The history of gaming has seen plenty of titles declared “the greatest game ever.” There are the bedrocks of the medium, such as Super Mario Bros. and Pac-Man, generational hits like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time or The Witcher 3, or modern classics like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Baldur’s Gate 3. Debates over the top spot have been going on for decades and will continue for as long as there is a gaming industry to debate.
That’s partly what makes the continued presence of Cory in the House among those top-tier contenders all the more entertaining. Cory in the House hit shelves nearly twenty years ago, a largely forgotten TV tie-in that became an internet phenomenon when it was elevated to the top of Metacritic’s user rankings. Here’s why Cory in the House had a resurgence in the modern era and what it says about gaming culture.
Released April 22, 2008, Cory in the House is an adaptation of the Disney Channel original series of the same name. Itself a spin-off of That’s So Raven, Cory in the House follows that show’s supporting character Cory Baxter as he moves to the White House with his father when the latter gets a job as an executive chef at the White House. The game follows Cory as he explores the White House, seeking out bobbleheads that, if left unchecked, could hypnotize the President. The handheld stealth game is just one of many game tie-ins from this era of the industry’s history, where every family-oriented TV show or film had a tie-in of some kind, with Disney Channel original programming getting plenty of tie-ins. Many of them were poorly received by critics at the time, including Cory in the House. However, after an internet meme jokingly referred to the show’s absurd premise as the main story of the show, an anime, gamers online took to calling the tie-in one of the best games of all time.
Gamers began posting online about how much the game had impacted them when they played it, turning the notorious bomb into an internet meme. This translated into the reverse of review bombs on the game in the user section of websites like Metacritic, with the game quickly receiving some of the best user reviews on the site. At the time of writing, there are over 8,800 fan reviews on the site, almost all of which have pushed the game into the upper echelons of the site’s rankings. The gag found renewed attention after Clair Obscur: Expedition 33‘s critical success in 2025 saw it take the top spot, with players online doing their best to keep Cory in the House above Clair Obscur in the overall charts. This prompted original DS copies of the game to become a surprisingly valuable collector’s item.
Nearly twenty years later, Cory in the House should be largely forgotten. It was one of many tie-in games released for the Nintendo DS, the sort of title that had likely lost relevancy by the time it had even exited development. The show it was based on has become something of a pop culture relic, one of countless TV shows that faded into obscurity in the years since it was on TV. In most cases, Cory in the House would just be another example of the industry in this period. However, a simple satirical joke about Cory in the House having a strange premise transformed it into one of the preferred modern jokes of the broader gaming community.
It’s also a surprisingly effective and versatile gag. Some people can upvote the game on sites like Metacritic to poke fun at the “prestige” that gamers give titles with strong reviews, highlighting how fan interactions and goofy memes can transform the critical space. Conversely, the overly verbose claims about the strength of Cory in the House — with more than one “reviewer” claiming that the game changed their life — pokes fun at players themselves, noting just how quickly some gamers will embrace hyperbole to describe the latest game they played. It’s also a goofy portrayal of nostalgia, highlighting how players who “loved” the game as a child think that it’s therefore a greater technical achievement than almost any other game released before or since.
The fact that Cory in the House is also a very inoffensive Disney Interactive game keeps it from ever feeling like the gag is necessarily punching down, something that can unfortunately occur with the spread of memes. It speaks to a shared experience of laughing at a strange game and the culture’s response to it, proving to be a surprisingly unifying title. Cory in the House highlights how “shitposting” remains a crucial part of the larger gaming culture, with plenty of memes, gags, and videos highlighting what makes the game so “special.” In becoming a joke because of how forgettable it should be, Cory in the House somehow became unforgettable.
