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Which game made you want to throw your controller against the wall


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I remember growing up playing Atari and NES, and reaching various points on a level and BAM!

 

One game that comes to mind was Ninja Gaiden when I would jump, and a dam bat would hit me in the air and I would have to start the level over again. I don't know how I didn't break my controller, but my wall had some serious marks in the drywall.

 

Of course I wouldn't do that with today's game consoles controllers. Their controllers are made like a piece of $hit. I have to say in my opinion the NES controllers were built to last!

 

What games parts really pissed you off?

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truxton for Genesis. At later level it seems the AI is designed to cheat to keep the game really hard. There's been time that I got killed when I should have avoided the attack. Cracked the corner of my Genesis controller that way.

 

I also twisted my PSX controller after failing an easy jump in Megaman for the 10,000th time. Who knew the plastic can become very brittle when you're angry.

 

It has been around 25 years since that and I have since tamed my temper. If I am getting really frustrated, I just shut off the console and go outside. A few barn cats can do wonder for calming down.

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I used to get so mad at Zelda when going into the level five labyrinth trying to get the whistle and dying every time I had to deal with those insane Darknuts. That was when I didn't have Nintendo Power and didn't know where the heart containers were hidden to get the next sword. I used an NES Advantage controller and after my frustrations, I broke the thing.

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There's been quite a few for me over the years, but the main ones that come to mind are:

Ninja Gaiden (NES)
Rad Racer (NES)
Super Mario Bros. (NES)
Zanac (NES)
Chakan: The Forever Man (Genesis)
Golden Axe (Genesis)
The Revenge of Shinobi (Genesis)
Truxton (Genesis)
R-Type DX (Game Boy Color)
Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 (Game Boy Advance)
Every Mega Man game I've ever played

I'm normally a very relaxed and easy going gamer, but every now and then I do encounter a game with just the right combination of elements that makes me want to Hulk smash the controller or lob the console out the window. For me those elements are:

1. The game presents you with a challenge that seems like it should be easy to complete with a little practice.
2. The challenge appears easy but you do not realize that it's actually ridiculously difficult and sometimes downright unfair.
3. You proceed to attempt the seemingly easy challenge over and over, failing every time.
4. Gamer rage ensues.

Of all the games I mentioned above, all but three of them were re-sold in a fit of gamer rage after I reached my maximum frustration threshold and regretted ever paying money for them. The ones I kept were Super Mario Bros., R-Type DX, and Golden Axe. I later went on to beat Super Mario Bros. and R-Type DX several times over, but I have never managed to beat Golden Axe even once.

My continued attempts and failures at Golden Axe were made even more frustrating by the knowledge that many people consider it a fairly easy game, and ultimately this led to the one and only time that I have ever broken a controller in a fit of rage. One night, on my umpteenth attempt to beat Golden Axe and after running out of continues on Stage 7 yet again, I slammed down my three button Genesis controller over my knee and literally snapped the controller in half. Up until that point I thought that Genesis controllers were so indestructible that the only things that would be left on Earth 100 years after a global thermonuclear war would be cockroaches, Twinkies, and Sega Genesis controllers; but Golden Axe proved me wrong.

Edited by Jin
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Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels and Super Empire Strikes Back when I was younger. Mainly the lost levels for its BS level design, but S. ESB had me put a crack in my SNES (That day I was in a pretty bad mood) that I fixed by replacing the top shell years later. Actually, both games were pretty much responsible.

 

First time I played Ocarina of Time's Shadow Temple had me pretty aggravated with the amount of Stalfos. Most people I knew were frustrated with Water Temple, but Shadow Temple was just outright infuriating, especially on the boat sequence.

 

Rayman on the PS1 was just an absolute mess. The level design was done by a mad scientist and there weren't ANY playtesters. THANK god they made it easier on the GBA version! As a kid I wasn't always getting frustrated with platforming games since I was just new to them and they were on the tough side for a few years, but still today if I run into a game with horrible level design it's not going to be a fun day.

 

I broke a monitor over Dota 2 and its awful community, frustrating gameplay, the works. That had to be the worst game I have EVER played. By this point I'm this close to just playing Superman on the 64 for the rest of my life if I ever see another game like that.

 

And of course there's the Pokemon games which can be frustrating if you play them too long.

Edited by copper20
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I don't remember so much frustation as a kid, not up to the point of throwing the controller out of the room.

But most MODERN games does that to me nowaday.

Older games require you to have reflexes, to learn a specific pattern, etc. (even if some retro games are assholic).

But I found out that many modern games add up challenges that carry NOTHING to the game and are just usually made up to copy other games and/or add more challenge to an otherwise poorly made game.

The ones I can't stand are Silent Hill Origins and the following Homecoming, and on a lesser extent Mario 64 and GTAV.

Origins is first plagued by the most assholic move scheme ever made : the "2D" ones. For those unfamiliar with the concept, 3D games offer you 2 ways of moving; the 2D controls and 3D controls AKA "tank controls".

2D moving is the simplest one : push up and our character move away from you, push right and he goes right, etc.. It's the kind of scheme you find in Mario games, Zelda games, GTA 3D games.

It works fine because those games have (except for Asshole 64) a FREE camera that is always by default on your back.

Then for the 3D/tank controls, people playing Combat, or controlling RC cars and other stuff IRL are familiar with the concept. When you push up, your character move to HIS front direction, regardless of the camera position.

This mean that if ou character is facing the camera, pushing up will not make him turn back and walk awa, but walk TO the camera.

This control scheme is mostl seen in games with fixed cameras and/or games with an active camera (think of the Silent Hill and old Resident Evil series).

 

And his is where lies my rage against Mario 64 and the very reason why I can't stand it being "best game ever" when it's so deeply flawed.

Because Mario 64 commit the evil crime of using a 2D control scheme in an environement with ACTIVE CAMERAS FOR F****** SAKE WHYWHYWHWHWfhzlfhozglgkhgjlqhim ,

This make some parts of Mario 64 just impossible : they require you to run straight... BUT THE CAMERA TURNS WTF NINTENDO??? And I tried but there is no way to "stick" a camera into position. Results in uneccessary frustration. I could as as detail the fact that the games doesn't save your lives?? I mean that's the very point of saves yah? You ramp up in lives in the easy levels to have a good supply on hard levels? But NO? And nintendo didn't bothered to fix those quirks in the DS port. Adding 4 chars? sure. fixing the lifes issue and adding a different moving scheme? Fuck no.

 

I got the same problem with Silent Hill Origins. 2D move in a fixed cam environment. Conglaturations. Plus, absurd, ramped up difficulty.

A simple example to set it straight :

In silent Hill Origins, the first monster you meet in the game will kill you in two or three attacks, in easy mode. In Silent hill and Silent Hill 2, the first monster you meet in the game will need about 4 to 6 hits to kill you in HARD mode. I mean that's some ramped up difficulty right?

The game is also far form the Silent Hill standard; it more compare with a Resident Evil in term of difficulty, enigmas, etc. Pesistant lack of ammo, health packs. Straightforward, linear paths that carry no sense of exploration. Stuck in a part of the game? It's almost always that you explored the whole part and need to hop in a mirror to change worlds (which is, BTW, an excellent game mechanic, pretty much wasted by a lack of depth of the game).

To sum it up Silent Hill Origins take all the "negative" points of a Silent Hill, and all the negative sides of a Resident Evil, without any of the positive points.

 

Oh and did I mentionned that the "Origins" featured in the title are almost never put in place? Don't expect to learn anything about the past of Silent Hill. There is almost nothing to learn.

 

Silent Hill Homecoming bring up almost all of the same issues, aside from the camera scheme move that is more fitting. This time, for 100% chances of killing the player, the developers added QTE.

CHANGING QTE.

Everytime a mosnter jumps on you, you have half a second to catch the QTE and make it. You fail? you lose. You take too much time? You fail. You can fail about two times, but evertime the mosnters jumps off you, there is no recovery time. Simply put, you THINK you can ran, but no, the monster jumps back on you and a NEW QTE appears, and you're pretty much doomed at this point.

And of course, the story isn't related in any way to Silent Hill. It doesn't even HAPPEN in Silent Hill!

 

I have the same complain for GTAV : ramped up difficulty.

In GTA3, getting 6 stars was amusing. In GTAV, getting 2 stars is annoying. 3 is hampering the gameplay experience. More is barely sustainable.

 

I can't stand that especially on the HD version, firing one bullet in the middle of nowhere will get you one star and a Ranger to arrest you. FFS, who called him? A mole?

And getting ride of them can be a hassle.

I mean, I guess most of you know the first GTA V mission. I'm not kidding you, on my first tr on the PC version, It took me nearly 30 MINUTES to get ride of my 1star!!

I hide in dark alleys, changed cars, etc.. .no way. There was still the ONE cop that got out of his car and looked at the corner of the alley. 30 minutes. I was about to ragequit because I tough the game was already bugged.

There is also the variable damage bullets. Why is that on foot, you can sustand something like 6/8 bullets on the head, but in car, 2 can be lethal? Really? Make up your mind Rockstar!

Also, the lack of hospitals. I mean I know this is the USA and there no no healthcare system (JK guys! :D) but it's like, once you die, you have 2 spots to spawn. And it's obviously a spot where you can wait up to 5 minutes before a car pass by.

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I don't remember so much frustation as a kid, not up to the point of throwing the controller out of the room.

But most MODERN games does that to me nowaday.

Older games require you to have reflexes, to learn a specific pattern, etc. (even if some retro games are assholic).

But I found out that many modern games add up challenges that carry NOTHING to the game and are just usually made up to copy other games and/or add more challenge to an otherwise poorly made game.

The ones I can't stand are Silent Hill Origins and the following Homecoming, and on a lesser extent Mario 64 and GTAV.

Origins is first plagued by the most assholic move scheme ever made : the "2D" ones. For those unfamiliar with the concept, 3D games offer you 2 ways of moving; the 2D controls and 3D controls AKA "tank controls".

2D moving is the simplest one : push up and our character move away from you, push right and he goes right, etc.. It's the kind of scheme you find in Mario games, Zelda games, GTA 3D games.

It works fine because those games have (except for Asshole 64) a FREE camera that is always by default on your back.

Then for the 3D/tank controls, people playing Combat, or controlling RC cars and other stuff IRL are familiar with the concept. When you push up, your character move to HIS front direction, regardless of the camera position.

This mean that if ou character is facing the camera, pushing up will not make him turn back and walk awa, but walk TO the camera.

This control scheme is mostl seen in games with fixed cameras and/or games with an active camera (think of the Silent Hill and old Resident Evil series).

 

And his is where lies my rage against Mario 64 and the very reason why I can't stand it being "best game ever" when it's so deeply flawed.

Because Mario 64 commit the evil crime of using a 2D control scheme in an environement with ACTIVE CAMERAS FOR F****** SAKE WHYWHYWHWHWfhzlfhozglgkhgjlqhim ,

This make some parts of Mario 64 just impossible : they require you to run straight... BUT THE CAMERA TURNS WTF NINTENDO??? And I tried but there is no way to "stick" a camera into position. Results in uneccessary frustration. I could as as detail the fact that the games doesn't save your lives?? I mean that's the very point of saves yah? You ramp up in lives in the easy levels to have a good supply on hard levels? But NO? And nintendo didn't bothered to fix those quirks in the DS port. Adding 4 chars? sure. fixing the lifes issue and adding a different moving scheme? Fuck no.

 

I got the same problem with Silent Hill Origins. 2D move in a fixed cam environment. Conglaturations. Plus, absurd, ramped up difficulty.

A simple example to set it straight :

In silent Hill Origins, the first monster you meet in the game will kill you in two or three attacks, in easy mode. In Silent hill and Silent Hill 2, the first monster you meet in the game will need about 4 to 6 hits to kill you in HARD mode. I mean that's some ramped up difficulty right?

The game is also far form the Silent Hill standard; it more compare with a Resident Evil in term of difficulty, enigmas, etc. Pesistant lack of ammo, health packs. Straightforward, linear paths that carry no sense of exploration. Stuck in a part of the game? It's almost always that you explored the whole part and need to hop in a mirror to change worlds (which is, BTW, an excellent game mechanic, pretty much wasted by a lack of depth of the game).

To sum it up Silent Hill Origins take all the "negative" points of a Silent Hill, and all the negative sides of a Resident Evil, without any of the positive points.

 

Oh and did I mentionned that the "Origins" featured in the title are almost never put in place? Don't expect to learn anything about the past of Silent Hill. There is almost nothing to learn.

 

Silent Hill Homecoming bring up almost all of the same issues, aside from the camera scheme move that is more fitting. This time, for 100% chances of killing the player, the developers added QTE.

CHANGING QTE.

Everytime a mosnter jumps on you, you have half a second to catch the QTE and make it. You fail? you lose. You take too much time? You fail. You can fail about two times, but evertime the mosnters jumps off you, there is no recovery time. Simply put, you THINK you can ran, but no, the monster jumps back on you and a NEW QTE appears, and you're pretty much doomed at this point.

And of course, the story isn't related in any way to Silent Hill. It doesn't even HAPPEN in Silent Hill!

 

I have the same complain for GTAV : ramped up difficulty.

In GTA3, getting 6 stars was amusing. In GTAV, getting 2 stars is annoying. 3 is hampering the gameplay experience. More is barely sustainable.

 

I can't stand that especially on the HD version, firing one bullet in the middle of nowhere will get you one star and a Ranger to arrest you. FFS, who called him? A mole?

And getting ride of them can be a hassle.

I mean, I guess most of you know the first GTA V mission. I'm not kidding you, on my first tr on the PC version, It took me nearly 30 MINUTES to get ride of my 1star!!

I hide in dark alleys, changed cars, etc.. .no way. There was still the ONE cop that got out of his car and looked at the corner of the alley. 30 minutes. I was about to ragequit because I tough the game was already bugged.

There is also the variable damage bullets. Why is that on foot, you can sustand something like 6/8 bullets on the head, but in car, 2 can be lethal? Really? Make up your mind Rockstar!

Also, the lack of hospitals. I mean I know this is the USA and there no no healthcare system (JK guys! :D) but it's like, once you die, you have 2 spots to spawn. And it's obviously a spot where you can wait up to 5 minutes before a car pass by.

Your post was an intresting read, and I can so relate to your frustration. I feel that most of the older games where achievable, but some of the modern games are dam near impossible...

 

Back in the day the two player games where fun, but my one friend had no gaming skills whatsoever! I am not going to go in to all the times I played Golden Ax, Double Dragon, Contra etc.... and getting killed because he wouldn't watch my flank. I think I threw my controller at him a few times. LOL Sorry friend!

 

Now we get in to the online gaming........oh now my new pet peeve is playing against snot nose little 10 year old gamers that either hack the COD maps, or play fighting games, and once you get hit in the air they keep doing cheesy bullshit moves that make you keep flying in the air so you can never fight back! UGH!!!!! HULK MAD! LOL.

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Here is my frustrations from what I remembered.

 

The Legend of Zelda: Level 6 and Level 9. I f'ng hate the damn blue wizzrobes. The red ones are no problem, but the blue ones are the biggest dickheads. They teleport on you and constantly shoot spells at you relentlessly.

 

Super Mario World: The whole Special Zone was a freaking nightmare. The first and last level were not that hard especially when you had Yoshi to eat the green berries to add time. Gnarly was a joke. You had to use the balloons to hover over the area dodging Charging Chuck's throwing baseballs and punting footballs towards you.

 

Mega Man 7: Fighting Dr. Wily. For the one millionth time he has to be in his floating spaceship with cheap shot attacks and dodging orbs flying around in a bullshit unpredictable pattern.

 

Super Mario Bros. 2 (Japan) a.k.a. "The Lost Levels": The wind, the obstacles, poison mushrooms, backward warps, and the level design. THE LEVEL DESIGN!!! It all screams hell!! Play world C-3 and you will know what I mean.

 

Ghosts n Goblins: Pretty obvious, the most brutal game on the NES.

 

Battletoads: Level 7. Volkmire's Inferno: That level and game is harder than a priest in a room full of choir boys.

 

Adventure Island: Section 8-3 is a freaking nightmare!!

 

R.C. Pro-AM: The f*****g yellow car!! :mad:

 

Ok, I'm done ranting

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Your post was an intresting read, and I can so relate to your frustration. I feel that most of the older games where achievable, but some of the modern games are dam near impossible...

 

Now we get in to the online gaming........oh now my new pet peeve is playing against snot nose little 10 year old gamers that either hack the COD maps, or play fighting games, and once you get hit in the air they keep doing cheesy bullshit moves that make you keep flying in the air so you can never fight back! UGH!!!!! HULK MAD! LOL.

Thanks. It's hard sometime to know on such matter if what I write is a real experience or just some random rant from soemone who just didn't get the game right.

 

I mean most people I know and talk to doesn't see any problem with Mario 64. And Sure for most of the game it's playing fine and nicely for such an early experience in 3D games, but it's far from being too perfect to stand up as the best game of all time, IMO.

 

I don't play online, and that's something more general I guess so I didn't mentionned it, but there are so many games today that are made with online multiplayer in mind.

I mean like I know I'll never complete the achievements in the Assassin's Creed Brotherhood game because parts of them are co op made, which I don't give a shit about and that by now are probably impossible to do as no one play it anymore online.

It's a minor complain, but also some games are made to be co op as well and so are nearly impossible to play solo, or have a shortened and empty solo part.

 

I mean please, give me my solo play, or at least, allow me to play with my brother that is sitting on the couch next to me, not with some random stranger from Transnistria only!

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I haven't experienced controller-throwing rage in some time, probably since I was a kid. I remember Castlevania pissing me the hell off, and I'm sure I had my moments with the Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat games.

My brother, though, THAT kid was a rager. I've still got a Genesis controller we had when we were kids that has teeth marks in it from when he got so pissed at a game he started biting the controller. :-o There was another time he was playing NCAA Gamebreak (wait for it...) or somesuch on PlayStation and he got angry enough that, right in the middle of the game, he ripped the disc out of the console and smashed it against a wall (... :-D ). He didn't mean to break it, as he came to me with the pieces, sobbing and asking if I could fix it (uh...no...), but he threw the thing like a shuriken and it shattered on impact (It was then we learned CDs could make pretty good weapons, but that's another story). Thankfully, growing up has mellowed him out quite a bit.

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I would literally beat the sh!+ out of my NES when playing Tecmo Bowl. I'm surprised that thing still works. However, that game seems kinda easy to me now. I also would get seriously angry with Wing Commander. Oh the stakes of losing the galactic war to the Kilrathe.

 

There were others as I was prone to rage at my Nintendo. I also remember beating on the C64 keyboard a few times, but I don't have a specific memory of a game. Several Bards Tale adventures ended with disappointing results - I know that much.

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Recently, Munchman for the TI-99/4A.

BITD, Ninja Gaiden, MegaMan(insert number here) and a few others I have repressed from memory.

I wish like hell I had kept the photo of my TV screen when I finally beat Ninja Gaiden... Doubt I'll ever do that again.

Ok now I'm jealous. Thx for rubbing in my face you beat Ninja Gaiden! LOL. I envy you young Jedi!

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I haven't experienced controller-throwing rage in some time, probably since I was a kid. I remember Castlevania pissing me the hell off, and I'm sure I had my moments with the Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat games.

My brother, though, THAT kid was a rager. I've still got a Genesis controller we had when we were kids that has teeth marks in it from when he got so pissed at a game he started biting the controller. :-o There was another time he was playing NCAA Gamebreak (wait for it...) or somesuch on PlayStation and he got angry enough that, right in the middle of the game, he ripped the disc out of the console and smashed it against a wall (... :-D ). He didn't mean to break it, as he came to me with the pieces, sobbing and asking if I could fix it (uh...no...), but he threw the thing like a shuriken and it shattered on impact (It was then we learned CDs could make pretty good weapons, but that's another story). Thankfully, growing up has mellowed him out quite a bit.

LMAO about your brother. You are brining back memories of my brother doing crazy shit to his console. I do recall he was pissed he threw his control so hard because he couldn't get past a part on MegaMan and he threw his controller, but it was wrapped around his body some way, and it whipped back at his face and gave himself a bloody nose. LMAO. Oh how I miss those days...

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To this day, Mike Tyson is my biggest headache. The rest of the game I can coast through, but that last fight with Tyson is like a dead-stop on progress.

Can't believe I forgot to put Tyson in my list. He was an absolute cheap shot dick in Punch Out. I've beat him several times, but when there is times I played him I lost. All the others are easy to beat except him.

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Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels and Super Empire Strikes Back when I was younger. Mainly the lost levels for its BS level design,

[snipped]

 

Now you know why Nintendo took Doki Doki Panic and changed it to Mario themed and released it as SMB2 in USA. The original SMB2 was fucking hard.

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You know what's worse than when you're frustrated by a game with a reputation for being difficult? When you're frustrated by a freaking Disney game that is supposed to be easy and for kids.

 

I don't care what anyone says. "Castle of Illusion" for the Sega Genesis is kind of hard. The last level with the gears and bats reminds me of "Castlevania" and not in a good way. I've even had trouble with a couple of the boss fights. I've been playing this for a couple days and still haven't beaten it.

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Kid Kool for the NES is insane with those controls. I know it's been featured on the Angry Nerd but from my experience playing it, it's nothing more but a "fail many times before you memorize the level layouts." At least Psycho Fox for the SMS is a bit forgiving with the option to select power ups.

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