In Japanese video gaming, a,, is an unenjoyable or poorly made video game. Though the label is usually applied disparagingly, there is a subculture of celebrating kusoge.
The term kusogē is a portmanteau of and . Though it is commonly attributed to illustrator, and occasionally to Takahashi-Meijin of Hudson Soft, it is unclear when and by whom it was popularized – or whether a single source can be attributed in the first place. By the language used in video magazines of the time, it appears that the word was nascent in 1986 and a common expression by 1987. In 1985 and 1986, a variety of other, less codified terms were sometimes synthesized at the author's discretion, usually combining a pejorative with the word "game" or "soft" (a wasei-eigo abbreviation of "software") – examples include, and .
A variety of similarly constructed terms exist to describe other subjective attributes – for example,,, and . The same manner of portmanteau is also used for something more akin to genres, such as and .
"Kusoge" is in essence a disparaging term, and is typically used to recommend against a video game. Nonetheless, a subculture that celebrates kusoge and seeks them out has established itself. This is similar to paracinema or camp appreciation of works of art: often but not always ironic; reveling in what is incoherent, odd, absurd, flawed, or broken. This counter-cultural appreciation of kusoge can at the very least be traced back to the, a regular column in the video game magazine Used Games (later known as GAMESIDE), which started publication in 1996. In the fighting game community, kusoge typically refers to fighting games that are severely unbalanced for competitive play through design mistakes or bugs, which can lead to ridiculous strategies, and thus these games are considered funny and not just bad.
In later years, the word "kusoge" has occasionally been embraced by video game companies. Taito described Takeshi no Chōsenjō as in marketing for the game's 2017 smartphone re-release. Sunsoft similarly used the word in the marketing for the 2023 video game Ikki Unite – a sequel to noted kusoge Ikki – stating in a press release that .