History Main / CamerasCrew

** By the time of ''SuperMarioSunshine'', they had improved the camera a bit, making it more controllable by the player and reducing the wobble that plagued the ''Mario 64'' camera. But it had a bad, bad tendency to let elements of scenery such as trees and overhangs completely block the player's view of Mario, and even worse, it was next to impossible in some cases to adjust the camera to a position where you had unobstructed visibility; often you couldn't see Mario unless you pulled the camera in super tight, and the second you tried to move... bam, there's that tree in your way again.

* The ''DragonBallZ Budokai Tenkaichi'' suffers from this when your NOT locked onto your opponent

* ''DawnOfMana'' has a very poorly done camera, which often leaves boss enemies and jump destinations offscreen as soon as you turn vaguely left or right.
** While it is possible to rotate the camera and refocus it so you can see in the direction that Keldy is facing, it's still a massive pain in the rear to navigate tight corners.
* ''MegaManX 7'' was one long hard camera screw.

->Things are looking good until you suddenly decide the wall is far more interesting to look at than the crowd of friends armed with baseball bats that your now facially-challenged ex-opponent brought as backup. The wall, being the fascinating bit of scenery it is, manages to hold your attention for quite a while, perhaps due to the calming baseball bat massage being delivered to the back of your head (...) Then some guy shoots you. You try to run to him but think looking the opposite direction might be the best way to approach him.
-->-A '''Hyper Magazine''' review describing an example of the action in ''[[RyuGaGotoku Yakuza]]''.

->In third person games the camera is like the working class. If you can't control it, it will plot to destroy you.

->Actually the engine for AP is Unreal, except that we modified the engine to fuck up the camera..
-->-'''Anthony Davis''', poking fun at the fact that games by his employer (Obsidian) have notoriously bad camera systems.

** Hey, they didn't call her ''[[IncrediblyLamePun Faith]]'' for nothing, you know.

!!Unsorted
* ''Gex 2'' has three camera styles, and all are terrible. It'll swing around so you can't see where you are, and gets stuck frequently. And when it can't move you hear a ''completely annoying noise''. ''EVERY TIME''.
* RhythmHeaven has a strange example, one considered not even an example depending on who you ask, what with being completely music based, but a lot of people depend on view. (In fact one of the winning dialogues is something along the lines of "You have a good eye for distance."). [[ThatOneLevel Rhythm Rally 2]] makes the camera unwillingly fly around, with planets and such blocking the view.
* ''MLB 09: The Show'' has camera-dependent baserunning controls in the Road to the Show mode, leading to more than a few camera screws. The controls require you to move the left stick in the direction toward the destination base when you start running, but if the camera angle changes in the split second between when you decide to run (and therefore when you decide which direction to move the stick) and when you actually move the stick, you'll end up running in the wrong direction, usually leading to you being thrown out rather easily.
* Crash Bandicoot has this in spades. The camera moves on a rail just behind your character. The problem? The camera never shows you how far the next jump is. As a result, you will have to take it on blind faith that you will find solid ground if you jump as far as you can in one of the four cardinal directions (forward, back, left, and right.) Don't even think about jumping diagonally, you'll only plummet to your doom.
** [[CrashBandicoot Naughty]] [[{{Uncharted}} Dog]] is also particularly fond of the "Character Runs Towards the Camera" Chase Scene.
* [[JakandDaxter Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier]] is extremely guilty of this. [[{{Wallbanger}} Even more annoying]] when you consider the excellent camera in all of the other games in the series.
** Because the game was made for PSP initially, there's no up/down camera movement allowed. Even on the PS2 version.
*** ALL the previous games on PS2 did not have the up/down camera movement either. Like, DUH!
** Even compared to other PSP games, the camera is bad. Good luck shooting the target you wanted with its jerky, sticky camera controls.
* ''SuperMonkeyBall'', to the point you're utterly frustrated and give up. Since the camera is centered behind your monkey, this often causes it to go into a carousel mode, because the sightliest tilt will cause it to move around, which is even more frustrating once you combine narrow paths with curves.

* In ''Disorientation'', this is the entire point of the game.
* ''AssassinsCreed 2'' has platforming sequences a la {{Uncharted}}. ''Timed'' platforming sequences in some cases. You may have got your moves down pat when freerunning over Venice (or even practicing aforementioned sequences before triggering the timer), but it's a whole 'nother ballgame when you try to do the same thing with a "helpful" camera screwing with your perspective every step of the way. ...it's a [[PrinceofPersia Ubisoft]] thing.
** To be fair, most of the times the camera moves so that you have a clear view to the intended target of your jump. The problem is basically the same as in TombRaiderAnniversary: Player input is relative to the camera, not to Ezio. If the camera suddenly turns 90° and you are running forward, Ezio will pull a sharp turn to the side the camera is looking. Can be a bit irritating...
* ''MarioGolf'' and especially its sequel, ''Toadstool Tour''. It doesn't affect gameplay, but frequently a shot will be totally obscured by a weird camera angle; you don't know what happened until the ball comes to a stop.
* ''BanjoKazooie'' suffers this problem greatly, even in the XBLA version which is actually worse in design since the N64 controller had C-buttons, meaning one press made the camera swing around a certain angle, whereas using the right analog stick on an Xbox 360 controller gives the illusion of being able to adjust to any number of degrees....which it does not, at all. Despite the camera controls being essentially ripped off from SuperMario64, the camera will auto-adjust infrequently so, and....well just try to play Click Clock Wood and see if you can avoid falling because the camera suddenly cut to another angle and threw you off.
** [[FinalGamer This troper]] had a friend who, when playing the game for the first time on XBLA, said "The worst enemy of the game isn't Gruntilda or Mr. Vile, but the ''camera''."
* Semi-obscure game ''Starshot: Space Circus Fever'' had a horrible camera that seemed to actually be a small object following the player. It frequently got stuck behind objects (as in you go on without it, requring you to retrace your steps until it sorts itself out and follows you again.) and in actual fact ''cannot keep up with the player, requiring you to stop and let it catch up with you!'' (i.e. stop every minute or so and then zoom in again.) Very impractical for a platformer and highly irritating.
* ''{{NieR}}'' uses Camera Screw in the Haunted Mansion as a ShoutOut to ''ResidentEvil1'' and its problematic fixed camera angles.
* ''[[{{Naruto}} Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2]]'' has this issue during the free-roaming sequences. The game uses a new style to essentially insert the three-dimensional characters into lush painted backgrounds, giving it a similar look to the anime. However, this results in a fixed camera in most sections, making it frustrating when you're looking for items or trying to talk to someone (due to the camera generally being pulled WAY back to show off the scenery). The battles also have a camera screw of their own, sometimes positioning themselves behind the enemy, instead of the player.

* ''TombRaider: Anniversary'', as mentioned above, and ''Tomb Raider: Legend'' both have a camera that frequently moves when you're trying to line up tricky jumps, often putting the jump destination offscreen.
** Which wouldn't be so bad, but the controls (unlike the first 5 games) are relative to the screen (not Lara).
*** Despite that, this has been a problem for several versions of the game, particularly TR: Chronicles since there are a few puzzles that would be incredibly simple if you could see from Lara's point of view, but for which the camera is stuck in a ridiculous place so you can't even see your character, let alone her destination.
**** As a general rule, the camera gets worse as the series goes on (and, as Legend and Anniversary suggest, that doesn't seem to be changing much); starting off generally consistent and doing what it's supposed to by staying behind you in the first few games, then later on adding pointless, unchangeable (in the first three games, the camera can be reset with the look button even when it does take an odd position) angles that add nothing to the view except FakeDifficulty. Although there are moments in the games before that which spring something on you fast enough that you don't have time to stop and reset the camera so must make do with an odd angle.
***** Unfortunately, Underworld has taken another step back in this regard, to the point where the camera is frequently cited as one of the biggest flaws with the game.
* ''DawnOfMana'' has a very poorly done camera, which often leaves boss enemies and jump destinations offscreen as soon as you turn vaguely left or right.
** While it is possible to rotate the camera and refocus it so you can see in the direction that Keldy is facing, it's still a massive pain in the rear to navigate tight corners.
* The otherwise perfectly done camera in the ''RatchetAndClank'' series will occasionally "helpfully" lock onto your next jump destination and refuse to let you look away. Useful for finding otherwise non-obvious jump platforms, but annoying if you just want to look around and explore before making the jump.
** ''Tools Of Destruction'' plays with the run-toward-the-camera sequence. You're forced to rail grind towards the camera, but there are no hazards in front of you. You just have to dodge laser fire from the Cragamite battlecruiser chasing you, and the camera gives a clear view of it.
* ''MegaManX 7'' was one long hard camera screw.
* ''{{Psychonauts}}'' does this a few times. In the most memorable instance, you have to run an obstacle course inside a moving air bubble at the bottom of a lake (long story). The camera is not only out of your control the whole time, but stays so far away you can sometimes hardly tell what you're doing. This is mostly due to the camera switching to the enemy's point of view (the player is being chased by a giant lungfish in this section) but still proves problematic. A boss fight a bit later in the game does something similar, but isn't as difficult.
** Also, the later boss fight makes the enemy-viewpoint camera optional-you can also look for a small visual cue and keep the camera under your own control.
* The ''SilentHill'' series does this ''intentionally'' on a few occasions; the weird camera angles just add another dimension to the general MindScrew.
** Beautifully creepy cinematography aside, most of the sequels keep this and compound it with difficult combat controls (which is somewhat intended canon, as the protagonist is supposed to be a noob rather than a spy) to make many mook fights frustrating, item-expensive, or downright ''lethal'', as the camera aggressively moves every which way but towards oncoming enemies.
*** Presumably to compensate for the extremely limited camera control in the first game, the developers designed the controls so that Harry would always move forward when the player pressed "up," backward when the player pressed "down," and walk in an arc when the player pressed "right" or "left." Perhaps not a bad solution for its time, but absolutely maddening if you're used to "up" moving the character away from the camera, "down" making the character rotate toward the camera and move in that direction, and "left" or "right" making the character rotate while staying in one spot.
**** Often while being [[TheDeterminator relentlessly chased by]][[HighOctaneNightmareFuel Ohmygodmovemovemovemove!]]..
* ''GodOfWar'' just loves to change camera angles during precision balance scenes. The game's EdgeGravity may or may not let you grab onto the beam as you fall from it.
* As mentioned in the page quote, ''AlphaProtocol'' exists in a world where CrowningMomentofFunny meets Awesome meets horrible camera-induced frustration. When you're not crouched down, the camera is basically three inches from the back of your head, making it impossible to see anything. When you ''can'' see anything, ''aiming'' is another task altogether: You're either moving it at a snail's pace or so quickly you turn yourself around sixteen times trying to go left before someone grabs the last bagel. Not fun.
* ''FinalFantasyXII''. If your characters have a wall behind them, the camera WILL be shunted into the air and point directly at the floor. Very frustrating if you're trying to look ahead, guys. Fortunately it's an RPG, so you won't instantly die from it.
** Often used to peer at Fran's backside. ...What? C'mon, you know you've done it.
** ''InfiniteUndiscovery'', on the other hand, has the [[spoiler:Vesplume Tower]], with castle perimeter areas that have fixed cameras and dogs that dash at one or more characters for what at the time is about 1/3 of their HP. These dogs come at you from an angle that WOULD allow you to see them coming, easily, if not for the fixed camera.
* The first ''KingdomHearts'' can be frustrating at times due to the small rooms in some levels like Wonderland or Monstro causing the camera to spin everywhere at the slightest hint of movement. Thankfully this was fixed for the sequel.
** But that's not even the end of it -- the camera in general was poorly realized, with the controls given to the R2 and L2 buttons and the speed FAR too slow to keep up with athletic, bouncy Sora. Locking-on helps most of the time, but god help you if it's a fast opponent that likes jumping around like a maniac...
** The DS title ''Kingdom Hearts 358/2'' Days has an unskippable stealth sequence that starts you off with a fixed camera. You can turn off the target camera, but the way the other camera works means it is very difficult (at no fault of the player) to follow Pete without accidentally turning the camera in a completely different direction while attempting to move.
** There's a fairly simple workaround for the original -- just hold the stick forward and steer with the camera-control buttons. It's not the ''best'' possible solution, but when combined with the target lock system it gets the job done.
* Bad camera control is one of the (at times, overexaggerated) common complaints about the 3D ''SonicTheHedgehog'' games. Mostly fixed in ''SonicUnleashed''.
** Several games also have the "run toward the camera" variant.
** This tends to go hand-in-hand with the difficult-to-work-with controls. The camera is set up to focus on Sonic from a particular view, but it never just "switches," instead, it transitions over to where it needs to be. Therefore, if, during a transition, you stop moving or face the wrong way, the camera gets stuck in that transition.
** This seems to happen a lot during Team Sonic's version of the boss fight with the Egg Emperor in ''SonicHeroes''. Side-effects include: Swearing, [[NintendoHard screaming]], [[ThatOneBoss frothing at the mouth]], giving up, and hair loss.
* ''PrinceOfPersia: Warrior Within'' loves to change the camera during tricky jumps, or tricky climbing sequences, or difficult [[LeParkour Parkour]] sessions. It also focuses on the Dahaka at one point, [[ScrappyLevel to the exclusion of knowing where you're going]].
** This is mitigated by the controls: They usually move the prince relative to the screen (which, with the 3rd person camera, is normally equivalent to "relative to the prince"). However, when the perspective shifts to another angle, as long as you keep the move buttons pressed, you'll walk as if the shift never happened. Only when you release the button do the controls accomodate the new perspective - so if you run in a straight line and the camera shifts to show that [[EldritchAbomination friendly guy in black]] with the [[CombatTentacles surplus of arms]] trying to [[ImplacableMan play catch with you]] and you keep the up-button pressed, you'll continue running in said straight line instead of doubling back and going straight towards your pursuer.
* The ''DevilMayCry'' series frequently changes the camera angle mid-jump. The key to your survival is that the game doesn't realign your controls until you land, so you need not jerk the controller around. The camera also has a bad habit of aiming directly behind the player character.
** ''[=DMC3=]'' also contains some sections where the camera is so far away Dante becomes a little red dot indistinguishable from the bloodstains on the wall. However, since it also contains the best camera angle ever, where Dante/Vergil's muscled bod can be moved right up to the screen, fangirls aren't about to start complaining any time soon.

* ''SuperMario64'' defined the 3D {{Platformer}} genre in the same way that ''Game/SuperMarioBros'' defined the 2D Platformer genre. It was a breakthrough in multiple ways, was the top selling game for the Nintendo 64, and is still considered to be one of the greatest games ever made. It ''also'' left the player with the idea that the "Lakitu Camera" was under the control of Bowser and was working hard to prevent you from finishing the game. The default camera angles were, to be blunt, not very good, and the worst part of it was that if you tried to manually move the camera, it would automatically readjust itself.
** The best touch: trying to cross a narrow bridge or sneak by an enemy? The more slowly and cautiously you move, the more erratic the camera gets. This is because when you move quickly the camera drifts further back, and when you stop or slow down, it pulls tight -- but when it's in tight it can (and will) swing from one side of Mario to the other in an instant.
*** Also annoying is that the camera controls move the camera in about 30 degree shifts at a time and that they have a limit to how far around they go. Precision jump? More often than not, it's either between two "ticks" on the camera, or just outside the allowable angle.
** By the time of ''SuperMarioSunshine'', they had improved the camera a bit, making it more controllable by the player and reducing the wobble that plagued the ''Mario 64'' camera. But it had a bad, bad tendency to let elements of scenery such as trees and overhangs completely block the player's view of Mario, and even worse, it was next to impossible in some cases to adjust the camera to a position where you had unobstructed visibility; often you couldn't see Mario unless you pulled the camera in super tight, and the second you tried to move... bam, there's that tree in your way again.
** The camera in ''SuperMarioGalaxy'' was much more intuitive, giving players decent camera angles more often than not. But it was still only controllable up to a certain extent, and in fast-paced levels, it didn't always keep up with Mario's pace. But at least it didn't automatically readjust itself once the player moved it like the camera in ''Super Mario 64''.
*** And in all the 3D Mario games, swimming is a nightmare.
** In ''SuperMarioGalaxy2'', about half the green stars are placed in such a way that the camera is about as unhelpful as possible in letting you get them. Many of them are located out in space without anything on the screen to help you gauge exactly how far out they are or where they lie on the horizontal plane. And worst of all, in some cases, you have to jump toward the star from a spot where it's ''physically impossible to see it''. The Flipsville one, where you have to fall into the star via reverse gravity is worst of all (and the FakeDifficulty page image), but one in Starshine Beach is also worth singling out; it lies just beneath an overhang in the middle of the ocean, and once you get to a spot where you can reach the star, it's in a place where you can no longer see it. Meanwhile, to get high enough to grab it, you have to leap out of the water with Yoshi's flutter jump and then dismount him in mid-air... again while you're not quite able to see exactly where above you the star is.
* In ''CrisisCore: FinalFantasyVII'' on the field screen the camera will "stick" on obstacles and refuse to move. This makes discovering treasure chests quite a bit more annoying than it has to be, since swinging the camera away involves moving away from the walls. But moving away from the walls triggers enemy encounters - which leads to the other camera screw. The buttons that control the camera in the field screen switch to selecting commands in the combat screen. Sadly, the camera does not pull out enough to display the entire combat area, leaving some enemies off the screen - which becomes even more annoying when they use ranged attacks. Oh, and then there's the stealth section where you need to watch out for guards spotting you...
* ''NinjaGaiden 2'' has a camera that has a disturbing habit of only giving you a nice view of Ryu's spandex-clad bottom and the creature you're currently hammering at - despite the fact that there's another five enemies just five feet away, looking for ways to ruin your day, along with their buddies much, much further away, ramming some very fast-moving projectiles up said spandex-clad bottom.
** The previous 3D ''Ninja Gaiden'' game and its rereleases suffered from a poor camera as well. Perhaps most notably was the first version, in which you couldn't even control the camera with the right stick; rather, moving the right stick would instantly put you in first-person mode. This goes against what has become second nature to most gamers since the advent of the right stick, and the mistake of trying to correct the camera in the middle of a battle has led to many bloody deaths. Fortunately, this was corrected in later versions of the game. Unfortunately, the camera is still absolutely awful.
* How can we complain about ''NinjaGaiden'' and not mention ''Tenchu''? You can't look up or down manually without going into first person view, and it points straight down whenever you go near a ledge. It may have seemed practical on paper, but this is nothing that a fully controllable camera couldn't handle.
* The initial release of ''MetalGearSolid 3'' also suffered from this trope. The first two ''Metal Gear Solid'' games utilized semi-fixed cameras that required the player to go into first-person in order to get a dynamic view of the surroundings. This wasn't a major problem, as these games took place in mostly indoor areas with plenty of obstacles, and the player was aided by nearly-blind guards and a radar that pin-pointed enemies' locations and directions. Cue ''[=MGS3=]'': Wide open outdoor areas, no radar, guards that can spot you from a good distance if you weren't wearing proper camouflage and lying down...and the same old camera system. This made the game initially difficult for many players, who were now forced to go into first-person view(which disables them from performing any action other than looking around and shooting) in order to track any off-screen enemies.
** ''Metal Gear Solid 3's'' special edition re-release, ''Subsistence'', mostly fixed this problem by adding a fully adjustable third-person camera (only camera screw moments is fighting "The Boss" at the end-game). This system was conserved and improved in the series' fourth game.
** The camera in ''Portable Ops'' was an abomination. On TUS, the big ''Metal Gear'' fansite, it actually won the poll for 'the hardest boss in the game'. There is a way of controlling the camera at the same time as moving, but it involves curling your left hand into a C and operating the D-pad with the side of your left forefinger, which results in some nasty finger pain and is only possible if you have tiny hands. There was a button to lock the camera behind your soldier, but it was the same as the Aim button - so if they had a gun equipped, they'd point it. And if they were disguised with the Chameleon icon and pointed a gun, they'd immediately lose their protection and could be seen.

* The newest ''AloneInTheDark'' occasionally has some poor angling for the third-person camera. However, the ability to switch to first person view almost any time as well as a lock-on function for melee combat help to alleviate this a little bit. However, the camera still likes to be dramatic and epic in certain scenes, so maintaining control of a car after a dramatic jump is a little addled.
* ''{{Spore}}'', in the space phase, will sometimes, in the heat of battle, have the camera suddenly pull up.
* An admittedly optional morphball puzzle in ''MetroidPrime 2'' forces the camera BEHIND A WALL, almost entirely obscuring your view of where you are. Worse, the puzzle is constantly in motion. This camera placement may or may not be intentional. Luckily, the player is able to see the puzzle in its entirety before undertaking it, giving them a chance to memorize it.
** This is actually a glitch; the normal camera view is perfectly workable. Admittedly a very common glitch, though.

** The PS2 game ''Castlevania Lament Of Innocence'' has very few platforming sections, but all of them feature frustrating mid-jump camera moves. Fortunately, falling in these cases instantly sends you to the room's entrance, keeping the frustration factor from getting ''too'' high.
* ''WorldOfWarcraft'' manages to avert, follow, and AGAIN avert this trope. Initially, the behind-the-back-by-default yet thoroughly controllable camera is almost perfect, even allowing players to go into full first person mode with relatively minor costs... Until you reach a specific boss fight in the end game, whose gimmick essentially mandates pulling the camera much, ''much'' further back than you would otherwise be allowed to - for otherwise good reason, as the game expects you to (for instance) be clicking on your allies to heal them, a task made ''extremely'' difficult if it lets you zoom out too far. Fortunately, customizing the user interface allows this to be again averted by simply increasing the maximum distance you can zoom out, and also simply throw everyone's lifebar up the screen, using the lifebars to target instead, bringing the trope right back to "averted" status. (And yes, most of the bosses after that one require the same camera manipulations.)
** Pity poor hunters, as well as tauren, and ''especially'' tauren hunters. Some encounters, usually in dungeons, put you in the position where you can't really see a damn thing until you go into first person mode. Inside buildings is usually worse, given that they're only about six or seven yards across and a hunter's minimum effective range is ''five''. Nothing beats trying to get a good position on your enemy when the ass-cam runs up against a wall and gives you a splendid view of nothing but your back.
** A patch changed the ability to target anyone obscured from the line of sight of the camera. While this fixed numerous exploits, such as targeting enemies inside buildings and on one occasion ''being able to loot a wardrobe through the wall of the house it's inside without having to engage the difficult enemies within'', the change made it impossible to mouse-click an enemy to target it if the ''camera view'' is obstructed by anything - Walls, awnings, even (and more commonly) tree foliage; even if your character has a clear line of sight on the subject.
** Integrated raid frames also avert this problem, though you've always been able to use F1-5 to target yourself or the other members of your party (tapping the key for a particular member multiple times will target between them and their pet).
* ''GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'' had the "Helpful" camera change problem. While driving the camera focuses ''directly'' behind your vehicle, meaning you can't see what's in front of you on the road. There's a button you can hit to move it to a much more useful angle, but as soon as you let go of said button, the camera slides riiiiiight back into crap-town. Of course, you can drive in first person mode, but then you can't see anyone pulling up behind or to the side of you; it becomes incredibly difficult to extricate yourself from the kind of 46-point turn scenario that often comes up when trying to drive through alleyways, and over everything else; and of course not forgetting, the car ''inexplicably gets wider when you're in first person view''.
** In the PC port of both ''San Andreas'' and ''GTA IV'', it is possible to freely control the camera with the mouse... but if you stop moving the mouse for more than a second while driving, the camera refocuses to the back of the car.
*** ''GTA IV'' took the camera to incredible levels of stupidity by turning it into a chase camera that initially sits slightly to the left of the car, which gives you the feeling you aren't driving straight. While the new camera was controllable so that you could shoot better (near full 360 degrees worth of in-car shooting), it also required you to maintain a very, very slight rightward pressure on the camera control stick to get the camera behind the car. That's ''real'' fun to do for longer than 30 seconds.
*** The "in-car" camera in ''GTA IV'' also inexplicably filled a fourth to third of the screen with car hood, never mind that you'll never see your own hood while you're driving in real life (unless, of course, it's an old Caddy).
** The camera also is much more of a dumb chase cam than in ''GTA 3/Vice City'', where it helpfully stayed behind the car to show you where you were going. In San Andreas, when you turn a sharp corner, the camera coyly fixates on the side of your car until you have already driven a little distance in the direction you can't see.
* As mentioned in the quote, ''NeverwinterNights2'', has a pretty bad camera, zooming in to the characters heads when they are under a doorway is one of the smaller issues.
** The behind-view cameras in both ''NeverwinterNights'' games are abysmal. Your best hope at actual control is the overhead camera.
* ''DeadSpace'' does this intentionally multiple times, arguably as part of the minimalist interface style. [[spoiler:Fighting the final boss in this manner tends to lead to at least one really unpleasant death scene]]
* ''TheForceUnleashed'' loves combining this with rancor fights, locking the camera onto the rancor from a ground-level-Indiana-boulder perspective. The beasties have a large enough reach already before attempts to retreat run the player into stage walls and exploding flowers half the time.
* A flaw in the otherwise great game ''{{Portal}}'' -- when you go through the more elaborate portal patterns, if the screen has to spin, your up/down view will not be changed. Frustrating when you come out of a portal and suddenly see the ceiling and have no idea just where's the damn floor. Even more frustrating when you have to shoot a portal at the floor while in mid-air.
** Arguably meant to recreate the real sense of disorientation you'd feel in real life if you dropped through a floor and came out of a wall.
* ''{{TrackMania}}'s'' speciality is putting the camera underground inside the track or parallel to the track so that the players can not see it. The first person view camera is located close to ground at the car's nose, giving a limited view of the track and no idea where the corners of the car are. And then there are forced perspective changes, some of which switch to first person view when stunts require it but others just screw up the gameplay.
* The camera in ''{{Burnout}} Paradise'' goes crazy as soon as you put your car into reverse. While the new angle it assumes might be helpful if you intended to drive backwards for long distances, you're usually just trying to make a quick 2-point or 3-point turn, for which the new camera angle is useless.
* ''DynastyWarriors'' has a camera that, while not directly controllable, is usually very good: Dead behind the player clearly showing the enemy hordes fleeing in terror or running to their doom. However it will every now and then lodge itself in a wall or a horse, usually when the player is being ganged up on by at least two enemy officers.
* ''Robot Alchemic Drive'' is played from the perspective of the teen-ager [[KidWithTheRemoteControl remote-controlling]] a HumongousMecha... except when it decides to dramatically follow a missile or RocketPunch. Cool, yes, but I'd rather be able to see my robot and the enemy, thanks.
** Possibly justified by the fact that the camera is, when controlling the robots, the character's first person view, and missiles and {{Rocket Punch}}es are generally the sorts of things that would catch your attention.
* ''NoMoreHeroes'' switches from a controllable camera to a fixed camera when you hit the stairs to Travis's motel room. The camera angle changes such that if you hold down the control stick, Travis will hit the stairs, the camera will change, and Travis will run down the stairs and away from the hotel. It takes a very quick touch to hit the stairs at top running speed and not go backwards a few times.

* The ''DragonBallZ Budokai Tenkaichi'' suffers from this when your NOT locked onto your opponent
* ''BreathOfFire 3'' is an isometric view that has a camera that can only rotate a fraction of the full 360 degrees. This is used to hide things like chests and hidden passages.
* ''{{Wild ARMs 4}}'' was actually a step ''back'' from previous games that allowed you to rotate the camera at least in the horizontal axis. The camera in WA4 is entirely fixed except for allowing you to zoom, which every so often makes for a frustrating bit of exploration. Thankfully it was fixed in ''{{Wild ARMs 5}}'', replacing it with a fully 3D right-stick-controlled camera.
* Largely justified in 1983 arcade game ''I Robot'' where putting a camera as low as possible (making it harder to see the playfield) will yield you higher points.
* This applies to the recent ''CallOfDuty'' Games, namely ''Modern Warfare'' and ''World At War''. On harder difficulties taking hits would cause the camera to shake madly, making it impossible to aim accurately and allows the enemy to hand you your ass on a plate.
* ''[=~Dissidia: Final Fantasy~=]'' suffers from some rather wonky camera mechanics on indoor maps such as Pandemonium and Ultimecia's Castle where it will get stuck in corners and trapped behind walls. This is particularly prominent during the [[PressXToNotDie Quick Time Events]] when the camera is already zooming in and around the fighters. Even more frustrating is that some of these problems don't go away even when ''you'' are controlling the camera during the Battle Replay mode. On the upside, it is sometimes a GoodBadBug when the problems allow you to see the maps from unusual angles, and outside of those two stages the camera control is generally good enough you barely notice it.

* With a deeply tinted view (in a pretty dark game, especially the deep space sequences), cockpit furniture that takes up over a third of a screen, and general lack of orientation and peripheral vision, one wonders what the first-person camera in ''StarFox 64'' is actually ''good'' for. Aside from being a form of a SelfImposedChallenge. And making Virtual Console players repeatedly curse at accidentally stabbing the C-Stick/right control stick upwards.

* ''{{Persona 4}}'' has an intentional case found in the Void Quest dungeon. In the 7th floor the camera will abruptly shift in every crossroad, effectively disorienting you. Quite lethal, specially if you found yourself running ''into'' the shadow you were trying to escape moments earlier.
** Additionally when you open doors and step through the camera focus can screw up for a few seconds which means that the Shadow next to the door can get the first move.
* ''TheChroniclesOfRiddick'' games change from first person to third person whenever you climb, which is fine for the sneaking parts of the game, but not so much for the shooter parts.
* ''DinoCrisis 3''. The cameras are ''fixed'' -- as if you're watching yourself from security cameras. On a spaceship. Where ''dinosaurs'' can appear spontaneously ''out of the walls'' to attack you. My head hurts just thinking about it.
* It's naturally one of the many complaints of ''{{Quest 64}}''.
* In the ''[[TheBlairWitchProject Blair Witch]]'' PC game, one part of the forced tutorial level is to explain that when you're given a bad camera angle with the game's survival horror style camera, you should retreat to another area with a better camera angle.
* The camera in ''{{Fahrenheit}}[=/=]IndigoProphecy'' may kill [[spoiler:your brother]]. Indirectly, by making it freakin' difficult to find the telephone and warn him.

* The camera keeps switching positions while doing a combo in ''[[BackyardSports Backyard Skateboarding]]'': sometimes to the ground, sometimes to the side, sometimes to the ''sky''. And you don't even control the camera while this happens.

* The Simpsons Game uses all of the given examples... plus playing two-player shrinks the screen to irritatingly small, meaning apart from a few areas, its far more fun playing single player.

* ''Bayonetta'' (the game, not the character) enjoys tormenting you by keeping enemies out of your view, especially when you're trying to manually turn the camera to see them instead of locking on with RB/R1. The fact that the enemies all attack you at once seems to discourage you from focusing on one at a time, which sort of defeats the purpose of locking on at all.

* Semi-obscure game Starshot: Space Circus Fever had a horrible camera that seemed to actually be a small object following the player. It frequently got stuck behind objects (as in you go on without it, requring you to retrace your steps until it sorts itself out and follows you again.) and in actual fact ''cannot keep up with the player, requiring you to stop and let it catch up with you!'' (i.e. stop every minute or so and then zoom in again.) Very impractial for a platformer and highly irratating.

* [[{{Naruto}} Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2]] has this issue during the free-roaming sequences. The game uses a new style to essentially insert the three-dimensional characters into lush painted backgrounds, giving it a similar look to the anime. However, this results in a fixed camera in most sections, making it frustrating when you're looking for items or trying to talk to someone (due to the camera generally being pulled WAY back to show off the scenery). The battles also have a camera screw of their own, sometimes positioning themselves behind the enemy, instead of the player.

* The ''{{Riddick}}'' games change from first person to third person whenever you climb, which is fine for the sneaking parts of the game, but not so much for the shooter parts.

*** However, it should be noted that for the Green Stars, this was ''wholly intentional''.

** This seems to happen a lot during Team Sonic's version of the boss fight with the Egg Emperor in ''SonicHeroes''. Side-effects include: Swearing, screaming, frothing at the mouth, [[Narm Narm]], giving up, and hair loss.

** This seems to happen a lot during Team Sonic's version of the boss fight with the Egg Emperor in ''SonicHeroes''. Side-effects include: Swearing, screaming, frothing at the mouth, Narm, giving up, and hair loss.

*** And in all three 3D Mario games, swimming is a nightmare.
** In SuperMarioGalaxy2, about half the green stars are placed in a way the camera is about as unhelpful as possible in letting you get them. The Flipsville one, where you have to fall into the star via reverse gravity is worst of all (and the FakeDifficulty page image), but one in Starshine Beach is less hard as just having the worst camera known to man.