Games that make you mad.

[mbd30]

Dr.Jekyl and Mr. Nude for NES. Argh.

 

Lol

 

Before anyone points out my typo, just wanted to say my phone changed hyde to nude. Its still funny though heh.

 

I just thought it was a real game that I'd never heard of.

[Spoon]

Double Dragon on the NES. I used to be very good at that game, and could get through most of it without taking any damage, but I could never figure out the pattern to those stones popping out of the walls. So after spending all my time getting to that one point at the end of the game, I'd typically die several cheap deaths. So obnoxious.

[eseles]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the NES. So many cheap shots you can't avoid. Enemies instantly hit you as soon as you start climbing down a man-hole. I still love the game though.

 

Also, the remote control car/plane/helicopter levels on GTA3/VC/SA. Pointless and frustrating.

 

-Eseles

[Dirty Harry]

sonic 2, that stage with the purple water that rises up.

[Sputnik]

Any CD-i game ever. I can't play one for ten minutes with out wanting to throw it in a volcano.

[toptenmaterial]

Right now I am stuck on Advance Wars: Days of Ruin for the DS. It's a great one but the difficulty level is insane!!

[NinjaWarrior]

Rainbow Road - Super Mario Kart SNES

[retrorussell]

Double Dragon on the NES. I used to be very good at that game, and could get through most of it without taking any damage, but I could never figure out the pattern to those stones popping out of the walls. So after spending all my time getting to that one point at the end of the game, I'd typically die several cheap deaths. So obnoxious.

NO JOKE!!! There were hints in an issue of NINTENDO POWER saying let the brick closest to you come out twice, then you can walk past all of them without getting hit. THEY LIED!!!

The difficulty of Gravitar and Venture's Goblin room used to piss me off to no end. And the controls keep me from coming back to Defender.

[fdurso224]

Hi guys,

 

Any video game that I can't beat is the best way I can put it! That or if I paid too much for it!

 

Anthony....

[4Ks]

I know Disgaea: Hour of Darkness has given me reason to fume, mainly because of how absurdly overpowered the bosses always are.

[BassGuitari]

Ah, the game that is Tecmo Super Bowl. That game never made me mad, but is a classic, and far better than the Madden games for certain.

 

Totally. It gets at me sometimes because I get too into it for my own good. Madden never was nor ever will be as great as Tecmo.

 

I actually recently created a roster hack I call "Tecmo Super Bowl: Grogan's Revenge," in which Steve Grogan's stats are all completely maxed out. (This isn't nearly as hilarious to non-Tecmogeeks.) Also, every member of the Patriots squad is a silly-named clone of Steve Grogan...each with their stats completely maxed out. The worst QB in the game with the worst team in the game have become lopsidedly and completely unfairly dominating.

 

(I also changed the names of QBs Bills, Browns, and Eagles to Jim Kelly, Bernie Kosar, and R. Cunningham. I gave their profiles faces, too.)

 

[+save2600]

Any game where its only real play mechanic or challenge has you jumping from platform to impossible platform. Some homebrews have adopted this brand of mechanic instead of coming up with more interesting challenges and gameplay.

 

Any game that has you racing against time to score the most amount of points within said limited time and that's its main goal. This does not apply to driving games, Donkey Kong or Mario type games. Primarily thinking of Dragster and Barnstorming here.

 

Almost any game that has you decrypting a ton of icons that all look the same. I hate icons. Spell the damn function out or abbreviate it already! Tons of Amiga games suffer from this unfortunately and back in the day, there weren't those thought bubble popups like there is now. lol

 

Shooters where the enemy literally takes a shit all over the screen. Bullets everywhere... ever notice how they're either slow moving and easy to avoid or move too fast and impossible to avoid?

 

Fighting games where the special moves or combos are impossible to memorize or too tough to pull off.

 

RTS games where you need to be concerned with micromanaging every single damn thing in the universe.

 

Optical media load times.

 

Any game that relies on password saves.

 

Any game whose AI has a ridiculously unfair advantage over you.

 

Any 3D game with horrible camera angles, so that includes most of 'em IMO.

 

Any 3D game that has you as this seemingly tiny character, yet everything around you is giant sized. Bad aspect ratio I guess. Doom got it right. Turok did not.

 

Those creepy looking Wii characters kind of piss me off as does ANY game today that tries to replicate the human face so well. Heaving chests and characters that are constantly moving or move unnaturally... all very unsettling. Anger? I don't know... but to say I disdain that look and have no tolerance for it would be realistic.

 

Any pinball game where you cannot adjust the speed of the machine angers me. An incredibly simple and crucial option that sooooooo many overlook. Any pinball game that has glass glare across the playfield. Idiotic effect that is. Any pinball game that does not allow you to see the majority of the playfield when scrolling. Pinball Fantasies for the Jaguar is the worst offender of this yet. Any pinball game that offers a few different camera angles, yet none of them are really right. Williams collection for the PS2 for instance.

[DickNixonArisen]

I'm sure somewhere someone has really analyzed what makes a game frustrating. Some games are hard as hell but FAIR; they ask only that the player concentrates, memorizes, uses good decision-making skills and has great reflexes. Hard work will allow you to perform well. Then there are games that throw the confusing objectives and cheap deaths at you - you move from one screen to another and you cannot avoid being hit. Games which are not fighters where you get combo'ed on. Mario Kart Wii, for example - you miss once, sure. Your fault. But you can't GET back up. Every one of the 8 people behind you hit you and your miss is compounded. If bad camera issues ensure you can't see the ledge you are trying to jump from or onto, you feel like you haven't been given every clue necessary to solve the mystery; that it's not fair. There are even EASY games that are cheap - where you are given unfair situations to deal with, but you just walk through them and take the damage, healing on the next screen or whatever. This leads to a disengagement where the player just gives up on really performing well and slogs through. Some games are easier to run through, avoiding most enemies, because the programmers anticipated a certain play style.

 

Essentially, it's loss of control that makes a player angry (or afraid, I'm looking at you, RE tank controls). Just like in real life. As long as a player feels like they're in control, they are generally willing to accept that failure is theirs to own. As long as the game plays fair. In my book ("When games play fair" by DickNixonArisen, ISBN 383483-2843994-29), a game is probably playing decently fair if it's possible for a long-time player to reliably perform a perfect run; even if it took that player a decade to get to that point. A skilled player should be able to get farther than a novice player if they both pick the title up at the same time. No one should feel suckerpunched, although some threats should require faster reaction and more intensive thought processing than others.

 

Now that I said all that I'll undo it by saying that Samurai Shodown pisses me the fuck off even though I think it's generally fair outside of Ukiyo

[retrorussell]

Fatal Fury.. when I got to Geese Howard. What a cheap bastard!

[tz101]

Rainbow Road - Super Mario Kart SNES

 

^

Agreed. I have beat that track though, but murderously tough.

[toptenmaterial]

Rainbow Road - Super Mario Kart SNES

 

^

Agreed. I have beat that track though, but murderously tough.

For that matter, Toad's Turnpike in reverse mode (N64) is also super tough.

[RJ]

well I just got PS2 Sega Genesis Collection yesterday, I wanted to unlock the (5?) hidden arcade games to play on my arcade cab I just built. I first tried unlocking Zaxxon, you have to get a Chaos Emerald in Sonic 1. I played for 1+ hr & couldnt do it, I was silently seething inside the rest of the day. I never liked Sonic anyway, never felt like Im in total control of him, & when you get hit & lose all your rings, man is that frustrating.

 

& then to unlock something else you have to get 150K on Altered beast, that game is damn near unplayable. I actually got close but I dont think I'll ever make it. Plus Im not sure these games are even worth the trouble. Never seen/played Tac/Scan or Zektor, 2 of the locked games. Are they worth it?

 

 

Also Swing Away Golf, a PS2 launch title. The computer would keep up shot for shot & the game would come down to the final hole & if I messed up a shot it was all over, all that work for nothing. My hands would sweat & my heartrate would go up, I swore if any game would ever give me a heart attack, it's that one.

Edited April 23, 2011 by RJ

[TheGameCollector]

Add Tekken 1 for the PS1 to the list! There is no options screen for an easier mode and even though you have infinite continues, those last two bosses really force you to master the special attacks of the character you're using. Otherwise they're practically unbeatable. I nearly killed my poor hand and wrist when I beat it with Kazuya last night.

[eseles]

Rainbow Road - Super Mario Kart SNES

 

^

Agreed. I have beat that track though, but murderously tough.

For that matter, Toad's Turnpike in reverse mode (N64) is also super tough.

 

YES. God it annoys me, hardest thing on the entire MK64 cart.

[gdement]

Castlevania

Ninja Gaiden - the most deliberately aggravating game of all time. It was designed this way on purpose. I'm insulted by this game and refuse to play it.

 

To a lesser extent, I got angry at the level in Sonic CD where you have to race against the robotic hedgehog thing, while Robotnik is pacing you with his laser of death. You're moving too fast to easily see what's coming, and when you jump, you tend to land on an uphill slope which kills 100% of your momentum. So there you are, standing flat footed on a 45 degree incline in a Ford Pint... er I mean Sonic. You'll die in 3 seconds. I used to get so pissed off at that level.

But I suppose the problem really just comes down to the fact that I don't like Sonic physics or gameplay all that much. I find the high speed gimmick too hard to play, and once stopped he accelerates like he's missing low gear. The Flintstones maneuver helps a bit but I find that tedious. Normally these things aren't a big bother because I can just go slow. But the race level takes away your options, you *have* to go fast and deal with all the cheapness that ensues.

Edited April 24, 2011 by gdement

[DickNixonArisen]

Ninja Gaiden is not easy, but it's doable. You can learn it. Same with castlevania, which I feel is harder overall. Castlevania I think is more blood-pressure raising because the controls are stiffer and there are more cheap shots, like the medusa heads and bats in bad places. Not that the controls in ninja gaiden Aren't stiff, they are. Your ninja can't jump for beans. And not that Ninja Gaiden doesn't throw cheap shots, it does, in bird form. Ok, fine, they're both pretty aggravating.

[eseles]

Oh man, the level in Double Dragon II. Just after you beat the dudes on that track-wheeled-barge-vehicle-thing, where you're underground. Some torch things drip fire, and you have to jump those disappearing platforms over spikes. Platforming should NEVER be an important part of a Double Dragon game.

[Animan]

Sonic and the Secret Rings had some controller-smashing moments for me. I am very lucky my floor has carpet, and the walls aren't too close to me.

[DickNixonArisen]

I got used to those platforms in double dragon but it took a LONG time. Wicked hard. You'd do great up til there, not lose a single life, and then lose all of them. The wheel/machine room was kind of hard too.

[eseles]

I got used to those platforms in double dragon but it took a LONG time. Wicked hard. You'd do great up til there, not lose a single life, and then lose all of them. The wheel/machine room was kind of hard too.

 

Exactly. You make a mistake, that's a life gone. I still can't do it properly. Been trying to complete games from my childhood one by one that I could never beat as a child, and back then I used to get stuck in the same damn place on DD2!