cheat-master30
11th April 2007, 09:34 PM
Over the years, many of you have played many videogames, and it is a good bet that at least a few have made your journey to the end far tougher thanks to the 'easy difficulty increase' techniques developers often use to make a game longer/tougher. Below are my top 10 most hated false difficulty increasing tricks used by the game devs:
1- Rising Lava/Chasing invincible enemy
Basically, you enter an all new level, and an absolutely huge, indestructible monster appears from nowhere, and you are expected to run all that way through half the level, jumping across lava and through hoops until you eventually lose it. This is one thing I hated about games such as Yoshi's Island, Wario Land and certain other series.
The other one is the rising lava instant death trap. You enter a tower, hundreds of platforms lead upwards, and the lava starts rising. Or maybe water, or freezing cold water, or acid, or a floor of spikes... you name it. b You must run upwards, across perilous platforms as enemies, who are totally undeterred by their too rising doom try to smash your face in.
2- The Time Limit
Or when you have like 30 seconds to reach point B, then 10 seconds to reach point C, and 40 seconds to climb up to point D and another 50 seconds to go all the way back to point A, no pause/stopping at all, and if you fail, either game over or restart the whole sequence. Or where the villain's base self destructs (which for some reason, 99% of them seem to) and you must race all the way back to the door/escape measure before total melt down scenario. And this I say, is one very hated, but known thing in the Metroid games.
3- Huge amounts of enemies
Or when it's one person vs 500 or more with weapons. In a likely short of space area, where there are high walls either side or some other 'anti-escape' measure. The favourite trick of developers (and the whole core of many all out Rambo action shooting games) seems to be multiply enemy counts to an insane degree.
4- Instant death
Or any enemy which is an instant death if you touch it. Again, old games did this a lot more than many modern games do, but The Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass seems to have brought this back again...
5- Difficult and unweildy mini game
Or where instead of some normal adventuring, you have to stop and get an exactly perfect score at some really basic mini game, often one with no real connection to the rest of the game, and often stopping you right before a major point in the gameplay. And how if you screw anything up it seems to be an instant game over.
6- Auto scrolling
This is most simply, where the screen automatically goes to the left or right, and you must keep up with the screen, otherwise it will keep pushing you in that direction with no way back, and if you get stuck behind a wall, you become an instantly dead hero pancake. Not just one way either, there have been left ward auto scrolling levels in games, rightward ones, upward ones and downward ones, each creating a whole load of difficult predicaments.
7- Unexpected boss
Or when a mega difficult enemy approaches you directly, no save point or healing given, right after another, also very difficult enemy has just been defeated. Also known as a surprise boss battle, and a favourite of RPGs and some adventure games.
8- Stealth
Or where you, at the worst possible moment end up in an evil villain's HQ with no weapons or attacks possible and have to either sneak around or dodge every enemy and obstacle, as you are totally defenceless. Ironically, people still have difficulty with the first Forsaken Fortress area in the Wind Waker because of this.
9- Really difficult enemies you fight by surprise
Or when a boss often tougher than the final ones takes you on half way through the game, and you end up dying three million times because of your obvious non preparation for such an event.
10- When a surprise villain turns out to be the major antagonist
In other words, when you have beaten the evil thing referenced all over the internet, in the manual and on the box, an evil worse evil force turns out to be controlling the evil force. And this often means more adventure, more difficult times and a more difficult boss battle.
Comments please.
1- Rising Lava/Chasing invincible enemy
Basically, you enter an all new level, and an absolutely huge, indestructible monster appears from nowhere, and you are expected to run all that way through half the level, jumping across lava and through hoops until you eventually lose it. This is one thing I hated about games such as Yoshi's Island, Wario Land and certain other series.
The other one is the rising lava instant death trap. You enter a tower, hundreds of platforms lead upwards, and the lava starts rising. Or maybe water, or freezing cold water, or acid, or a floor of spikes... you name it. b You must run upwards, across perilous platforms as enemies, who are totally undeterred by their too rising doom try to smash your face in.
2- The Time Limit
Or when you have like 30 seconds to reach point B, then 10 seconds to reach point C, and 40 seconds to climb up to point D and another 50 seconds to go all the way back to point A, no pause/stopping at all, and if you fail, either game over or restart the whole sequence. Or where the villain's base self destructs (which for some reason, 99% of them seem to) and you must race all the way back to the door/escape measure before total melt down scenario. And this I say, is one very hated, but known thing in the Metroid games.
3- Huge amounts of enemies
Or when it's one person vs 500 or more with weapons. In a likely short of space area, where there are high walls either side or some other 'anti-escape' measure. The favourite trick of developers (and the whole core of many all out Rambo action shooting games) seems to be multiply enemy counts to an insane degree.
4- Instant death
Or any enemy which is an instant death if you touch it. Again, old games did this a lot more than many modern games do, but The Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass seems to have brought this back again...
5- Difficult and unweildy mini game
Or where instead of some normal adventuring, you have to stop and get an exactly perfect score at some really basic mini game, often one with no real connection to the rest of the game, and often stopping you right before a major point in the gameplay. And how if you screw anything up it seems to be an instant game over.
6- Auto scrolling
This is most simply, where the screen automatically goes to the left or right, and you must keep up with the screen, otherwise it will keep pushing you in that direction with no way back, and if you get stuck behind a wall, you become an instantly dead hero pancake. Not just one way either, there have been left ward auto scrolling levels in games, rightward ones, upward ones and downward ones, each creating a whole load of difficult predicaments.
7- Unexpected boss
Or when a mega difficult enemy approaches you directly, no save point or healing given, right after another, also very difficult enemy has just been defeated. Also known as a surprise boss battle, and a favourite of RPGs and some adventure games.
8- Stealth
Or where you, at the worst possible moment end up in an evil villain's HQ with no weapons or attacks possible and have to either sneak around or dodge every enemy and obstacle, as you are totally defenceless. Ironically, people still have difficulty with the first Forsaken Fortress area in the Wind Waker because of this.
9- Really difficult enemies you fight by surprise
Or when a boss often tougher than the final ones takes you on half way through the game, and you end up dying three million times because of your obvious non preparation for such an event.
10- When a surprise villain turns out to be the major antagonist
In other words, when you have beaten the evil thing referenced all over the internet, in the manual and on the box, an evil worse evil force turns out to be controlling the evil force. And this often means more adventure, more difficult times and a more difficult boss battle.
Comments please.