A list of tool-assisted speedruns of games that are listed on TV Tropes' Video Games sections of their So Bad, It's Horrble pages. This includes games found under the "Other/Repeat Offenders" page and its subpages.
This list is possibly incomplete and subject to change as entries can be added or removed from the TV Tropes pages at any time.
Published on 7/16/2021
Even the worst video games ever made can make for a good TAS.
This movie speedily plays through "The Cheetahmen", game #52 of a compilation of horrid games called Action 52. While the game is pretty horrible in general, it has a rather catchy BGM.
EZGames69 and Samsara improve the previous movie by 44.76 seconds, thanks to better optimisation and using a warp in the 5th level to spawn the last boss early in a glitched up level.
There are also two published runs of the unreleased sequel, Cheetahmen II. One plays through all the levels, whilst the other starts from level 5 from power-on, due to abusing the fact that some games do not initialize their states before reading them.

Published on 12/31/2014
The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle is an awful licensed game based on The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. The game consists of five episodes (stages) of terribly bad side-scrolling platform action. Players can switch control on the fly to either Bullwinkle or Rocky and will have to do this as each character has their own unique abilities. While both characters can jump and throw bombs, only Rocky possesses the ability to fly while Bullwinkle can charge enemies with his antlers. Both of these abilities sap energy for no reason.
Luckily, TASeditor abuses a glitch in which holding Select sort of freezes the condition of the character, meaning it doesn't cost energy while going fast. Therefore, he reaches a time of just under 4 minutes.

Published on 6/13/2020
ALF is a game based on the TV show, where the titular character is seeking parts for his spaceship so he can meet his friends.
nitrogenesis improves the previous TAS by 31.58 seconds, thanks to a more optimised route. However, poor Alf still dies a lot in order to warp around. Please read the author's comments for more details.
Game:
ALF

Genres:
Adventure
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 2.4.2

Published on 11/26/2013
Cheetahmen II is the unfinished sequel to game #52 of Action 52. The game contains 6 of the 10 levels originally proposed, in which the player takes control of Apollo, Hercules, and Aries, switching off every two levels.
This is the first movie to abuse the fact that some games do not initialize their states before reading them, which in this case results in one of the cart registers randomly taking a certain value that can force the game to start from level 5 on power-on.
Since the game really behaves like that on the console, it was decided to allow presetting such truly random bits on the emulator side. Read the submission text and its discussion thread for more details.
We also have an "all levels" TAS for this game, done on the patched ROM due to a bug in the original game preventing the player from progressing past level 4.

#3543: adelikat's NES Color a Dinosaur "100%" in 07:15.12
Needs an encode.This run colors all the dinosaurs the game has to offer.
#2931: GabCM's NES Dian Shi Ma Li "PUSH START TO RICH" in 00:38.27
Needs an encode.This run doesn't seem to have a real goal of any kind. Tried TASing this game myself for a maximum score run, but the RNG was too much for me.
Published on 12/1/2015
Based loosely on the novel with a similar name, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde follows Dr. Jekyll as he walks to his wedding. For some reason though, everyone and everything is out to kill him. Unfortunately for them, he has mastered the art of phase walking.
This run is an improvement of over a minute over the previous run, thanks to more optimization and a new glitch that allows Jekyll to clip through the screen.

This movie has been obsoleted!
Obsoleting Movie
Published on 11/30/2022
Dragon's Lair is much better known in its incarnations for other platforms as an FMV game with only slight amounts of control over the player's action. The NES version is more of a traditional platformer, but very smooth animation for the era and funny-looking characters inspired by the cartoon graphics of the other versions - this includes the final boss, who isn't seen very much in this run thanks to abuse of the game mechanics.
This TAS by ktwo is done on the slower USA release of the game, since the differences in execution for some of the levels are different than on the Japan release. You can watch the TAS of the Japanese release of the game here.
Video Downloads:
Compatibility MP4
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 2.8

Published on 12/22/2021
This is a platform beat 'em up based on the anime series Hokuto no Ken. According to the manual, Kenshirou, the main character, has to save the people from the evil Emperor Heaven. The game itself, however, features no story whatsoever, but a lot of platform action instead. You have to run quickly through the levels (there is a time limit), punching and kicking your enemies, causing them to fly away or to explode. Occasionally you will meet a boss, visit secret areas behind doors and collect various power-ups.
Lucky Bacon improves the previous movie by 1 minute and 12.82 seconds. Please read the author's comments for more details.
There is also a run of the precursor to this game.
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 2.6.2

Published on 1/25/2012
If what was done in this movie was possible in real life, economies worldwide would crash.
Ghostbusters is a hastily produced game based on the 1984 movie of the same name. The NES version is a notoriously bad port, and the Japanese version contains a glitch that allows the Ghost Alarm item to be sold for more than it costs, allowing entry into the Zuul Building much earlier than intended.
In this movie, MESHUGGAH improves the first run of this game by 38 frames through a few small optimizations. See the author's notes for more details.

Note: A bug in the Japanese version causes the ending screen to incorrectly display "りり". This movie will also sync while the PAXKKLAA Game Genie code is used, which shows the corrected text:
Conglaturation !!!
You have completed a grate game.
And prooved the justice of our culture.
Now go and rest our heroes !
Game:
Ghostbusters

Genres:
Action
Emulator Replay:
FCEUX 2.1.6 (interim svn2267)

Published on 11/8/2022
Heavy Shreddin' is a relatively obscure snowboarding game with five different events: Downhill, Slalom, Halfpipe, Moguls, and Backwoods. Though the screen scrolls at a set speed, there are several speed altering techniques that can be used to obtain a faster time.
Lightmopp saves about 16 seconds off the previous run through very tight and precise optimizations. For further details, you can read the author's notes.
Game:
Heavy Shreddin'

Genres:
Sport
Video Downloads:
Compatibility MP4
Emulator Replay:
FCEUX 2.6.4

Published on 10/11/2014
Hydlide is an old and somewhat notorious game, mostly because it has very strange gameplay mechanics. For the first part of the game, walking consumes health, and the character must stop every now and then to regain it.
This is one of the few games (the only one?) where the level grinding sequences are actually entertaining, while the boss fights aren't. Hitting a boss decreases your own health as well as the boss's, after which there is much waiting for more health until you can hit him again.
This is an improvement of 03:54.80 over the previous TAS, due to overall better levelling strategy and route planning.
There is also a submitted TAS that uses codes and removes the need to level grind or wait for health.
Watch this run being played back on a real console.
Game:
Hydlide

Genres:
RPG
Emulator Replay:
FCEUX 2.2.2

NES Incredible Crash Dummies by MESHUGGAH
Needs an encode or a completed run.Only completes the first stage.
NES Jurassic Boy 2 by KAGE-008
Needs an encode or a completed run.The second WIP by the author that completes the game. Requires the Overclock feature in FCEUX.
Published on 2/23/2020
The Lion King, not to be confused with the bootleg title Super Lion King, is a very late NES port of the Game Boy version. It was released exclusively in Europe and was the last official NES game.
In this run, Lobsterzelda & Bluely improve the previous record by 2 frames.
Game:
The Lion King

Genres:
Platformer
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 2.3.3

#6677: PGCX864's NES The Lion King V: Timon & Pumbaa "fastest suicide game overs" in 03:45.03
Not an actual run. Just gets Simba to commit suicide as fast as possible
Published on 1/26/2019
This unlicensed game is based very loosely on the story of Little Red Riding Hood. The protagonist must kick trees and stones to get fruit and treasures in order to progress through 10 rounds, all while avoiding enemies such as bears, cobras, goblins, and hedgehogs.
In this run, Dimon12321 quickly guides Little Red Hood to her grandmother's forest clearing —there's no house to be seen— by manipulating movement and positioning of enemies, items, and the ladders that allow progression from one round to the next.

Published on 12/31/2012
Rocman X is an original game created by the Taiwanese company Sachen, the most prolific unlicensed developer for the NES/Famicom. Despite the name and pirated title screen, this game has almost nothing to do with Mega Man.
The game takes place in Thunder Blaster Man's home of Gadem City. The mayor is in the middle of throwing a big party for the city's centennial when a mysterious figure crashes the party and kidnaps the mayor's daughter, Miss Lucy. The kidnapper turns out to be the leader of an evil crime syndicate who demands a large ransom for her safe return. Now it's up to the eponymous hero to save Miss Lucy and bring the syndicate to justice!
In this run, FractalFusion jumps and flies through all four levels of this odd platformer and saves Miss Lucy in just under thirteen and a half minutes.

Note: The provided movie file will only sync on certain versions of FCEUX (2.1.5-2.2.1). It will not sync on any other version.

Published on 11/22/2014
Silent Assault is an unlicensed game developed by Joy Van and published by Color Dreams in 1990. In this game, an alien force has somehow taken control of all of Earth's military forces. However, the player character is not under the alien power's control, meaning he's the only one who can fight back. Said character now has to fight through enemy military and alien forces over the course of 8 levels of varying awfulness.
The author of this TAS runs through the game in only 5 minutes and 26.91 seconds.

#2544: True's NES Somari in 24:14.09
This run completes the whole game, but was rejected for being suboptimal.
Published on 1/22/2021
Super Contra 7 is a pirate game based off the Contra series, developed by E.S.C. Co (alias of Waixing) in 1996 for the Famicom. It is likely a hack of either Contra or Super C, given that the engine appears to be a modified version of the Contra engine.
Mars608, aiqiyou & retroNES improve the previous movie by 00:05.56 seconds. Improvement comes from better routes, more detailed optimization, and better lag control.

Published on 7/25/2015
Super Pitfall is a rather poorly programmed platforming game offering many opportunities for glitch abuse. In order to beat the game (the first quest, at least), Pitfall Harry must accomplish 6 tasks:
  1. obtain the Raj Diamond
  2. find the key to Quickclaw the Lion's cage
  3. rescue Quickclaw the Lion
  4. find the flask of medicine, which can heal Rhonda
  5. rescue Rhonda
  6. return to the starting point after completing the previous 5 tasks
This is an improvement of 1 minute and 38.18 seconds over the previous movie, thanks to a lot of wall clipping.
Emulator Replay:
FCEUX 2.2.2

Published on 1/22/2011
Before The Terminator came to the Genesis and Sega CD in various forms, it arrived on the NES... if the end result can even be called a game. Much running around ensues in a plot narrowly resembling the movie and glitches abound to no end.
Fortunately, most of the atrocities are crushed by completing the game too quickly for them to really sink in.

Published on 7/18/2009
Autobots, transform and roll out!
Transformers: Convoy no Nazo (トランスフォーマー コンボイの謎) is about the Autobot Ultra Magnus cruising a very frustrating and difficult journey to discover who killed Optimus Prime. No, I'm serious.
Angry Video Game Nerd covered this game in 2009. Quoting adelikat: As he describes in the video, this game notoriously difficult to play. Poor hit detection, 1 hit and you are dead, awkward controls, and very little in the way of power-ups make this game frustrating for the average player.

WARNING: There is a high amount of flashing lights in the intro and after defeating bosses (at 0:07, 0:41, 1:08, 1:49, 2:25, 2:46, 3:15, 4:01 and 4:22 in the encodes), viewer discretion is advised.

Published on 11/8/2018
Wait and See! is a pirate game based off of Nu, pogodi! (Ну, погоди!), a Russian cartoon about a wolf chasing a rabbit. In this game, the rabbit looks a lot like Bugs Bunny, and he collects carrots (which magically turn into mushrooms) as he runs to the end of each stage. Bad controls and jumping physics make this a hard game to beat in real-time.
XTREMAL93 improves the predecessor movie by 00:07.22 seconds.

Published on 6/29/2012
A Week of Garfield is a 1989 Famicom exclusive based on the comic strip character Garfield. In the game you play through levels which take place on each day of the week on your search to find Odie.
This game is surprisingly hard. Playing the game without dying (which results in a game over since you only have one life), let alone not losing any health, is extremely challenging. At times the screen is nearly filled with enemies and requires frame specific movement to avoid taking damage.
But don't worry, goofydylan8 manages to make this game look like a piece of cake and beat the console world record by 4 minutes.

You can watch this run being played back on a console.

Published on 1/30/2013
Where's Waldo? is a video game adaptation of the classic puzzle book series of the same name. The player needs to identify crude, pixelated versions of Waldo amidst enormous crowds, guess blindly where he is in a cave, collect items on a subway track, and finally send him to the moon where he can no longer hide in crowds.
In this movie, MESHUGGAH improves the previous run by 00:06.67 seconds through better luck manipulation.
Game:
Where's Waldo?

Genres:
Puzzle
Emulator Replay:
FCEUX 2.2.0

Published on 11/6/2022
Winter Games is a series of minigames revolving around sports that are usually done during the Winter Olympics. The games here are hog dog aerials, speed skating, figure skating, and bobsledding. The goal of each minigame is to get the as many points as you can.
In this run, ShesChardcore does each minigame as quickly as possible, even scoring as low as 0 points if necessary.
Game:
Winter Games

Genres:
Sport
Video Downloads:
Compatibility MP4
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 2.8

Published on 6/13/2012
Based on the 1995 action movie, Batman Forever is a critically panned sidescrolling beat 'em up. 2 players can take control of Batman and his circus acrobat sidekick Robin to battle Two-Face and The Riddler and other standard lackeys. It combines the Mortal Kombat engine with a generic sidescroller.
Keirden uses both of the superheroes and rolls through the game in a speedy 15 minutes.

Published on 4/8/2021
This game, based on the movie of the same name, itself based on the stand-up comedy of the same name, has won first place on several worst game of all time lists.
EZGames69 improves the previous movie by 2 minutes and 0.75 seconds, thanks to much better optimisation.
Game:
Bébé's Kids

Genres:
Fighting
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 2.5.1

Published on 2/8/2009
Dark Castle looks like a Genesis version of Donkey Kong. This new movie is eleven frames faster than the previous version by Aqfaq and stanski.
Selected statement by Aqfaq:
I managed to skip most of the game, which is good because Dark Castle sucks.

Published on 3/24/2017
Fantasia is the title of a side-scrolling video game developed by Infogrames and produced by Sega for its own Mega Drive/Genesis system. The game was loosely based on the film of the same name.
In the game, the player controls Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer's Apprentice through various side-scrolling levels in an attempt to collect musical notes that somehow went missing whilst he was asleep. The game's four levels were based on amalgamations of the segments of Fantasia, each one around the elements: water (The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Dance of the Reed Flutes and Arabian Dance), earth (The Rite of Spring), air (Russian Dance, Pastoral Symphony and Dance of the Hours) and fire (Night on Bald Mountain, Toccata and Fugue in D Minor). The player defeats various enemies by jumping on them or by collecting magical bubbles that could be used to shoot at enemies as projectiles. In each level, the player collects a certain number of hidden magical notes in order for the song to play once again.
In this run, maTO makes his way through the game as fast as possible.
Game:
Fantasia

Genres:
Platformer
Emulator Replay:
Gens 11a

#7290: ItsPietroFelix's Genesis Férias Frustradas do Pica-Pau in 09:32.65
This run completes the game on the hard difficulty, which has the most game content. Rejected for being suboptimal.
Published on 1/10/2019
This is a Mega Man game that was not developed by Capcom, but rather by Stephen Rozner of Hi-Tech Expressions, who did all the design, programming, graphics, and sound. The game is infamous for its mediocre quality.
In this run, Sand shaves 36.61 seconds off the previous movie. The majority of the savings come from a glitch that allows most of Volt Man's stage to be skipped. Other improvements include better movement throughout the stages and faster boss fights.

This game runs too fast on anything more modern than a low-end 386 or so. As such, the encode is technically correct.
Game:
Mega Man

Genres:
Action
Platformer
Emulator Replay:
JPC-rr 11.6-WIP (commit bf3a341ad233439e21a32f33df

Published on 2/18/2012
When the Earth is threatened, Zordon summons teenagers 'with attitude' to become the Power Rangers, defenders of all that is good.
In this game, the world is threatened by the forces of evil, which are attacking on multiple fronts, and led by Ivan Ooze. The Rangers have decided to split up and each tackle one of the main bad guys, fighting their way through the enemy hordes and finally returning Ooze to the sludge he belongs in.
The author, GoddessMaria, pairs each Ranger with his or her respective enemy boss and morphs into each Ranger as soon as possible in order to make the run more entertaining at the cost of speed.

SNES Rise of the Robots by Aran Jaeger
Needs an encode or a completed run.Not sure how much of the game this run completes.
Published on 3/26/2020
Animorphs: Shattered Reality is what's considered as a poorly created video game based on the Scholastic Series written by K. A. Applegate.
Visser Three attempts to create a device that is designed to wipe out the Animorphs life using the Continuum Crystal. However the device failed and the crystal has vanished leaving behind a shattered reality. This reality is where Visser Three has almost completed his world domination.
Watch as Fizztastic morphs and fights their way through to stop Visser Three and restore the reality to what it once was in record time.

The YouTube encode includes commentary in the form of soft subtitles.

Published on 2/9/2016
What could pawsibly go wrong?
Bubsy 3D is the fourth game in the Bubsy series, and was its last one for 21 years, until the franchise was revived with a fifth game. Released in 1996, it was one of the first 3D platform games out there, though its poor controls, terrible graphics, and annoying main character lead the game to being considered one of the worst of all time.
Solarplex claws his way through the game in just under 23 minutes, almost making it look fun and playable in the process.
Game:
Bubsy 3D

Genres:
Platformer
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 1.11.4

Published on 4/27/2013
Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Battle 22 is a fighting game based on the Dragon Ball Z anime series. The "22" refers to the number of characters unlocked at the start of the game (a few more can be unlocked). The game was panned by critics and consumers alike because of its very poor overall quality.
The author, Noxxa, uses Goku's ridiculously powerful crouching close punch move to deplete enemies' lifebars really quickly and defeat all 27 opponents in record time.

Published on 4/26/2015
Donkey Kong 5 is an unlicensed game created by Sintax. A dragon named Lombado has abducted Sodoma, a fairy responsible for taking care of the world's plants. In her absence, the plants all wither, leaving Donkey Kong without his beloved bananas. The starving ape decides to go on a journey to save Sodoma and all of the plants.
The game features content "borrowed" from many other games. See how many game "references" you can spot!
This run by k80may beats the game in under 5 minutes using precision and a hovering trick.

Published on 5/7/2013
Aside from the logo and some of the fighters, Mortal Kombat 4 for Game Boy Color has nothing to do with the original MK4.
Enjoy the hilarious badness of this game as AKheon beats down every fighter to finish in the fastest time possible.

PSX Planet of the Apes by InfamousKnight
Needs an encode or a completed run.Appears to only complete a single level.
Published on 10/14/2016
Pokémon Adventure is an unlicensed Game Boy game released in 2000 by Yong Yong. This is actually a hack of another Yong Yong game called Sonic Adventure 7, which was a hack of Sonic 3D Blast 5, also released by Yong Yong.

Published on 3/19/2018
This version of Pokémon: Platinum Edition is a pirate game made by Sintax in 2005. It has nothing to do with Nintendo's official Platinum Version released in 2009 on the Nintendo DS.
Watch as dekutony abuses glitches in the game to increase the FPS and fall through walls, improving the previous publication by 00:09.49 seconds.

Published on 6/13/2014
Superman, better known as Superman 64, is one of the most notorious games to have been released for the Nintendo 64. Here, Lex Luthor pulls off yet another stunt: this time, he and Brainiac have developed a virtual reality version of Metropolis to trick the people of the fair city. Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen are the first to be tricked and trapped by the nefarious duo. It's all done to pull in Superman, the world's strongest hero, in order to take him down. But as the man himself, your job is to destroy any and all hopes of the bad guys' chances.
Watch as solarplex flies through seemingly endless amounts of rings and goes wherever he wants, even out of bounds!

#4602: dekutony's GBC Super Mario Special 3 in 00:54.61
Needs an encode.This only completes the last level with the use of a level select feature. Was cancelled due to known improvements.
Published on 7/17/2011
Mortal Kombat Advance is a port of the classic Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, for a handheld console. A terrible one at that. This one features a different engine, full of glitches, lousy controls and an even cheaper AI.
AKheon makes the in-game fighters look like idiots by glitching the game in a lot of possible ways!
The author also did a tool-assisted playaround on Mortal Kombat II (Game Boy version) and on Mortal Kombat: Tournament Edition.
If you want your SNES UMK3 fix, you can check out this movie and this staff-recommended movie.

Published on 4/30/2023
Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis is a GBA port of the original Sonic the Hedgehog game on the Sega Genesis. This port was released to mark the 15th anniversary of the original game, which also included the release of Sonic '06 around the same time. This port is infamous for being a terrible conversion to the GBA, which includes buggy graphics, tons of slowdown, wonky physics, and butchered music in comparison to the original game.
Tuffcracker manages to complete the game despite all the issues with this game, in record time.

Published on 8/30/2014
Anubis II (read: "Anubis, the Second") is a fast-paced platformer by Data Design Interactive, the creators of Ninjabread Man, Myth Makers: Trixie in Toyland and Rock 'n' Roll Adventures, all of which have virtually identical gameplay. The evil spirit Mumm'hotep has plunged Egypt into darkness, and Anubis II, the guardian of the tombs, sets out to stop him!
But it seems that this quest is much easier than it appears. After completely skipping going through the starting gate, Anubis decides to play a bunch of minigames. This somehow causes his quest to become completed. There was much rejoicing.

Published on 1/9/2023
Elf Bowling 1 & 2 is a collection of the first two Elf Bowling games on the DS. It features Santa Clause throwing bowling balls at elves after the elves went on strike for being overworked by Santa.
This TAS plays through the first game and gets a perfect score in record time.
Video Downloads:
Compatibility MP4
Emulator Replay:
BizHawk 2.8

Wii Ninjabread Man by dekutony
Needs an encode or a completed run.Not sure what's going on here.

HomePages/despoa/TVTropesSoBadItsHorrible last edited by despoa on 5/24/2023 3:08 AM
Page History Latest diff List referrers View Source