GAH! Games that Made Us RAGE QUIT!

[Metal Jesus]

Some games are programmed by the Devil and are so tough, so evil...so rage inducing... that make us wanna break our controller!

 

 

In this video, I mention how annoying those GTA RC Plane flying missions were!? Were they necessary or were the programmers just possessed by Satan?

Also... the rubber band AI in the Need for Speed games are often rage inducing! And... since it's AtariAge, maybe special mention should be given to E.T.!?

Ooooh! The original Driver (PS1). Remember that stupid parking garage "tutorial" level!? What were they thinking?

 

What games made you wanna rage quit? Is the game still in your collection?

[BassGuitari]

I'm a pretty mellow guy and not usually given to rage-quitting, but games that have pissed me the absolute f@#$ off in the past include Mortal Kombat II and Tecmo Super Bowl. It's a statistical guarantee that there are others I'm forgetting, as well, but those two stand out.

Mortal Kombat II can get so ridiculously cheap as you get toward the top of the mountain that it just isn't even fun.

If you reach the playoffs in Tecmo with a record of 12-4-0 or better, you may as well pack it in. COM players tear ass around the field at Mach 15 and steamroll your line (both defensive and offensive, it doesn't matter), and your entire offense will quickly devolve into scrambling with the quarterback and praying that you can make it to sideline before you get blown up and fumble the ball away, since all RBs will get get swarmed behind the line of scrimmage and all passes will be either incomplete, batted down, or intercepted. Similarly, all COM RBs become Bo Jackson on cocaine, even scrub backups that might be on the field due to injury. And if you're playing as the Raiders, Bo Jackson becomes Michael Haddix after a cheeseburger bender.

It took me a while to figure out that the best way to make a deep playoff run is to win just enough games to make the playoffs (preferably clinch the division, but in strong divisions like the NFC East it can come down to the last game or two), and then tank the rest of the season.

[Metal Jesus]

Mortal Kombat II can get so ridiculously cheap as you get toward the top of the mountain that it just isn't even fun.

 

Funny thing about Mortal Kombat... I remember beating the 1st one on SNES by only doing a sweep move with my legs...over and over and over... beat the whole damn game that way! Seriously broken AI

[moycon]

I definitely walked away from games in the past, usually if I got to an area of a game that you HAVE to get past to move on, and after trying about a half dozen times, just said "f**k it"

There was I believe an Indiana Jones games on the original Xbox like that. It even had a cheat code that could make you invincible, BUT not in the one section where you had to maneuver a tank through the level. Needless to say after trying over and over to get past that stage I gave up. Never did pick it back up.

 

Also I remember routinely tearing Atari 2600 games out of the cart slot and throwing them against the wall. It was how I came to learn what exactly was inside an Atari cart, and was shocked that the game still worked! LOL (Can't recall which game it was, Pac-Man maybe)

[Metal Jesus]

I definitely walked away from games in the past, usually if I got to an area of a game that you HAVE to get past to move on, and after trying about a half dozen times, just said "f**k it"

 

 

I feel like a lot of these types of issues come down to the developers just not Play Testing their games before release. Often they are only people who play a game, or maybe a Q&A Tester...but nobody fresh to the game and it's mechanics.

 

One of my favorite moments is in the original Devil May Cry (PS2)... if you die a lot, the game throws up a screen saying that you SUCK and asks if you want to lower the difficulty to EASY MODE.

...yes please

[NoelleAmelie]

Valis 3 made me rage quit a lot because of one of the last levels. This place friggin SUCKS because of how precise the platforming is. One of the chasms you have to cross requires a nearly pixel perfect dash which I can never get just right; I think I've actually come close to breaking a controller because of it. I linked the exact part so you can see it; remember that there's also a really slight input delay that makes platforming harder.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PXy7jsQVQg?t=293

 

Other than that, I don't think many games have made me rage quit. I stay relaxed when playing most games, and if I start to get angry I just stop playing on the spot and come back later.

Edited April 24, 2017 by Noah120

[Jess Ragan]

I literally threw a copy of Need for Speed Underground 2 against the wall, cracking the disc in half. I don't have much patience for frustrating video games and that one far exceeded my threshold.

 

Super Mario Sunshine is likewise obnoxious. That one section where you have to guide a Yoshi over a series of tiny platforms hovering over the water had me fuming! Who's stupid idea was it anyway to make the Yoshis dissolve on contact with water? Are they made of Kool-Aid or something?

 

And yeah, Mortal Kombat 2 (for all the accolades it receives by fans) isn't much fun to play. Even on the FIRST STAGE, I can't seem to land an ice ball with Sub-Zero. He's my go-to guy, and that's his signature move! What the hell, man?!

[Stewart_Pidd]

BITD, there were very few games that made me rage quit. The games that got me pissed off were racers and sports games with rubberband AI.

 

With current games, I don't rage quit...I boredom quit. While lengths and content of modern games have grown, they have become less engaging. Sure, there are quite a few gems in the past few years, but there's also a glut of crap.

[+Cafeman]

I had a hard time with Ecco, Jr.

[spacecadet]

I watched this yesterday - I actually worked at Rockstar during the development of both Vice City and San Andreas, and most people in the office had a bitch of a time with those RC plane missions too. There were people *at Rockstar* who could not complete them.

 

That said, it's one of those things that's like riding a bike. Some people can just pick up the physics of it very quickly and then it's basically effortless. I was like this with those missions (and any airplane mission in any of the GTAs), and I know some of the programming and production team were as well, along with the top guys at the company. That's how it got left like that; they thought it was challenging at first but that people who really couldn't do it just weren't gamers. They thought you just needed to learn, maybe try a couple of times and then you'd easily pass, because they did. But I think a lot of people just cannot get a handle on it, regardless of whether or not they're gamers.

 

I was not a tester (I worked in marketing) but on the GTA games the entire company gets pressed into testing. I'm sure I wrote something about these missions in my test reports but nothing changed. Even though I could do it, I recognized how wonky the controls were. A lot did change, though; there were a lot of difficulty reports that got submitted on these games and some things were made easier... time limits changed, an enemy or two removed, that sort of thing. But I'm pretty sure the RC missions stayed the same as when I first played them during testing.

 

btw, I can't remember which game had this but there was a "hidden" plane in one of them (I think it was also actually Vice City) that you could fly even though it had its wings cut off. That was kind of a joke about the physics of flight in the game in general. They exaggerated the crappy controls even more with that plane, on purpose. It was incredibly difficult to even keep it in the air, but it could be done.

Edited April 24, 2017 by spacecadet

[RARusk]

btw, I can't remember which game had this but there was a "hidden" plane in one of them (I think it was also actually Vice City) that you could fly even though it had its wings cut off. That was kind of a joke about the physics of flight in the game in general. They exaggerated the crappy controls even more with that plane, on purpose. It was incredibly difficult to even keep it in the air, but it could be done.

Dodo, GTA III.

[TDIRunner]

I don't rage quit often. I can usually tell when I'm getting too angry to play, and I just stop before I start raging. But one example I can think of is Tiger Woods PGA 2006. I put a lot of hours into that game and I was pretty good at it, but no matter how well I played, Tiger Woods would always come back and beat me on the last hole. Seeing him get a hole in one, three times in a row, triggered a major rage quit. I don't believe I've played the game since.

[spacecadet]

Dodo, GTA III.

 

Ah yeah, I wondered if it was in GTA3 but I didn't work there at that time so I thought that couldn't be it. So maybe I had it backwards; the RC missions came from the Dodo.

[jhd]

For me, it is sequences/puzzles from a different style of game -- things that do not fit the genre. I like RPGs, not action games that require twitch reflexes.

 

Two examples:

 

In Final Fantasy VII, there is a sequence where one must hit a button with perfect timing to avoid getting crushed by a rolling stone. This actually caused me to buy a Game Shark so that I could skip over that part!

 

In one of the Breath of Fire games, there is an action sequence that one must get past for the game to progress. I never did mange to accomplish that, ultimately stopping me from finishing the game.

[Metal Jesus]

I actually worked at Rockstar during the development of both Vice City and San Andreas, and most people in the office had a bitch of a time with those RC plane missions too. There were people *at Rockstar* who could not complete them.

 

This is so cool to read! Like I mentioned in the video, these games are AMAZING modern classics...but just occasionally had these skull crushingly difficult missions. Very cool to hear that you worked there during that time

[spacecadet]

 

This is so cool to read! Like I mentioned in the video, these games are AMAZING modern classics...but just occasionally had these skull crushingly difficult missions. Very cool to hear that you worked there during that time

 

I love those games too, but I agree that they had some difficulty balance issues that were often down to the controls. (If I try to play VC again now, I always wonder how we ever put up with those shooting controls.) Occasionally Rockstar North would send us something to try out in NYC and we'd be like "what the hell!"

 

But we knew they were responsible for about 90% of our revenue, so we didn't question too much. And they were probably pretty justified in ignoring us marketing guys most of the time

[NE146]

Off the top of my head? ACTRAISER 2

[+wongojack]

I always think of Blasto when this topic comes up. I also raged quite a bit at the original Wing Commander.

[omegadot]

Super Monkey Ball and the second rogue leader for GCN immediately come to mind. There are other games that I'm just not good enough at, sure, but those games had levels that just drive me nutty.

Edited April 25, 2017 by omegadot

[Metal Jesus]

Super Monkey Ball

 

Yes, Super Monkey Ball on Gamecube definitely had me raging a few times. Super fun game, but it can be brutally tough too.

[phoenixdownita]

Green Beret for C64 comes to mind, brutal.

Commando port also for C64 ..... brutal.

Ghosts'n'Goblins pretty much any port is right up there (with the Arcade) .... I've seen/played/swore/raged the first part of the first level (up to the river crossing) too many fuxxing times in my life (it's tombstone and zombie all the way isn't it?)... I did manage to finish the C64 port because of "glitches" in the port (there were screen positions that you can put Arthur at that made the end level boss unable to touch you in most levels). Still like though.

[BassGuitari]

I was convinced some of the QTE stuff in Resident Evil 4 was there for no other reason than to just piss people off. The knife fight with Krauser was the worst.

[toiletunes]

Atari VCS Backgammon. I swear that game cheats.

[zombiecraig]

Edited May 1, 2017 by zombiecraig

[Metal Jesus]

I was convinced some of the QTE stuff in Resident Evil 4 was there for no other reason than to just piss people off. The knife fight with Krauser was the worst.

 

 

That reminds me of the completely unnecessary QTE in NFS: The Run. These are the sections where you get out of the car and try to avoid cops. There is one section that I swear is almost broken it is so difficult.... again, in a racing game!??! It's beyond stupid.