Guilty Pleasure Games

[your local goomy]

We all have them. Whether they're games that aged horribly, unpopular, or quite frankly, just...not good, we all have those games that we love, even in all their goofiness. So, this thread is asking...what are your guilty pleasure games?

For me, my biggest one is The Sims 2. It's probably my favorite game in the series...despite being a hot mess. The odd graphics, the questionable, early to mid-2000's architecture and style...I adore it. It didn't age well AT ALL, but for the life of me I can't stop playing it. I would pick The Sims 2 over The Sims 4 any time. It's just so goofy and nostalgic for me. I remember having the Strangetown pack and desperately trying to get my family's daughter date the alien boy. Good times. When I play, I still have them get married to take me back to the good old days.

So, what about you? What are those games that you just can't stay away from?

 

[Croconaw]

It’s definitely The Dog Island for me. Games like this are ones you take one glance at the cover and set back down on the shelf, but you really shouldn’t judge something before knowing what it’s about.

I mention the objective and storyline of the game, so I put it in a spoiler if you don’t want to spoil anything.

Spoiler: mentions of storyline

The soundtrack in this game is one of the best. The storyline basically behind where you’re told you cannot cure your sick sibling, so you set out on an adventure to the island to find help. It’s mostly a game of side quests, but it still sticks to the main story. It’s really a sad game if you’re into that. It tugs at your emotions.

I really enjoyed this game despite it not being a genre I typically play. I mostly play sports games, so I consider this very different.

 

[Neb]

There are so many games that fall into this category.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is the most notable of them. As one of my first Zelda games, it holds a special place in my heart. I adore the narrative, artstyle, dungeons, and soundtrack to this day. Sure the pacing is a hot mess, but looking past that there’s a great game here.

A more recent example is Death Stranding. I went into the game expecting a high budget walking simulator and that’s exactly what I got. Most people are quick to point out the game’s confusing plot, but I love it for that.

I’m going to get a lot of hate for this last game, but I really enjoyed Pokemon Sword and Shield. In spite of its countless technical and design issues, I still really enjoyed my time with these games. The light story actually makes replays less tedious to play.

 

[Weebgirlstan]

minecraft right off the bat

 

[ali.di.magix]

Definitely Fortnite lol. I've sunk quite a few hours into it and spent a good chunk of money buying stuff for it. I'm not even good at it, but it's an easy-going game that you can pick up and leave whenever you want.

 

[DarkDesertFox]

Mine would probably be Sonic Shuffle. A lot of people just call it a Mario Party ripoff (even though Hudson helped develop it) and think it's just overall bad. Despite the cheaty AI, I actually really enjoy the game! I can recognize the flaws it has for sure, but overall I think the game is a good time. My other ones would probably be the Mario and Sonic Olympic series. I go back and play the older ones a lot in addition to the latest title for Tokyo 2020. I think they do a good job overall, though I do miss the dream events. They're slowly including less and less of those.

 

[moo_nieu]

hamtaro ham hams unite. sadly i dont have a console that can play it anymore, but i still have the cartridge :3 i love hamtaro, and i think the game is super cute and a lot of fun

 

[Corrie]

hamtaro ham hams unite. sadly i dont have a console that can play it anymore, but i still have the cartridge :3 i love hamtaro, and i think the game is super cute and a lot of fun
View attachment 398487

Hamtaro games are actually really good imo, despite them being, well, Hamtaro games. My first game was Ham Ham Heartbreak and I actually found it challenging in some aspects to know where to go next and what to do.

I also really liked Ham Ham Games too! A lot of the olympic games in there were a lot of fun.

 

[Miss Misty]

I'll always have a soft spot for Bully (Canis Canem Edit outside of NA I think). It's not a bad game by any means, although some bits have aged poorly (i.e. [TW: SA references] getting a bottle of prescription pills out of a random dumpster for the gross lunch lady and helping her buy time on her 'date' for them to kick in or stealing panties from students for the gym teacher only to find out later that he got an innocent girl kicked out of school for refusing his advances) even if you're generous about chalking up a lot of the questionable content to being committed satire of common 70s-00s teen movie tropes. (A few things did age surprisingly well, though, such as a programmer refusing to finalize the kissing mechanic until the team included several boys in the pool for Jimmy to kiss as well as girls)

Bully just feels more close-knit and cozy to me than other Rockstar titles. Every NPC has a name and unique voice lines for their radiant dialogue so you can slowly learn who everyone around town is (despite the fact that 95% of them are ridiculous, at least they're consistently ridiculous). I like the soundtrack of the game - it gets a lot of flack for its simplicity, but it sets the mood well imo. I like the level design of the different parts of town. Between the classes, races, job minigames, the carnival, and all the missions, they pack a large variety of content into it. I usually end up going back to the game every couple of years or so.

Rockstar doesn't pay Bully dirt, though. They've teased and canceled a sequel so many times now that it's probably never going to happen. They just keep giving it the Skyrim treatment where they release versions with marginally improved graphics every so often.

 

[Porxelain]

One of my all time favorite games has to be Metropolismania2 ..yes it’s a real game.>< I had it for my ps2 for a long time and once I got the ps4 I got rid of all my ps2 games. I’ve been trying to find it ever since but it’s not online anywhere and it’s a ghost at this point. The game was made in Japan and it’s basically a build your town type. Although you’ll get special tasks to complete your town in order to move on to the next bigger town. You have to gain relationships with the people who live there in order to gain more people and more types of buildings like elementary schools police stations malls etc etc. it was so fun and I miss it so :c

 

[CrankyCupcake]

Tomodachi Life! When it first released in 2014, everyone raved about how wacky and hilarious it is. A month later, everyone's seen everything. Six months later, hardly anyone plays the game anymore.

I played it every day for over a year and even kept a blog for my game. (I'm glad I did because, when I feel nostalgic, I can go back and look at all my screenshots and silly ramblings about how much I love the game. It's truly embarrassing to read. ) My cast of characters were mostly my favourite anime characters. Over the years, I would blow the dust off my 3DS XL every now and then, and check in on my miis.

Two years ago, after I'd played and finished Fire Emblem: Three Houses, I populated my island in TomoLife with my favourite FE3H characters. Fun was had!

 

[Biyaya]

hamtaro ham hams unite. sadly i dont have a console that can play it anymore, but i still have the cartridge :3 i love hamtaro, and i think the game is super cute and a lot of fun
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Fun games with a cute IP! What's not to love? Have you tried any other of their games? Ham-Ham Heartbreak is actually my favorite, but I also never actually beat Unite.

Hamtaro games are actually really good imo, despite them being, well, Hamtaro games. My first game was Ham Ham Heartbreak and I actually found it challenging in some aspects to know where to go next and what to do.

I also really liked Ham Ham Games too! A lot of the olympic games in there were a lot of fun.

The Ham Ham Games one was cute! I feel like the adventure games were the golden ones though! They really were challenging at times.

 

[moo_nieu]

Fun games with a cute IP! What's not to love? Have you tried any other of their games? Ham-Ham Heartbreak is actually my favorite, but I also never actually beat Unite.


The Ham Ham Games one was cute! I feel like the adventure games were the golden ones though! They really were challenging at times.

havent tried any others yet but i think i need to now c: yeah unite is difficult lol

 

[Biyaya]

havent tried any others yet but i think i need to now c: yeah unite is difficult lol

I hope you can find a GBA or can emulate them one day! They're great little gems. ^^

 

[moo_nieu]

I hope you can find a GBA or can emulate them one day! They're great little gems. ^^

ill find an emulator, im sure it wont be too difficult thanks!

 

[JemAC]

Super Mario Sunshine is one of my guilty pleasure games and despite not ageing very well it’s still a game I really enjoy playing. I really like the setting of the game and always love exploring each area. It’s not as popular as a lot of the other 3D Mario games but I much preferred it to Galaxy and was really happy to see it released as part of the All Stars pack so I could have it easily accessible on my switch to play whenever.

A couple of other games already mentioned in this thread that don’t get a lot of love but I still really enjoy playing are Pokemon Shield and the Mario & Sonic at the Olympics series.

There are a number of Pokemon games that I overall enjoyed playing more then Shield but I still liked the game and often go back to it to shiny hunt. I also really liked exploring Galar even though the region is often seen as weak or lacking compared to the older games.

I’ve played each instalment of the Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games and always really enjoy them, they’re really fun to play and especially good when I want to play something more active. I’ve liked each game in the series but the original is still my favourite, mostly due to the fond memories i

 

[Midoriya]

I don't have any guilty pleasure games, lmaoooooo.

Only one that comes to mind is Genshin Impact because I've spent a fair bit of money on that, if it counts.

 

[King koopa]

Probably mario kart ds. I used to love it when I was younger, but now those graphics have aged horribly . Especially poor donkey kong. Though despite how bad the graphics look from today's standards, I enjoy playing it as it had a good lineup of tracks and it had some cool karts such as the rambi rider.

 

[Croconaw]

Probably mario kart ds. I used to love it when I was younger, but now those graphics have aged horribly . Especially poor donkey kong. Though despite how bad the graphics look from today's standards, I enjoy playing it as it had a good lineup of tracks and it had some cool karts such as the rambi rider.

I loved Mario Kart DS! Mario Kart 7 wasn’t too bad either. I did like how on the DS version, you could draw your own logo and it would appear on your kart. That was a nice feature. I understand why the feature was removed in newer games, though. People could draw inappropriate things, and if I’m not mistaken, the logo did appear during online races.

I had a Croconaw as my logo.

 

[King koopa]

I loved Mario Kart DS! Mario Kart 7 wasn’t too bad either. I did like how on the DS version, you could draw your own logo and it would appear on your kart. That was a nice feature. I understand why the feature was removed in newer games, though. People could draw inappropriate things, and if I’m not mistaken, the logo did appear during online races.

I had a Croconaw as my logo.

Oh yeah, I remember that! I used to have a koopa shell as my emblem. Shame it had to be taken out though, but I would love to see it come back in mario kart tour or possibly mario kart 9!