#10: Wooden Armor (Terraria)In Terraria any armor is good, and the earlier you can get some, the better. However, the easiest armor to get, wooden armor, gives you negligible defense. In addition, the first proper set of armor, Copper (or Tin) is very easy to obtain quickly making wooden armor an easily-skipped set of items. #9: Clutter (Oblivion and others)Some games thoroughly strive for immersion. This is usually achieved by just adding a ton of stuff to the world. Beyond a busy-seeming countryside there were multitudes of readable books, passive NPC dialogue, and, of course, clutter. Anything and everything could be clutter, defined as objects treated as items that do not have significant value or usefulness. In Oblivion, one of the first major offenders, things like gardening equipment, dishware, skeins of yarn, and calipers (oh God, the calipers) could be found in any odd crate or barrel or NPC inventory. There just to be there. #8: Religion (Rome: Total War)Anyone can tell you that the Total War series is mostly based in combat and tactics. But the creators also put something of an emphasis on the broader strategy of ensuring the stability of your kingdom. This is modeled as things like Squalor, Management of Governors, a measure of Law for cities, and Religion. While Religion is meant to make conquering a foreign land harder, the player can simply appease the masses without any consequence, making this an unnecessary statistic. #7: Anti-Air Brigades (Hearts of Iron 3)Hearts of Iron 3 did a fair job at simulating combat during World War 2. The land unit formations were made up of “Brigades” of Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery, etc. Even Marines and Self-Propelled Rocket Artillery have their place in any modern army. Anti-Aircraft and Self-Propelled Anti-Aircraft, however, weren't worth the effort. Though they naturally were only supposed to be useful against planes, a bug caused the “Air Defense” stat to be unimplemented. This means that they were nothing but a drain on fuel and supplies. #6: Stun Baton (Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast)Before you get your lightsaber in Jedi Outcast, the first few levels play like the common shooter around 2002. Despite early access to three or four gun types within the first level, the creators obviously felt that they needed to fill the empty inventory space represented by the “1” key by including a melee stand-in: the stun baton. This weapon had an extremely short range and took several shocks to kill even the average stormtrooper. #5: MonoProp Engine (Kerbal Space Program)KSP is not a game for everyone. It can be tedious and downright boring. But it does make you learn about each rocket part and appreciate every one's quirks. Normal rocket engines use a mixture of Liquid Fuel and Oxidizer to produce thrust. This fuel burns just as well in space as it does in an atmosphere. For attitude control in orbit there are commonly small thrusters that use a fuel called Monopropellant. For some reason, the creators of this game decided to add in regular-style engines that run on MonoProp (which is never carried in bulk) instead of normal fuel. What the hell, guys. #4: Bandit Weapons (Borderlands)While Borderlands has done generally a good job of keeping guns interesting, some of what it offers just isn't worth the effort. Tediore weapons explode when you reload them. Dahl guns have extremely high accuracy. Maliwan weapons always inflict elemental damage. But Bandit guns, despite offering a very high magazine capacity, have very low stats otherwise. This includes reload speed, which basically negates capacity. No thanks. #3: Dr. Mario (Super Smash Bros. Melee)Mario was a natural choice for an all-star game like Super Smash Bros., and he was implemented well: short-range hard-hitting melee with a bouncing fireball attack for those beyond arm's reach. However, Super Smash Bros. Melee, the 2001 sequel, introduced us to a number of new characters, many considered to be an almost-clone of one of the originals. Some differed significantly enough to offer a different play style, but Dr. Mario was not one of them. Competitive types can tell you the difference, but for casual players he was simply a different skin. #2: Fervor (Age of Empires 2: Age of Kings)Monks are some of the most interesting units in the game. They are able to heal allied units, convert enemies, and carry conservation-of-matter-breaking relics. However, these diverse abilities come at a price: monks are 100 gold apiece (and with a breathtaking number of expensive upgrades) and are slow as balls. Perhaps the most useful of the monastery upgrades is Fervor, which is stated to increase monks' movement speed by 15%. Unfortunately, one of the changelogs released with The Forgotten revealed that for over a decade this effect only applied to monks carrying a relic and thereby shortchanging the player. #1: Magikarp (Pokemon)What do I need to say? They can splash, and the effort needed to evolve them wasn't really worth the result.
1 Comment
Nic
12/6/2015 12:58:06 am
Don't forget, they even brought Dr. Mario back for SSB4
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