Platformers should be simple. Players jump on ledges and dodge obstacles. Plenty of titles have garnered greatness from that simplicity, putting their own spin on things while maintaining the core idea. Sometimes, though, that's not enough.
Developers occasionally throw a curveball into their platformers. These sections aim to mix up the gameplay. Oftentimes, however, they wind up ruining the fun due to poor programming or misguided ambition. Variety may be the spice of life, but here, it's the kiss of death.
7 Jak 2: Drill Platform Shootout
This is seen as the hardest of theJak & Daxter series, but most of its irritating sections have a trick or workaround to bypass the annoyance. No such luck with this second visit to the Drill Platform. It literally straps players into a demented theme park ride.
Jak enters a turret pod and must kill 40 Krimzon Guards. It sounds simple, but everything works against the heroes in this fight. The narrow first-person view means the bad guys can easily outflank Jak with their jetpacks. Even after lining up a shot, players must hit them multiple times, each one knocking them away with a massive recoil.
They, on the other hand, can destroy the turret pod in seconds, and they definitely will. It's stuck on a track, so Jak can't run for cover or do anything to compensate. All he can do is wait to die. Even by this game's standards, that's cruel and unusual punishment.
6 Sly Cooper And The Thievius Raccoonus: Murray's Races
The folks at Sucker Punch struggled to make Murray relevant in their first Sly outing. He wasn't yet "the brawn" of the gang; he was just the getaway driver. Thus, the developers put that skill to use in a couple of races. In theory, it should be a good fit.
In practice, it's painful. The other cars are so much faster than Murray's van that they immediately leave him in the dust. The only way to keep up is to drive perfectly, pick up every nitro boost, and use it at the right moment. That's easier said than done when the van flips over at the slightest bump or awkward landing. Worse still, the hippo can't make up for that lost time since the dirt and snow roads prevent any traction. All of this is enough to make even master thieves go straight.
5 Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
The second Crash title tops its predecessor in every way, with more varied stages and tighter platforming all around. As such, it's all the more perplexing that Naughty Dog throws this gimmick in at the eleventh hour. After infiltrating Cortex's space station, the bandicoot dons a jetpack. This leads to the usual annoyance that comes with such floaty movement, but the controls are completely counterintuitive on top of that.
This amplifies the already-punishing difficulty as players must fight these awful controls to maneuver through lasers and nitro crates. The level calls for precision, but it's a challenge just getting Crash where you want him to go. The N. Sane Trilogy could have easily fixed this problem during the remake process. Alas, no. Faithfulness can sometimes be a detriment.
4 Spyro 3: Year Of The Dragon - Spooky Swamp Escort
The Spyro series has a few escort missions sprinkled throughout, and they're all annoying for the same reason. Namely, the subject wanders all over the place with no rhyme or reason, often walking right into enemies. That said, players can still react quickly and dispatch the danger with Spyro's fire breath.
The same can't be said when Sheila takes the lead. The kangaroo must clear a path for a firefly, who's holding dynamite to destroy a cage and free his friends. This would-be rescuer will bump into mushrooms and blow himself up, so players must stomp on those mushrooms to clear a path. As with other escort missions, though, the firefly takes the most indirect route.
Sheila can't adjust for these sporadic shifts since it takes a few precious seconds to jump and stomp on a mushroom. Much like Crash's jetpack, the irritation remains intact in the remake, so the only way to succeed is to memorize the firefly's route. Who wants to do that? The game has 100 other dragon eggs that Spyro can use to progress; this one isn't worth the hassle.
3 Super Mario Sunshine: Pachinko Pain
People generally love Super Mario Sunshine despite its water physics, not because of them. The area where those physics truly sink (sorry) the experience is a level featuring a giant pachinko machine. Anyone familiar with that game can guess where the difficulty lies.
As Mario navigates this structure, players lose what little control they have. They slide all over the place and tumble through seemingly every hole except the one they want. The water pack can't do much to mitigate this, especially since players can't see where the plumber is falling. The oversized pachinko tower constantly blocks the whole camera. In the end, collecting the eight required red coins isn't an accomplishment; it's an accident.
2 Tarzan Untamed - Surfing
This game's 2.5D platforming mostly succeeds at emulating the ape man's tree-surfing antics from the Disney classic. How ironic that it wipes out with actual surfing. Using a tree branch as a board, Tarzan pursues his friend, Terk, who's helplessly speeding downriver. He should have just let her drown, and not just because she's voiced by Rosie O'Donnell.
This river is a death trap. It's riddled with rocks, sandbars, crocodiles, and whirlpools. Players are hard pressed to dodge all of them due to the constant forward momentum, as well as Tarzan rubber-banding from side to side. The inevitable deaths are even more insulting because this chase goes on forever with nary a checkpoint in sight. For reference, this river rapid ride is on the game's cover art. As such, it should have been the selling point, but it's nothing more than a grim reminder of why everyone hates water levels.
1 A Hat In Time: Battle Of The Birds
An ode to 3D platformers of old, A Hat in Time charms players with creative traversal and appealing level designs complementing its collect-a-thon glory. Sadly, it throws all that out the window when Hat Kid gets sidetracked on a film set. Rather than exploring exotic realms or combating the hordes of darkness, she's stuck with whodunit mysteries and stunt shows. These gimmicks are boring at best and insufferable at worst.
The level as a whole falls more into the latter thanks to the characters. The world has two ringleaders: a bird who's the poor man's Scrooge McDuck and a foppish penguin who punctuates every sentence with "darling." It takes all of two minutes to get sick of their shticks, but players must endure for two hours. No wonder Hat Kid leaves them behind with everyone else at the end.