Frustrating Moments in Gaming


kagato

kagato

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(subtitle changed by request)


With people now replaying old classics on the Pandora, we're bound to start encountering all the worst design elements from video game history.


Here's a thread where you can vent your frustrations.


May future games learn from the mistakes of the past!


I'll start off with one I'm suffering through now. It's going in a spoiler tag because it will be long, rambling, and filled with swearing.


Abandon hope, all ye who enter!


Super Mario 64: Big Boo's Balcony

Super Mario 64 has its fair share of frustrating design issues. The game practically invented the concept of "camera death", and some parts are crazy hard.


But this thread isn't about hard, it's about pain.


And one level seems to have concentrated all of the evils into one smouldering core of hatred: Star 5 of Big Boo's Haunt, Big Boo's Balcony.


Whoever designed this particular level should be strung up and flayed. Flayed, I say.

  • The whole Haunt world sets the bar early by fixing the camera, so you can't look around without zooming in on Mario (at which point you can't move).
    So the first challenge is even finding the balcony, because the platform to get to it is barely even visible if you don't stop and look around in the right room.
  • To get up to the platform, you have to do a wall jump, which can be a bit tricky in itself; but to get enough height, you have to do it from a ledge in the corner.
    This ledge seems to have been shaped with the express purpose of making this wall jump as impractical as possible.
    In confined spaces, Mario steers like an SUV, so you'll as soon fall off the ledge, sail past the wall, or smash your face into it, as you will actually do the jump.
  • You get a brief respite in the next room, which just has the occasional ghost. There's a blue coin button -- but you'll probably want to save that for later.
  • Out the door is the eponymous balcony, where you have to circle Big Boo and hit him from behind.
    The balcony is quite small, however, so it's pretty easy to be knocked off, accidentally charge past, or just plain run off the edge because it's so dark.
    And in the middle of the back wall is the entrance door, and if you get too close you go through it, resetting the boss so you have to start over again.
  • So having fallen off a few times and run back and forth through the door a few more, you finally beat Big Boo.
    And the star appears on the roof of the fucking house.
    Yes, the roof is angled at that joyous angle Mario can almost but not quite run up, after which he irrecoverably slides down and off the edge.
  • If you haven't done it before, you'll probably have a few goes looking for the right angle of attack, none of which will work, but you can't tell because of the fixed fucking camera.
    So you slide off the roof, taking a bit more damage if you're not quick enough (or too quick) with the stomp action.
    Then you have to go back upstairs, do the wall jump (several times because it's so inconvenient to pull off), back on the balcony, and try again.
    (Now's probably a good time to pull out those blue coins.)
  • It turns out you have to do a long jump to a distant part of the roof, which involves running, pressing Z then jump, and hoping you don't get one of the several other actions overloaded on those buttons.
    Then you scramble up to the top of the window peak, and apparently, do it again to get to the roof peak.
    Then you have to inch your way across the whole length of the roof, without falling off, to get to the star (now holding Z for crouch).
    I say "apparently", because I'M STILL TRYING.
    I've done so many wall jumps and fallen off the roof so many times I'm ready to choke the life out of the little Italian bastard.


In the end, the most annoying thing about this level design is the inversion of the challenge/reward setup from all the other levels.


Beating the level/boss/whatever is the hard part, and you get a star as a reward at the end.


But in this level, the boss is relatively easy, and once you've "finished", you have to do go through a horrible goddamn jumping puzzle to collect your "reward".


If you fail to beat a boss, you can usually think to yourself, "oh well, I'll just try again later".


But with this level, you can beat him -- and the finish line is just up there... but really there's as much of the level still ahead of you as you've already done, only now it's harder, and every mistake means going back to the start again.


At least it isn't also an instant-death-if-you-fall level.


That much frustration could cost me a several hundred dollars as I smash my Pandora into the ground in rage.


Most of the rest of the game, I've enjoyed (to varying degrees). But this... this is bullshit.


So, uh... anyone else have some pain they need to share?
 
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(edit: you didnt have to change it, and you did, and that makes you a nice guy!)


I believe the most frustrating moment in my history of video gaming was the time in Super Mario Sunshine when either a glitched disc or my incompetence stopped me from finishing a certain level. I can't remember exactly where it was, but it involved jumping through a hole in the ceiling. I spent several hours on this issue (including trying to find another way upstairs).


I was never a traditional gamer in the complete-the-level-or-game-and-move-on sense. When gaming I will often try to do something bizarre like get every possible coin (or fruit or power-up or other meaningless trinket) in a level, or complete a level (or game) without killing anything. The games or levels which make any of these little bizarre feats impossible (especially those which do this most of the way through) are infinitely frustrating to me. There again, that's my own fault for being so obsessive-compulsive about everything.
 
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Half-Life 1: "On a Rail"


You wander through a maze of railroads, with no clear objective, while enemies chip away at your health. Eventually you launch a missile for no clear reason and keep wandering.


Xen was pretty good in comparison, although I wandered around that first big island for ages before realizing I could "use" the things in the central chamber.
 
lulzfish said:
Eventually you launch a missile for no clear reason and keep wandering.
Click to expand...
It was a satellite. It reestablished the data links or whatever that was required to create the portal to Xen.

lulzfish said:
Xen was pretty good in comparison, although I wandered around that first big island for ages before realizing I could "use" the things in the central chamber.
Click to expand...
Rule #1 of Half Life: hit everything with the crowbar :p
 
This is just a general one: 'pixel-hunting' in point and click adventure games. This can drive me insane!
 
frustrating moments in gaming: playing the waiting game with pandora
 
My latest two frustrations were in wii games, specifically "The Perfect Run" in Super Mario Galaxy 2, and the harder mine cart level in Donkey Kong Country Returns. The former makes you go through the hardest special level in the game with a maximum of one health. It was very frustrating and a lot of lives were lost, but I made it eventually. Would like to see a meat boy-ish multi-replay on that :D . The DKCR level was your typical "you press only this one button, but make one split second mistake, and you're dead" level. Lots of trial and error, but eventually you get through.


I guess in both cases the frustration comes from the fact that you don't get to make any mistakes or you're back to square one. DKCR is a tiny bit more forgiving in this, but there's always bottomless pits. Doesn't make it a bit easier that I can't help trying to collect each and every KONG letter and puzzle piece :lol: .


Kagato, I share your pain. I got that star SOMEHOW by long-jumping to the roof at a specific angle and then doing another long jump almost sideways or something like that. It's been a while, but I can remember the pain. Your method sounds like it actually requires less precision :lol: . Doesn't make it feel any less frustrating though :p
 
Sonic 2, Labyrinth zone, End boss


I played this so many times as a kid and was never able to defeat robotnic. While trying to keep up with him, I always hit one or more of the many many deadly obstacles and, well, died.


It was only years later that I finally managed to do it on an emulator - after I found out that you do not have to hit him like every other time, that you don't even have to keep up with him and that you just have to stay alive a little while, it was actually pretty easy. Never crossed my mind as a child to ascend without trying to hit him.


I never had any problems with the infamous barrel in Sonic 3's carneval zone, though.
 
The torture scene in Metal Gear Solid, if played without a turbo controller is.. well, torture.
 
I'd have to say the Break It Down mode in Dance Central. It really sucks when you do. Trouble is, they didn't make the option to slow a move down apparent enough.


Also, The Neverhood rocks, but I've been stuck pretty early in the game for the last... TEN YEARS!
 
Left4Dead, the tanks crazy 'homing missile' rock in Expert mode which WILL hit you even when you think you are well hidden behind a tree or just at a impossible angle for him to throw. Terrible collision detection, frustrating.
 
To the OP. I don't remember as it's been years but I think you can just crawl up the roof to the star from the get go. It's slow but you'll get it on your first shot
 
I remember the end boss of Star Ocean 2... I played through the whole game without needing to level, had no problems getting to the end boss, but damn, I had to level at least 10 hours just to beat him... that was 1/3rd of the time I needed to play through the whole game.


Frustrating.


Another one was Zelda: Wind Waker.


Half of the game was sailing through the ocean, searching for Triforce parts (and I at least expected a dungeon with each Triforce)... that was pretty much frustrating.
 
Basically any level with water or ice in it.


The Water Temple in Zelda OOT comes to mind.


I really hate it when you don't have full control over your character and slide on every movement. Then you get hit by an enemy and slide even more.


One of the Zelda Fangames (ROTH, available for the Pandora) pushed this to the extreme by placing you on a thin ice path where you, in case you fell off, had to go through several rooms with respawning enemies to get back there. Additionally the sliding is very random, so when you push the D-Pad to only go a tiny bit forward you sometimes slide several tiles AAARGH.


I also hate bad controls in general, that is why I like Super Meat Boy so much, the game is hard, sometimes even frustrating, but never because of bad/stiff/etc. controls, lag or glitches, but just because you, the player, suck at it ;)


foxblock out
 
Xevious, with the rotating metal things that can't be destroyed. not a difficult part, but an un-fun one.


and speaking of, any shooter that requires a separate 'bomb' button to hit ground targets.
 
LensLock Copy Protection or whatever on the ZX Spectrum version of Elite.


After waiting about 15 minutes for the game to load from tape, you had about 7 seconds to ram this plastic lens against the TV screen at the right angle in the right place to reveal 2 characters out of a jumble of lines. After 7 seconds, it would change to another 2 characters. After 3 switches, it reset the game and you had to reload. Unbelievably-f*cking*annoying - just to load the damn game (which was very, very good).


Oh, and the one time I got to the final boss of Shadow of the Beast on the Amiga (with about 2 energy left) only be instantly pummelled intro the ground with a club half the size of the screen moving too fast to avoid. I'm well impressed with the guy on Youtube who beats the game easy.
 
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