Rage Inducing Gameplay Moments

[Spiritual Mask Salesman]

We've all probably experienced it, that point where it feels like the game tosses maximum friction at a point, and it seems so hard to ever solve or beat whatever obstacle the game has pitted us against. It's so frustrating!

A very memorable one for me was "The Test of Fear" in Star Fox Adventures. You have to use the control stick to keep a moving line within a certain area in a bar that appears on the screen, all while a cutscene takes place of Fox being attacked by raptors and a ghost of General Scales. The line will move randomly left and right and you have to keep it from escaping from the designated area. There is no way to cheese this part of the game, it just takes multiple tries and determination. This challenge is so difficult it's made me give up numerous replays of the game. I've only ever beaten the game once in the 20 years I've had it. As a kid it made me almost cry because I just wanted to get past that part to keep playing the game.

Another one that comes to mind is the Sleeping Bear sidequest in Agatha Forest from Okami. There is a part where you have to roll a ball up a very long winding hill that has no railing, and it's so easy for the ball to just roll off the side of the hill. While technically not important to beating the game, I wanted to do all sidequests in the game. This one took me about 2 days to finally complete.

What are some extremely hard parts of games you've faced?

 

[BloodyKun]

I try not to get too frustrated at games now, generally just avoiding ones I know will likely frustrate me in the first place, but for those unexpected times I just put the game down and come back to it or decide it’s not worth it. One such example being Elden Ring…I made it past the first major legacy dungeon, not terrible but it was getting tedious and I spoiled bs like the godskin duo and was like no thanks. Thankfully Armored Core 6 has been far more fun.

I do remember that part of Starfox Adventures though, among others way back. Okami as well, though I don’t think I did that part in particular. More for me it was probably the last digging mini game, making the trees bloom in the city, but most of all there was the last blockhead grandmaster thing…maybe you can tell it’s been some time since I’ve played lol.

Metroid Prime was remastered a while back, and mostly it was smooth sailing, but I swear each time I have to go through Phazon Mines is an ordeal, whether it’s backtracking for items/beams or whatever, or trying to make it back through to get the artifacts. Same happened again now. Definitely least favorite area in the series.

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk was a great game, but in all its callbacks to Dreamcast era style, sadly that also kind of reflects in enemy jank. Usually not an issue but it can get pretty annoying trying to get everything.

Trico in the Last Guardian was mildly annoying at times, but I think I had more patience for him than many others.

One I think everyone who’s played it has had trouble with was the final boss in Drakengard 3. Mostly not awful if you’ve got a sense of rhythm, especially with how familiar each song should be by the end, but there’s an especially bad troll moment. No shame in using YouTube videos to get past it. Even so, it’s one of my favorites.

 

[Chevywolf30]

Super Mario 64 gave me FITS. I'm glad I played it, was overall fun, but I don't plan on doing it again anytime soon.

 

[Spiritual Mask Salesman]

More for me it was probably the last digging mini game, making the trees bloom in the city, but most of all there was the last blockhead grandmaster thing…maybe you can tell it’s been some time since I’ve played lol.

Omg yes all the ones you mentioned gave me so many problems too. I felt like I spent so long trying to find one tree in Sei-an city that seemed to slip from my grasp to blossom, at this point I can't remember what specific tree it was but I do remember that it was a tree I didn't think could be blossomed for some reason. That digging mini game in the Dragon Palace hot spring was so hard as well. I also remember some mini game involving a theif in Sei-an city where you had to race in a loop around the city and light torches or something, it gave me issues as well, lol.

And yes, Blockhead Grande... I didn't have a phone to record where the 8 points were, so after an hour failing I got crafty. I taped a piece of the most see through paper I had to my screen and marked the points.

 

[Ganondorf]

Blockhead... lord, I remember literally writing on my TV with a marker to do the final one, many years ago. Probably not a great idea with modern TV screens being different, so don't try it. Smartphones didn't exist when I last did it, for the record.

A big one for me today is Canary Mary in Banjo Tooie. I barely beat her final race as a kid, & now it's physically impossible for me to do it today due to my tendons & her rubber-band AI easily rocketing past you & staying so fast that it's impossible to win without a turbo controller. Never can 100% it again & it drives me bananas. Excessive button mashing is NOT something I miss with game design.

Others are catching Seadramon in Digimon World 1 on the PS1. I've done it several times, but every new playthrough I forget about having to do it again & I put it off for days because of how annoying it is. First you have to even raise something strong enough to get to the misty swamps, deal with Otamamon possibly one-shotting you with an uncommon technique of his, & then you have to amass enough in-game trading cards to trade for ShogunGekomon's upgraded fishing pole deeper in the swamp, if you don't want to get extremely angry with Seadramon constantly & instantly breaking your fishing line. You need to catch him to ride to an island with some of the best training equipment in the game, & it's needed for 100%ing the island recruitment. Additionally, to even get the trading cards you need, you need to have upgraded your town's shop enough by recruiting enough merchant Digimon from across various worlds, some very dangerous, or you need to wait for a certain shop to open in the Gear Savannah a certain time of the month & pay a ton of money for rare enough cards to convert into the trade points. It's so tedious.

BotW's challenge for the cosmetic horse armor is pretty frustrating with how the horse AI is & when it tends to come to a screeching halt before a jump. That recently drove me nuts because it would fail to jump suddenly when another run of it was fine with certain hurdles.

Redoing a lot of Spyro fight challenges... man, I can go on. I'm never quick to anger with video games whatsoever, but some older stuff legit just immediately puts me into a foul mood as an adult because it's so janky or physically difficult to complete now.

 

[GrooseIsLoose]

Prince of Persia, Sands of time, your dad from the top of my head

 

[Dizzi]

Hearing things witj no subs!! Like challenges where you need to listen to tones and do it??