Plumbers Don't Wear Ties is one of the worst games ever made. Here's why it's being re-released
Limited Run Games asks players to revisit the worst games ever — and better ones inspired by them
Josh Fairhurst understands that to many, working to re-release one of the worst video games of all time sounds like a fool's errand. But that criticism hasn't stopped him yet.
"I really enjoyed doing stuff that most other people would look at and say, 'That's stupid. Why would you do that?' I like to defy those odds," said Fairhurst, CEO of Limited Run Games, a publishing company based in Apex, N.C.
The odds were stacked against Limited Run's re-release of Plumbers Don't Wear Ties, a raunchy narrative game originally released in 1993 for the ill-fated Panasonic 3DO console.
With an original score of three out of 100 from PC Gamer, it's widely considered one of the worst video games ever released.
This isn't Limited Run's only recent release with ties to an old game of dubious reputation. Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore is an adventure game inspired by Link: The Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon — two Zelda games that were so poorly received, Japanese publisher Nintendo basically pretends they don't exist.
Gamers, developers and experts say that even widely hated games are worth keeping a record of for the sake of the history of the medium. Whether those games are worth putting out for sale again, however, is a more complicated question.
Documenting the indefensible
Plumbers Don't Wear Ties tells the story of two attractive slackers, John (Edward J. Foster) and Jane (Jeanne Basone), who meet by chance in a parking lot.
Players' choices throughout the game determine whether the pair live happily ever after, but not before Jane contends with a sleazy boss who offers her a job in exchange for sexual favours.
Unlike the full-motion video games from its time, Plumbers is told solely through still photographs, voice-over and music. It's been panned for its disjointed narrative, and a script rife with offensive stereotypes.
Years after fading into obscurity, it resurfaced after James Rolfe, better known online as the Angry Video Game Nerd (AVGN), posted a video of himself playing and relentlessly mocking the game in 2009. A 2011 re-upload of the video on YouTube currently has over 9.4 million views.
After learning of Plumbers through that video, Fairhurst bought the rights from the original creator, Michael Anderson. It launched in modern PC and console markets as Plumbers Don't Wear Ties: Definitive Edition in early March.
"I kind of feel like there is a value in preserving the worst aspects of any kind of media in the same way that ... film preservationists have continued to preserve movies [made by directors] like Ed Wood and some other, you know, horrible films," said Fairhurst, referring to the cult filmmaker once called the worst director of all time.
"There is a value to being able to look at those things and kind of analyze everything that went wrong with them."
Limited Run also interviewed games journalists and historians about Plumbers's significance, as well as Rolfe and Basone. The total package feels more like a documentary than simply a game.
"We really knew going into it that the game was terrible, and we needed to have something else to build the package out and contextualize it," said Fairhurst.
"We're doing it to show you, you know, this game is bad. Here's why it's bad."
Basone — an actor, stunt performer and pro wrestler — said Plumbers was filmed over the course of about a month in 1994. She didn't do other work in video games, and thought little of it — until fans started reaching out.
"I was getting emails from people talking about, 'Wow, I found you. You're Jane from Plumbers Don't Wear Ties!' And I was like, 'Where are these people finding me?'"
She was shocked to find that the AVGN video had been viewed millions of times — possibly more than the number of people who saw her perform on the original Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling in the 1990s.
A labour of love
Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore's inspiration came with a bit more reverence, according to indie game developer Seth Fulkerson.
Faces of Evil and Wand of Gamelon were the products of a failed collaboration between Nintendo and Sony — then later electronics maker Philips — to produce a CD-based game system in the '90s. While that deal fell through, Philips was still able to produce a handful of games using Nintendo's iconic characters from the Legend of Zelda franchise for its own console, the CD-i.
The games are perhaps best known for imprecise controls, and cutscenes rendered in "very fluid, very undisciplined animation," according to Fulkerson, who is based in Kentucky.
But he says he believed in the game's potential.
Arzette resembles the CD-i Zelda games, with players exploring the titular character in a 2D world, armed with a sword and magic.
Its cutscenes also hew closely to the Zelda CD-i games' loose style — aided by the voice actors for Zelda and Link, playing Arzette and a court jester, respectively. It also features new levels and maps painted by one of the original background artists.
Having some of the original team "shows that ... this is a labour-of-love project, right?" he said. "Like, you're not making a joke game at that point."
Historically significant, but are they worth playing?
Andrew Borman, director of digital preservation at the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, N.Y., says remembering the stories about bad games can be just as important as remembering those about good games.
"If you look at the advertising that surrounded video games in the 1990s in particular, there's a lot of sexism, there's a lot of racism, there's a lot of these things that were awful then, but somehow ignored. And I think there is an interesting case to be made for doing more research into why that is."
But Chris Young, head of collections and digital scholarship at the University of Toronto Mississauga, isn't sure that's enough to justify selling a game like Plumbers Don't Wear Ties in 2024.
"I think there is a big difference between preserving knowledge for the purposes of documenting it and celebrating that knowledge," he said.
"There are some games out there that reinforce stereotypes that we are trying to address as a society. And do we want to bring those back, and celebrate them in such a public way? I don't think that's the best approach."
Basone takes the mixed legacy of Plumbers in stride. She expressed gratitude that it's given her a new venue to meet fans on the gaming convention circuit, in addition to those dedicated to film and wrestling.
"I don't mind it," she said. "People are talking about it, regardless if it's bad or good. So I look at it as a positive; I'm pretty much glass-half-full all the time."
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