Classic Video Game "Screw You"s: Difference between revisions

To keep this from degenerating into [[Complaining About Shows You Don't Like|Complaining about examples of]] [[Video Game Difficulty Tropes]] [[Complaining About Shows You Don't Like|you don't like]], examples should be phrased as generically as possible, or explain exactly '''why''' this game is a well known example of this particular FU, or this FU is particularly unusual.

 

----

Classic Video Game Screw Yous/"Fun Units":

* The ability of an enemy to [[One-Hit Kill]] you when the game itself doesn't make you a [[One-Hit-Point Wonder]] is a well known FU.

* The [[Auto Scrolling Level]] can easily be made into part of an FU, especially when mixed with Instant Death Areas, vanishing or moving platforms, [[Inconveniently-Placed Conveyor Belt|Inconveniently Placed Conveyor Belts]], and/or [[Goddamned Bats]]. (Forcing you to choose between two paths, one of which is a dead end, is more [[Fake Difficulty]] than a true FU.)

* The [[Slippy-Slidey Ice World|Ice Level]] is another classic FU, where your character, and ''only'' your character, [[Frictionless Ice|skids like crazy]], causing the [[Spikes of Doom]] and [[Goddamned Bats]] to be much more difficult to avoid.

** Similarly, underwater areas that hamper your characters mobility but leave enemies and traps (including fire-based traps) unhindered. Better yet, an underwater ice world that ignores how cold such water would be in the interest of combining these FUs.

----

Examples of unusual "Fun Units": (See also: [[Scrappy Mechanic]])

* ''[[I Wanna Be the Guy]]'' has one almost every screen, and this is what actually makes it fun. For example, one screen has a falling ceiling of spikes, and one spot in the floor that is lower than the rest. Upon finally managing to reach that spot, you discover that the spike just grows longer to kill you. Other examples include the Delicious Fruit which can ''fall up'' and the evil save point which chases and kills you. And spring-loaded background couches underneath spiked ceilings. And clouds that spontaneously drop lightning bolts. And spike pits of doom that chase you. And that clusterchucking moon.

** ''[[Might and Magic]]: World of Xeen'' similarly allowed you to accidentally teleport off the edge of the world -- potentially before you realized the world ''had'' an edge.

* In ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'', {{spoiler|if you [[Dug Too Deep]], you can release a Balrog}}. Thanks to the line "Losing is fun" in the in the instructions for the game, they are referred to as Hidden Fun Stuff, or just HFS.

** The "losing is fun" line means the Fun Units for DF suddenly stop being sarcastic.

*** In the new version it's {{spoiler|an infinitely huge horde of demons.}} Basically, when you hit HFS, your fortress is dead. How fun.

*** Emphasis on "basically." DF players being [[For Science!|DF players]], they have discovered a way to {{spoiler|colonize Hell.}}

* [[Kaizo Mario World|Invisible coin blocks.]] [[Invisible Block|Invisible.]] [[Super Mario Brothers|Coin.]] [[Platform Hell|Blocks.]] ''[[Kaizo Mario World|TABARNAK!]]''

** And just to up the ante, there's a big FU in the form of the infamous [[Kaizo Trap]], which ended a Special Stage that was already chock full of FUs, not the very least of which was the [[Timed Mission|incredibly sadistic hundred-second time limit]].

** ''Kid Kool'' also had invisible blocks to mess up jumps.

* When you die in ''[[Descent]]'', all of your equipment is scattered around the place. This wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for losing them all forever if you die between blowing the reactor and getting the hell out of Dodge. (Some levels, which involve things like ''invisible death mechs'' with insanely powerful cannons, are even more charming).

*** Level 9 has a [[Monster Closet]] right at the start of the level that opens after you proceed forward a ways. Also bad are [[Teleporting Keycard Squad]] ambushes from multiple directions, spawning [[Demonic Spiders]] such as the aformentioned Drillers and Super Hulks. One level in ''Descent Maximum'' for the [[Play Station]] has the yellow key placed between two Diamond Claw-generating [[Mook Maker|Mook Makers]].

** The whole first game becomes a big Fun Unit on Insane difficulty after level 7. Between the random "roaming" of the enemies, the brutal AI, and your weakness vs their strength, it's for all practical purposes impossible.

* In almost every version of ''[[Metroid]]'', there are fake walls, floors, and ceiling tiles. Some of these can be shot through, and others appear solid but aren't. The best Fun Unit is in the original Nintendo version, where the player enters a hallway with an Energy Tank near the end. Shortly before the tank is an invisible hole in the floor. Falling down through the hole doesn't kill you but forces you to go through tedious backtracking to reach the tank. ''[[Video Game Remake|Zero Mission]]'' does the same thing, but at least is nice enough to have an enemy travel up around the edges of the gap if you wait long enough, making it obvious there ''is'' a hole. [[Super Metroid]] did it in between the two, as well.

* Some levels in ''[[Lemmings]]'' have the lemmings enter over a lethal drop, forcing the player to act fast by making them Floaters. And some of those don't allow enough Floaters.

** [[Goddamn Bats|Bats]] are the same blue color as [[Water Is Blue|water]] and most background walls making already-annoying enemies near-impossible to spot.

* The original [[Sonic the Hedgehog]] game did ''not'' make you immune to the [[Spikes of Doom]] when you were flashing after taking damage. That means that, while the spikes were not technically an instant kill, if you fall in the middle of a group you'll lose your rings, bounce over onto another patch and ''die'', without a chance to realize your mistake and get off of them. This was entirely intentional; the developers [http://info.sonicretro.org/Spike_damage_behavior intentionally coded spikes] to ignore [[Mercy Invincibility]].

** Then there's the ultimate AI cooperation attack, the rainbow shell assault: Green shell first, then red shell while you spin, and the final insult of a blue shell finishing you off before you can recover from either of the first two. Welcome to last place!

* In the first game of the original ''[[The Bards Tale Trilogy|Bard's Tale]]'' trilogy, standing in front of one door leading to one room in the catacombs yielded the message that the escaping air smelled very stale. Entering this room froze the game.

* ''[[Carmageddon]]'' TDR2000 had a trick jump leading to what looked like a bonus tunnel entrance which was only accessible by using the jump on command power-up. The tunnel was empty, and when you attempted to get back out, you'd run into an impenetrable barrier that said ''"Now you're stuck, [[For the Evulz|SUCKER!]]"''. You could get out by respawning a number of times... spending money each time.

* In ''[[Bleach]]: Soul Carnival 2'', just about every other treasure chest in the ''entire game'' has a bomb inside, which explodes when you open it, dealing damage and knocking you back. Stage 27 turns this up a notch; the chests are on platforms with raised sides, meaning that they're basically invisible. It is entirely possible to kill enemies with a treasure bomb, [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|and is extremely satisfying when you do so,]] but you can still die in the middle of a combo because you accidentally opened a fake chest.

* The [[Slippy-Slidey Ice World]] in ''[[Snake Rattle and Roll]]''.

* ''Saturn Bomberman'' has a few of these spread around, but the one that jumps to mind most is in the Samurai World where the butterfly enemies can fly over pretty much anything. This makes getting trapped in the corner by one extremely common, to a frustrating degree.

** Another example, again from Samurai World, is the enemies who transform into invincible rocks, however more often then not they transform into harmless trees so it isn't so bad.

** The "Slow Down" power-up mixed in with normal power-up's is another.

 

{{reflist}}