What PISSES YOU OFF mid-game?

[Hypershell]

It's not TOO annoying, but I know this bugs other people:

Smash Bros. Brawl, gettings booted to the dark void of nothingness.  Kids, always remember to play at least one local match before going online with hacks enabled. 

[Rad Lionheart]

I can't think of anything that pisses me off in any games.

[Blackhook]

The only thing bugging me is a screwy camera.

[Mirby]

How about when you make it over to a hard to reach platform, and then through some flaw of physics you fall off of a perfectly flat surface to your doom?

RAAAAAAAAAGE!!

[Bueno Excelente]

Better yet. This happened to me in The Force Unleashed today.

There is this level on this plant planet, where everything is giant mushrooms and the sort. This game pretty much loves to put little physics effects on everything in order to make it look impressive. The gameplay suffers for it alot, because there are inaccessible areas everywhere, which prefer to bug out instead of having invisible walls for us to know we're not supposed to go there.

I see a holocron in a higher platform, jump into this plant platform that's supposed to help me, it BUGS OUT, rubber-bands somehow, stretching to ridiculously buggy proportions, and it catapults my character to the roof where he gets stuck. I have to restart from the damn checkpoint.

[Karai]

I have to mention it again.
Perfect Cherry Blossom, maybe other Touhou too. You can clear a spellcard, heck, you can finish whole game, and still get a Game Over. After defeating an attack, all bullets on the screen change into items to give you a nice score bonus. BUT there is a short delay between finishing a boss and bullets' change. During those few frames bullets can still hurt you, and it counts at your disadvantage. It hurts when you clear the game, and then you lose your very last life

[Black Mage J]

During a round of a new game + on Crisis Core I went through an entire mission, no one not even hurting me. Then the boss approaches, does it's unblockable special attack, trapping me in a and spamming magic on me. And my cockiness made me not go to any save points.

Ah and in Summon Night 2 I got to the final dungeon,  I was told I was close to the end. Then a puzzle, a long one which made me not know when I would get to the ginal boss, and since there aren't any save points and there was no "Are you ready for the final battle?" equaled me having to do the puzzle all over again, a long boring  and frustrating one.

Tales Of Symphonia Dawn of the New World had a frog boss with a looong health bar, it didn't do much damage but it had an unlimited supply of healing and it was [sonic slicer] to take down.

[Chainsaw Guitar]

*snip*

Personally, I don't think this is bad game design. It demands careful playing is all. It could even happen to you in Castlevania: Rondo of Blood if you got too careless. >_>;

[Bueno Excelente]

Personally, I don't think this is bad game design. It demands careful playing is all. It could even happen to you in Castlevania: Rondo of Blood if you got too careless. >_>;

How is it not bad level design to have your life bar completely depleted because the game let the enemy attack faster than you can get up? That basically is one-hit kill, only you have to sit there and watch your character slowly die instead of dying outright. And even more recent games have that, which is unexcuseable. A game stops being challenging and starts being BAD when instead of fighting the enemies and challenges in the game, you have to withstand the bullshit provided by the badly coded game engine.

[Solar]

Anyone that played the original Ninja Gaiden should know what I mean. [tornado fang] those birds.

Also, that damn mind reading AI in the early fighting games, how I hate that so much...

[Bueno Excelente]

Anyone that played the original Ninja Gaiden should know what I mean. [tornado fang] those birds.

Also, that damn mind reading AI in the early fighting games, how I hate that so much...

Also known as the medusa head problem in Castlevania. =P

[Sub Tank]

WHEN I THINK I SAVED THE PRINCESS BUT SHE'S IN ANOTHER GODDAMN CASTLE.

[Phi]

Also known as the medusa head problem in Castlevania. =P

Oh god. Jumping off a platform and getting hit/turned into stone by one of them, falling to the bottom of the area, and having to retrace your steps ALL [tornado fang]ing over again.

Though i wouldn't say it pissed me off, just really frustrating. They're not NEARLY as bad as the Eggplant Wizards from Kid Icarus.

[Bueno Excelente]

Okay, something that really pisses me off. Obligatory boss runs at the end of games. I can understand the need for filler, but REALLY? After each boss is supposed to be a challenge, you're making us fight all of them as if they were recycled enemies? It really pisses me off. Specially since such a thing could be placed as an optional challenge in the menu after beating the whole game. Boss runs are really fun if you're in the mood, but making them forced on you ruins everything.

[Hypershell]

In general, that doesn't bug me.  Boss rematches, done correctly, show how much you've grown since the beginning of the game.  But even if you have no problems with boss runs, they can still go wrong.  MMPU and ZXA's Hard Mode (DAMN YOU CHRONOFORCE) come to mind.

[Gaia]

MMPU and ZXA's Hard Mode (DAMN YOU CHRONOFORCE) come to mind.

Personally, I didin't have a problem with Chronoforce in hard mode. Just need to spam Model F charge shot and yer good to go. The only thing that pisses me off about RPGs back in the day is the lack of a [tornado fang]ing map. Jesus Christ.

[Bueno Excelente]

In general, that doesn't bug me.  Boss rematches, done correctly, show how much you've grown since the beginning of the game.  But even if you have no problems with boss runs, they can still go wrong.  MMPU and ZXA's Hard Mode (DAMN YOU CHRONOFORCE) come to mind.

It's still general repetition. Repetition of events in a game is never good. It's using supposedly previous important events as filler.

[Blackhook]

Now that you mention it, the genral treatment of the bosses in Megaman games makes me sad. It´s almost like they are no part of the story, they are just there to steal time for the main baddie to finish his evil deeds. I am not making this up, the villains outright state it!

[Fxeni]

I usually don't mind boss runs at the end all that much, although it did kind of bug me in Okami. It just didn't feel right.

[Bueno Excelente]

I love game bosses. They're basically the "enemies you can take seriously". The enemies which are an actual challenge, and you have to outsmart them and find out their tactic. Boss runs which are an actual part of a game, although showing how evolved you are in the game, cheapens the bosses themselves. Makes them less-important pieces of a bigger puzzle instead of individual challenges you can look at and be amazed by.

[Hypershell]

Well, in a MegaMan game, and most especially the X-series, you're playing as characters who are infamous for growing more powerful as they fight.  In that context I find it only fitting.  I suppose, in a game where the focus is more on the journey than on the powering up, there would be issues.

The only thing that pisses me off about RPGs back in the day is the lack of a [tornado fang]ing map.

Oh jeez, I'd forgotten about that.  Dragon Warrior 2 still haunts me.

[Turian]

Dead Rising pissed me off when I was in the middle of playing it and realized that it was the Legends engine with zombies and a guy who can't even come close to the running speed of Trigger. That pissed me off, I was like: "They made THIS [parasitic bomb] before Legends 3?! Don't they already have a GOOD zombie series called Resident Evil?! WTF?!" Then i quit playing because of the god awful save game setup. When you have to redo the last three hours of a game because you spent lots of time killing zombies on the other side of the mall, it gets old.

[Karasai♪]

That freaking last platform where the boss shutter is in top man's stage

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFU- 

[Bueno Excelente]

Dead Rising pissed me off when I was in the middle of playing it and realized that it was the Legends engine with zombies and a guy who can't even come close to the running speed of Trigger. That pissed me off, I was like: "They made THIS [parasitic bomb] before Legends 3?! Don't they already have a GOOD zombie series called Resident Evil?! WTF?!" Then i quit playing because of the god awful save game setup. When you have to redo the last three hours of a game because you spent lots of time killing zombies on the other side of the mall, it gets old.

Dude, you're supposed to cut through the enemies with a guy with human running speed. =P It's a survival game, and it's pretty damn good. I do agree that the save game setup is bad, but the gameplay is supposed to be like that. It's a game where the enemies are the obstacles in the first place. =P You shouldn't spend too much time killing them, you're supposed to cut through them to your objective. Well, that and have fun.

[Sapphire Knight]

Another thing that pisses me off in fighting games, when you're about to win the fight, the CPU turns around and whups your butt with no problem.