The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is a hugely important console that revitalized the home video game market and made Nintendo a major force in the industry. With a library of over 1,300 games, the NES had both some incredible hits and some truly terrible ones. We’ve sifted through them all to find 10 of the worst NES games ever made. These games, presented in random order, were chosen because of their poor programming, frustrating gameplay, and how much players disliked them.
1) Friday the 13th
Okay, so the idea of a Friday the 13th game where you play as a camp counselor trying to survive Jason sounded amazing, right? Sadly, the actual game is just…bad. Like, really bad. It’s infamous for being one of the worst games ever made! It came from LJN, who were notorious for making terrible licensed games back in the day, and this one definitely lives up to that reputation. It’s way too hard, the controls are awful which makes everything even more frustrating, and honestly, it’s just repetitive and a pain to play. It’s just not a good time, unfortunately.
2) Super Pitfall
The original Pitfall! is a classic platformer from the early days of consoles, but its follow-up, Super Pitfall, didn’t live up to the hype. Many felt it borrowed too much from Super Mario Bros. and didn’t feel like a true Pitfall! game. It was widely considered worse than the original Atari 2600 version. Poorly designed collision detection made the game frustratingly difficult, and the weapon was ineffective – most shots sailed right over enemies. Add to that flickering graphics, awful music, and generally sloppy programming, and Super Pitfall was a disappointing experience.
3) Where’s Waldo?
The Where’s Waldo? books are enjoyable for people of all ages, so a video game version for the NES seemed like a good idea. However, the game itself was poorly made and frustrating. Like the books, the game requires players to find Waldo hidden within eight different levels. While that sounds straightforward, the graphics are so bad that spotting Waldo is incredibly difficult. Many objects share similar colors to him, and Waldo’s colors even change unexpectedly in certain levels. Finding Waldo should be a fun challenge, but the NES game makes it a maddening experience.
4) Ghostbusters
The original Ghostbusters game actually came out on the Commodore 64 before being adapted for the NES, but it’s hard to see the point, as the game is notoriously bad. Like many movie-based games from the 1980s, Ghostbusters didn’t live up to expectations. It was developed in just six weeks, and while the Commodore 64 version was okay, the NES port was a disaster. The graphics looked terrible on the NES, and the gameplay was frustratingly difficult and confusing, leaving very few players with a positive experience.
5) Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Many consider Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to be one of the worst games ever made for the NES, and it’s based on the classic story. The game lets you play as both Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, changing how you play depending on which character you control. However, it’s incredibly difficult – frustratingly so. The controls are slow and clunky, the gameplay gets old quickly, and the game is fundamentally flawed in almost every way. Surprisingly, its reputation for being terrible actually made people want to play it, just to experience how bad it really is.
6) Action 52
I usually don’t feature games that weren’t officially released, but Action 52 is infamous and deserves mention. This NES multicart came out in 1992 with 52 games spanning different genres. However, many of them didn’t work at all, and those that did were so poorly made that players often wished they hadn’t. Even the playable games were terrible attempts at creating new series. What’s most shocking is that Action 52 originally cost $199 – a high price for a cartridge filled with games that frequently crashed the console.
7) Deadly Towers
Despite being a pioneering Japanese role-playing game when it came to the West in 1987 and enjoying initial success, Deadly Towers is unfortunately considered one of the most frustrating games on the NES. While historically significant, it suffers from major flaws: enemies reappear too quickly, the maze-like levels are confusing and don’t flow well, and the game doesn’t accurately register hits. These issues make it incredibly difficult – nearly impossible – to complete without using a walkthrough.
8) The Uncanny X-Men
A video game based on the X-Men should be fantastic, but the 1989 NES game falls far short of that expectation. In fact, The Uncanny X-Men is considered one of the worst comic book video games ever created. Like many games from LJN, it suffers from poor design choices. The character sprites all look very similar, making it hard to tell who’s who. The colors are unpleasant and create a blurry, confusing mess. The combat is badly programmed, resulting in a surprisingly easy game – a stark contrast to most NES titles – which removes any real challenge or enjoyment.
9) Bible Adventures
The game Bible Adventures is infamous for being exceptionally poor quality and was never officially licensed. It was only available through mail order and included three games – Noah’s Ark, Baby Moses, and David and Goliath – all of which were clearly copied from more popular titles. These games only vaguely relate to the actual Bible stories and are essentially side-scrolling copies of Super Mario Bros. 2, a fact that isn’t even disguised. Critics universally disliked the games due to their poor design and unoriginality, pointing out that levels were reused and put together carelessly.
10) Mighty Bomb Jack
Following the success of the arcade game Bomb Jack, a sequel called Mighty Bomb Jack was released in 1986 for the NES and later on other systems like the Commodore 64. While it didn’t come to North America, it was released elsewhere but didn’t receive much positive feedback. Players found the game frustrating due to weak level design, clunky platforming, and uninspired enemy patterns. Though generally considered unremarkable, Mighty Bomb Jack has been repeatedly re-released and ported to modern consoles, often leaving new players unimpressed.
What’s the most frustrating or disappointing NES game you’ve ever played? Share your thoughts in the comments below and join the discussion on the ComicBook Forum!
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2026-04-12 17:17