The 10 WORST Video Game PC Ports
10 Worst Video Game PC Ports
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Welcome to MojoPlays, and today, we’re taking a look at the 10 Worst Video Game PC Ports. PC gaming is absolutely the master race…until it isn’t. These are the games that made us lose our faith a bit. Which PC port left you miserable? Share your frustration with us (in a civil manner) down in the comments.
“Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition” (2012)
Let’s just get this one out of the way. For those of you who are deeply ingrained in PC gaming, you probably thought of “Dark Souls” when you saw this pop up on your feed, specifically the “Prepare to Die Edition”. It’s one thing to restrict your players on resolution, but it’s another to completely deny them of mouse and keyboard controls. Your only setup to play “Dark Souls” on PC was at 720p, thirty frames per second, and a gamepad controller with no remapping. On top of that, the control scheme imposed is too awkward and clunky for anyone to handle. If you wanted to experience “Dark Souls” anything beyond that, you would have had to go out of your way to download DSfix and DSMfix, mods that basically turn the port into what it should have been: a properly optimized package.
“Batman: Arkham Knight” (2015)
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If you didn’t think of “Dark Souls”, you probably thought of this trainwreck of a PC port. “Batman: Arkham Knight” saw a fine launch on console, but the launch on PC? Whuff… “Arkham Knight” not only enforced an awful DRM, it was plagued with significant bugs in AI and rendering. People were so enraged by this that Warner Bros pulled the game from Steam and refunded everyone (partially because of Steam’s then newly-implemented refund policy). Today, the game runs better than it used to, but you still have to use Denuvo…in a single-player game.
“The Last of Us: Part I” (2023)
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What happened here? What in the mother-lovin’ Sam Hill happened here!? “The Last of Us: Part I” should have been a shoe-in for success after Sony ported several of their games to PC like “God of War 2018” and “Horizon Zero Dawn”. They even bought a studio in 2021 - Nixxes, whose specialty has been PC ports since 2001 with “Soul Reaver 2”! So, what logic justifies the decision to just, you know, not use the studio you bought for a product like this and instead let Naughty Dog do it themselves with assistance from Iron Galaxy, a studio, by the way, who has a notorious reputation when it comes to PC ports? Hey, if you ever wanted to see Joel and Ellie put on their Groucho Marx cosplays, you got your wish at least.
“Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy” (2017)
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You ever play any of the “Crash Bandicoot” games? They aren’t technically demanding games, really. They’re simple 3D platformers in enclosed environments with enemies that follow simple patterns with simple animations. So, how is it that the PC version of “N. Sane Trilogy”, the remake of the first three “Crash” games, is such a guessing game when it comes to performance? Why is it that a simple 3D platformer like this suffers greatly from single-digit framerates, stuttering audio, and severe screen tearing? Oh…turns out you have to dig into the game’s files themselves and manually put in the display adapter you want the game to utilize.
“Mega Man” (1990)
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Yeah, can you believe we’ve been dealing with bad PC ports since 1990? “Mega Man” received a really bad PC port for the MS-DOS that practically stripped away most of the game. Just look at this mess! It looks like pixelated episode of “South Park” minus the personality. And then, the game lasts a mere fraction of how long the real “Mega Man” is. You can’t cobble together three Robot Masters, slap a few enemies on screen in empty rooms and call it a day! And yet…they did. They totally did.
“Sonic Adventure DX” (2011)
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Even Sonic wasn’t fast enough to escape PC port outrage. “Sonic Adventure DX” was done dirty when it came to Steam in 2011. In a game where your player character is moving fast, you’d want to make sure they aren’t facing, say, wonky collision detection or bugged out controls and animations. And maybe have a steady framerate, that’d be a good idea. No, “Sonic Adventure DX” is so busted on PC that most users have had to install mods just to get it to run decently. There’s even a belief that simply opening Google Chrome will get it to run fine! The Blue Blur deserved better, man.
“Grand Theft Auto IV” (2008)
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GTA has not had a stellar history when it comes to PC ports. Remember when they brought the trilogy to PC? That still was not as horrible as the PC port for GTA IV. PC players turned into a typhoon of rage as mostly everyone reported how unplayable the game was. And here’s the kicker - the game was not optimized for an operating system better than Windows Vista. On top of that, some users have found solutions by regressing to older updates for the game! The amount of hoops you have to jump through just to run around Liberty City is comical yet frustrating.
“Street Fighter II” (1992)
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There is a pretty dramatic reason as to why no one ever talks about “Street Fighter II” on PC, at least not the version that was released for Amiga, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, MS-DOS, and Atari ST. This version of “Street Fighter II” completely annihilates how the game is supposed to be played, tanking in performance. And that isn’t even the worst of it! You have severe graphical and audio glitches, discolored sprites, inferior controls, and utterly lifeless level design. This was not and should never be the way to play any kind of fighting game.
“Super Mario Bros. Special” (1986)
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Wait, 1986!? IT GOES BACK FURTHER THAN 1990?!?! Yes, “Super Mario Bros.” did get a PC port, though it was only released for two Japanese-only computers and one computer for South Korea. “Super Mario Bros. Special” was a massive downgrade from the NES original, ditching side-scrolling and instead chopping up levels into separate screens. Oh, but the game can use half of the available color palette said computers had access to and include power-ups not present in the original. But cohesive navigation and keeping Luigi in? Oh, that’s too much!
“Assassin’s Creed: Origins” (2016)
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What could possibly be worse than forcing your players to play your game with below standard settings? Or subpar graphics? Or being borderline unplayable? How about hamfisting a botched and imposing DRM into your single-player game? Well, Ubisoft tripled-down on that by forcing players to allow not one, but THREE DRMs into their single-player game - Denuvo, VRMProtect, and Ubisoft's own UPlay. These DRM programs are designed to prevent users from altering games and are programmed into the games themselves, but have often been the cause of many PC port problems. In the case of “AC: Origins”, players have reported computers overheating, games crashing, improper balance between CPU and GPU usage, all contributing to some abysmal optimization and performance in the game. If you see any game requiring a DRM, be extremely cautious and do your research beforehand.
