30 Days of Video Games - BONUS: Why Do You Play Games Pg. 142

[Dejimon11]

Day 6: favorite stage

I'm going to go with mount must dash from super mario 3D world.

http://youtu.be/IB2hINM9_jM

It's about time that they added a Mario Kart stage in a platformer. It's very colorful and fast pace. And the remix of that one stage from super mario kart(its mario circuit right?) is delightful. I love replaying that level and beating it as fast as can. I hope the future they would implement this more maybe a double dash stage or DS a man can dream

[The Deleter]

Day 6: Favorite level

 

Well my favorite level would be Final Rush, but since that's already been done and the topic encourages answers that aren't Sonic, I'm going to have to go with another one.

 

 

Sargasso from Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction

 

When you land your spacecraft and hop on out of it into this world, you are greeted with an amazing sight: A huge, open-world area filled with loot, amazing landscaping and vegetation, and a giant apatosaurus wearing slabs of rock as headgear, staring down at you, with a halo of pteranodon flying above his head. You have now touched down in the Land of Awesome.

 

Oh yeah and you also see that awesome bounty hunter again but since Ratchet still begrudges him ejecting him onto a planet without warning.

 

So onto the actual level: You're first objective is to find Leviathan Souls to sell to the smuggler, in order to obtain a gadget in order to fix this in order to go there in order to yadayadayadayada. What's so special about these souls, though? Well for starters, the only way to obtain them on this planet was to slay T-Rexes with tusks. Yes, you heard that right. So much for short arms. After that, you have to free-fly throughout the level to find a factory, which you can use afterwards to free-fly anywhere you want around the level. Next, you're required to go through the factory in a level which is possibly the most platforming-ridden level in the whole game, thanks to the a gelatin-based gadget. And to finish it all off, you escape an attack by riding down several pipes and chutes in a gyroscope bicycle.

 

So, to summarize:

 

This planet is a open-world dino land where you can slay T-Rexes, free-fly with Pteranodons, hop through a factory on jello blocks, and ride a gyrocycle.

 

A planet known to the rest of the universe as Sargrasso, AKA the Land of Awesome.

 

Day 6: Complete

[Carbo]

Day 6: Favorite Level

Hasn't changed since the last time we did this. Glitzville still remains one of the greatest paradigm shifts in terms of what Paper Mario could do as an RPG.

The previous two chapters of the game did a good job in having the player settle into the Paper Mario status quo as an anarchic take on some of the established Mario tropes. But with Glitzville things take a radical change. What plays out is less of a conventional chapter getting from a point-a to point-b dungeon, and more of a marathon of battles in order to obtain the crystal star of this chapter. It's basically a king of the hill battle, there's not much to explore and it mostly takes place in just one singular area.

Where it gets fascinating is between battles, things take a turn to the weirder. It becomes apparent that there is a huge mystery surrounding the pit, and the higher you climb up the more insidious things get - mysterious messages from anonymous benefactors and threats, clues scattered about and veteran fighters disappearing. It makes something tedious on paper into one of the more engaging chapters in the game because you just don't know what's to come next.

Super Paper Mario tried to do a similar chapter to this but it ended up falling flat on it's face. Nothing quite like this has been replicated in a game this far, and it being so defying of expectations made it all the more memorable.

[Tornado]

City Escape

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Diamond Heights from the original Rollercoaster Tycoon.

 

 

 

If you played the scenarios of the original game in order, the first level you got the boring sandbox-y tutorial level. Flat grass with no nothing in it. The second level was the very interesting, yet ultimately infuriating massive scenery level that your park guests always got lost in which took forever (5 in game years!) and really probably shouldn't have been so early in the game. The latter wasn't too bad, but both were ultimately very limited in what rides were made available and what you could build because of the terrain.

 

 

 

Diamond Heights changed that. Not only was it the first level with large amounts of open water (allowing a lot more freedom to do what you want for boats and the like, it was the first level with a pre-built park to give you a good idea of how a properly functioning park should be laid out.

 

 

It also introduced a few ideas that, while technically possible to do in either of the first two levels, were very unlikely to have been done in any real effect before then. Chief among them being racing roller coasters!

 

 

Related: The concept of making sure you have mechanics check older rides more frequently.

 

 

 

 

 

It even looks good in RCT 3.

[Sami]

Day 7 - Least Favorite Level

Act 3 - Metal Gear Solid 4

 

... *ahem*

 

UUUUGUUGHGHGHGHGHGHGHUGUHUGHUHU

 

fffffFUCK THIS LEVEL. Good GOD! 

 

It's no secret that I'm not the biggest fan of MGS4, and don't worry, I'll be talking about that later (hint hint), but sweet fucking christ on a bicycle this level infuriates me to such an enormous degree. Following up on two other actually quite good "acts" (as far as gameplay is concerned anyway), this level just seizes whatever pace you were going at, rips it in half, and beats it to a bloody pulp. 

 

The objective in this level is to follow some asshole in a trenchcoat through this muddy, boring, drab looking city to the goal ring end destination, taking out a few guards so he doesn't get seen and staying out of his line of sight as he ever so slowly makes his way through the city. I swear, this had to have taken at least two hours. It felt like it, at least. Getting caught made him run around like a bitch for a minute or so before he got back on track, so that made it take quite some time. 

 

It's fucking boring, it's frustrating, it's ugly, it's not fun, and it doesn't play like MGS should. Everything about this whole act of the game is pure fucking trash.

 

Feel free to tap into your ranty side today.

[Shane]

I dislike Grunty Industries from Banjo-Tooie...

 

I'm not the biggest fan of Banjo-Tooie, and Grunty Industries pretty much represents everything wrong with the game. It's a huge map where many areas seemingly exist for no reason, it's full of incohesively-placed objects, there is no flow to the level design, and it just feels like a huge drag.

 

Contrast to its Banjo-Kazooie equivalent, Rusty Bucket Bay, which was annoying to play but still stuck to the design philosophies of the game. Even compared to the rest of Banjo-Tooie, Grunty Industries goes the extra mile in making you feel like you're just doing meaningless chores.

[Iggy]

Day 7: Least Favorite Level

The Water Temple in OoT. It's boring, boring, boring, and boring. Other than the mini boss fight with Dark Link, dull is all this temple will ever be to me. The other temples were fun, but this one just drags on and on. I could never stand those kinds of dungeons in the series, which is why I never finished MM. (There may only be four temples in that game, but they're all different levels of purgatory.) I dunno, maybe I just have a small attention spa-OH LOOK A BUTTERFLY!

[The Tenth Doctor]

Day 7: Least favourite level

 

 

EggmanLand. Just, EggmanLand. It took me over a week to complete this monstrosity. The quicktime events, the unforgiving drops, the bobsled, the jumping over lava with no shadow to guide you, the endless beat ups and overall length of level. Jeez, it pissed me off to high heaven. My final run was 40 minutes. No Sonic level should be 40 minutes. Another nail in the coffin to why I loathe Unleashed.

[Willsy]

Day 7: Least Favourite Level:

I'm going to have say Sonic again, as there are some really bad stages in the franchise. I don't have a least favourite, so I'll just list a few stinkers.

Frozen Factory Zone 2 from Sonic Lost World. This stage can go burn in hell for all I care. The entire level is based around a poorly executed gimmick, the level design is criminal , and the whole stage in general (apart from the music) feels very cheap and poorly designed. It's even worse even you're going after the red star rings, and the controls for the snowball are horrible.

Shamar Arid Sands Night from Sonic Unleashed HD. What a mundane piece of crap. I'm not sure what else I can say apart from, too many enemies that will gang up on you and kill you easily, tedious level design, and overstaying it's welcome makes this stage too much of a chore to play. I don't find all of the Werehog levels to be that bad, but god do I hate this one.

Die Reise from CoD Black Ops 2 (Zombies). To be honest, I don't hate this map. But neither do I like it very much. I just find it way too congested and overly complex that it really deviates too much from the Zombies formula we all know and love. It didn't really give me a sense if vertigo like Treyarch wanted to give players, but rather a sense of claustrophobia, which is a bad thing for a Zombies map. I hardly touch Black Ops 2 as it is, but this is one map that I don't really want to replay. It was just very disappointing.

EDIT: Forgot to say Forsaken Fortress. Now I've never completed WW before, in fact I'm only just past Forsaken Fortress. But my god, that level put me off playing the rest of the game until recently when I found out that the rest of the game wouldn't be like it. It was just really damn boring, and if you don't know what to do and where to go, you'll find yourself spending at least an hour there.

That's all that I can really remember right now. I would mention more but they're Sonic ones, so I won't. I would say Eggmanland purely because of THOSE GOD DAMN PIPES GRRRRR, but since I've already mentioned two Sonic ones, I think it's best to not mention another Sonic one.

[Faseeh]

I'll go. Can't think of the level I hate the most but I'll say one I don't like now.

 

DAY 7: LEAST FAVOURITE LEVEL 

 

 

"Wait, what game is this?" Well, this is Ben 10 Ultimate Alien Cosmic Desturction. The game's alright, can be quite fun at times, fun enough boss fights and well, the different aliens play well enough.

 

Paris. This level just dragged for me. The puzzles were boring, uninteresting, didn't have any 'wow' factor. It was just bland. 

 

Everything took forever to happen and there was no real way to speed things up. 

 

Lengthy and boring and only the end set piece with the Eiffel Tower sticks in my mind to this day, and that was a QTE. That speaks volume.

 

Oh and this game crashed a lot at this level. Major turn off.

 

Never again, Paris. 

[#AR]

Day 7: Nope, not playing this damn level again.

 

NO. NO I'M NOT FUCKIN' READY, AND I NEVER WILL BE.

 

REN'S LEAST FAVORITE LEVEL: ASTRO MAN'S STAGE (MEGA MAN 8)

 

Okay, awkward platforming segments with disappearing platforms...okay okay, not too bad...

Oh...there's a...maze? Er...okay...wow this is a really weird maze...damn, all of these switches and backtracking...that's really...not that fun.

Well out of the maze-oh crap, a falling tower. Gotta climb fast or else I hit the bottom and die. That was a decent part-

Oh...back to more awkward platforming and indestructible spike enemies...well is the stage over ye-

Oh my god ANOTHER MAZE?! HOW THE BALLS ARE YOU GONNA PUT LIKE TWO FRACKIN' MAZES IN THE SAME STAGE ARE YOU SERIOUS! AND THIS ONE'S BIGGER THAN THE LAST ONE?! FUCK I'M LOST WHERE DO I GO IN THIS DAMN LEVEL AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

 

This level was the biggest damn nightmare of my childhood...well...Astro Crush was a cool weapon at least...

[Cyrus]

Day VII - Least Favorite Level

 

 

 

Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy - Precursor Basin

Why? Why? Why, Naughty Dog, did you think anyone would want to do shit like herding moles into holes (which only works about 20% of the time) or chasing “flying lurkers” around to get a power cell while riding a vehicle that controls almost as bad as Shadow the Grease-footed Hedgehog and hops only two feet off the ground? What makes this even worse is that the game goes from the more enjoyable platforming and combat that the player gets to enjoy for about 20 quests and 5 areas to this, which feels like a chore to play. Precursor Basin demotivated me from continuing the game. Whenever I go back to Jak and Daxter, I just replay the Sandover missions.

[Celestia]

Day 7: Least Favourite Level

 

This is a tough one. "Least favourite" questions are my least favourite (oh), simply because, at least for specific things like levels or characters or whatever, I end up drawing a blank. But, I can think of an example that is one really annoying part of a game that I otherwise adore...

 

 

Grand Department Store

Earthbound

 

"But it's just a department store, how bad can it be?"

 

Weeeeeeeell...

 

Alright, so at one point you walk into the store and Paula ends up getting kidnapped by some alien-monster-things. This is Very Bad News for more than just the obvious reason, as she's actually a very important member of the party. And...well, heh...heh...hahaahahHAHAHADHADHAHDAHDLAHFLAJ

 

LET ME

 

INTRODUCE YOU

 

TO THESE JERKS

 

 

Or, as I affectionately call them: "FUCK YOU", "FUCK YOU TOO", AND WE CAN'T FORGET GOOD OLD "FUCK YOU AS WELL".

 

...Yeah they're pretty tough enemies, especially without Paula's PSI abilities. In fact, it's the only point in the game where I had to grind. Grrrr. It's the toughest "dungeon" (the MOTHER series has really unique takes on the concept of "dungeons", btw) up to that point of the game, and it. was. ridiculous.

 

I had slightly less problems when I replayed the game for the Holiday Gaming Awards, but mostly because I knew to level up a bunch beforehand and was more skilled in dodging enemies on the field. They're also probably less of a problem to people more willing to use Ness' special attacks; the thing with that is, there's a boss to be ready for.

 

All in all, screw that store...or, more specifically, the monsters that took it over. If I hadn't been really invested into the game at that point, I might have given up on an experience that ended up being very special to me.

[Spin Attaxx]

Least favourite level is... probably the Wrecked Ship from Super Metroid. Something about it just feels bleh, and more of a small "oh yeah, and then this happened" as Samus heads off to Maridia.

 

Others that come to mind would be Battlerock Galaxy's Purple Coin mission, where you're not allowed to miss one coin or you're fucked, and Magus's Castle in Chrono Trigger: the place has like two hard boss fights in the first third, irritating trial and error bullshit with one of Ozzie's traps and Magus is a pain no matter who you bring 'cause you're always gonna lack an element to hit him with.

[TheOcelot]

Least favourite level.

 

Rail Canyon.

 

 

 

I hate this level...so...freaking...much.

 

The fact that you spend most of the time grinding over one giant unforgiving bottomless pit is bad enough. What with the normal slippery controls and the unreliable rail switching controls which causes me to fall to my death far too often - not even switching to Tails 'fly' mode saves me because he can't fly for long. The stage itself feels kind of bland. I don't like the colour and the music does nothing for me. I hate the sections where the rail breaks and you have to try and land on a rail below with a massive margin for error, or when you're forced to homing attack a switch whilst moving very fast, which causes me to miss it completely and fall to my doom. The camera struggles to keep up with the hide speed rail grinding, hence I'm even more reluctant to switch rails when moving fast. I just can't stand this stage. It was the low point of Heroes for me.

 

I get that this level is about trying to create an exciting sense of speed, but that's no good if the control is rubbish, the level design is floored and boy does this stage drag like shit. Bullet Station isn't much better. 

[Solly]

Discoid gets a ton of credit from me for being so punctual. Every one of these has been at 8:00 AM sharp. 

 

Day 7: Least Favorite Level.

I'm going to have to go with Mega Man 1's Wily Fortress 4.

 

"But wait!" you say. "Wily Fortress 4? Surely you mean Wily Fortress 1, the stage that has the legendarily hard Yellow Devil?" No, I mean Wily Fortress 4, the level containing the second half of the Boss Gauntlet + the Wily Machine. I chose this because it was so frustratingly hard. 

 

"But wait" you keep saying. "Isn't the Yellow Devil known to be the most difficult thing in that game?" I would say that, yes, doing the Yellow Devil's stage in one go is definitely harder than beating the final stage. However, the final stage is far more annoying to me because you're forced to re-fight four of the eight bosses and then kill Wily. Three of them aren't that hard, but you don't get your health refilled between each fight, and everything hinges on how you do against Fire Man.

Fire Man isn't that horrible when you have to fight him alone on his own stage, but here he's fucking ridiculous. He sends out waves of flames that are taller than you, in what looks like random intervals, and he does a ton of damage. If you have his weakness, he's not likely to kill you, but he's likely to weaken you enough so that Guts Man and Wily have a much easier time against you. Again, this isn't nearly the hardest thing you have to do in a Mega Man game- even in this game, but it's my most hated fight because I literally don't understand it. I don't know how some people are able to get him stuck in a loop of shooting only one projectile at a time. I don't know why he occasionally stands in place. I don't know why he sometimes shoots combinations of shots that are literally not possible to dodge. There are people who can trigger his "AI" to behave the way they want, but your movements have to be so goddamn exact that it's incredibly hard to do, and I doubt it's even intentional. He usually just annihilates me unless I get really lucky. Even when I get through without a lot of health lost, I don't know why. 

Guts Man is the last thing standing between you and a check point when you beat Fire Man. The problem is that, if you're like me, you've probably taken so many hits from the previous fights that he can make short work of you. It also doesn't help that Guts Man behaves differently than he does on his own arena. There, he can't corner you and jump on you if you stay to the far left, on top of the blocks. But here, it's a completely flat room, and there's nothing stopping him from getting all over you. This also really sucks because he's got more space to dodge your bombs, and you have less space to jump over his projectiles.

 

 

Yellow Devil might be very, very hard until you get the pattern down, but at least it's pretty clear early on that a pattern actually exists in the first place. Fire Man is a complete mess of a boss, and having to get through him AND Guts Man before the Wily Machine is aggravating. 

[SuperStingray]

Day 7 : Dire, Dire Docks (Super Mario 64)

In all fairness, I've played worse levels, but next to levels as diverse and interesting as Mario 64's, Dire, Dire Docks looks MILES worse as a result.  It's just so... barren, yet so confined.  How they managed to squeeze six stars out of it is beyond me.  None of the stars are even that interesting (although wearing the metal cap and vanishing cap together is kinda cool though), particularly that tedious eight red coin challenge where you ride those slow-moving pipes and have to climb all the way back up after one wrong jump.  Plus, most of Mario 64's courses start with a way of getting where you want to go quickly.  Hazy Maze Cave lets you choose whether to go to the mine or boulder room first, Bob-Omb Battlefield starts next to a cannon, etc.  In DDD, you can only go down and if the star is not already in that first area, you have to go through that boring U-bend every damn time.

 

And speaking of which, what's the deal with that first star?  You have to play it to get to Bowser but there's no challenge or real narrative benefit.  All it really does is leave behind is a big open drain that sucks you into the castle courtyard if you get near it, which there really is no reason to anyway.

 

That's pretty much everything of interest of Dire, Dire Docks.  A vortex of water, a U-bend and a drain.  And that isn't level design, that's a goddamn toilet.  The level is literally a toilet.

 

Music's soothing though.

[KrazyBean]

Day 7: Least Favourite Level

 

 

Ghardia Shaft - Tales of Graces f (should be in the original game as well)

 

I swear, this dungeon did not want to end. Just when you think you're done it takes you to another dungeon which is equally as long. This dungeon is basically 3 super long dungeons combined into one and it goes on and on and on and on and it also requires quite a lot of backtracking to move forward. There is no map in this game so you also have to remember were all the switches are as well in order to remove blockades and to top it off, you cannot save anytime in this game like you can in Tales of Xillia so you better sit tight and go through massive chunks of the level just to get to the next save point...it took me about 3 hours to get through this damn place.

 

I know it's the final dungeon in the main story but come on...this is an endurance test.

[Captain Fun]

Day 7: Least Favorite Level
 
End of the World from Sonic 2006:


I had a slightly difficult time picking this one. I was like "hmmm, is it Dusty Desert, or is it Flame Core?" Well, how about the level that combines the worst of both? In End of the World (which is an awesome name for a final level by the way) you play as pretty much every character besides Sonic, looking in each corner of the world to find the Chaos Emeralds so that you may pull him back from the brink with their miraculous powers. So it's like you go through small segments of the main stages you've already played, with a ton of enemies, but they're nothing you cant handle right. Just get to the end and get the Chaos Emerald right? WRONG.

 

You see as you progress, new rifts appear in space, usually creating black holes that suck you in. These black holes have a deceptively large attraction radius and are instant death if you get pulled into one. They appear constantly (by which I mean always) and they can only be reversed temporarily by touching a certain stone. It's a big problem when you need to fight a large group of enemies or make precise jumps with your character. To paraphrase one of my favorite lets players: it is unreasonable, and you shouldn't have control-based challenges in a game where the controls are basically broken. 

 

It really is the perfectly shitty finale to a perfectly shitty game. 
 

[Spin Attaxx]

everything hinges on how you do against Fire Man.

Fire Man isn't that horrible when you have to fight him alone on his own stage, but here he's fucking ridiculous. He sends out waves of flames that are taller than you, in what looks like random intervals, and he does a ton of damage. If you have his weakness, he's not likely to kill you, but he's likely to weaken you enough so that Guts Man and Wily have a much easier time against you. Again, this isn't nearly the hardest thing you have to do in a Mega Man game- even in this game, but it's my most hated fight because I literally don't understand it. I don't know how some people are able to get him stuck in a loop of shooting only one projectile at a time. I don't know why he occasionally stands in place. I don't know why he sometimes shoots combinations of shots that are literally not possible to dodge. There are people who can trigger his "AI" to behave the way they want, but your movements have to be so goddamn exact that it's incredibly hard to do, and I doubt it's even intentional. He usually just annihilates me unless I get really lucky. Even when I get through without a lot of health lost, I don't know why.

Not to be a walking GameFAQs here, but Fire Man's thing is that if you're a certain distance away from him, he'll shoot at you. If you stay close to him, all he'll do is run back and forth and only fire when either he gets far enough away to shoot at you, or whenever you shoot.

 

Seriously I take this guy on as my first boss :U

 

Ice Man's the bigger threat in Wily 4, I'd say - dude can kill you in three hits.

[Solly]

Not to be a walking GameFAQs here, but Fire Man's thing is that if you're a certain distance away from him, he'll shoot at you. If you stay close to him, all he'll do is run back and forth and only fire when either he gets far enough away to shoot at you, or whenever you shoot.

 

Seriously I take this guy on as my first boss :U

 

Ice Man's the bigger threat in Wily 4, I'd say - dude can kill you in three hits.

I actually did get him to do that in my most recent playthrough but again, it all looks random to me. Props to you for knowing how to do it, but I still think it's super unintuitive and really poorly designed.

 

Now about Ice Man: you can literally shoot Thunder Beam three times without moving out of the teleporter and win. He'll die really quickly, and if you haven't moved, you'll be teleported out of the arena before the projectile gets to you. He's actually the one boss there who basically never hits me. 

[JezMM]

Okay before I move on, the Glitz Pit mentions reminded me of one more level I love I want to sing praises for - The Excess Express from Paper Mario TTYD.  The first day is this cool mystery of going back and forth working things out.  The second day has that adorabley short mini dungeon with regular gameplay, and a bunch of atmosphere due to a handful of rooms with just ambient sound effects instead of music (and oddity for Paper Mario).  Then Day 3's event is absolutely terrifying as you travel the entire train with those things on every window - great boss fight too - and then finally AFTER the boss you get to explore the gorgeously designed Poshley Heights on the way to the Crystal Star.  Such a varied and awesome chapter filled with lovely cosy locations, even the "dungeon" section is exploring a rustic old train station.

 

 

 

 

Okay, so, least favourite levels time.  In order to narrow these down, I'm sticking purely to levels I dread playing in games that I otherwise love.

 

 

 

Arid Sands - Night - Act 3 (Unleashed HD DLC)

 

This level broke my laptop.  After switching off the game in frustration at how utterly unfair the final area of this stage is, I angrily tried to turn off the music I was listening to and ended up smashing the keyboard and permanently borking it.  Luckily it started working again a few days later and I was able to recover my files.  Still, I've been more controlled with my rage at video games ever since.

 

The final area of the stage requires you to fight a Titan on a platform WAY too tiny to be fighting a Titan from.  If you get hit by his shockwaves, you're dead.  If you get hit by his small smack attack - which has no logic to its hit boxes at all (it'll connect if you're stood behind him when he does it, even though his animation only swipes in front), you're dead.  Couple this with the fact that, like most of the later DLC, this Titan has more health than the ones in Eggmanland - and wizards all around distracting you - and it is just... awful.  Awful awful.

 

 

 

 

I hate this campaign so much.  It's just so boring.  The only time I play it is when I'm doing a marathon run of every campaign in chronological order.  It's just flat, all the way through.  Trees, slow walking through water.  There's one part where you go up onto walkways that's fun but it's over in a minute.  The finale is more interesting but it's also one of the most inconvenient to navigate around, and the two Tanks on the second wave can really screw you over in a big way.  Finally, the escape sequence starts about 10 seconds before the escape route actually opens up - you kind of have to stay fighting for a while because if you wait around by the gate for it to explode, the first escape sequence Tank WILL spawn right next to the gate without fail and screw you over.  The fact that the route to the finale is the longest one in the entire game (sans Crash Course, though that has a great finale and is a fun map so I don't care) means having to try again is infuriatingly annoying.

 

This campaign is even less fun on versus, where there's next to no vantage points for any infected - you just have to spawn behind trees (and it's super hard to find one that's out of everyone's line of sight).  There's no way to sneak up on the survivors, and in versus mode the survivors don't even suffer water slowdown so you're basically trying to kill them in wide open field after wide open field.  Valve REALLY should've taken some more artistic license on this one.  I'm sure it's a faithful representation of the bayou because they do their research, but it sure ain't fun to play.

 

Funnily enough though, due to various reasons, this is actually the campaign I used to get the achievement for beating a campaign on Realism mode at Expert difficulty.  If you're well-organised and know what you're doing it's the easiest to do that on because it contains no rolling crescendos.  But for general play when you want to be challenged but also to just have fun and not be the most efficient team in the world, that friggin' finale can be brutal.

 

 

 

 

A quick little list of other levels I never look forward to playing in games I otherwise love:

 

Bubblegloop Swamp from Banjo-Kazooie: This is far from a bad level but it's one with no efficient route through and that drives me mad.  No matter how you play it, you will have to do a bunch of backtracking and redoing parts when it comes to doing stuff that requires the crocodile transformation.

 

Siren's Alley from BioShock 2: Dunno what it is about it but this level was really boring for me - I didn't care for the map's own little "storyline" about Father Wales and all that, but it's also at that point in the game where the enemy difficulty ramps up but you're not quite at the point where you're fully decked out in tonics and plasmids that suit your optimal playstyle.  All the Little Sister gathers are the most difficult and tedious in the game for me, and generally this level just didn't have a very interesting aesthetic.  I dislike Dionysus Park for having a boring aesthetic too, but this one slightly more.  I was also a little offended that they reused some of my favourite ambient music from BioShock 1 in an area of this level and I was like "NO you may not make me relate this area to that bit of ambient music".

 

Route Kanal/Water Hazard from Half-Life 2: Honestly these were so tedious and generic gameplay for me the first time I played HL2 I almost lost interest in the game, so I fear others might have done the same and never got to the gravity gun or meat of the story that makes HL2 so great.  I'm glad I stuck through it.  Nowadays, I know how long these sections are, so they don't have the same feeling of going on and on and I appreciate how important they are to build suspense to reaching Alyx and Eli and showing how difficult it is to get out of City 17.

 

"The Itch" from Portal 2: Dunno why, just don't find the final set of chambers in the game that fun.  It doesn't help that I wasn't omg in love with the character who created them like everyone else was but generally just... yeah, it's a section of the game I just trudge through.  The first few were funny though and the suspense for the finale does build nicely during them.

 

Chapter 4 from Paper Mario TTYD: So much backtracking back and forth while you do arbitrary things.  You have to travel to Creepy Steeple and back again like 4 or 5 times and it gets old really fast.  Chapters 2 and 5 also have a bit of boring back and forth but Chapter 4 is definitely the worst offender.  Made even worse on replays where you're like "I ALREADY KNOW YOUR NAME" but naturally have to find that missing P to prevent cheating.

 

 

And just to close... once upon a time I would have said the Water Temple from OoT and Great Bay Temple from MM, but through years of replaying I finally totally have those down pact - I never get stuck on them anymore.  As a kid though, I'd always reach the room to Dark Link's chamber just one key short and it would drive me mad lol.

[SuperLink]

Day Se7en: Least Favourite Reveru

 

You mean I have to intentionally dredge through my repressed memories for this? Sob.

But whoa, as soon as I remembered this place, I instantly knew I had to choose it;

 

The Moon - Final Fantasy IV

 

 

Fuck this place, seriously fuck it. I have no idea why people love FFIV so much, but maybe I would if this place just plain didn't exist. FFIV is already the king of ridiculous difficulty jumps but this place really takes the biscuit. Right at the end of the game, you get your party together and you're all raring to go, things are looking pretty heroic, and you're leaving your own planet to go fight an ancient threat on the moon.. sounds exciting right?

 

That excitement stops almost the moment you get out of your airship and look around the moon's surface. The moment you bump into 5 fucking hard as shit random encounters within seconds of one another, your party quickly becomes sapped of its PP and becomes afflicted with all manner of status ailments. Grinding? Sure! If you can stomach the stupidly hard enemies and the fact that you'll have to spend hours, perhaps even days grinding so that you're strong enough to take on the (another difficulty jump!) every-random-enemy-is-a-boss final dungeon! Wanna power up with a summon? Sure! The summon you can get here is also in a hard as fuck dungeon!

 

It's at this point right at the end of the game that I had mostly enjoyed, filled with characters I thought were pretty cool, like Cecil and Rydia and Yang.. that I figured "fuck it, I can't be bothered". I own 3 copies of Final Fantasy IV, and I've played through it more than any other FF game. Why? WHY? I always give up on the same place, I don't even like FFIV anymore. I'm convinced that the only reason FFIV is as popular as it is is because of the attractive characters or because most people who play it are either really fuckin good at FF or give up on one of the earlier difficulty jumps. Because I don't understand how any average player can get to The Moon and put up with it and still think "yeah FFIV is my favourite FF game".

 

Fuck FFIV. It's because of FFIV's Moon that it's one of my least favourite entries in the main series, I hope they're happy.

 

I don't even have any honourable mentions this time because I don't think any location in any game has single-handedly ruined an entire game for me as much as FFIV's Moon has. Sure there are terrible stages in games I hate, and there are boring stages I have to put up with in games I love, but this, right here, is a stage that pretty much ruined a whole game for me.

[Komodin]

Day 7 - Least Favorite Level

 

My least favorite level, huh?

 

 

Do any of you guys recall this mission from Super Mario Sunshine? It’s the fifth one in Pianta Village, the Secret of the Village Underside. Just getting to this mission isn’t the problem, although you’ll have to deal with Yoshi’s clunky controls while jumping along a series of mushroom platforms above a bottomless pit to get to the entrance itself. Now, you’ve probably heard from certain circles that the secret stages are the best parts of the game for their pure, unadulterated, FLUDD-free platforming. While they’re not necessarily wrong with making such a statement, with this mission? 

 

This is definitely the sole exception to that claim. What makes this stage especially detestable is that it’s basically a Luck-Based Mission.

 

You see, unlike every other secret stage in the game, you can’t just get by on platforming alone. No, in order to traverse this course, you’ll have to talk to these Piantas that call themselves the Chucksters. As their titles imply, after they’re done talking to you, they pick you and THROW you far away. Here’s the thing with Chucksters: where they throw you to depends on what opposite angle you talk to them from. Let’s say, for instance, there’s a faraway platform straight away from behind the Chuckster. If you talk to them right front in center, they’ll toss you right behind themselves, with you landing on that platform. However, if you talk them from the side, even at a slight angle, they’ll still toss you, but you’ll just might fly off the side of the platform or not land on it at all, guaranteeing yourself a trip to the bottomless pit, which this entire level is situated over.

 

Imagine doing this for every single platform in the level. Also, it’s not like it’s just straight horizontal movement, either--one part has you somehow trying to aim yourself so that, when you talk to a Chuckster, he’ll toss you onto a platform high above the one you’re on without falling back down. For most of the level, the Chucksters stay in one spot so aiming is relatively easy. The last part, however, has you dealing with MOVING Chucksters. In order to reach the small platform with the Shine Sprite, you have to talk to the Chuckster in such a manner that they’ll not only line up perfectly with the platform, but also you’re facing them straight on in alignment with that platform. Even then, due to a weird bug that this game has, there’s a chance that if you don’t land on the platform JUST RIGHT, you’ll land on it, collide into the triangular wall, and--and I swear I’m not making this up--fall right through the platform into the bottomless pit. Keep in mind that, as with all the secret stages during the first time through, you have no access to the FLUDD at all, so there’s no safety net of any sort to save you from a nasty fall. Not that having it would’ve spared you, anyway--once you’re in a Chuckster toss, you’re pretty much on autopilot until you land, whether it’s on a platform or a pit.

 

So, in conclusion, Chucksters can go chuck themselves right into Hell, as far as I’m concerned. Bleh...

[Xtremer Sadiqachu]

'Bout time there was a least in this topic. 




This level is my least favorite in the whole game. I'm not really a big fan of desert levels anyway, I mean I like Sandopolis and Shifting Sand Land and Pharaoh Man's stage but Gobi's Valley....UUUUUGH.

First off, you know how every desert level in a game has quicksand you have to jump out of. That's not the case here. Instead, there's HOT SAND. Banjo, being a barefoot bear, can't step in the hot sand or else he'll get hurt. But the problem is, there's notes in the sand. Notes required to open doors to progress through the game. How do you get the notes? You use the wading boots, which are TIMED, mind you. So you're off in the corner of a wall frantically collecting notes in the sand then timer runs out and you're stuck in the middle just trying to jump out before you get a game over. Also the mummy enemies can't be killed without the Wonderwing ability. 

But hey, maybe I just suck at video games.