What games drove you to insanity? or What games couldnt you finish? (1 Viewer)

[David Ely]

Viewtiful Joe has pushed me over the edge. It's the only game that has actually pissed me off enough to stop playing. I've never done this before.

The final boss on level 6 is completely frustrating. The worst part is that it comes down to dumb luck at the end since he starts going absolutely mental. Why did they have to do this? The rest of the game was terrific. While there were other hard parts, it came down to skill controlling Joe. This boss makes me feel as if I'm playing Space Channel 5.

I really hate to put it down, but I'm just not having fun with it anymore. It will be promptly removed from my collection.

 

[Chris Bardon]

Actually, I believe it was "Shy Gypsy Slyly Spryly Tryst By My Crypt" (not that I've finished that game a few times or anything). Actually, even though I've beaten 7th guest (and 11th hour and Clandestiny) a couple of times, I should qualify that by saying that I could never beat the microscope puzzle in t7g. I'm still convinced that it's impossible. I remember that I even checked out a strategy guide that was out at the time, and even it said to go to the book for that one.

 

[Chris Farmer]

I beat the microscope puzzle on my second try, without ever checking the book first. It was tricky, and came down to a lot of luck, but I did in fact do it on the hardest difficulty.

 

[DaveGTP]

Oh yeah-

I forgot the most frustrating one of all (although also the most fun for a frustrating one).

Super Monkey Ball 2. According to my old save I got to level 9 and beat most of those, but I could never got any farther.

 

[Andrew Bunk]

I seem to remember Donkey Kong 64 inspiring quite a lot of cursing for me. I hate racing games, and every time I'd have to race someone or do a timed mission I think my blood pressure rose exponentially!

 

[Jason Hughes]

Yes! The racing stuff did not bother me, but what killed me was when you had to be the original game all the way through (the second time) without dying once.

Finally had to bring it in to work and have a friend of mine do it for me (after literally days of trying).

 

[Jason Harbaugh]

Damn that is a lot longer than I remember. It's been awhile.

I think we got the microscope puzzle just by pure dumb luck.

And whenever I go by a piano I must play that haunting little tune you must figure out.

 

[James T]

I just thought of another one...Battletoads!

I hated those damn speed racing levels. My eyes couldn't even move as fast as the character was suppose to move. I think I ended up passing it after memorizing the moves.

 

[Chris Stainton]

I agree. I broke a controller in half trying to finish this game.

 

[teapot2001]

I can still vividly remember how fast the screen moved during at the end of those levels. I managed to pass them somehow.

~T

 

[Chris Bardon]

Right, that's another one I just never made it all the way through honestly. Fantastic game though, and I'd love to see it revisited sometime.

The Turbo tunnel wasn't actually that bad, since the bit at the end (where it moved inhumanly fast) was just a simple up/down pattern. If you kept to the middle of the track and just kept moving up and down to dodge, you were fine. Still tricky though.

Actually, this game is a great example of something that's hard because of the lack of save points. I'm sure that if you could have saved anywhere (or had unlimited continues) I would have finished Battletoads, but because you had to go all the way back through the game after you ran out of lives and your limited continues there was never as much chance to practice the later levels. The only comparison I can think of is imagine trying to play through any given level of Halo 2 (the entire game is much longer than Battletoads) with no checkpoints. You die-back to the beginning. I'm not saying that this was a good design strategy, but it might explain why older games are often regarded as "harder".

 

[Don Giro]

I have never been able to finish enough missions to unlock ANYTHING in GTA3, GTA:VC, or GTA:SA. I just don't have the patience, time, or coordination to succeed at most console games, but I love them. I was driving aimlessly around Los Santos a few days ago (because I'm not talented enough to complete the "Drive-By" mission, and that's REALLY EARLY on in GTA:SA) when I came to a panoramic view of Las Venturas and its promise of glittering casino nightlife off in the distance. I just sighed, knowing full well that I will never, EVER get to drive on those streets, judging from my "success" with the game thus far, and my track record with the GTAs before it. How's that for frustration?

This is yet another reason I'm so thankful for Final Fantasy-style RPGs and first person shooters, I can finish them!

 

[Steve Y]

I sympathize with you, Don. I've been on a marathon with the three 3D-based GTA games this week and finally pushing forward in a series that just resists the efforts of gamers like me. In GTA III my least favorite missions are definitely the timed "drive-by" levels ... the gang members are more like military infantry than single shooters, and if you are within range for more than ten seconds, your car just "blows up".

In Vice City, I had the hardest time with the "Messing with the Man" mission... involving a motorcycle and a "damage meter". I finally realized I had to just head down the strip and KEEP MOVING and shoot everything I see as it appears without getting too far away. But this was after a YEAR of trying. The missions that open up after you start buying property are actually much more fun.

That said, San Andreas is a much fairer game than its two predecessors. I'm shocked that I've made it all the way to Las Venturas... I just keep passing missions that in III or Vice City I'd be cursing (although I'm cursing my current mission quite loudly): Where the mob guy is strapped to your trunk and you have to frighten him into talking by driving him through traffic ... very soon after you begin, your cop meter jumps to three... and if you hit anything head-on, the mission is over.. grrr!
.

But it shocks me how a game can be so challenging without being quite so frustrating as you'd expect. I mean, I'm winning races?? Blowing up helicopters? I'm a big pimp with a cowboy hat? (haha) The hardest levels in San Andreas for me are the ones involving "Zero". Those who've played them know which ones I mean. THOSE make me want to put GTA:SA in a disc shredder. I nearly had a heart attack trying to pinpoint all the RC Red Barons flying out of the sky from all directions... also, the RC control in the next mission is really floaty.. which makes sense, but man, I just keep getting blown out of the sky!

I can't even play GTA2 for my Dreamcast. The control is awful... when you're not driving a car, your little character has an "accelerator button" and has to actually rotate to change direction! As if the developers couldn't figure out how to create separate up/down/left/right controls out-of-vehicle. Creating "challenge" through poor control is cheating. Not to mention the radio station audio starts from scratch EVERY TIME you enter a vehicle, so you have to listen to the same annoying 20-30 seconds OVER and OVER and OVER...

(apologies to any DMA design developers in the room)

s

 

[Matt Butler]

Thank You for bringing that up. When I made a "custom soundtrack" on GTA:VC on XBox I had this problem. I just went back to the radio.

 

[Jason L.]

Speaking of 7th Guest, what was up with the Baby being smothered to death? That freaked the hell out of me - I had major goosebumps.

I believe that there has never, never, never been a person who could complete an Infocom game without some help/cheat book.

I was playing Trinity months ago and got stuck.

There was an Infocom-like game called "Amnesia" put out by Electronic Arts back in the text-adventure heyday. You woke up in a hotel room in Manhattan and had no idea who you were. Very good game - I just got to a point where I couldn't go any further.

Super Ghouls n' Ghosts drove me crazy. There is a certain level where you had to time a jump just right - with maybe a 1 in 30 success rate. There wasn't any real thinking to be done - it was just pure luck. I think Electronic Gaming Monthy years ago had it as one of the toughest games of all time.

 

[David Ely]

I think the hardest game of all time has to be Target Earth for the Sega Genesis.

 

[Jeffrey Forner]

David, I understand your frustration, for I have been there myself. Fire Leo is one of the hardest bosses I have ever encountered in a video game. I consider him to be so hard, in fact, that I actually remember him by his goddamn name rather than calling him the "boss of level six." Still, I'm here to tell you not to give up. He can be beaten quite handily if you know what you are doing. I should know. Not only have I beaten this game on Adults, but I've even managed to finish it on the incredibly difficult V-Rated mode. If someone around here can help you out, it's me. Have a seat, and I'll give you some advice to turn the tide.

First things, first, you say you know what you are doing, and by the way your post reads, you understand Fire Leo's basic patterns. The problem is dealing with the series of rapid fire attacks he throws at you when he starts spinning. You must avoid five of these attacks in a row for him to let his guard down so that you can deal out some major damage.

Ideally, you would use your Slow Motion VFX power to more easily dodge these attacks. Doing so will unfortunately completely drain your VFX meter so that by the time you are ready to attack, you won't have any juice left to fuel a series of Slow Motion punches and do the most damage. The other option, which it sounds like you've been using, is to forgo the Slow Motion power altogether and simply avoid them at normal speed. Obviously, the problem with this is possessing the reflexes needed to push up or down at just the right moment to avoid these attacks. Hell, I can't even do it this way; my reflexes are nowhere near that good.

The trick is learning out to use your VFX meter in a way so that it doesn't completely run dry. When I get to this part of the battle, I usually activate and deactivate it in a continuous manner. In other words, I don't hold down the R button (or R1 if you're playing the PS2 version) non-stop when I'm trying to dodge these attacks. I push it and hold it long enough to see where his next attack is going to be, then I release it after I've positioned Joe to dodge the attack. Just as the next skull icon appears, I do the same thing. I activate the Slow Motion power long enough to position Joe to dodge the attack, then I release the button when the attack finally comes.

This strategy will allow you to make use of the Slow Motion VFX power without running it completely dry. Obviously, when you deactivate it, the meter will fill up a little, and that's how you keep it from running out completely when you are ready to go on offense and lay some damage into Fire Leo. It's really no more complicated than that. Once you get the hang of it, just keep doing the same thing over and over again until you finally smite his ass into cinder. If necessary, purchase a Take 2 if you need the extra health. It could make all the difference.

Good luck. I hope this posts helps. And remember what I told you. You'll need it to beat Frost Tiger in Viewtiful Joe 2.

 

[Jason Hughes]

Wow. That brings back memories (no pun intended). I wonder if it is somehow avaliable.

 

[Joe D]

System Shock 2.

I was cruising along in the game loving it until I got to the last stronghold where just hordes of enemies came at you in a huge arena.

This area was so different and difficult from the rest of the game, I was pissed.

 

[Cory B]

yeah, they were hard, but they were doable. Especially if you consider the introductory ones like Seastalker and Wishbringer. Granted back in the day there was none of this "get stuck and look for the answer online after 10 minutes" that is so common now. The satisfaction of beating these games after months of work is unparalleled to this day.

Toughest Infocoms in my opinion:

Suspended: Control 5 robots at the same time to save a planet while all of the robots describe every object in the game differently. Only one of the robots can hear and only one can read. Insanely hard...

Zork 3: This one is mentioned pretty much for the Sandstone maze. When I went back and played this about a year ago it didn't give me much of a problem, but when I first played I didn't even know what was going on. Basically you are stuck in a text maze where you have to push blocks around to find something hidden under a block while keeping the blocks in a configuration where you can still get out.

Bureaucracy: Another tour through the deranged mind of Douglas Adams. After getting stuck multiple times with crazy puzzles like what to do with a cheque for -$75, I finally gave up when I didn't realize a secret message was hidden vertically instead of horizontally. :frowning: Recently finished it up though...

Honorable non-Infocom mention:
Savage Island Part 1: While the Scott Adams adventures were typically easier, two word parser versions of Infocom, I never managed to beat Savage Island Part 1, even with the official Scott Adams clue book. I don't know whether it was actually difficult puzzle solving, or it was just the frustration of getting blown off the island by the hurricane or being eaten by the bear all the time. My frustration with never beating it drove me to take a hex editor to the game to try every word I could find in the editor as the password to get into Savage Island Part 2, but even that was unsuccessful... :frowning:

Yes, I was a very young computer geek...