Top 10 Worst Video Game Cliches
We have all experienced this. You know, you are playing a game, and you encounter something. Something you don't like, and you hope to dear God that it's not a recurring thing. But no, it comes back not just in this game but in many games.So what better way to rant than to create a list about them, the top ten WORST video game clichés.
In games like "The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker" or "The Walking Dead," escort missions work quite well. This is because they actually give the other person a reason to follow you, and you care about them. In games like "Resident Evil 5" and "Amy," on the other hand, escort missions are annoying! This is true for 95% of games, where terrible AI partners are just there to slow your progress.
I hate these. Usually, the person I'm escorting is yelling at me to hurry up, while they themselves are barely moving at all. And if I decide to stop and reload, they will suddenly sprint ahead and get mauled by zombies, Big Daddies, or whatever I'm supposed to be protecting them from.
Any villain who wants to either take over the world or destroy it and rebuild it in their own image is unoriginal. What's worse is if they're as boring as hell and don't seem to pose a threat.
If the villain really wanted to get the main character, they would just do it instead of talking about it!
We need more villains like The Joker.
Yay. I love going super slow in an annoyingly fun level. These can work, but they are inferior to most other level themes.
Some are decent, but others are plain garbage, like the Water Temple and Labyrinth Zone.
I'm partial to ice levels, but this is a close second.
It's at its worst when the boss looks AWESOME because you get a huge disappointment.
Boom Boom - enough said. It just lulls me to sleep.
When I started playing Omega Ruby (Pokémon), I sped through the whole tutorial really quickly because I had already played Y. Some of the new features (like sneaking up on a Pokémon) I needed to figure out how to do, but for the most part, I breezed through it.
Damn, every time I play the rapping level in Rhythm Tengoku and make one small mistake, I have to do the tedious tutorial again.
The worst offender of this is most of the Pokemon games! Now, don't get me wrong - I love Pokemon!
I've always hated stories in video games because of the tedious text crawls and boring expositions, but turning them into fully-voiced, fully-animated two-hour cutscenes is pushing it! I never tried the Metal Gear series, but I know of 4's excruciating ending. I don't care if Snake wants to commit suicide or his issues with Big Boss. When I play games, I want to press buttons, move forward, beat down enemies, and fire a gun. I don't want to waste two minutes on story or exposition.
These are the worst, especially if you are constantly dying in a certain area. This applies in Bowser's Inside Story (BiS) since there is no skip button at all. I had to watch the scene of going to Dr. Toadley at least seven times and watch the battle intro for Bowser Memory ML at least ten times. I wanted to throw the game system across the room!
Call of Duty: Ghosts is one big backtrack. You leave the house, then go back. If I remember right, you don't even leave the state!
All I have to say is that a good game which used this cliche to death is Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door!
Metro: Last Light is basically one HUGE backtrack.
Quick time events aren't bad... unless they're how you defeat the final boss at the end of the game. Then I have a problem with them, just like how you kill Damien in Watch_Dogs.
Maybe this wouldn't be too bad if you at least had some TIME to react, but nope, that's not the case. Some games, like Resident Evil 4, give you a damn nanosecond to react!
Two milliseconds to press a button that will save your life. Fail, and you die. How unfair is that? Come on, game developers!
There are instances where this concept is done really well, but most of the time, it's just a lazy excuse for a character's backstory or development.
Many times, there doesn't seem to be a reason for the character's amnesia. It's more or less a case of "amnesia for plot convenience."
It's insulting to the gamer to have a boss with a bright glowing weak spot, but it's even more insulting if the game flat-out tells you that the only way to defeat the boss is to attack the obvious weak spot.
"There's a huge eye with fifty arrows pointing to it, and I can lock on to it. Better check my trusty little guide to see where I should hit the boss!"
Nintendo does this a lot, especially in Mario and Zelda games.
Yes, I hate this so much. Sometimes it's fine, like if you're in an RPG fighting a group of people with only one healer. But if it's a really hard boss with a lot of HP, it's just not fun.
Dreamy Bowser. Because of his healing attack, it seems like he has the exact same amount of HP as Yiazmat from Final Fantasy XII!
This is why I hate the bug-with-Birdo-head boss from Bowser's Inside Story on 3DS.
When you see a game, what's the first thing you notice? The cover. The cover should represent the game, showing what the game is about, not just something designed to make people buy it.
Twilight Princess without a magic bar, even though it's on the back...
Look at Mario Party 9. It just ruins the game.
Okay, guys. Can't we just call this for what it really is? It's RNG, not luck!
To get 3 stars in Mario Kart 7, you need luck.
This is why I don't like games like Mario. Although they are easy, it doesn't really feel like I'm progressing through the adventure. In my opinion, games like Zelda do it better because you start off with low hearts at the beginning (still not enough to die in one hit, though). After each boss, you gain an extra heart. If the game is too hard, you can find heart pieces hidden around the world. If the game is too easy, you don't have to get the heart after you beat the boss.
A cheap way for video game opposition to win against the main character. It's annoying as all hell.
It's just a lazy tactic to fill time.
It's either the enemy AI is eagle-eyed, or your buddies have never held a gun before...
Then I have to restart the game to get the full experience, and I have to go through all the boring parts again. Then, at the end, I find out I missed another item, and the process repeats until I'm so bored with the game that I just shove it in the back of the closet and start a new one.
Tales of Vesperia is particularly bad for this. So many items and costumes can be missed because you forgot to go back and talk to a specific character within a short window of time.
The Master Ball in Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire was the worst. You had to find it rather than having it given to you.
So, you are thrown into an immensely difficult battle with a seemingly unbeatable boss. You give it your best, using up all of your best healing items, weapons, etc., until you inevitably die. Then, after watching a cutscene, you suddenly realize - you were intended to lose the battle. That, and you just wasted all of your best items for nothing.
This cliché is my least favorite. It forces you to lose to the boss, which is really annoying. I'm looking at you, Beatrix from Final Fantasy IX. It makes you waste items for nothing.
In Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, everyone is trying to kill you.
This has been done to death. No more jungle levels.
While some jungle levels are great, like the ones in Donkey Kong Country, Tree Tops in Spyro 1, on the other hand, is an abomination.
Serious Sam: Spikes? I hate spikes!
So many games I could name... Especially some RPGs like Dungeon Maker.
Ow, my fingers. This should be in the top 3.