Best. Game. Mechanics. Ever. Thread! (Worst mechanics too)

[BoringSupreez]

As much as I love the game to death, I hate the mechanics of The World Ends With You. I simply cannot keep track of both characters at once, which makes all of the chapters with Beat a pain in the butt because he has zero defense, and does absolutely nothing on his own. At least Joshua and Shiki could fight somewhat by themselves.

Wait, so I'm not at the last boss in that game? I thought the part were you fight that game master with the ox skull belt buckle who always talks about cooking food was the last boss, which is were I am too lazy to try to get past, but your post makes it sound like there's more. I guess I can stop griping to myself about how short the game is now.

[AwesomeMonstar]

As much as I love the game to death, I hate the mechanics of The World Ends With You. I simply cannot keep track of both characters at once, which makes all of the chapters with Beat a pain in the butt because he has zero defense, and does absolutely nothing on his own. At least Joshua and Shiki could fight somewhat by themselves.

Wait, so I'm not at the last boss in that game? I thought the part were you fight that game master with the ox skull belt buckle who always talks about cooking food was the last boss, which is were I am too lazy to try to get past, but your post makes it sound like there's more. I guess I can stop griping to myself about how short the game is now.

yeah, you aren't even a third through yet.

[BoringSupreez]

As much as I love the game to death, I hate the mechanics of The World Ends With You. I simply cannot keep track of both characters at once, which makes all of the chapters with Beat a pain in the butt because he has zero defense, and does absolutely nothing on his own. At least Joshua and Shiki could fight somewhat by themselves.

Wait, so I'm not at the last boss in that game? I thought the part were you fight that game master with the ox skull belt buckle who always talks about cooking food was the last boss, which is were I am too lazy to try to get past, but your post makes it sound like there's more. I guess I can stop griping to myself about how short the game is now.

yeah, you aren't even a third through yet.

I'll have to start playing it again, then.

[AmishSamurai]

Wait, so I'm not at the last boss in that game? I thought the part were you fight that game master with the ox skull belt buckle who always talks about cooking food was the last boss, which is were I am too lazy to try to get past, but your post makes it sound like there's more. I guess I can stop griping to myself about how short the game is now.

yeah, you aren't even a third through yet.

I'll have to start playing it again, then.

The true final boss feels like something out of Tohou. They shoot so many attacks at once the DS lags.

[General Chaos]

Well I'll come in here and promote a game that I frequently do: Mount & Blade.

There are plenty of mechanics that work well in the game, but the battle mechanics specifically are great. Basically you click the right mouse button to block, and the left to swing. However, depending on the direction you move the mouse when you block or swing, your weapon will swing/thrust/block in that direction. It makes pvp awesome b/c there is so much skill involved.

Of course, you can also use a shield.

Another game mechanic I like is Warhawk's target reticule, where depending on the weapon it auto-locks on. They balanced this nicely so that it still requires skill but isn't utterly impossible to get a kill.


I'll mention one more I like, and that's Ultima Online's skill system. I hate level-based systems like Wow, and I'm not sure why more games don't use skill based systems. They're just much more dynamic and rewarding to the player.

[Gamerforlife]

I like how The Red Star plays. Really nice beat'em up/shooter hybrid. Though it's a bit more shooter than beat'em up.

The game is good about mixing things up. Some areas you can move around in any direction, others are more left/right only, then there's the overhead sequences. The difficulty scales PERFECTLY, introducing new bosses, new enemy types and new challenges at a regular pace. The way the game makes you balance defense/dodging/offense is great. You can't keep shooting or your guns overheat. You can't keep blocking or your shields will get destroyed. And if you keep dodging all day things don't die. The game just forces you to be a BALANCED fighter. Also, you have three characters that play COMPLETELY differently. The game's brilliant

X-Men Wolverine origins is often called a God of War clone. However, while it lacks the epicness and big budget of a God of War game, I think the combat is better. Controlling Wolverine is much more intuitive and the game gets MAJOR points for doing what NONE of the big name action titles ever do these days. Environmental kills!! Where's that in God of War, Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden? Also, the Wolverine/Sabertooth bar fight is one of the most fun boss battles I've ever played in a game. Awesome looking counters you can do on him, objects for you OR him to get impaled on. The change of venue after he tosses you outside. Awesome stuff.

There are many other games will cool mechanics I could mention. Ico for doing "escort" gameplay better than any other game ever. Unique titles like Shadow of Colossus, Sin and Punishment, Pikmin and Katama that play like nothing else out there

As for worse, I've always enjoyed Metal Gear Solid games for their cinematic qualities and awesome stories, but the game mechanics always feel dated and unintuitive. I would certainly never say that gameplay is the series' greatest strength

[MrPopo]

The worst mechanic is the tendancy for RPGs to have the forced character. I've been doing just fine with my current party of pimped out dudes; I don't want one of my benchwarmers being shoehorned in because he has some connection to the current plotline. Now I have to give him gear and level him some to compensate for losing one of my uber dudes. It's especially bad in Cross Edge. In games like Final Fantasy you get some time to get the forced party member up to speed. In Cross Edge you find out you need the specific character after you've elected to view the event and it turned out to be a fight. You are given the chance to equip him before the fight but chances are he's vastly underleveled compared to your main party (not to mention has no skills, as you learn those based upon how many times you use your existing skills).