What are your gameplay pet peeves?

[Joe Redifer]

Everyone must have some gameplay feature that happens in some games that drives them nuts. Others may love that "feature" but you can't stand it. Here are 3 things that I can't stand as far as 2D platform games go:

Self-scrolling screens
I hate this. The screen scrolls by itself (usually starting slow and then quickening up) and you must do your best to keep up with it or you die. In many games this stage turns into "one-hit death" mode, no matter how much life or health you have left. Good examples of this can be found in Rocket Knight Adventures, Sparkster, Kid Chameleon, Mega Turrican, Decapattack starring Chuck D. Head, etc.

Bottomless pits
I find it interesting that my character can jump off the top of a building and land without so much as a bruise, but if the screen can't scroll down any more and there aren't any graphics for the floor, you die. Sonic Rush is chock-full of bottomless pits (there are more of them than enemies, really)! This seriously reduces my enjoyment of Sonic Rush to a factor of about a 3 out of 10 which otherwise may have been an 8 out of 10. Ug!

No checkpoints
I must make my way through the entire level without dying. If I die, I get sent all the way back to the beginning of the level. Sometimes this is accompanied by one hit deaths.

So what gameplay stuff can you not stand (any genre), and why not?


.

[Drixxel]

A thumbs up thread, Joe. I was planning on making one much like it once I figured out a semi-clever way of wording it.

Bomb/Fire Switcheroo Frustration (While not a gameplay flaw, it is most certainly a gaming pet peeve)
Mistaking the 'bomb' button for the 'fire' button within the first moments of stage one of any shmup. Not only do you feel like a complete idiot, but you've just gone and foolishly blown an otherwise very useful screen clearing tool in a completely harmless situation.

Speed Up/Speed Down as a Shmup Reward
Makes about as much sense as having to unlock mouse sensitivity control in an FPS. A completely contrived way of upping game difficulty for those select situations when the game requires that you be blindingly maneuverable or be guaranteed death at the hands of level design/boss attack pattern.

When platforming intertia goes too far
When done well, a touch of acceleration and deceleration is fine in terms of platformer handling. Some games, however, just take it too far, and accurate landing of jumps on small platforms just becomes an exercise in utter rage.

[Joe Redifer]

Speed Up/Speed Down as a Shmup Reward
Makes about as much sense as having to unlock mouse sensitivity control in an FPS.

LOL at this one! I agree! I like shooters that let you adjust your speed at any time, like Thunder Force III.

[Dartagnan1083]

Water: The Bane of All Existence
While not as widespread as it used to be. Water in games tends to be unusually deadly.
Doing things from just standing in place of a bottomless pit, or even damaging the Player-Character outright from exposure.

Shouldn't a Government Trained Super-Ninja Karate Commando be able to at least dog-paddle?


Essential Power-up survival
This essentially means that sections of a level are damed near impossible unless you survived with the proper power-up attained from the previous stage [which unusually does not appear within the hard stage in question].
It just adds needless frustration.


Tank Controlls
For games with cameras that don't compliment it.
The Tank-control scheme for movement is really more bothersome.

Sure, you can get used to it. but it would be so much better if characters just controlled normally.

[Mendicant]

Off the top of my head:

Random Battles
At 4:15 AM, I want to know how the plot progresses, not randomly fight monsters every third step my character takes.

Playable Boss
Occasionally, there will be the unlockable ultimate boss (God Rugal, Shin Akuma), that is nowhere nearly as powerful as their CPU counterparts and/or their ultimate/super moves that the CPU pulls out flawlessly require perfect timing & execution (Raging Storm & Deadly Rave).

Conditional Unlockables
It was nice to see a game like Mars Matrix on the Dreamcast allowing the player to "buy" things like continues, extra ships, artwork & strategies based on experience points. It was annoying as hell to see Capcom Vs. SNK, on the same system, try the same thing, but at obscenely inflated costs.

Lack of Button Configuration
Quite often, acoompanied by the Bomb/Fire switcharoo. Batman: Revenge of the Joker being one of the worst offenders.

Leveling Up
Weak character levels up only to fight powerful new enemies. WHAT'S THE #&$@ING POINT?!?

[Obviously]

First-Person Platforming
Some games can pull this off, but most are just blatant exercises in frustration.

Unclear Tasks
I'm not talking about the occasional mystery/puzzle, I mean the type that's caused by some mistranslation from Japanese (Here's looking at you Elemental Gimmick Gear) that causes you to go crawling to a walkthrough in order to get to the next part.

Storyline Triggers
Spending a half an hour trying to find that one inconspicious NPC hiding in the f-ing town so that you can get the rest of the plot because the game won't let you continue without it.

Multiple Final Bosses
Killing two of a bosses forms only to get owned by the third and having to do it all over again has caused me to break many controllers. Here's looking at you Capcom.

Repetitive Voice Acting
I'm not sure if it can be filed under gameplay but it's definately a pet peeve of mine. Catchy catch phrases yelled out during battle is cute at first, but by the end of the game you just want to reach through the screen and strangle them.

[j_factor]

"Dynamic" camera + camera-dependent movement = bad
If you're gonna make the directional movement dependent on the camera, please give me a reasonably stable camera. I hate trying to manouver an analog pad into circles and figure 8's in order to go in a straight line.

You may only jump in one arc of our choosing
I really can't stand it in 2d games when your character is only able to do one jump. You have no control over the jump's height, arc, or distance. You may only press the jump button and he'll take it from there. Usually you also can't face the other direction in mid-air either, which can leave you stupidly vulnerable to attack from behind.

We will throw enemies at you from above; you shall not attack them
If you won't give me the ability to attack upwards, don't rub my face in it. I'd rather be able to attack up, but if I can't, don't have enemies constantly raining down on me from above so as to keep reminding me of what I can't do.

I didn't come here for a lecture
I don't always need your crappy tutorial advice. Don't assume that I don't know how to do anything. If you're gonna tell me what each little item is, tell me once per damn item. I understood what a heart piece is the first time you told me.

Shut up
Don't have the characters constantly spouting voice samples during gameplay. I don't want to hear a "yipee!" every time you jump, I don't want to hear a "hiyaa!" every time you throw, I don't want to hear a "woo! ha! yes!" every time you do a trick. Basically I don't need to hear your damn voice every single time something happens. Dirk the Daring is excepted from this.

[Nazza]

Multiple Final Bosses
Killing two of a bosses forms only to get owned by the third and having to do it all over again has caused me to break many controllers. Here's looking at you Capcom.

Repetitive Voice Acting
I'm not sure if it can be filed under gameplay but it's definately a pet peeve of mine. Catchy catch phrases yelled out during battle is cute at first, but by the end of the game you just want to reach through the screen and strangle them.

I hate that, I haven't played Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks in ages because the last boss has three different forms and if you die you have to start from the beginning, and watch the whole cutscene that leads to the battle without the ability to skip it.

I find the controls in FPSs annoying. I stayed over at a friend's house earlier this year and we were all playing Red Faction, but I kept dying because the camera only worked in an up-makes-you-look-up way, instead of the opposite like I'm used to.

[Genesis Knight]

I agree with a lot of the ones listed here, and I'll add one of my own:

Horribly Expanded Licensed Games
This was especially bad back in the 16-bit era, where ever movie tie-in had to expand tiny scenes greatly and throw in all sorts of stuff that never existed in the actual film. It's just lazy to barrage the player with totally pointless platforming when there are great action scenes in the movie that would make great levels. (Those action scenes, though, are the ones that get the token digitized image in between...guess what? MORE PLATFORMING!!!)

[GeckoYamori]

Slow/Unresponsive menu systems with 5-second fades (Spider-Man: Web of Fire is a prime example here), unskippable cutscenes, or anything else that keeps me from playing the fucking game.

[Genesis Knight]

Like in Return of the King, when they wouldn't let you skip the five-minute videos (which I'd already seen a million times, being an LOTR fanatic since I was four years old and having ravenously watched the movies over and over) the first time you saw them.

[VinnyT]

Horribly unbalanced bosses: YOu try and try to get to that final guy, and before you know it, the scree ns gone white, and the next thing you know you're lying in a heap in the corner while the super-boss does the same stupid taunt. Over, and over, and over.

Anything else I can think of right now's been said already.

[Genesisdoes]

I second the multi-form bosses. I mean, if there are gonna have more than like 2 forms, you should at least be able to save your game. I was recently playing Dark Cloud 2, the final boss has 3 forms with some loooong cinemas that you can fortunately skip, but then you have to climb this huge spiral and fight all these monsters to get to the "real" final boss, who can kill you in one hit if you're not careful! I had to restart like 10 times!

[Alianger]

Tough, Tedious Enemies
I hate it when regular enemies take like 10 hits to kill and you need to go through a really slow attack pattern to avoid getting hit by them. I always end up not caring to be patient and then probably don't finish the game just because of this.

[Sega Uranus]

Tedious Cut-Scenes from Hell!

You know when you just have just seen a rediculasly long cut-scene, and now you have to do a pointless button combination to progress the story? Well you messed it up, now watch that cut-scene again 67 more times untill you get it right! Shenmue fans know what im talking about!

Anything else I have to say, has already been said.

[Psy]

Button mashing just thrown in like the torture scene in Metal Gear Solid.

Needing enough items to progress further ie Fur Figthers.

Backtracking, IE Hexen early on where you are going back and forth for that stupid seven portals bit. (as far as a god in Hexen as a lost intrest)

[Benjamin]

Conditional Unlockables
It was nice to see a game like Mars Matrix on the Dreamcast allowing the player to "buy" things like continues, extra ships, artwork & strategies based on experience points. It was annoying as hell to see Capcom Vs. SNK, on the same system, try the same thing, but at obscenely inflated costs.

Have you played Mars Matrix? :p The price of that last option (I believe alternate backgrounds) is a doozy and will take me the rest of my life to accumulate enough points to unlock it. :mad:

All mine have been said already, but I really had having to unlock stuff. Even in games like Densetsu of Stafi is starting to annoy me. I should not have to wait to open up levels of earlier stages until I'm granted some later power to finally play them to their full extent. Lots of games do this -- Ape Escape, Zelda, Metroid, etc. -- and it just irks me. It's not as bad as stupid collect X to unlock the next level fare, but it's growing old for me.

Also, a big peeve of late is pointless stupid stylus usage in Nintendo DS games which absolutely do not need it. I'm looking at you, Dawn of Sorrow. :mad:

[Mendicant]

Have you played Mars Matrix? :p The price of that last option (I believe alternate backgrounds) is a doozy and will take me the rest of my life to accumulate enough points to unlock it. :mad:
I have... and I was refering to the "useful" features, like more lives & continues. :p In CVS, you need a buttload of points just to "buy" playable characters.

[FishySaysSpoon]

I agree with most of the pet peeves mentioned. One of mine that isnt really gameplay but is a major pet peeve of mine is game sequels that focus solely on upgraded graphics and little gameplay. An example of this is Star Control 3. Another non gameplay pet peeve would be calling different objectives on the same level a new level to inflate the total number of levels in a game. Ohh wait theres more! The same game with different content on different consoles. Soul Cal 2 is an example of this. I want the game but I dont want to buy all three... yet I can not decided which character I like best.

Unlockables! The new sonic games are really bad for these. I do not want to sit through the whole game again and re-do every level over and over again just to get an A rating or whatever to get a new emblem so I can unlock one thing.

Heres one that hasnt been mentioned... extreme weaknesses that cause one hit deaths. I am mainly speaking on mega man. Even though Mega man can take tons of shots to the face, survive bombs being thrown at him, or even being shot by spikes (well needles in mega man 3) but stepping on a single spike at full life and it is instant death.

Timers in games where you cant go back to the start. I gave up finishing X-men legends because of one of the levels with a timer. I ended up saving and I do not have enough time to finish. I dont know how to fix that without restarting the whole game.

3D games that involve exploring but do not have maps (given or discovered). I tend to get lost easily in Halo and Halo 2 and end up back tracking through the same point in a level. The first level of halo took me an hour to finish, not because it was hard but because I was so lost! I like the mapping in PSO.

Cheap bosses. I am talking extremely cheap, the kind that block all your regular combo moves or have one hit kill attacks that happen frequently. A lot of the fighter games on the neogeo pocket are like that. A boss or two in Final Fantasy 10.

Product placement in games! I paid money to play a game not to have a product thrown in my face in an attempt to get me to buy it. Cool spot being the exception to this. Cant remember a game with product placement in it off the top of my head.

Bad endings after finishing the game. Yay I defeated every boss, killed the last boss but oh wait I forgot to do something at the start of the game so I have to redo the whole thing to get the good ending. Bubble bobble one of my favorate arcade games has a few bad endings. I think you need to get to level 20 with out dying or skipping levels going in the door and figuring out the puzzle and finishing the whole game with a friend. Sonic CD finishing the game without the emeralds.

Characters that die to progress the story along when normally you can revive characters. I think this happens in final fantasy or was it vay? Too many games too little time.

Game characters in a different gendre that are not the same or similar to control. Ie Sonic R. The characters handle like cars.

New RPG/MORPG/MMORPG games that do lot let you custimize your main character at all including but not limited to apperance, name and class. Phantasy Star Universe looks to fall under this catagory for at least the offline play. I do not have a problem with Retro rpg's that lack custimization except when you can not rename your main characters name. Some final fantasy games fall into this.

Games that randomly place obsticals down that at times that are placed infront of the char and thus can not be avoided. FYI I know I have bad spelling. merca chase in neopets is one of this. For those of you that dont know what I am talking about, it is a snake clone with the twist of placing bad 'food' you can not touch. Sometimes its placed infront of you without giving you time to react and thus instant death.

Alright thats enough for now :P

[FishySaysSpoon]

Okay one more, my browser is being stupid and not letting me edit my previous post but here goes.

Powers that are not granted to other characters. Sonic 2 and 3 are especially bad for this. Collect all the emeralds as tails and there is no super tails. The shields in sonic 3 do not work except for sonic.

[Elusive]

The shields in sonic 3 do not work except for sonic.

Fair's fair, that's to balance out Tails' ability to fly and Knuckles' gliding/climbing skills.

My peeve? Convergence. 'You need to buy the PSP version of this game to unlock all the levels/cars/whatever! Oh, you don't own a PSP? Too bad!'

[j_factor]

My peeve? Convergence. 'You need to buy the PSP version of this game to unlock all the levels/cars/whatever! Oh, you don't own a PSP? Too bad!'

I can see how that would be annoying, but at the same time I think it's kind of cool. I like getting a little "thank you" bonus for buying everything. Like in Animal Crossing, you can get extra items and stuff if you have a Gamecube, the game, a GBA, a GC-GBA link cable, an e-Reader, and a pack of Animal Crossing e-cards. You get rewarded for buying a bunch of things separately! Something I'll never use myself, but for some reason, I find that kind of stuff to be neat.

[Benjamin]

I can see how that would be annoying, but at the same time I think it's kind of cool. I like getting a little "thank you" bonus for buying everything. Like in Animal Crossing, you can get extra items and stuff if you have a Gamecube, the game, a GBA, a GC-GBA link cable, an e-Reader, and a pack of Animal Crossing e-cards. You get rewarded for buying a bunch of things separately! Something I'll never use myself, but for some reason, I find that kind of stuff to be neat.

Those individual, separate products should be the reward unto themselves. A person should not have to buy separate products to unlock what's already coded into the game that you purchased. This is why this unlocking concept is such a huge deal for me. I paid money for the game -- give me what I paid for instead of dangling a carrot saying if I put X amount of time doing something, I'll be able to finally play what was advertised on the packaging. Most people work for their money. Games are bought for enjoyment, not to spend even more time "working" at it. :(

As far as those outside bonuses, I fear for the day when I see:


Congratulations!
Level 1 Complete!

BONUS 000500
TIME 001000

Insert SUPER DUNGEONMON 24X to proceed to level 2!

[j_factor]

I can't really disagree with all that. But I still think it's kind of neat when companies recognize the volume of stuff they're putting out, and throw in a bonus for people who get multiple things of theirs. It's like a thank you for not just buying a game, but being a fan of theirs. Or something. If a bunch of stuff is required, then I agree that it's just stupid. But plenty of people enjoyed Animal Crossing without the e-cards, and plenty of people enjoyed King of Fighters Dream Match without getting the bonuses from linking it with the NGPC game.

[Elusive]

As far as those outside bonuses, I fear for the day when I see:


Congratulations!
Level 1 Complete!

BONUS 000500
TIME 001000

Insert SUPER DUNGEONMON 24X to proceed to level 2!

Sadly, with online content and digital distribution that's the way things are going. Companies are reaching the stage where they can sell the game engine on a DVD, and sell you everything else via the Net.

For instance, imagine buying Gran Tourismo X, only to find it comes with two tracks (most likely the 'test track' and a generic racing oval), and one midrange car. Every time you boot the game, a reminder pops up informing you 'three new courses are available for download! Do you wish to purchase the new Skyline model? Optional addons include fartcan muffler, neon underglow, licensed music tracks for the incar Sony (c) (tm)-branded entertainment system blah blah blah'

Fuck that noise, I want Virtual Reality, and I want it yesterday. :mad:

[Joe Redifer]

I must add to my list:

Bouncing back when hit:
I hate bouncing back several feet when touched by anything in a platform game. Many times this will knock me into a bottomless pit, killing me. Last Battle sucks because of this, and so does Legendary Axe (the first one). It's worse in games when you stand there stunned for a second after the bounce before you can move again. Legendary Axe uses this to add challenge to compensate for the lackluster game design (see level 4). You try jumping to that platform over there but right as you begin to land a butterfly comes in from nowhere and touches you, causing you to fall into the bottomless pit behind you. Damed powerful little butterfly, methinks.

[Mendicant]

Here's another one, horrible American box-art that may or may not be relevant to the content of the game. A high (or is it low?) point was seeing Fabio on the box of Iron Sword.

[Benjamin]

Here's another one, horrible American box-art that may or may not be relevant to the content of the game. A high (or is it low?) point was seeing Fabio on the box of Iron Sword.

That cover's okay. The Genesis is home to lots of bad artwork reworkings -- Wonder Boy in Monster World, Alex Kidd, Strider, and the Sonic games really stand out as either totally awful or just poor compared to the original.

Astal on Saturn is just hideous though. People say Phalanx has a bad cover, but I like. :)

[Sega Saturn x]

Seeing the rockstar logo on a game, when I see that I know I won't enjoy the game one iota.

[Joe Redifer]

Benjamin, I actually think the US Sonic covers are better than the Japanese ones. The Japanese covers are scattered and unorganized and looks like the artist was trippin' on a crack and meth combo with all of those zig-zag lines flying everywhere. I like Phalanx because it is original. It makes you say "WTF?" If that game was sitting next to another shooter with just a spaceship on the cover, most people would probably want to play Phalanx out of curiosity.

[Obviously]

Sonic games are definately not one of the many examples where Japanese covers are superior.

[Elusive]

Benjamin, I actually think the US Sonic covers are better than the Japanese ones. The Japanese covers are scattered and unorganized and looks like the artist was trippin' on a crack and meth combo with all of those zig-zag lines flying everywhere.

I prefer the European Sonic 1 cover - I feel it looks a lot smoother than the 'put the artist on LSD and fling clipart at the cover' of the Japanese design and the super-generic finger-waving character in front of a wierdly bendy checkerboard hill. They're all OK in their own way, I just think one looks more stylish :)

The Japanese Master System games had infinitely superior boxart than their Western counterparts. Seriously, if they'd've used the Japanese boxart for Alex Kidd in Miracle World superimposed on the grid design I think more copies would have been sold.

Speaking of Sonic covers, some part of my memory swears there was an alternative Sonic 2 cover, or perhaps an advertisement - instead of Tails looking out at you, he's making an :O face and pointing at the Robotnik head, who seems to have broken off, or shaken part of the '2' so a little debris has fallen off. Any ideas?

[Benjamin]

Benjamin, I actually think the US Sonic covers are better than the Japanese ones. The Japanese covers are scattered and unorganized and looks like the artist was trippin' on a crack and meth combo with all of those zig-zag lines flying everywhere.

Sonic games are definately not one of the many examples where Japanese covers are superior.
Zigzag lines are your friends. :) Well I disagree, but the non-Japanese Sonic covers are definitely not ugly. The Japanese artwork is so vibrant, and I like the upbeat taglines included on the Sonic Japanese games.

http://www.zonesega.com/covers-Megadrive.html

While that's still the Not For Sale Sonic, those graphpaper backgrounds are just so bland. I really don't like the ugly Robotnik on the Sonic 2 one, either. Most Genesis/MegaDrive covers are so compartmentalized, looking as though the layout was done by someone just learning PageMaker or Quark. I love when MegaDrive art wraps around the game -- it just makes the layout more exciting and unique, including a more interesting spine (see Gunstar Heroes as well).

[TidalTempest]

I have to agree with most of what has been said in this topic.

I HATE unskipable cutscenes. If the cutscene is going to play again, I don't have a problem, but at least include the option to skip it. Watching cutscenes over and over because you died or pressed the wrong button REALLY GRATES on me, and in fact can sometimes lead to ruining the cutscenen because you have to watch it way too many times. So many games these days are guilty of this - it may have been acceptable in the past, but in this day and age, how difficult is it to program in that pressing a button skips the cutscene?

[Drixxel]

Enountered one today that I'd completely forgotten about... in a way it's a sort of variant on the ol' Bomb/Fire Switcheroo.

When A Button Used To Exit A Menu Screen Is The Same Button That Activates A Special Weapon With Limited Use In-Game. Hot damn, is that annoying.

"Ah yes.. the stats are all lookin' good. Time to resume the fight! *click* What?! Homing missile?! This.. this is not what I wanted! That wall was not the intended target at all!!" ..and so on.

[David J.]

Someone should make a game with ALL of these pet peeves. :P

[Mr Smith]

I think the cut scenes are the worst as it destroys replay value. I would love to play Sonic Adventure again, however, I may end up throwing my dog out the window if forced to watch all that tosh again. It's very annoying when a cut scene ends and you are given the chance to run around (usually for about three seconds) until you find the place that activates the next long and tedious cut scene. I also hate the fact that games makes me play as Big and Amy Rose in order to get to Super Sonic.

I also loathe fanboys of hateful games.

I dislike children in any shape and form in games, except for Grand Theft Auto in which I'm annoyed there aren't children.

[Baleog]

Ones that annoy me to no end:

Crummy collision control: Oddly, Alex Kidd In The Enchanted Castle is springing immediately to mind. That stupid jump-kick thing that requires an insane amount of accuracy just drives me up a tree!
Backgrounds that scroll wildly with the slightest touch of the joypad: I can feel the waves of nausea coming over me already. This is the reason I can't play games like Cool Spot and the Ecco games. I mean, they're cool games and all, but every time you change direction the ENTIRE BACKGROUND moves, giving me motion-sickness and headaches from hell.
Games with moves that require three hands to get past a certain point: I'm thinking of specific moments in The Lost Vikings in particular. There's one that requires an insane amount of speed in between switching between characters, turning a magnet on and off or Olaf gets fried. People who've played the game will immediately know the bit I'm talking about, I'm sure. It's not the only example, either.

[16-bit]

The only things that annoys me are auckward controlls, and slowdowns (Gradius 3)

[16-bit]

The only things that annoys me are auckward controlls, and slowdowns (Gradius 3)And that beeping sound when you're low on health.
:daze: So annoying.

[Zebbe]

I hate being forced to see several company logos for seconds every time I start up a game. I also hate NPCs in RPGs blocking your way so you have to wait for eternity before they wake up from their daydreams and move.

[StarMist]

Have you played Mars Matrix? The price of that last option (I believe alternate backgrounds) is a doozy and will take me the rest of my life to accumulate enough points to unlock it.
This leads me to Inverted Cost to Worth Ratio Unlockables. Mars Matrix allows you to theoretically change the backgrounds' and your ships' colours, which should pretty much be freebies, at the cost of, oh, 50 hours' play for a competent gamer. Easily 200 hours for a poor gamer. Tenchu: Fatal Shadows too contains some costume changes, one of which is rewarded for game completion, the rest for god knows what, cz if I can't get some new clothes for killing every villain and completing all my missions I'm working for the wrong people.



I dislike children in any shape and form in games, except for Grand Theft Auto in which I'm annoyed there aren't children.
!!!
Unfortunately I must spread some rep around...


And that beeping sound when you're low on health.
:daze: So annoying.
Which game has the worst? LoZ's isn't going to cut it, for one there's Steamgear Mash.

Autosaving. This basically equates to extra loading and is frequently a hassle for other reasons.

Unnecessary Confirmations. "Exit the Option Screen?" >> "Are you sure you want to exit the Option Screen?" >>> "If you exit the Option Screen now you will no longer be in the Option Screen." Bitch, just get me back to the game!

Robotic Dialogue; Character-specific Monotones; Valley Girl Voicing. See every American game with voice acting ever made. (FFX-2 is the only exception that comes to mind).

Eternal Tutorials. J Factor pretty nearly covered this along with being dead on about some other stuff, but the thing in 6th and 7th gen games is these insulting instructions never disappear: every time you try to open a door, aim at an object (Batman's hook in Arkum), run near something to be picked up, there's some god damned glowing arrow and text.

No Soft Reset//RAM Function. First off, this is for password games that don't automatically load the password you just earned into the password template, you have to input it and it's often very long. This I consider a RAM deficit. I also hate when this programming laziness means that after a reset I have to change my controls and everything else again under Options.

Passwords. Come on manufacturers, we're talking $60 a cart, splurge on a fucking battery.

Rubbing It In. Protagonists' Death Cries (Space Harrier! Muzzle that dude) and respawn cutaways are things I do not need. I know I just died, I don't want it screamed in my ear, and I certainly don't want to simmer on it while the game loads or some little tune plays (Ghosts n Goblins).

[Guntz]

Off the top of my head (and recently occurred), just this one:

Spinning an enemy and throwing them (like in Super Mario 64)

Sure it was cool to do this the first time in SM64, over time I've just found this to be really irritating. Recently I found a parody of this in Conker's Bad Fur Day as well and it wasn't any easier to pull off. Not only is it still hard to rotate the control stick just right to build up speed, but I can never, EVER get the timing right to throw in the proper direction. An otherwise unassuming boss battle ends up taking 3 or 4 times as long to complete for me.

[TheSonicRetard]

mandatory item collection. Example: Collecting 100 coins in mario 64 for a star, collecting goddamn everything in Starfox adventures, just about every amiga platformer ever, etc.

Getting from the beginning of the stage to the end of the stage should be accomplishment enough if your level design is up to par. Forcing me to explore every single inch of an uninteresting level is just needlessly padding the length of the game. I should never arrive at the end of a level, then have to go and "grind" items to be able to move on.

Note: although I listed Mario 64 as an example, it's only an example for those specific missions. Beyond that, fantastic game.

[TheSonicRetard]

Okay one more, my browser is being stupid and not letting me edit my previous post but here goes.

Powers that are not granted to other characters. Sonic 2 and 3 are especially bad for this. Collect all the emeralds as tails and there is no super tails. The shields in sonic 3 do not work except for sonic.

Just an aside, but the shields have other functions besides bounce, double jump, and fire dash. The fire shield, for example, protects against lava and fire, the water shield grants you infinite breath under water and can reflect bullets, and the electrical shield protects against electrical attacks and attracts rings. All those powers work with all 3 characters. And, of course, they protect against 1 hit.

It's really amazing how well the shields work in Sonic 3 (and by extension, Sonic Generations). So many features packed into 3 power ups.

[TheSonicRetard]

I must add to my list:

Bouncing back when hit:
I hate bouncing back several feet when touched by anything in a platform game. Many times this will knock me into a bottomless pit, killing me. Last Battle sucks because of this, and so does Legendary Axe (the first one). It's worse in games when you stand there stunned for a second after the bounce before you can move again. Legendary Axe uses this to add challenge to compensate for the lackluster game design (see level 4). You try jumping to that platform over there but right as you begin to land a butterfly comes in from nowhere and touches you, causing you to fall into the bottomless pit behind you. Damed powerful little butterfly, methinks.

I would just like to say that, when you play a game without this feature, you realize how important it is. Go play Turrican 2, for example - a game with no temporary invincibility or bounce-back. The tiniest of enemies can completely drain a full life bar in seconds.

[sheath]

I am okay with a small hop back when hit when the level design is not bent on killing you with pits. I hate games that overemphasize bottomless pits and spike pits to create difficulty. Every action-platformer should have some of course, but the ones that use them constantly just don't appeal to me.

My worst offender though has to be try and redie gameplay and "guess what the developer wanted you to do" creating an illogical solution to a puzzle. In action games try and redie gameplay just pisses me off, because I try and try and die and then eventually get through but didn't learn or master anything. The next time I hit that same segment I will die over and over again with no rhyme or reason to it. When games make you guess the developers random flag flip it just blows me out of the experience. I hate wandering around looking at everything and talking to everybody just because some invisible barrier prevents me from moving on.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

In Super Metroid bouncing back upon being hit can be used to speed through certain rooms. So it does have its benefits.

[The Jackal]

Overpowered cheap bosses who spam the same attack; lag in online games; dodgy collision; repeated bottomless pits for no reason but cheap level design; crap camera; naff controls; "realistic" games (e.g. The Getaway series); insane time limits (e.g. Driver series); missions requiring perfect playthroughs (e.g. Driver series again); restricted ammo for no reason; no/really spaced out checkpoints; putting alot of effort to unlock something only to find it's a picture or something as equally useless; short 1 player campaign; DLC (rarely worthwhile); online players who rage-quit; online players who exploit glitches; sibling/friend who moan when they lose; online sniping/camping.

[Spaced]

In SHMUPs dodging loads of bullets just to get hit by some kamikaze pilot at the bottom of the screen.
In RPGs having to complete a quest within a quest within a quest to get that damned item you need.

[StarMist]

some more =

Menu Lag: stupid Capcom games esp have this, where I can't flip through the menus quickly enough to reset (PS) or alter something.

Analogue Lack: Many DC shmups. Also VF5 on PS3 anyone? Cz Sony cheaped out and used the later PS style raised/stiff dpads that do not roll, meaning a quarter circle's dodgy at best and a half circle's right out---and nope, can't play VF w/o those motions.

Old Time Fixed # of Save Slots on Modern Systems. This is when the game only allows one to create a single memory file that typically only has 3 or 4 save slots on it despite system (or cart) capacity for much more. DS games do this and even so do some Saturn ones (ie those that won't save to or read off the backup cart).

[cheaterdragon1]

Things that break to easy. N64 Gameshark's are the culprit here. These things can break because you looked at it for too long.

This isn't the game's fault, but when you get stuck in a game, and there's no walkthrough for the game online. I wonder if I'll ever finish Star Odyssey & Beggar Prince.

[doomguy]

In modern first person shooters i hate regenerating health

In modern games i miss the lives and continues system, although it is frustrating to lose your last continue near the end of the game ultimately it makes beating it much more rewarding and you become a better player.

In fighting games there is almost always a character with unfair moves and people online seem to still get enjoyment from using these moves over and over, i find it so boring to win that way.

[Orchid87]

I hate the controls in Alien Soldier. Why the hell couldn't Treasure make it more like Contra?

[Bastardcat]

Brutal Trial and Error and cheap AI being passed off as "challenge".
Also, difficulty level/time to completion/percentage based endings. Because missing out on the "true" ending, because you missed .01% or are a few seconds late, is bullshit!

[blobolonia]

Console-to-PC ports that don't have adequate display configuration or input options.
Games that have skippable FMV, but unskippable within-engine scenes where you stand around like a nitwit while NPCs talk about the weather.

[Bastardcat]

Console-to-PC ports have almost always been kind of dodgy.

[Kollision]

nice necro!!

some

unskippable cut scenes or too many endless cut scenes
I bought a game to play it, dammit, I don't want to go through all of this shit
that's why I hate today's gaming
I can live with that one in the 2nd stage of Gradius V, but things like Mod Nation Racers make me want to puke. A friend brought the game over one day and I couldn't believe we would have to wait more than five minutes just to start playing the goddamn thing because you can't skip the goddamn opening (I wanted to swear a lot more in this sentence, but I don't want to get a mod notification or something)

excessive menus and delays therein
Delays, long paths, confusing lay-out, awful lot of text with no practical purpose.

power-ups you need to avoid or else you're screwed
Recent ones were Recca and Darwin 4081. Speed-ups in excess are a particular case.

[Markss]

Cheap deaths in platform games nothing worse

[Mamba Tabac]

Bosses that have infinitely spawning standard enemies to get in the way while you fight them
Bosses that are easy but take an age to kill due to colossal health bars
Any sort of 'protect this!' scenario
Games that don't grant a few seconds of invunerability after getting hit
Instant death pits
Stealth sections that instantly fail you if you are seen
QTEs - honestly, just stop it now

[Mamba Tabac]

...and another thing - rubber-banding in driving games. If I'm good enough to get miles ahead of everyone else then the game shouldn't punish me for it

[sheath]

Bosses that have infinitely spawning standard enemies to get in the way while you fight them
Bosses that are easy but take an age to kill due to colossal health bars
Any sort of 'protect this!' scenario
Games that don't grant a few seconds of invunerability after getting hit
Instant death pits
Stealth sections that instantly fail you if you are seen
QTEs - honestly, just stop it now

This reminded me, the ultimate crime of gameplay for me is changing the rules of combat for cinematic effect. Case and point, Devil May Cry 1, one minute you can fight the boss indefinitely while watching your health bar, the next it kills you instantly without even a clear attack, just to be "scary".

Also, QTEs. I like them if they make mandatory cutscenes more interactive. I absolutely hate them when they are put in because the developer didn't have time to make a real boss fight or action sequence. There is a huge difference. Shenmue does it right, God of War does it wrong.

[QuickSciFi]

1. Nigh-Impossible Difficulty/One-Hit-Kills: It feels like a waste of graphical and gameplay design with great games like Contra: Hard Corps. And when the game is not so great, well, it just feels like a chore. Also in this category I would place gameplay elements from games like Earthworm Jim (i.e.-the mines in Down the Tubes part 2) and Landstalker (i.e.-The monkey statues in King Nole's Palace). Both of these two games are Grade A titles for the system, but implement at various levels a drastic increase in difficulty that sadistically snaps you awake from an otherwise perfectly-smooth manner of gameplay. These are tasks that are normally part of a bonus round in platformers and the like, but in these two games, they're required to be beaten in order to move ahead in the game (imagine if getting all the emeralds in Sonic 2 was required to beat the game. I wonder how many people would say they have beaten it, or even enjoyed it then). Another Grade A game that does this is Mickey Mania on the Sega Genesis (not the CD version). In the Lonesome Ghosts level where one rides the barrel above "poison" water, whoever took care of the Genesis version changed the placement of one of the nightstands, making it a nigh-impossible obstacle for beginners.

[arnold_the_bartender]

fDabQqRykgo

[j_factor]

1. Nigh-Impossible Difficulty/One-Hit-Kills: It feels like a waste of graphical and gameplay design with great games like Contra: Hard Corps.

I'm not sure if I would call that a true one-hit kill game. You instantly respawn in the same place when you "die". And then you have five continues, which set you back. They could've given you three health points, and five lives that set you back when you use them, with no continues (not all games have continues), and it wouldn't have changed anything.

Now, Atomic Runner, that's a one-hit kill game, and it really detracts from an otherwise good game.

[StarMist]

1. Nigh-Impossible Difficulty/One-Hit-Kills: It feels like a waste of graphical and gameplay design with great games like Contra: Hard Corps. And when the game is not so great, well, it just feels like a chore. Also in this category I would place gameplay elements from games like Earthworm Jim (i.e.-the mines in Down the Tubes part 2) and Landstalker (i.e.-The monkey statues in King Nole's Palace). Both of these two games are Grade A titles for the system, but implement at various levels a drastic increase in difficulty that sadistically snaps you awake from an otherwise perfectly-smooth manner of gameplay. These are tasks that are normally part of a bonus round in platformers and the like, but in these two games, they're required to be beaten in order to move ahead in the game (imagine if getting all the emeralds in Sonic 2 was required to beat the game. I wonder how many people would say they have beaten it, or even enjoyed it then). Another Grade A game that does this is Mickey Mania on the Sega Genesis (not the CD version). In the Lonesome Ghosts level where one rides the barrel above "poison" water, whoever took care of the Genesis version changed the placement of one of the nightstands, making it a nigh-impossible obstacle for beginners.
I agree with you on the general grievance here. (Of course I do, I flat out suck). But your examples are ill chosen. Contra is famous for its difficulty; whether one actually deems Hard Corps's or any other instalment a ballbreaker doesn't matter, it's established and shouldn't be messed with. Personally I'd like them all a bit easier so they could be played a bit faster, ie as run n guns rather than grovel n guns. I'd say they're slower than Rolling Thunder, whose low speed enhances it unlike theirs. But again that's what makes every one of them Contra.
EWJ is, well...I've been reading your updates in this thread and it seems very inconsistent with some of the titles you've listed lately, esp having trouble in Down the Tubes. (On Normal obviously--on Hard the game is a form of invasive surgery). EWJ's not a hard 1-All, as touchy as a few parts can be; even including the Lights Out section shouldn't turn the game into a gripe. I'd rate the last lv of Mickey Mania harder than anything EWJ presents, thanks to Mickey's tendency to duck and double-clutch jump. And you beat that on 2 or 3 systems in a row.
Getting the emeralds in Sonic 2 is extremely easy, even with Tails (who really makes no difference); far easier than completing it, and on that head more fun too.
You're right about that barrel part in Mickey's Ghost lv, it is somewhat broken.

[Kamahl]

I'm not sure if I would call that a true one-hit kill game. You instantly respawn in the same place when you "die". And then you have five continues, which set you back. They could've given you three health points, and five lives that set you back when you use them, with no continues (not all games have continues), and it wouldn't have changed anything.
With the healthbar you don't lose your current weapon :).

[The Jackal]

Stupid difficulty spikes; autofire in shumups not firing fast enough; annoying minigames which must be completed in order to progress; no mouse+keyboard support in console games (Skyrim I'm looking at you); games based on movies; bullet-time effects (it got old after Matrix).

[Shadowrun]

time limits really kind of bother me. not for racing games, but something like a platformer or side scrolling fighter. sometimes i look at the top of the screen, see a timer and roll my eyes at it like c'mon... why can't i just enjoy it at my own pace? then sometimes, they have time limits for no reason because you'll never run out of time completing a stage, so why have it there at all?