When Mini-Games Ruin a Game.

The Breath of Fire series (3 especially) really ruined themselves with a lot of side game "musts". It's not a game if you're forced to do it. I haven't played Dragon Quarter and I loved BoF 1 and 2. Breath of Fire 3 was the game that broke the jRPG genre for me.

Im really not digging Half-Life 2's vehicle stages, though the car stage is a little bit better than the boat stage (since you have to get out of the car a lot, and the drive reminds me of the PCH - if I didnt know better, Id say City 17 = San Fran, at least in spirit).

Any square game has the worst mini games ever. I cant think of any that were good. The horrid FF7 snowboarding one comes to mind.

The FF8 card game wasnt bad.

The KOTOR one was though.

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Originally Posted by Johnny Undaunted

My vote would go to the asteroid level (Stage 4 IIRC) in Battletoads/Double Dragon. The whole game and concept is pretty stupid by itself in retrospect (especially when you consider that they messed up half of the characters' names from the Double Dragon side), but the Asteroid level really ruins whatever amusement you could have from the game. The controls are very cumbersome in that portion of the game and yet (it's tank scheme basically), you're required to move fast agaisnt the incoming enemies. Then for some reason, they change the controls halfway when you start fighting agaisnt the really frustrating boss.

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In retrospect, that whole game was nothing more than a hurried, half-assed side-scroller (as you pointed out, Billy and Jimmy wore the wrong outfit colors, most of the stages were just a long string of recycled background/enemies, etc.) trying to capitalize on Tradewest's two biggest intellectual properties, but for some reason, I always love making an occasional one credit attempt.

I've owned the SNES version for over a decade, but thanks to that ill-conceived Asteroids level, I still can't one credit the game, because I usually lose at least five or more lives on that stage.

Would you like to try a game of Lucky Hit?

I'd much rather race some ducks, then find sailors.

Donkey Kong 64 requiring you to basically beat two games to get to the final boss, while not "mini-games" in the traditional sense, certainly made the game more tiresome.

I agree with the speedbike things in battletoads. To the day I have never gotten past those levels on any of the games. I love battletoads, but you can only play the first 2 levels so many times... :(

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Originally Posted by Jeremy

I'd much rather race some ducks, then find sailors.

Donkey Kong 64 requiring you to basically beat two games to get to the final boss, while not "mini-games" in the traditional sense, certainly made the game more tiresome.

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I did all that crap to unlock the secret ending. Fuck I wish I could go back in time.

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Originally Posted by NApOLm321

I agree with the speedbike things in battletoads. To the day I have never gotten past those levels on any of the games. I love battletoads, but you can only play the first 2 levels so many times... :

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The thing about the speederbike segments in both the original Battletoads and its arcade sequel Battletoads in Battlemania is that even though each expedition is extremely difficult and inherently reliant on reflexes and/or some rote memorization, the controls are fluid and all the obstacles are possible to avoid (with proper practice, one can beat both speederbike scenarios without losing a life).

In contrast, the scurrilous ship-flying segment in Battletoads/Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team has a crappy, convoluted control scheme that's made all the more aggravating by some sloppy design flaws like frequent floating projectiles that are literally unavoidable due to the aforementioned control setup and a totally random/unnecessary alteration of said controls during the final, frustrating boss fight.