8 Awful Videogame Renditions of Popular Songs

From lame retro renditions to crappy current covers, these songs will assault your ears.

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While we may currently be living in a gaming world where we get master tracks from the Who in Rock Band and movie-quality intro sequences to Star Wars games, we haven't always been so lucky. Whether it's 8- or 16-bit butchering of classic theme songs or current day covers from cheap music game developers, there are quite a few songs that have done terrible disservices to professional musicians. Here's the 8 worst ones we could find.

8- Jeopardy NES Theme

The actual Jeopardy theme may sound simple, but it's a very playful, nuanced song that is easy to listen to. This version rips all that out, hitting you across the face with blaring notes. Instead of slowing down at the end of the second part to ease into the end of the song, this one steamrolls over you. Thankfully, NES-era trivia games started repeating questions after about three gameplay sessions, so most gamers got to avoid extended listening sessions with this game.

7- Heart Shaped Box in Guitar Hero II

Ever wonder what it would sound like if Nickelback covered Nirvana? Yeah, neither did we. Unfortunately, Activision saw fit to find out when they produced this terrible, terrible cover of "Heart Shaped Box" for Guitar Hero II. If you're wondering why today's Guitar Hero and Rock Band games will go to great lengths to get masters from the original artists, it's to avoid aural abominations like this.

6- Addams Family NES Theme

Ok, we know the NES' sound chip probably wasn't capable of recreating the sounds of a hand clapping, but is that really the best Ocean could do? Isn't that the punching noise from Double Dragon? It doesn't get any better when the warbling notes kick in when the song hits the vocal part. If there was a musical instrument that sounded like vomiting, the developers of The Addams Family found in inside the NES.

5- Billy Jean from Michael Jackson's Moonwalker

When Michael Jackson agreed to star in a videogame, he should have paid attention to what system it would end up on. The Sega Genesis was not known for pumping out the most authentic-sounding tunes, and pretty much every track in his action game ended up sounding like crap, but Billy Jean lost every bit of its anger and angst with this synthesized tuba rendition.

4- The Ren and Stimpy Theme from Stimpy's Invention

We won't pay much heed to the terrible, off-key rendition of "It's Log," simply because it was too short to be scarring. But when you fart out the main theme to "Ren and Stimpy" in such a haphazard manner, we can't stand idly by. What used to be a funky, bass-driven tune that promises a truly unique animated experience has become a sloppy mess of slowdown and slipped notes that foreshadow another bargain-bin platformer.

3- Ghostbusters NES Theme

Did you know that Huey Lewis sued and won money from Ray Parker Jr. due to the Ghostbusters theme infringing on Lewis' "I Want a New Drug?" This NES rendition of the movies theme seems like punishment enough to us. From the opening shout of "GHOSHBUSHERS!" to the theme song itself which drops about 40 percent of the note chart of the actual song, you'll have a lot more to be afraid of than ghosts.

2- Chop Suey in Rock Revolution

Whether you love or hate System of a Down, the pounding metal chords and the melodic yet chaotic screams of Serj Tankian make the band's sound distinctly unique. When Konami decided to option the song for its failure of a music game, Rock Revolution they decided to hire a drunken frat boy to handle vocals. You know when you're singing a song you're vaguely familiar with and you awkwardly switch between mimicking the vocalist and singing in your own key? That phenomenon has finally been captured in videogame form. Thank you, Konami.

1- Bond Theme in James Bond: The Duel

Attention die-hard James Bond fans: if you'd like to lose all interest in seeing Quantum of Solace, pop this tune onto your iPod. Whereas the James Bond theme, in all of its film iterations, has served to show the suave, dangerous, and sexy sides of the worlds most famous secret agent, this version does no justice to Bond in any of his forms. Even when he was played by the caved-in face version of Timothy Dalton

Comments [27]

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DaveRudden

TravisMoses wrote:

So awful they're good?

No, more like so awful I want to fill my ear canals with battery acid.

phebo

DaveRudden wrote:

TravisMoses wrote:

So awful they're good?
No, more like so awful I want to fill my ear canals with battery acid.

lol

ChokaDaChicken

Are you kidding me , Billy Jean was bangin on Moonwalker, I just checked ut the link thanx for the memories

jugghead

The Micheal Jackson game. check out 6:45. It's pretty tight. The Adams Family game pissed me off. i hate those old NES platformers.

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