Game Mechanics you always love, and always hate

[WelshMegalodon]

Yeah, but I got no good open-world RPGs right now, and that's what I'm in the mood for atm

Darklands

[Blinge]

Besides, I like playing my games in order.

I can respect that.
I played through Arena for the first time this year too. I liked the use of text for the story and lore, you won't have to see dream lady all that much.
As for the game, ehhh.. It kinda sucks. Maybe it always sucked.
Try Ultima Underworld? that looks pretty good, not a big open world tho.

Get used to that draw distance if you wanna play games from that era.
Actually, I believe there's a light spell in Arena that increases it..


I was being silly when I said play a modern game, too.. you'll be hard pressed to find one that doesn't hold your hand, especially for open world RPGs.

[atheistgod1999]

Do I have to read the whole manual for Darklands? If so, there's no fucking way I'm playing that right now; that's like a whole month of English homework!!!

[Bitter Almonds]

Love: This isn't so much a game mechanic as it is a feature, but I love cut-scenes. Not just any kind of cut-scene, though. I like 2D animated/anime cut-scenes (and stills!). It seems like the late 80s and 90s were filled to the brim with games that featured animated or anime-styled characters and animation. The pinacle of this is Time Gal. I wish there were more of those nowadays.

Hate: I hate cut-scenes that are not 2D animated/anime cut-scenes. I'm barely getting used to the creepy 3D animation used for Dead Or Alive.

[wgogh]

Love: This isn't so much a game mechanic as it is a feature, but I love cut-scenes. Not just any kind of cut-scene, though. I like 2D animated/anime cut-scenes (and stills!). It seems like the late 80s and 90s were filled to the brim with games that featured animated or anime-styled characters and animation. The pinacle of this is Time Gal. I wish there were more of those nowadays.

Hate: I hate cut-scenes that are not 2D animated/anime cut-scenes. I'm barely getting used to the creepy 3D animation used for Dead Or Alive.

I thought I was the only one to think exacly like this!!

[Durandal]

I love UI's which are fixed on the screen for the entire duration of the game, like VNs and Ys I + II.
I don't know why, but there's something really cool about that.

[BIL]

Not a mechanic so much as a design ethos, but I remember Hideki Kamiya mentioning that he specifically avoids knocking the player character down in his action games. See DMC1: the hardest hits will blow Dante clean off his feet and send him sprawling, but he'll promptly use the momentum to flip back into fighting stance. Artistically and mechanically emphasises the severity of a major impact without breaking the game's pace.

I really dislike it when action games overuse long, hard-to-avoid knockdown states. Splatterhouse Part 3 (MD) is one of my favourite console-exclusive beltscrollers, but its otherwise excellent Game Master difficulty overdoes it with the instant knockdowns, even adding the property to smaller attacks that sensibly only stagger on lower difficulties. God help anyone who's not aware the pest rooms (poltergeists, crawling hands, etc) are to be walked across, never jumped. I remember Alien 3 (Genesis/MD) being really irritating about this too, with Ripley going flying for a repetitive knockdown recovery animation upon any damage.

Dracula X: Rondo's DMC1-style approach is far preferable; only the biggest attacks will blow Richter away, sending him into a defensive tumble, and you'll regain control as he skids to a halt. This should always be at least a throw tech-style option, imo. Importantly, in both games these hits do severe damage; more than a couple and you'll be at death's door. Basically, if I'm going to get knocked on my ass for any extended period, it should be minimised, stylised for regaining traction, and reserved for grievous impacts that'll quickly add up to fatal cost.

[Tregard]

Love: Games that feature a decently-sized roster of unique enemies with complementary movesets, who are then thrown at you in changing combinations that require fresh strategies. Most skill-based 3D action games are good for this, but I think Vanquish did it particularly well. Those challenge maps perfectly demonstrated how you could ramp up difficulty not through bullshit like increased enemy health or damage output, but by grouping select types of enemy in devastating ways.

Hate: Illogical puzzles in adventure games. I'll happily spend 2 hours solving an intricate logic puzzle like the lock mechanism in Still Life, but my days of sellotaping phones to cats and then feeding them salted pizza so that they rush inside to the water bowl and allow me to eavesdrop on a villain's conversation are over.

[Marc]

Love: Games that feature a decently-sized roster of unique enemies with complementary movesets, who are then thrown at you in changing combinations that require fresh strategies. Most skill-based 3D action games are good for this, but I think Vanquish did it particularly well. Those challenge maps perfectly demonstrated how you could ramp up difficulty not through bullshit like increased enemy health or damage output, but by grouping select types of enemy in devastating ways.

Hate: Illogical puzzles in adventure games. I'll happily spend 2 hours solving an intricate logic puzzle like the lock mechanism in Still Life, but my days of sellotaping phones to cats and then feeding them salted pizza so that they rush inside to the water bowl and allow me to eavesdrop on a villain's conversation are over.

Oh man, I remember wanting to love the Discworld games so badly, but they were so stupidly obscure that I ended up having them.

[PuToTyra]

I love roguelikes because there is perma death and no save scumming. I wish more rpg games had such features.

[copy-paster]

LOVE : Any action platformer that has sprite-outline hitbox (especially the main player).

HATE : Any action platformer that the player camera is in to screen edge and near-nil reaction windows.

[mamboFoxtrot]

I've always been a sucker for being able to grab and throw things, and by extension also love grappling moves. Seriously, Capcom, when's Zangief May Cry? And Namco, when the fuck is there going to be a grappler in a Tales game?

Also love super-jumping abilities, which seems to be a mechanic even rarer than the above outside of fighting games.


Speaking of fighting games, I seriously hate it when peeps put a double-tap dash in stuff like platformers or shmups, especially when the dash goes a fixed length. Trying to make small taps to adjust your position is common in these games, so having your character zip half-way across the screen instead of move just a few pixels is definitely no bueno.

Also, three different games I've played lately have had a weird psuedo-momentum to their air control. Basically, if you tap left or right, it there's a minimum distance that you "slide" before you stop moving forward, but though it looks like it, it's not actually momentum because pressing the opposite direction makes you immediately reverse your direction/momentum. I don't really understand the point of this, since it just makes it harder to land on small platforms or not slide into aerial enemies when attacking them than the usual Mega Man-style aerial control.

[Sumez]

Mega Man 1 does it actually, and it killed me several times. They got smarter for the sequel.

[Square_Air]

Hate: having to draw a weapon first before being able to shoot/attack.

I've actually always loved this in survival horror games. If the game is designed right you should have just enough time to flip around, asses the situation, draw your weapon, load your ammunition, aim for their vitals, and at this point there should be some sort of monstrosity staring you straight in the face. It can make certain games more tactically enjoyable. It's what makes the RE4 headshots so delicious, the hunters in REmake so intimidating, and makes you feel more human in the Silent Hill games.

I'm considered a bit of a heretic though, because I thought only being able to use a flashlight OR a weapon in Doom 3 was the best part of that game. I think it was a pretty decent game, but it was kind of misdirected. It's like they wanted to be Doom 2 and System Shock 2 at the same time, and while they did succeed, the final product ended up not living up to either of them.

[LordHypnos]

Love: Reflect mechanics in shmups.
Hate: When you have a powerup that cripples you if you get it, especially if it takes a while for it to leave the screen. This includes games where you switch weapons by grabbing an item.

[atheistgod1999]

Mega Man 1 does it actually, and it killed me several times. They got smarter for the sequel.

What are you talking about? I didn't have any problems with the jump physics.

[atheistgod1999]

I hate it when jackass game devs cap their games at 60FPS, ruining the best part of PC gaming.

[BIL]

Always love:

>"Body ram" attacks as favoured by Compile STGs (I've liked this term since first seeing it in Zach Keene's exceptionally detailed yet readable Zanac Neo FAQ, almost a decade ago). Basically anything that lets you temporarily flip the table and deliberately overlap your sprite with enemies for big damage. This can be either via a short invincibility period (Compile's usual MO) or a dedicated attack ala Alien Solder or Altered Beast. Ripping into an otherwise immovable object in a burst of unstoppable force feels good and transgressively visceral, yet (with appropriately tight rationing) finessed.

Eat this, you fuckin lousy crab!

Spoiler

>Burst invincibility associated with item pickups, again frequently employed by Compile. I already mentioned i-frames way back, strictly in the context of attack, evasion, etc... on a simpler level, I like making a calculatedly risky beeline for goodies with enemies in pursuit, knowing I'll gain a quick escape window to work with.

Grabbin them thangs:

Spoiler

Always hate: topdown shooters that "realistically" offset the player's shots, to reflect the character holding a weapon in one hand or the other. Guevara (FC) is a helluva good time, but particularly with the deadly precision of its hostage saves, the offset always distracts me ; especially with it flipping appropriately to match the north and south-facing player sprites.

Coincidentally I was playing Brutal DOOM the other day, and enjoying the finesse of offsetting my aim for max contact with the Super Shotgun's alternate sequential-barrel firing. Easy to absorb when looking straight down the gun from a consistent perspective, not observing the character from a bird's eye view.

[null1024]

Mega Man 1 does it actually, and it killed me several times. They got smarter for the sequel.

What are you talking about? I didn't have any problems with the jump physics.

It's not the jumps. Mega Man in MM1 slides a fair bit more than he does in later games if you just nudge him forward a tad [really, any time he walks and you stop inputting -- he has to have done the leg-out bit of his run animation].

It's really weird. It doesn't even feel like inertia since Mega Man doesn't really accelerate to running speed, even though that was probably the intent in having it. Also, it doesn't apply in the air, making it feel even weirder.

[Squire Grooktook]

Always love:

>"Body ram"

I had an ability like that in an old prototype, specifically for instant killing tanky enemies that had their hp reduced beyond a certain point or all parts destroyed.

Every now and then I'm tempted to put it back in the current version, though I worry I have too many gimmicks already. Might save it for next project maybe.

[BIL]

Don't let me distract you. Definitely keep the raw materials around though - even in rough form, the execution looks pretty satisfying. The classic Image Fight-style "relentlessly advancing, space-encroaching tank that fires Fast Aimed Shots" is a favourite enemy type of mine (see also Gley Lancer's first stage, Hard difficulty) - having a finesse route to cripple and speedkill them might be an interesting articulation/riff on standard Raiden-style pointblanking. Precision shot+helm-splitting cleave definitely sounds like a solid core to build an arcade action game around.

Also, the shield ramming zako massacre just beforehand reminds me of something else I tend to love, "whisker" attack mechanics. Basically an auxiliary part that closely orbits or shadows the player, ostensibly as a shield but also capable of dealing heavy damage with careful positioning (I once read that rodents use their whiskers to gauge space in tight confines - thought that was so cool, hence pet name for this particularly tactile sort of mechanic). Not quite an "aura" shot effect ala Batrider or Metal Black, or a direct body ram like Zanac's... nor a passive presence like Gradius's Options, or a buddy you've got to keep healthy like Shatterhand's bots. Something attached to the player's space and capable of dealing collision damage with impunity, like R-Type's Bits. My current pick is Holy Diver's Overdrive spell, which can handily take out its singularly annoying "Metal Blade" enemies if you get in close:

TM & c Metal Blade Records

Spoiler

(woulda made my day if these guys had been named for Snaggletooth of Motorhead fame)

Alisia Dragoon's Flame familiar has similar utility (it's technically not indestructible, but does contact damage for free when charged). HD and AD are of course both sidescrollers where player mobility is compromised by iffy controls, making such tactics particularly useful... I'd like to think both would still satisfy if appropriately revised, though. 2010 Street Fighter's rear-guarding Orb is probably the equivalent of that, with the game being wholly designed around methodical movement and positioning:

Talk to the back, the face ain't listenin:

Spoiler

Distance won't save you, Obligatory Shmup Snake!

Spoiler

[Squire Grooktook]

Precision shot+helm-splitting cleave definitely sounds like a solid core to build an arcade action game around.

Ah, speaking of Helms: Einhanders mech-face-breaking stunlocking action was one of the inspirations. Wanted to take it a bit further by giving you the option to stun them by breaking a part (possibly knocking them back or triggering other sort of "OUCH" animation in the process) and then potentially finish them off with a super sonic body slam in the ensuing window of opportunity before they start shooting again.

[Durandal]

Always love:

>"Body ram"

I had an ability like that in an old prototype, specifically for instant killing tanky enemies that had their hp reduced beyond a certain point or all parts destroyed.

Every now and then I'm tempted to put it back in the current version, though I worry I have too many gimmicks already. Might save it for next project maybe.

I actually had something similar like that too, where you had a dash move you could activate in 8 directions which also doubled as a body ram destroying everything in its way. Holding down C would activate a circle around you which let you home in on the closest enemy within range, sort of like Sonic's Homing Attack, allowing you to smash through waves of enemies at once. The scoring system would also rely on dashkilling things for increasing your score multiplier and then just shooting stuff for multiplied score.

[Squire Grooktook]

Always love:

>"Body ram"

I had an ability like that in an old prototype, specifically for instant killing tanky enemies that had their hp reduced beyond a certain point or all parts destroyed.

Every now and then I'm tempted to put it back in the current version, though I worry I have too many gimmicks already. Might save it for next project maybe.

I actually had something similar like that too, where you had a dash move you could activate in 8 directions which also doubled as a body ram destroying everything in its way. Holding down C would activate a circle around you which let you home in on the closest enemy within range, sort of like Sonic's Homing Attack, allowing you to smash through waves of enemies at once. The scoring system would also rely on dashkilling things for increasing your score multiplier and then just shooting stuff for multiplied score.

There was an import only dsIware shmup a while back (saggitarius star something something) that I think had a similar system.

I'm really partial to the way the dash controls in Sora/Suguri, because it gets around the "only 8 directions" pad issue by basically letting you kinda steer it, as a result feeling just as versatile as normal pad/stick movement despite operating at the distances that would normally make the 8-way limit feel more noticeable.

[BIL]

I tend to like it when 2D action games let you hitstun bosses/major enemies with a heavy blow. Think Rockman X, when a boss is hit by their elemental weakness. I mention 2D games specifically, since they have innately less maneuvering space - I kinda dislike it when a boss can just keep the player on the run by barging in for contact damage, ala FC Rockman. SOTN's Alucard v Richter lets you smack the latter around a bit too, IIRC. Better fosters the sense of a pitched battle, when both parties can punish the enemy for carelessly entering striking range.

Sort of on this subject, I think disabling contact damage entirely in 2D games can be a good thing - Metal Slug's immortally exhilarating melees simply couldn't work otherwise - but it's not a universal good. More surgically-precise action like Contra wouldn't work nearly as well without that intense sense of vulnerability.

[Stevens]

I tend to like it when 2D action games let you hitstun bosses/major enemies with a heavy blow.

It's not exactly hitstun but I love this part right here, also never knew you could kick him in the balls. Punching him in the face and watching his head swing back and forth is visceral.

https://youtu.be/nwfpqNsP2uo?t=1m11s

Sort of on this subject, I think disabling contact damage entirely in 2D games can be a good thing - Metal Slug's immortally exhilarating melees simply couldn't work otherwise - but it's not a universal good. More surgically-precise action like Contra wouldn't work nearly as well without that intense sense of vulnerability.

Huge fan of not taking contact damage, Shock Troopers gets it right too.

[Shoryukev]

It's not exactly hitstun but I love this part right here, also never knew you could kick him in the balls. Punching him in the face and watching his head swing back and forth is visceral.

https://youtu.be/nwfpqNsP2uo?t=1m11s

Hmm I didn't know you could do that either. Reminds me of one of the bosses in the NES version of Kung Fu, you can jump kick in on him and punch him in the nuts and he dies instantly just like that clip in Vigilante LOL.

[Squire Grooktook]

...I kinda dislike it when a boss can just keep the player on the run by barging in for contact damage, ala FC Rockman. SOTN's Alucard v Richter lets you smack the latter around a bit too, IIRC. Better fosters the sense of a pitched battle, when both parties can punish the enemy for carelessly entering striking range.

I think another great alternative is the way FC Batman / Actraiser 2 / Shovel Knight disables enemies collision boxes when they are struck. Makes it feel very "brawly" and similarly prevents that "on the run" playstyle.

On a side note though, I do wonder how differently those rockman chases would feel if you didn't have to turn back (potentially walking into the foe) in order to shoot them.

[BIL]

I think another great alternative is the way FC Batman / Actraiser 2 / Shovel Knight disables enemies collision boxes when they are struck. Makes it feel very "brawly" and similarly prevents that "on the run" playstyle.

One of my favourite 2D combat mechanics. I particularly like how it'll usually let you aggressively switch sides on an enemy, by launching an attack while advancing (Batman's flying punch barrages, AR2's plunging sword dives). Getsu Fuuma Den (FC) also combines this with running ground attacks, so you can pull off the iconic "dash past" kills of samurai movie lore. The aggressively rushing red skeletons encountered early on are perfect targets for this.

[Shoryukev]

Most any gameplay mechanic that promotes aggression is good in my book!