One thing WWE fans love more than watching wrestling is playing wrestling video games. While there have been a fair number of excellent WWE licensed games, there have been just as many flops.
Many of the entries on this list you may have never even heard of as they were perceived by fans to be rather poor representations of what a wrestling game should be. They slowly dwindled away as they were never spoken of again. Well, today we're shining a bright light on all of those stinkers and ranking them according to their scores on Metacritic.
10 WWE Survivor Series (Metascore - 55)
WWE Survivor Series isn't necessarily the worst game in the series, as it did have some of the hottest superstars available to play as on its roster. However, it did lack a "create a wrestler" option and the graphics at the time were dated as well as the sound, if not completely terrible. The game was ultimately just boring and a chore to play. There was nothing significantly wrong with the game, it just failed to live up to expectations based on games at the time.
9 Showdown: Legends Of Wrestling (Metascore - 55)
The third installment in this series brought more to the table in terms of wrestlers, gameplay mechanics, and features, but it ultimately fell flat. Showdown: Legends of Wrestling was nothing more than a marginal improvement at best as it suffered from polish and pacing issues that prevented it from being anything more than an average wrestling game. Again, not especially terrible but not worth play either, as the story mode also proved to be average at best and lacked depth.
8 WWE Raw (Metascore - 54)
Releasing on the PC alongside the Xbox version, WWE Raw did little to nothing to fill the void of wrestling games present on the PC at the time. It had an outdated roster that contained superstars no longer prevalent in the WWE and didn't have many of the more popular superstars. It also had sluggish controls that made gameplay feel ridiculously slow-paced, a lack of variety to keep players coming back, and graphical oddities that didn't look right. The game just isn't what fans of the series expected and as a result, it underperformed.
7 Legends Of Wrestling (Metascore - 50)
Legends of Wrestling was definitely a step in a new direction for wrestling games but it ultimately didn't land the way they wanted it to. Pitting many of the past's great wrestlers against each other in a fully fleshed out game sounds like it would go over with the fans well, but unfortunately, the game was executed poorly.
The game featured a lack of match type variety and a mostly sloppy control system, making it almost unplayable at times. It definitely isn't the worst out of this series, but it's up there.
6 WCW Backstage Assault (Metascore - 48)
A wrestling game without a single wrestling ring in the game. That's right, WCW Backstage Assault did not feature a single ring throughout the entire game as every match took place in backstage areas such as locker rooms and parking lots. Surely this is one of the reasons it didn't go over well with fans. Aside from that obvious disappointment, the game was not pleasant to look at as the character models were all very odd shaped and the game's textures were muddy. But again, who wants to play a wrestling game that doesn't even have a ring?
5 WWE 2K20 (Metascore - 45)
A laughing stock of the video game and wrestling world alike, WWE 2K20 is nothing short of a massive disappointment. Plagued with gameplay glitches that make the game completely unplayable at times, many fans didn't stick around to play this very long as they quickly returned it for a refund.
Combine this with the graphic glitches that made character models look like monsters straight from a horror movie and you have a recipe for disaster. After this latest installment, fans don't have much hope left for the series and dread the release of WWE 2K21.
4 ECW Anarchy Rulz (Metascore - 38)
A game based around one of the flagship brands at the time seems like a great idea, in theory. ECW was widely popular and while the game released with the plethora of modes and match types to choose from, it had way too many issues, making it a terrible experience to play. Textures outside of the ring were blocky and blurry, and the camera bounced around in a way that could induce nausea. Not to mention the gameplay just didn't feel quite right for players as it was often uninteresting and made them feel uninvolved.
3 WWE 2K18 Switch Version (Metascore - 35)
Porting WWE 2K18 to a handheld platform seemed like it would be a perfect combination. That was, until you played it. Actually, you couldn't play it because it was downright unplayable. Even a mere singles match would result in unforgivable lag and painstakingly slow gameplay and controls that hit at the wrong time. It isn't surprising that it was the only wrestling game ported to the Switch, as doing it to the other games would only result in more disaster.
2 Hulk Hogan's Main Event (Metascore - 26)
Whoever thought a Kinect based wrestling game was a good idea has to be regretting this by now. Hulk Hogan's Main Event is a perfect example of why the Kinect was a failure in the first place. The game was centered around Hulk Hogan, yet hardly featured him in the game. With a very limited number of options for creating your wrestler, the career mode, if you can call it that, felt boring and sloppy. Seeing how it was fully priced at the time, it was a complete embarrassment to gamers and wrestling fans alike.
1 Legends Of Wrestling II - Game Boy Advance (Metascore - 24)
While Legends Of Wrestling II scored a 59 for the Playstation 2 version, the Game Boy Advance version was by far the lowest-rated WWE game of all time. Described as ugly, clunky, and just plain awful, the game proved to be a train wreck. It fell short in every category. At least the game was a little better than the original on the Playstation 2, but that's not saying much. Our only hope is that someone else takes over the WWE games and puts out quality content for players to enjoy, rather than the same rehashed garbage we've been getting year after year.