You might have seen this coming. If not, well... we're incredibly sorry to be the ones who have to introduce you to it. Behold the most franchise embarrassing game of all time...

Link: The Faces of Evil
(1993, CD-i)

Those squiggly eyes... that school girl pompadour... the freakish bat ears... the maniacal, shit-eating grin. If the other titles on this list are mere skeletons in the closet, then Link: The Faces of Evil has got to be the slobbering hell spawn that sucked all the flesh off those skeletons in the first place.

Yes, the art - produced by a no-name, low-budget animation studio in Russia - is absolutely atrocious. But so is the voice acting, performed by radio and television hacks you wish you could reach through the speakers and strangle. So is the plot, best summarized as "Link gets bored and throws a book at Ganon." So is the gameplay, featuring both sluggish and nonsensical controls. So is the behind-the-scenes business deal, which allowed Philips Electronics to create The Faces of Evil (plus two more Zelda games and one Mario product) without Nintendo's direct involvement.

If you need further proof that this... thing... actually exists, or that it deserves to be at the end of our countdown, watch the intro video below. Be warned, however - some images can never be unseen. Some shame can never be forgotten.

(Special thanks to Bryan Lajoie of Quebec Gamers for the video.) 

For more of our Top 7 countdowns - including WTF?! Endings, Unsexiest Girls of Gaming, Worst Celebrity Voiceovers and Nintendo Mistakes (besides the above, of course) - check out our complete collection.