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It’s a well understood proverb that in life we can’t have our ups without having to endure the downs. Sadly the phrase ‘you can’t have your cake and eat it’ tends to apply to almost everything we may encounter on this mortal coil and gaming is no exception.

For every Starcraft, Diablo and Uncharted 2 so are we, as gamers, forced endure those titles that inhabit the opposite end of the scale. We are often lured, albeit unintentionally, into falling for enticing packaging or storylines which seemed far better than they actually were at the time (dinosaur hunting anyone?).

With this in mind we give you some of the most poorly received games of all time; and we’re proud to say that we’ve fallen foul to at least one of these duds at some stage in our gaming career.

ET – The Extra Terrestrial (1982)

Listed as the worst game ever by a number of publications ET – The Extra Terrestrial was frequently returned to stores upon its release, which lead to Atari allegedly dumping truckloads of games somewhere in New Mexico. It also highlighted a definite decline in the quality of Atari games after the company was acquired by Warner. (Ed. Hang in there Rocksteady)

Custer’s Revenge (1982)

Referred to by many as the most violent game of all time Custer’s Revenge simulates the rape of a Native American Woman during America’s Civil War era – enough said.

Link: The Faces of Evil (1993)

This CD-i title was widely criticised for “cheesy cut scenes” and “blurry and digitised graphics”. Coupled with virtually unworkable controls it did far more to tarnish the good name of Link and Zelda than anything else.

Waterworld (1995)

Any title released on a console referred to as ‘Virtual Boy’ should be doomed to failure. Waterworld was simply regarded as the worst of the twenty two releases the ill fated ‘3D graphics’ unit enjoyed.

Catfight (1996)

Upon release Gamespot referred to Catfight as the worst PC game ever made – which is quite a boast.

Although joining “eleven of the fiercest female warriors from across the ethers as they battle it out for the ultimate power of the Universe! Watch the head-to-head fighting assault blaze its way to your screen -- with the hottest women in games engaging in the most violent fighting techniques imaginable!” might sound enjoyable we can assure you that it’s wasn’t.

Charlie’s Angels (2003)

How anyone could believe a game based on three (very mediocre looking) ass kicking females would be popular is beyond us – nonetheless it’s 23% Metacritic rating feels spot on.

Peter Jackson’s King Kong (2005)(DS&PSP)

Upon its release in 2005 Gamespot referred to the Nintendo DS and PSP versions of King Kong as “such a poor excuse of a first-person shooter that other developers should study it and use it as a guide when putting together similar style shooters in the future”. Other reviewers followed suit, giving the game a Metacritic rating of 28%.

Turok (2008)

Ok, we admit that this choice may be somewhat misguided – given the game’s generally mediocre (in a list like this, "mediocore" is awesome) response upon its release in 2008. Unfortunately no game could ever live up to the premise of battling space cadets and dinosaurs at the same time, no matter how hard it tried.

Honourable mentions

Other unmentionably terrible games include:

Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust, Hannah Montanah: The Movie, Stalin vs. Martians, Rolling Stone: Drum King and Damnation.

Anything you feel should be added to the list? Drop your opinions off in the forums