I suck at this, why can't I stop playing?

[Glen-i]

Look at me, starting a thread conversation. Breaking all sorts of new boundaries here! Anyway...

 

Have you ever played a game that you're unbelievably terrible at, but yet you still enjoy a lot?

 

I ask this because it happens to me with Tetris.

I am awful at Tetris. You wanna know how bad I am? I only just saw the credits on the Game Boy original last week. I first got that game when I was 4! My Mum, who can't grasp the concept of running in a 2D Mario Platformer, beat it in 1995!

 

And yet, I have 3 different versions of the damn thing downloaded on my 3DS, and all of them have high scores set by my Mum. And I can't even get close to beating them, and I know she wasn't even trying, so if, by some fluke chance, I pull it off, next time she boots it up, she'll ask if I beat her score yet, I'll say yes, then she'll wreck that score in half an hour tops.

 

It should be absolutely soul-destroying, the only time I ever beat @Dcubed and @Ugh first aid in Tetris (Or other action-based puzzle games, for that matter) is when they do something unbelievably dumb, or I get that broken item that swaps playing fields with someone else at the perfect time, so why do I keep playing it so much? I honestly don't know.

 

So do any of you have a game you really enjoy that you know full well you can't play to save your life? Go on, hit me with your anecdotes!

 

This is the stuff of my nightmares!

Edited September 9, 2016 by Glen-i

[Dcubed]

Cool topic idea!

 

Probably not so relevent now, but Rock Band/Guitar Hero was basically this for me when they were a thing.

 

Was absolutely rubbish at every instrument, still loved playing them though!

[killthenet]

How do you see the credit in Game Boy Tetris? I'm also rubbish at the game and have been inspired to play it by Kyle Bosman's attempts to beat Wozniak.

 

A different game that I was rubbish at for so long but couldn't stop playing was 'Dark Souls'. Thankfully I improved as I went on but the first 20 hours or so were a real struggle.

[Dcubed]

How do you see the credit in Game Boy Tetris? I'm also rubbish at the game and have been inspired to play it by Kyle Bosman's attempts to beat Wozniak.

 

Beat Level 9 of Type B, you get an ending sequence after doing that (that's the "credits" that Glen-i's referring to - there's no actual credits with names in Tetris GB).

[bob]

Cool topic idea!

 

Probably not so relevent now, but Rock Band/Guitar Hero was basically this for me when they were a thing.

 

Was absolutely rubbish at every instrument, still loved playing them though!

 

I'm kind of the same, although slightly different.

 

I played Guitar Hero to death when i had it - but only on medium difficulty. I pretty much 100%'d every song on medium, and rocked hard when doing so. I was awesome.

 

However, bump it up to difficult, and i couldn't do it. For some reason i lacked any kind of independent movement of my little finger, so when they introduced a fifth colour, i couldn't handle it, and failed most of the difficult songs. I've never experienced such a ramp up in difficulty from one level to the next in a game before.

 

Anywho, still played the game to death, even though i sucked at it.

[Ashley]

The dating game.

 

But seriously I tend to give up if I know I suck

[drahkon]

(I'm going to abuse this thread for a "I suck at this, WHY THE FUCK DO I SUCK AT THIS?"-post)

 

Mario Kart Wii

 

This fucking game.

 

I am the absolute worst at Mario Kart Wii. Every other installment...no problem, I can win, I can do well.

 

Super Mario Kart - Among my friends I'm the best at this

Mario Kart: Double Dash - Heated battles with my two best mates; anyone's game.

Mario Kart 8 - My best friend and I had incredible races. Pretty much tied overall.

 

Mario Kart Wii - FUCK THIS SHIT. I'm an inept slouch at this, the absolute worst and I have no idea why.

Then there is my girlfriend who is a goddamn savant at this game and one of my best friends who owns basically every opponent. If both of them raced against each other I'm pretty sure that the universe would cease to exist and I'd be sent to hell, doomed to play this game for eternity.

[nekunando]

I feel like I'm pretty bad at Metal Gear Solid, but probably because I never seem to try to get better.. and I should

 

What I mean by that is that I may have been through Metal Gear Solid / Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes countless times but I usually follow the same structure of trying my best not to be spotted but running away if I do or even allowing myself to be killed just to try again from the most recent checkpoint. It's not a good way to play and I'm determined to fight back next time I play it (which feels like it should be soon )

 

One of the reasons I'm less fond of Snake Eater is probably because it's much more difficult to escape when you alert one of the guards

[Dcubed]

I feel like I'm pretty bad at Metal Gear Solid, but probably because I never seem to try to get better.. and I should

 

What I mean by that is that I may have been through Metal Gear Solid / Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes countless times but I usually follow the same structure of trying my best not to be spotted but running away if I do or even allowing myself to be killed just to try again from the most recent checkpoint. It's not a good way to play and I'm determined to fight back next time I play it (which feels like it should be soon )

 

One of the reasons I'm less fond of Snake Eater is probably because it's much more difficult to escape when you alert one of the guards

 

??? Isn't that how you're actually supposed to play?

 

The games openly discourage combat (at least the first 3 do). Flight upon sight is always better than fight (in fact, European Extreme gives a Game Over if you get spotted at all, so there ya go :p )

[nekunando]

??? Isn't that how you're actually supposed to play?

 

The games openly discourage combat (at least the first 3 do). Flight upon sight is always better than fight (in fact, European Extreme gives a Game Over if you get spotted at all, so there ya go :p )

 

There's absolutely nothing wrong with running The problem is that I would often just let myself be killed in order to not waste ammo and rations in trying to escape or fight back. I regularly do this in the original Splinter Cell titles, too

 

What I should be doing is embracing the panic of being seen and trying my best to find a way out of the situation without conceding defeat right away! That's certainly my plan for next time

[Dcubed]

There's absolutely nothing wrong with running The problem is that I would often just let myself be killed in order to not waste ammo and rations in trying to escape or fight back. I regularly do this in the original Splinter Cell titles, too

 

What I should be doing is embracing the panic of being seen and trying my best to find a way out of the situation without conceding defeat right away! That's certainly my plan for next time

 

That's basically like me in every Fire Emblem game ever. Every time I start I tell myself, OK, this time I'm not gonna reset if someone dies...

 

Gets killed by a BS critical hit...

 

Whelp! (Guess what happens next...)

[Glen-i]

(I'm going to abuse this thread for a "I suck at this, WHY THE FUCK DO I SUCK AT THIS?"-post)

 

Mario Kart Wii

 

This fucking game.

 

I am the absolute worst at Mario Kart Wii. Every other installment...no problem, I can win, I can do well.

 

Super Mario Kart - Among my friends I'm the best at this

Mario Kart: Double Dash - Heated battles with my two best mates; anyone's game.

Mario Kart 8 - My best friend and I had incredible races. Pretty much tied overall.

 

Mario Kart Wii - FUCK THIS SHIT. I'm an inept slouch at this, the absolute worst and I have no idea why.

Then there is my girlfriend who is a goddamn savant at this game and one of my best friends who owns basically every opponent. If both of them raced against each other I'm pretty sure that the universe would cease to exist and I'd be sent to hell, doomed to play this game for eternity.

 

Do you use bikes in Mario Kart Wii? Because if not, that's your problem.

That game was hilariously unbalanced.

[drahkon]

Do you use bikes in Mario Kart Wii? Because if not, that's your problem.

That game was hilariously unbalanced.

 

I could use a ship straight out of F-Zero GX and still lose.

[Glen-i]

I could use a ship straight out of F-Zero GX and still lose.

 

Well, there's your problem. The Blue Falcon is an awful vehicle in Mario Kart Wii!

[Debug Mode]

Oh boy, definitely got this feeling lately. I've probably sunk around £30 already into rhythm games here in the arcades, and one sticks out that I fucking love but I suck at.

 

 

MaiMai Pink Plus is a rhythm game where the buttons are dotted around a circular screen and there's also some touch specific controls where you have to hover your hand in multiple different directions. It gets crazy when, for example, you use your right hand to smash a long series of buttons on the center right of the screen and then all of sudden, you need your left hand as there's a combo press coming up and all of a sudden, you're losing track of all of the button prompts heading your way. Absolutely mental.

 

I wish they would make a foreigner corner so I could play it away from all the Japanese, as they all seem to be insanely good at it. The music selection is fantastic though, lots of Sega classics from Phantasy Star, Sonic, Burning Rangers etc, there's a lot of Persona 4 Dancing All Night tracks, Hatsune Miku and Touhou Project. Good fun, i'll include a video.

 

[Rummy]

The idea reminds me of a great article I read once that was essentially 'Why play on hard?' with the gist of actually playing on easier instead of punishing one's self unless you really wanted to.

 

It's not often that I actually play games that frustrate me!! I've found as I've gotten older I find the old rote learn and repeat game model really quite very tedious, and I end up not bothering(so like Dark Souls etc just not for me). I can just about stomach it in rhythm games to an extent though - gave Bit.Trip Runner particularly(a few of the other Bit.Trips but not as much) quite a good long go even though I wasn't good, as well as a bit of one of the Guitar Heroes. I think if you're having quite a repetitive and frustrating game the key is to make it definitely solvable/not too random, and more importantly really invoke that 'one more go' feel and make the one more go very easy to accomplish. Bit.Trip.Runner does this by making the return to the start so swift and doesn't actually give you any quit option between failures, GH gives you easy/quick retry options - you need to keep downtime...down!

 

The only other thing that might keep me going at a game I'm bad at would probably be social aspects/playing with friends. I wasn't a particular Halo pro even after clocking days of playtime - but I played a lot because my friends might come on and it was a good social avenue.

 

So yeah...soz can't think of any particular games I was bad at yet kept on at since I was a kid(where I'd play to death simply because I had no other option) but maybe it's just because I can't stomach it!

[Jonnas]

I can't come up with many games where I outright suck. I can usually improve and get better (whether it be a matter of strategy or rote memorization), and I actively enjoy doing so. Fire Emblem, Megaman Zero and Binding of Isaac come to mind as games I used to suck at, but not anymore.

 

I know the feeling, though. Specific bosses, levels, puzzles or segments can drive me up the wall, and I just can't quit. I have to force myself to take a break and come back with a cooler head. I'd even say those are appealing because I'm sucking at them.

 

There is one game that goes against that trend, though: Mr.Driller 2. Balls hard (might be because it's for the GBA, and the game would benefit a lot from a bigger screen), and I often feel like I died unfairly, but goddamn, it is fun and addicting. I don't even feel like I'm getting better, it's just that "maybe the stars may align this time, and I can finish this damn level".

[Dcubed]

There is one game that goes against that trend, though: Mr.Driller 2. Balls hard (might be because it's for the GBA, and the game would benefit a lot from a bigger screen), and I often feel like I died unfairly, but goddamn, it is fun and addicting. I don't even feel like I'm getting better, it's just that "maybe the stars may align this time, and I can finish this damn level".

 

Good shout out there. Mr Driller is great fun but I suck something fierce at it!

 

Doesn't stop me from enjoying it though.

 

Same with most Japanese arcade rhythm games, like Beatmania. I enjoy them, but I can't play them to save my life.

[Mandalore]

I was always pretty rubbish as PC RTS games like Age of Empires and Command & Conquer, still enjoyed playing through them though.

[Debug Mode]

So I get the feeling this thread is going to be the home of my Japan arcade blog, but there's a game that's insanely popular here right now in the rhythm game corners, and it's called Chunithm Air.

 

 

It's quite an interesting set up for an arcade machine, the inputs are done through a bar below the screen which sort of looks like it's meant to be a keyboard. The interesting aspect about it is though, the lights beneath light up the controls and, depending on the difficulty of the song, you could have only two buttons or up to 16 individual keys for the game and that's not even all the inputs needed for the game as there's also a hand sensor. Sometimes, you'll get keys that want you to raise your hand, and there's also keys where not only do you have to raise your hand, you have to slam it down once the command appears. I gave it a go as there were lines upon lines of people waiting for their turn on the Sunday (the busiest day), so I went back during a time when the arcades were dead.

 

Again, just like most rhythm games, I'm absolutely terrible but my god this game is addictive. Quite an interesting array of songs, Sega seems to be a big contributor yet again (All I want by The Offspring is present, which made my day) but you'll also see the regular stuff like anime themes, vocaloid songs, Touhou Project and batshit insane originals designed to kill all of your energy.

 

I'll include a video, like last time, of what the highest difficulty looks like. Which is always amusing as I'm standing their panicking on regular hard mode (Master is 3 difficulty settings above that)

 

[Pestneb]

I remember playing golden eye for the first time with two friends who had sunk hours into the game. I didn't own an N64, was used to PC fps... nad just hated the game. I find it weird how people can speak fondly of the game, because in my memory it was trash. Probably not helped by the fact that my friends hunted me down and killed me while I was both trying to learn the stage AND the controls. Just as I began to get an idea of where I was in a stage they'd move on to a new one. It wasn't fun at all, basically they made the learning curve so steep I point blank refused to touch the game ever again, I'd just watch them play. A similar situation arose with Halo a few years later... Playstation 2 I believe with a gran turismo game, similar situation.I generally don't like realistic race sims... I find it much more fun driving a real car to a super market than racing a virtual car "speeding" around a virtual track... I always found arcadey unrealistic racers more fun, because they didn't try to match real life driving. So yeah.. those experiences put me off the entire Playstation series of consoles and xboxes :P

[Falcon_BlizZACK]

For me its Command & Conquer 3 online... I will always looove the micro-management of building bases and units but online - even after about 10 years of playing it - Im still noobish. Even with building multiple harvesters and refineries quick, I still lack something that catches me off guard. But I still love it.

[bob]

Not really a case of 'why do I keep playing it', because I don't, but I suck at football games.

 

Played a fair amount during uni because that's what others enjoyed, but I couldn't get my head around it at all. I couldn't stop focusing on one player. The idea of jumping between controlling different players confused me and I'd always end up trying to score with a defender, or end up running the winger into the sidelines because I was watching the wrong person.

 

Not sure why I suck so much at this particular type of game, but I do.