History SpecialEffectFailure / VideoGames

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'' is chock full of these thanks to its ObviousBeta status (and even some that would've stayed even if the game had been finished properly), from giant towers toppling over at lightning fast speeds with absolutely no sense of weight to them, to enemies clipping through scenery and getting {{Tele Frag}}ged when picked up with psychokinesis, to the creepy UncannyValley humans and their wild, over-the-top talking animations.

** ''VideoGame/TombRaiderIII'' has laser traps of different colors in one level. On the PC version, playing the game on high-resolution monitors can make the lasers nearly invisible due to them not being properly rendered for high resolution screens. Likewise, the HUD is rendered in squinty vision in the PC version when playing on high resolution screens.
** The first three ''Tomb Raider'' games have Lara's upper body and lower body meshed together, but you can see the torso move independently from the waist if you use the look button. By the fourth game, they animated the look feature better so the movement looks more natural.

* ''VideoGame/BurnCycle'' features live actors projected against pre-rendered backdrops. These environments don't always correspond to the actors' line of sight, especially the wide angles. When Sol his companion arrive at the hotel, the characters are projected at an extreme slant; Sol exits the frame by literally marching up the wall.

* ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}}'''s definitive edtition did a ''lot'' of clean-up to its visuals. ''Especially'' to the character models. The characters no longer look incredibly blurry or low-res compared to the SceneryPorn background, nor are you viewing them on the screen of a New 3DS. It shows nothing but SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome... until you visit Frontier Village and end up seeing the Nopons close-up during a cutscene. Every Nopon except for Riki's mouths ''do not move''. And when Riki's mouth ''does'' move, it's obviously pixel-mouth (a popular animation tactic in heavily stylized games, such as ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2''.) ''Un''like VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2 however... Riki's the only one in the world who does this, meaning he looks ''very'' out of place. It's still better than those static-faced Nopon though.

** During the last three stages, you can see small fires burning in inaccessible parts of the map. However, in the first area of Area 51, climbing on top of the crew quarters building and looking up at the plume of fire nearby reveals that it's a static two-dimensional image instead of an actual fire. This is notable, because objects can (and are often) set on fire with realistic in-game effects.

* Sometimes in ''VideoGame/DivinityOriginalSin'' or its sequel ''VideoGame/DivinityOriginalSinII'', a character might die and their body falls against something... prompting them to literally have their bodies ''lie on thin air''.

*** The LimitedAnimation even renders the climactic end scene of ''VideoGame/OriginalSinII'' unintentionally hilarious because [[spoiler: your character doesn't even ''walk'' to the throne to make their choice, they simply ''teleport'' there, and a text box promptly blocks them.]]

* In ''VideoGame/DJMAXTechnika'', if you fail a song by way of emptying out your LifeMeter, the game momentarily pauses before suddenly transitioning into the GameOver screen. This is corrected from ''Technika 2'' onwards, where, upon failure, shutters seamlessly come down on the screen without delay to show the "YOU FAILED" screen.

*** In general, the animation in the FMVs for the game has not aged gracefully at all. It was Square's first attempt at CG animation and it really, really shows. The higher rez character models have noticable seams in their joints (as they were made out of NURBS models instead of box-modeling them like todays meshes), the characters have poor body mechanics and have no sense of weight in their movement at all, and have stiff, dead-eyed expressions throughout the whole thing. In the opening cutscene when Aerith rises, you can tell the animator just had her float up from the (off-screen) ground because her (non-existent) legs don't bend properly. The scenes that mix in-game models with FMV footage tend to be really dodgy too (the falling bridge scene from Mt. Nibel being a good example of this).

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX'' and ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2'' both received HD remasters and the visuals are absolutely stunning. The player character models were rebuilt from scratch instead of simply upscaling the textures on the old models, so that the character models can be consistent throughout the game. [[note]]The original game swaps between the default models and higher quality models when it's called for, and you can easily spot the differences when it happens, such as Tidus' hands having individually rendered fingers in one scene and "mitten" hands in another.[[/note]] However, the transition to the new models isn't quite smooth, since a some of characters' facial animations look incredibly stiff (especially Yuna's expressions). Tidus' blue eyes can look a bit ''too'' blue in certain scenes due to the improved lighting and color correction, while Yuna's eyes look bigger than they originally did. There's also some minor glitches with the animations; one example is Auron pushing past a Guado guard as the party flees, and said guard gets knocked over about one second after Auron pushes him instead of falling down immediately.

* ''VideoGame/TransformersRiseOfTheDarkSpark'': One of the game's more glaring faults is that it tries to mix in assets from [[VideoGame/TransformersFallOfCybertron a previous game]] into a new one with even ''worse'' assets.
** Grimlock in the [[Film/TransformersAgeOfExtinction live action portion]] of the game reuses his Aligned counterpart's animations.

** Before a late patch fixed it, the Druid of the Claw ability cyclone looked really cheap,as if it was copy pasted from a dessert map(and looked worse than its original 2002 version).

* ''VideoGame/WarCraft''3:Reforged has this in spades:
** Before a late patch fixed it,the druid of the claw ability cyclone looked really cheap,as if it was copy pasted from a dessert map(and looked worse than its original 2002 version).
** Portraits looks bizarrely inexpressive during cutscenes,in addition to sometimes having poor lipsync or lips might not move at all while speaking.
** On release,many models were still placeholders and animations were missing from both the reforged as well as the original(and the original was missing shading too), since it now shares a client with Reforged and thus inherts all this issues that didn't happen in the original.
** During the last orc campaign mission in RoC section,skies would turn black when infernals were summoned instead of the correct red,
** [[https://youtu.be/4x8KRXr0Ilc The Illidan vs Arthas fight cinematic at the end of the legacy of the damned campaign]]. Clumsy looking choreography,stiff animations and models,weird and slow flow on the fight itself,plus no background music. This one has been mocked to the point of being compared with stop motion or indie videos.
** Speaking of cutscenes, sometimes the visuals can end up bugging,like major characters [[https://youtube.com/watch?v=z5q6zv56Dzs#t=16m30s getting killed mid cinematic]] while still speaking as if they were fine, or [[https://youtube.com/watch?v=PhMXDzDH3ZI#t=26m36s missing transition shots like tyrande going from one shot of being alive in a intact bridge to suddenly dissapear along the bridge on next shot while her lines plays as if she was still there]].

* ''VideoGame/Warcraft'' 3:Reforged has this in spades:

** The Illidan vs Arthas fight cinematic at the end of the legacy of the damned campaign. Clumsy looking choreography,stiff animations and models,weird and slow flow on the fight itself,plus no background music. This one has been mocked to the point of being compared with stop motion or indie videos.

** The Illidan vs Arthas fight cinematic at the end of the legacy of the damned campaign. Clumsy looking choreography,still animations and models,weird and slow flow on the fight itself,plus no background music. This one has been mocked to the point of being compared with stop motion or indie videos.

** Before a late patch fixed it,the druid of the claw ability "cyclone" looked really cheap,as if it was copy pasted from a dessert map(and looked 'worse' than its original 2002 version).
** Portraits looks bizarrely inexpressive during cutscenes,in addition to sometimes having poor lipsync or 'lips might not move at all while speaking'.
** On release,many models were still placeholders and animations were missing from both the reforged as well as the 'original'(and the original was missing 'shading' too).

** The Illidan vs Arthas fight cinematic at the end of the legacy of the damned campaign. Clumsy looking choreography,still animations and models,weird and slow flow on the fight itself,plus no background music. This one has been mocked to the point of being compared with 'stop motion or indie videos'.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds'': The devs wanted to mimic the top-down 3/4 perspective of ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast A Link to the Past]]''. However, for some reason, they refused to use an angled camera. Their solution? Making it so that ''nearly everything is actually leaning backwards''. The problem is that you can make the camera angle change by merging into a wall, which in many places, lets you see that things are unnaturally leaning backwards, and it looks as ridiculous as you'd expect.
** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'': Gibo enemies use transparent sprites. The problem is that when they're onscreen, the effect is applied to plenty of unrelated sprites that shouldn't be transparent as well, such as the medallions' effects or any objects present, rendering them transparent for no discernible reason. The devs tried to hide this effect failure by not placing any objects in the rooms with Gibos, but you can still make objects such as rupees, bombs or fairies spawn in them, as well as use the medallions. This was fixed in the GBA remake.

* In one mission in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'', you have to follow Caesar to meet up with everyone else for some illegal street racing. CJ's sister, Kendl, is seen riding with Caesar in the cut scene. During the actual game play, Kendl's model is strangely replaced with a female NPC.

* ''Lodge Massacre'', at one point, has a ghostly, disfigured face floating past a window -- which is literally just the {{memetic|Molester}} photo of [[http://www.snopes.com/photos/people/peppers.asp Brian Peppers]] with a blue filter applied. UnfortunateImplications[[note]]of using a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crouzon_syndrome Crouzon syndrome]] sufferer's face as a "scary face"[[/note]] notwithstanding, the comments of the WebVideo/{{Retsupurae}} [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=croeirrF_vk video]] indicate that the use of this face [[NightmareRetardant fooled absolutely nobody]].

* ''VideoGame/MarioKartWii'' has all the characters look like they are very shiny as if they were plastic dolls or were dipped in grease. Likewise, the HD remaster of ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'' gives all the character models a very noticeable shiny look to them, which even applies to their skin.
* The ''VideoGame/MarioKart'' series typically handles its secret Mirror cup class by simply flipping the screen horizontally (except for HUD elements), instead of rendering the track models in reverse, which would take up more space on the disc/cartridge. This has predictable effects on not just course elements, like starting banners or roadside advertisements, but also on character models, like Lakitu's signs or the L on Luigi's hat.

** The GBA remakes of ''Donkey Kong Country 2'' and ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry3DixieKongsDoubleTrouble'' have the new bosses [[https://www.mariowiki.com/Kerozene Kerozene]] and [[https://www.mariowiki.com/Kroctopus Kroctopus]]. While the idea of having new bosses for the ports sounds like a good idea, Kerozene and Kroctopus end up looking very out-of-place. Not only do their sprites manage to be ConspicuousCGI thanks to being poorly modeled (in games that ''already'' have CG sprites), their animations are incredibly choppy and lifeless. Kroctopus is slightly more in-style than Kerozene, though his sprites are still far more cartoonish and less detailed than any boss from the original game. They end up looking very hastily thrown together just to add more content to the GBA versions.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'': Gibo enemies use transparent sprites. The problem is that when they're onscreen, the effect is applied to plenty of unrelated sprites that shouldn't be transparent as well, such as the medallions' effects or any objects present, rendering them transparent for no discernible reason. The devs tried to hide this effect failure by not placing any objects in the rooms with Gibos, but you can still make objects such as rupees, bombs or fairies spawn in them, as well as use the medallions. This was fixed in the GBA port.

** The GBA ports of ''Donkey Kong Country 2'' and ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry3DixieKongsDoubleTrouble'' have the new bosses [[https://www.mariowiki.com/Kerozene Kerozene]] and [[https://www.mariowiki.com/Kroctopus Kroctopus]]. While the idea of having new bosses for the ports sounds like a good idea, Kerozene and Kroctopus end up looking very out-of-place. Not only do their sprites manage to be ConspicuousCGI thanks to being poorly modeled (in games that ''already'' have CG sprites), their animations are incredibly choppy and lifeless. Kroctopus is slightly more in-style than Kerozene, though his sprites are still far more cartoonish and less detailed than any boss from the original game. They end up looking very hastily thrown together just to add more content to the GBA versions.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' has an animation for every possible movement Link can do, but there's no animation for Link doing a backflip while aiming the bow, slingshot, or hookshot; his model just rotates in a full circle without any animations at all. Strangely, the 3DS version gives Link updated animations and he still lacks animations from the previous backflip problem.
* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'', Gyorg's introductory cinematic has an attempt at a "freeze frame" effect as the creature dramatically leaps out of the water, during which his name appears onscreen. However, the fact that the splashing water keeps moving well after Gyorg has stopped makes it ''very'' obvious that the effect is accomplished by just locking Gyorg's model in place for a few seconds during its jump animation and not actually freezing the image. The 3DS port rectifties this by making the boss move in slow motion during its intro.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' uses environment mapping for the flat surface of a shallow lake inside a boss room. The room, summoned enemies, and the boss itself are correctly reflected, but Link, the player character, is not visible at all in the reflection. Then again, by the time the developers got to that boss room, they were hastily trying to finish the game before the deadline. This is fixed in the UsefulNotes/WiiU HD version.
** The game also features very impressive distortion effects that are marred by one flaw - anything near the point of distortion is ''reflected''. This does not apply to heat-based distortion, which is perfect.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds'': The devs wanted to mimic the top-down 3/4 perspective of ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast A Link to the Past]]''. However, for some reason, they refused to use an angled camera. Their solution? Making it so that ''nearly everything is actually leaning backwards''. The problem is that you can make the camera angle change by merging into a wall, which in many places, lets you see that things are unnaturally leaning backwards, and it looks as ridiculous as you'd expect.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'': Gibo enemies use transparent sprites. The problem is that when they're onscreen, the effect is applied to plenty of unrelated sprites that shouldn't be transparent as well, such as the medallions' effects or any objects present, rendering them transparent for no discernible reason. The devs tried to hide this effect failure by not placing any objects in the rooms with Gibos, but you can still make objects such as rupees, bombs or fairies spawn in them, as well as use the medallions. This was fixed in the GBA port.

* ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' has the Chain Chomp enemy whose mouth is colored red. On the UsefulNotes/VirtualConsole version, the red was strangely changed to purple, giving the enemy a purple mouth. Some people thought Nintendo was trying to censor the game, but it turns out that it was just a glitch with the game's emulator.

* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'' has a good example: the cheap, looping fire animations on the sides of the bridge between Skingrad and Skingrad Castle. It's made even worse by the fact that there's two rows of about twenty of them, all identical and looping in sync.
** For that matter, ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'' has a similar problem with the glowing weapons that look more like they're wrapped in saran-wrap, and enchanted robes that look as though you're dressed up in Christmas wrapping paper.
** In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', to become a werewolf, you have to undergo a ritual where you drink a werewolf's blood. The werewolf has her arm cut... [[http://youtu.be/uo2efCOzkqo?t=4m9s and the knife goes straight through her wrist, as blood just suddenly appears in the ceremonial bowl.]]
** Blacksmith forges usually have a water trough nearby. The water looks as if it were frozen in time.

*** Lighting sometimes accidentally displays seams that should be invisible

* In ''VideoGame/PokemonColosseum'', despite Jumpluff's body being made up of four spheres, it's shadow is four ''squares''. The sequel fixed this.