Kusoge

Kusoge (クソゲー) is slang for labeling a game as low in quality and no fun to play. The word shortens kuso na gēmu, meaning a crappy game, and is also written with the kanji 糞. It can also refer to the panned title itself.

It is not only a put-down. The word has settled into a way of enjoying a flop and even cherishing it. It is never a compliment, though, so it should not be aimed casually at a game's creators or its fans.

On Japan's video-sharing site Niconico and on YouTube, a large share of the uploads and streams feature someone playing a kusoge while giving live commentary. A game that only frustrates you when you play it yourself turns into entertaining content once a third party narrates it or shares it with others.

The examples of so-called kusoge mentioned here are also games loved by many people and full of moments that beg to be called out.

The best-known account credits the coinage to the TV personality and illustrator Miura Jun. The story goes that it began when Miura reviewed Ikki, a 1985 game for Nintendo's Famicom (sold abroad as the NES), and called it a kuso gēmu. Miura himself claims to be the one who coined the name.

In print, the earliest known use of the word kuso gēmu by Miura is his regular column in the August 1986 issue of the magazine Bug News.

Ikki is an action game inspired by the peasant uprisings of Japan’s Edo period. These uprisings, known as hyakushō ikki, were collective actions in which farmers suffering under heavy taxes rose up against their feudal lords. In the game, players take on the role of a farmer, hurling sickles to defeat the henchmen of a daikan, a local official responsible for governing the area.

The publisher was Sun Denshi, better known as Sunsoft. The arcade version came first, then a home Famicom version followed. It was a hit, too, selling around 700,000 copies.

The Famicom Boom and How the Word Stuck

Around 1985, Famicom sales were exploding. Companies rushed to make games on the back of that popularity, and a flood of titles with no concern for quality hit the market.

You couldn't tell a winner from a dud without buying it first. At a time when store shelves were packed with games like these, a whole range of terms emerged for disparaging disappointing releases. Expressions such as dame soft (“bad software”) and kuso soft (“crap software”) were used interchangeably.

Out of those, from late 1986 into 1987, kusoge took hold as the mainstream term.

Some games stay beloved for years even after being branded kusoge. The best-known is Takeshi no Chōsenjō (Takeshi's Challenge). Overseen by the comedian and film director Beat Takeshi, it was a Famicom title released in 1986 by the game company Taito.

Known for its absurdly obscure puzzles and extreme difficulty, it has long been regarded as the quintessential kusoge. Yet when a smartphone version arrived in 2017, the publisher Taito itself marketed it as “that legendary kusoge”.

Death Crimson followed a similar path. Released in 1996 by Ecole Software, it was a light-gun shooter for the Sega Saturn. The Sega Saturn was Sega's home console of the day. A light-gun shooter is a game in which you fire at the screen with a gun-shaped controller, usually found in arcades.

In reader polls run by the game magazine Saturn Magazine, it is on record as landing in last place 69 times. Even so, its disjointed dialogue and distinct atmosphere captivated fans, and it even got a sequel.

Sometimes a publisher lays claim to the kusoge label itself. When Sunsoft, the company behind Ikki, put out the sequel Ikki Danketsu (Ikki Unite) in 2023, it dubbed itself the original kusoge maker.

Kusoge of the Year

The annual “Kusoge of the Year” project embodied the culture that grew around discussing kusoge. Known as KOTY, it began in 2004 on 2channel, then one of Japan’s largest anonymous message boards. Participants debated which game they considered the worst release of the year and ultimately chose a winner.

The overall summary and the writing on each title have earned a name as good reading in their own right. No doubt many a player who felt let down by a game bought with high hopes came away vindicated by these critiques. Conversely, more than a few must have been stung to see a game they loved end up on the list.

When selecting a winner, the focus was not on mere disappointment or personal taste, but on verifiable flaws that could be demonstrated through actual gameplay. A turning point came in 2007 with the release of Shijū Hachi (Kari) (48 (Tentative)), which drew criticism for problems such as bugs that could prevent players from progressing. This helped establish KOTY’s emphasis on objective, evidence-based evaluation

The event itself went on hiatus in 2023.

Its Cousin Bakage and Its Opposite Kamige

A close cousin is bakage. A bakage, though, is a game you enjoy for its sheer silliness and absurdity, and it is not necessarily badly made. What kusoge points to is strictly a lack of polish.

Kamige (godly game) has the opposite meaning, which points to a game that is outstandingly fun and well made. Japanese has many words referring to games using this pattern, abbreviating the ending with -ge.

A game so hard it cannot be beaten is called murige. The word's range has since broadened, and it can be used when someone lands in a real-life situation so unfair there is no way through it.

Kusoge as an English Word

The term has also made its way into English-language gaming culture, where it is understood in its romanized form, kusoge. The English-language Wikipedia even has a dedicated article on the term, while American gaming outlet Destructoid launched a recurring feature titled Weekly Kusoge in 2021.

Both sources mention that unlike a plain bad game, it is a word often used with affection.

Kusoge Crosses the Ocean

English had no single word for a work that is dreadful yet impossible to hate. The nearest is the phrase so bad it's good. The phenomenon is the same, but one word cannot pin it down. Kusoge fills that gap, and it has slowly taken root.

America has its own legendary gaming failure. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, released for the Atari 2600 in 1982, has even been called one of the worst video games ever made. Despite being based on the hit film, the game was reportedly developed in just around five weeks.

The Urban Legend of the Game E.T.

The game has another legend attached to it: the urban myth that huge numbers of unsold cartridges were buried in a landfill in New Mexico. After circulating for decades, the story was finally substantiated by an excavation in 2014. More than 1,300 cartridges were recovered from the site, including many titles other than E.T..

Angry Video Game Nerd

Angry Video Game Nerd, abbreviated AVGN, is an American video series that started in 2004. A comedy that rips into old games while venting rage at them, it went on to shape the gaming YouTubers who came after.

In some corners, the term has taken on a life of its own. In the English-speaking fighting-game community, a game whose balance is broken by bugs or botched tuning, so that ridiculous tactics end up working, is called kusoge. The nuance is not so much that the game is badly made, but that its very brokenness is entertaining.