Levels or areas that you hate, in games that you love?

[AstralSoul | 502]

Think about some of your favorite games, there's got to be at least one part or level in the game that you dread when you replay it, right?

A few easy answers from me...

In Earthbound, my absolute favorite game of all time, I love literally everything about the game EXCEPT this one dungeon. If you've played the game you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. In Dusty Dunes Desert you enter a cave where you have to find and kill 5 giant moles that act as bosses and think that they're the third strongest. Aside from the fact that the dungeon is a literal maze that I get lost in every single time, almost every enemy you encounter there poisons you. And your inventory space is very limited and can't hold a ton of poison healing items, or use up all your psychic points as those are pretty limited at that stage in the game too. So not only do you constantly get poisoned and walk around a maze, but the mole bosses are all very strong for that stage of the game. Sure you can just leave the area, heal, and go back but what a hassle that is. The whole ordeal is just a slog and no other part in the game irritates me more than that.

In Conker's Bad Fur Day, another top 5 favorite of mine, I absolutely loathe the entire war segment. I get that they're parodying Saving Private Ryan or whatever, but that segment is extremely unfun. If not for that area I could finish the game in one sitting with no lives lost. But that part makes me stop playing half the time. Especially the part where you have to sneak around a minefield on a beach where I get blown up every single time. Repeatedly. If that weren't enough this is exactly where the game stops being funny. The whole game up to this point is hilarious and nothing but pure joy for me. This war segment almost ruins the whole second half of the game. Luckily the final hour of the game is supremely awesome and makes up for it.

And one more to name, is Castlevania 64. Just nevermind the fact that everyone seems to hate this game. Most people would argue that the entire game in a slog but I genuinely think it's a good game and that it's just trendy to hate it. But I digress. I love the whole game except for the one absolute worst segment in any game I've beaten... And again you'll know exactly what I'm talking about if you've played it... At one point you have a potion to carry to someone that explodes if you fall any amount of height, or bump into anything, meanwhile you can only walk at a snails pace the entire time or you'll die. Holy fuck this is the worst. If you haven't played it and want to imagine what it's like, just imagine balancing an egg on your head which if it falls and breaks, explodes and kills you. Now imagine having to walk on a winding tight rope for a half a mile while doing that. If the egg drops,you not only die but you have to do the whole thing over again. And again. And again. And again. And again. I feel like some people hate the game just because of this one part and frankly I almost don't blame them. But even this absolutely rage inducing did not keep me from enjoying this game.

So how about you? What pisses you off in the games you love?

[Reed Rothchild | 9,584]

Sparkster: the intergalactic mech boxing match

What a goddamn mess.

[croagunk | 798]

I really don’t like the levels where the screen moves and can kill you in Mario games.

[DefaultGen | 5,433]

Dire Dire Docks and Jolly Roger Bay. They're the worst Mario 64 levels, but more egregiously they're basically the same exact level. They both have:

1. A watery cave and an emerging/disappearing ship with a star as the main features
2. A jet stream star you need the metal cap to collect
3. A star with chests you have to open in order through trial and error (Jolly Roger Bay already had this gimmick twice!!)
4. A sea monster you have to follow for a star
5. For whatever reason, both levels have by far the least coins in the game for the 100 coin star, requiring you to get all the red coins (potentially again).
6. The same music
7. Least of all, they're both friggin' water levels

I don't know how a game with levels as creative as Tick Tock Clock or Wet Dry World could have a duplicate level that's just a boring watery cave.

[Gloves | 11,830]

Blight town in Dark Souls.

[Tabonga | 2,340]

In strategy games I really dislike battles with fog of war.   

[Sumez | 2,994]

1 hour ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Sparkster: the intergalactic mech boxing match

What a goddamn mess.

That one is on another level. 

Sparkster is such a fantastic game, but that one boss fight is enough to make me never want to put the game on whenever I otherwise feel like it. Just the thought of having to go through that exhausting mess of a fight that'll potentially ruin your run if you don't get lucky. And they put it right near the end of the game too. 

At least Megadrive Sparkster put that fight in the intro stage. 

[Sumez | 2,994]

Castlevania III: That stage with the falling rocks. Fortunately it's completely skippable.

Mega Man 2: Wily stage 4 goes without saying. Both the stupid invisible pits, the slow moving platforms, and the dumb puzzle boss.

Batman (NES): The final boss. What the hell were they thinking?

[mbd39 | 2,029]

1 minute ago, Sumez said:

Batman (NES The final boss. What the hell were they thinking?

Great final boss. I can usually get to him without dying and then I may or may not beat him because he's quite hard.

I like how he usually starts the fight by just shooting your ass with his gun, no nonsense.

[WhyNotZoidberg | 586]

Arcane Sanctuary in Diablo 2. It's just not interesting.

[imthomas | 43]

Every water area in any game, ever.

WHY DO I MOVE SO SLOW AND WHY CAN I NEVER KILL ANYTHING?

[Andy_Bogomil | 815]

1 hour ago, DefaultGen said:

1. For whatever reason, both levels have by far the least coins in the game for the 100 coin star, requiring you to get all the red coins (potentially again).

 

This is literally the first thing I thought of when I read the title of the thread. I HATE  getting 100 coins in DDD because I always forget that you need to get rid of the sub first, so I collect all the coins in the first chamber and then swim through the tunnel and see that Bowser's sub is still there and want to instantly turn the game off (sometimes I do). I know you can still get 100 coins with some very technical jumping, but it's meant to be done after taking care of Bowser for the 2nd time. I also really hate getting 100 coins in Bob-omb Battlefield. It wasn't until later in life that I figured out running around the posts will release coins, making it a little more bearable, but it's  a pretty tedious chore for a number of the maps in the game.

 

 

[nesmaster14 | 436]

Castlevania III comes to mind.  Love the game, but a few levels I remember spending like hours on. Stage 7 with the falling blocks, gets my blood boiling just thinking about it hah.

[DoctorEncore | 3,691]

Nothing immediately comes to mind, but it's a great topic.

On a related note, I abhorred the mine cart levels in Donkey Kong Country when I was a kid, but now they're some of my favorite parts of the entire game. So there is hope for all you forlorn gamers.

[DefaultGen | 5,433]

The falling blocks in CV3 are so dumb, but also like the part I immediately think about when I think of playing the game, so I don't know that I can say I hate it.

[Robot_Ninjutsu | 122]

Carnival Night Zone in "Sonic 3".  Sorry to disappoint, but its not the barrels.

I don't like the "flow" of the levels, the theme is a pale imitation of "Casino Night Zone", and the music is my least favorite of the entire game.

 

[AstralSoul | 502]

5 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

Dire Dire Docks and Jolly Roger Bay. They're the worst Mario 64 levels, but more egregiously they're basically the same exact level. They both have:

1. A watery cave and an emerging/disappearing ship with a star as the main features
2. A jet stream star you need the metal cap to collect
3. A star with chests you have to open in order through trial and error (Jolly Roger Bay already had this gimmick twice!!)
4. A sea monster you have to follow for a star
5. For whatever reason, both levels have by far the least coins in the game for the 100 coin star, requiring you to get all the red coins (potentially again).
6. The same music
7. Least of all, they're both friggin' water levels

I don't know how a game with levels as creative as Tick Tock Clock or Wet Dry World could have a duplicate level that's just a boring watery cave.

While I agree theyre extremely similar in design, and I hate doing the 100 coin stars in both of them, the repeat music is fine because it's an awesome track and water levels in Mario 64 don't bother me much although they are pretty slowly paced. But yea neither one is my favorite.

[AstralSoul | 502]

5 hours ago, Gloves said:

Blight town in Dark Souls.

Because of the slowdown or because of the design of the level? I actually didn't mind blighttown even my first time through it. The remastered version gets rid of any slowdown and it's a lot better because of it.

To address the worst part of Dark Souls, I absolutely HATE tomb of the Giants. Even though I know the path to just run straight through it now. And I absolutely HATE Bed of Chaos. Biggest BS of a boss in any of the games.

[Gloves | 11,830]

43 minutes ago, AstralSoul said:

Because of the slowdown or because of the design of the level? I actually didn't mind blighttown even my first time through it. The remastered version gets rid of any slowdown and it's a lot better because of it.

To address the worst part of Dark Souls, I absolutely HATE tomb of the Giants. Even though I know the path to just run straight through it now. And I absolutely HATE Bed of Chaos. Biggest BS of a boss in any of the games.

The level design. I'm ok with some slowdown (Bloodborne is amazing despite heavy frame drops throughout), I am just not big on poison if I'm being honest lol. There's an enemy that shoots you from a mile away with silent ass darts that poison the shit outta you. 

[Tanooki | 4,952]

I'm going to point with a glare at two games franchises and their earlier entries because I think people will relate, but on the whole, I think it would apply to any of those space/flight combat style games.

Wing Commander 1+2 -- X-Wing + TIE Fighter (and eithers associated add-on packs included.)

My beef?  ESCORT MISSIONS

Seriously they break the fun, they break your desire to keep playing, and they seemly mostly are designed just to piss you off with cheap crap that happens.  You get slung along slogging at a slow pace at somewhat near distance to your job from usually point A to B (if not C...)  Somehow the enemy always seems to have smarter, more aggressive, and just more lucky to hit AI than any other parts of the ENTIRE GAME.  Why?  Seriously... was it so hard to make the AI equally gritty throughout, nah..let's just get people stuck on hateful missions like that, where one craft in a group, or just the one craft blows up and you get to do it over...and over...and over... again another 10, 15, 20min wasted re-running the same abuse.

And while I do finger that genre, others since have picked up on the bs, such as sandbox games, I recall GTA (PS1/2 era) had some controller bolo tossing fury based escort jobs too.

[Brickman | 4,014]

7 hours ago, Gloves said:

Blight town in Dark Souls.

You didn’t like moving at 10frames and having everything poison you or crush you in a couple of hits?

Mine is a blanket hate and that’s ice levels. Pretty much every game I’ve played the ice levels are the worst.

[Brickman | 4,014]

4 hours ago, DefaultGen said:

The falling blocks in CV3 are so dumb, but also like the part I immediately think about when I think of playing the game, so I don't know that I can say I hate it.

I’m actually stuck at that part right now for my backlog challenge. It’s frustrating and so stupid. I definitely hate it right now.

[fcgamer | 4,753]

6 minutes ago, Shmup said:

I’m actually stuck at that part right now for my backlog challenge. It’s frustrating and so stupid. I definitely hate it right now.

That part's avoidable if you take the other path, and you can also just fly to the top with Alucard.

I used to have the same hatred towards that stage in my younger years, but not anymore.

[Brickman | 4,014]

12 minutes ago, fcgamer said:

That part's avoidable if you take the other path, and you can also just fly to the top with Alucard.

I used to have the same hatred towards that stage in my younger years, but not anymore.

Yeah I was thinking of taking another path but I’m so far in. Thanks for the Alucard trick, I didn’t think of that, I’ll give it a go.

[phart010 | 1,708]

7 hours ago, Sumez said:

Castlevania III: That stage with the falling rocks. Fortunately it's completely skippable.

Mega Man 2: Wily stage 4 goes without saying. Both the stupid invisible pits, the slow moving platforms, and the dumb puzzle boss.

Batman (NES The final boss. What the hell were they thinking?

Wily stage 4 - use the bubble weapon to see the pit locations. Use wood man weapon as a shield on the platform. For the boss, rapidly pause the game just before the bosses bullets hit you to avoid getting hit. 

Edited May 15, 2021 by phart010