The 10th Hour 3.21.08: Top 10 Things I Hate About Gaming

Posted by Derek Robbins on 03.21.2008

There are a lot of good things about video games, but it's time that we look at things from a different perspective. What are the things that are most annoying about our favorite hobby? 411's Derek Robbins breaks down the 10 things he likes the least in video games.

Hello and welcome to the 10th hour! As always there are a couple of things that I would like to hit on before I start.

-The NCAA tournament started today. I have UCLA making it to the finals and winning. I'm probably wrong, since picking the winner can be a bit like drawing straws it seems. Oh, and also because I didn't pick North Carolina. Yeah, that may have something to do with it…

-A bit less than two weeks in and Brawl is still dominating my play time. What I have learned so far is that if you're playing "With Anyone" on wifi you're going to be playing a lot of shitty players. Believe it or not, that word may even be a bit lenient! Here's a memo to anyone playing as Ike: Yes, he's got a big sword. It's cool, really! But there's more to winning a match than trying to land his forward smash. Honestly, I've lost about two "With Anyone" Brawls. If you want a challenge, the with friends mode is better because you actually can fight people you KNOW (or assume at least) are good. Still though, there's a lot of pleasure that can be derived from kicking the crap out of everyone in a "with anyone" match as Yoshi. Bet they didn't see that coming.

-I listen to two gaming podcasts. The Penny-Arcade podcast, and the Exploding Barrel Podcast. I don't know how many of you are listening to it, so go here. Both Mike and AJ are funny guys and I enjoy listening to their musings. I find other gaming podcasts to be a bit shallow and…boring. Mike and AJ are a breath of fresh air and I think you owe it to yourselves to check this out.

If you were wondering, I am a Lucas main. I still try to choose someone different every match though. My friend code is 4596 9154 9286. If you wanna add me, make sure to tell me your code too so we can brawl!

Well that's enough of that, let's get on to some reader feedback.

Reader Feedback

As always, their stuff is in italics and my stuff is in beautiful neutral font. This first comment is from Josh. He's a good friend of mine.


Uh you found that game you forget yourself sir. You need to tell our great
battle to the people. I would like to join that tourny if I ever get my router
and wii to work together.

What he means is that one day him and I were scavenging pawn shops in search for lost treasure and we found Gunstar Heroes. I should actually say that HE found it, but…it was such a rare game that it didn't seem fair if he just got it right off the bat. So we played a best of three Paper-Rock-Scissor right in the middle of the store. I won the first game, and what a game it was! The mighty scissor vanquished the cowardly paper. Then…the tables turned as he won two straight and won the game! Oddly…he decided to give me the game anyhow and I owe him to this day. What a nice guy! Next time I find a rare awesome game you get dibs.

Next we have dAVE!!!


Definately agree with Psychonauts. As far as under-rated games go, Sheep, Dog
and Wolf is my favorite PS1 game ever, but most people don't even know it
exists :(


Well you can count me in on that list. I actually at first thought you were referring to Herdy Gerdy for the PS2 – which was horrible – but…then I realized that the PS2 is in fact NOT the PS1. So I guess I'll have to do some research.

The next is from the oft-cited Sean McCabe

Good list, although it's missing Breakdown and the Clock Tower series (although
I'd name Haunting Ground as it's representative. I think my list would go,
giving reasons for the ones you haven't mentioned, -

10. Yakuza (PS2) - A very distinct mix of streamlined Shenmue and quality
brawling. This game was probably considered a GTA knock off by most when it was
better than GTA ever was.
9. Evo: Search for Eden (SNES) - An evolutionary RPG from Enix, before Spore
was even a twinkle in Will Wright's eye.
8. Psychonauts (PS2/Xbox/PC)
7. Ico (PS2)
6. The Club (PS3, X360, PC)- I love this game. It's so distinctly old school
and fun, yet not appreciated by the modern shooter crowd.
5. 10,000 Bullets (PS2)- this game didn't even get a North American release.
This is Max Payne on crack. Plot is utter nonsense, gameplay is top notch, also
one of the hardest games ever made.
4. Haunting Ground (PS2) - The scariest game ever made. Simple as that.
3. Killer7 (GC, PS2)
2. Breakdown (Xbox) - The most cinematic game ever made, truly melded action
into the FPS genre seemlessly, and also has a story that makes Half Life 2's
plot look like the mess it really was.
1. God Hand (PS2)


I agree that most everything on this list is under-rated, but…I'm not sure that I agree Yakuza is better that the GTA series. It may just be my opinion, but I still consider GTA: San Andreas to be one of the finest games ever made. Maybe I didn't give Yakuza a fair shake when I played it? Whatever the case, I will be playing Evo now. I had heard of it earlier, totally forgot about it, and your list reminded me of it. Thanks!

Next is DoctorofStyle

You'll see half or more of these games on every "underappreciated"
games, that now, they aren't underappreciated.


I don't agree. The sales for these games never picked up and they remain way below the mainstream. As long as the mass-public doesn't recognize it as an incredible game, I believe it's under-appreciated. I think a game can both be critically acclaimed and under-appreciated.

Here we have a comment from JLAJRC


I'm also an Artbound fan. Other underappreciated games I like would be:

Mario RPG: This was an incredibly fun game that introduced some fun new
characters like Geno. I would love another another Mario RPG.

The Death and Return of Superman is probably the only good Superman game ever
made.

I really liked Spider-Man's guest-star filled "Maximum Carnage"
game.

I want more Boy and His Blob and Maniac Mansion games.

I really like the WWF Royal Rumble game on the SNES.

Going way back to the original NES, Fester's Quest is an awesome game with some
of the creepiest bosses ever.


I'm not sure Mario RPG is under-appreciated. It sold pretty well here, even though it didn't…exactly come out in PAL territory (if I'm correct). I like that Nintendo went back to the Mario RPG route, but it's a shame that none of them quite capture the magic of the SNES version.

I think out of the other games you listed, Maximum Carnage is far and away my favorite. I rented that game so many times when I was younger. I honestly have no clue why I didn't just buy it. Good choices all around, though I think the best 16-bit wrestling game was for Genesis. Can't remember what it was called, though.

Here we have one from twf's sdc

I said Michael Jordan in reference to Chaos in the Windy City, which could and
should be considered an underrated game in it's own right.

I'm just the TNA iMPACT! guy there. I still don't know if anybody actually
reads my work, to be quite honest.
I still think it's the best recapping job there is though, AAA notwithstanding
(purely based on the recaps here at 411mania).

Honestly, I'd like to see both Geno and Mallow get into Smash Bros, but I like
Geno a little bit more. Nothing wrong with Mallow though. I wouldn't complain
one bit if he got in over Geno.
Maybe they could get rid of that no good Jigglypuff. Here's hoping for a DS
version in a couple years or something. Also I think Travis Touchdown would be
fun in Brawl.

Earthbound needs to hit the Virtual Console really damn soon.
I own Beyond Good & Evil. Legit deserving of a place in the top 50 video
games all time. It's just outstanding.
I enjoyed what little I was able to play of Godhand. It's refusal to save on
my memory card is the only reason I didn't play it much.
Gunstar Heroes was a great one too.
I want to play Psychonauts and Ico, and will definitely look into the other
games on your list.


I don't like TNA, but I can actually stand your recaps. I read ‘em because, even though I don't like the product…I do like to keep up with the results. So keep up the good work.

I can't believe you don't like Jigglypuff! She has always been one of my favorite Brawl characters and I totally dig her sun visor. It's, without a doubt, my favorite costume in the game. You can get a lot of joy kicking some wifi ass with her.

Also, you're damn right about Earthbound. I am so sick and tired of Nintendo screwing the EB fan-base over. They could make so much money off of us if they just put the damn thing on VC. I know I'd buy it again! Of course, I'd only buy it because I feel that my support of Earthbound would get Mother 3 over here. That's a game I crave even more than I craved Smash Brothers!

If I had to recommend one non-EB game from my list, I'd probably say Psychonauts. I think it's the most easily accessible. It's not a "casual!" game by any means, but it's an easy game to pick up and play.

Oh, and what do you think of Brawl so far?

This final comment is from JP


I played Earthbound when it first first came out for SNES and at the time it was
without a doubt my favorite game. I lived for it, played it every waking hour
until I passed it. As a kid I just could not believe a game could be THAT long
and still maintain the level of fun and quirkiness.

When I got older in college, I got an SNES emulator and found an earthbound
ROM. I was CONVINCED that my memory was playing tricks on me and that I
probably only liked the game cause I was so young. And yet almost immediately
I was immersed once again. I played it through to its entirety, being so
thankful that my shoddy memory allowed me to relive the game properly.

Earthbound is genuinely one of the greatest game. It is so ridiculously deep
and complex for a game that on the surface looks so childish. Every single
second of the story and gameplay is worked out to perfection.

And yet, for one of the greatest games ever made, 9 times out of 10 if you
mention it to someone, they will not have even heard of it.

This is the epitome of underappreciated games. Not only do most people not
even know of its existence (which is already a travesty) the lack of interest
has prevented its sequel from ever coming to North America.

There is a pretty solid presence of Earthbound in this round of Smash Bros, so
hopefully Nintendo is getting the hint and will not only release Mother 2, but
create a whole new game for the Wii or DS (feels like more of a DS title)


What's so great about Earthbound is that every time you play through it you see something new or take something else from it. Not until very recently have I started to appreciate the Giygas boss fight. There is so much going on during that battle that it's mind blowing when you discover some of it. One of the main reasons I was looking forward to Smash Brothers is because I felt that Lucas would get people talking. If people like Lucas, perhaps Mother 3 will follow? It worked for Marth and Roy at least.

There were a lot of other comments I wanted to reply to this week, but I only have so much space. I want to comment that I think it's great a lot of you have played Rocket Knight Adventure. It's one of the best side-scrollers ever. I also forgot to mention that Shenmue and Fatal Frame were on the original drafts for my top-10. I also totally forgot Rez. Sorry! Anyhow, enough of that. Time to get this started.

Top-10 things I hate about games

This week I list the top 10 things I hate about a subject I love dearly! The rule is: Everything is allowed. And I mean everything! So let's get this started.

10-) I don't want to read that again! (Repeating Text) I don't know about you, but I'm a bit of a speed reader. When it comes to an RPG, about as soon as the screen pops up I have read every bit of text there is to read and I am jamming on the X-Button to get to the next bit. What bothers me is when they suddenly change the focus and ask you a question. In case you WEREN'T paying attention, they ask: "DO YOU WANT TO HEAR THIS AGAIN?" If a game is kind, the cursor is on the "No" button. Why would you want to hear it again? I mean…just because you're playing a Nintendo title doesn't mean you don't have a short attention span. The evil games have your option default on YES. As in, "PLEASE TELL ME THE LONG STORY ABOUT HYRULE AGAIN PLEASE." That's right, fuck you Ocarina of Time owl. I've heard your stories so many times I can almost recite them in my head. What's annoying is that you're so busy jamming on the A (or whatever) button that you don't have time to change what you are doing. You're in rehash land and you don't even want to be! If the option was set on "No" every time, I'd be cool. Whoever's idea it was to place it on "yes" should be shot because it just feels like a waste of time and makes me want to actually STOP playing your game. Seems counter-productive to me.

- Fuck this owl.

9-) Lack of Health Bars - Remember the days when games were challenging? You had to fight your way through hordes and hordes of villains and you only had so much health to do it! Of course, there was health scattered sparingly around, but at least it was there. Lately, in shooters at least, it appears that they have REMOVED the life bars entirely! You can get shot in the chest like five times, be close to death, and just go around the corner, sit down, and you'll be good as new. I figure the whole "only frat boys play shooters!" ideology plays heavily into this, because if it was too challenging – god forbid – they would probably put the game down and get wasted with some friends. Hell yeah! My favorite shooters of all time – such as Half-Life 2, Team Fortress 2, Doom 3, Perfect Dark, etc – all implement lifebars. It feels challenging, it feels like the game is actually trying to stop you. Now…things are just to easy. Games encourage you not to fight and simply rest to recover! I just don't like that. I'm sorry to all you shooter fans who crave their never dieing, but that just isn't for me.

- I enjoy these things!

8-) Franchise tries something different, fan-base hates it - I am a huge fan of the Zelda and Mario franchises. To be honest, I would say that they are two of the finest ever. That being the case, their fan-bases can get a bit on my nerves. If you ask most any Zelda fan what their least favorite Zelda title was (excluding Zelda 2, of course) they will say Majora's Mask. Why? It tried something different! Instead of the same ol' dungeon crawling and sword combat, we got an innovative system allowing for different play styles. It also included a time system. You had three days until the moon crashed, so you had to get things done by then. When time is up (well, close to being up) you need to play a song to go back in time. Rinse, repeat, and you have a pretty unique experience. You notice that I also referenced the Mario franchise here. A lot of the fans of the series hate Mario Sunshine. I feel this is because it tries to be a different game than Mario 64. The Fludd pack makes it seem like a different sort of game, a harder game. The problem with that is that the fans hated it. They wanted it to be the same! That's my problem, really. When a franchise tries to change what its doing, the fans hate it! Remember when Windwaker was first introduced and people whined and moaned about the art-style despite the fact it was breathtaking? When a franchise tries something different, the fans whine. They want the same old shit and that really bothers me. Maybe I am weird, but I enjoy the occasional burst of innovation.

- One of my favorite Zelda games.

7-) Same game gets re-released a year later, but with NEW content! - This really bothers me, because when there is a game I *really* want, I buy it right away. The problem is, companies sometimes release enhanced versions of the same game later. I wish they would just include all of the content right away, because I absolutely hate not getting the best possible product. Case in point: Resident Evil 4. Sure, Resident Evil 4 is a fantastic game…but the original GCN version doesn't have all the content that the PS2 version has – and even later versions that appear on the same system – and that really bugs me. When I dish out my money for a game, I fully intend for that to be the LAST time I buy that game. I think that more often than not, when this happens…it's the case of a game company getting greedy. Why not get the most profit out of a game when your fanbase will buy it time and time again? The same thing can be said for Nintendo. They milked the ever-loving HELL out of the Gameboy Advance. First, they had the GBA. It had a horribly lit screen, so they decided to upgrade it through the GBA SP. Same system, better lighting. Hey, that's great. I love light! Problem is, they were charging the same price the GBA was when it first came out. I really wish it was discounted, but Nintendo KNEW fans would buy it because, well, their GBAs were way too dark. I *never* bought an SP. I just made due with my horribly lit screen. I just don't like buying the same console twice. After all of this they release the ‘trendy' Gameboy Macro. Seriously man, the same system THREE times? Fuck you, Nintendo. I hate when companies do this. It feels like the fans who were there from day one are getting the raw deal.

- I hate buying things twice. No matter how good they are...

6-) Back-tracking - I love playing through games. Really, I do! Otherwise I wouldn't have a column in which I talk about my love for doing so. That said, I *hate* playing through the same area constantly. In side-scrolling games, going back to an area repeatedly just gets annoying. The most obvious offender of this would be the Castlevania and Metroid series. I get it, I get it! Your series demands exploration! You get the most out of stuff when you fully explore your environment! Yes, yes, that's great…but I'd much rather fully explore new areas than spending way too long in one room wondering: "Okay, where do I go from here?". It gets even worse in a 3D environment because there are even more places to look. The smallest thing could mean all the difference. I could never finish Metroid Prime 1 because of this. I just got too annoyed and called it quits. This sort of thing may be cool for some people, but…for me it's just tedious. If you can put up with it, I applaud you.

- What is Backtracking? A miserable pile of bullshit.

5-) Multiple storylines, one ending! - This is one of my chief problems with WRPGS. Yes, you can play any way you wish to. You can be a total jackass or you can be the best guy ever. That's great! The meat of the game can be rather enjoyable, but what bothers me is the ending. Throughout all of these branching paths, often times you only get one ending. No matter what you do, there is only ONE ending. That just seems way too lazy to me. I mean, why branch out the paths and have multiple endings? Let's just wrap everything up the same way each time! I have to give props in one way to the WRPG – unlike JRPGs they aren't totally linear. You actually have multiple ways of doing things which is neat. I get that. I just don't like that the choices usually lead to one ending. You have this illusion depth of choosing where you want to go and how you want to do things, but the ending always remains the same. That's a bit frustrating to me.

- I don't know if this game applies to the above, but I do know it's a WRPG. And I can't stand this game.

4-) Several ways to play, but only one correct one - This is more of a complaint about the tournament scene of several games. The game I will be citing for this argument is Super Smash Brothers Melee, simply because the tournament scene literally makes me angry. The wonderful thing about the smash franchise is there are several ways to play. You can play with items, without items, with strategy, for fun, coin battles, stamina matches, etc. If there's a specific way you want to play, then odds are there is an option to customize that! If you play any smash "pro", they almost always insist that there are no items – you see, because items are luck! If there are items, a one-in-a-million chance thing might occur and they could lose – and they can criticize you for not knowing their stuff. They use various glitches – wave dashing, wave shining, etc – and claim to be the very best at the game when using it against players who have no clue what they are doing. On top of that, they insist you only play on certain levels. God forbid you play somewhere like pokefloats. I'm cool with tournament play if its between two consenting individuals. If you both like it, it's fun. Whatever, enjoy your game. I am pleased you like it. When you start forcing it on people who could care less about your stupid physics exploits, then you become a bit of a dick. Alternatively, this also applies to games that offer you various ways to play – different fighting styles, etc – but one of them is much better than the rest and is pretty much the only choice that is worth choosing. I love balance! Why do you think Starcraft had so much life? Balance! Whatever way you cut it, we should embrace the multitudes of ways there are to play games and not simply frown on the choices of our peers.

- At least Brawl is a bit more balanced!

3-) Quick Time Event - Started in Shenmue, made popular by God of War and Resident Evil 4, these events just annoy the heck out of me. Oh sure, they are neat the first couple of times but when the majority of your boss encounters force you to use this, it feels a bit lazy. Would you rather beat a giant hydra boss with your skill, or would you rather do it with your ability to essentially play simon says with the screen? I don't know about you, but I loved it when boss fights were challenging! Remember when you had to use your move arsenal instead of watching your character do the fighting while you occasionally press a button to guide them along? Good times! Now in the defense of Resident Evil 4, most of the Quick Time Events take place outside of boss encounters. It's less annoying that way as you have to quickly react to something. The God of War series truly forces this on you and it drives me nuts. Don't get me wrong. It's a fun game that I think you'd be a bit remiss to quickly dismiss, but this is a true hindrance to the experience and it just makes me mad.

- Fun, yet annoying.

2-) Silent Protagonists - Very rarely are silent protagonists effective in my eyes. The one time I've generally accepted one would be in Earthbound. Ness expresses personality in Lumine Hall and Magicant. This is enough to separate him from your typical silent warrior. Outside of Ness, it feels like the others are a bit…tacked on and lazy. I figure that they are silent because the protagonist is supposed to be ‘you'. If they give you a lot of options for dialogue, like in Persona 3, then it's not so bad. The protagonist CAN be you. Sadly, most games seem to neglect that and force you to have an avatar lacking personality. Can you tell me what Crono's thoughts were? What drove him to fight Lavos? For all we know, he's just a cool-looking spiky haired guy that wants to save a girl he just met and save the world. That's about it. The supporting cast of games with silent protagonists is almost always spectacular, but for whatever reason, they'd rather have the main character's personality expressed through his peers rather than through himself. This just bothers me, because I think so much more could be learned about these characters if they just spoke for themselves. I mean, who knows how much more we could learn about our favorite characters! Fleshing out an entire roster while forgetting to flesh out your main character feels lazy to me. I love the games still, but I think the experience could be so much richer…

- One of the few good silent protagonists.

1-) Same Game, Different Year - Alright EA, this is directed at you. I'm sick and tired of your company making profits from releasing sub-par product after sub-par product. You may put a different number on your sports titles, but you don't have me fooled. Since 2005, every single one of your sports titles has been the exact same game with a different number on it. Sure, your rosters are different. I get that, wow, now I can play as Tom Brady with a 97 overall as opposed to a 96 overall. WOW, THAT'S AWESOME. This was so worth another year of releases! It would be forgivable if they at least charged less for the product. The sad thing is, every single year the same game costs just as much as it did when it came out last year. Your shiny 2008 sports title is the exact same one that you played last year with a couple of different tweaks. I wish people would just stop buying their games to send them a message, but they refuse to! There are casual gamers out there that buy one game a year, probably Madden, and don't care about the differences. They just want their football fix, screw what everyone else thinks. I wish it was just football that this was the problem with. Tiger Woods has been crappy for a couple of years running, their basketball games have been mind-numbingly average for years…and yet they REMAIN popular. ARGH. EA wants to create a gaming monopoly – seeing as they have bought out several companies and have Take 2 in their sights. They want to own the sports market – and it's a problem. Time and time again they have shown that they do not care at all about what the average customer wants. They just want money and will put whatever mediocre product they can out there for the maximum amount of profits. You can take mediocre bullshit like Army of Two and shove it up your ass. I'm a gamer and I want games that TRY to be different. Going back, I'm not sure whether I should label #1 EA games. It's sad. I think they're ruining the market. They're finally making a new Sims game after milking number 2 for all its worth through expansion packs. Also, don't think I forgot about Activision and Guitar Hero. The milking of that franchise has become maddening. Enough is enough, Activision. I haven't seen this much un-originality since Tony Hawk (post number three).

- Feels like I've played this before...

Well, that's it for this week. As always, if you want to rant, rave, praise, comment, or…whatever. Send me an e-mail at [e-mail] or [e-mail] Or simply leave a comment below.

I'm not sure what else I need to touch on, so I'm out. I figure next week's column will be about something more positive.

Til' the Crossroads