Another Top 10 Worst Voice Acting in Video Games
#10: "Two Worlds" (2007)
Top 10 Worst Voice Acting in Video Games - Best of WatchMojo
Notably awkward cutscenes are bad enough, but some people just keep them going. This fantasy game spent time developing a fresh world and lore to grip their audience, along with some redeeming gameplay to carry the rest. Cutting corners nearly everywhere else sunk its appeal a lot, but no detail was more noticeable than the awful voice acting. Opening with bad lines and heading downhill from there, much of the dialogue is cringy at best, and gets worse thanks to extended cutscenes, that force even more bad writing on top some clear first time read-throughs.
#9: "Time Crisis" (1995)
Top 10 Video Games Where the Main Character is Having the Worst Time
If they aren't spending time on proper lip animations, is it really surprising when they skimp on the voices? Going for the eighties action movie vibe to an almost ridiculous level, this first-person arcade shooter definitely had the fun-factor going for it. While its gameplay fell victim to time, the hilariously bad voice acting is timelessly bad. Ranging from overacted to comically sloppy delivery, this one really couldn't get its voices right, let alone animate the mouths saying them. Making matters worse, is the president's daughter whose shrill screeches rip through speakers in all of her cutscenes making for a painful experience.
#8: "18 Wheeler American Pro Trucker" (2001)
Top 10 Worst Voice Acting in Video Games
Accuracy isn't always a good thing. Taking the wheel in this driving simulator means hitting the open road and all the joys and troubles that come along with it. Driving against some dangerously aggressive truckers there's quite a lot going on with this game to raise an eyebrow at. While there's enough lethargy in the radio announcer's voice to dull you right to sleep, it jumps in the other direction fairly aggressively. With every voice on your radio from dispatchers and other drivers coming through in a painfully warbled distortion, the ear-shredding audio is enough to make you want to shut down regardless of gameplay.
#7: "Castle Shikigami 2" (2004)
What happens when some bad localization meets even worse delivery, you get quite the hot mess. For this vertical shooter the designers decided they needed to incorporate a story, but since that was secondary to the gameplay, so was the voice acting. Thanks to some fairly awful translation by the localization team most of the dialogue in this game barely makes sense as is, but the awkwardly delivered voices are made even worse by some choppy editing. Feeling emotionally dead and totally disconnected from each previous line it's hard not to break up laughing any time the gameplay stops for a chat.
#6: "Ride To Hell: Retribution" (2013)
Over-the-top violence and disturbingly unnatural sex scenes are bad enough sins for most games, but some developers like to shoot for the moon. In this infamously bad game Jake fights his way across desert highways against the people that killed his family and nearly killed him. Unfortunately the game is so broken it's almost unplayable at times but the voices that accompany the game's awkward cutscenes will have most players running for the hills. Even in full revenge mode, Jake sounds monotone, making his bad delivery even more unbearable given how lackluster it is in or even out of context.
#5: "Michigan: Report From Hell" (2004)
From hell barely begins to describe this one. In this survival horror game you're stuck in the unique position of a news camera man, giving an interesting launching point for the gameplay. But that's not enough to save it from voice acting so painful it seems like a parody every time you hear it. While most characters sound bad, the worst offender is ironically sound operator Brisco, who goes from over-the-top to delirious at any moment. While the rest of the cast deliver bust-up lines every few seconds, Brisco definitely turns this game from horror to comedy with his delivery.
#4: "Arc Rise Fantasia" (2009)
Top 10 Video Games With the Worst Voice Acting
No one should use the same tone for every single emotion. The story in this fantasy rpg has enough action and lore to pull fans along although it will have them skipping through the cutscenes with reckless abandon. Characters go from legitimate emotion to bafflingly noisy the next, and take punches as if they're gargling water. So many lines are delivered with less enthusiasm than a funeral that it will have players snoring if not snorting between exchanges. While the localization can certainly be blamed for the dialogue itself, the bland delivery no matter the context is what destroys this one.
#3: "Clock Tower" (1996)
Nothing quite kills a scary mood like some bad acting. For this point and click game, there's actually quite a decent amount of spookiness to the creepy mansion your exploring, making the click-based action actually up the tension and fear. If nothing else would take you out of the horror in this game, the acting does it tenfold, with most characters sounding like they're reading the lines as they're delivering them. Professor Barton is a particularly bad offender, sounding like an actual robot when allegedly being fascinated or even in pain, leaving the game all the worse for it.
#2: "House Of The Dead 2" (1998)
Most people don't even make it to the end of arcade games, which might explain why Sega left this finale in such tattered pieces. Fighting through hoards of zombies would seem like enough horror for one game but just about every line of this game's dialogue is a terror in its own right. Sounding frankly inhuman to the point that virtually any player could act it better, it's a master class in how not to act. While the game is a disaster of acting at every step, the ending is such an awe-inspiring train wreck you can even hear the actors choking mid-word. Before we get to our top pick, here's a few less than honourable mentions: "Mortal Kombat 4" (1997) "Mega Man X4" (1997) "Just Cause 2" (2010)
#1: "Hotel Mario" (1994)
A travesty as bad as the Zelda CD-I games was unfortunately not isolated incident. Dragging another classic Nintendo franchise through the dirt, Philips outdid themselves when they decided to take on the Mario series. Not even approximating the voices from Nintendo's games, the scratchy and grimy voices they chose turn Mario and Luigi into trashy stereotypes, sounding more creepy than friendly. Even talking to the player directly while making bad, outdated jokes, they didn't even seem to have any respect for the license they were working with. Capped off with Peach's lazy reads and this was one game Nintendo is still trying to forget.
