What are the most divisive games of all time?

Shortly after watching the most recent Nintendo Direct, my roommate began talking about Majora's Mask and how amazing it is. As I was listening to him, I was reading the comments here on the announcement trailer, and found contrasting opinions. I've always found it so fascinating that people not only seem to have differing opinions on the game, but that it's either awful or the greatest for a lot of the more vocal fans of the franchise. I told my roommate that I never played MM, to which he replied, "Well, we're getting it and you're playing it." I was amused by the thought of playing it just to see where I fell on it, and it made me more curious. As someone who has played very few games (especially good ones) before the turn of the millennium, I can safely say that I probably haven't played any game that falls into this category, and I'd like to go through them all. So...

What are some of the most divisive games out there? Not controversial, like games made to shock or offend; games that, simply through the way they are designed, are either one of the best games out there, or one of the worst. I'm open to games that have a notable amount of division within the community, but what I'm really looking for are games that one person thinks is genius, or ahead of its time, while another thinks it's just awful, and no one person can honestly understand how the other can come to their respective conclusion.

I think we can add Majora's Mask to this list, and from what I've seen on this site, we can safely add Yoshi's Island to the list. One game that I know is beloved by this site but some people think differently of is Deadly Premonition, but I haven't found enough negative opinions of the game to consider it. It's been a while, but I know Jeff absolutely hates Nights Into Dreams, and I can't remember if Brad loved it or not. I believe there are a number of people who love Nights, but beyond Jeff I haven't heard a lot of negative opinions on that one either. God Hand is another game I've heard a bit about, but know nothing of.

I'd love to hear of other games you'd consider to be among this lovely group of games, and how you felt about them as well!

Update: Okay! So I've got my list!

1. Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

2. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

3. Minecraft

4. Too Human

5. DOTA 2

6. GONE FUCKING HOME

7. Chrono Cross

8. Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

9. Heavy Rain

10. Metal Gear Solid (all of the main installments?)

11. Dynasty Warriors (any of them?)

12. Deadly Premonition

13. Monster Hunter

14. Super Mario Sunshine

15. Bioshock Infinite

16. Final Fantasy VII-XIII, Lightning Returns(?)

17. Mass Effect (1, I think 2 and 3 are great games, the third is divisive because of the end of the game only)

18. DmC: Devil May Cry

19. the Souls games (Any?)

20. GTA IV

21. Prince of Persia ('08)

22. Batman: Arkham City

23. RAGE

24. RE 4-5

25. Ratchet: Deadlocked

26. Splinter Cell: Conviction

27. The Walking Dead: Season One

28. Mario Party

Ones I'm a little iffy about, would like to hear more on:

• Syndicate (Seems to be because of EA and the choice to be a shooter rather than a strategy game, not whether the game itself is great to some, awful to others.)
• God Hand (May not be as divisive as it was at the time.)
• Starfox Adventures (Are there people who really like this game?)
• Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker (Since Twilight Princess came out, the people who didn't like Wind Waker seemed to not care so much)
• Alpha Protocol (Did people hate the game? There were people who really liked it, and people who found it disappointing, but I don't know of people who actively dislike it.)
• World of Warcraft (It's been named multiple times, but no one has really said why.)
• Nier
• Parasite Eve 2
• Silent Hill 4
• Silent Hill Homecoming
• Silent Hill Downpour
• Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
• StarCraft II
• Diablo III
• Alan Wake
• Mafia 2
• Far Cry 2
• RE6 (Were there people that liked that game? I mean, I know people who love Raccoon City but I don't know people who like RE6.)

If I left something out and you feel strongly enough, bring it up again! The big thing that some people are missing is that when I ask for divisive games, I'm looking for games that people either really like or really dislike. I'm aiming for the level of divisiveness that Jeff and Patrick experience when talking about Yoshi's Island. Thanks!

Minecraft for sure.

I feel like Too Human is a pretty divisive game. I don't think it's good, but I know a few people who love it and will strongly defend it and I've seen some game industry people/ journalists say positive things about it.

You haven't found enough negative opinions of Deadly Premonition to consider it? The combat, level design, menus, world, map, interface, everything is abysmal; the only saving grace is that the story is weird and totally-not-Twin-Peaks. It's a 0 out of 5 game if you don't like the story.

Monster Hunter.

@spraynardtatum: Sure, that could certainly be one, but I wouldn't necessarily count games like Angry Birds or anything like that, games that are considered great by more casual players but derivative or bland by more hardcore players. Unless you know a portion of hardcore gamers that really love Minecraft. I honestly don't know, I spend most of my time here watching people play bad 3DO games.

@muzhik: Ooh, that's a good one. I haven't seen a lot of overly positive talk about that game, other than it had promise.

@ajamafalous: Haha, well that certainly helps make it a little more balanced! :3

God Hand was divisive when it came out but now the only people who even remember it are those that love it.

I would say Syndicate 2011 was really divisive. People either hated it for taking a beloved strategy game and turning it into a shooter or loved it for being a fantastic shooter.

Tom Clancy's The Division

...

World of Warcraft

Most of the people who love it also hate it and the people who really hate it loved it once.

@turambar: That's a game I've always been super interested in, but my roommate wants nothing to do with it, good call

@corevi: Ah, okay. I remember seeing quite a bit about it a while ago, but that may be true. Thanks. I don't remember a lot of the talk on Syndicate other than what Jeff spoke of on podcasts and in the quick look, did people still think the shooting was good, but didn't like it solely based on the fact that it turned into a shooter?

@icicle7x3: You. I like you.

@reisz: Ha! But do they hate it because it's bad? Or do they hate it because it robs them of money? I have a friend who hates it for that reason alone, and loves it for every other reason.

The tides turned on Bioshock: Infinite shortly post-release. Others that come to mind are Gone Home, Dear Esther, Fez, Super Mario Sunshine, Star Fox Adventures, Castlevania II, Battletoads, and Donkey Kong Country.

I love many of the above games, for the record.

That was most of it. The way EA went about making it was also pretty gross.

Welp, that's enough foruming for me today.

DOTA. I used to play all sorts of strategy games with a bunch of buds, since the mid '90s even, and now half of them play DOTA and won't touch anything else.

The other half hates DOTA. There's simply no middle ground with this game

@darek006: That's a pretty good one, wasn't that right after the article came out by what's-his-name about how the game didn't deserve such high praise because you couldn't enter buildings or something like that? It sounds better than I put it. :P I guess I don't feel Gone Home or Dear Esther fit because they're games, but they're mostly about presenting a story, which certainly turned people off, but it just doesn't seem like the same kind of divisiveness that resides with Majora's Mask. I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking for here, hopefully people know what I mean. Was Fez divisive because of the gameplay itself, or because of Phil Fish? Sunshine and Adventures are pretty good ones, and I haven't heard much about Castlevania II or Battletoads, I'd love to hear more about those from someone. Really, Donkey Kong Country is divisive? I've never gotten that impression!

@corevi: Oh sure, I could certainly see that. I guess the games I'm looking for are divisive purely because of its design, rather than EA being EA or choices like being one genre when that franchise has historically been in another...hmm, I wonder if Brutal Legend was divisive? I remember people being caught off guard by the RTS combat in the game.

Are people still overly critical of Wind Waker? That's the first one that came to mind, for me.

@giantstalker: Really?? That's interesting, I don't know if I could ever really play it and review it properly because it seemed to evolve with its audience. As someone who has no real experience in strategy games, let alone MOBAs, there's so much to know and learn, I don't think I could even touch the keyboard without accidentally feeding. :P But that's a good one

ff13, bioshock infinite, gta4, mass effect 3

FEZ. Fez is a god-damned fantastic game. Yet...

@vocalcannibal: Oh I forgot all about that, you're right! I don't think people are so up in arms over it anymore, but that's a good one, and we just downloaded the hd version, I've been wanting to play it for a while.

@liquiddragon: FF13 is a very good one, I really need to put some time into that one. I stopped because I just couldn't stand Lightning, but I need to go back. GTAIV was divisive? And I could see ME3 for sure, but from what I've seen it's solely around the ending, the game itself was good up until that point.

@hamst3r: Yet... what? Hehe

@radleyduder: God bless, because there's very little to complain about there. Sailing/treasure hunting may or may not be someone's cup of tea, but at least those are valid complaints. The whining over the art style was always the big eye-roller for me.

The one I care about is Bioshock-Infinite. It was hit with a one-two and a half punch, of honestly having an under-recognized The Last of Us, combined with a combo of the developer's internet rep and what I would call a wave of blatant hipster rebellion. It almost seemed the time to hate that lead guy of Irrational ( and supposedly he could get a little heavy at times), couple with the critical acclaim that The Last of Us was as good or a better game. I am glad the Last of Us got the recognition it did and it seemed to resonate with some people. But I felt Bioshock Infinite got tied to the whipping post.

Outcome was probably fair enough, if also educational.

I don't think it's accurate to say that Yoshi's Island is a divisive game. Jeff hates it, but it is otherwise widely considered a masterpiece.

I was someone who didn't really like Wind Waker (not because of the visuals, which I always thought looked fantastic), but the HD version addressed basically all of the complaints I had (it's still a shame there isn't at least one more dungeon, but that's certainly not something they could rectify without building one from the ground up). I think this is the case for most - except for any crazy people there might be who don't like the visuals.

Speaking of divisive Zeldas, Skyward Sword is one of them. I fucking loved it, myself, but others loathe it.

@radleyduder: Just a whole mess of excuses is all it is. It's Phil Fish. A lot of it is about Phil Fish. It's "pretentious". It's 8-bit. It's retro. It's a platformer. It's just a platformer. It's indie, because you know, indie games can't be good. It didn't wow me in the first 15 minutes, so fuck it, done. I actually have to write things down? Never gonna play it.

Just that sorta stuff. If this were a Tag Cloud, the Phil Fish one would be about 100x larger than the rest of the text.

Gone Home?

Far Cry 2 :(

• Almost every Final Fantasy game from VII onwards
• Almost any fighting game that isn't Street Fighter or Tekken seems rather divisive at times, but I always feel like 95% of people who actively dismiss/hate any given fighter probably haven't played it (or if they have, it wasn't for any meaningful length of time) and hate it just to hate because people like being angry. DOA is a perfect example. A lot of people who have never touched it seem to hate because "er mah gawd, boobs and objectification" but then most people who've actually played the fucking thing seem to acknowledge it as a really good game. But I digress...
• Halo 4
• DmC

@theht: In light of the Nintendo news earlier today, I think you make a good point.

@meatball: @vocalcannibal:What were those issues? I never got to see a lot of it, a group of friends and I crowded around a kid who had it, and he refused to let anyone else play :P And all I have access to is the HD version. The visuals I always thought were amazing, but people found it to be too big a jump from previous Zeldas. Ooh, okay, Skyward Sword, I could see that.

@bybeach: There certainly was bad timing, for sure. I remember really enjoying the gameplay, but I never cared much for using a lot of the vigors, and I don't think a lot of other people did. It wasn't a bad game at all, but after getting wondrous praise, everything turned. That was strange.

@berniesbc: Haha, well I've seen enough opposition on this site to say there's a bit of divisiveness. But maybe there's a lot more positivity towards the game around the internet as a whole, or I bumped into most of the opposition here :P

@hamst3r: Huh, I haven't seen that point of view around. I wouldn't count the Phil Fish stuff towards the divisiveness of the game's design, but I could see some of your other points.

@theht: Really? This is honestly the first I'm hearing of it. I saw a lot of people didn't feel like it was their cup of tea, but did people think it was that bad?

Majora's Mask is a fucking outstanding game, but yea it is definitely on the list. The souls franchise and DotA also come to mind.

I'd say to some degree the Souls series.

@beachthunder: Oh really? I vaguely remember it being positively received. The only bad thing I've heard about it is that you were supposed to be able to light everything on fire, but at the time of release, they took that out. I seem to remember that on a bombcast or an Unprofessional Friday somewhere...

@babychoochoo: Ooh, post VII FF games sound perfect. Hmmm, interesting point on DOA. It doesn't seem like a lot of the issues are with the design of the game itself beyond certain character designs, but I'd still like to try it out simply because I haven't played it. Was Halo 4 very divisive? From what I've seen it seems similar to the Destiny response on a smaller scale. But then again, I haven't played that game either. And DmC I have some personal experience in regards to its divisiveness. I absolutely love that game, but I completely understand that people don't like it and why.

@vocalcannibal: Wow. Okay. Added to my list.

@radleyduder: Some people really lose their shit whenever it's brought up. It's worse than how it was with Flower.

Chrono Cross qualifies I think.

Like every zelda or pokemon game released in the last few years? Consensus on many seems to be that if you've only played a few so far you'll enjoy it, but if you've played them all the burnout will really kick in.

Dynasty Warriors? I think that while many people on this site hate it or dismiss it outright, it does have a fanatical fanbase.

For me the newer game I can recall being divisive is DmC Devil May Cry. Many series longtime fans hated it, from the first announcement to beating the game, to the DLC. But to many many critics and folks (such as myself) not terribly into character action games, an easier game with a Dante who grows into someone somewhat less of a douche by the end is appealing.

Just about everything in Heavy Rain sparked debate. You either hate it or love it.

@drsbaitso: @sirpsychosexy: Do people think the Souls games are bad??

@theht: It just seems so strange to be so angry about a game like that. Maybe I'll find out when I play it :P I can see getting up-in-arms about a game in a fun way the way Jeff does about games already mentioned, but to genuinely be bothered that much, it's odd...

@lyisa: I could totally see that. I've heard it's been beyond disappointing, and I've heard it's a great sequel.

@belegorm: As a big pokemon fan, I don't feel that applies a whole lot to that franchise. I fell off at three simply because I didn't like the pokemon designs, it was all getting away from the first generation. At the fifth generation I came back, and X and Y are my favorite since RBY. But maybe you're right, I just haven't seen them. And from what I've seen online, people just seem to want Twilight Princess-like games over and over, asking for more repetitiveness from the Zelda franchise. But Skyward Sword has been mentioned, so I could see it. I think people are generally excited for the new one from the small peek we got.

Ooh, that's a good one! I've never fully understood what you did in that game beyond fighting a lot of grunts

Right. I came on at 3, and loved it. It may not have been strictly DMC, but for what it was and how it went about it, I certainly enjoyed it. Especially the art style.

@evo: Oh man, you're right! That game really turned me off because I couldn't control worth a damn. I lost a challenge because I couldn't turn to take a path I wanted to take, and failed it, at which point I just dropped it. But I have friends who had no problems and just loved it. Don't know if I can play it again, but I'll add it to my list. :)

Did anyone mention Nier?

@mlarrabee: Oh man, I forgot about Nier! Was that a game that some people adored and some people really disliked? I don't remember, everything past two weeks back is just...just a blur...

GTAIV, people seem to either love it or say it's too dry and that the Saints Row series was the direction Rockstar should have gone in.

Personally it's my fave game of all time.

@blurienh: Oh, that's true, I forgot all about that. It was like the opposite of Wind Waker, where everyone got miffed because they decided to get more realistic and serious after San Andreas. I think it's a fun as hell game, I loved the way it felt compared to San Andreas, but you're right.

Alpha Protocol comes to mind. Either you enjoy the freedom that the story gives you, or you hate the jank-ass gameplay. There is no in-between.

The Metal Gear Solid games are certainly up there. Some people really dislike them.

The first things that come to mind for me would be World of Warcraft, Demon Souls/Dark Souls and Monster Hunter.

@yinstarrunner: Ah, okay. The impression I always got from the Bombcast was that it was disappointing, but there were parts that were interesting or that they liked, not necessarily divisive, but I'll add that too.

@thunderslash: Ooh, that's a really good one I overlooked! I need to go through all of those again anyway, before V comes out.

@sirdesmond: WoW and the Souls games again? Huh, must be something to this that I've just never heard about. I'm downloading a demo for 3 Ultimate right now, I'm really hoping I fall on the positive side of Monster Hunter, it looks damn cool :P

Would anyone consider League of Legends to be divisive? I know LoL players obviously love it, DOTA players hate it, and they like to get into it.

So. Many. Opinions. On. Games. Must. Not. Derail. Heavy Rain sucks ass

• Ratchet:Gladiator, or whatever it was called in NA was a pretty divisive game, I know some people really like it. But most don't.
• Chrono Cross definitely comes to mind.
• Mafia 2 got a lot of shit, but some people still appreciated it for what it is.
• The 2008 Prince of Persia game was VERY divisive.
• Batman:Arkham City ruined the franchise *cough* I mean was a divisive game.
• RAGE is up there, broken like it is.
• Splinter Cell:Conviction, but they mostly made up for it with Blacklist, so some of the bad blood is gone.
• Alan Wake for sure, I want to like it more than I do.
• Every anime game ever created.