Porting Disaster: Difference between revisions

* The 2600 port of ''[[Defender]]''. Horrible flicker, blocky cityscape graphics, and a game-breaking invisibility glitch when you fire. You have to go off-screen to use hyperspace or the Smart Bomb. The later superior port of ''Stargate'' (''Defender II''), which used both joysticks for the controls, showed that this was inexcusable. [[They Just Didn't Care]] the first time.

* ''[[Miner 2049er]]'' was back-ported by Tigervision from [[Atari 8 Bit Computers]] to the Atari 2600, so the downgraded graphics and reduced number of stages (two releases with three each) were to be expected. That walking was slow and jumps could barely clear enemies had no such excuse.

 

=== Atari 5200 ===

* The Atari 5200's analog stick was notoriously problematic, but no game released for the system was cursed with worse controls than the port of ''[[Gorf]]''.

 

=== Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) / Family Computer (Famicom) ===

* ''Winter Games'' - The NES version forced the player to watch a subpar animation sequence that couldn't be skipped and the selection of games was far inferior to the Atari 2600 version. The badly-animated, detail-lacking graphics and unresponsive control scheme are quite bad for the NES.

 

* ''Waixing'' and ''Nanjing'' deserve a separate page because 99.9% of their games are made on the '''same RPG engine'''. Oh, and don't forget how [[Sarcasm Mode|balanced]] the games are. [[Have a Nice Death|Good luck beating]] [[Obvious Beta|them]] [[Gotta Catch Em All|all]]. Oh, and notice that these are all in Chinese - there are ''barely'' any English translations, and if there are any, they're from fans. (Note that the reason these pirates are made is that the vast majority of cheap consoles in China during the 1990s and even now were all bootleg clones of the NES, or more specifically the Famicom.)

** ''M&M Heroes'', the port of the first [[Heroes of Might and Magic]] is playable indeed, but only if you can get over with the scrappy graphics, not-so-humble interface and bleepy music. Otherwise, you'd rather play [[Game Boy]] ports instead.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cc9RSUwlHCM Pirated version] of ''[[Felix the Cat]]'' for the NES. Dragon Co., the developers, also made ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvdbI7gnjq0 Wait and See!]''(a ''Bugs Bunny'' knockoff), ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir7P547HoHc Tom & Jerry 3]'', and ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAk2uuQj45U The Lion King 3]''.

* There was a NES pirate of ''[[R-Type]]'' titled ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7yL8j30KbA Magic Dragon]'', developed by...Magic Corp. At one point, there's an [[Invisible Wall]] that [[Unwinnable|precludes further progress]].

 

=== Master System/Sega Mark III, Game Gear ===

* ''Thunder Blade'' - Another example of an arcade game that was ported to a console that couldn't handle the scaling. The end result is a bland top-down and confusing over-the-shoulder helicopter shooter.

* ''[[Vigilante (video game)|Vigilante]]'' - The SMS port suffers from overly precise hit detection (the player's attacks only register when the enemy is on a specific ranger) and altered controls, in which jumping is performed by pressing the punch and kick buttons simultaneously instead of Up like in the arcade version. This makes little sense, considering ''Vigilante'' doesn't even have depth movement like other beat-'em-ups such as ''Double Dragon'' or ''Golden Axe'', making the change in controls rather unnecessary, while making jumping punches and kicks awkward to pull off since their inputs were also changed.

 

=== Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) / Super Famicom (SFC) ===

* ''[[Ultima VII]]'' - The plot was butchered as a result of Nintendo's [[Never Say "Die"]] policies of the era. The double murder that starts the main plot of the game is replaced with a double ''kidnapping''. It goes downhill from there. Also, the entire combat system and party system that defined the original game is dispensed with altogether in favor of a Zelda-style action RPG format in which the Avatar wanders around alone whacking snakes and bats with his sword.

* ''[[Desert Strike|Urban Strike]]'' for the SNES had the exact same graphics and sounds as the Sega Genesis original, but it slowed down immensely the moment anything other than than the player's own helicopter was on screen. In a confounding design decision, the button for jinking (=strafing) was mapped to one of the face buttons, while the SNES versions of the previous two games had it conveniently mapped to the shoulder buttons which allowed it to not interfere with firing weapons. Of course the game does not have the option to change your control layout in any way.

 

=== TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine ===

* ''[[Golden Axe]]'' - Although Telenet Japan produced some good games for the system, their [[TurboGrafx-16]] port is shamefully bad, with a mediocre CD soundtrack, horrible sound effects, poor controls, and graphics actually worse than the 8-bit [[Master System]] version.

 

=== Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, Sega CD, 32X ===

* ''[[Time Killers]]'' - As bad as the original arcade was, can you believe someone actually decided that a Genesis version was feasible, four years after its arcade debut in 1992? The end result wasn't pretty, with even more crippled controls and overall horrible presentation.

* ''Turbo Out Run'' - Despite the fact that the original ''[[Out Run]]'' had a decent Genesis conversion handled by Sims, Sega for some reason handed the porting duties of the game's sequel to Tiertex, resulting in the Genesis version having worse graphics and sound quality, with many of the more elaborate background effects missing, as well as jerkier controls.

 

=== Philips CD-i ===

* ''[[Dark Castle]]'' - The CD-i version has even worse controls than the Genesis version, with one button being used to jump, duck or interact with objects; perhaps to compensate, it plays very sluggishly. The reason it has better graphics than the Genesis version is that the screen is severely cropped. The list of high scores gets cluttered up quickly because you can save after dying, can continue from that save with no score penalty, and not have your previous high score erased.

 

=== 3DO Interactive Multiplayer ===

* ''[[Doom]]'' - Ported by Art Data Interactive. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msfL7XRe6DQ Small screen and low frame rate ahoy!] When put next to Interplay's port of ''[[Wolfenstein 3D]]'' on the same console, this is inexcusable. The single bright spot, picked up on pretty much every review, was the awesome music, rerecorded specially for this version. Just a shame that there were so few levels that some of the original songs were not present.

 

=== [[Atari Jaguar]] ===

* ''[[Space Ace]]'' - Released for the ill-fated Jaguar CD add-on, for some reason, the visual cues appear '''after''' the game expect you to perform the commands, killing you before you can even do anything. Considering ''Space Ace'' is a [[Full Motion Video]] game where the game consists solely of pressing buttons when ordered, the whole thing is completely unplayable.

 

=== Nintendo 64 (N64) ===

* ''[[Quake (series)|Quake]] 64''. Many graphic details were cut down (although the N64 could do quite a bit better), several levels were removed completely (cartridge space?), and multiplayer was limited to two players (when the N64 port of ''Quake II'' had four-player multiplayer.) And the soundtrack by Trent Reznor was replaced by generic ambience (or [[Jimmy Hart Version|Jimmy Hart versions]] of the songs).

 

* The PlayStation ports of Capcom's ''[[Marvel vs. Capcom]]'' series. ''[[X-Men vs. Street Fighter]]'' had the animation choppy and not to say about [[Loads and Loads of Loading|the eternal loadings]]. ''[[Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter]]'' is already a better game to play, thanks to less choppy animations and shorter loading times. ''[[Marvel vs. Capcom Clash of the Superheroes]]'' [[Up to Eleven|brought the loadings to a four-second limit]], as well as the framerate...Sadly, NONE of the above games had the tag feature, so Capcom decided to give 'Crossover Mode' as an excuse.

** And let's not forget the [[PlayStation 2]]/Xbox port of ''[[Marvel vs. Capcom 2]]'', which suffered but to a lesser extent. Capcom has since learned their lesson, as the (primary) ports of ''Marvel vs. Capcom 2'' and ''[[Tatsunoko vs. Capcom]]'' are released on the consoles that their arcade boards are based on (Dreamcast and Wii respectively), thus avoiding this Trope by the process of direct porting.

* Not a total disaster, but of the many different versions of ''[[Snatcher]]'', the one that looked and sounded the worst was the PlayStation port. Unlike earlier ports, it wasn't made by the original developers, and they simply made some bad artistic choices.

* The PlayStation port of Iguana Entertainment's ''[[South Park]]'' game was an unfinished bug-ridden disaster with inconsistent framerate, bad draw distance, poor audio quality, and ''even using footage of the Nintendo 64 version as FMV.'' The multiplayer maps aren't named like they are on the PC and Nintendo 64 versions, instead they are all just named "DM(Number)" which makes the game feel like an [[Obvious Beta]]. The game even cuts out content from the Nintendo 64 version which was on a '''cartridge'''.

 

=== Sega Saturn ===

** It should be noted that the back cover blurb for the European release has the balls to call it a ''[[Blatant Lies|"pixel-perfect conversion"]]''. Later Sega did release ''Daytona USA: Championship Circuit Edition'', which is basically "''Daytona'' on the Saturn done right".

* ''[[Doom]]'' - The Saturn port is an absolute mess. Jerky, unresponsive controls are mapped to a decidedly questionable control scheme. There are completely random bouts of slowdown—it sometimes happens when looking at a blank wall! The non-musical sound effects are of low quality. And there is no multiplayer, which takes half the fun out of ''Doom''. It's been compared to the 32X port in quality, and the Saturn has more advanced specs than the 32X.

 

=== Dreamcast ===

* The ''Sega Smash Pack Volume 1'' is ''infamous'' for its poorly done emulation. ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog (video game)|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' had horribly mangled audio, tended to lag, and suffer from glitches absent from the original Genesis games. So did [[Vectorman]]. Every Genesis port had awful sound effects and music ([[Golden Axe]] being the worst offender), which had [http://www.gamespot.com/sega-smash-pack-volume-1/reviews/sega-smash-pack-volume-1-review-2705680/ reviewers claiming they reached dreaded Atari 2600 levels at times]. Especially sad given how many times more powerful the Dreamcast was than the Genesis. The only exceptions to the aforementioned mess were [[Virtua Cop]] 2, which ported the [[So Okay It's Average|passable but unspectacular PC version]], and [[Sega Swirl]], a [[Love It or Hate It]] puzzle game that the earliest Dreamcast owners already had anyway.

 

* Some of the games in the [[Sonic the Hedgehog]] series suffered in their Playstation 2 ports. Both ''Sonic Heroes'' and ''Shadow the Hedgehog'' had much lower framerates than the Xbox and Gamecube versions of the same game. The latter had very little draw distance to boot, and couldn't keep up with Shadow's "Chaos Control" move. IGN gave the [[PlayStation 2]] versions of both games the lowest scores out of all the different versions.

* ''[[Psychonauts]]'' for the PS2, with controls that were apparently dipped in molasses during the port, and also suffered from framerate issues and long loading times. And woe betide you if you live in Europe and got the PAL version. Sound effects playing a random length of time after the trigger, the music loops go out of synch, the cutscene camera being in the wrong place, event triggers occurring out of order, Raz randomly getting stuck ''on thin air''...

* The [[PlayStation 2]] version of ''[[Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life]]'' (called "[[Harvest Moon]] A Wonderful Life: Special Edition") is commonly thought of as this. The original game was a ''[[Nintendo GameCube]]'' game so it makes sense for the weaker [[PlayStation 2]] to not play it correctly.. But it's still considerably more dull looking, and almost unbearably laggy and slow.

* The [[PlayStation 2]] port of ''[[Killer7]]'', originally designed for the [[Game Cube]], is generally called out for its slightly inferior graphics, less responsive controls, occasional framerate problems, and most of all, significantly longer load times.

 

=== Xbox ===

* ''[[Myst (series)|Myst IV: Revelation]]'' had an Xbox version with [[Loads and Loads of Loading]]. Unfortunately, the loading lag comes into effect ''every single time'' the player moves to another spot. In a game focused on ''exploration'' and puzzle solving, this made it nearly unplayable for all but the most patient players.

 

* The entire Gamecube version of the ''[[Mega Man (video game)|Mega Man]] Anniversary Collection'' takes some getting used to, since the "attack" and "fire" buttons were [[Damn You, Muscle Memory!|switched from the NES originals]] and there's no key config option.

** Also in the [[Game Cube]] version, the Control Stick either can't register diagonal movements or only does so when it's exactly on those diagonals. Infuriating when you're trying to leap out and grab a ladder above a spike pit...and it made the shoot-em-up segment of Wily's fortress in ''MM8'' seem impossible until one discovers that the D-Pad works much better at the cost of being slightly awkward to reach, inverted if you use the Hori Game Boy Player controller [[Crack is Cheaper|and if you are willing to spend a bit on money on it if you don't have one]].

*** And...GOD DAMN that paper-thin staircase run for the Megaton Hammer. DAMN IT TO HELL.

* ''[[Capcom vs. SNK 2 Mark of the Millennium|Capcom vs. SNK 2]] [[Updated Rerelease|EO]]'', a unique case in that the removal of the [[Good Bad Bugs|roll cancel glitch]], a technique widely used in [[Tournament Play]], is the main reason that the this version is considered inferior to the previous ones on the [[PlayStation 2]] and [[Dreamcast]].

 

=== Wii ===

* The Wii port of ''[[Okami]]'' suffered from inferior visual quality with lack of paper filter emphasizing the sumi-e artstyle, finicky waggle based motion controls, combat moves that would not register such as fleetfoot, and to top if off it lacked the credits as well as the epilogue, but that was rectified in the Japanese release.

** Not to mention the fact that Capcom apparently doesn't even keep their own art assets handy as the cover art of the box was taken from IGN (complete with the ''IGN watermark'' still visible). They apologized and distributed new cover inserts for all affected parties.

 

=== Xbox 360 ===

* The 360 port of the PC adaptation of Games Workshop's ''[[Blood Bowl]]'' was pretty much complete in every detail except for one ''[[Sarcasm Mode|small]]'' omission- online leagues. Removing the online multiplayer leagues from ''Blood Bowl'' is about on equivalent to removing multiplayer from a ''fighting game,'' basically gutting the main drawcard of the entire game. The result was best summarized in [[The Angry Joe Show|Angry Joe's]] review of the game where he was mostly complimentary towards the game in general for most of the review until he got around to mentioning the omission of multiplayer leagues, where his attitude suddenly turned ''violently'' nasty. He ended up giving the 360 version a score of 2/10 almost solely for this reason- yeah it was THAT big of an omission.

 

* ''[[The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]]'' has had some serious lag issues on the [[Play Station 3]] version. About halfway through the game, many players have hit lag that slows the game down so much, it becomes unplayable. Especially bad because "halfway through" for this game could mean ''over fifty hours of playtime''. Bethesda, the developer of ''Skyrim'', denied the problem entirely at first, then told players how to reduce the lag, but not eliminate it. There have since been several patches attempting to fix the problem, but [[Your Mileage May Vary]] on whether or not the problems have been fixed.

* ''[[Half-Life 2|The]] [[Portal (series)|Orange]] [[Team Fortress 2|Box]]'' was vastly inferior on the [[Play Station 3]]. Valve did not develop it ([https://web.archive.org/web/20140212095811/http://www.gamestooge.com/2007/10/11/gabe-newell-ps3-a-waste-of-everybodys-time/ for certain reasons], which are no longer true as of ''[[Portal 2]]''); it was done by an [[Electronic Arts]] internal studio.

* Take 2 has [https://web.archive.org/web/20140216102942/http://www.strategyinformer.com/news/8945/2k-defend-differences-of-mafia-ii-versions-ps3-inferior-to-others apologized] for making the PlayStation 3 version of ''[[Mafia|Mafia II]]'' the least feature rich version, compared to the PC (which is the fullest experience) and Xbox 360 versions.

* The ''[[Silent Hill]] HD Collection'', while arguably worse than the non-HD original games as it stands, really got hit hard on the [[Play Station 3]]. Rampant slowdown throughout the game, the voices falling out of synch with the characters' lips, and various other little bugs. Konami has started patching the game in an attempt to bring it closer to the more stable 360 version.

 

=== Miscellaneous Consoles ===

* Also a DVD player example. After Digital Leisure did an overall good job on porting first two parts of [[Dragon's Lair|that series with Dirk the Daring]], they suddenly decided to port ''Dragon's Lair 3D: Return to the Lair'' as well. As the result of '''double''' '''[[Genre Shift]]''' (interactive movie -> third-person arcade -> interactive movie or [[Adaptation Decay|something that resembles it]]), as well as completely non-cinematic camera angles during the gameplay and the badly decreased "clicks per minute" count (mainly caused by the fact that in the original ''DL3D'', not everything was trying to kill you), ''Dragon's Lair III'' is probably what you should ignore just to buy their ''[[Polished Port|Dragon's Lair Trilogy]]'' alone. Even ''[[Tomb Raider]]'' did better when ''Angel of Darkness'' hit the DVD players, no matter if ''TR'' fans loved it or not..

** Other illnesses include: [[Bonus Feature Failure]],<ref>From the start, you've got a lot of "extra art" which is either screenshots from the game, or screenshots from the ORIGINAL games, or, in very rare cases, some concept art and figurine photos; and when you complete the game, you get access to five bonus levels...with untextured Dirk and enemies. Yes, he will be white even before he becomes a skeleton.)</ref> [[Anticlimax Boss]],<ref>During the Mordrok boss battle, you should tap only ONE button, save for the moment when you have to turn right. And that's the '''final''' boss!</ref> [[Scrappy Mechanic]] <ref>Some of the actions are clearly performed in a way different from obvious: you see a platform behind the Dirk, which is obviously situated above his head, perspective-wise, and you have to fly forward. What do you press? [[You Fail Logic Forever|DOWN BUTTON.]]</ref><ref>The three-minute Smithey battle is also screwed up: at the first round, you have to get rid of the sword, the spear and the anvil. Three more rounds and Dirk dodges them all by himself. On the fifth...you have to dodge the anvil '''yourself'''. Just dare to call that fair.</ref> and [[Yet Another Stupid Death]].<ref>Except, this time around, it's played ''literally''; sometimes, you have to wait 30 seconds watching Dirk ''stupidly'' standing in one place while Giddy Goons try to mash him up; bonus points for the fact that you can't skip these anyhow.</ref>

 

== Disastrous ports to hand-held consoles ==

** Removed many levels, including all that were outside the "platformer" realm (the overhead racing levels, 3-D maze, etc.) and the boss fights (Nightmare Buzz, regular Buzz Lightyear, and [[That One Boss|the notorious Claw]]), thus taking away much of the fun element from the other ports.

** Was really, really, really friggin' slow.

 

=== Game Boy Advance (GBA) ===

* ''Tekken Advance''. This atrocity was farted out by Namco to try and capitalize on the handheld craze. The sprites were 3D structures ripped from ''Tekken 3'', shrunken and distorted to accommodate the GBA (the same can be said of the entire game, in fact). While the screens and promo shots looked decent, the actual game was so hastily stripped down that the gameplay was more reminiscent of [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBuW4lNR_08 the crappy NES bootleg ports] than any respectable GBA title.

 

* ''[[Puzzle Quest]]'' on the PSP was a decent port overall (like the DS version), but it's the only one with a major bug: the companion system doesn't work.

** The iPhone version is full of random graphical glitches and a couple of (since fixed) [[Game Breaking Bug]]s (Random deletion of saved heroes and locking out unfinished missions.)

* The PSP port of ''[[Angry Birds]]'' has random framerate slowdowns and glitchy controls, and considering it's based on an iPhone game, it really shows how rushed the port was.

* ''[[Star Wars Battlefront]] 2'' is a relatively tame example. All its missing is the Rise of the Empire campaign and a handful of maps.

 

=== Nintendo DS (NDS) ===

* Remember ''[[Legend of Kay]]''? You know the [[PlayStation 2]] game with ''[[Ninja Gaiden]]''-esque fighting, racing levels, a solid plot and a soundtrack by Virt? The DS port rips all of that out for random spider jumping, a complete butchering of the script, crappy MIDI files and the ''complete elimination of the battle system that made the game fun to play in the first place.''

* The ''[[Il-2 Sturmovik]]'' series is considered one of the best PC flight sims available. The ''Birds of Prey'' title for consoles is also a solid game. On the DS, however, the controls are sluggish and the D-pad is ill-suited for controlling a plane in three dimensions. some stages are [[Unwinnable]] because the enemies can't be damaged, and the campaigns are just a series of missions that can be played in any order the player wants (which is just as well, considering the last flaw).

 

=== Other Handhelds ===

* Because the C64 was so immensely popular, Origin kept porting their Ultima games to the system even after the hardware couldn't handle them anymore. ''Ultima V'' was a complete port that lacked only music, but ''Ultima VI'' was butchered horribly as it was designed for the much more powerful computers then available.

* The C64 version of [[Jet Set Willy]] 2 (originally a [[ZX Spectrum]] game) expanded the levels to fit the C64's higher resolution, making some of them impossible.

 

=== ZX Spectrum ===

* If you thought it couldn't get any worse than the PC port of ''[[Street Fighter]] II'', you were wrong; there was also a ZX Spectrum version. Saying that the game takes forever to load is a gross underestimation. Nobody would ''ever'' know why didn't they put this on a disc as well, not only on a tape.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyFK6xqjms4 Castle Master]. No sound. Slow turning. ''2 FPS''.

 

=== Amstrad CPC ===

* The Amstrad CPC port of ''[[Out Run]]'', by Probe Software. The programmers really had no excuse, as far better driving games had already been available on the CPC for years. How bad was it? Well...

** The graphics gave no sense of acceleration or speed, and mostly looked like cars and unidentifiable roadside objects blinking into existence and jerking erratically towards you.

{{quote|[[Blatant Lies|Taking nine months for numerous programmers to develop the graphic design and gameplay, OUT RUN must surely be one of the greatest, if not the greatest, home computer arcade versions of all time. The computer game reproduces as faithfully as possible all of the exciting elements of the OUT RUN arcade machine.]]}}

** Probe (the company who did the Amstrad conversion for U.S. Gold) did the Atari ST and Commodore Amiga versions as well- both of which were also panned.

 

=== MSX ===

* ''[[Rush N Attack|Green Beret]]'', another side-scrolling action game by Konami, plays incredibly slowly and stiffly in its MSX version. Konami UK was responsible for this port, which was never released in Japan.

 

=== PC - Unspecified ===

* Old PSX games were sometimes translated to PC without a number of graphical features. ''[[Wipeout]]'' lost the light effects that made it such a graphically awesome title in '95 and acquired a peculiar kind of flickering track bug. Its sequel ''Wipeout 2097'' lacked a speed limiter, causing the game to run out of control on top of the line PCs back in '97, never mind today (this can be fixed with a CPU killer program, but then you will find out the hard way that Windows Vista/7 require a lot more CPU to run properly than the game!). The early [[Twisted Metal]] games similarly lacked transparency and increasing the resolution scaled down the UI to a microscopic size, although the almost unknown PC port of ''Twisted Metal 1'' did replace a single weapon to make one of the characters viable.

* Any PC port of American Laser Games titles. Somehow mouse-clicking was no substitute for pointing a light gun, and the FMV scenes were nothing home to write about. And when ALG did come out with the PC Gamegun, its accuracy was horrible.

 

=== MS-DOS ===

* The PC port of ''[[Mega Man X]]'' was pretty spotty, having lower grade music and sounds than the SNES original, as well as removing the various Ride Armors around...despite being on CD-ROM and not limited by cartridge space. It also came with a gamepad modeled after a Sega Genesis 6-Button controller for whatever reason. The ''X3'' PC port thankfully avoided these problems, not to mention had high-quality remixed music.

** The gamepad (which also came with a PC port of Super Street Fighter II) was especially bizarre. Only the bottom row of buttons seem to actually work with the game. Try changing the controls to use any of the top three buttons and they're totally unresponsive. The same goes for other DOS games. Basically, you got a 3-button gamepad that looks like a 6-button gamepad.

 

=== Microsoft Windows ===

* The PC ports of ''[[Oddworld]]: Munch's Oddysee'' and ''Stranger's Wrath'' are horribly unoptimized for ports of five+-year-old [[Xbox]] games, to the point where people with competent gaming PCs (ones that can run ''[[Crysis (series)|Crysis]]'' smoothly at high graphic settings) regularly get less than 30 FPS - and the actual graphics are unchanged. ''Stranger's Wrath'' has no visual customization options apart from the resolution settings, ranging from "Low" to "Medium", to "High", and "Ultra", with the latter three being 1024x768, 1280x1024, and 1600x1200 respectively. Both games also have noticable issues with the Xbox 360 controller, which is the default recommended joypad for both: In ''Munch'', the left stick changes the direction that the character faces, but ''doesn't actually move the character'' - the arrow keys on the keyboard are apparently still needed for that. In ''Stranger'', the game completely fails to recognize the right thumbstick's button press, which is supposed to toggle the switch between first and third person - a ''[[Forced Tutorial|mandatory step in the in-game tutorial]]''. Both games are also ridiculously crash-prone: You'd have to be ''very'' lucky to even get to the second stage in ''Munch'', and so far just over a third of the playerbase has managed to pass the tutorial in ''Stranger''. And keep in mind, the Xbox itself already has very similar hardware to an IBM-based PC, so you have to be ''incredibly'' lazy to botch a port this badly.

** ''Stranger's Wrath'' is now fixed as of the 1.1 patch. Performance is nigh flawless on a Q6600/8800 GT/Windows 7 64-bit system at 1600x1200, like it should be for an [[Xbox]] port like this, and you can now select which controller you want and rebind it through an .ini file. Unfortunately, wireless [[Xbox 360]] gamepads are not configured properly by default (which is baffling when the game clearly shows X360 gamepad controls), and in-game control configuration is still not present. Still, a hell of a lot better than the state it was in at release, and actually quite playable.

* ''[[Star Trek Legacy]]'' must have literally been copy/pasted onto a DVD and shipped for PC. Even with a good graphics card, the game lags badly on the lowest settings even on the ''menu screen''. None of the controls can be remapped, in fact, there isn't even an ingame guide to the controls. This is horrible because the default control set up forces an [[Egregious]] use of the mouse in situations where buttons should be (And in the 360 version, were) used.

* Valve has had a few issues porting No Mercy from ''[[Left 4 Dead]]'' into ''Left 4 Dead 2''. The 3rd map in the No Mercy campaign has a shutter door that can be opened only from the inside of the building so that any survivors that managed to get yanked outside can go through the door without having to climb up to the rooftop again. While a Tank can bust the door down, survivors were able to do the same thing with melee weapons, allowing them to bypass the crescendo event. It still took Valve several patches to fully squash the problem, but the Grenade Launcher can still destroy the door. Thankfully, this is not a problem in VS mode since survivors can't carry over weapons from the previous map and the Grenade Launcher never spawns before the event.

** There is also issues with the ports of the L4D1 survivors into L4D2. The character models were directly ported over, so they received no graphical upgrades, which isn't a problem, but they use skeletons/animations from the L4D2 survivors instead of their own. This means Louis is now suddenly taller than he used to be while Zoey seems to have shrunk while she suddenly grows two heads when taking out some of the new weapons. The survivors' hands also clip into the models of the pistols and they don't hold items like pills and bombs properly. On top of this, the survivors also have no lines for the elevator scene in No Mercy and have no reactions when being torn up by a Hunter, despite that there are actual sound files for these events present in the game's files. This makes the port of the old characters look like a rush job.

*** Originally, The Sacrifice DLC was only going to be for the original Left 4 Dead, but Valve decided at the last minute to give the DLC to Left 4 Dead 2 players as well with No Mercy as a bonus. This caused the porting to be rushed out with almost zero bug testing.

* Big Huge Games is known primarily for two [[Real Time Strategy]] titles, ''[[Rise of Nations]]'' and ''[[Rise of Legends]]''. Curiously, their next big game, ''[[Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning]]'', was clearly designed exclusively for gamepad controls, because using your mouse to move the camera around your character causes the game to cut frames in an eye-gouging, almost epileptic manner. There is no known fix to an oversight that renders the game almost unplayable. (Weirdly enough, the game is programmed to support gamepad and mouse/keyboard ''simultaneously'', as [[Day Nine]] and [[Felicia Day]] discovered in [https://web.archive.org/web/20131025214204/http://blip.tv/day9tv/kingdoms-of-amalur-reckoning-w-guest-felicia-day-part-1-5941735 their] [[Let's Play]] promotional video.)

* While it's too early to decide, the highly anticipated port of ''[[Dark Souls]]'' for the PC (to be released August 24, 2012) [http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/04/17/dark-souls-pc-prepare-to-sigh/ may end up one of these ''by design'' due to being barely adapted]. When the publisher flat out asks you to buy a gamepad and tells no changes will be made to the graphics (which suffered from poor optimization even on the original console), things don't look well indeed. Critics already predict bad sales which will end up blamed on piracy and From Software not making another PC port ever again.

 

=== Macintosh ===

* The Macintosh versions of ''[[SimCity]] 3000'' and ''[[SimCity]] 4'' were not made in-house by Maxis, and the games reflect this. SC3K was ported by a Ukrainian company which left all the PC interface (such as the file hierarchy system) intact, all while leaving out other features (such as the Building Architect Tool). [[SimCity]] 4 suffered as well...the Mac ports were months behind the PC versions, were terribly slow to the point of unplayability, left off the official tools that PC users got, and exhibited behaviors that you would only get if you had a plug-in conflict. In fact, for owners of Intel-based Macs, running the Windows version via a compatibility layer such as Wine or Crossover Games is preferable in every way.

* Feral Interactive's port of ''[[Mafia II]]'' was just as disastrous as the [[Play Station 3]] version, not because of the lack of grass and blood, but because it was ill-optimised compared to the PC version, churning out 15-20 fps even on a reasonably powerful Macintosh.

 

=== Amiga ===

** The Amiga version was the FIRST, using the powerful graphics to sell Cinemaware's vision. Later versions had more mini-games and strategy after the Amiga buyers complained (looks great, I get to do NOTHING).

* ''[[Test Drive]]'' for the Amiga didn't do justice to the computer's graphical capabilities, had the engines sounding more like 8-bit jets than cars, and there are few other sound effects to speak of. By comparison, the technologically less advanced Commodore 64 managed to pull it off a lot better. As with ''Defender of the Crown'', the inferiority of the Amiga version is likely attributable to inexperience and [[Christmas Rushed|ludicrous deadlines]].

 

== Disastrous versions of multi-platform releases ==

** It's easier to count the good ones: The NES one is the best, followed by the Atarisoft's Commodore 64 version, [[ColecoVision]] version and the Atari 7800 version was at least admirable given the dated TIA's chip audio part. The rest? well...

* ''[[Need for Speed]] Hot Pursuit 2'' on the Xbox, PC, and GameCube was a completely different game designed by a different development house to the PlayStation 2 version. While there are some track similarities, the sense of speed is all but gone, the handling is worse, and the game in general is far more boring.

 

=== Handhelds ===

* See the above entry about ''[[SimCity]] 2000''? Yeah, it applies to handhelds as well. Including the poor attempt to pass off ''[[SimCity]] DS'' as a port of ''[[SimCity]] 3000'' when it's really ''[[SimCity]] 2000'' with ''[[SimCity]] 3000'''s skin applied and some minigames slapped on.

 

=== PC Operating Systems ===