Tough question, but I guess it would have to be something from the NES era, because back then you had to keep playing the game even if it was bad, because that was all you'd get and you were stuck with it, unlike today when there's plenty of opportunities to research first and even then, the game probably cost only like $5 tops

That said, I guess it would probably be something like the first TMNT - spiking difficulty near the end, strange enemies that don't exist outside the game, unbalanced turtles, and some other issues...I know it's not BAD bad, but then again I never really loved the truly bad games, not even when I was a child. So yeah, I'm gonna go with TMNT.

Mortyr comes to mind, though to be fair, (1) I have only ever seen one review from a gaming site, so I can't be sure that was a popular opinion, and (2) I haven't played the game in probably five or six years. Still, I loved that game to death when I was younger.

Alone in the Dark (2008). At best this game was widely considered mediocre, but I love it. Granted, I can see quite a few of the problems with it, but I just don't care. The gameplay is unique and the story is interesting. The ending kind of stinks, but the rest of the game is still fun.

Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine. Again, I don't know if most people hated this game, but I've always gotten the impression that it was considered mediocre (and the plethora of bugs didn't help). But this was my favorite game as a kid, and when I can get to work on modern systems, it's still fun. Not as much as it used to be, and some of the enjoyment may be from nostalgia, but still fun.

Oh, you'd love it now. The firing rate of machine guns seems to depend on the frame rate. It's like a death cloud generator on the modern hardware. Sadly, it goes through ammo extra fast.

Hopkin's FBI. Terrible, terrible murder investigation adventure game. Cartoony yet sickeningly gory, insulting and nonsensical in every shape way and form... I absolutely love it.

Oh yeah, good choice! Mortyr is indeed crap. Especially in Poland people seemed to love it though (yeah, back then Poles loved EVERY Polish game).
RAWFL. That explains a lot. Have to give it another try on my current machine. :D

I have decided that I must play this game at some point, no matter how crap. GOG, you know what to do.

A multi-player shooter of some kind, back in the late 90s. I forget the name. It was just a short free-ware game where a minotaur and a blond guy (and one other character maybe) shot at each other in a side-view stone dungeon. Me and my friends could spend hours killing each other in that thing. It was a PC game, we had to sit side-by-side and share the keyboard. There was a bitter rivalry over who got the more natural-feeling set of keys, with the loser exiled to outer numpad. We loved that game.

Oh, and ChexQuest! It was like Doom, only you were a cereal piece, and died by being covered in green slime from the slime monsters wandering around. I think it was free in a box of cereal.

Also, we may or may not have competed for the highest Mario Teaches Typing scores. I can still recite some of the jokes from that game.

How dare you mention ChexQuest in this thread. It's a timeless masterpiece! It's so amazing that there was actually a sequel and another one create by fans of the original ages later! NEVER speak this way of ChexQuest again. (shit, I actually hit the desk with my fist for emphasis, I hit the edge - it hurts!)

Alone in the Dark (2008) didn't find much love but is easily in top 30 favorite games for me.

LOL

I hear you - I loved the game, but critics weren't too enamored. Which is understandable, it was a free Doom clone that came in a box of cereal. Why it was so fun I have no idea.

ET - The Extraterrestrial (Atari X800XL)

Minotaur and blond guy, side view, stone dungeon - sounds like Hunter Hunted. It wasn't free, though. And there was both cooperative and competitive multiplayer as well as a single player campaign and other areas too, aside from a stone dungeon. Sounds almost like you've only played the demo or something. Amazing game,btw.

Binary Domain, but I wouldn't agree with general opinion that it's bad game.

Yeah, actually I started wondering when I wrote it. I thought that I had actually read somewhere that the original creators were involved or something.