History Main / AnnoyingVideoGameHelper

* ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon}}'' has this in the form of the Squid Sisters. The Squid Sisters show up in an unskippable cutscene whenever you turn on the game to alert you what stages are currently in rotation. They also do this every four hours, when the maps switch in the rotation. Funny dialogue aside, these scenes are both unskippable and useless: your Wii U Gamepad also has this information, in addition to telling you what ranked battle mode is currently in play, something that the Squid Sisters fail to inform you. Downplayed in ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'' with Off the Hook, who only interrupt you when you first turn on the game.
** Sheldon from the game's weapon shop has similarly unskippable cutscenes, explaining the use of any new weapons you unlock. This becomes a problem if you haven't been to the shop in a long time, and end up with a lot of new weapons available: Sheldon will make you sit there while he explains the uses of ALL OF THEM. Thankfully, ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'' gives you the option to skip through his dialogue automatically at the push of a button.

* ''VisualNovel/KatawaShoujo'':
** Hisao tells Jigoro not to give him so much advice, mentally adding that he at least does not want advice that [[{{Hypocrite}} Jigoro does not follow himself]]. Hisao can refuse advice at other points, [[spoiler:but it's never a good idea]].
** [[spoiler:Hanako's]] [[MultipleEndings bad end]] provides a {{Tearjerker}} example of this.

* ''VideoGame/EarthBound'': Ness' father would occasionally call and ask Ness if he would like to take a break. Which, even if Ness replies yes or no, it would still be some time before he calls again and ask Ness for some rest.

''AnnoyingVideoGameHelper/Overwatch''

* Allies in ''VideoGame/HyruleWarriors'' are frequently a hinderance for several reasons. They're no good at pursuing objectives but will try anyway, which usually ends in a Game Over because a mission-critical ally tried to pick a fight with a powered-up enemy Captain and got beaten into the ground for it. The game warns you when important characters or locations are under attack, but you might not get the message because helpful warnings can easily be delayed or interrupted by dialoge from your allies. Even the basic, unnamed troops can unintentionally sabotage you if they decide to form a raid group to capture enemy keeps. These supposed helpers actually make it ''harder'' to capture keeps because doing so requires killing enemies inside the keep, but it won't spawn more enemies if too many of your own troops are crowded inside, especially in the 3DS port.

** Your A.I. allies' idea of attacking bosses is to run face-first into said boss and hit it with only basic moves, usually getting their [[CurbStompBattle ass handed to them]]. This is particularly bad in missions where some ignoramus of a mission designer decided it was a good idea to make the mission fail if said ally dies.
* Allies in any ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors'' game are generally good examples of this trope. It got particularly frustrating in ''2'', where enemy officers could recover health or get temporary power-ups when knocked down... which is what any fully executed combo will do to them (and the only one which doesn't stuns them, meaning any ''subsequent'' hit will knock them down). When fighting alone, this could be avoided. When fighting with allies around... yeah, good luck with getting a quick win there.

** ''VideoGame/EmperorRiseOfTheMiddleKingdom'' used the same basic idea but [[RecycledInSPACE in China]]. It was better about not annoying the player, but it had a habit of randomly "forgetting" to tell you important events (building collapse, lack of food) while the popups for, yes, lack of population would get spammed.

*** Toadsworth spends the first battle teaching Mario to do things (even if you've already done them), and after you get inhaled by Bowser, Starlow (and to an extent, the Emoglobins) crank the tutorials UpToEleven. It gets to the point where the tutorial for digestion is longer than the actual digestion, since you only do the digestion mini-game once. Bowser himself gets annoyed at Toadsworth constantly interrupting the battle. One can only imagine how Midbus feels when Fawful keeps breaking in and effectively telling Bowser how to beat him up.

* In ''VideoGame/HonkaiImpact3rd'', various tutorials are given by a character that's relevant to the content. Otherwise the default is the helper character Ai-chan. The problem with these tutorials is that these are ''basic'' tutorials on how to navigate the UI. Granted while the developers do change things up with each event and new people do pick up the game still, but by the time you've played a few events, it's obvious what does what. Worse, almost all of these tutorials are forced, meaning once you start it, you have to complete it, even if it this means "go here to start a level, pick your team, then press start!" There's also no way to disable these tutorials.
** Ai-chan will also remind you to do weeklies on the home screen, which gets old real fast after a few weeks and especially if you're already done for the week. And like the tutorials, you can't turn this off.

[[folder: Rhythm Game]]

* [[MeaningfulName Maniac]] in the ''VideoGame/WingCommander'' series is this deliberately. His A.I. is programmed to be aggressive, with no regard for tactics at all. Consequently, he will go up against capital ships in a scout-class ship, regardless of how ineffectual the weapons are, [[HonorBeforeReason refuses to retreat]] when ordered to, [[WhatAnIdiot even if he's clearly doomed]], and, most JustForFun/{{egregious}}ly, will lock on to your target and cut in front of you the moment you open fire, then ''yell at you for shooting him''. It's clear he's meant to be this bad in an early mission briefing:

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* [[ExpositionFairy Tutorial Pig]] qualifies in ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryReturns''. Die eight or ten times in one level, and he will appear at the beginning of the level and at every checkpoint jingling and waving his little flag trying to get you to use the Super Guide option. The only way to make him go away is by beating that level... and then, if you go back to the level to get items and die a bunch again, he ''comes back''.

* ''Wizard's Spell'' on the UsesfulNotes/ZXSpectrum lumbers you with a companion called Zod, whose main characteristic is saying "That sword looks heavy" and taking it from you, leaving you unarmed.

->''"I don't really mind the owl, but I find it a bit strange that we never discover a shred of information about ''who'' or ''what'' he is, or why he would want to help Link. Considering how much of a blank slate it is, I like to imagine that it's [[Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto Shigsy]] himself speaking to me directly, bit like a overprotective father. He ''wants'' to let you have a good time, but he's gonna make '''damn''' sure that you know where the item sub-screen is, ''just in case."

-->--'''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o908SWJ8ulc Matthewmatosis]]''' on ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime''

[[quoteright:232:[[Webcomic/ManlyGuysDoingManlyThings https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avgh.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:232:[[Music/JoniMitchell You don't know]] [[Music/CountingCrows what you've got]] [[http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/963 'til it's gone.]]]]

** Kaepora Gaebora from ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'', ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Majora's Mask]]'', and ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaFourSwordsAdventures Four Swords Adventures]]'', only shows up a relative few times, and he's not of the "Hey Listen!" variety, but is annoying solely on the fact that his text activates when you walk by certain places, whether you want them to or not. It consists of [[WallOfText tens of screens]] that you cycle through four or five times because mashing the A button to advance the dialogue quicker (which doesn't always work) results in him reaching the end and giving a "[[ShallIRepeatThat Do you want to hear what I said again?]]", which you accept by accident. At least his music is cool, and his dialogue can be mostly skipped entirely by pressing B past a certain point.

** Kaepora Gaebora from ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'', ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Majora's Mask]]'', and ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaFourSwordsAdventures Four Swords Adventures]]'', only shows up a relative few times, and he's not of the "Hey Listen!" variety, but is annoying solely on the fact that his text activates when you walk by certain places, whether you want them to or not. It consists of [[WallOfText tens of screens]] that you cycle through four or five times because mashing the A button to advance the dialogue quicker (which doesn't always work) results in him reaching the end and giving a "[[ShallIRepeatThat would you like me to repeat that?]]", which you accept by accident. (Everybody in the game but him defaults to "no" when it comes to asking if you want them to repeat.) At least his music is cool, and his dialogue can be mostly skipped entirely by pressing B past a certain point.

*** The AI partners are chosen completely at random by the game, and there is no way to even know which ones you'll be stuck with until the battle begins, so you can't even reliably prepare to counter their idiocy. This also means that you might get Pokémon that are that are terrible against the enemy Pokémon. Don't be surprised if someone brings something with a type disadvantage. You might also get a genius who brings e.g. Torkal with the Drought ability (which makes it summon harsh sunlight that increases the power of Fire-type moves) to a battle with a Fire-type enemy. Torkoal also makes bringing in a Water-type risky, since the same harsh sunlight will weaken Water-type moves.

*** Gentleman Martin has a Solrock, which has two attacking moves in Psychic and Rock Throw. Unfortunately, like Freya, he almost never uses his attacking moves. Instead, he spams Cosmic Power while sometimes throwing in a Rock Polish for some variety. Stat-boosting moves like Cosmic Power and Rock Polish are absolutely useless in Max Raid Battles since the Dynamaxed opponent has the ability to get rid of all stat boosts on your side of the field, which it does often, so Martin effectively wastes all of his turns.

* Allies in ''VideoGame/HyruleWarriors'' frequently hinderance for several reasons. They're no good at pursuing objectives but will try anyway, which usually ends in a Game Over because a mission-critical ally tried to pick a fight with a powered-up enemy Captain and got beaten into the ground for it. The game warns you when important characters or locations are under attack, but you might not get the message because helpful warnings can easily be delayed or interrupted by dialoge from your allies. Even the basic, unnamed troops can unintentionally sabotage you if they decide to form a raid group to capture enemy keeps. These supposed helpers actually make it ''harder'' to capture keeps because doing so requires killing enemies inside the keep, but it won't spawn more enemies if too many of your own troops are crowded inside, especially in the 3DS port.

* In ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry3DantesAwakening'', when you get one of the later bosses to half health, your brother, Virgil, shows up to help you beat the boss. At this point, the battle becomes ten times harder, since they mapped the button you use to control Virgil (which is useless anyway since he mirrors your moves for the most part) to your style button, depriving you of many of your more powerful moves, which far outweighs Virgil's meager contribution. Plus, you can't use your devil trigger; no healing or extra damage for you.

** Your AI allies idea of attacking bosses is to run face-first into said boss and hit it with only basic moves, usually getting their [[CurbStompBattle ass handed to them]]. This is particularly bad in missions where some ignoramus of a mission designer decided it was a good idea to make the mission fail if said ally dies.
* Allies in any ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors'' game are generally good examples of this trope. It got particularly frustrating in 2, where enemy officers could recover health or get temporary power-ups when knocked down... which is what any fully-executed combo will do to them (and the only one which doesn't stuns them, meaning any ''subsequent'' hit will knock them down). When fighting alone, this could be avoided. When fighting with allies around... yeah, good luck with getting a quick win there.

** The advisors in ''Sim City 4'' can be this way. Sometimes their advice is good ("You don't have enough fire stations to keep the town safe" or "Some random person's house has come ablaze, ya better put it out"), but it's mostly them working at cross-purposes, telling you something you either already know or can't do anything about, and even if you ''can'' do something about it not a minute later they'll berate you for doing what they advised to do a short while ago

** Fi in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword Skyward Sword]]'' is ''at least'' as bad as all of these. Much of her supposedly helpful behavior is a either a nuisance (upon getting a new item and clicking past the item description, she is prompted to give a bit of unskippable, relatively slow-moving bit dialogue an almost verbatim repeation of the very same description the player has ''just read'') or outright infuriating (any attempts at exploring by going off the beaten plot path, will prompt her to attempt to nudge the player into going where the plot wants them to. And even worse is when she doesn't take more expierenced ''Zelda'' players into account: a crack in wall is sight known by all veterans of the series; it means it is time to light up a bomb and attempt to blow it up to reveal a secret. But even if the player approaches the cracked wall, lit bomb in hand, Fi will freeze the the action in order to chime in and inform them that they should in fact, try to throw a bomb at the nearby cracked wall -- heedless to the fact that player is ''already'' trying to do that, and the countdown on any lit bombs continues as she talks). But what really takes the cake for many players is when Link is critically injured; there's already a CriticalAnnoyance going on, and Fi adds her own alert that she wants to tell telling you something... she's noticed your health is low and you should find some hearts. The fact that she talks in RoboSpeak and IfMyCalculationsAreCorrect doesn't exactly do much to endear her either.