King Kong looks to be locked in battle with an unlikely enemy, Gollum from The Lord of the Rings. The Titan of Skull Island is competing with the skulking character from Middle Earth for what could be the ‘Worst Game of the Year’ and at the time of writing, it is hard to separate the two titles.
Whilst the TLOTR: Gollum game has been available since May of this year, Skull Island: Rise of Kong has only just been released (17 October), and the fallout from this has been somewhat comical. Players have not held back on the condemnation of the game published by GameMill Entertainment and despite being only available for a couple of days, the reviews have been scathing.
Just how bad is the King Kong game?
Judging by the footage that was posted on Social Media site X (formerly Twitter) by user @RickDaSquirrel, players can see how utterly awful the graphics and the gameplay for the title look. To say that the graphics look better in 1994’s Donkey Kong Country for the Super Nintendo would be no mere exaggeration.
Many fans of the King Kong franchise commented on how the character ‘deserves better’ and that the graphics are reminiscent of a PlayStation 1 game. The overwhelming consensus is that fans just can’t understand how this game has been made and that it must be some kind of joke. Unfortunately not, King Kong fans.
Comments on Steam are unsurprisingly negative with many players questioning how the game was ever released, let alone having to pay £34.99 to be met with what is ultimately one of the most disappointing games this year.
“This should not be something you can legally sell. Who gave these devs the licensing for this”
“How is this even allowed to be sold”
Some reviews go further into how glitchy the game with multiple restarts having to be used to progress through the game. Others found the King Kong ‘Roar’ tedious and one reviewer hated the game so much, that they have already been refunded. That alone speaks volumes for a game that has only been on release for a matter of days.
Indeed the only positive comments for the King Kong game on Steam are utterly sarcastic takes on the game itself, such as ‘Harambe died for this’. If these ‘positive’ reviews were to be discredited, then it would be clear that the game would have a review score even worse than what it already is.
But just how does it stack up against TLOTR: Gollum for ‘Worst Game of the Year’? Well, the Gollum game has been on release since May and the reception has been extremely poor, to put it mildly. So much so that developers Daedilic Entertainment cancelled plans for a second TLOTR game and laid off the development division of their company.
The company advised that they would be moving to a publishing-only business model and had the following comment on the release of TLOTR: Gollum;
“…did not live up to the expectations we had for the game”.
Fans of the popular franchise were less than kind with their views, stating that the game was worse than Redfall, which up until recently had been in pole position for ‘Worst Game of the Year’. One of the main things that seemed to irk fans was the graphics of Gollum himself, with many fans commenting that it looked nothing like the character.
The comparison between Skull Island: Rise of Kong and The Lord of the Rings: Gollum to be the worst game of the year may be evenly matched at the time of writing, but as we draw towards the end of the year, it may be King Kong who heads back to Skull Island with the unwarranted trophy. What we know for sure is, that fans think they are both utterly terrible, and looking at both titles, it would be hard to disagree.
Follow us for more entertainment coverage on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
