The Dark Side of Xbox: Unveiling the Absolute Worst Games of the Early 2020s
The Xbox ecosystem, brimming with innovation and blockbuster titles, has unfortunately also played host to some truly abysmal games.
From cynical cash-grabs to broken messes, the first half of this decade has seen its fair share of digital disasters; games that are so bad that they can very nearly go toe-to-toe with the utter rubbish that was Horse Racing 2016.
Prepare to delve into the depths of gaming despair as we explore the worst Xbox titles that have released between 2020 and the end of 2024, each scraping the very bottom of the barrel, earning a damning 0.5/5 score from us in the process.
Beautiful Sakura: Surfing Club
“Beautiful Sakura: Surfing Club is perhaps the most cynical, half-hearted attempt at weedling £10 out of someone’s pockets, and no amount of baby-oil and AI-generated creepy-fingers can justify its existence. If this is the future of gaming then stop the bus, because we’re getting off.”
This review quote perfectly encapsulates the sheer audacity of Cropware’s Beautiful Sakura: Surfing Club, but could even be attached to other Beautiful Sakura games too; Fashion Club, Running Club, Fitness Club or Volleyball Club.
A visual novel masquerading as a dating sim, it throws players into the shoes of Kaito, a 17-year-old navigating the treacherous waters of high school romance. The premise, involving surfing and twin sisters, quickly devolves into a repetitive and shallow experience.
The AI-generated art, far from being alluring, adds to the game’s unsettling and low-effort feel and that means Surfing Club serves as a stark reminder of the dangers of quick cash-grabs in the digital marketplace.
Aabs Animals
“Aabs Animals is less a game and more a transaction. It’s a shifty guy in a dark alley selling 1000G for £7.99. “Just look at a cat mate”, he says, as he pockets the cash and runs giggling over the horizon. And you’re left staring at the rotating, mewling cat for sixteen minutes, the horror of what you committed to welling up in your brain. Why are we here? What is love? Are we all doomed to suffer and die as poorly animated cats dance about us?” – so says our review of Aabs Animals.
Aabs Inc.’s Aabs Animals is a bizarre experiment in minimalist entertainment.
Described as “animal entertainment content”, over on the Xbox Store page, it essentially involves watching poorly animated animals rotate on screen. With no clear objectives or gameplay, it’s more akin to a screensaver than a game.
The developers claim to donate a portion of sales to animal charities too, and whilst we’re certainly not going to moan about them doing that, such a noble gesture does little to justify the game’s utterly pointless existence.
In fact, the sheer emptiness of the experience will leave players questioning the very nature of interactive entertainment.
Retro Tank Arcade
“How does a game like Retro Tank Arcade manage to find itself on a Microsoft Store, rubbing shoulders with Dead Space? Perhaps the developers have blackmail material on Phil Spencer. It’s the only solution we can come up with for why this utterly broken, dismal tank game is available for sale.”
CapriccioGames’ Retro Tank Arcade is a masterclass in broken game design. This “nostalgic themed shooter” throws players into a series of poorly designed levels, tasking them with destroying enemy bases.
The controls are clunky, the gameplay is repetitive, and the game is riddled with bugs. Just keep away. Waaaay away.
The Bounty Huntress
“Perhaps it’s unfair of me to compare an indie title of this scale to the likes of Ori and the Blind Forest, or Hollow Knight, which offer similar styles of gameplay on a much larger budget, and yet, with more polished combat, a better world and story threads, a few more original ideas, and fewer sloppy inconsistencies, The Bounty Huntress could at least be a passable little game. As it is, though, it barely feels finished.”
IC Games’ The Bounty Huntress, published by Ratalaika Games, aims to deliver a Metroidvania experience with a pixel art aesthetic.
However, the game falls short in almost every aspect.
Rhea, the titular bounty huntress, navigates a bland and uninspired world, battling poorly designed enemies with clunky controls. The game’s potential is buried under a mountain of technical issues and a general lack of polish, leaving players with a sense of unfinished disappointment.
Cazzarion: Demon Hunting
“Honestly, there are absolutely no redeeming features to Cazzarion: Demon Hunting and the last straw for me and my playthrough came on the house map: I’d painstakingly cleared the upstairs floor of the house, then positioned myself at the top of the stairs, surmising that demons would have to come up the stairs to get me, giving me sufficient time to shoot them all. But no, they spawned from behind me, in an empty bathroom, and I was killed. At this point I walked away. Morale of the story? Do not buy Cazzarion: Demon Hunting. Not even as a joke.”
Cazzarion: Demon Hunting from Zarpazo is a chaotic mess of a first-person shooter.
The game promises a demon-slaying adventure, but delivers a buggy, poorly optimised experience. With enemies spawning in illogical locations and a general lack of coherence, it’s a frustrating and ultimately pointless exercise.
The developer’s warning on the Xbox Store page about performance on older Xbox One consoles is a testament to the game’s fundamental flaws.
Mini Hockey Battle
“I have, in my time at TheXboxHub, reviewed close to four-hundred games. Mini Hockey Battle is, by some clear distance, the worst game of that four-hundred. While jotting down my sheer dislike and bewilderment at Mini Hockey Battle, I’ve twice misspelled it as Mini Hickey Battle, and I would play that game thirty times over instead of one more game of this. I can’t think of something worse you could do for 79p.”
Mini Hockey Battle is a textbook example of a shovelware title.
It offers nothing more than a barebones hockey experience with clunky controls and repetitive gameplay. And there’s no doubt that the retro aesthetic does little to mask its fundamental flaws.
It initially came with an extremely low price, and still managed to be a ripoff. And even though it can no longer be purchased from the Xbox Store, it is so bad, it topped our worst games of 2022 list.
Outbreak: Endless Nightmares
“Outbreak: Endless Nightmares on Xbox is an abysmal and incomplete video game. The good news is that you don’t have to look very far to experience classic survival horror action, with current and upcoming games like Resident Evil Revelations, Daymare, Tormented Souls, or the various other classic titles available via backwards compatibility on Xbox. The real nightmare here is that Outbreak: Endless Nightmares is the sixth entry in a series which seemingly has no intention of ending anytime soon.”
Dead Drop Studios have a ton of “Outbreak” games in their library, but this one is possbly the worst.
Outbreak: Endless Nightmares attempts to blend survival horror with roguelike elements. However, the result is a repetitive and frustrating experience. The semi-procedurally generated levels and limited resources create a sense of tedium rather than tension.
The game’s numerous technical issues and lack of polish further contribute to its overall mediocrity.
Beyond Enemy Lines – Remastered
“After playing Beyond Enemy Lines – Remastered Edition on the Xbox for more hours than it deserves, we feel shell-shocked. If it worked, which it doesn’t, it would still be magnitudes of awful thanks to a misunderstanding of what a stealth game is. It could at least have the courtesy of being forgiving when it’s bombarding you with bugs and bad decisions, but no – it keeps kicking you while you’re down and then tosses you to the start to experience it all again. And all for the bargain price of £16.74!”
Beyond Enemy Lines – Remastered from Polygon Arts promises an intense stealth experience, but, as you’d suspect from the placement of it on this list, delivers a broken and frustrating one.
The game’s poorly designed levels, clunky controls, and numerous bugs make it a chore to play. Even with the remastered content, it fails to deliver on its promises.
These games serve as a cautionary tale, reminding us that not every title on the Xbox Store is a gem. While the Xbox library boasts countless incredible experiences, these unfortunate entries stand as testament to the importance of discerning judgment.
This list just covers those games from 2020 to the end of 2024 too – we cannot wait to see what rubbish will be filling our lists at the end of the 2020’s!
On the flip, here are 20 of the very finest games to have launched onto Xbox in the same period. You should probably play those instead of any on this list.
