of movies, you'll forgive the nonexistent gameplay for the entertainment value.

Hour of Victory (Xbox 360, 2007)
Released at the very peak of the mid-2000s World War II shooter craze, Hour Of Victory on the surface looked like yet another functional FPS with nothing new to offer. Instead, this bizarre Wolfenstein-esque historical fiction shipped out with a massive amount of absolutely hilarious bugs. From tanks that physically behave like bumper cars to Nazi troops getting stuck between floors, you'll wonder just how the hell they shipped something so obviously incomplete. If you must forego playing the game, you'll find various glitch montages on YouTube that adequately cover what's wrong with this game.

Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing (PC, 2003)
To some, this game needs no introduction. Its development team was later involved in the Day- Z/War-Z online scandal, but before all that, this unholy abomination of a “racing” game made a splash on various “worst games of all time” lists. Very obviously something that was thrown together in an afternoon and then forgotten until the shipping date, the game features, among the total lack of collision detection, no AI for its opponent drivers, who stay stationary for the entire race. And of course, your dubious victory for “winning” is rewarded with one of the most infamous images of all time.

Death Crimson (Saturn, 1995)
A light-gun shooter so terrible that it's been affectionately considered a kusoge (Japanese term that literally means “shitty game”) in its home country. A Japan-only release, the game has absolutely bizarre, well, everything. The graphics look like reject clip art from Microsoft Word and better game music has been composed with a cat running on a piano. Yet, somehow, it remains strangely appealing to play, probably because you'll wonder what the hell else they can get wrong.

Pepsiman (PS1, 1999)
It's literally a playable ad for Pepsi. It features the Japanese Pepsi ad mascot, Pepsiman. It's campy and bizarre in every possible way. Did I mention it's Japanese? This precursor to games like Temple Run isn't objectively bad, I guess. Its weirdness might be off-putting to some, but Pepsiman is genuinely fun and challenging. And that campiness, fueled with completely irreverent live-action cut-scenes featuring a fat, oafish American stereotype telling players to drink Pepsi, is icing on the Pepsi cake, however that may taste.