History Main / RubberBandAI

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII''. However, since the ability to draw magic and junction it to your stats was technically separate from the {{Character Level}}s gained from actual battling, it was very easy to unbalance the game with some ingenuity.
** The combat level of enemies was determined by the levels based off your active party members. Predictably, the game is not even remotely difficult in this case. But for most bosses, they have a level cap.
** Of course, the first-time players and people who didn't know how to exploit the system were horrendously screwed. Normal enemies became insanely powerful, and {{Superboss}} Omega Weapon was nigh-unstoppable at level 100 (and the game would cheat and punch Omega up ten or so levels if the character average was 90 or so).
** Depending on the version, Omega Weapon might be at Level 100 regardless of what your actual average level is. It can be at any level in the PC version.

* The Wanted Battles in ''VideoGame/SkiesOfArcadia'' are adjusted based on your characters' levels, so that putting them off will result in horrendously difficult battles when you try to go back for them, to the point where many are much easier if you're at a lower level. Quite literally punishing you for every experience point you dared to gain.

* ''{{Franchise/Pokemon}}'' is absolutely ''insane'' about this when it comes to the post-game battle institutions. The higher your win streak, [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard the deeper the AI will sink.]] Fully expect to have your 95% accuracy moves miss virtually all of the time, while your opponent's 30% accuracy Horn Drill almost never will; feel free to note that their Pokémon often have abilities that cannot be accessed in-game and possibly be hacked with moves and stats; watch in despair as they predict your switches with uncanny accuracy; fall to the Pokémon the computer throws at you that would utterly ''fail'' in a competitive setting yet are designed perfectly to frustrate all your efforts.

** Cait Sith's LimitBreak Slots is programmed to rarely cast [[OneHitKill Game Over]], instead casting Death Joker, which kills the entire team. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44vNEiulxIc This video]] explains how it works.

* Magazine ads for the Genesis ''VideoGame/JurassicPark'' game claimed that as you played better, the dinosaurs would get smarter. It didn't seem to make much difference in the game, unless you count the raptors occasionally ducking your shots as getting smarter.

Wrong. Suddenly, the [[VideoGameAI AI]] is twice as fast as you, knows what play you're going to run, and shuts down your offense, forcing you to punt - or, worse, your running back with a high "Hands" rating fumbles the ball, or an AI defensive back makes a miracle interception. On their drive, the AI marches down-field with no difficulty by completing several consecutive bombs, scoring an easy touchdown. Worse still, your clutch plays whether you control the offense or defense will be negated by penalties, giving the AI a [[JustForPun sporting chance]]. Rinse and repeat, and before you know it you've lost what you thought was a safe lead. The video game has just experienced a MiracleRally.

** North American pro leagues usually have an "Entry Draft" or "Amateur Draft" for teams to acquire players entering a given league that is intended to function like Rubber Band A.I. over the course of years. In these drafts, the worst teams from the previous seasons get the first picks, ostensibly getting more promising and talented players, so that in a few years those teams might not suck out loud any longer. The drawback is that this actively incentivizes teams who are simply mediocre to stop trying entirely and lose as often as possible to get better draft picks. Leagues like the NBA and NHL have a "Draft Lottery," where the order of the first handful of picks is selected semi-randomly among the worst teams, in order to not guarantee the worst team the best pick, or and to not automatically punish the second worst team for not losing more.

* For various reasons, the producers of ''Series/TheAmazingRace'' create what are known as "bunching points" or "equalizers," usually involving operating hours of businesses or transport schedules, so that no team gets too far ahead or behind: Logistically, it's easier to keep the crew in a single country at a time and you don't want to tie up locals in assisting/judging tasks for days on end. Dramatically, having wins or losses be a ForegoneConclusion every week [[InvincibleHero is]] [[BoringFailureHero boring]]. The one season they didn't set up these equalizers, two teams got so far ahead on leg 9, that it was impossible for the other teams to catch up, and the next three legs before the finale were pretty much pointless.

** In Tails's levels, Sonic will ''always'' rubberband quite hard to catch up to you if you manage to get far ahead of him. The Radical Highway level has you racing against Eggman instead and his AI seems to completely lack any form of rubberbanding. You can easily skip huge chunks of the level and reach the end in record time while Eggman hasn't even gone through half the level yet.

* ''[[VideoGame/SiN SiN Episodes]]'' was released with a much-touted DynamicDifficulty system -- kill the enemies too quickly and they'd send more next time, get too many headshots and the next group will wear helmets, etc. Unfortunately, encounters that were ''supposed'' to be easier or harder were counted in this, resulting in situations that a hard encounter would be made virtually impossible due to how quickly you dispatched an easy one. That's not getting into a bug where a pair of triggers for the system, which partly worked based on how short an interval there was between the player hitting them, were placed in such a way that they didn't disappear after being triggered - if you unknowingly lingered around the areas that had them, you could potentially trigger them multiple times per second, causing later encounters to become downright hellish in their impossibility.

* The Different Dimension areas in ''VideoGame/KirbysReturnToDreamLand'' has an AdvancingWallOfDoom that will always be just offscreen. You can push it back with stars for a bit of extra time solving the puzzles in your way, which is very helpful for the much faster one in Extra Mode.

* The ''VideoGame/MarioKart'' series is ''infamous'' for this trope. Wipe out at the start of a race and it's a straightforward task to comeback and still win, especially considering that the ''Mario Kart'' games has been known to give [[AntiFrustrationFeatures struggling players really strong items MUCH more often]] than they would the struggling AI racers. Wipe out near the end of the last lap (having raced a ''perfect'' game so far), and there will ''always'' be three guys right behind you to snatch all the points.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII,'' Bizarro∙ and Safer∙Sephiroth's stats are based on a ton of variables, one of which is your party members' levels. Having all of your characters at level 99 makes Safer one of the strongest final bosses in the series, only surpassed by [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII Orphan]]. Of course, by that point, you probably have [[GameBreaker Knights of the Round]].

** Of course, the first-time players and people who didn't know how to exploit the system were horrendously screwed. Normal enemies became insanely powerful, and BonusBoss Omega Weapon was nigh-unstoppable at level 100 (and the game would cheat and punch Omega up ten or so levels if the character average was 90 or so).

** In the original game it's [[UnintentionallyUnwinnable physically impossible]] to beat the Death Wind course using the Golden Fox on the Master Difficulty. All the other vehicles have a max speed of 478 k/h and remain at that speed the whole race, while the Golden Fox's top speed is 438. It's ''technically'' possible to do, but it's only been pulled off once, in a tool-assisted {{speedrun}}, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33dli_QAdHA by getting an early lead and making the car in second place push him along]].

* Similar things occur in ''VideoGame/{{Pokemon}} Puzzle League'' at the higher difficulty levels, particularly if he/she is on their last Pokemon. You might think you have the match, and then they will not only [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard get out of the corner]], but [[OhCrap send a monstrous cascade of garbage blocks your way]].

Wiki/TheOtherWiki has [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubberband_AI a comprehensive article]] about Rubberband AI.

** ''VideoGame/MarioKartWii'' exaggerates the rubber-banding after the [[BlatantLies fairly cheating-free]] ''VideoGame/MarioKartDS''. The computer racers change their speed depending on your position in the race, and they also get much better items than you if you're ahead, far better than you would if you were in their position. This is all par for the series, though... until you realize that there are more drivers in Wii -- 12 instead of 8. The result is that driving too far ahead of the pack results in your getting bombarded with three or four items in a row, which requires impeccable coordination that only a computer could muster and adds at least five seconds to your lap time. At least there's always online play... but then you encounter the ''really good'' players, the ones who have beaten the computer at their own game and then some.

** ''VideoGame/MarioKart8'' takes things up a whole notch with the addition of 200cc. If you thought the Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong example above was bad, the AI on this game's 200cc difficulty setting '''ZOOM''' at unbelievable speeds to prevent you from winning. To be honest, however, [[NintendoHard even the AI has a hard time playing on this engine class]].

** ''VideoGame/MarioKartWii'' takes the rubber-banding UpToEleven after the [[BlatantLies fairly cheating-free]] ''VideoGame/MarioKartDS''. The computer racers change their speed depending on your position in the race, and they also get much better items than you if you're ahead, far better than you would if you were in their position. This is all par for the series, though... until you realize that there are more drivers in Wii -- 12 instead of 8. The result is that driving too far ahead of the pack results in your getting bombarded with three or four items in a row, which requires impeccable coordination that only a computer could muster and adds at least five seconds to your lap time. At least there's always online play... but then you encounter the ''really good'' players, the ones who have beaten the computer at their own game and then some.

** ''VideoGame/MarioKart8'' takes things up a whole notch with the addition of [[UpToEleven 200cc]]. If you thought the Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong example above was bad, the AI on this game's 200cc difficulty setting '''ZOOM''' at unbelievable speeds to prevent you from winning. To be honest, however, [[NintendoHard even the AI has a hard time playing on this engine class]].

* This is wonderfully averted in the racing sections of ''Videogame/{{Rage}}''; with max upgrades and decent driving skills, you can leave your opponents in the dust and the computer won't give them an unfair speed boost or teleport them behind you. This is particularly good because ''Rage'' is a FPS-driving game hybrid, and many people who buy the game will not be regular fans of racing games.

** [[AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent Depending on what game you play]], certain games like the classic-era games and ''Underground''-era games, and especially ''Hot Pursuit'' games have opponent cars catching you up in a sudden (even [[HotPursuit fleets of police cars]]), while simulation-based games like ''[=ProStreet=]'' and ''Shift'' games can have you sandwiched between bumping opponents, depending on the track.

* The ''VideoGame/MarioKart'' series does this to a high degree. Wipe out at the start of a race and it's a straightforward task to still win. Wipe out near the end of the last lap (having raced a ''perfect'' game so far), and there will always be 3 guys right behind you to snatch all the points.

** And if you're good at hitting shortcuts, expect the computer to be able to suddenly hit a top speed well beyond what any human could do. The most blatant instance is Rainbow Road in ''VideoGame/MarioKart64'', which has a shortcut that can literally skip 40% of the course (and it is, to this date, the longest course in the series' history). Even if you hit said shortcut on all three laps and use perfectly timed drifting boosts throughout the rest of the course, the computer is still able to catch you on the last lap.
*** By turning on the map-view in ''64'' it's possible to watch opponents suddenly accelerate to unrealistic speed when they are far behind or ahead. Allow a single CPU driver to get too far ahead in 150cc or Extra and they'll reach the finish line in times no human player, even drifting experts, can finish in- especially in courses like Kalimari Desert and Bowser's Castle.

* Canary Mary from ''[[VideoGame/BanjoKazooie Banjo-Tooie]]'' is a particularly bad example of this in her appearance in Cloud Cuckooland. You have to race her a total of four times for [[PlotCoupon Jiggies]] or Cheato Pages. The race is done by simply hitting the A button; the faster you press, the faster you go. She employs Rubber Band AI during each race, so if you mash the A button, you'll only make it harder to win. The first two races in the mines are no problem, and the first race in Cloud Cuckooland is tough but doable, but the last cloud race will kick your ass. You can win by staying just a little behind her for the entire race until the very end, but [[GuideDangIt good luck figuring that out on your own]], especially given that she's very beatable in the mines.
** It ''is'' possible to beat her by button mashing, if you mash, pause, mash, etc. until you win. Practically the only way that has been 100% proven to beat her is to have a N64 controller that is equipped with a '''Turbo''' button.

** In the original game it's [[UnwinnableByMistake physically impossible]] to beat the Death Wind course using the Golden Fox on the Master Difficulty. All the other vehicles have a max speed of 478 k/h and remain at that speed the whole race, while the Golden Fox's top speed is 438. It's ''technically'' possible to do, but it's only been pulled off once, in a tool-assisted {{speedrun}}, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33dli_QAdHA by getting an early lead and making the car in second place push him along]].