No game is perfect. It’s a harsh lesson we’ve all learned over the years. Sometimes, even great games can do things – intentionally or otherwise – that really grind your gears. In this feature, we’ll be talking about fifteen such moments.

BLADES OF HADES (GOD OF WAR)

As compared to God of War 2 and 3, the very first God of War game had a lot more sections that put emphasis on pure platforming (or something close to platforming anyway). One such section was the Blades of Hades, and as anyone who’s played the game would tell you, it was a nightmare. Walking over thin wooden logs while trying to avoid all manner of massive axe heads and saw blades was even worse in practice than it sounds, and countless players died more than just a few times trying to get through this part.

THE PROLOGUE (THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: TWILIGHT PRINCESS)

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is the quintessential Zelda experience, with an epic and gripping story, excellent dungeons and boss fights, and a beautiful hub world. So what’s the problem then? Well, you have to get through a long, boring prologue to get to the good stuff. It’s supposed to establish Link’s peaceful village life and stuff, and I get that, but from fishing to rounding up stray goats, it goes a little overboard with all the mundane stuff.

BLUE SHELL (MARIO KART)

Of course this was going to be there. The Blue Shell, a.k.a. the scourge of many friendships, is the one that that has driven all Mario Kart players into a blinding rage without fail. You’re dominating a race, you’ve been in first place for three laps, and you’re almost at the finish line. But here comes the Blue Shell, blowing you into smithereens, which is promptly followed by a bunch of AI opponents overtaking you with their ridiculous rubber-banding. It’s… not fun, to say the least.

LAST-MINUTE GOAL (FIFA AND PES)

Anybody who’s played either FIFA or PES – be that solo or competitively – can probably relate to this. With the clock winding down, you’re either in the lead, or stuck in a deadlock, and no matter how many shots you take, the ball just won’t go into the goal. And lo and behold, in the final minute of the game, the opponent comes at you with a lofted ball, and one weak header later, you’ve conceded. It’s enough to drive you up a wall.

TERRIBLE BOSS FIGHTS (DEUS EX: HUMAN REVOLUTION)

Deus Ex: Human Revolution was an incredible game- probably one of the best games of the previous generation. But it had one flaw that was almost unanimously criticized- its boss fights (which were fixed to some extent in the Director’s Cut). While the entire game went out of its way to give you choices for how you wanted to approach any given situation, when it came to the boss fights, you were forced into these encounters. Which would be fine if the boss fights didn’t suck- which they did.

BUGS GALORE (BGS GAMES)

Most worlds Bethesda Game Studios have made – belongs to the bugs. Often, these bugs and glitches – unintentional though they may be – add to the charm of the experience, but quite often, these can be downright gamebreaking. And if they’re not gamebreaking, they can be immersion-breaking (to put it politely). The most egregious example of buggy Bethesda games came not too long ago with Fallout 76- here’s hoping Starfield makes some much-needed improvements in this area.

LAND OF THE LIVID DEAD (RAYMAN ORIGINS)

Rayman Origins

Unlocking the true final level in Rayman Origins already takes a bit of work, but the real test only begins once you actually begin playing. Suffice it to say, it’s not for those who lack patience- or skill. Deadly traps, tough enemies, dangerous hazards, a tough boss fight, and the lack of heart potions all come together to make it a gruelling romp through hell.

5-3 BOSS FIGHT (RESIDENT EVIL 5)

Resident Evil 5

The boss fight against Wesker and Jill is great drama from a narrative perspective, but man oh man does it get on your nerves when you actually get down to playing through it. Not only do you have to make sure you or your partner don’t kill Jill (which, if you’re playing solo, means removing lethal equipment from Sheva’s arsenal too), you also have to constantly be worried about the fact that your parter can’t die either (sure, that’s true of the entire game, but doubly stressful when in a boss fight against two bosses). And when you get past the first stage, there’s the second stage, which employs gimmicks in the most annoying way possible, and ends up being the exact opposite of fun.

DEMOLITION MAN (GTA: VICE CITY)

It’s almost like an unwritten rule- every GTA game has to have at least one mission that will make you want to tear your hair out (we’ll be talking about a few in this feature), and Demolition Man is that mission in Vice City. Tasking you with flying an RC helicopter within strict time limits with clunky controls while people are trying to shoot your helicopter down sounds fun- wait, it doesn’t. It sounds like torture. Which is exactly what it is.

SCOUTING THE PORT (GTA 5)

gta 5

GTA 5 is a game full of colourful, over-the-top characters, thrilling heist missions, extreme chases, and random open world chaos. So why the hell does it make us sit through a mission where we’re controlling a crane and stacking storage containers on top of each other? Whose idea was this? Who thought this would be fun?

FOLLOW THE DAMN TRAIN (GTA: SAN ANDREAS)

GTA San Andreas - Big Smoke

Other than Big Smoke’s not-so-modest drive-thru order at Cluckin’ Bell, the one thing from that game that we all call back to constantly is the infamous mission called Wrong Side of the Tracks. Big Smoke keeps telling us every time we fail the mission that all we had to do was follow the damn train- and we fail a lot. It’s a frustratingly difficult mission that takes way more tries to clear than it should, and being told repeatedly that we couldn’t do a tiny simple task just adds insult to injury.

BLIGHTTOWN (DARK SOULS)

Sure, Dark Souls Remastered fixed Blighttown, but as anyone who’s played the original Dark Souls will tell you, the borderline unplayable nature of the area in the game’s original release is not easily forgotten. Trekking through its dangerous and deadly environments – all while dealing with the challenge any area in Dark Souls usually brings – was no easy task as it is, and having to do so while the game ran at like two and a half frames per second was downright infuriating.

TUTORIAL (DRIVER)

driver

Ah, the infamous Driver tutorial. How many of us tried playing the game, but gave up because we couldn’t get past the tutorial? Too many, I tell you. What’s the big deal with the tutorial, you might ask? Oh, not much. It only needs you do to backflips, then find an alternate fuel source, then colonize Mars, and then fight back against climate change. Once you’ve done all that, you’re free to play the actual game.

THE PERFECT RUN (SUPER MARIO GALAXY 2)

super mario galaxy 2

Super Mario Galaxy 2 isn’t a particularly long game, but if you’re a completionist, it probably was a lot longer for you than it was for everybody else. Because the Perfect Run in Super Mario Galaxy 2 demands some really, really hard things. Collecting all 120 stars can be pretty time-consuming as it is, but then you also have to collect all the Comet Medals, and then you have to collect all the green stars, and then you have to collect 9,999 star bits, and then, after completing one more level, you get the final star in the game.

DYING WITH A FULL INVENTORY (MINECRAFT)

Dying in Minecraft can be a particularly painful experience. In the midst of a long trek, after you’ve managed to accrue lots of useful stuff, when you die, you lose all the stuff in your inventory- that can be annoying enough as it is. But then you also have to get back to the spot you died at in a short span of time, or else your items will disappear, which means that if you died far away from where you respawn, you’re in for a tough time.