HG101 2021 Game FAIL Challenge

[Apollo Chungus]

(Original thread idea suggested by spanky )

Welcome to the 2021 HG101 Game FAIL Challenge!

This is a companion piece to the HG101 Game Finish Challenge thread, in which people attempt to finish video games and post about whatever they've beaten. However, this thread will be dedicated to the games that people weren't able to beat on the terms established in that thread. Maybe you gave the game up, or had to beat it using cheats and save states, or you only played one of the scenarios before deciding that was all you really needed. Whatever the reason, this thread will be the place you can go to talk about those games.

There will be far fewer rules because of the nature of this thread (and also because it's new), but feel free to ask if you have any questions. Rules about certain game types or genres can be read on the corresponding Game Finish Challenge thread, in order to see what counts to complete a game or not.

Basic Guidelines

- A game can be discussed in this thread if:

- You abandoned the game before reaching the end.

- You beat the game using cheats, save states in emulators, or exploiting major glitches.

Post Formatting

- The name of the game must be in bold and optionally in red if you failed to beat the game, or orange if you beat the game with cheats, glitches and the like. The platform must also be included.
- Please use the game’s English name even if it is not officially available in English.
- If the game is for a computer platform, use the operating system name e.g. DOS, if the platform can generally be considered a PC. Older systems such as the C64 or Apple II may simply use that instead.
- If the game is part of an official emulated release, please include both the original platform and the platform of play.
- If you beat the game, please include your playtime if it is readily available using the game or system's timer.
- Include whether this was a first time completion or a replay.
- If including multiple games, please put them in alphabetical order. If you are also including some thoughts, this text may break up the listing.

General Rules

- A game must be able to be completed, for it to not be beaten. It must either have a win state such as an ending or a set of challenges such as scenarios. In most cases, getting to the credits is an obvious indication, but this is not always the case.
- In order to be counted, a game must have been started within the last two weeks of 2020 (Dec. 17 onward) and completed in 2021.
- A game may only be counted once per person. Multiple people may claim the same game.
- Any difficulty is acceptable.
- Posting a screenshot is encouraged but not required.

Ports/Remakes/Remasters

- Simple ports, remakes and remastered versions i.e. graphical updates do not count separately.
- Games with substantial changes over the original do count separately.

DLC and Expansions

- In order to count separately from the base game, DLC and expansions must be accessible either from the main menu or completely separately and not exclusively in-game.
- New content in rereleases, remakes and remasters may be counted separately if it fulfills the general requirements for DLC and expansions.

Hacks/Mods

— Bug fix and gameplay adding modifications are allowed, but please list any that are used.
— Simple mods do not count separately from the base game.
— Large scale modifications that function as a new game do count separately from the base game.

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This is merely a commiseration thread, to talk about games that we weren't able to beat on its own terms (whether that means giving it up or using cheats). It's called the Game Fail Challenge, but that doesn't mean you have failed. Sometimes these things don't work out as you want them to, and that's okay.

(Poster's note: I have no idea whether to collect what people submit or not like dsparil does for the Game Finish thread, considering there's only two months left in the year.)

[ZenithianHero]

I have to remember what I dropped this year. I did have this one.


J-Stars Victory Vs+ (PS4, Failed first time)

This one was rough. I remember spending 5 hours on it earlier this year and didn't like it. The way the menus and gameplay was designed was confusing as the mechanics not well explained. The arenas are way too big found the pacing to be thrown off for it. The game has a story mode, had neat idea to sail the world but was rather dull in execution. May not bother with Jump Force a followup that had noticeable poor fan reaction and doesn't give me much hope these games are improving or not.

[spanky]

Apollo Chungus, awesome. Thanks for doing this. Starting my own thread per the suggestion of excelsior crossed my mind, but thankfully you beat me to the punch!

I'll start with a few recent failures of my own.

Castlevania The Adventure (Game Boy via PS4 Castlevania Anniversary Collection, Cheated with Save States, First time completion)

Hoo boy, no idea why I chose to play this this as it's considered one of the worst games in the series. I think some people around here like it. I never played it when I was a kid so I don't have any sort of nostalgic callus built up. I really thought I could beat this one legit, but the spikes in the 3rd level just broke me. The final boss is kind of nuts and I was using multiple save states to get through the fight (shameful). I do like how one of the video filters makes the game look like you're playing it on the Super Game Boy

Bram Stoker's Dracula (SNES, Lost all my lives/continues, never beaten)

Ever read the original book? It's a great read. The movie this game is adapted from is pretty good as well though I'm kind of mixed on giving Dracula a Tragic Backstory.

Anyway, out of the frying pan of bad Dracula-related games and into the fire. I think I'm just a glutton for punishment. It's a completely generic, western-developed hack and slash. Enemies just rush you, take multiple hits and have no sort of recoil. Some levels have you restart exactly where you die and other's have checkpoints.

This game is just plain bad, the only thing interesting about it is the 12 foot tall renditions of characters from the movie. That and the drunk guys who wake up just long enough to wing an empty bottle at your head.

I kinda want to play the completely insane looking Sega CD version of this which is a beat em up where you kill rats with karate kicks across FMV backgrounds.

[Deleted]

You mean when I make a suggestion to you it only crosses your mind and you don't just do it spanky I'm hurt. 


Subnautica (PS4, Lost all my shit, never beaten)

Game scared the crap out of me. I stopped playing.

[personman]

Ah, how fortuitous. I just did this very thing just now, ha.

Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream (NES, 3DS virtual console; first time; beaten abusing save states)

Much as I played the heck out of this game as a kid and going back to it over the years I never completed it. And goddamn I can see why. I was able to get through it legitimately up until the last circuit where Sandman just got the better of me too much. After being stuck on him for two days I just decided to save state after a round if I did well enough. The way he kept switching his pattern up at the start just messed me up every time and I had enough of it. Oddly he got easier as the fight progressed. Hell I thought Super Macho man was easier, just had to figure out the timing for his spinning punch.

Then there is Mr. Dream. Screw that guy, I just couldn't get the timing down and having someone who can just one shot you for the entire fight was not my idea of fun. I save scummed like every couple hits and it still took me an hour. Bah. Still liked the game but I prefer Super Punch Out. It had challenge to spare but didn't go to ridiculous lengths like this.

[🧀Son of Suzy Creamcheese🧀]

Most games I fail to beat are from just forgetting to play the game for a while (does that count?), so I'll probably forget to post them in this thread. But I do have two for now.


The Plutonia Experiment (Win10, replay, forgot to finish it)

Summer of '69 (Win10, first play, lost interest)

This is a DOOM II wad made by the guys behind Sunlust containing 6 maps that were scrapped from that wad. Two are earlier versions of maps in Sunlust (one of which I already didn't really like in Sunlust and which is even worse here), two are so forgettable that I don't remember them, one is pretty damn good, and MAP06 is so bad that I quit playing when I reached that after like two minutes.

And yes, it's named after that godawful Bryan Adams song, which maybe should've clued me in on the quality of this wad, and it plays in a very terrible midi version on the title screen. Van Halen's Jump is the intermission screen song, and that one's actually a pretty good rendition.

[spanky]

excelsior , hey there don't take it personally. I'm just lazy! My dad was a union teamster...laziness is in my blood

Oct 25, 2021 2:44:23 GMT -5 personman said:

Ah, how fortuitous. I just did this very thing just now, ha.

Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream (NES, 3DS virtual console; first time; beaten abusing save states)

Much as I played the heck out of this game as a kid and going back to it over the years I never completed it. And goddamn I can see why. I was able to get through it legitimately up until the last circuit where Sandman just got the better of me too much. After being stuck on him for two days I just decided to save state after a round if I did well enough. The way he kept switching his pattern up at the start just messed me up every time and I had enough of it. Oddly he got easier as the fight progressed. Hell I thought Super Macho man was easier, just had to figure out the timing for his spinning punch.

Then there is Mr. Dream. Screw that guy, I just couldn't get the timing down and having someone who can just one shot you for the entire fight was not my idea of fun. I save scummed like every couple hits and it still took me an hour. Bah. Still liked the game but I prefer Super Punch Out. It had challenge to spare but didn't go to ridiculous lengths like this.

I failed this one a couple months back as well (Mike Tyson version). I got to Super Macho Man and he just slaughtered me. I didn't have the heart in it to keep going. This was especially crushing because this is a game I can usually beat - it leads me to wonder if I'm losing my touch!

[dsparil]

That there's an official thread for this makes me wish I had kept better track of everything I dropped. One I haven't posted about before is 

John Wick Hex (Switch, Too Boring)

Turning the series into a strategy game seems like a less than obvious move, but for a character that's supposed to be such a super-hitman it does make a certain amount of sense. Everything is time based so it's more like a real-time game with a forced pause; Fear Effect Sedna was originally going for something like this before switching format to an action game. This game is too complex to be able to directly go down that route, but maybe the developers should have tried anyway. It's weirdly sedate, but the lack of variety in gameplay is what ultimately lets it down. There also isn't much of a plot just some generic boilerplate about Winston and Charon being captured by the new villain unsurprisingly name Hex just like the game's grid structure. Ian McShane and Lance Reddick do reprise their roles, but they're not given much to do. On the one hand, I don't want to be too hard since it's a fairly cheap game at $20 full price, but I also couldn't bring myself to actually finish it despite getting about half way.

[windfisch]

Oct 24, 2021 19:07:59 GMT -5 spanky said:

Castlevania The Adventure (Game Boy via PS4 Castlevania Anniversary Collection, Cheated with Save States, First time completion)

Hoo boy, no idea why I chose to play this this as it's considered one of the worst games in the series. I think some people around here like it. I never played it when I was a kid so I don't have any sort of nostalgic callus built up. I really thought I could beat this one legit, but the spikes in the 3rd level just broke me. The final boss is kind of nuts and I was using multiple save states to get through the fight (shameful). I do like how one of the video filters makes the game look like you're playing it on the Super Game Boy 

One of them would be me. And seeing it mentioned directly alongside Bram Stoker's Dracula does sting a little (and even that game used to have a spokesperson here, at least the Mega Drive version). The irony here is that this is probably one of a couple of games that I could easily claim in the game finish-thread (which usually has too many caveats for me to participate). I might even beat it with my eyes closed and my hands tied behind my back, hehe.

[Deleted]

Oct 25, 2021 10:19:44 GMT -5 windfisch said:

Quick! Someone start the Bondage Game Finish Challenge!!!

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spanky -   - I actually hadn't 'got' that Simpsons joke previously. We don't use the term 'teamster' to my knowledge in UK English. Assuming I'm not off the mark in understanding it's a truck driver the job is seen as undesirable here, but more because of the long hours. It doesn't have the association with laziness. 

[windfisch]

Game Fetish Challenge!

edit: Though this would arguably still be about finishing (time needed & how often before) and how well the overall experience was...

[Deleted]

Oct 25, 2021 11:36:22 GMT -5 windfisch said:

Game Fetish Challenge!

I believe you just won this thread, sir!

[windfisch]

Be careful what you wish for: There are things that cannot be unseen nor unread!

edit: Case in point:

(insert "insert rumble pack"-joke here)

[Apollo Chungus]

In another timeline, I'm setting up the Game Fetish Challenge thread where people have to beat games through the kinkiest means possible, whether it's in their own interests or something that ties into the game thematically. Someone playing through the water levels in Sonic the Hedgehog while practicing autoerotic asphyxiation.

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Quake 4 (Xbox 360; First Time; Gave up due to lack of checkpoints)

I got this a few years ago just to play the Quake II port included in the bonus disc, which I enjoyed much more. I briefly played 4, but found it a very boring sequel that had nothing to do with what I liked about II, and dropped it until I read JDarkside 's blog and eventual review of the game. He made it sound pretty interesting, so I tried giving it another shot. For what it's worth, I did find more to appreciate about 4 on its own terms: the vehicle stages are surprisingly decent and have a surreal energy with how the sound is almost completely faded out, there's plenty of side dialogue to dig into if you're into that, and I rather dug the level where you make your way down through a complex and then have to come back out as your comrades are slowly picked off. A really neat level where the story comes entirely through the gameplay and encounter design.

However, the game is quite difficult - even on the easiest difficulty - and very sparsely checkpoints your progress. You can save anywhere, but it's easy to forget that and find yourself going back 10+ minutes even though there were plenty of places the game could've placed a checkpoint so you didn't have to repeat the scripted sequences. This eventually got on my nerves enough for me to abandon it after a particularly bad case where I essentially had to replay the entire stage and a dozen very tough combat encounters. Quake 4 is better than I used to think, but it's just not for me.

[Snake]

Destiny 2, PS4 (Failed, never finished)

I spent about an hour trying to play this game.  I only gave it a shot because my friends play it, so I thought I would try learning it and joining them.  I felt pretty nauseous after 30 minutes.  And it just wasn't interesting.  Only reason I have it, was because it was a pack-in game with my PS4.


Metroid Prime, Gamecube (Failed, never finished)

I managed to play this in spurts.  I think I got about halfway through, and just lost interest.  I just recall it being a period of my life in 2003~2004 where I was too depressed from heartbreak to enjoy any kind of game. It was actually impressive for an FPS format, but the genre is still one I have trouble retaining interest for.  I might come back to it one day, but I still need to actually open and play Samus Returns and Dread.