Awful parts of awesome games *POTENTIAL SPOILERS*

[Top Gun]

Far too many to count, but here are a few examples that come to mind:

--Pretty much any forced-stealth portion of a non-stealth-focused game ever (i.e. excluding something like Splinter Cell). They're almost universally frustrating, and rarely fit the flow of the game to which they're attached. I haven't played Skyward Sword yet, but a few that come to mind straight from Zelda are the Gerudo fortress in OoT (and corresponding pirates' hideout in Majora's Mask), and the Forsaken Fortress in Wind Waker. They're not incredibly-hard in terms of gameplay, and there's not a real penalty for failure, but you'll wind up having to attempt them over and over and over until you finally get them right. Talk about killing your gameflow.

--The vehicle segments in Jak II. It's bad enough that Naughty Dog took what was a cheerfully fun standard platform in Jak & Daxter and tacked on a poorly-realized pseudo-edgy GTA clone to it, but the missions involving vehicles were just a whole new level of frustrating. There were no health pickups during them, so you had to keep swapping to other vehicles constantly if you wanted to stay alive. I remember one mission involving destroying a few heavily-armed flying tanks that I swear took years off my life. Fortunately they really cleaned things up in Jak 3.

--It's been complained about a thousand times, but the SRS BZNS GODSMACK LOLZ tone of Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. The platforming was still glorious, but dear lord they made the Prince a total douche.

--Random encounters in any game ever. There's a reason I've played close to no JRPGs in my time, and the few I have played have often devolved into countless facepalming. FFVI, you're a fun game and all, but just uuuuugh. Also lol Zubats.

--Something I've noticed mainly in Japanese action titles of a certain age, but really crappy fixed cameras. I've been stymied early on in my attempts to get through both the original Metal Gear Solid and Devil May Cry, mostly because of the godawful isometric camera views. The latter game was even worse, as said camera seemed to change positions at the drop of the hat, which stopped me cold at the first real boss fight. I do want to play both games through at some point, but it's going to be an ordeal.

--Escort missions. Wryyyyy do I have to guard some brain-damaged NPC with the health bar of a porcelain statue again?

--Poorly-positioned checkpoints. There hasn't been a real excuse to not have freely-available saves on consoles since the PS1 era, and yet they're still abused all over the place. Thank God for quicksaves on PC titles.

That's enough for now, but I'm sure I can come up with a few more gems. These sorts of design flaws are easily my biggest gaming pet peeve.

[EC2151]

That and the Occuria are sort of dropped into the game and the world of Ivalice which had never mentioned them at all prior to that point in Tactics or like, Tactics Advance.

I have a hard time trying to figure out where the Occurians come in with the whole St. Ajora stuff. You know, the real evil false religion of Ivalice! : D

[Jax Mandrake]

Wow, this has taken off. I'm surprised and intrigued, please continue.

I'm equally surprised that the infamy of quicktime events has yet to rear its infuriating head to this point, so I'll toss it in now even though I have no personal examples to provide. The closest I've come is in God of War and I think that series got them right. It's the overall difficulty of God of War that *bleep*s me off.

Not that anybody cares, but I finally got past the Test of Fear in SFA - and proceeded to finish the game within a few hours. I can't say for certain when, if ever, I will return to Dinosaur Planet.

[BardicKnowledge]

The ending to Clash at Demonhead for NES is awful. It takes one of the best action platformers on the system (seriously, go look it up sometime!) and mucks everything up.

After you defeat the final boss, the medals you used to unlock his room need to be inserted into a bomb in order to disarm it. The catch? You get only 3 guesses to play Mastermind against the bomb or the game ends outright. Catch #2: You can unlock the boss chamber one medal short of the number you need to disarm the bomb.

[DJ Mighty]

Breath of Fire 3, navigating through the desert...

[ad.mixx]

I'm surprised nobody mentioned the sailing in Wind Waker yet. Even though I liked it personally. But if you didn't like the sailing you probably wouldn't have liked the game.

In Metroid Prime, I don't know why, but I absolutely hate hate hated going back to the Phazon Mines to 100% things. The first time you go through that place and fight the boss is fine, but the area becomes boring fast IMO.

[Garian]

How about all those spots in Sonic CD where right after a Past sign is a Future sign? Frustrating as all get out, even though the game is terrific.

One thing that bugs me about most roguelikes I've played (particularly the venerable Nethack) is how the games are impossible without looking up spoilers and learning a lot about them before ever playing. Not to say the design of the games is bad, but there is just so much stuff and a lot things that aren't obvious in the game at first. Not really "part of the game," just a gripe in general.

Oh, the disappearing blocks in Heat Man's stage in Mega Man 2. Seriously.

And any game whose ending credits doesn't thank the players/fans, because we ARE customers and it's just a small little gesture to remind us that we're appreciated.

Also, how about every Metroid game coming up with some bullshit way of destroying Samus' power suit so she has to find a bunch of replacement parts in order to progress? Why can't I start the game out as a semi-badass and progress from there with NEW items, instead of the same 7 or 8 from before (IIRC Prime 3 did slightly better on this one)

I'd say those god awful mode seven levels in Lawnmower Man but that game was actually kinda terrible.

[Jax Mandrake]

Oh, the disappearing blocks in Heat Man's stage in Mega Man 2. Seriously.

Thanks for the reminder, Garian. For me, it's the Foot Holders in Ice Man's stage and Dr. Wily's first stage in the original Mega Man.

Also, speaking of ice stages... I think Banjo-Kazooie is as close to a perfect 3D platformer as we may ever get, but racing against Boggy in Freezeezy Peak I loathe and dread, especially the second round.

[Garpocalypse]

And any game whose ending credits doesn't thank the players/fans, because we ARE customers and it's just a small little gesture to remind us that we're appreciated.

I remember the good ol' days when developing games meant trying to block the player from making progress. Only if you CONQUERED a game (something no one says anymore with good reason) would you get the small "thanks for playing!" after the credits.

Nowadays people blast through games like books.

[Top Gun]

In Metroid Prime, I don't know why, but I absolutely hate hate hated going back to the Phazon Mines to 100% things. The first time you go through that place and fight the boss is fine, but the area becomes boring fast IMO.

Heh, I kind of feel the same way. I think it's because the area is so sprawling, and the Space Pirates that populate it have a good chunk of health, so it just takes forever to get where you need to go, and just as long to find your way back out. It's really brutal that first time when you might not have as much health; there's one long stretch between save rooms that gave me grief at one point.

This brings up a related gripe of mine: games that continuously spawn enemies at a certain point (a ton of titles are guilty of this), or a la Metroid, games that respawn enemies after you've moved on a room or two. It's especially painful in a Metroid title, since you're inevitably going to be backtracking a lot. Like, I just walked through this room two minutes ago...do I really need to fight the same crap again? *cough*Chozo Ghosts*cough*

[SonicThHedgog]

Diddy Kong Racing first Wizpig race.

Tapping the A button and steering at the same time lmao

[Modus]

I'm surprised nobody mentioned the sailing in Wind Waker yet. Even though I liked it personally. But if you didn't like the sailing you probably wouldn't have liked the game.

I'm familiar with the hate for sailing, but I also loved it. It was almost friggn therapeutic for me, just relaxing. I became hypnotized by the openness, in a good way.

[jnWake]

The race against that bird in Banjo Tooie (especially on Cloud Cuckooland...).

The rope games in Mario Party.

The song of hero thing in Skyward Sword: swimming for notes. The other 2 were fun (I love stealth missions).

As a kid I hated when they tortured the girl in the original MGS, I always failed.

[Modus]

The race against that bird in Banjo Tooie (especially on Cloud Cuckooland...).

I was gonna say this but she wasn't really hard until Cloud Cuckooland, and you didn't need that last jiggy anyway. That didn't stop me from trying 500 times.. I never did beat her in Cuckooland, even after taping a popsickle stick to my A button.

[Otakatt]

It's so heartening to see someone defending FF12 and the story. IMO FF7 has a far worse story.

I love Dragon Age but haven't finished it yet. I get all hyped for it, start a game, get to the Fade... and... ugh... I Hate this place so much... Then I never finish it. I just can't power through it.

And Gargan Roo in FF9 has always bothered me. It's an annoying place with horrible, horrible music that makes the situation even worse.

[Annie Felis]

I'm surprised nobody mentioned the sailing in Wind Waker yet. Even though I liked it personally. But if you didn't like the sailing you probably wouldn't have liked the game.

I probably would've hated it if the sailing music wasn't so damn awesome. That made it tolerable.

The Metroid Prime games respawn was obnoxious, especially in Echoes. You never had the right ammo to kill the right things, so crap respawning was doubly obnoxious. It's a shame you couldn't just run past things like you could in Super Metroid or even the original game.

[Geoffrey Taucer]

The sailing and triforce shard hunting in Wind Waker.

The remaining 5% of the game, though, was fucking awesome.

[HoboKa]

Breath of Fire 3, navigating through the desert...

OMG this ^ x100...I believe that BoF4 had a similar and even MORE annoying part like that b/c the hero was going it solo. Oh right, BoF4 killed the entire BoF franchise for me q.q so that doesn't count as an 'awesome game for me.' Meh.

Soul Blazer - gameplay sooo fun. But the ending and the Dr. Leo bits felt very forced and awkward. I know, that was made back in 1992 and story in VG's wasn't the main focus at the time, but maann, was it way cheesy (yet the music did make me a bit teary eyed lol). Oh and the hit-box was too big for the main character's sprite, which caused some WTF moments when trying to avoid projectiles and shit lol.

Worms Armageddon - the later single player (like the Ifle Tower stage) missions were so ridiculously difficult that I gave up on the campaign...still play local multiplayer from time to time ><

[wildfire]

The sailing and triforce shard hunting in Wind Waker.

^ this is why i never beat wind waker

[Dark_T_Zeratul]

First of all the "main character" is Vaan who literally has no impact on the story after the first few chapters (Same with Penelo really, and Balthier and Fran are only connected to the story superficially).

A bit late, but there's a reason for that: Basche was originally going to be the main character, until someone (probably higher-up than the designers themselves) decided that the young, pretty-boy character archetype would resonate more strongly with Japanese audiences and made them change it.

[Cash]

^ this is why i never beat wind waker

Yeah, I even tried multiple times, but kept getting bored of the damn sailing. I like sailing as much as the next guy (or girl ), but not THAT much.

[Garrett Williamson]

Yeah, I even tried multiple times, but kept getting bored of the damn sailing. I like sailing as much as the next guy (or girl ), but not THAT much.

I never actually owned Wind Waker, but a good friend of mine has it and has had it for like 9 years (that's how long it's existed, I believe, haha), and he NEVER beat the game. I believe this was the reason, because he complained about this.

One game I never beat that got me so ticked was Sonic Adventure 2. It was because I needed that specific item for Knuckles (for the final level) where I had to go underwater or whatever. I never could find the item, but it was apparently in the Aquatic Mine. I hated that place. Apparently this item would let Knuckles be able to breath underwater, and with this underwater part of this final level, it's nearly impossible to go through the level without this item. Information online say it IS possible to get through the level without it, but that takes serious skill and speed. I never had that skill and speed with Knuckles. That game was so much fun, though.

I don't think I ever beat Super Mario Sunshine because it was way too hard or something. It was most certainly (and I still think so) one of the hardest Mario games for me, specifically because of the controls and FLUDD... and those Secret Levels. -___- I screamed at the TV so often with those levels and my family got so annoyed with me and my screaming, so I finally dropped the game and only came back to it to just play it for 5 minutes for nostalgia reasons.

I nearly beat Sonic Adventure, but Perfect Chaos pissed me off so much I just gave up. I would be nearly done and then he would play some completely unfair move on me and I would just scream and I would have to start all the way over again. I say that I practically beat the game, but not technically.

There are lots of games I never beat. And they were all because of really aggravating parts.

[noTuX]

Maybe, it is a personal thing, but I always felt that there were TOO MANY playable characters on Chrono Cross. I found it more trouble than it's worth to gather and allocate elements for each one, outfit them with the best armor and weapons, and actually use them from time to time. I enjoyed their background stories and whatnot, but after a while, I just don't care anymore.

The totally random game freezes in the Fallout series and Skyrim. There's nothing like making progress and loosing it all because you couldn't save it in time.

I was always bummed out at Super Mario Kart because the computer is able to use character specific power-ups/weapons at random, and you are constantly bombarded with them if they are close behind you. And I wanted to use damn shrinking mushrooms! But, I guess the trade off is being able to use the Jump Feather to make your own shortcuts.

[Modus]

Crafting in the Tactics Ogre remake. It's massively time-consuming, OCD torturing, and the good equips break the game difficulty.

Being able to hold 99 repair kits in Skies of Arcadia. Impossible to lose an airship battle :/

[FenixDown]

Not being able to manually control party members in Persona 3 FES. And getting an automatic game over if the main character falls in battle (also applies to Persona 4).