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Awful sections in great video games


RedTwoster

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5 minutes ago, RedTwoster said:

Brilliant shout, I’d forgotten how awful this section was. I’ve no idea why, but I’ve never been able to complete this zone with Tails. There comes a point each time where I feel trapped and don’t know what to do or where to go, and it’s not an issue I’ve ever had with Sonic or Knuckles play-throughs.

Not only is the route through the zone unintuitive, but if you make it to the boss of Act 2 you then have to beat it alone using just Tails' helicopter spin as your only form of attack.

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Manaan on Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic. Trudging around on the sea bed slowly, slowly, slowly, with a boring puzzle and shit pay off. They sped up the spacewalk on the second game but they really suck.

Massive agreement on the driver tutorial, that sucked balls.

The underwater level on TMNT on the NES. Hideous and detracts from a decent platformed.

Oh, and the mine cart level on taz mania for genesis/mega drive.

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Keeping things somewhat on brand, both the loading times and the battle meters in WWF SmackDown! 2: Know Your Role.

Doing season mode was an absolute chore having to watch health meters for a match you couldn’t give a shit about deplete under a furious rock riff, or stare at a JPEG of a superstar for 30 seconds just to load a cutscene of a wrestler walking down a hallway, and then another 30-second loading screen whilst it goes back to season mode.

Edited by Your Fight Site
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15 hours ago, FLips said:

Mine would be the spinners in Sonic 3. I would say Marble Garden as a whole but I think the music and level colours are really good. The mechanics for the level wind me up to no end though!

Always skating with my head across the ceiling until I hit and wall and fall off.

sonic-3-marble-garden-3.large.thumb.jpg.e2f43fc842f26a994c6affafaa02c294.jpg

 

This! I could never get my head around how they actually worked.

A mate of mine once said that he doesn't like Marble Zone on the original Sonic because "you have to go left too much", and that's always stuck in my head as a really succinct way of looking at level design. It always strikes me as odd that Sonic is a game all about speed, yet constantly puts you in this labyrinthine levels full of dead ends and low ceilings, climbing sections, and slow moving platforms you have to wait around for.

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You have to go left too much is the perfect way to describe Marble Zone and I will think of that every time I play it now!

On the subject of Sonic, the precision jumping below Flying Battery always puts me on edge. The rest of the level, even with it’s magnets and crushers and spikes feels like a breeze and then you go outside and it’s instant death pits and I lock up every time.

 

IMG_9750.webp

Edited by FLips
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I actually love that bit as an example of how such a simple game manages to make you actually feel the fear of being on the outside of a ship flying through the air. Everywhere feels relatively confined and 'safe' in comparison to that. The way you describe it as locking up is exactly that psychological turn the game does on you. The actual jumps you have to do aren't any more difficult than any you've done in the game up to that point but it just suddenly feels so high stakes. It's quite brilliant!

Edited by Chest Rockwell
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2 hours ago, Chest Rockwell said:

I actually love that bit as an example of how such a simple game manages to make you actually feel the fear of being on the outside of a ship flying through the air. Everywhere feels relatively confined and 'safe' in comparison to that. The way you describe it as locking up is exactly that psychological turn the game does on you. The actual jumps you have to do aren't any more difficult than any you've done in the game up to that point but it just suddenly feels so high stakes. It's quite brilliant!

I saw something interesting about the level design on the original Super Mario Bros that is exactly how you described in which 1-1 has it’s famous layout but later in the game they repeat the exact same layout but with pits between the blocks and suddenly you freak out even though it’s just as easy as the first stage of the game. Really is incredibly clever. 

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14 hours ago, Max Power said:

Every version of Mine Cart Bastard Madness on Donkey Kong Country for N64. The music, the CLANGS whenever you jumped or landed. Them wasp things that were invincible. 

Hated it, hated it.

It's a testament to how outstanding that game's graphics were that you bumped it up by one whole console generation. In fact, the whole trilogy looked superb and played brilliantly. 

The actual Donkey Kong 64 we got, on the other hand, wouldn't belong in this thread because it's not a great game in the first place.

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7 hours ago, Fog Dude said:

The actual Donkey Kong 64 we got, on the other hand, wouldn't belong in this thread because it's not a great game in the first place.

DK64 is the only DK game (post-DKC, that have been released in this country) I've never played. I've played the Country games, Land, Konga 1 & 2 (not the Japan only 3), Jungle Climber etc...but never 64. I'd been hoping it would come out on the Virtual Console so that I could fill that gap. Weirdly, I used to own it, but I sold it before giving it a try. It's a strange relief to read that it's not very good. 

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On 9/9/2024 at 6:52 PM, FLips said:

 

Mine would be the spinners in Sonic 3. I would say Marble Garden as a whole but I think the music and level colours are really good. The mechanics for the level wind me up to no end though!

Always skating with my head across the ceiling until I hit and wall and fall off.

sonic-3-marble-garden-3.large.thumb.jpg.e2f43fc842f26a994c6affafaa02c294.jpg

 

Funny, it's the Carnival Night Zone for me. That one bit on the spinning, bobbing platforms where you have to get it so high than you can slip under. Infuriating.

 

I'd also like to raise a glass (of sick) to the forced stealth sections with the hyrule guards in Ocarina of Time, which are just plodding and irritating. 

 

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"Great game" is pushing it, but Mafia 2 has a mission involving a wharfside warehouse that, as far as I can tell, is virtually impossible. All the walkthrough guides that are normally "it's not difficult, you just do this, so you must suck at gaming" simply wrote "yeah, it's fucked, the only way to do it is to take advantage of a glitch where you die in a very specific location and respawn with half the enemies missing."

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3 hours ago, Duke said:

Funny, it's the Carnival Night Zone for me. That one bit on the spinning, bobbing platforms where you have to get it so high than you can slip under. Infuriating.

Yes!

As an 8 year old I Had no idea what I was supposed to do for months until it ended up as a tip in one of the magazines back then.

Edited by TildeGuy~!
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