If you’re anything like us, we love anime and video games, so mashing them together almost always sounds like a recipe for success, except for the moments in which it doesn’t. These are some of the worst anime games we highly recommend you avoid.
Worst Anime Game in Terms of Graphics: Yu Yu Hakusho Spirit Detective
The 1990s manga and anime series Yu Yu Hakusho seems rife for a solid game adaptation. After all, it’s about a high schooler who dies, obtains Spirit Detective powers, and uses them to stop evil spirits and save people. Sounds great, right?
Unfortunately, this GBA game has some of the worst graphics we’ve seen for a title like this. It is sometimes even hard to tell what is even going on on the screen with its poor resolution and blurry backgrounds. And, yes, the image above is, unfortunately, how blurry and bad it looks.
Worst Anime Game in Gameplay: Dragon Ball Z for Kinect
Kinect games have a bad reputation, and for good reason, when you look at this Dragon Ball Z experience. It lacked any depth to its content, with just super basic first-person battles. Sure, the graphics looked fine, but the Kinect had a hard time registering hits, so players would just waste their time trying to pull off a Kamehameha in real life.
Worst Anime Game in Terms of Characters: Dragon Power
This game, despite the weird name, is supposed to be a Dragon Ball title. However, the 1986 NES title lacks almost any semblance of its character designs to the actual series. Goku looks pretty dull, while other characters like Master Roshi are nearly unrecognizable.
Worst Anime Game in VR: One Piece: Grand Cruise
Virtual reality is no stranger to disappointing games, and this One Piece title is certainly one of them. The graphics look alright, but they lack substance. Players just talk with Straw Hat Pirates like Zoro and Chopper across various environments. It has a little bit of action, like controlling cannons on the ship, but not much else going for it. It almost feels like more of a tech demo than an actual game.
Most Poorly Adapted Anime Game: Dragon Ball Evolution The Game
If we ignore the horrid live-action movie this game bases itself on, you’ll find this fighting game is unsurprisingly awful in its own right, even among the other worst anime games. Even if players ignore the horrifying character designs, which is honestly a disgrace to the actual actors, it has a severe lack of modes and balance. Players can pretty much mash the attack button over and over to destroy the nearly missing AI.
Now that we’ve shared the anime games we think you should avoid, we want to hear from you! Do you agree or disagree? Let us know in the comments which anime games you think are bad.