When Mini-Games Ruin a Game.

**Regus** · 06 Jun 2005, 02:39 AM

The thing about Battletoad's turbo tunnel that always bugged me was that I would die on the ramps all the time. Even though I knew for a fact that I pressed the button at the right time, my guy had some sort of delayed reaction when it came to jumping off the ramps, which always ended in me cheaply falling into the pit.

**Kidnemo** · 06 Jun 2005, 10:45 AM

Originally Posted by diffusionx

The FF8 card game wasnt bad.

Triple Triad was good enough to stand on it's own.

I laugh at Tetra Master (the card game from FF9).

**galvatron** · 06 Jun 2005, 12:19 PM

Originally Posted by Regus

- The turbo tunnel in Battletoads.

It was awesome!

- The shooter minigames in Gunstar Heroes and The Adventures of Batman and Robin.

Awesome (note the capital 'a')...okay, so I'm a big fan of Seven Force...the batman stage was just alright.

Seriously, when any game throws something at you that's required, but not in line with player expectation (like a space shooter level in a platform shooter) you risk asking too much of the player. I know some people who to this day never finished the turbo tunnel. It would seem the modern developers usually err on the side of introducing another genre just to spice things up, while going out of their way to avoid being challenging so that they don't make another "turbo tunnel". Problem is that I typically stop playing long games that don't challenge me at all, so Sly, Jak, and Ape Escape 2 are games that I've played, but won't go through the technicality of beating.

For Battletoads, I think the suction cup-cycle stage (10, I think) was the lamest thing ever. You lost speed if you weren't trying to turn at exactly the moment they wanted you to and it was a totally new play mechanic introduced really late into the game. I only got to fighting the orb once and it was incredibly annoying to have to play for a couple of hours to get back to that point.

Also, if the rest of the game wasn't so flawed, the mini-games in dead to rights would have ruined it for many. The stripper game was boring, the helicopter shooting was okay, but no better than in GTA:VC, and the bomb diffusal game was a bit too hard (I only had about 5 second left on the last bomb and I don't know how I could have gone any faster).

Originally Posted by Regus

The thing about Battletoad's turbo tunnel that always bugged me was that I would die on the ramps all the time. Even though I knew for a fact that I pressed the button at the right time, my guy had some sort of delayed reaction when it came to jumping off the ramps, which always ended in me cheaply falling into the pit.

You weren't supposed to press the button. Also, you shouldn't steer up or down in the air. Now if someone would tell me how to beat stage 10...

**Regus** · 06 Jun 2005, 03:34 PM

You weren't supposed to press the button. Also, you shouldn't steer up or down in the air.

WTF!

You make me want to reconnect my NES and try that. Still though, WTF, those fucking bikes allowed you to jump over walls and shit, so I simply thought that if I jumped on the ramps I would get a boost and jump higher, not drop like a turd into the pits. WTF Rare? As for not moving in mid air, I could've sworn that there were parts in which a wall would be placed in your path miliseconds after a jump during the faster areas of the tunnel which forced you to move in mid air, but what do I know I haven't played this game in years.

**Mzo** · 06 Jun 2005, 04:02 PM

Originally Posted by Regus

Still though, WTF, those fucking bikes allowed you to jump over walls and shit, so I simply thought that if I jumped on the ramps I would get a boost and jump higher, not drop like a turd into the pits. WTF Rare?

And when that didn't work, wouldn't you try something else? That's pretty owned, though =(

If you press down too far in the air, you can fall off and die. Pressing right moves you forward and can help you make some of the jumps. I really don't remember any point where you have to move up and down in the air, really.

**Regus** · 06 Jun 2005, 04:14 PM

Originally Posted by Mzo

And when that didn't work, wouldn't you try something else?

Yeah, I did try something else: a better game! lolz :(

**DirtySouth** · 06 Jun 2005, 07:36 PM

Originally Posted by Andrew

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.

Yes! I was about to mention the BOF series for their mini-games, and for them being mandatory, especially BOF3 with that silly well-water lifting game, and traversing the ship through the water maze.

I'll also have to mention just about every Rare N64 3D platformer, sans Conker's Bad Fur Day. Overall I enjoyed them, but not only were there WAY too many mini-games, but some of them were plain silly, and didn't really connect to anything else in the game except for them taking up space on the cartridge.,

**Victrix** · 06 Jun 2005, 07:48 PM

I quit playing BoF4 when I wound up playing some shitty mode7 looking plain running bullshit

**MechDeus** · 06 Jun 2005, 08:24 PM

I memorized the speeder bike stage (at least the first one) in Battletoads and beat it consistently, once I got good at it it was pretty exhilirating to be going so fast during those final sections (even though it was a smarter course of action to just take the warp during that stage). I'm pretty sure I only got past the snakes stage a couple times, there were so many blind jumps of faith that I never memorized the proper course of action. Rough game.