History ScrappyMechanic / PlatformGame

** The control scheme, with which you tilt the Wiimote to tilt the game world, is a LoveItOrHateIt affair, with some feeling it lacks the precision of an analog stick.

* These have ''nothing'' on the utter [[IncrediblyLamePun bullscrap]] found in ''[[VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry1 Donkey Kong Land]]'', the GameBoy port. You know the four KONG letters, which finding four in one level grant you a meager extra life and can be [[NintendoHard so hair-pulling difficult]] to acquire that it's often not worth bothering? Yeah, getting all four of those in ''Land'' is ''how you [[PunctuatedForEmphasis SAVE. YOUR. GAME.]]'' This means you're required to track them down as much as possible or forced to trek back to an easy level where you can safely gather them over and over again.

** The original game also has rolling, which requires {{Waggle}}. Once you have Diddy you can roll forever but to do so you have to shake the controller up and down to keep rolling. This is fairly annoying at best.

** There are several moments in the Genesis games with two springs/bumpers that bounce you back and forth. You can usually get out with a single jump, but you must time it so that you don't go flying backwards. Naturally, this is not a popular mechanic.

** And the automatic plane-selector seems to ''hate'' Sackboy, even overriding your manual changes at the worst possible moments. Like falling 'behind' a safe platform and onto an insta-kill floor. Or when running along you smack into a wall that only exists on ONE plane. Or moving Sackboy to be squished by something that could easily be sidestepped. Etc. etc. It can get worse with the third game, where you now also have to figure out how many of the sixteen layers Sackboy will slide to! The rule is actually the same as the other games: no more than two layers in front of or behind Sackboy, unless it's via the aid of objects like Layer Launchers or the Hook Hat. But good luck trying to remember that in a tense death trap scenario!

** Time traveling in ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehogCD''. First, you need to find a relevant time travel post. Then, you need to build up enough speed so that Sonic generates sparks. And then you have to maintain that speed until the time travel cutscene happens; if your speed drops after you've started making sparks, your time travel token will be used up, and since posts are single-use only, you'll have to find another one. And if you ''don't'' want to time travel, you're screwed if you're somewhere with a lot of speed boosters. Oh, and "Past" and "Future" posts only let you travel forward or backward one time period at a time (you need two Past posts to go from either Future to the Past, and two Future posts to go from the Past to either Future), which means being sent to a Bad Future almost ensures you can't make it to the Past to destroy the enemy transporter, and rarely will you see Good Futures for the first and second Zones of a given Round due to the amount of time traveling needed (Present -> Past -> Present -> Good Future)[[note]]Zone 3 just takes you to straight to Good Future if you got [=GF=]s for the first two zones, Bad Future otherwise[[/note]]. Also, very few of the levels in the game are designed in a way that allowed the player to travel between time zones easily; some levels actually seemed to be actively ''working against'' the player in regards to accessibility. It's not uncommon in the game to get a time travel post and start building enough speed needed to travel through time, only for a random platform, wall, or badnik to appear and force you to a halt, effectively wasting the time travel post you just gained. It's a good thing that Special Stage minigames exist in the game, in which you can just get all the Time Stones and thus ensure Good Futures for all zones without having to deal with the hassle of time-traveling.
*** On the other hand, there are many who would not prefer this course of action. The special stages task players with destroying 2D enemies while constantly moving on a 3D plane, where it was nearly impossible to properly judge the distance of 2D objects. For this reason, they are considered by many to be the absolute worst in the series.

*** Speaking of which, there are many who would not prefer this course of action. The special stages task players with destroying 2D enemies while constantly moving on a 3D plane, where it was nearly impossible to properly judge the distance of 2D objects. For this reason, they are considered by many to be the absolute worst in the series.

*** Speaking of which, there are many who would not prefer this course of action. The special stages task players with destroying 2D enemies while constantly moving on a 3D plane, where it was nearly impossible to properly judge the distance of 2D objects. For this reason, they are considered by many to be the absolute worst of the series.

*** ...although, it's questionable as to whether you'd actually prefer that course of action. The special stages involve taking down 2D enemies on a 3D plane where it's nearly impossible to properly gauge the distance of 2D sprites. For this reason, they are considered by many to be the absolute worst special stages of the series.

*** ...although, it's questionable as to whether you'd actually prefer that course of action. The special stages involve taking down 2D enemies on a 3D plane where it's nearly impossible to properly gauge the distance of 2D sprites. For this reason, they are considered by
many to be the absolute worst special stages of the series.

** The ''SonicStorybookSeries'' on the Wii are notorious for being designed exclusively around [[{{Waggle}} Wii Remote control schemes]] and for being entirely on-rails (so Sonic is forced to run forward by default on pre-determined paths), and are unsurprisingly cited by many as among the worst Sonic games purely on a gameplay/controls standpoint.

*** ''Sonic and Secret Rings'' requires ''basic movement'' controlled through tilting and shaking the Wii Remote (held sideways)--including making Sonic move left and right, move backwards, switch rails, and using the Homing Attack/air dash function in mid-air. It's not uncommon to see people claim ''Secret Rings[='=]]'' controls are outright broken or unplayable.

*** ''Sonic and Secret Rings'' requires ''basic movement'' controlled through tilting and shaking the Wii Remote (held sideways)--including making Sonic move left and right, move backwards, switch rails, and using the Homing Attack/air dash function in mid-air. It's not uncommon to see people claim ''Secret Rings''' controls are outright broken or unplayable.

*** ''Sonic and Secret Rings'' requires ''basic movement'' controlled through tilting and shaking the Wii Remote (held sideways)--including making Sonic move left and right, move backwards, switch rails, and using the Homing Attack/air dash function in mid-air. It's not uncommon to see people claim Secret Rings' controls are outright broken or unplayable.

** The ''SonicStorybookSeries'' on the Wii are notorious for being designed exclusively around [[{{Waggle}} Wii Remote control schemes]] and for being entirely on-rails (so Sonic is forced to run forward by default), and are unsurprisingly cited by many as among the worst Sonic games purely on a gameplay/controls standpoint.
*** ''Sonic and Secret Rings'' requires ''basic movement'' controlled through tilting and shaking the Wii Remote (held sideways)--including making Sonic move left and right, move backwards, switching rails, and using the Homing Attack/air dash function in mid-air. It's not uncommon to see people claim Secret Rings' controls are outright broken or unplayable.

*** ''Sonic and Secret Rings'' requires ''basic movement'' controlled through tilting and shaking the Wii Remote (held sideways)--including, but not limited to, making Sonic move left and right, run forwards or backwards, and using the air dash function. It's not uncommon to see people claim Secret Rings' controls are outright broken or unplayable.

*** ''Sonic and the Black Knight'' is a bit better by allowing Sonic to be controlled with a Nunchuk, but ''also'' has the [[MemeticMutation memetic]] addition of a ''sword'' to Sonic's moveset, which is naturally controlled with swinging the Wii Remote (held vertically) attack with the sword. And if that wasn't enough, there is an obvious delay between when the player swings the Wii Remote, and when Sonic swings his sword in-game; so the player's actions aren't allowed to be parallel with the gameplay in regards to timing.

*** ''Sonic and Secret Rings'' requires ''basic movement'' controlled through tilting and shaking the Wii Remote (held sideways)--including, but not limited to, making Sonic move left and right, run forwards or backwards, and use the homing attack function. It's not uncommon to see people claim Secret Rings' controls are outright broken or unplayable.

** ''VideoGame/SonicFreeRiders'' was panned across the board for its [[UsefulNotes/Xbox360 Kinect-designed]] [[{{Waggle}} control scheme]], which required the player moving their body around for both gameplay actions during races and menu navigation. As with the Storybook games, the game offered no alternative control schemes, making the Kinect functionality the only way to play the game (whereas previous ''Riders'' titles were designed around traditional controllers and control schemes). [[FranchiseKiller No further Sonic Riders games have come out since then.]]

** The ''SonicStorybookSeries'' on the Wii are notorious for being designed exclusively around [[{{Waggle}} Wii Remote control schemes]], and are unsurprisingly cited by many as among the worst Sonic games purely on a gameplay/controls standpoint.
*** ''Sonic and Secret Rings'' requires ''basic movement'' controlled through tilting and shaking the Wii Remote (held sideways)--including, but not limited to, making Sonic move left and right, run forwards or backwards, and use the homing attack function. The fact that the game is entirely on-rails (so Sonic by default is forced to run) doesn't help matters. It's not too common to see people claim Secret Rings' controls are outright broken or unplayable.
*** ''Sonic and the Black Knight'' is a bit better by allowing Sonic to be controlled with a Nunchuk, but still retains the on-rails movement and ''also'' has the [[MemeticMutation memetic]] addition of a ''sword'' to Sonic's moveset, which is naturally controlled with the Wii Remote (held vertically). Which wouldn't had been ''so'' bad if there wasn't an obvious delay between when the player swings the Wii Remote, and when Sonic swings his sword in-game.

*** Hunting is more frustrating than in the first game, since the "radar" now only shows the pieces in order (meaning you could be standing right next to the last piece on the list, but if you don't have the first two, you won't know it), and the locations are randomized every time except for the Hard Mode missions, where they are in 3 specific locations that usually require the Mystic Melody and/or the Sunglasses/Spy Scope upgrades to access. The final stage for Knuckles, a giant level called Meteor Herd, can easily take over 30 minutes with a bad combination (In addition, [[GoddamnedBats meteors are flying at you constantly]] [[ThatOneLevel throughout the level).]] His 4th stage, Death Chamber, also has a lot of timed doors and walls he needs to crawl through, and in Story Mode, it's followed by 2 boss fights, the 1st of which can take a long time.

*** The characters' abilities are all mapped to one button, say the B button in the Gamecube version. All of them. Each of them has a specific timing and means to activate it, but multiple timings can occur simultaneously with the Speed characters. When you approach a bottomless pit with a trail of rings, one of two things can happen: either your light speed dash will kick in and you'll fly through the path of rings, or your somersault will kick in and careen Sonic/Shadow down a pit. You can also stop what you're doing and cycle through abilities to make sure you have the right one selected, unless you're doing a time attack or another stage where you don't have that luxury. It can make those stages a pain.

** ''[[VideoGame/SonicStorybookSeries Sonic and the Black Knight]]'' has the [[MemeticMutation memetic]] addition of a ''sword'' to Sonic's moveset, with its movements [[{{Waggle}} controlled with the Wii Remote]]. Which wouldn't had been ''so'' bad if there wasn't an obvious delay between when the player swings the Wii Remote, and when Sonic swings his sword in-game.

* ''Franchise/CrashBandicoot'': While opinions of her character may vary, Coco's playable appearances in the games tend to act as a weaker (i.e. less fun) variant of Crash. In ''Warped'' she is limited to a few vehicle levels (the majority of which Crash himself can utilize in this or previous titles), with her actual on foot 'platforming' segments being limited to a slow walk all of five steps towards Pura and the level's exit. In ''Wrath Of Cortex'', she can play through whole levels; however, she has fewer abilities and attacks compared to Crash, making her respective levels somewhat more tedious. Either way, she sadly isn't giving [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog Tails]] or [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Luigi]] a run for their money. ''Mind Over Mutant'' improves her, making her an equally efficient skin of Crash and able to work as a multiplayer cooperative. However to activate her in one player mode, a player must activate a second controller and then pull out Crash after she appears. This is a needlessly tedious way just to unlock a variant of Crash, especially since it will still drain the battery life of the one player controller not even being used.
** ''VideoGame/CrashBandicootTheWrathOfCortex'' has two. First one include most of vehicles, because they are difficult to control, most of time they are slow and are bigger, making you an easier target because of a bigger hitboxes. However, with two exceptions during [[BossBattle boss fights]], they don't provide any higher resistance, and while being knocked out by hitting a Nitro Crate in [[MinecartMadness minecart]] makes sense, the fact that submarine is destroyed by ''contact with fish'' does not. The second are monkey bar segments, which unlike in [[VideoGame/CrashBandicoot3Warped Warped]] are extremely slow and tedious.