5 Embarrassing Video Games You Played As A Kid

The end of November will be an exciting time for gamers as the release of Sony’s Playstation 4 will be closely followed by Microsoft’s Xbox One. Amidst all the talk of next generation system upgrades to revolutionise the future of gaming, let’s take a step back and reminisce about those badly designed, strangely addictive games that our tween selves were once obsessed about.

1. Farmville

This popular farming game took Facebook by storm and even non-players were constantly reminded of its existence through those annoying updates that a random friend has planted some crop or found a lost pig.

At its prime in 2009, Farmville was the most popular game on Facebook, with 72.9 million active monthly users. Farmville’s developer is a company called Zynga, who continues to make hefty profits through in-game purchases.

To those of you who’ve ever used real money in this fake farming game (you know who you are), this must be one of the most pitiful wastes of a student loan available.

2. Sims

This life simulation game allowed players to create characters, design their houses and control their actions.

While the Sims was probably intended to be played ‘honestly’- making your Sim go to work, building relationships and tending to their basic human needs, players found weirder forms of enjoyment through this game.

Cheat codes were available for instant cash instead of honest work and it was much more exciting and scandalous to make your Sims WooHoo (that’s shagging in Simlish), kill them off or get them knocked up by an alien. You twisted individual, you.

Despite the amount of weird activities that really shouldn’t be allowed in a kids’ game like this, the Sims franchise is still going strong to this day, with Sims 4 set to be released next year.

3. Minecraft

Perhaps a little after our time, Minecraft was developed in 2009 but became popular in 2011.

Recognised for its highly pixelated appearance, Minecraft is a PC game that is also available for consoles, where players explore the land, collecting and mining useful materials. Although this game had humble origins, the creation of Swedish game designer Markus Persson, today it is internationally known and vastly popular.

As of October 2013, 33 million copies of Minecraft have been sold – who could resist that adorably low-res piglet?!

4. Stardoll

This particular embarrassment is popular with young girls…

Young girls who then grow up and cringe at the thought that they once enjoyed playing this game. The Stardoll website offers an online database of celebrities that the player can dress and accessorise.

Targeting girls aged 7 and up, Stardoll is undeniably popular with over 200 million worldwide users. For some reason though, they only seem to have the pre-crazy era Miley Cyrus and not a foam finger in sight…

5. World of Warcraft

Stereotypically known as the ‘game of the nerds’, World of Warcraft is a MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) in which players go on quests and explore the land with their best (virtual) buddies.

In its heyday of 2005-6, Warcraft was the best-selling PC game with over 10 million subscribers at its peak – more than the population of Sweden.

In fact, WoW still holds the Guinness World Record for the most-played MMORPG. But if you think we’d ended the list with the least cool of all games for your former self to regret, just bear in mind that Mila Kunis plays this game. Seriously.