Thread: Worst designed segments in a game? Best?

Zeta Dragoon

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Mass Effect 3 Ending goes without saying, but also

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

Silent Realms.
Mandatory.
Timed.
Instant Fail Stealth Segments.
Four of them.

Dead Space Asteroid Shooting.

Best?
Chrono Trigger -
Reviving Chrono
The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds-
Link and Zelda wishing Lorule a New Triforce

Kotor
Darth Raven Reveal

Jade Empire
Reveal of the actual big bad and the reason your martial arts has a opening as commented by multiple people- Its on purpose

Okami
Ninetales using their celestial powers. Confronting Yomi
.

Bastion - The Walk

Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon- The Shot

Ace Combat 7: Unknown Skies - Confronting the Arsonal Bird
 
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Worsts:
Gummi Ship - Kingdom Hearts
Inventory management, riding elevators and piloting the Mako - original (non-Legendary) Mass Effect
Lost Izalith & Bed of Chaos - Dark Souls
Escorting Natalya - Goldeneye 007
Birds - OG Ninja Gaiden
Medusa Heads - OG Castlevania
Cliff Racers - Morrowind
That fucking train chase mission - GTA San Andreas
The story going off the rails - Every David Cage game
 
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Bests:
The reveal of Kiryu, Majima and Saejima and their corresponding fights - Yakuza: Like a Dragon
When you uncover the hidden language and the whole game begins to click - Fez
When you get a feel for the rhythm of each level, and the first time you experience Area X - Rez Infinite
The entire mall mannequin level - Condemned: Criminal Origins
The cabin level featuring the bear - Condemned 2: Bloodshot
Final Thieves Guild missions where you literally steal an Elder Scroll - Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
The Wrathgate Indicent quest - World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
The whole opening segment and the Poseidon boss fight - God of War 3
Hoth mission & taking down the AT-AT - Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
Discovering the history of Aperture and ending up on the moon - Portal 2
Riding into Mexico and John's last stand - Red Dead Redemption
Insult Sword-Fighting - The Secret of Monkey Island
When you discover the Dark World, and the interplay between worlds - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Bank robbery mission - GTA IV
Sgt. Jackson attempting to escape the nuke - Call of Duty 4
 
Grand Theft Auto III - Ambulance missions. For whatever reason they seemed easier in Vice City.
Final Fantasy XV - That one, long, tedious section near the end of the game that was so bad they ended up patching it
Spider-Man by Insomniac - Those goddamn, fucking stealth sections with Mary Jane
Battletoads - Turbo tunnels. Though they toned down the difficulty of that and various other things in the Japanese version. I think they also were made easier in Battletoads in Battlemaniacs
Sleeping Dogs - The stupid cop rating that would get lowered over the stupidest crap
Final Fantasy X - The ultimate weapon requirements for Tidus and especially Lulu. Fuck dodging like a billion lightning bolts
Final Fantasy IX - The obnoxious requirement for Excalibur II. Nobody wants to fucking speed run a Final Fantasy game. Fuck FF9. FF 7/8 > FF9
Double Dragon I-III on the NES - Every time you had to do any kind of platforming
River City Girls - The awful Hibari boss fight where someone thought it was a good idea to turn a beat 'em up into some bullet hell bullshit. Having a boss that is constantly flying at the top of the screen where you can't touch her is fucking annoying too.
Scott Pilgrim - This game has a lot of issues, but one I really hate is when you throw a weapon and it bounces off the edge of the screen and hits you in the face. WHO THE FUCK THOUGHT THAT WAS A GOOD IDEA?
Streets of Rage 2 - The elevator section, and making you fight Shiva and Mr X. without food. Greatest beat 'em up ever my ass
Rogue-like/Rogue-lite elements in any video game. Fuck both of those genres
Batman Arkham Knight
- EVERYTHING that involves the Batmobile
Donkey Kong Country Returns/DKC Tropical Freeze - Changing the fucking platforming physics, motion control BS in the Wii version of DKCR, and removing Kremlins from the games entirely. I have other issues as well with those shitty games from Retro Studios but I'll just leave it at that.
Ninja Gaiden II (Original Xbox 360 version from Itagaki) - Ninjas with exploding shuriken
Viva Pinata Pocket Paradise - There's a pinata you have a very small chance of being able to acquire, and that small random chance is determined when you start the game without ever making the player aware of this.
Dead Rising - The sadistic "Survivor" achievements
God Hand - Shitty controls and that stupid difficulty adjustment system that punishes players for playing well.
Subnautica - The game goes a bit overboard with eating and drinking requirements. It's a constant nuisance.
Mega Man X 5 - Random generator bullshit for the story and levels
Mega Man X 6 - The reploid and nightmare system as well as rushed, unfinished feeling level designs, and awful controls for one of Zero's special moves
Mega Man X 8 - The design of some levels and the stupid ranking requirements. For all the hate it gets, Mega Man X 7 is better than MM X 5, 6, and 8. People only shit on MM X 7 because they are offended that it went semi-3D.
Sly Cooper and the Thievious Raccoonus - Some obnoxious mini-games in the swamp world like the one with the bomb chickens or the one where you have to light a bunch of tiki fires. Also, that section in the final stage of the game where you're driving and shooting owls is awful
Jak 2 - LITERALLY EVERYTHING IN THE ENTIRE FUCKING GAME. This is the worst game ever made by Naughty Dog. A massive drop in quality after the original Jak and Daxter
Contra Hard Corps - Removing the health meter when they localized the game outside of Japan
Streets of Rage III - Where to begin? They changed so many things when they localized the game and completely butchered the game the way shitty movie studios have butchered Asian martial arts movies over the years.
Ninja Gaiden III (NES) - Limiting the continues and doing other things when the game was localized that made the game harder than its creators intended.
Silhouette Mirage as well as every single game ever localized by Working Designs. Fucking with the difficulty balance of the games and inserting shitty jokes into the scripts
Resident Evil 4 Wii Edition - Adding motion control aiming to the game which made it way to easy. The game was not designed to be played that way
Starfox 64 - The Underwater and tank levels that nobody liked.
Starfox Zero - Stupid, retarded ass controls
Horizon Zero Dawn - A woke fucking story that basically amounts to all men suck and all women are fucking superheroes. Oh wait, I forgot we're supposed to be discussing game design problems. My bad.
Maximo Ghosts to Gory - I love the game, but it has lots of issues like shitty melee combat and most notably its save system.
MediEvil - The ant level is pretty bad, as well as the farm level with the scarecrows
The Tenchu series - Boss fights. The games are fun when just focused on stealth
Punch Out series - Timing the hit on Bald Bull when he changes up the rhythm of his charge is annoying. Dodging all of Super Macho Man's punches can be annoying too, and of course one hit knockouts when fighting Tyson are not fun
Astro Bot Rescue Mission - Those levels (and the one challenge mission) where you have to use your controller to create those invisible platforms. I also hate using the hook shot, particularly in that one timed challenge mission.
Anything involving move controllers with the original PSVR. The camera was so inaccurate. The best original PSVR games were the controller only ones
The Adventures of Batman and Robin on the SNES - I love this game, but it's rough in a few spots. The driving level, the roller coaster part with The Joker, and the blimp section in Scarecrow's level due to the grappling hook being a bit finicky at times.
The Adventures of Batman and Robin on the Genesis - The flying level that goes on for an eternity. Also, who is the nutcase that wanted to do a run n gun game focusing on a character who hates firearms?
Aladdin (Genesis) - The SNES version has Aladdin using his acrobatics and throwing apples to take out enemies, which fits the character. The Genesis version has him running around hacking and slashing everyone with a sword. The SNES version is a better game with better platforming and level design, and it more closely follows the movie.
 
Just played through the first couple hours of FF7 Rebirth again to test out the new laptop and I gotta say I still dig it. The whole Nibelheim sequence and all that. Well done.
 
Lol. Speaking of Skyward Sword...

The damn tear sections, or whatever they're called. Straight up awful. And that repeated boss fight where you attack it's feet, trash trash trash. I've never been able to finish the game because I get so burnt out on those sections near the end. I'm a lefty too and the game feels awful to play that way. You're forced to use your weak hand for sword fighting and aiming.

Resident Evil 6, everything really. That game is in a league of its own when it comes to awful design choices and production that jumped the shark. A memorable trainwreck that is near impossible to describe how DUMB it is.

FFXIII, I adore that game but it simply takes too long for the battle system to open up. FFXIII legitimately has one of the best RPG battle systems of all-time and the stagger system still shits all over FF 7 and FF16, but it simply takes too long to get there.

White Knight Chronicles, love this game but it's too slow. The remastered version in WKCII sped things up but it's still too bland. Awesome game all the same though, like a temu Dragon Quest in a sense.

THPS3 and forward. Got way too arcadey and wacky. THPS2 was the perfect balance and the series was downhill from there for me.

Panzer Dragoon, no unlimited continues. That game isn't balls hard but it's hard enough and even harder on your fingers/joints, you gotta drum your fingers on ABC to get an insanely fast fire rate for end game and it kills my hand. PD: Zwei makes PD feel like a beta.

SH2 remake. It's TOO FUCKING LONG. That's my only issue really and it sounds silly but good grief, that game overstays it's welcome by like 8 hours and it's designed TOO well. That sounds dumb too but it's so incredibly streamlined. 1/3 of the way through I could see behind the curtain and the game became a predictable cake walk. Still a great game but bloober still needs to show some restraint and dial things in more. They are not the studio they think they are, but someday they'll get there.
 
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One of the best that comes to mind is the AC130 segment in Modern Warfare. Nothing like it had ever been seen before and it just felt like real war footage. It was also an interesting bit as its almost a commentary on how disconnected these operators non are casually smiting baddies from thousands of feet in the air.
 
Worst:
-Boss fights in shooters. If a dev hasn't made a fighting game then it should be illegal for them to make boss fights in any of their games.
-Anything timed unless the stakes are high/fun, which is rarely done right.
-Fluff side missions. If the ideas the devs have left is "You need to get 10 apples to save my family!" then maybe they hit their creative cap on side missions.
-Puzzles in games you don't expect puzzles. Why did I just got from blasting enemies for 80% of the game to putting together pipes or making a pattern on the floor?
 
The entirety of Gran Turismo 7. They took all of the worst bits from each previous game and then constructed the whole of GT7 with that.

Any game that gives you missions where you have to sit and wait for an NPC to show up, then spend another 5 minutes following them for a long distance. Make that shit a 20 second cutscene, it's not gameplay.
 
I forgot the "best" part of the thread:

The Batman and Robin team up in Arkham Knight

The Catwoman chases in The Adventures of Batman and Robin (SNES) and Batman Arkham Origins Blackgate

The major stealth sequence followed by the cinematic chase sequence in Beyond Good and Evil

The Seven Force boss fight in Gunstar Heroes

The police station level in Hotline Miami

Conker's Bad Fur Day has a lot. Many people remember the singing poo part in particular. I like the part where you grab villagers and feed them to the vampire bat.

Everything from the beginning of Castlevania Symphony of the Night to when Death takes your equipment away

Everything in Mega Man X 4 from the stages to the bosses. I really like the level with the air ships. Particularly if you use zero, the game plays more elegantly with him. Also, the three stage boss fight with Sigma and the anime flashback that precedes it if you're playing as Zero is chef's kiss...unless you're playing the English version with the crappy dubbing.

The Mega Man series evolved in cool ways over time. The slide (upgraded to dashing in the MM X series) , the charged up shots, the wall jumping in the MM X series, and lastly the awesome melee combat of Zero in Mega Man X 4

Every single stage in Mark of the Ninja. The game is perfect.

The Independence Day level of Starfox 64 and the stage where Star Fox's team breaks through an entire enemy fleet while they are freaking the fuck out the whole time. "Who ARE these guys?!". It's the most epic level in the entire game.

The Dreadnaught battles in Starlink Battle for Atlas

Take your pick from any of the bosses in Shadow of the Colossus

All of the stealth based parts of Journey

Ravenholm in Half Life 2

The entire Final Act of Mass Effect 2

The epic car escape in Brutal Legend as "Through the Fire and the Flames" is playing

Itagaki's original version of Ninja Gaiden II was a flawed game in many ways, but I loved how you could backtrack through a level that you've played through, and it would be littered with the blood, limbs, and corpses of everything you've killed.

Literally every single level in Sonic and Knuckles. They are so well designed and quite imaginative. Going super sonic and flying through space after Robotnick if you have all of the chaos emeralds is super epic too. Honestly, every boss fight in the game is fantastic too. The game is perfect. Getting to combine it with Sonic 3 with the lock on cart is great too, but the game already rules on its own and is the stronger half of the Sonic 3 and Knuckles adventure.

The fight against Mad Hatter in The Adventures of Batman and Robin for the Genesis. A psychedelic battle with a killer soundtrack

The Technodrome level in Turtles in Time on the SNES with the cool boss fight against Shredder where you fling the enemies at him. That throwing enemy mechanic along with the ground slam are such fun combat mechanics

The boss fights against Bebop and Rocksteady in the SNES version of Turtles in Time and the one in Rescue Palooza. It's fun watching them hit each other by accident. In the Turtles in Time boss fight they eventually just get pissed and start attacking each other until they take each other out.

The fight against Ganon in Ocarina of Time with the now famous back and forth ping, pong, thing with you knocking back his attacks. The entire final act of the game is epic.

The sphere mini-game introduced in Sonic 3 was the best chaos emerald mini-game ever made

The theme park level of Streets of Rage 2 that has you going through a bunch of neat areas like a pirate ship themed area, an alien themed area, and an arcade

The Farm level and the arcade themed levels of Lollipop Chainsaw. Easily the best levels in the whole game.

The opening bits of Evil Dead Regeneration with you revisiting Evil Dead 2's cabin are awesome. If that doesn't get you excited to play the rest of the game, nothing will

The music themed car chase levels of Valiant Hearts the Great War

Halo: Combat Evolved has some of the best video game levels ever, made even more awesome by the presence of the marines, and the hilarious AI and personality of The Covenant.

The "Rig" from Wild 9 and all of the sadistic things you can do with it

The trap system from the Tecmo Deception series

The hilariously sadistic puppy mini games in Earthworm Jim 2

The PDA mini-games in Alien Hominid, which were better than the main game.

The battle arenas in every Ratchet and Clank game. There are literally the best parts of the game.

All of the cat and mouse chases between Sly and Carmelita in the Sly Cooper series. Particularly this one:



All of The Red Star's boss fights



The tate system in Shinobi made every boss fight more interesting. Has any other game tried to copy this?



Sending people flying through destructible environments in Otogi like Dragonball Z

The shadow double power up in the NES version of Ninja Gaiden II

The environmental combat in Sleeping Dogs. Why don't more games let you use the environment against enemies in melee combat?

The Japanese, 2 player version of The Simpsons arcade is much better designed overall and more fun to play. The hammer weapon is stronger, there's more food, and you can fill your health bar beyond its maximum. I think there's one or two other changes too that I've forgotten.

Fire Emblem Warriors is one of the best Dynasty Warriors style games out there, because you have multiple characters on the battlefield that are actually helpful (unlike most games of this type like Hyrule Warriors for example). You can swap control between them, order them to specific locations, and even assign actions to them like healing someone. If left to their own devices, they can usually kick ass unless you send them into a situation where they will be at a clear disadvantage. One of the few Warriors games where it doesn't feel like you're just one person fighting the entire battle by yourself.

Prince of Persia 2008 was a brilliant game that emphasized teamwork between two characters in so many fun ways. I also loved that you could effectively "ring out" some bosses by knocking them off a platform to instantly win the fight.

Winning fights in Battle Arena Toshinden 2 by knocking your opponent out of the ring or successfully executing a desperation attack if you were low on health was super satisfying.

Resident Evil 4. The cabin fight, the early battle with the village of enemies and your first encounter with chainsaw man, the fight with the lake monster, the giant cave troll encounters. I mean what the hell WASN'T awesome in RE 4? It was just great moment after great moment.

The talking flowers and giant wonder seed moments in Super Mario Bros. Wonder were brilliant

The time travel/shifting between 8-bit and 16-bit graphics in The Messenger is brilliant. Also, the Shopkeeper's role in the game and his stories are a HUGE part of the game's charm. Especially if you initiate his cabinet rants.

Guacamelee seamlessly blending environmental traversal moves with combat. Every new move you got was a new way to fight enemies, and a new way to navigate the environment as well.

Eating an entire planet in Tales from Space Mutant Blobs Attack

The Sanitorium battle with the Wendigos in Until Dawn

Air pirate boss fights in Skies of Arcadia

Sinking pirate ships in Sly Cooper 3

Word insult fights in the first Monkey Island game

Spray painting stuff in the Jet Grind Radio games was fun

Infamous Second Son had a super attack you could do that was so ridiculously fucking powerful. I loved entering into a big fight, pulling one off and destroying EVERYTHING and EVERYONE around me.

The Darkness had a weird tentacle power you could use where you could use it to enter an area and kill enemies without you actually being there. I remember clearing out a whole building full of enemies with it without even stepping inside.


All of the hilarious (and violent) things you can do by slowing down time in Just in Time Incorporated

Picking up an enemy and using them to beat the fuck out of another enemy in the River City games

Knocking enemies into pits or off high ledges in video games. There is something so sadistically fun about this. Watching an enemy fall to their death fills me with glee.

Taking pictures of stuff in games is strangely fun. I'm not talking about gay ass "photo modes" in games, but stuff like taking pictures of animals in Beyond Good and Evil or trying to take perfect shots in Dead Rising.

Celestial brush powers in Okami
 
I really don't have the energy for a Top 50 so here are just a few personal moments in time.

I loved being able to mix two different fighting styles for your player character in Def Jam: Fight for NY. The game also has an excellent UI, music and camera work during fights as well as environmental combat in stages, like the SUV front windshield, side door, walls and windows etc.

MotorStorm: Pacific Rift added various cool down sections on race tracks for another strategic layer to a racing game that was already pretty strategic in the different types of terrain that the different vehicle classes could or could not drive through. I also liked being able to select each other vehicle for opposing racers in custom races.

One of the best segments of Sleeping Dogs was the mission "Intensive Care" set in the hospital, as it reminded me of Hard Boiled, one of my favorite movies. Even if the gunplay isn't as fun as the melee combat, the level was still one of the most memorable moments of the game for me. Otherwise, the melee combat throughout the rest of the game is fun because you can unlock and chain together different moves during fights, not just execute a button prompt at the right time to see a cool animation for the fiftieth time. Hong Kong is also a great, unique setting; the world never feels too open but rather meticulously designed whether you are on-foot or driving a vehicle.
 
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With all the praise Expedition 33 is getting, I should point out the horrible platforming sections.
 
The entirety of Gran Turismo 7. They took all of the worst bits from each previous game and then constructed the whole of GT7 with that.

Any game that gives you missions where you have to sit and wait for an NPC to show up, then spend another 5 minutes following them for a long distance. Make that shit a 20 second cutscene, it's not gameplay.

i think the worst part of this game these days is that apart from the online and the prettier graphics ....its still a glorified replay camera simulator
the game has not evolved in the last 20 years
 
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Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Resident Evil REmake are all masterfully designed video games from start to finish

Skyward Sword is almost the epitome of what not to do in a Zelda game; the game almost in its entirety is filled with misses. Mario & Luigi: Brothership is exactly what you don't want in a JRPG. I'll need some time to think about singling out other instances and examples of the worst and best segments in other games
 
i think the worst part of this game these days is that apart from the online and the prettier graphics ....its still a glorified replay camera simulator
the game has not evolved in the last 20 years

It devolved if anything. The in game economy is the grindiest I remember, no qualifying or standing starts, every single God damned fucking career race is catch the leader who has a half lap advantage, all gold career and licences are by far the easiest yet, AI is possibly the dumbest yet, it now costs you money to play against your friends, they killed the custom track builder and shuffle racing, something is seriously wrong and unpredictable with their tire model and the feedback to the player is totally non existent in my opinion, the list is endless.
 
A master class in design would be Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask in its entirety. But also, Chapters 2 and 3 in Paper Mario (N64) are flawless imo as far as a colorful and lighthearted Mario RPG adventure goes. Banjo-Kazooie's Treasure Trove Cove is amazing. Chapter 6 in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is what I would call a genius level; it wont be for everyone and it's not perfect but it's a level that cannot and will not ever be replicated; entirely unique. Resident Evil 4's Village and Castle levels are unbelievably designed in every way; video game perfection almost. Super Mario 64 is brilliant in its entirety. I would argue that most levels in Super Mario Sunshine are some of the best that the platforming genre can offer
 
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The intro tutorial for Twilight Princess was so slow and laborious that it caused me to sell my Wii and retire from gaming for like a year
 
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The intro tutorial for Twilight Princess was so slow and laborious that it caused me to sell my Wii and retire from gaming for like a year
Yeah. One thing Breath of the Wild fixed was letting you out of the cave at the start, though the Great Plateau is still a tutorial.
 
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Yeah. One thing Breath of the Wild fixed was letting you out of the cave at the start, though the Great Plateau is still a tutorial.

And it was a fun/engaging tutorial and didn't really feel like one. I thought the plateau was an excellent microcosm of the experience.
 
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The intro tutorial for Twilight Princess was so slow and laborious that it caused me to sell my Wii and retire from gaming for like a year

That intro was very ordinary. Twilight Princess is so dull sometimes, at many points during the game to be honest. I think it has an interesting plot but execution is horrible across the board if I'm being brutally honest about the game. The best part about TP is probably just the story, decent dungeon puzzles at times, a few standout bosses, and that's about it. I really want to replay TP one day though to see it all again and to analyze it as crazy as that may sound