Nintendo is very well known for developing some of the most brilliant, fantastic and innovative videogames of all time. From Super Mario Bros. to The Legend of Zelda and Metroid, the Japanese firm has proven time and again that when it comes to piecing together the perfect gaming formula, it is up there with the very best in the industry. However, it is with a heavy heart that we admit Nintendo hasn’t always chosen the right for the job. Sometimes, in fact, they’ve released some right old tat. It’s in this article that Nintendic shares (celebrates?) five of Nintendo’s worst ever games, from the Nintendo Entertainment System to the Nintendo Wii.

Donkey Kong Jr. Math (Nintendo Entertainment System, 1985)

Videogames have always been shrouded by a sense that all they’re good for is corrupting the minds of our innocent youth, something Nintendo was very well aware of back in 1985. That’s why it launched Donkey Kong Jr. Math, a game that turned out to be the one and only title in its Education Series for the NES. A spin-off from its Arcade classic, the title saw Donkey Kong and Junior teachers of basic mathematics - addition, subtraction, multiplication and division each included. It’s pedestrian pace and flawed gameplay makes the Nintendo DS’ Brain Training look like a masterpiece in comparison.

Super Scope 6 (Super Nintendo, 1992)

Super Scope 6 was the name of the software bundled with the Super Scope, the Super Nintendo’s official, bazooka-shaped light gun. We imagine someone at the firm had a rush of blood to the head upon the accessory’s invention, not to mention a sense that to improve over the NES’ Zapper, bigger had to be better. Being wireless, it gobbled the life from six AA batteries in hours, and other poor design decisions were also the cause of giving players numb shoulders and eye strain - all of which made playing through Super Scope 6’s tedious selection of mini-games about as much fun as an online error code when trying to play Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Hey You, Pikachu! (Nintendo 64, 1998)

After Seaman on the SEGA Dreamcast, Hey You, Pikachu was one of Nintendo’s first attempts to implement voice recognition controls into its games. Players were encouraged to spend time with the painfully cute electrified critter, taking him on adventures (finding ingredients for Bulbasaur’s soup, babysitting Caterpies or generally just fooling around), but its key ingredient was that you were supposed to be able to bond with Pikachu by teaching him several voice commands. It’s just too bad that it appeared to rarely want to listen. This coupled with a poor camera, muddy graphics and a $79 USD price tag was more than enough to put off even the most hardened fan of the franchise.

Mario Party 6 (Nintendo GameCube, 2004)

With its fifth sequel in as many years and desperately in need of something to shake up a franchise with a premise more fatigued than a runner in a rhino outfit at the Marathon of the Sands, Nintendo banked its hopes on a packed-in microphone with Mario Party 6 on the GameCube to pull in the punters. Unfortunately, the few games that supported the peripheral were spoilt because it often failed to recognise voice commands, no matter how plainly they were spoken. Shouting ‘up, up, up, run, run, run! to a seemingly deaf onscreen character isn’t much fun in anyone’s book. Thankfully, the mic-controlled mini-games could be switched off. Mario Party 6 didn’t actually score too badly with the critics on the whole, but the inclusion of a completely duff accessory is unforgivable, particularly after the disaster of the aforementioned Hey You, Pikachu!

Donkey Kong Barrel Blast (Nintendo Wii, 2007)

A number of games that first started life on the Nintendo GameCube have made the transition to the Wii (The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and Harvest Moon: Magical Melody to name but two), some noticeably more successfully than others. Donkey Kong Barrel Blast very much belongs to the less successful group. Originally intended to make use of the GameCube bongo peripherals, switching to the Wii Remote and Nunchuck as a control option proved disastrous, much due to the fact that they were dreadfully unresponsive. Throwing in cheating AI racers, tedious track design and uninspired weapons didn’t help an already broken formula.

Which Nintendo-developed videogames have you most been disappointed by? Whatever the console or genre, let us know in the comments section below.