Five Games That Made Me Curse the Television

     I'm sure every gamer has encountered at least one game that caused him or her to yell some random explicative out at the television.  The reason for this can vary, be it an insanely difficult game that causes you to fling the controller across the room, an unexpected surprise, a confusing plot, or anger at a disappointing sequel to one of your favorite games.  Here I'm going to reminisce about five games that did just that.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Playstation, 1997)

"Holy %&$!"

     While many consider the Playstation era of video games to mark the death of 2D games and the takeover of 3D, this era also brought along one of the finest examples of 2D platform games.  Castlevania: Symphony of the Night took a gamble by deviating from the linear level progression seen in previous entries of the series and borrowed some RPG elements (experience points, equipment) and Metroid-style, open-ended exploration (areas of the castle only being accessible once gaining a new ability).  It was a risky gamble, but it was one that payed off: the game appears on many "Best of ..." lists, and rightfully so.
     However, its reason for inclusion on this list has nothing to do with the game's difficulty or a change from the classic game play, but for a reason that made me like the game even more.  I thought I had reached the ending of the game, but I knew that Alucard killing a possessed Richter Belmont surely couldn't be the true ending.  I mean, what's a Castlevania game without Dracula as a final boss?  So after exploring the castle a bit more and acquiring new items, I was finally able to break Richter from the dark priest Shaft's spell.  I was expecting a showdown with Dracula to follow, but the game took me for a nice surprise.  Not only was I not at the end of the game, I had only reached the halfway point.  The gigantic, sprawling castle that I thought I had conquered connected to a second castle - one that was an upside-down, mirror-image of the first: the Inverted Castle, and a much more sinister one at that.

Cobra Triangle (NES, 1989)

"%&$ you!"

     I'm sure many people have fond childhood memories of playing video games with their parents. And if that time period was when the NES was king, then chances are that one of those games was one of those unforgiving games that when you lost, you had to start over again. These games were not from the land of infinite continues.
     One game that has that memory for me is the obscure NES game Cobra Triangle (creators Rare would later go on to create the more popular Donkey Kong Country and GoldenEye). You played a motorboat that had to go through various tasks, including racing other boats to the finish line, protecting helpless swimmers from aliens, frying the monster in boss stages, and, the cause of much pain in my childhood, jumping a series of waterfalls. Countless times I heard the awful "waaahh" sound of my boat falling down the waterfall after I missed the ramp which was then followed by a cloud of smoke from my boat exploding. And to add even more insult, upon completion of a stage, the boat turns into a helicopter and flies to the next stage. Why can't the boat just fly over the waterfall? But, my pain didn't end after finally getting past that stage. Perhaps my biggest failure is that I once resorted to using a Game Genie to help me beat the game. Oh, it seemed simple in theory... invincibility, infinite lives! Nope - couldn't defeat the final boss because the timer kept running out. Perhaps one day, Cobra Triangle, I will get my revenge.

Devil May Cry 2 (Playstation 2, 2003)

"What the %&$ is this %&$?!"

     I wasn't an early adopter of the Playstation 2, mostly due to its cost and not enough games that gained my interest. However, when I experienced the first Devil May Cry, I knew that I needed to have that game. The hero Dante was the coolest, most badass demon slayer that I saw in a video game up to that point. The game had plenty of style and action that made it the game that caused me to buy a PS2. So when a sequel was announced, I assumed it could only improve on everything I loved about the first game.
     Oh, boy was I wrong. The game environments, while larger and more expansive, felt uninspired, the enemies were bland, and the game itself was not much of a challenge. The original game almost forced you to play easy mode your first time through. In this game, I had no idea an easy mode existed - it seemed unnecessary to include it. It's one thing to acknowledge that people found the first game difficult, but to lessen the overall challenge removes any sense of accomplishment. At least Devil May Cry 3 returned the series to its former glory. (Though I'm not sure why Capcom found a need to reboot the series.)

Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem (Gamecube, 2002)

"What the %&$ just happened?"

I said the above quote many times while this classic Gamecube game. Eternal Darkness so very easily could have been a rip-off of Resident Evil or Silent Hill, but developers Silicon Knights developed a well-crafted story, a variety of weapons and spells, and most importantly, sanity effects. Let your character's sanity dip and some minor events occur: the camera would tilt to an odd angle, strange voices would come out of your speakers, and other small happenings that don't affect game play. Allow it to fall a bit further and you will notice blood beginning to come out of the walls. Let your sanity completely go and - well, not to spoil some of the better effects, but you will begin to question if some of the events are happening in real life or if the game is just messing with your mind.

Battletoads (NES, 1991)

"%&$ (every explicative in the book) %&$"

     If I had to pick any game that I don't think I'd ever be able to complete, I would have to pick Battletoads, a game infamous for its high level of difficulty. The first stage goes smoothly and is a lot of fun. The second stage brings a small challenge, but can easily be conquered. It is the third stage that probably caused many people to snap their controllers in half. I never saw what horrors came beyond that stage, but that's a challenge I don't plan on completing any time soon.


EDIT: For an even better demonstration of the frustration of stage three, why 2 player mode is impossible with this game, and even more cursing, here's Angry Video Game Nerd's take on Battletoads.