Egoraptor has a great video that I can only assume the majority of us have already seen, it's the video talking about Mega Man X and all the awesomeness that can be found within it. One of the major points he touches on is that there's no annoying tutorial interruptions like "MEGA MAN! MEGA MAN! THAT'S HOT LAVA! DON'T TOUCH IT OR YOU'LL DIE!!!" and such game interruptions are absolutely stupid because, for the most part, things should be common sense. Lava = bad. Spikes = bad. Bottomless Pit = bad.
I say "for the most part" because I've noticed a few points in games where a bit of guidance certainly wouldn't hurt. Here's an example, reaching back to a classic: Sonic 3
Carnival Night Act 2. Towards the end of the stage (I'd roughly guess about 2/3rds of the way through it) you run into a small chamber and get locked inside. There's a big red spinning cylinder that goes up and down when you jump on it and it's plugging the shaft that you need to fall through to proceed through the level. Now, if you time your jumps right, you can use the thing as a launcher for a really big jump, or if you time it right you can knock it further and further down the shaft. Common sense would lead you to believe that you have to time your jumps perfectly in order to push the cylinder down far enough that you can jump off it and proceed...problem is, it's impossible to get the cylinder down far enough. Were it not for having a turbo controller and the bubble shield, I would never have beaten Sonic 3 as a kid. What I did was use the turbo controller to turbo-bubble bounce and glitch my way through the cylinder. This had a 50-50 shot of working, as it'd either pop you out underneath the cylinder or spit you into an inaccessible/inescapable room within the wall of the stage.
It wasn't until YEARS later when I picked up a collection of Sonic games (Sonic 1 through Sonic and Knuckles) for my computer that I decided "Screw this, there HAS to be a way to get past this part without glitching." So I check gamefaqs and it says quite simply "Get on the cylinder and start pressing up and down until it moves enough that you can jump off it." Indeed, it turns out the cylinder can be quite easily controlled by simply jumping on it and pressing up and down at the right time to send it flying up and down, making getting past that part easy as hell.
Now, it's quite possible that I'm fucking retarded in this case for not knowing that, but there certainly wasn't any indication that those cylinders could be moved in any way other than jumping on them.
But how about you, my fellow Escapists? What parts of games have had rather simple solutions, but due to a game mechanic that was in no way explained to you, you found yourself saying "How the FUCK was I supposed to know to do that" to the game?
I say "for the most part" because I've noticed a few points in games where a bit of guidance certainly wouldn't hurt. Here's an example, reaching back to a classic: Sonic 3
Carnival Night Act 2. Towards the end of the stage (I'd roughly guess about 2/3rds of the way through it) you run into a small chamber and get locked inside. There's a big red spinning cylinder that goes up and down when you jump on it and it's plugging the shaft that you need to fall through to proceed through the level. Now, if you time your jumps right, you can use the thing as a launcher for a really big jump, or if you time it right you can knock it further and further down the shaft. Common sense would lead you to believe that you have to time your jumps perfectly in order to push the cylinder down far enough that you can jump off it and proceed...problem is, it's impossible to get the cylinder down far enough. Were it not for having a turbo controller and the bubble shield, I would never have beaten Sonic 3 as a kid. What I did was use the turbo controller to turbo-bubble bounce and glitch my way through the cylinder. This had a 50-50 shot of working, as it'd either pop you out underneath the cylinder or spit you into an inaccessible/inescapable room within the wall of the stage.
It wasn't until YEARS later when I picked up a collection of Sonic games (Sonic 1 through Sonic and Knuckles) for my computer that I decided "Screw this, there HAS to be a way to get past this part without glitching." So I check gamefaqs and it says quite simply "Get on the cylinder and start pressing up and down until it moves enough that you can jump off it." Indeed, it turns out the cylinder can be quite easily controlled by simply jumping on it and pressing up and down at the right time to send it flying up and down, making getting past that part easy as hell.
Now, it's quite possible that I'm fucking retarded in this case for not knowing that, but there certainly wasn't any indication that those cylinders could be moved in any way other than jumping on them.
But how about you, my fellow Escapists? What parts of games have had rather simple solutions, but due to a game mechanic that was in no way explained to you, you found yourself saying "How the FUCK was I supposed to know to do that" to the game?
that one reminds of one from Metal Gear Solid...specifically when you're fighting the psychic guy that cheats by knowing every button you press and reacts accordingly, making him invincible.......unless you plug your controller into the player 2 slot.
