Are there any games out there that you really love that's generally accepted as bad, or the other way around? Any type of gameplay mechanic you love or hate that the general public disagrees on?

Just to start with something, I found the mini games in Knights of the Old Republic quite enjoyable.

I might add that I never got why people praised Skyrim. Every time I give that game a chance, it almost puts me to sleep. The combat is as repetive and shallow as the game world. Every single thing in that game feels like a chore.

I despise the controls in Super Mario Bros for NES, they feel slippery as all hell and every platformer after it made it better. People only praise it because they should, not because it's that good.

I hate the System Shock games.

Undertale is okay

That reminds me, Bioshock bores me to death within two hours every time I give it a chance.

Dead Space is a gimmicky and dumbed down version of Resident Evil 4.

I feel it takes more than artistic merit for a game to be released. ;p

Let's see, unpopular opinions? How about Avernum 2 > 3?

The entire Elder Scrolls series is overrated.

I don't get how anyone enjoys Ultima 7 when it looks like all the game elements are about to fall offscreen.

Realmyst ME was just fine on release, but updates have improved it.

Starbound was better in Beta.

Eschalon series isn't exactly that good.

Modded Minecraft is trying to make something out of which it is not.

Retro City Rampage had a terrible story mode/missions.

Hmm, I feel like I probably have a lot of unpopular opinions.

First off, I'll agree with OP about Skyrim: that game bores me to tears with it's quantity over quality approach. I used to think this was just a trademark of Bethesda's game design, but I recently played through Morrowind for the first time and I thoroughly enjoyed it, although it isn't without problems of it's own. Something about Skyrim though is just so aggressively generic and uninteresting that I can't even play for an hour before wanting to take a long break.

I also agree about SMB. I think the most important part of a platformer is the controls, and SMB's controls are terrible. Mario controls like he's on ice 100% of the time. More inscrutable to me is that Nintendo never changed this characteristic in later 2D Mario games, forever shutting the door on those games for me.

I played BioShock a long time ago when it came out. I thought it was fine. Not great, but not bad. Kinda forgettable, honestly. I think the story gets too much credit.

I'd like to add Cuphead to the conversation. One of the big things a lot of gamers complain about these days is the graphics-over-gameplay approach of many AAA titles, and I feel Cuphead is the just application of that philosophy to an indie game. The games visual/audio elements are absolutely stellar, but I feel the game is at best a competent Run'N'Gun and at worst safe and uninspired. Compared to something like Contra or Metal Slug it feels lackluster and tedious to me.

Can't really think of games considered bad that I think is good. Except perhaps Mortal Kombat 4. I played that to death!

I hate all Star Wars games and all BIoWare games in general, same with all the most popular IP's even the ones with most praise from all publishers over the world.

I'm very into niche games and genres usually, old and indies.

I enjoyed Sonic R a lot and completed the game 100% before playing something else. That was on the Sonic Gems Collection for the PS2, so it wasn't any hype at release involved.

Pazaak is probably as close as I ever came to being addicted to a game :P

As for other stuff, I spoke of it before on this forum, but I just don't like the beloved Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale/Torment games. I tried to play them, and I never finished any of them. They feel clunky, slow, plodding and the combat sucks.

I really liked Alpha Protocol, which if I remember correctly was pretty much universaly panned and didn't sell well at all.

I like "Last Crusade" infinitely more than "Atlantis". And I don't consider "Alpha Protocol" a roleplaying game.

Oh also, I really really like the first Assassin's Creed and the first Far Cry.

mafia 3 was pretty bad when i played it on release. i got it again on gog end-of-life. i was pretty surprised by it. it is actually kinda fun. people complain about "grinding". i did find that it was pretty grind-some but not too much compared to other games. i should point out that i also collected nearly every blue thing in saints row 4. i think there may be 2000 of them. however, if i compare it to grand theft auto v, i find that missions are pretty repetitive even though they are disguised better. just like assassins creed games make you collect a lot of junk, there's variety. maybe that's what saints row iv, mafia 3 and batman (riddler trophies) are doing wrong. they aren't disguising the grind as well as assassin's creed, grand theft auto or witcher 3.

I didn't like Fallout 2, found some of its "humour" (e.g. that mutant who uses you as a sex toy if you lose at arm-wrestling) simply disgusting.
Knights of the old republic games are overrated, with deeply mediocre gameplay (though the 2nd at least had a somewhat interesting story, too bad it was unfinished).

I loved it too, until I couldn't beat that Moscow boss for the fuck of it (and yes I had spiked his blow...). Probably was too stupid to do it. Maybe I'll try again some day.