Top 30 Exact Moments That RUINED Video Games
These games were going great...until THAT moment. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today, we’re looking at moments that ruined video games.
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00:00Could you really rest for all of eternity, knowing that you had the chance to stop him, but did nothing?
00:09Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at moments that ruined video games.
00:14Although some of the games on this list are fantastic, for a brief moment in time, we were thinking otherwise.
00:20I've heard of aggressive managers, but this boss is cutthroat!
00:26Number 30, Samus' sudden personality change, Metroid Other M.
00:32If that was the case, then why couldn't I reach him?
00:37Other M had the potential to be a great addition to the long-running franchise, but sadly, it was held back by quite a few issues.
00:45Most notably, Samus' weird personality change.
00:48This is made abundantly clear right at the beginning of the game, when she comes into contact with her old crew members.
00:54The once-lone badass bounty hunter is immediately turned into an obedient drone for her former commander, Adam,
01:00going so far as to not use any of her suit upgrades unless he authorizes it.
01:05This sudden personality change is made even more evident when she has a breakdown upon seeing Ridley,
01:11a foe she's bested many times before.
01:14Samus!
01:16Samus, use your plasma beam!
01:19What's your status?
01:21Number 29, underwhelming reveal, No More Heroes 2, Desperate Struggle.
01:27Did you honestly think you could take so many lives and never suffer retribution?
01:31Have you never even seen a kung fu movie, spy flick, or western?
01:35Throughout Desperate Struggle, Travis is trying to seek revenge on whoever cold-bloodedly murdered his friend Bishop.
01:41After battling his way through many tough assassins along the way,
01:45it's revealed that the murderer and final boss is none other than the pathetic Jasper Bat, Jr.
01:50Not only is this boss fight a massive downgrade compared to the first game's clash against Henry Cooldown,
01:56his cartoonish superhero second form is insanely cheap, with broken, undodgeable attacks.
02:02His final gigantic mascot form is just tame, as you'll be wailing on him for ages until it's finally over.
02:11Number 28, Showdown with Rufus, Final Fantasy VII, Rebirth.
02:20You're still a Shinra employee, at least on paper.
02:26And as your boss, I figured I'd dispose of you first.
02:30Was that meant to be a joke?
02:32Rebirth not only features one of the best battle systems in Final Fantasy,
02:36but also some of the greatest boss fights.
02:39So it's a real shame that this encounter left such a negative mark on what is otherwise a fantastic video game.
02:45After taking on a gauntlet of boss fights such as Rude and Elena at the Gold Saucer,
02:49the president of Shinra randomly makes his entrance to face Cloud.
02:53Battling against this boss fight without your party members is annoying enough,
02:57but the most infuriating thing about this clash is that Rufus has the ability to counter any of your attacks,
03:03reversing them and gunning you down.
03:05The only way to damage him is to attack right as he's about to do something,
03:09which is incredibly hard to time.
03:11Rebirth's ATB system is simply not built well for this type of 1v1 battle,
03:16and it becomes even worse when Rufus' pet joins the fray.
03:19Don't be surprised if this boss battle takes you many, many attempts.
03:24Enough of this farce.
03:37The fighter's shields aren't rated for slip space.
03:40No, but the Didact's are.
03:44Prior to this fourth iteration,
03:46the Halo franchise had produced some of the most memorable finales in video games.
03:51Halo 4 already had a lot to prove,
03:53as it was the first game to be developed not by Bungie,
03:56but instead by the newly formed 343 Industries.
04:00And for the most part, it succeeded.
04:02Unfortunately, Halo 4 is mostly remembered for its incredibly subpar final boss.
04:07After building up the Didact as an unstoppable force of nature,
04:10and potentially the series' next big bad,
04:13players take him on in an awful QTE sequence.
04:16Now, we know Halo isn't exactly known for its great boss fights,
04:19but even a long bullet sponge showdown would have been better than this.
04:23Now, we know Halo isn't exactly known for its great boss fights,
04:26but even a long bullet sponge showdown would have been better than this.
04:46Imagine playing a hack and slash action game for around 20 hours,
04:50only for it to have been a complete genre change right at the end.
04:53Well, that is exactly what Drakengard 3 did,
04:56and it resulted in one of the most frustrating video game moments of all time.
05:01In the final boss battle, players must battle their way through an 8 minute long rhythm game,
05:06where if you miss even a single note, it's all over.
05:09Making matters worse is that apart from the rings approaching you,
05:13there isn't really any sort of prompt to hit the notes,
05:16and the game's camera will do its absolute best to put you at an angle where you can't see them coming.
05:20The cruelest moment is right at the end when the screen fades to black and the characters start talking,
05:25tricking you into believing it's all over.
05:28There's a reason why so few have completed this route.
05:46Sonic's latest side-scrolling platformer is an unfortunate case due to the fact that while the levels themselves are pretty good,
05:53the boss fights are so bad that it brings everything down.
05:56And while the final boss is a real pain,
05:59nowhere is this more apparent than the showdown against Fang the Hunter at the end of the Golden Capital stage.
06:04For almost 5 minutes, the player will have to avoid all sorts of annoying hazards on a floating platform such as lava,
06:10lasers, and fire as the camera moves at its own pace.
06:14There will be plenty of times where you won't see any of it coming,
06:17resulting in a lot of trial and error before you even get to face off against Fang properly,
06:21a feat that is far more difficult if more players fill the screen at once.
06:25And if you mess up, you'll have to start all the way from the beginning again,
06:29wasting a whole lot of time.
06:45Ocarina of Time
06:47Ocarina of Time is without a doubt one of the greatest games of all time,
06:51but it also contains one of the most notorious sections in gaming history.
06:56Talk to anyone who's played through the game,
06:58and they are always going to bring up how frustrating the Water Temple was.
07:02The main focus of this sixth dungeon is to constantly change the water levels by playing your ocarina in order to access new areas.
07:09The backtracking involved causes this to get very repetitive fast,
07:13and you'll often find yourself wondering where the heck to go next.
07:16To add insult to injury, you'll have to keep equipping and unequipping your iron boots in order to traverse through the water,
07:23creating a very frustrating experience all around.
07:29Number 23, Mission 46, Metal Gear Solid V, The Phantom Pain
07:34Are you having difficulty speaking? Can you move your head?
07:40There's plenty of evidence to suggest that The Phantom Pain went through a lot of issues and time constraints towards the end of its development,
07:47and there's no greater example of this than the final mission in this stealth epic.
07:51Instead of taking on a new and exciting challenge,
07:54you must instead replay the entire opening sequence again from the beginning of the game.
07:59And while it's certainly one of the most memorable parts of the game,
08:02there was absolutely no reason for us to go through it all over again.
08:06We could have just restarted the game from scratch if we wanted to.
08:09The only thing we get from it is a new short scene at the end with Big Boss,
08:13but it definitely was not worth the almost 50 minutes it took to get there.
08:22Number 22, Snowboarding Sections, Mega Man 8
08:26Quick reflexes can come in clutch in just about any mainline Mega Man game,
08:30but this segment from the Blue Bomber's eighth outing asks way too much from the player.
08:35Mega Man has to traverse an auto-scroller part of the stage while on a snowboard.
08:39All the while, an obnoxious robotic voice calls out to the player to either jump or slide to get past the next hazard.
08:48It sounds simple on paper, but it's not.
08:52It sounds simple on paper, but you have to be so precise that players end up dying again and again and again.
08:59Worst of all, there's yet another snowboarding stage waiting for you in Wily's Tower, which is arguably even harder.
09:11Number 21, Battling the Black Hand of Sauron, Middle Earth, Shadow of Mordor
09:21You'd think Monolith Productions would have seen the backlash a few years prior with Halo 4's Didact's disappointment,
09:27but that did not stop them from going full steam ahead with yet another underbaked final confrontation.
09:32Anyone who's taken in any sort of Lord of the Rings media knows just how much of a big deal Sauron is,
09:37and we were pretty stoked when he arrived on the scene, especially considering Shadow of Mordor's excellent combat system.
09:43Sadly, it was not meant to be, as we were treated to yet another painfully dull QTE session.
09:49The Dark Lord of Mordor deserved better than this.
10:02Number 20, Arson Cases, L.A. Noire
10:10L.A. Noire was a lot of fun, for the first three quarters of it.
10:14Who wouldn't want to run around as a detective in the 40s interrogating suspects, solving murders, and getting caught in car chases?
10:21Well, all that excitement came to a grinding halt when Cole's career came crashing down, and he's quickly shoved into the arson department.
10:36It's at this point in the game where puzzles become more obtuse, as finding clues at crime scenes is like finding needles in a haystack,
10:43and the pacing of the game comes to a bewildering crawl.
10:46Honestly, we can't blame you if you stopped playing because of these cases.
10:59Number 19, Blighttown, Dark Souls
11:03Dark Souls
11:10We'd happily replay a good portion of the Dark Souls series, but when it comes to the first game, our excitement levels aren't as high as they would be for the second and third games.
11:18Dark Souls built its reputation on its tough but fair difficulty, demanding players time their moves carefully and knowing precisely when to attack, when to block, and when to dodge roll.
11:33Blighttown
11:39That all goes out the window when players reach Blighttown, as this area suffers from framerate issues, making it tricky to time your moves right.
11:46Thankfully, the problem has been fixed in the 2017 Dark Souls remaster, six years later.
11:53Blighttown
11:59Number 18, Stage 4, Parappa the Rapper
12:10Parappa has always been one of those obscure PlayStation mascots that people fondly remember, but when his first game was remastered in 2017, we were reminded why many of us didn't see the game through to the end.
12:22Stage 4
12:28As if the awkward timing wasn't bad enough in the first three stages, Stage 4 made the game even more infuriating.
12:33Even though it feels like you're pressing buttons at the right time, the game will constantly throw you between the good and bad ratings.
12:39What more does this game want? Hell if we know. We stopped after hearing the song reset for the hundredth time.
12:45Doom Eternal
12:49Number 17, Marauders and Tentacles, Doom Eternal
13:01While Doom Eternal has been met with mostly positive reception, there are two enemies in the game that are the frequent talk of contention.
13:07Tentacles often feel like a sucker punch and lead to a sudden end of many ultra-nightmare runs.
13:16Marauders
13:21Marauders, on the other hand, have been lambasted for how they slow down combat, how they can only be attacked during a very specific window, and how they must be fought one-on-one in order for players to stand a chance.
13:32It's honestly no surprise that so many players are fuming because of these two, and it has sparked a discussion on removing them.
13:39Marauders
13:45Number 16, Xen, Half-Life
13:53One cannot deny the marvel that was the first Half-Life. At the time of its release, no other shooter had accomplished the same quality of cinematics and AI.
14:01However, there are very few players out there that will defend the Xen chapters.
14:10What made these chapters so odd was how the level design required players to employ their platforming abilities, which is something you don't force upon first-person shooter players.
14:20It didn't help that the environment was so barren that it made Xen so unbearably uninteresting, and the healing pools slowed down pacing drastically.
14:28It's no wonder it's the most forgettable part of the game.
14:32The border world, Xen, is in our control for the time being.
14:38Number 15, Bunny Day, Animal Crossing New Horizons
14:48What was supposed to be the exciting start of seasonal events in New Horizons quickly became one of the most resented.
14:54All was right on our island paradise until Zipper showed up and started trashing the place with freakin' eggs everywhere.
15:00Everywhere!
15:06Fishing in your river? Egg.
15:08Shaking trees? Egg.
15:10Chipping at a rock? Egg.
15:12Shoot down a balloon? Egg, egg, egg, egg.
15:15The madness had tormented so many players that Nintendo had to reduce their spawn rate.
15:20And the worst part of it is, you didn't even need the eggs.
15:23Just get the DIY recipes and you'll get that creepy zipper toy.
15:31Number 14, Finding the Tribals, Jet Force Gemini
15:45And here we have one of the rare cases of a fetch quest within a fetch quest.
15:49While the first half of the game has you shooting and exploring your way through a unique variety of alien worlds,
15:54the second half of Jet Force Gemini you have to go back and collect 12 parts of a spaceship in order to access the last level.
16:00One of these parts is locked behind another requirement, finding every tribal in the game.
16:05All 282 of them.
16:14This is a task made unbearable by the game's unreliable save system,
16:18as it only records a tally of how many tribals you collected, but doesn't specify which ones.
16:24Because of this, many players never saw the final level.
16:33Number 13, Jason, Heavy Rain
16:44Heavy Rain isn't for everyone, at least not for those looking for action-packed gameplay.
16:48However, those who were looking for an intriguing story were treated to an intense murder mystery.
16:53That isn't to say Heavy Rain was perfect, as some of its unconventional gameplay made the game the butt of many jokes,
16:59from its dancing speech commands to requiring a button prompt for literally every action.
17:04Of course, we could never forget the insanely ridiculous Jason segment.
17:08Aimlessly wander around, pressing X to Jason every second?
17:12We understand this moment is supposed to strengthen our bond with Jason,
17:15but some of us ended up turning the game off and leaving the kid lost forever.
17:28Number 12, The Triforce Quest, The Legend of Zelda Wind Waker
17:32The Legend of Zelda Wind Waker
17:42When a game is padding a quest out, it can feel like we're wasting our time.
17:46The Legend of Zelda has made us feel that way a couple of times, especially in Wind Waker,
17:51which has a glancing blemish on an otherwise perfect face.
17:54The Triforce Quest will task you with tracking down and collecting eight Triforce Shards,
17:58but before that you must obtain eight Triforce Charts, which requires a lot of backtracking
18:03and they have to be deciphered by Tingle for just under 400 rupees, each.
18:08Basically, this is an overcomplicated, unnecessarily long fetch quest,
18:12and it caused many players to either quit or remain as salty as the game's vast ocean for the remainder of the game.
18:20Number 11, The Tower of Blades, God of War
18:34This wasn't just a headache, it was a nightmarish migraine.
18:38In the first God of War, Kratos must escape Hades by scaling a massive pillar of spinning blades.
18:44Sounds simple, until you get hit and fall all the way back down to the bottom.
18:49This caused many players to give up and never play it again.
18:53Although, this problem did not go unnoticed by the developers.
18:56In an interview with GamesTM, director David Jaffe admitted that this segment was not tested
19:01and focus testing was skipped because they thought everything was fine with it.
19:05This was something he regrets doing.
19:07Well, at least he's honest about it.
19:10Number 10, The Whole Volcano Sequence, Resident Evil 5
19:23One of the most polarizing games in the franchise,
19:26Resident Evil 5 made some drastic changes to the series' formula by making co-op gameplay its main focus.
19:32Resident Evil has been known to feature some of the most powerful weapons in the franchise,
19:37Resident Evil has been known to feature some of the most ridiculous moments in gaming,
19:41but none has been quite as absurd as this.
19:44As the final level in the game, we witnessed Albert Wesker turn into a tentacled garbage monster,
19:49and we were subjected to quite possibly the most insane quick-time event of all time,
19:54Chris Redfield punching a boulder.
19:56We honestly don't know what was ruined more, our thumbs or this game.
20:07Number 9, The Impossible Levels, The Lion King
20:18If you somehow managed to conquer The Lion King's convoluted monkey puzzle,
20:22then you got the unfortunate experience of playing one of the most difficult platformers ever made.
20:27Chances are you eventually became so frustrated that a controller was thrown,
20:31or you uttered your very first obscenity before officially quitting.
20:36What if we told you there was a reason for the game's unforgiving difficulty?
20:39According to Lewis Castle, co-founder of developer Westwood Studios,
20:43Disney believed that if players managed to beat the game, they would not buy it.
20:47That's a fair point, but this was a game designed for kids,
20:51so challenging wasn't a friendly term to younger players.
20:54At least Aladdin was easier, more or less.
21:02Number 8, Smashing a Gate with Demon Babies, Ghostbusters, The Video Game
21:12When you force players to use a mechanic that works half the time,
21:15maybe don't make it the primary focus of a puzzle.
21:17That's exactly what Ghostbusters did in its final level.
21:20To get the Ecto-1 through the cemetery,
21:22you have to slime tether flying demon babies to smash open a gate.
21:26The problem is that not only is this the only way to defeat this particular enemy,
21:30but the slime tether doesn't always function properly.
21:38Most of the time it'll smash the nuisances into other things,
21:41or fail entirely and do nothing.
21:43Even on the easiest difficulty,
21:45the harassment you'll endure from the demon babies is enough to make anyone quit,
21:48especially since you'll encounter them again shortly after.
21:52Number 7, Batmobile Sections, Batman Arkham Knight
22:12For years, fans had been itching to take the Batmobile out for a spin in the Batman Arkham games.
22:18Well, developer Rocksteady made it happen for the final chapter in the series.
22:22And it was certainly not what everyone was hoping for.
22:25Many players felt glued to the Batmobile because of some missions requiring the player to race a time limit or blow up enemy tanks.
22:32Don't worry though, the Batmobile's cannons are non-lethal.
22:35How even? That makes no sense, it's a freaking tank!
22:39Arkham Knight was not a terrible game, unless you played the PC version.
22:42But to many Dark Knight fans, this would be one whimper of a finale.
22:49Number 6, Speeder Bike Levels, Battletoads
23:03Battletoads might be one of the most difficult platformers in gaming,
23:07but there are a few portions that are somewhat doable.
23:10What isn't doable are the Speeder Bike Levels,
23:13which will lull you into a sense of easy patterns before demanding faster and faster reactions.
23:18Needless to say, this is not a game for the easily frustrated,
23:22as you'll find yourself swearing at your screen and going into a blind rage.
23:26Honestly, we'll never know how some people have managed to beat the game.
23:29Then again, we'll never even attempt it because the cycle of fury will just begin anew.
23:33It's best for both us and our masochistic love for Battletoads.
23:44Number 5, Aiden Versio's Complete 180, Star Wars Battlefront II
24:00Prior to launch, DICE and Electronic Arts touted the single-player campaign as an opportunity to play as the bad guy,
24:06a chance to see the perspective from the Empire as they take down those rebel scum.
24:10It seems like they were ready to show something interesting... in the first half.
24:14I did not call for you, Commander Versio.
24:16Vardos is our target?
24:17One of them, yes.
24:18Why? The entire planet and its people, they're loyal to the Empire.
24:23However, the entire campaign falls apart when Aiden suddenly defects to the rebels because
24:28you destroyed my home planet. I hate you, Dad.
24:30In short, it was less of a seeing through the eyes of a stormtrooper
24:33and more of a cop-out to tell a story that heavily borrows motives and cues from other Star Wars stories.
24:38Oh, and she falls in love with Del, as if the story couldn't get any more tropey.
24:43You really think I'm gonna let you just float out here alone?
24:48Del...
24:51We're Infernal Squad.
24:54You and me.
24:56Number 4, The Animus, The Assassin's Creed series
24:59Great, that should do it. We'll email you the receipt. Till next time. Take care, Sean.
25:04Bye-bye, yes, bye. And don't expect any more free coffee.
25:07To newcomers, Assassin's Creed seems like a series of grand adventures that take place throughout different time periods.
25:13This belief is not entirely wrong, but it's also why many new players have left disappointed.
25:18For example, Black Flag boasts an excellent experience and is regarded as the best in the series.
25:23However, when The Animus is ham-fisted into the plot, it feels like you just took on a second job.
25:28This completely destroys the immersion, and it's enough to cause any new players to delete the game from their system.
25:34Can you really blame them?
25:36Speaking of which, our trailer is finished. Would you like to see it? I owe you that much.
25:40Number 3, Big's Campaign, Sonic Adventure
25:44Sonic?
25:48Uh-oh.
25:50Many fans fondly remember Sonic Adventure for its open exploration and quality graphics.
25:55Well, at the time they were.
25:57Is it the best Sonic game ever? Well, it could have been, had it not been for Big, the cat.
26:02Only a terrible character like him could deliver such an abysmal experience.
26:06In case you were never subjected to it, Big's Campaign involves fishing for his pet froggy in various levels.
26:12Yes, it's incredibly tedious, and the poor controls certainly didn't make the experience any more tolerable.
26:17Needless to say, many of us put the controller down to go question our life choices and the purpose of searching for this damn frog.
26:24Number 2, The World is Just a Video Game, Star Ocean, Till the End of Time
26:44Imagine clocking so many hours into an RPG, and when the story is reaching its climax,
26:49you witness a plot twist that completely decimates your hard work.
26:52Star Ocean did exactly that until the end of time.
26:55About two-thirds of the way into the game, everyone in this space-exploring adventure ends up in a parallel universe,
27:01where they learn that their universe is all just an MMORPG.
27:05The Eternal Sphere is a universe inside a simulator. Earth is one of the planets inside that universe.
27:11More surprisingly, they handle this reality-shattering truth surprisingly well.
27:16This revelation doesn't just dampen the adventure, it also undermines all of the events of previous Star Ocean titles.
27:22And since then, the franchise hasn't been able to achieve its once-notable reputation.
27:26We're just characters living inside a simulator?
27:30That's right.
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27:47Number 1. The Ending. Mass Effect 3.
27:51Because of you, humanity is already undone.
27:55That's not true!
27:57Look, ending a video game on a high note can be hard. We get it.
28:01As for Mass Effect 3, phew, that backlash was intense.
28:05When it launched, critics and fans praised Mass Effect 3 for its combat, music, voice acting,
28:11just about everything was as perfect as Mama's cooking.
28:13Except the ending.
28:15The ending was a complete mess, as both fans and critics pointed out contradictions and inconsistencies in the narrative,
28:21expressing their disappointment and frustration.
28:24How could BioWare end the series on such a sour note?
28:27This prompted BioWare to release free DLC known as the Extended Cut,
28:32which added more to the story while resolving a few problems.
28:46Have any moments ruined a video game for you? Let us know in the comments below.
28:50I'll relish every moment, every second of this kill.
28:54May you savor your death as well!
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29:15Thanks for watching!