Time to Smash Those Controllers
No matter how much you adore a particular video game, there are bound to be moments that rub you the wrong way. Whether it’s a lull in the story, a particular level, or a technical aspect that just doesn’t gel, no title is perfect. These five just so happened to feature moments so aggregating that they’ve gone down in infamy for driving players over the edge.
#5: Blighttown
“Dark Souls†(2011)
Fans of the Soul series will always preach that the infamous, gruelling difficulty is worth it for the sense of accomplishment and high-level rewards – but all that goes out of the window when it comes to Blighttown. Rickety ladders, tall walkways, narrow passages and a poisoned swamp waiting at the bottom, Blighttown could well be the most frustrating area FromSoftware have ever created. Complex and confusing, you’ll be begging to just move on to somewhere – anywhere – else. Entering Blighttown also makes losing your souls even worse, since you may have to venture back into its toxic underbelly to reclaim them.
#4: Triforce Quest
“The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker†(2002)
Nobody ever wants to do a fetch quest, everybody HATES fetch quests, yet this segment takes that boring, padded element and rockets it up to “hey listen!” levels of awful. While it’s there to make up for cut dungeons, it’s still a mandatory exploration of the seas, wherein you have to find seven Triforce charts, essentially collecting and following maps upon maps upon maps. Not everyone is averse to exploring “The Wind Waker’s†cel-shaded seas, but many more would rather get back to the game and continue the story. Luckily, it was improved for the remastered version on the Wii U, where the whole thing became much more streamlined.
#3: Wrong Side of the Tracks
“Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas†(2004)
How hard can following a train really be? Very, it turns out, especially when you’re subjected to one of “GTA’s†infamous difficulty spikes at the same time. After CJ and Big Smoke are ambushed by the rival Vagos gang, they try to escape on a train, while CJ and Smoke give chase on a nearby dirt bike. Think it will be a cakewalk? Well get ready to maintain top-speed and manoeuvre like crazy while being shot at. As you might have guessed, it’s all-too-easy for the train to escape into Las Venturas before Smoke can kill all the gang members. This is the part where I fittingly break into a Samuel L. Jackson rant.
#2: Parking Garage
“Driver†(1999)
The sun-soaked streets of Florida are one of the best things about the first “Driver,†but unfortunately, they’re a beauty few people will have actually seen. This is because it has a notoriously difficult tutorial stage set in a drab, grey parking garage, in which you’ll have to complete a long series of tricky manoeuvres, which are actually harder than anything in the game itself! A bad tutorial stage can ruin a great game by cutting off progressing, and it’s not like the PlayStation 1 had the best controls to begin with! Haber…rage…growing!
#1: Rings
“Superman 64†(1999)
Already the worst superhero game ever made, there’s also a strong case that “Superman 64†is also the worst game period. The endless flying through rings certainly doesn’t help, and since ring obstacle courses make up the brunt of the gameplay, it’s hard to imagine anybody having the patience to get to the end. Players must guide Superman through said rings within the time limit, without missing any, and then complete an additional objective right after. Failing in any way means a complete restart, and the broken controls only make the ordeal worse. Ultimately, players will be given a choice: save Metropolis or destroy the game cartridge for the sake of your own sanity.
Be sure to check out the video below to see our picks for the Top 10 Angriest Video Game Youtubers.