Notes:

In November 1997, Electronic Gaming Monthly celebrated their 100th issue with a Top 100 Games of All Time list. That feature featured brief summaries of 100 games ranked up to #1, along with a few small sections for smaller Top 10 lists. I uploaded this section of Page 109 because it is one of the oldest "Worst Games Ever" lists I've been able to find from a major publication.

What I find interesting about this list is that for many retro gamers and connoisseurs of bad video games, this list is largely familiar. Shaq Fu, Friday the 13th, Bubsy 3D, and Plumbers Don't Wear Ties are all pretty notorious games to this day, and make up a fair chunk of Wikipedia's "List of video games notable for negative reception" article.

That being said, there are some oddballs here that are generally unknown nowadays. For example, nobody nowadays has ever heard of the "Make My Video" series for the Sega CD.

The #1 spot, the Atari 2600 lineup of 1983 and 1984, is an interesting pick IMO. On one hand, the sheer number of generally weak games released during this period did a lot to damage the gaming industry in North America. On the other hand, many of the most infamous games on the Atari 2600 actually came out in 1982, including Custer's Revenge, E.T., and Pac-Man. Furthermore, you had a number of games released in 1983 and 1984 that were and still are well-regarded (Centipede, Joust, Ms. Pac-Man, Pole Position, etc.).

Anyhow, I guess it's interesting to see how much or little peoples' perspective on gaming history has changed since 1997.