The Lord of the Rings: Gollum has a new rival for the worst game of 2023. Gamers worldwide woke up to a viral cutscene from the freshly released Skull Island: Rise of Kong, and yes, it really is that bad.
If you haven’t heard of this game by now, you’re not alone. The existence of Skull Island: Rise of Kong was only discovered in December last year, and it wasn’t until July that we got an official trailer. It seemed developers IguanaBee Studios and publishers GameMill Entertainment weren’t exactly eager to show off their work. Today, everybody knows why.
The cutscene, which went viral thanks to X user @RickDaSquirrel, fully justifies the descriptor of laughable. After disposing of one creature, the titular king of the jungle must now face a purple dinosaur of some sort. It seems Kong has a history with this particular foe, as demonstrated by the meme-worthy flashback depicted through a still image rather than actual animation.
Completely ignoring the graphics worthy of a game that arrived in 2023 two console generations late, one must wonder how it was released in this messy state. To not even size up the image and stylize it to look like a flashback is a regrettable decision that is rightly being criticized.
“This looks like the CGI from a Law & Order-type show when an episode is tangentially about video games,” remarked Reddit user RatEnthusiastC in response to a thread opened on r/gaming by mihirmusprime. Over on X, @sjfostersound commented on an extended version of the clip posted by @JakeSucky. “Peter Jackon’s King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie (2005) might even look a little better than this,” they said.
Now I’ve gone and done the Google search for you all. As a PlayStation 2/Xbox game, I’m afraid to say that, graphically speaking, Peter Jackon’s King Kong does look dated even in comparison to Rise of Kong. What I will commend King Kong on is that it looks fun to play and mechanically sound. Take a look through the comments of @HDPLAYGROUND1911’s full-game walkthrough and all you will find are fans with nothing but good things to say.
Meanwhile, those who’ve played Skull Island: Rise of Kong for themselves are united in their hatred. Combat is glitch-ridden and boring. The story isn’t even worth trudging through the horrid experience for. It’s ridiculous to think this game is anywhere near the $40 mark.
Unlike the film industry, gaming doesn’t have a Golden Raspberry Award show. This is mostly because our big-budget productions that don’t get it right on release generally pick up the pace through patches, allowing them to leave a lasting, positive memory once support comes to an end. Perhaps we should change that this year.
Hats off to IguanaBee—they’ve locked Daedalic Entertainment into a dreadful duel of disaster. As a side note, both the King Kong and Lord of the Rings franchises have coincidentally had films directed by Peter Jackson. Let’s maybe steer clear of a Mortal Engines video-game adaptation from this point forward.
