Video games are hard to make. Like movies and TV shows, it takes a team of incredibly passionate and skilled people working tirelessly to create them. Obviously, no game is perfect, and every game has flaws and faults of some kind. When a title ships, however, that game is supposed to be the best possible version it can be. Players may encounter a few glitches or bugs occasionally, but on the whole, the game should work as intended. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.
If players look, they will likely be able to find glitches in even the most polished and scrupulously play-tested games. Glitches are an unavoidable part of video games, but it's the developer's job to make sure that there are as few bugs as possible when the game launches. This doesn't mean a few graphical hiccups or duplicating glitches that studios can issue a patch to address. The games on this list have more glitches and bugs than actual gameplay in some instances. These are games that had great intentions, but they regrettably launched in near-broken states.
10 Assassin's Creed Unity (At Launch)
Ubisoft used to have a reputation for releasing games in a state that was starkly opposed to trailers the studio had shown. While it was disappointing when that happened, most of the studio's games were still playable even though they did not look the best. That wasn't true for Assassin's Creed Unity, however. Unity was released with tons of bugs and glitches, and some would even crash the game.
From the player character falling through the world to facial features not loading in at all, Assassin's Creed Unity was one of the roughest launches of any Assassin's Creed game. While some of the bugs were funny, it didn't make the experience any more enjoyable. Fortunately, Ubisoft patched the game and fixed most of the obvious issues. While there are still a few hiccups, the game is mostly playable. By the time it was fixed, however, most fans had already moved on from it.
9 Cyberpunk 2077 (At Launch)
Cyberpunk 2077 went through a similar fiasco as Assassin's Creed Unity. The game was virtually unplayable at launch, but it has greatly improved. This was especially detrimental to Cyberpunk because fans had been waiting years for the game to release, and CD Projekt Red had a track record of delivering extremely polished, high-quality games. Unfortunately, Cyberpunk's launch proved that the game was not ready for release, especially on last-gen hardware. The game was released with numerous bugs and glitches. NPC AI was baffling, cars would glitch out while driving, and animations would not display properly. However, that was only the tip of the iceberg.
There were terrible pop-in issues, faces wouldn't load, and characters would clip through the ground and buildings, and that was on next-gen hardware. The status was much worse for PS4 and Xbox One players, who were not even able to play the game in any real tangible way. All but the sturdiest of PCs could play it with no trouble. Fortunately, CD Projekt Red has seemingly fixed Cyberpunk with its latest 2.0 update and the new Phantom Liberty expansion has delivered on the promises CDPR made before the game's launch.
8 Fallout 76
Bethesda is a company that is known for launching games with a few glitches — it's the price players pay to enjoy the massive, open-world games the studio creates. Most Bethesda games launch with a few graphical glitches or bugs, but they are tolerable and don't take away from the overall experience. That sentiment is not shared by one of the studios' most recent endeavors with Fallout 76.
Fallout 76 was Bethesda's attempt to create an MMO out of the studio's successful Fallout series. The idea was promising for many Fallout fans, but the end result left much to be desired. The enemy AI in the game was awful and would make bizarre movements. Animations wouldn't trigger correctly, and some characters would not load properly. Plus, there were several glitches that allowed players to easily access some of the best equipment and weapons before they were supposed to. While Fallout 76 is in a better state now than at launch, it still has the typical Bethesda bugs and glitches. However, it is an all-around better experience.
7 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5
Pro Skater used to be the king of skateboarding video games. Most players will have fond memories of the early entries in the series. The 5th game in the long-running series was able to destroy the series' reputation in one fell swoop. It was easily the worst Tony Hawk game to release, and that was thanks, due in no small part, to its bugs. There were times when the frame rate would drop drastically, and skaters would fall through the world. The player's skater would get stuck in animations, T-pose, or have randomly increased proportions. The game wasn't unplayable, but it was close.
The game's many problems can be traced back to Activision. The studio was about to lose the license to the Tony Hawk games, so it commissioned a new game to be rushed out as quickly as possible before the studio lost the license. The developers, Robomodo were only given a few months to fully create the game, and it shows. While this is no fault of Robomodo, it should be a shining example of what happens when a game is cobbled together in mere months.
6 Mass Effect: Andromeda
BioWare is another company that has fallen from grace in recent years. One could argue that the studio's descent started with Mass Effect: Andromeda. Fans were naturally excited for one of the best Sci-Fi RPG series to get another entry, but upon launch, fans were met with a hot mess. Consistently throughout the game character animations would glitch in terribly hilarious ways, or animations simply wouldn't work at all. Characters would walk through walls, disappear, and then reappear, rotate their heads all the way around to look at characters, and make impossibly exaggerated facial expressions.
There have certainly been games with more glitches, but Andromeda's issues exist persistently throughout the game. While there are several glitches that occur during combat, it is almost impossible to find a character behaving normally in the game. On top of that, the glitches are the only real entertainment in an otherwise empty and repetitive game.
5 Sonic Boom
Sonic is a beloved gaming mascot, but the Blue Blur has had some terrible games over the years. There is a lot of debate among the series' fans surrounding which Sonic games are terrible and which are great. However, most fans and players agree that Sonic Boom is one of the worst games to ever grace the Sonic franchise. Aside from the poor design of the game, it is filled with glitches that trivialize the entire gaming process.
The game features massive frame rate drops during speed sections of the game, which is not something anyone wants when playing Sonic game. Textures and areas won't load correctly, and sometimes they won't load at all. To make matters worse, there was a glitch with Knuckles that allowed players to jump infinitely and complete the game in under 2 hours. While several of these glitches were fixed, the game is still uninteresting and bland, but it works. That is more than can be said for another Sonic game on this list.
4 Drake of the 99 Dragons
Drake of the 99 Dragons is one of the most infamous games to ever be released. It was universally panned when it came out, and countless YouTubers have re-reviewed the game and continued to echo that sentiment. The glitches in this game combined with the poor design make it nearly unplayable. It takes a tremendous amount of work to get past the first level and even more to complete the game.
Drake suffers from almost every glitch imaginable. Players will fall through the ground randomly, enemies will pop out of nowhere, animations won't work properly, and objects seem to have a mind of their own. In addition to that, many of the game's main mechanics won't work — targeting is a nightmare, but there are several abilities the game teaches players to use that won't activate, which makes the game even more infuriating to play.
3 Ride to Hell: Retribution
Ride to Hell was supposed to be a game like Grand Theft Auto that looked at what biker culture in the 60s and that world looked like for someone post-war. However, it was actually a game with a terrible revenge story, awful third-person shooting, and abysmal hand-to-hand combat strung together in a glitchy package. Not only was the game full of both exploitable and game-breaking glitches, but it also became known as one of the worst games ever made.
The characters in Ride to Hell all have graphical glitches of some variety. During the driving segments, enemy AI will drive away through objects or randomly get destroyed. Animations during fighting will trigger regardless of how far the enemy is from the player. Plus, there is a glitch that allows a player to endlessly kick any enemy to death with no trouble. Not to mention, there are sex scenes in the game, but both parties remain fully clothed. The fact that it is hard to tell if that is a glitch or not perfectly demonstrates how buggy the game is.
2 Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)
Sonic has not had the best luck with his games, and this was an all-time low point for the speedy hedgehog. Sonic the Hedgehog, commonly referred to as Sonic '06, is glitchy to a point that is hardly believable for a release in such a famous franchise. It was supposed to be Sonic's HD debut and celebrate the series' 15th anniversary. However, it suffered from the same corporate blunders that would also go on to plague Sonic Boom. Players were met with a game that was full of infuriating glitches.
One of the main issues with the game is that it seemed unable to keep up with Sonic's speed. The camera would get caught on objects or simply lose Sonic as he hit a speed booster. Plus, Sonic would sometimes glitch and phase through objects, sink in the water he was running on, or speed off a ledge. On top of that, the physics engine wasn't great, meaning Sonic would phase through some objects and be blocked by others. Players would be constantly thrown in random directions, fall through the world, or run into inaccessible areas of the level. While it is possible to complete the game, it takes an almost superhuman level of patience to get through glitchy level after glitchy level.
1 Big Rigs Over the Road Racing
Big Rigs is another game with an almost legendary status because of how broken it is. Despite that, there aren't many people still talking about it in the conversation of famously glitchy games. That doesn't mean it has improved with age though. The game is virtually broken, and it is only playable in the most basic sense of the word. It feels like it is the first build of the game.
There is no collision with many objects in the game. Players can drive straight through buildings, and they will fall through any bridge they drive across. There is no physics, so players can drive up or down a mountain with no change to momentum or speed. The AI for the other racers is completely broken, and they will never leave the starting area. Plus, the game is missing all sound. There is no music, sound effects, or dialogue at all. Not only is it the glitchiest game to ever be released, it is also the worst game to ever be released when it came to its basic design.