No video game is perfect. Despite all the positives a title may have, there are always flaws that slip through the cracks of even the most polished experiences.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with simply enjoying a video game and not thinking about its shortcomings. However, it can be beneficial to recognise the flaws of even our favourite video games. By forcing us to be more critical with our thinking, it can benefit our enjoyment by further highlighting the things the game does do right. Here are our least favourite aspects of our absolute favourite games.
Star Wars Battlefront 2 – The Awful AI – Hollyman
Star Wars Battlefront 2 is a game that lets you experience all the greatest battles across the galaxy that you witnessed in the films. From Naboo to Endor, players can dive right into the action as either a nameless infantryman or an overpowered hero, shooting, carving, and exploding their way across both eras of the franchise. It’s a worthwhile experience that does a great job of immersing you in the action. There is a great deal of love from the developers that shines through in the final product. Many fans have fond memories of booting up the game to play with their friends and/or family, engaging in fierce firefights, or just goofing around.
However, choosing to play the game as a single-player experience rather than a multiplayer one has its caveats. The game’s AI seems to be very selective in what exactly it wants to do. This can lead to some real head-scratcher moments. Units will frequently stand around not really doing anything, and occasionally just run around in circles… literally. Quite a few of the game’s features are simply ignored by the AI. This includes boarding capital ships, repairing things in space battles, and forming squads together.
These are features of the game that you’ll only see the opposing team utilise if you’re playing against actual human beings. This is a real shame if you didn’t actually have anyone else to play with. The original PS2 version of the game didn’t allow the opposing team to pick Hero characters either, so you never had to quake in fear at seeing Darth Maul sprinting towards you in the Jedi Temple.
Final Fantasy IX- Trance – Hollyman
Most Final Fantasy games tend to contain a mechanic where a character enters a heightened state in which they get boosted stats, or can use abilities that are extra-damaging or super-cool. FFVII has Limit Break, FFX has Overdrive, etc.
Final Fantasy IX‘s take on this series mainstay is noteworthy, but not for good reasons. In IX, characters enter a state called ‘Trance’ where they start glowing. Their appearance changes a bit, and new abilities are temporarily unlocked. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this, and the abilities granted by Trance can be very useful when you need them.
That’s the thing, though…
Trance almost never comes in handy enough to be reliable. Limit Break and Overdrive were great features because you could fill the gauge and save them for that moment when you needed to use them. Though Limit Break was a bit more restrictive in preventing you from doing an attack, you could still choose to save it. You could spend a little while grinding random battles to get everyone’s meter ready before a boss, and then unleash hell on them.
The progress towards Trance is indicated by a gauge beneath their health bar that fills each time they take damage. There’s a chance that Trance will pop right on the final turn of a battle, just before it ends. You might think that it will carry over into the next battle, right? Well, no, it doesn’t. Once it happens, it’ll stay there until the battle ends, and then it’s gone until next time. Trance has an unfortunate habit of activating at the worst possible time… Exactly when you don’t need it to.
On the one hand, it does force you to strategise a bit more, because you can’t just rely on super-powerful abilities like you could in other games. But on the other hand… It’s just annoying.
Broken Sword – The Goat Puzzle – Kane
The Broken Sword games are known for their inventory and interrogation puzzles—slow, methodical investigations to get to the bottom of the conspiracy of the day. What Broken Sword is not known for is quick, reaction-based mechanics. George Stobbart seems allergic to running, even when his life depends on it. So why in god’s name does the Goat Puzzle exist?
In this particular scenario, you’ve travelled to a small Irish village to investigate a nearby castle. After some drama at the pub, you manage to climb over the castle wall. Here, you come face to face with a very surly looking goat. You need to get past him to get to your goal. Any attempt to walk past him normally will result in you getting promptly thrown to the ground. This is where the game pulls a mechanic directly out of it’s ass.
The Problem
Remember when I said George Stobbart doesn’t run? Well, now he does! If, after clicking on a rusted-out plough that’s nearby, you need to immediately click over to the other side of the screen. Then George will move the plough. The goat will come over and attempt to butt you again. But George, with all the swiftness of a slightly portly toddler, will run across towards the doorway. The goat, in an attempt to follow you, will get the rope on his neck caught on the plough. Thus, trapping him and leaving you free to proceed.
Now this may seem pretty unremarkable, but in the whole rest of the game, George doesn’t so much as break into a slight jog. This means that you’d need to make a pretty long leap of logic to land on the correct solution. This was the sticking point for many early players of Broken Sword. It probably caused more than a few to give up entirely.
GTA: San Andreas – Hydraulics – Kane
The idea of having cars in the game with hydraulics you can control seems pretty fun on the surface. However, in practice, at least for me, it’s hell on wheels. If you’re anything like me, whilst driving in GTA, you like to be able to see as much of the road as possible.
In San Andreas, that means pushing the right stick slightly at all times to angle the camera slightly above the default angle. This gives you just a little more of a view over the top of the cars nearby and helps you weave through traffic.
The problem I have with the hydraulics is that the controls for them are mapped to the right thumbstick. This causes you to lose all control over the camera. On top of that, if you forget you’re driving a car with hydraulics and go to angle your camera higher, you immediately smash your bumper into the road and damage your car. Thankfully, the game only forces you into driving those cars a few times. It’s usually a pretty brief experience, but goddamn. I do hate getting into a car in a rush and realising in horror that it has hydraulics.
The Urbz: Sims in the City DS – No Running Law – Melty
In what is possibly the greatest game known to humankind, why on Earth are we not allowed to run? Okay, granted, it’s only for a small portion of the game, but it’s incredibly annoying nonetheless. You know, sometimes you’re just bursting to use the bathroom. “Oh, it’s okay, I’ll just run to my house really quickly-” cue the blaring alarms and a stint in prison.
What makes this even more annoying is that the No-Running Law takes place after you’ve already developed the habit of running everywhere. It’s incredibly slow, and honestly, I don’t even think it adds much to the story. Sure, it shows that the big bads are unrealistic and unlikable, but why running? They could’ve had the same effect by adding the storyline with a scooter or hoverboard ban instead.
Luckily, the prison has all that you need, but it’s still aggravating waiting for your release. At least there’s a toilet nearby.
Spyro: Year of the Dragon – Yeti Race – Riley
If you know anything about me, you know that I absolutely adore all things Spyro—especially the original trilogy. Over its evolution, Insomniac tried to introduce a plethora of new and exciting game modes to keep players engaged. From the original flying levels to multiple player characters, they tried their hardest to breathe new life into the purple dragon in every iteration. I personally really enjoyed the mix-up in gameplay; it broke up the simplicity of the original title, adding much-needed variety to the fantasy outings. Unfortunately, not all of these gameplay innovations were made equally.
There are two distinct races in Year of the Dragon that utilise the same mechanics. First, you need to ride a skateboard and beat Hunter in a race during ‘Lost Fleet’. Whilst aggravating at first, once you learn the boost mechanic and find the right path, you can easily win. Not so bad, huh? Well, the second one requires you to race Yetis down a track. This track is suspended above a death plane, with very little room for error. Any drop or crash causes you to fall way, way behind.
To make matters worse…
The original games have a feature called adaptive difficulty. Depending on how well you are performing in-game, it alters the difficulty of challenges and enemies. So, if you’ve been breezing through the game up to this point, then you’ll be stuck in an onslaught of hard-mode Yeti races until you fall into a pit of despair. They didn’t fix this in the remake; it’s just as gruelling, but at least it doesn’t have the adaptive difficulty.
The positive side is that in the original, you can cheese this by performing tricks in the same star at the start of the race a few times, then boosting through the rest of the lap. Rinse, repeat, and you’re done! Unfortunately, this isn’t an option in the remake. So, just deal with it, I guess? ‘Trouble with the trolley’ can eat its heart out in comparison to this monstrosity of a minigame.
Sonic Generations – No Damage Achievements\Trophies – Riley
Sonic Generations sits at the zenith of high-quality, fast-paced platforming. It set the standard of what Sonic games could and should be: it had an excellent set of levels with plenty of secrets, alternate paths, as well as skill utilisation that will test any seasoned Sonic fan. I could gush for hours about why I love Sonic Generations, but let’s get down to the issue: the trophies. Whilst most trophies are simple and expected, there’s one on the original that I simply hate.
‘Can’t Touch This’
The ‘Can’t Touch This’ Trophy is earned by defeating the Time Eater without taking any damage. Simple and concise. The issue comes down to the fact that you’re in Super Sonic form and impervious to damage. So, if you bump into anything or get hit, there’s no visual or audible indication. Whilst the Time Eater isn’t exactly a difficult boss to take down, not knowing when you’ve been damaged is a major pain and can swallow your time, as you’re not sure if you’ve completed this challenge until he’s down.
To exasperate this even further, the 2024 remaster—Sonic X Shadow Generations—retains this trophy and decides that it isn’t quite enough by itself. Oh no, they decided to add ‘Untouchable’ for defeating Shadow’s final boss without taking damage, too. This is even more difficult! One thing I will say about ‘Untouchable’ at least is that it’s pretty obvious when you’ve been hit. It’s just a super annoying part of the game that took me hours to get.
I do think that trophies like this have their place. Getting the Platinum for both these titles felt well-earned, and I am proud of them. But damn, at least make it obvious when you’ve been hit if you’re going to make arbitrarily difficult tasks like this into achievements or trophies.
Hades – Satyrs – Dave
I adore Hades. What a splendid roguelite. I love its reverence for the classical mythology that inspired it, its willingness to take some interesting liberties with its interpretation and add those to the mythos, and how well-realised the characters are courtesy of a combination of Jen Zee’s art and the stellar voice cast. I love the purposeful prose, the nigh-inexhaustible dialogue, and the eclectic music. I love the accessibility, the variety of enemies, weapons, keepsakes, and boons, and the modularity of the heat system.
But dawg, I fucking hate these satyrs. After fighting your way out of three of the underworld’s regions, your final hurdle lies at the ‘Temple of Styx’. The surface lies within your grasp, but the exit is blocked by an unstoppable mass of fangs and claws: your pet dog Cerberus. Combat is not an option, so you gotta grab some grub to persuade your beloved hellhound to look the other way.
Pan in the arse…
To get the food, you need to explore at least one series of rooms where you will likely encounter a bare minimum of one satyr cultist, who will ruin your run by spitting poison that depletes your health to one hit point. It’s absurd. The projectile isn’t very visible when you’ve accumulated enough boons to become a particle effects machine, and they will snipe at you while you’re dealing with the other enemies.
The one mercy you get is that the spit is telegraphed by the loud sounds of them coughing up phlegm beforehand. If you’re hearing-impaired, good luck dealing with offscreen expectoration. To top things off, they only get exponentially more difficult the more heat you stack on your run. The throat goats (derogatory; Garbage Of All Time) stand out as the most existential threat to Zagreus in a game full of bomb-throwing zombies and regenerating warriors. If the final boss makes short work of you in your first few runs, it’s likely because these guys softened you up first.
Are there any mind-numbing tasks or mechanics we missed? Probably. However, you can let us know in the comments below. Alternatively, you can join our Discord to further discuss with us.
Sean Hollyman is an avid fan of action figures, videogames and sometimes other things too. When he's not labourously trying to earn platinum trophies for games that he otherwise probably wouldn't care about, Sean can often be found taking photos of his Transformers in embarrassing situations.
Favorite Food: Roast Dinner
Least Favorite Food: ANYTHING with mayonnaise in it
Melltith, or Melty, enjoys cosier or slower paced games and likes to take her time with things.
She's a very crafty person who will throw her all into a multitude of new projects and skills.
Video game completionist and 3D platformer connoisseur, Riley is a fan of the whimsical frenzy of bright and colourful characters that blessed us in the late 90's. Their favourite game's are Spyro, Persona 5 and Super Mario Sunshine.
He/Him
A flamboyant ultra nerd, Dave participates in the Underlevelled Tournament both for the thrill of the fight, and to avenge the orphans lost in the climax of the previous tournament.
Born: London
Height: ???
Weight: ???
Nen Type: Manipulator
Classes: Editor, Dancer,
Hobbies: street dance, collecting manga volumes, reading, editing
Likes: short-to-medium walks on the beach, pointing out how things can and will be misconstrued as racism, fighting games, RPGs, anime, Hades, alternative hip hop, conscious hip hop, Mara Wilson, overly long bios, ice-cream
Dislikes: insincere media, his own uncanny resemblance to Richard Ayoade, mayonnaise