History Main / PixelHunt

* Towards the end of ''VideoGame/FullThrottle'', not only do you need to find a tiny little spot on a gigantic rock wall to kick so you can open a secret passage, you have to kick it at just the right time. So you'll be kicking the wall all over the place and still not knowing if you're kicking the wrong spot or if you just haven't gotten the timing down.
** The fluff makes the clue particularly unhelpful -- Mo mentions that she used this guideline when she was ''six'', so you're trying to kick spots on the wall where the crack matches the eyeline of a little kid. The crack that's ''supposed'' to point you at the right spot to kick lines up with your own, grown-up, six-foot-tall eyeline.

** The Director's Cut version goes great lengths to avert this trope. As soon as the player's mouse pointer is within half-inch or so of an object that could be interacted with, that object is highlighted by blinking circles. This gives no hint about ''how'' exactly are you supposed to interact, but it does remove the "haystacks" factor almost completely.

* In the Japanese room escape game ''Doukoku'' for the UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn: if you want to save a particular female character when her leg gets caught between an iron grille, in-between utilizing some quite obvious items on screen, you have to click on her hair, where you find a hairpin to unscrew the grille. Not only is this not hinted at, the hairpin is also completely invisible (you don't even get to see it as an item), and all other similar clicks have actual items drawn on screen for you to see. Not to mention you get the impression that you have to go to other places to find the suitable item, since most room escape games (including this one) require players to do so. Do that, and the girl dies the most horrible death in the game (foreshadowed by the chainsaw next to her, which you can actually use to try to set her free, only to find out that the iron grille is just too strong for the chainsaw without putting her into harm).

* ''Videogame/ThimbleweedPark'':

* Old-timey point'n'click game ''VideoGame/WeenTheProphecy'' has a couple. At one point you [[InvokedTrope lose three grains of sand in a grass field]]. You shrink yourself to get a better view, and the end result isn't ''quite'' as bad as it sounds because you know you have to look for them in the first place, they're shiny, distinctly off-color with the rest of the screen, and are [=3x3=] instead of one pixel, and the game is old enough that individual pixels are still pretty big and noticeable. Later on though, you're thrown in a jail cell and have to PixelHunt a nail lodged in the wall. [[GuideDangIt Unlike the previous example]], you ''don't'' know you have to be looking for it in the first place, it's almost the same color as the rest of the blank wall, it ''is'' exactly one pixel, and the first several times you click on it ''nothing noticeable happens because it's stuck'' and you have to wiggle it out with several clicks.

* While not necessary for game completion, there is ''a lot'' of PixelHunt action in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII''. Some of the notices on the boards which you may otherwise just take as background actually contains messages, and in the case of the Turtle's Paradise newsletter, nab you some pretty sweet items. One of the most hidden examples is the back of a signboard in Sector Seven containing a message about Avalanche. If the Ultimania Omega guide is any indication, there are probably a lot more.

* In ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'', there used to be one (and only one) form of choice adventure that required you to click the graphics instead of the buttons. Sure, it's a trope ([[spoiler:BookcasePassage]]), but unless you use the tab key to select buttons in your browser, you're probably not going to figure it out without spoilers. Also, lampshaded with a literal PixelHunt, where you collect pixels from slain Nintendo monsters to make quest items.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Kirby}}'' series does this ever so occasionally.

* The ''VideoGame/VirtualVillagers'' series of casual games is very prone to this trope. The player has to pick up a sprite and drop it on a hotspot to get a particular reaction, such as starting a villager working on a task. This is even harder than clicking on the hotspot, since when clicking, the cursor gives a more accurate indication of screen position. The hotspots in the ports to UsefulNotes/IOSGames and UsefulNotes/AndroidGames are possibly even more difficult to find than in games played on desktop or laptop computers because of the smaller touch screens.

* ''WebComic/{{Morphe}}'' is a comic designed to play like a visual novel and has [[http://morphe.thewebcomic.com/comics/1884886/chapter-3-page-2-wits-composure/ "Investigation Mode"]] updates where, in order to move to the next update, you must find the object that the characters are looking for in the comic. Other items can be viewed for quick conversations.

* The first two ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' games are terrible with this. Combine dated graphics with a zoomed out topdown view and you can be standing right next to a pickup and have no idea. It's worse when your view is obscured by a wall.

** ''Videogame/MassEffect1'': For finding resources or Prothean disks or Asari writings you will sometimes need to move the cursor all over asteroid fields hoping to hear the *ping* of an object, although sometimes an object of interest will also [[NoticeThis glint briefly on your display]].
** ''Videogame/MassEffect2'': Some moons and dwarf planets are considerably obscured or hard to see, and to detect them you will need to come close to them and hear the distinct *ping*. However, since they can be [[UnitsNotToScale much smaller than your ship model]], your only clue of their existence will be the percent explored display.
** ''Videogame/MassEffect3'': The third game incorporates a scanner which can detect pixel-width objects of interest in a solar system. The caveat is that using it too much will attract the Reapers, so it's very common for players to bombard whole areas of a solar system quickly and then ''get the hell out of there''.

** While ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'' is usually very good about avoiding this, with only important objects reacting to clicks, one room is a big exception to this -- the Library. Nearly every section of the enormous bookshelves is interactable, but only a tiny handful serve any purpose and there are no visual clues at all. Worse, the game's navigation is similar to ''VideoGame/{{Myst}}'', so even with a walkthrough it can be hard to understand what section of the room you're being directed towards. Adding insult to injury is that the room's central puzzle is childishly simple ... once you've pixel hunted up the six pieces to it.

* ''VideoGame/TheDig'' is plagued with these. One puzzle in particular requires picking up FOUR objects that are indistinguishable from the background art (a ribcage, a dowel, a metal rod, and some kind of heavy hooked polearm), and there are several entire areas that you won't even realize exist, much less be able to visit, unless you accidentally mouse over the right spot in the background.

* Parodied in ''VideoGame/EarthBound''. In the desert, there's a small side-quest involving two lovers separated in the desert. Ness can find them, speak with them, and relay their messages to each other. The catch? The lovers are white and black sesame seeds, and both are only a single pixel big. Your only reward for finding and speaking with them is the satisfaction of knowing they may someday be able to continue their relationship. In ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'', [[spoiler: they are reunited in the [[NostalgiaLevel Hall of Memories]]]].

* One puzzle in ''VideoGame/OutOfOrder'' requires you to steal a guard's ID card from his back pocket. Said back pocket is extremely small and hard to click on, and the guard only stays turned around for a very short amount of time.

** ''VideoGame/AceCombat04ShatteredSkies'' has the [[ThirteenIsUnlucky 13th mission]] "Safe Return" where you need to kill radar-jamming blimps.

* Most Green Stars in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2'' are hidden in the most obscure and hard-to-reach places, such as under vanishing platforms, behind towers, and [[CameraScrew far out of camera viewing range]]. Fortunately, the stars emit rays of light and a sparkling sound, making finding them somewhat easier. Getting to them, [[TrialAndErrorGameplay not so much]].

* Lost Relics in GoddessOfVictoryNikke are frustratingly hard to find. The game immediately stops being kind once the tutorial for them is over and starts sticking them behind pieces of scenery where the only way to know that there is something hidden is to look for the tiniest of moving sparks emanating from behind the foreground.

* ''VideoGame/{{Koudelka}}'' (the first game in the ''VideoGame/ShadowHearts'' series) is built around a number of what some would call obtuse puzzles. Objects that can be picked up usually give some kind of visual cue such as being shiny or a different color, but other times, they're completely nondescript and look exactly like the pre-rendered background they're placed on. This devolves into the player mashing X constantly to find things that can be picked up to solve the current puzzle, sometimes rooms away with no indication of where to look. GuideDangIt!

Creator/GregCostikyan discusses this in his article on game design [[http://www.disinterest.org/resource/MUD-Dev/1997q2/001507.html "I Have No Words and I Must Design"]]:

* ''VideoGame/LimboOfTheLost'', just as well as it displays many, many other common design flaws of adventure games, fails to disappoint in achieving this one too. Have fun looking for flasks and bottles in the shadows, hunting sheets of wool mere footsteps out of normal view, and picking up pieces of wood with one-pixel-tall hot spots! To be fair, if you're making your graphics by taking screenshots of other games, there's a limit to what you can do in the way of object placement.

** If your character is captured, the cell door can be opened by pushing a particular brick - one in a wall of hundreds. This one's pretty easy though, considering the (primitive) engine makes every hotspot at least 8x8 pixels in size.

* The ''VideoGame/MonkeyIsland'' series has some fun with this trope. But like all latter-day Creator/LucasArts games, it displays item names when you hover the mouse on them.
** In the first game, you're required to get a rubber chicken to go somewhere. The problem? It blends in with "cursed" chickens the player character says something to the effect of "I'm not going near those" if clicked on the wrong one. Thankfully, this was fixed in the special edition.
** In the second game you are, at one point, completely in the dark. It turns out there's a light switch on the wall. The problem is, both the room and the switch are ''completely'' black, and thus invisible.
** In the hard version of the second game (and the only version of the special edition) you at one point have to pick up a piece of string that blends in perfectly with the mise-en-scene.
** In the third game, if you carefully move your cursor over every pixel in the Plunder Island beach area, you can locate a "secret button" hidden inside a column on a bridge. Pushing this button remotely activates the nearby fort's cannons, which is [[EasterEgg absolutely useless]] but, according to Threepwood, "fun".
** Also in the third game, repeatedly using the beach water on Blood Island will make Guybrush get in, and appear in the water scene from the first game. You only get a brief look before Guybrush comes out again. Afterwards, you can click on a certain spot in the water to go under and have a proper look. There's only about a 3 pixel square to click on.
** There's a lucky penny hidden on Lucre Island in the fourth game. You have to run to an area of the city that you've got no business being in and carefully walk around until Guybrush is standing right next to it, facing in exactly the right direction. [[spoiler:It's been glued to the ground.]]

* The scene in ''[[VideoGame/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice Sam and Max]]: The Devil's Playhouse: Episode 5'' where you control [[spoiler:Max in Manhattan is a Pixel Hunt sequence. Your goal is to find buildings that trigger memories, which, with the exception of the RedHerring [=BoscoTech=] Lab, are not signposted at all. You are given no indication as to what direction you should be going in. To make matters worse, the city you wonder around in is huge, and the camera angle is pointed upwards, meaning only a few buildings at a time are visible. Also, in the old [=LucasArts=] game (''Sam and Max Hit the Road''), one of the items you're supposed to get in order to modify a set of binoculars is a magnifying glass, but it's hidden so well in one of the carnival booths that you will easily mistake it for the background.