Worst IF Titles - an IFDB Poll
by diddlescatter
RSS Feed(Sorry, Fredrik, but your poll was such a great idea that I couldn't resist!) So here's the question: Which titles out there do you absolutely hate? Remember, it doesn't have to be a game you've actually played. In fact, maybe it's a game that you've never played simply because the title annoys you.
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| The End of Earth, and you are a victim/survivor of this incident at least, depending on which way you look at it., by NOM3RCY 10 votes "Yes, this title sucks." [+]"Yes, this title sucks." ( - Full review) --AmberShards... "There are at least three things wrong with this title" [+]"There are at least three things wrong with this title" --Cerfeuil... (No comment) [+](No comment) --diddlescatter... "Wow... It even..." [+]"Wow... It even has a full stop." --Fredrik... "This title is so..." [+]"This title is so terrible that it almost loops back around and becomes brilliant. Almost." --EJ... (No comment) [+](No comment) --Audiart... (No comment) [+](No comment) --katz... (No comment) [+](No comment) --Alyssa Barstow... (No comment) [+](No comment) () --Lance Cirone...  Vote for this game | |
| Punkirita Quest 1: Liquid, by Ryan Stevens 7 votes "Might also qualify for "opening line least likely to inspire confidence in what will follow." [+]"Might also qualify for "opening line least likely to inspire confidence in what will follow." --Ghalev... "Isn't it "Punkirita Quest 1: Liquid, A Viking Funeral", which is even worse." [+]"Isn't it "Punkirita Quest 1: Liquid, A Viking Funeral", which is even worse." --ralphmerridew... (No comment) [+](No comment) --baf... (No comment) [+](No comment) --PNagami... (No comment) [+](No comment) --Victor Gijsbers... "The "punk" in the..." [+]"The "punk" in the title made me expect cyberpunk. As a fact, the word "Punkirita" never occurs in the game, nor is it "quest 1" since (as far as I'm aware) it never got a sequel. That makes "liquid" the only word in the title remotely relevant to the plot." --Christina Nordlander... (No comment) [+](No comment) --Lance Cirone... Vote for this game | |
| Kids, don’t eat your Halloween candy without having your parents inspect it first because there are SICKOS out there who will put RAZOR BLADES in it and you will CUT YOUR MOUTH and GET A POISONED INFECTION and DIE, all from eating your candy early. So don’t do that., by Dan Shiovitz 5 votes "Best or Worst?" [+]"Best or Worst?: Someone voted for this on the Best Titles poll, so I had to cast a counter-vote here. I honestly do not think this is a good title. It is a little funny, but not enough to justify its length; all the capital letters are extremely ugly; and, most importantly, it tells me nothing about the game itself." --Fredrik... "Probably a 'crosses the line twice' situation" [+]"Probably a 'crosses the line twice' situation" --Cerfeuil... (No comment) [+](No comment) --Polar... (No comment) [+](No comment) --katz... (No comment) [+](No comment) --Lance Campbell... Vote for this game | |
| Not the Lord of the Rings, by Andy Remic 4 votes "Parody titles..." [+]"Parody titles tend to be bad, e.g., "Bored of the Rings". But the complete lack of creativity displayed in "Not the Lord of the Rings" is almost astounding." --Victor Gijsbers... (No comment) [+](No comment) --PNagami... (No comment) [+](No comment) --Sobol... (No comment) [+](No comment) ( - Full review) --Lance Cirone... Vote for this game | |
| The Fat Lardo and the Rubber Ducky, by Anonymous 3 votes (No comment) [+](No comment) --Sam Kabo Ashwell... (No comment) [+](No comment) --Victor Gijsbers... Vote for this game | |
| Adventure Quest, by Mike Austin, Nick Austin, and Pete Austin 2 votes (No comment) [+](No comment) --Sam Kabo Ashwell... (No comment) [+](No comment) --Lance Cirone... Vote for this game | |
| Treasures of a Slaver's Kingdom, by S. John Ross 2 votes "Truly awful." [+]"Truly awful.: The title is so over-the-top bad that it makes me want to defecate just reading it. " ( - Full review) --AmberShards... "Unbearable." [+]"Unbearable.: The title seems to literally hate everyone." --Ghalev... Vote for this game | |
| Textos Blast from the Past, by TextoMcPesto 2 votes "Even after..." [+]"Even after reading the game description, I fail to understand what the title means." --Fredrik... (No comment) [+](No comment) ( - Full review) --Lance Cirone... Vote for this game | |
| Mario, by Harald Bornfleth and Herbert Grosser 2 votes "This title gives..." [+]"This title gives me visions of Italian pizza bakers. In fact, anything but a plagiarized version of Tolkien's Moria." ( ) --Fredrik... Vote for this game | |
| Rippled Flesh, by Ryan Stevens 2 votes "Rybread has a..." [+]"Rybread has a bunch of weird/bad titles, but I think this one takes the cake." --DB... (No comment) [+](No comment) --JohnW... Vote for this game | |
| For a Change, by Dan Schmidt 2 votes "I've played this game but still have no clue what the title means" [+]"I've played this game but still have no clue what the title means: (This probably says more about the game than it does about me)" ( ) --Cerfeuil... "I love this game,..." [+]"I love this game, but the title is bland, non-indicative, and easy to mix up with the titles of several other games. Not offensively bad, just really mediocre." () --Christina Nordlander... Vote for this game | |
| My Mind's Mishmash, by Robert Street 2 votes (No comment) [+](No comment) --Sam Kabo Ashwell... (No comment) [+](No comment) --Lance Cirone... Vote for this game | |
| Dark Unknown Planet, by Mark Eaton and Barrie Eaton 2 votes (No comment) [+](No comment) --Fredrik... (No comment) [+](No comment) --Lance Cirone... Vote for this game | |
| Encounter 1: Tim's Mom, by Christopher Cole 2 votes (No comment) [+](No comment) --PNagami... "AIF is a cheap..." [+]"AIF is a cheap target, and to be fair, this delivers exactly what it says on the label. But everything about the title is feeble: the half-rhyme of two weak words, subtitling, the euphemism of 'encounter', the straight-up declaration of unimaginative stock fantasy." ( ) --Sam Kabo Ashwell... Vote for this game | |
| Adventure (Program Power, 1983), by Program Power 1 vote "Not the Colossal Cave one" [+]"Not the Colossal Cave one: I was kind of astounded when I saw this at the Archive. It's bad enough when different games share titles by coincidence, but it's more or less inevitable. Here, though? No way did the author of this game not know that the title was already taken. He just didn't care." --baf... Vote for this game | |
| Journey, by Marc Blank 1 vote "I love Infocom..." [+]"I love Infocom titles. Consider: Starcross. Trinity. Ballyhoo. So naturally, the very, very last game Infocom made before Activision shut them down was called... Journey: The Quest Begins. Ladies and gentlemen, the end of an era!" --PNagami... Vote for this game | |
| Crystal and Stone, Beetle and Bone, by Jenny Brennan 1 vote "This title could have been great!" [+]"This title could have been great!: There is both rhythm and rhyme, and alliteration to boot. But there should have been a comma or something in there. That ruins the whole thing for me." --Fredrik... Vote for this game | |
| The Terrible, Old Manse, by Joe Johnston 1 vote "that comma" [+]"that comma: why is it there?" --MattC... Vote for this game | |
| Keith's Sabbatical, by keithmacspace 1 vote (No comment) [+](No comment) --Sam Kabo Ashwell... Vote for this game | |
| The Price of Freedom: Innocence Lost, by Briar Rose 1 vote (No comment) [+](No comment) ( ) --Floating Info... Vote for this game | |
| Jungle adventure, by Paul Barter 1 vote "Bland and uncreative" [+]"Bland and uncreative" --Lance Cirone... Vote for this game | |
| PTBAD 3, by Jonathan BERMAN 1 vote "There is also..." [+]"There is also PTBAD 4, and a part 5 which has a long title that is supposed to be humorous. Still, PTBAD 3 strikes me as the worst of the bunch!" --Victor Gijsbers... Vote for this game | |
| Interactive Media - A Text Adventure Simulation, by Bradley Wyatt 1 vote (No comment) [+](No comment) --Sam Kabo Ashwell... Vote for this game | |
| Snatches, by Gregory Weir 1 vote (No comment) [+](No comment) ( ) --Sam Kabo Ashwell... Vote for this game | |
| Limp, by Ryan Stevens 1 vote "Vulgar and pointless." [+]"Vulgar and pointless.: Barely even qualifies as implemented. I'd be surprised if coding this took more than ten minutes." --cgasquid... Vote for this game | |
| A Case of Murder, by Edward P. Toovey 1 vote "Painfully generic" [+]"Painfully generic: It doesn't even sound like a mystery, just something that happened." --Lance Cirone... Vote for this game | |
| The Blood Lust Warrior, by Zorkfire Games 1 vote "It really has to..." [+]"It really has to be one hell of a game to make up for that title." --Fredrik... Vote for this game | |
| Andkara: Baby, the Rain Must Fall, by Randy H. Smith 1 vote "What is Andkara?..." [+]"What is Andkara? And that second sentence can be read in so many tones, I'm not sure which is right." --Lance Cirone... Vote for this game | |
| SLAMMED!, by Paolo Chikiamco 1 vote "While I haven't..." [+]"While I haven't played it yet, I've seen nothing but praise for it, and am sure it's excellent. However, before knowing what the storyline was, the title didn't predispose me towards checking it out, since it sounded like an entry in the Click Your Poison series, whose author has biased me against his work by posting glowing reviews of his own games." --Christina Nordlander... Vote for this game | |
| Cattus Atrox, by David Cornelson 1 vote "Perfect example of everything bad in IF. " [+]"Perfect example of everything bad in IF. : From my IF Ratings review:- "Pretty much the worst I ever played." And it still is." ( ) --JohnW... Vote for this game | |
| Dopplegänger, by Payman Parastaran and Thomas Long 1 vote "Misspelled!" [+]"Misspelled!: The word is spelled Doppelgänger, with or without the umlaut. Here the author seems to have mixed it up with the English cognate "double". Also, the title implies folklore and perhaps horror. In reality, it is a Blade Runner-style science fiction game." --Fredrik... Vote for this game | |