I'm fairly critical, so there's not too many on my list, but the biggest one is that I liked Quest 64 (somehow) when I was younger.
I also love La Mulana 1&2, along with Deadly Premonition, though those are more "cult hits" aka critical failures that 'widely disliked'. But, I'd definitely hesitate to recommend any of them to someone unless I thought they'd be into it.
I'm going to take the laxest possible meaning of "widely disliked", but Cultist Simulator is probably in my top 10 games ever, and it has 71 on Metacritic (6.9 user score). It is probably the smartest application of anti-design in gaming.
Most I've heard about press is that the creator is, unfortunately, a sex pest. Dunno if that affected reviews, but I did like the game as well, before that news came out.
Is that the one reviewed in Ross's Game Dungeon?
Oh, different name, but this was still a fun watch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnkqdMS1LkE
That one kinda bums me out because Ross is describing an incredible game there and I want someone to make it
Cultist Simulator is so fucking cool, I love it. It's very buggy though. Kind of hurts the enjoyment when you've got a table literally covered in cards and it feels like every third time you pick one up the UI bugs out and cards become untouchable or unaligned with the grid or disappear or something.
What's your favorite aspect? I like knock and the moth one, but the heart one is also cool because Percussigants.