Games do not work quite like movies and music when it comes to public perception. Rarely will a game be panned by critics, sell poorly, and then go on to be an influential work of art, something that occurs often in the two aforementioned media. In gaming's long history, only a few games have done just this.

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In the entries below, the influence comes either from the design perspective or based on how it affected the industry. A couple of them had more of a mixed reception, while the majority of them were dragged through the dirt and became the butt of many jokes.

8 E.T.

It is easy to make fun of this game, which is often credited with bringing down the entire industry in the early 1980s. Is it really that bad, though? Truthfully, E.T. is actually an incredibly ambitious title for the era and the Atari 2600 console. It involved collecting items to complete an objective and tell a story instead of tasking players with simply achieving a high score.

Its downfall came from an extremely tight development schedule. Even though it played poorly and critics bashed it, E.T. remains culturally relevant and the game's designer should be commended for his audacious goals in making the game.

7 Night Trap

Metascore: 50 (PS4 Version)

FMV games immediately bring people back to the 1990s. They promised video games that played like movies, but they rarely lived up to the hype. Night Trap involves players looking through cameras and activating sequences to prevent innocent people from getting their blood drained by malicious monsters.

The game received a mixed reception upon release, and modern critics only seem to dislike it more. Still, it was held up as an example of negatively influential violent video games on the same level as Mortal Kombat during the infamous congressional hearings about the medium. Its legacy has been solidified by a bevy of re-releases in recent years.

6 No Man's Sky

Metascore: 61 (PC)

Back in 2016 gamers were excited to explore the cosmos in No Man's Sky. Turns out, the idea of exploring a vast empty space was kind of boring. Developer Hello Games did not throw up its hands and give up after the poor reception, however. They continued to update and tweak the game until it blossomed into the title it is today.

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Now it serves as a shining example of how a video game can turn itself around with updates and by listening to player feedback. The best part about it is the updates have come at no cost to players. It is not the first game to completely turn its reputation around, but one of the first that was not an MMORPG or purely based on multiplayer.

5 Plumbers Don't Wear Ties

Plumbers Don't Wear Ties can hardly even be considered an FMV game since it mostly consists of photographs rather than video. It is more of a visual novel. Even when considered as such, it is not appealing from a gameplay perspective.

However, the game's influence can be seen in the way it became memetic. People want to play it because of how uniquely absurd it is. It is not meant for kids but it is also not raunchy. Its influence can be felt in both the Limited Run games re-release and the many other novelty or joke games released in the years since.

4 Pac-Man On The Atari 2600

Kids were mighty disappointed when they expected Pac-Man after buying the Atari 2600 port. The graphics were a poor imitation of the arcade game and the simplified maze was too easy to engage players.

These complaints and flaws did not stop it from being a massive success, however. It contributed to the downfall of Atari and the 1983 gaming crash. After Pac-Man, consumers understood that they could not depend on a port simply being good and worth their time.

3 Spec-Ops: The Line

Metascore: 76

Spec-Ops: The Line was not trashed in the same way other games mentioned previously were, but few critics highlighted it as anything other than another run-of-the-mill military shooter trying to cash in on Call of Duty's success.

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It did not help that the game's overall score suffered from a tacked-on multiplayer component the original developer did not want. All these years later, however, it is clear that The Line is something special and shows how a compelling and thought-provoking story can be told in a triple-A game.

2 Chipper And Sons Lumber Co.

As the story goes, Scott Cawthon was down on his luck after the poor reception of Chipper And Sons Lumber Co. The animations were a particular point of derision. This was just the spark of inspiration that birthed the idea for Five Nights at Freddy's.

Back in 2014 Five Nights at Freddy's exhilarated younger gamers and became a streaming phenomenon. It even has a 2023 film adaptation. Chipper And Sons Lumber Co. is a direct example of how something successful can come out of what is perceived to be a complete failure.

1 Trespasser

On paper, Trespasser has everything needed for a great adaptation of the Jurassic Park franchise. It also made use of Havok physics, now standard in many video games. Unfortunately, the game came out in a nearly broken state. Looking back on it now it is a fascinating artifact of late 90s PC gaming.

To a lot of game designers, it is so much more. The interactive environments and use of physics were way ahead of its time. The jungle location was also unique for 1998 when most shooters utilized indoor environments and tight maze-like levels. The lack of a HUD also puts a complete focus on immersion during a time when information was constantly displayed on screen for the player.

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