Little Things That Bug You

[geoflcl]

Sometimes there are little things in games that really stick out to me, and begin to bug me for no reason at all. These are things that aren't exactly bugs or things that detract from the game as a whole, but just little aesthetic things that just rub me wrong way. They're not worth fussing over, but let's do it anyway!

For instance, when doing a triple jump in New Super Mario Bros, Mario's second consecutive jump has a really inelegant, weird animation to it that sticks out to me each time I see it.



It's certainly a far cry from Mario's classic "fist-in-the-air" pose! It's a tiny, tiny little detail that has absolutely no effect on gameplay whatsoever, but there's just something about it that makes me think "Oof!" and squirm a little each time I see it.

My question is, does anyone else encounter instances in games where something really tiny and insignificant sticks out to them? Feel free to describe them, if so! (And if not, I probably ought to get myself diagnosed! )

 

[Rydian]

• When I'm told to "Press Start", but there's also 2-3 other buttons that work. Then I somehow get my dick cause in the disc drive.
  Hi veho.
  
• When 3D objects clip into each other. It just irks me so much...
  
• When sprites are flipped and obvious side-centered details (eyepatch eye and such) aren't accounted for as it's literally a sprite flip.
  
• When it's obvious some sprite almost fills the size/resolution constraints given to it and it looks like a big guy stuffed into an invisible mime box.
  
• When the excuse for only having a certain number of party members at once is really weak and slapped in there at the last minute.

 

[geoGolem]

• When I'm told to "Press Start", but there's also 2-3 other buttons that work. Then I somehow get my dick cause in the disc drive.

What did you actually mean by that... I am assuming to meant something about a disc in the disc drive?

 

[Sly 3 4 me]

What did you actually mean by that... I am assuming to meant something about a disc in the disc drive?

Hopefully he didn't mean 'caught in the drive', because that would hurt. He probably did mean that as a joke to Veho though as it's stated afterwards.

One of the things I dislike in a few of the games, mainly some I've noticed in Betheda games, is that the jump seems very clunky to me. It's not smooth and the landing noise sounds like I've broken a few bones on my descent.

Large differing difficulties in the first three modes of a game. Meaning that the easy, medium and hard modes all seem to be a bit out of place. The easy mode may be too easy but then the other two feel like you're up against enemies that brutally destroy you. I haven't encountered games like this recently, but they do exist.

 

[Gahars]

Gameplay and Cutscene inconsistency. If a character is juggling baddies in a cinematic, and then struggles to overcome menacing twigs when I'm actually playing the game, we have a problem.

 

[Sly 3 4 me]

Gameplay and Cutscene inconsistency. If a character is juggling baddies in a cinematic, and then struggles to overcome menacing twigs when I'm actually playing the game, we have a problem.

That reminds me of Resident Evil. The pistol owns and sounds great in the cut scenes, but sounds like a pea-shooter in the game and does meager damage.

 

[Rydian]

What did you actually mean by that... I am assuming to meant something about a disc in the disc drive?

"Instructions not clear enough, got my dick caught in the disc drive" or something like that is a common joke on imgur.com in reaction to either completely nonsensical instructions, or a reference to that sort of situation when given a subject but lack of context.

 

[Sicklyboy]

When enemies do things you can't in gameplay physics.

Favorite example is the elites, starting in Halo 2 IIRC, when they will walk up to a Covenant supply crate and actually climb on top of it. No, I can only jump.

 

[geoflcl]

• When it's obvious some sprite almost fills the size/resolution constraints given to it and it looks like a big guy stuffed into an invisible mime box.

Ooh, this one's a real stickler for me, too! Wario's sprite from Mario Land 3 immediately comes to mind!

(Although I'm sure there are worse instances )

 

[jose_exe]

Long tutorial explanations.

That little briefcase from Mario & Luigi 2 really annoyed me.

 

[Taleweaver]

"Instructions not clear enough, got my dick caught in the disc drive" or something like that is a common joke on imgur.com in reaction to either completely nonsensical instructions, or a reference to that sort of situation when given a subject but lack of context.

Ah. I see. I somewhat read it as some heavy user-PC interaction...

game: please press start to start the game.
Rydian: *presses A-button*
game: thank you.
Rydian: hey! I pressed A. Not start. How dare you! You're off on a wrong...erm...start!
game: nevertheless, I'm showing you a whole bunch of game studios who designed me.
Rydian: *mumbles*
game: *after unskippable intro sequence* Please press start to begin the game.
Rydian: damnit! This time you better work better or I'm going to anally rape that hole in your disc! *presses A*
game: Thank you for pressing the START button.
Rydian: AAAARGGGHHH!!!! *rushes over to console, slaps his hand over the eject button...but misses*
Rydian: *also thrusts a certain bodily part forward*
Rydian: ...
Rydian: fuck!
game: I like it how you know how to press my buttons!



Ahem...on topic:
* unskippable cutscenes. Especially annoying if there's a hard part of the game further ahead, which means you may have to sit through it god knows how long
* bad interfaces. UT3 is notorious for this, but there are other games where it takes ridiculously long to simply change your key bindings.

 

[superspudz2000]

RPG's where you must talk to every single person
in a town before your allowed to leave. (Startropics)

in Zelda 1 and 2, you could go wherever the hell you wanted.
you would get Pwned, but you could go there.

the only thing worse is the tri-fecta.
1. Excessively Long Intro
2. Making you talk to everybody
3. Getting completely Pwned when you leave town.

 

[emigre]

My penis.

Poor menu interfaces which aren't user-friendly and are overcomplicated.

 

[Icealote]

Those bloody damned pathways that lead to no where when you already think "YES I'm almost to the next screen" then its not and you are forced to double back to the previous fork sigh. (Applied frequently to RPGs who still insist on using invisible enemies).

 

[KinGamer7]

When the game gives me a 5-second game-over / 'You failed' screen animation and then asks if I'd like to continue after losing repeatedly to a particularly tough challenge.

"JUST LET ME GET BACK INTO THE GAME ALREA--Do I want to cont--OF COURSE I WANT TO CONTINUE WHY DO YOU KEEP ASKING ME SUCH A STUPID QUESTION?"

When your adrenaline is pumping and you're confident that you WILL DO THE THING this time, it's incredible how aggravating this can be.

 

[Veho]

The irritating way those dialog "animations" where the appropriate head with the appropriate expression slides into view, says a line and then slides out (Advance Wars, for example) insist on showing every single character after every single sentence, even (especially) when the character doesn't actually say anything. Yay, let's all communicate via reaction faces, it's like one huge rage comic, but instead of showing all the reaction faces in one panel you show them consecutively. Screw you guys. The timing is already borked by the fact the exchange of faces (one slides out, other slides into view) lasts longer than it takes you to read the sentence itself, and now the whole scene is doubled in duration because you have to show every individual character's reaction to every bit of text uttered.


And it's unskippable.

 

[gifi4]

What did you actually mean by that... I am assuming to meant something about a disc in the disc drive?

Check it out. There's a comment saying "Here's the comment people keep coming to see, so you don't have to find it." Click to see comment and then you'll see the thing.

 

[SubliminalSegue]

Me and my friends brought this up on a podcast once...one thing that has always pissed me off was games like GTA where you're driving along and people either pull out in front of you when you're speeding along, or inadvertently cut you off. It's even worse when you're on a bike.

Also, a little thing that is always annoying is weapons that deteriorate. FarCry 2 being the biggest sinner here.

 

[RodrigoDavy]

• When I'm told to "Press Start", but there's also 2-3 other buttons that work. Then I somehow get my dick cause in the disc drive.
  Hi veho.

I fell the same way. I remember there was a DS game that said "Press any buttons or touch" and I was like "Thanks for being completely honest with me =D"

I hate unnecessary cutscenes.I also don't like games where every single action take's you to a loading screen.

Press Start -> Loading... > Choose your character -> Loading... -> Choose the level -> Loading... -> You lose, wanna retry -> Loading... -> Are you sure you wanna quit? -> Loadi... *EXPLODES YOUR CONSOLE*

 

[PolloDiablo]

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