these can be either on purpose (intentionally done by the designers etc. to infuriate the player), or simply bad decision making. a good example of this is that stupid barrel from sonic 3, which made many players get a 'death by timeout' due to no instructions being provided on how to operate it (not only that, but the logical solution to jump up and down on it doesn't work).
a recent one i came across was in one of the game boy zeldas, oracle of seasons. the very nature of zelda games is to explore and therefore you get rewarded for exploring. however, at one point before the sixth dungeon you come across a hidden entrance to a typical grotto with a stock zelda style old dude inside. oh cool he's going to give you something helpful or maybe some clues right? NOPE he fucking takes all your rupees (which might be as many as 999) off you for 'breaking his door'. bastard
another one i can remember is a certain pit in the mystic cave zone on sonic 2. there's a pit with spikes at the bottom, but unlike every other pit like this, you can't jump out. so even if you're super sonic or have invincibility or whatever you'll still die in that pit (to add insult to injury, the devs placed an invincibility box nearby, almost knowing this would end up happening)
any game with stun of any kind. stun is not fun, will never be fun. it breaks all control and disrupts the link between the player and the game, which is what makes gaming unique from other entertainment mediums and directly influences the emotions of the player. it can be used briefly to frustrate if that's what you're going for, but chain-stun or any stun longer than like, 1-2 seconds is fundamentally broken and not enjoyable, at least to me
also i love cave story to bits but the back to back quintuple boss fights was pretty bullshit
(https://thebackalleys.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages3.wikia.nocookie.net%2F__cb20100730031333%2Fokami%2Fimages%2F3%2F3a%2FBlockhead_image.jpg&hash=4ada1e4c50f81b1f035cbd53730f149b1863a74c)
Fukken this^
A goddamn stupid wall from the game Okami which had to be defeated by drawing dots in a certain pattern and in a special order on its body. It might sound simple but it was really frustrating sometimes... especially the last one for the final bead (in case anyone knows what I'm talking about)...
Also pretty much all of the special bosses from the Disgaea series. Japs must have too much time on their hands...
elements of tedium as an attempt to supplement for lack of difficulty or general length of content, like in no more heroes with the giant open world that serves no purpose
You guys need to play dark souls, or even the witcher 2 (sort of). You don't even know the meaning of unfair yet.
Also I ended up beating that final block guy (the optional one) by just taking a picture of my screen with my phone hah
Any KOF end boss, if you wanna see unfair.
Any total war game where you think you have your opponent on the run then suddenly 2 huge block armies come out of nowhere and mash you
(https://thebackalleys.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Faboutmariokart.wordpress.com%2Ffiles%2F2009%2F03%2Fbullet-bill.png&hash=1ad5f4cff297a8538114b91c0e855e5c47a123e8)
LOL Mario is looking and probably thinking; "Well shit."
every boss in metal slug is nearly impossible if you try to beat them without dying so you can actually get a score (or maybe i'm just bad at metal slug)
and near the end of the first silent hill game when an important character dies and you find out that the only way you could have saved them was to get an item that there was no way you would've known about on your first run. kind of like cave story, actually. except i liked it in cave story. either way i replayed both.
Quote from: sev on February 21, 2012 06:20 PM
also i love cave story to bits but the back to back quintuple boss fights was pretty bullshit
this is still the sole reason i haven't seen the best ending. i can't beat hell and i refuse to look up the ending on youtube. i'll beat it someday, though.
I think I Wanna Be The Guy counts as an unfair game entirely (but it was designed to be like that!)
But definitely rubberbanding AI is unfair
Also front viewing cameras while being chased by something so you can't see whats ahead (I am looking at you Crash Bandicoot)
and any time trial involving underwater controls (which are notoriously shit)
Quote from: ZennyPLUS on February 21, 2012 07:46 PM
Any KOF end boss, if you wanna see unfair.
you just brought back a lot of horrible memories
also, jinpachi and azazel in tekken 5 and 6 respectively. fuck those guys. you can play your very best but they always pull out some cheap invincibility thing or throw a projectile at you (this is in tekken, the one fighting game WITHOUT projectiles). i think some designers need to figure out the difference between 'challenging' and 'fucking stupid. stuff like megaman is the former, whilst most fighting game bosses are the latter
since eman posted mario kart, in the original SNES mario kart you are always designated a 'rival' who tends to perform better than the other CPU racers. the CPU racers also could only use one item ever (some that were unique to them), for example yoshi threw eggs and bowser threw fireballs or something. however, mario and luigi both used the star (the best powerup in the game). if you pick koopa troopa your rival is luigi, and no matter how well you drive, he'll spam his powerup even when he's close to winning and generally be a complete asshole. since koopa troopa was by far one of the best characters it made the game even harder to beat cuz you usually had to pick someone else. the game also has that stupid rubberband AI where the CPU characters seem to magically 'catch up' which is also a pain in the neck
LMAO Mario Kart 64 was one of the worst offenders of catch-up/rubberband
That game wouldn't even register being hit if the computer was far enough away from you (hitting them with a shell would only reset their speed to 0, not launch them in the air, make them tumble, spin out, or any other stun animation)
That brings me to Pro-Am, where at certain points of the game, there was a time where a certain yellow AI would tap into its hype reserves and go on perfect autopilot at 2x regular speed
Games like Tekken and DOA I don't even wanna go into
Also, Supreme Commander 2, and any other RTS where the AI can build and upgrade things faster for no reason.
Sure, I can go along with being able to build 3-4 things simultaneously because you are a computer but please pretend you are bound to the same need of minerals as I am
Quote from: SHADOWFOX2 on February 21, 2012 11:10 PM
Also, Supreme Commander 2, and any other RTS where the AI can build and upgrade things faster for no reason.
this is sadly how most rts/tbs games deal with difficulty - handicaps. be it a boost in resources, production speed, or strength, instead of making the AI more intelligent they will simply make the computer have any number of unfair statistical advantages over you.
It's pretty easy to get into an infinite stalemate in the advance wars games if both you and your opponent have the same amount of income
if that counts
the final stage of megaman x4 when you have to fight sigma like a hundred goddamn times
nightmare in soul calibur 5 is fucking bullshit
a couple immediately come to mind
starcraft 2- playing insane AIs: computer knows where everything currently is
splinter cell- final gunfight between you and georgian security personnel
fifa (any year)- playing on professional, teams go full on and attack the shit out of everything, start losing to even the shittiest teams (im looking at you blackburn)
persona 3 & 4- die, game redirects you to main menu (not really unfair, just fucking annoying)
knights of the old republic 2- final boss: you vs. darth traya & 3 floating lightsabers; battle is reduced to a clusterfuck of spamming the strongest spells (+ regenerating force + healing self) and running away from said lightsabers til you loop around for another cheap shot on traya
ninja gaiden(xbox)- everything
Superman64, those controls shit me and once you manage to fly through the rings it gives you no instruction on what to do next so you fail anyway.
Quote from: sev on February 21, 2012 06:48 PM
elements of tedium as an attempt to supplement for lack of difficulty or general length of content, like in no more heroes with the giant open world that serves no purpose
they fix that in nmh2
Quote from: redmongoose on February 21, 2012 11:40 PM
the final stage of megaman x4 when you have to fight sigma like a hundred goddamn times
FUUUUUCKKKKKK, rage quit so many times.
Quote from: Magyar on February 22, 2012 01:57 AM
Superman64, those controls shit me and once you manage to fly through the rings it gives you no instruction on what to do next so you fail anyway.
You have the audacity to play that game? Wow, props.
I should probably mention Kingdom Hearts and it's legendary difficulty spikes. I mean, I know Square has no idea what game balance is when characters are across a COLOSSEUM yet can still manage to rush at you and place you into an unbreakable combo, that's bullshit. Zack, on normal mode, in Birth By Sleep, was an ass. That ass hat could throw you into a combo string from a 300 meters away.
Quote from: ZennyPLUS on February 22, 2012 03:14 AM
I should probably mention Kingdom Hearts and it's legendary difficulty spikes. I mean, I know Square has no idea what game balance is when characters are across a COLOSSEUM yet can still manage to rush at you and place you into an unbreakable combo, that's bullshit. Zack, on normal mode, in Birth By Sleep, was an ass. That ass hat could throw you into a combo string from a 300 meters away.
If you play on critical mode he basically one shots you with any of his attacks too -.-
Quote from: sev on February 22, 2012 01:38 AM
nightmare in soul calibur 5 is fucking bullshit
Because he fucking spams that one combo over and over again.It's like he's trying to use the cheapest tactics he can
Quote from: sev on February 22, 2012 01:38 AM
nightmare in soul calibur 5 is fucking bullshit
oh yeah also talim in soul calibur 2
(but i played her anyway)
Soul Calibur in general is known for it's unfair and slanted gameplay. Maxie (or was it Maxim? I can't remember) in the first game was the most nonsensical character and absolute spam fest, just button mash X or A and you've pretty much won.
Quote from: sev on February 21, 2012 06:20 PM
also i love cave story to bits but the back to back quintuple boss fights was pretty bullshit
ugh yes
Quote from: ZennyPLUS on February 22, 2012 04:32 AM
Soul Calibur in general is known for it's unfair and slanted gameplay. Maxie (or was it Maxim? I can't remember) in the first game was the most nonsensical character and absolute spam fest, just button mash X or A and you've pretty much won.
Not much has changed with that, really.
The last mission of Armored Core 4: For Answer on Hard, where you have to face 5 AC's. Its pretty much impossible without using some sort of exploit/spamming sniper cannons w/tanks legs.
every soul game has been a step downward in every conceivable way
armored core just gets better though
all of zelda 2 fucking you and sending you back to the original temple
early nes rpgs in general (final fantasy 1 can eat deez nutz)
the fucking electric manta ray that splits up into baby mantas in super mario sunshine
doom 3 where you have to figure out you cant hurt the cyberdemon with anything but the soulcube thing
blue shells yadda yadda yadda
majoras masks great bay dungeon
halo has pretty awful campaign levels but there are a few that are REALLY terrible/ repetitive/ confusing (the library in halo 1 took me forever to beat and i got to cortana in 3 and just said fuck it)
In all honestly I found soul calibur IV a lot less cheap than V
anyways, back on topic
well actually I can't think of anymore currently
Quote from: vegeta on February 21, 2012 05:54 PM
a recent one i came across was in one of the game boy zeldas, oracle of seasons. the very nature of zelda games is to explore and therefore you get rewarded for exploring. however, at one point before the sixth dungeon you come across a hidden entrance to a typical grotto with a stock zelda style old dude inside. oh cool he's going to give you something helpful or maybe some clues right? NOPE he fucking takes all your rupees (which might be as many as 999) off you for 'breaking his door'. bastard
haha yeah in zelda 1 you are basically directionless and have to do a lot of guessing on what to do next (which i personally kinda like even though a lot of people hate it and prefer the more linear zeldas) and often if youre going about looking for shit to bomb and trees to burn looking for another dungeon (which is all youll be doing if you dont use a guide/ talk to friends who know their shit) youll come across old men/ women who take 20 (or was it 40 i dont remember) rupees from you for fucking up their door.
http://www.desertcolossus.com/guide.php?page=zelda1/doorrepairs&menu=i (http://www.desertcolossus.com/guide.php?page=zelda1/doorrepairs&menu=i) <-- all of them shits
Quote from: cipher on February 22, 2012 07:52 PM
In all honestly I found soul calibur IV a lot less cheap than V
agreed
i'm surprised people still play SC, its gotten progressively worse since the DC one and that recent one was made in like a year for some quick cash
Quote from: Gladius on February 22, 2012 07:31 AM
every soul game has been a step downward in every conceivable way
armored core just gets better though
Armored Core 2's end boss was horseshit, the fact that he could wield the Karasawa and shoot a back cannon without needing to sit in place is bull. He was fast, strong and could dodge everything you throw at him. Klein was one bad end boss. Challenging, but he could be beat.
everything in this video
All You Need to Know About Mega Man X6 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa-Qz-n6320#)
Yep that about sums up X6, I've only beat X1 and X8.
(not necessarily unfair but annoying and stupid)
there is an escort mission in skyward sword where you have to escort a flying robot from the base of a volcano to the top while he is carying a water basin while being attacked by monsters but what makes it stand from other annoying escort missions is that demonstrably the robot can fly very fuckin high and carry really heavy stuff as weve seen troughout the course of the game so far so even in the context of the story that mission desnt make any sense and it comes out of nowhere.
Quote from: sev on February 23, 2012 12:39 AM
everything in this video
All You Need to Know About Mega Man X6 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa-Qz-n6320#)
oh god. the worst thing is that video only covers a quarter of the stupid bullshit in that game. it's probably got the most fucked up level design i've ever seen and the bosses are not only stupidly overpowered but they pretty much attack relentlessly. the random nightmare encounters are the worst, pretty much a textbook example of 'artificial difficulty', but then they get coupled with the stupid level design and other bullshit (like that guy mentions, if you don't save a certain character then megaman himself can't even COMPLETE one of the stages).
i actually came close to beating X6, but after a solid hour of getting my ass handed to me by the final boss (which, this being a megaman game, is unfair by default) i gave up
RockMan X7's level design is garbage. That alone makes the gameplay very unbalanced. Zero, X and Axl move slow and their actions are even slower. Almost all the bosses have some degree of ridiculous power. The Cyber world level has this weird anti-gravity design where if you step on these orange panels and jump, you can be transport to a different part of the stage while UPSIDE DOWN, the controls get a little messed up too. I swore I just yelled DID THIS EVER SEEM LIKE A GOOD IDEA TO YOU, CAPCOM?
I like to think the existence of this (+ related games)
(https://thebackalleys.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi329.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fl395%2FRoy_Mustang22%2FSegundo%2520album%2Flink_faces_of_evil.jpg&hash=bf73cb6dae4731884b518af9d5d7d7238ab4a223)
is an unfair game moment
Quote from: Shida on February 29, 2012 06:53 AM
I like to think the existence of this (+ related games)
(https://thebackalleys.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi329.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fl395%2FRoy_Mustang22%2FSegundo%2520album%2Flink_faces_of_evil.jpg&hash=bf73cb6dae4731884b518af9d5d7d7238ab4a223)
is an unfair game moment
other than the cruddy cinematics these were actually solid nintendo-quality games
oh and nice post count you got there :)
Yeah I don't know about that. I'll give you my opinion as soon as I emulate them. I just prefer when Link didn't talk or just spout out EXCUUUUUUSE ME PRINCESS.
Quote from: Flee on February 29, 2012 09:37 AM
Quote from: ZennyPLUS on February 29, 2012 08:47 AM
Yeah I don't know about that. I'll give you my opinion as soon as I emulate them.
You really shouldn't bother unless you're some kind of masochist.
I recommend just watching the AVGN reviews
Quote from: cipher on February 29, 2012 08:43 PM
Quote from: Flee on February 29, 2012 09:37 AM
Quote from: ZennyPLUS on February 29, 2012 08:47 AM
Yeah I don't know about that. I'll give you my opinion as soon as I emulate them.
You really shouldn't bother unless you're some kind of masochist.
I recommend just watching the AVGN reviews
AVGN: UGH WHAT A FUCKLOAD OF SHITCOCKS (downs bottle of gross beer)
there we just saved zenny the time of emulating the game AND watching the reviews GO US!
Quote from: Gladius on February 29, 2012 09:15 PM
Quote from: cipher on February 29, 2012 08:43 PM
Quote from: Flee on February 29, 2012 09:37 AM
Quote from: ZennyPLUS on February 29, 2012 08:47 AM
Yeah I don't know about that. I'll give you my opinion as soon as I emulate them.
You really shouldn't bother unless you're some kind of masochist.
I recommend just watching the AVGN reviews
AVGN: UGH WHAT A FUCKLOAD OF SHITCOCKS (downs bottle of gross beer)
there we just saved zenny the time of emulating the game AND watching the reviews GO US!
While it's kind of obvious if you actually watch the newer videos that AVGN has moved on from that sort of reviewing as of like, 2-3 years ago, I would say that your summary is a pretty good match for those games
Trust me, I've seen the reviews I know how bad they are. And I have no idea where the emulator for that console is, nor do I want to at this time.
Quote from: Lauch on February 29, 2012 09:21 PM
Quote from: ZennyPLUS on February 23, 2012 03:28 AM
RockMan
you pretentious shit
:dollman:
Quote from: ZennyPLUS on March 1, 2012 02:49 AM
Trust me, I've seen the reviews I know how bad they are. And I have no idea where the emulator for that console is, nor do I want to at this time.
Quote from: Lauch on February 29, 2012 09:21 PM
Quote from: ZennyPLUS on February 23, 2012 03:28 AM
RockMan
you pretentious shit
:dollman:
how bad the games are or how bad the reviews are?
i think he's calling him pretentious for saying rockman instead of megaman? or something?
how dare someone use the literal translation of a character in a video game
!!!!!!!!!!
fuck thebackalleys i'm just going to come in and whine about how everyone sucks and make references to an old newgrounds flash group that no one cares about anymore
anigen is a faggot and has always been a faggot
whenever i read a post by lauch i feel like i'm in 2006
whenever i read a post by lauch i feel like frowning upon a perfect example of the lowest point of socially awkward retardation that the human race can reach
that is to say, acting elitist because you're from an old newgrounds flash group that no one cares about anymore
you just don't understand.....
Quote from: BluPhoenix on March 1, 2012 10:11 PM
how dare someone use the literal translation of a character in a video game
!!!!!!!!!!
I just prefer to use RockMan because it fits better with the original idea of rock and roll for the main characters, that being MegaMan and Roll. Plus he's called Rock in the comics and manga, so it's matter of preference.
wow i never noticed that. that's cool.
A Laff A Minute
Hey guys, less metatroll, more unfair game moments.
My next suggestion is the 'demon snakes and ladders' you have to play in DMC4. It is a waste of time and often ends with you fighting massive hordes or refighting bosses or going backwards. In fact, any game that involves random chance is likely to be unfair (fake difficulty yay) :|
all you had to do was catch the goddamn train cj
There's a part in Psychonauts that you have to climb up on these gates while avoiding rising water because the character is cursed to die if he goes into the water. Everytime you think you could jump overto the next gate, you ended up not grabbing onto the other gate and falling into the water.
This was so frustrating that I didn't play the game for a few weeks.
Some levels of the Special World in SMW
(https://thebackalleys.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fl.j-factor.com%2Fgifs%2FSuperMarioWorld-SpecialZone.gif&hash=08c6ca53e65b5f7e0682f936e4e1da7a11ac7173)
Especially the second one...
(https://thebackalleys.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fguidesmedia.ign.com%2Fguides%2F16931%2Fimages%2Fthe_second_p_balloon.jpg&hash=c820b17f8811a769c776d5d1598c718407063676)
This refers back to the time when I first played the game... I was about 10 years old back then...
stage 7 of pulseman
Quote from: Kott on March 2, 2012 10:33 PM
(https://thebackalleys.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fl.j-factor.com%2Fgifs%2FSuperMarioWorld-SpecialZone.gif&hash=08c6ca53e65b5f7e0682f936e4e1da7a11ac7173)
fuckin' tubular man
none of the secret levels even after it were remotely as hard as that one
Playing total war games recently this becomes evident, but every strategy game ever seems to give you several game element or conditions that only affect you
at a certain point in shogun 2 all your allies break alliance with you simply becuase you reached a stage in the game, but your enemies will keep forming alliance
Also when enemies don't even manage resources and just appear out of thin air