Wait, DOOM's enemies can fight each other?
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00:00Innovating and experimenting with awesome new additions to the playstyle is how you
00:03make your titles stand out from the crowd. Seems obvious, right? You'd think so.
00:07But why do some game studios craft really cool gameplay mechanics that are a struggle to use?
00:12How frustrating is it to know how cool a mechanic is but you just can't bring yourself to get it
00:16right? Difficulty is one thing, but overcomplication, insane control schemes, demands for your time,
00:22these kinds of things make us feel like kids that have been shown a fancy new toy and then
00:26told to keep it in its box. I'm Sy for WhatCulture.com and these are 10 awesome video game
00:32mechanics that are impossible to pull off. 10. Potion Mixing – The Witcher 2
00:37One of the great things about The Witcher games is just how much there is to do that you can
00:41totally get through each title and not have experienced everything. Except Gwent. We all
00:46played Gwent. Many players never bothered with the potion making and mixing in The Witcher 2
00:50because they'd rather go monster hunting than ingredient gathering. Making a potion is a
00:54step-by-step process that requires finding a place to meditate, having read a specific potion
00:58formula, holding the ingredients to make whatever quality base you'd like and then all the ingredients
01:03for the specific potion. Potions also use ingredients that can be crafted elsewhere,
01:07so it's all too easy to use something you might need later. Video game material hoarders can
01:12attest to this concern. Potions are cool and can have numerous great effects such as status
01:16resistance, a higher chance of parry or making invisible enemies visible, but if you failed to
01:21craft something worthwhile your concoction would kill you, so do you really want to risk it? The
01:26importance of such things depends on your difficulty of choice of course, but if you're going for a
01:30casual jaunt through the world of Witcher 2 then you probably won't have much use for potions nor
01:34the time spent putting them together. 9. Monster Infighting – Doom
01:39These days it's commonplace for games to have multiple warring factions that just so happen to
01:43both be your enemies. Stumbling into a firefight between them and staying out of the way, or even
01:48using their animosity to instigate one, is a legitimate strategy. The original Doom did a lot
01:53of good things for transforming the landscape of gaming, but some may not have ever been aware of
01:57monster infighting. Not only did many FPS games of the era not give enemies the ability to hurt
02:02each other, they certainly didn't make it possible for their victims to retaliate. Yes, if you can
02:06carefully avoid a monster's attack and that stray bullet hits another foe, the demon in question
02:11will get mighty upset about it and the two will usually wind up having a fight to the death.
02:15It's certainly one way to play conservatively, causing a demon civil war until only the
02:19strongest enemies remain and then picking them off afterwards. It's not for everyone though,
02:24as it means not just getting in the line of sight of your opponents, but getting out unscathed so
02:28you can watch the carnage from a safe distance. Sometimes dodging shots to try and land them on
02:32a target you have no control over requires too much patience. 8. Animation Cancelling – League
02:38of Legends Although its origins are hard to trace,
02:41if you've ever been part of a community for a fighting game or watched a tournament, you'll
02:45have no doubt heard of attack or animation cancelling. It refers to the ability to stop an
02:49animation midway through to get the benefits of something without having to wait for the character
02:53to stop moving before you act again. It allows for faster play and the ability to swap tactic
02:59as the situation changes. But it isn't just limited to fighting games and is in fact a part
03:04of the meta game of the biggest MOBA there is, League of Legends. Whilst some characters fare
03:09better than others, it's champions such as Riven that benefit the most from animation cancelling.
03:13In fact, Riot Games specifically designed Riven to play like a fighting game character,
03:17so it's not surprising that she takes so well to the concept. But animation cancelling isn't
03:21necessarily easy and it requires pinpoint timing to get right. Looking up Riven combat tutorials
03:27to get better at the game will tell you that you need to be able to use animation cancelling to get
03:30the best out of her. So if you can't get the input right, you're not getting the Riven that
03:34could take out an entire enemy team of five by herself. 7. Wave Dashing – Super Smash
03:40Brothers Melee Smash Brothers is a wild and crazy celebration
03:43of gaming that is marketed by Nintendo as a party fighter. It's validity as a fighting game has
03:48always been a point of contention depending on who you ask, but the fact of the matter is Melee
03:52is the fastest and most challenging game in the series to master. This only got more intense when
03:57players realised that small jumps air dodged back towards the ground created sweeping movements that
04:02made the game even speedier. Wave dashing, as it came to be known, changed the face of combat in
04:07the Smash Brothers metagame. The discovery and subsequent mastering of wave dashing was what
04:12separated casual players from those who wanted to compete at the highest level. It wasn't just
04:16being able to pull off the technique in isolation, it was finding your spots to use it mid-match and
04:20do so to your advantage. Comparing your own gameplay to what tournament level competitors
04:25can do is brain melting stuff. It's not for everyone and simply getting the basics down is
04:30a headache, especially in a game as crazy and intense as Smash Brothers. Sometimes it's best
04:34to leave the most nimble moves to the masters and just play the game at its most simple.
04:39Anyone for a Pokeballs only match?
04:416. Redstone, Minecraft
04:44Whether you love or hate Minecraft, you can't deny how successful it is as a creative outlet.
04:50Castles, cities and more that are feats of cube-based architectural design are just the
04:54tip of the iceberg. Minecraft has transformed through the last decade and the earliest signs
04:59that it could be more than just hunting for gold and hiding from creepers was Redstone.
05:03A rare ingredient found at the bottom of the earth, Redstone essentially can be used to create
05:07electrical currents. For the players that invested time into it, the possibilities became endless.
05:12Hooray, you've built a secret passage triggered by a switch, well done you.
05:16Now take a look at this functional Gameboy built inside of Minecraft that can play Tetris.
05:21What makes building with Redstone difficult is two-fold. First of all,
05:25even if you're following a pre-made guide, it's hard to get right and just like real wiring,
05:29if there's an issue somewhere, it can take an age to identify. Thankfully,
05:33much less dangerous at least. Secondly, if you're playing on the traditional survival mode,
05:37you'll have to farm like crazy to get everything you need. It's a time-intensive affair. Bless
05:42that one friend on the server who can outfit everybody with automated defense turrets because
05:46some of us just don't have the brains for it. 5. Parry, Dark Souls
05:52You can tell if a mechanic is hard to pull off if a game's community is separated into
05:56those who can do it and everyone else. FromSoftware's reputation is games that
06:00are notoriously difficult in nearly every regard, but people flock to them because
06:04of their high quality. They're not just cheap for cheap's sake and overcoming challenges in
06:08the likes of the Dark Souls series is one of the biggest rushes of serotonin modern gaming has to
06:13offer. What makes parrying attacks in Dark Souls so tough is just how precise you have to be with
06:18the right frames of animation. Mastering one parry is something special and truly feels like
06:23out-thinking your opponent. Trying to apply that same knowledge to another enemy is fruitless
06:27however as everything has its own timing. Becoming a counter-attack machine is therefore
06:32such a game-changer that only the most intensely talented players can brag about it.
06:36Dark Souls in general is a game about playing carefully and the combat centres around knowing
06:40when to duck and when to dive to avoid damage, but if you've had enough watching your player
06:45avatar roll from pillar to post and want to risk standing your ground, then prepare to get splatted
06:50a great many times along the way if you don't master that parry.
06:544. Shine Spark Super Metroid
06:57A staple of the Metroid series is Samus equipping herself with all of her classic
07:00sidearms throughout her journey until she's all kitted up and ready to take on the final boss.
07:05It's a feeling of power every time to have a new ability on your side,
07:08as well as opening up new traversal options to delve deeper into the game's world.
07:13Super Metroid introduced the Shine Spark. After equipping the speed booster,
07:16Samus can store the energy it creates by crouching. Following this, if players quickly
07:21get into position, they can unleash the Shine Spark by propelling Samus's body like a rocket.
07:25Thankfully, this ability is optional and unless you're going for 100% completion,
07:29you never need to use it to beat the game's story. Why? Because it's incredibly difficult,
07:34the timing is a kicker not just on storing the energy but getting into the right place to make
07:38it worthwhile. On top of this, Samus can Shine Spark horizontally, vertically or even diagonally,
07:43if you can pull it off right. Largely, the Shine Spark is used to grab hard-to-reach items,
07:48and speedrunners make excellent use of the technique in getting through the game as safe
07:52and as unharmed as possible. For us regular scrubs, however, it's something that has eluded
07:56a great number of us no matter how many times we've played this classic title.
08:003. Pro Guitar – Rock Band 3
08:03Rock Band brought the rhythm genre to its next logical step when it introduced the guitar
08:07gameplay to bass, drums and karaoke vocals. Despite being the leader of the pack, however,
08:12it was still riding a wave that was sure to crash. In order to keep things lively,
08:16Rock Band 3 introduced a few new instruments. Whilst the keyboard was fairly straightforward,
08:21it was the Pro Guitar that really threw many for a loop. There were two peripherals associated with
08:25it, one was essentially a tricked out real guitar, but the other was a classic rock band
08:29plastic instrument with 102 buttons all down its fretboard. In ways, Pro Guitar is an excellent
08:35teaching tool, but after years of honing our chops on expert mode, it's a real reminder that
08:39those skills of nailing a red, green, yellow, blue and orange guitar solo doesn't transfer.
08:44The learning curve is steep, to a degree that it's almost like learning a musical instrument.
08:49You know, because it is. Whilst genuine guitarists can fare better on the thing,
08:53it's still a clunky and bizarre controller that takes some getting used to no matter what.
08:58The game's strange and confusing way of tracking notation and chords on screen
09:02certainly doesn't help. Using a video game to teach yourself guitar is awesome,
09:06but we expect this feature went largely unused at your everyday house party.
09:102. The Controls – Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy
09:14Browser-based physics nightmare QWOP was a sensation because of just how different it was
09:18to the mainstream gaming space in 2008. On the cusp of the indie game revolution,
09:23it was a simple yet wildly addictive puzzle and test of tolerance.
09:27Developer Bennett Foddy went viral again in 2017 when he dropped Getting Over It that
09:32seemed like an extension of the same core concepts. Instead of trying to alternate four
09:36keys to make a sprinter actually run rather than faceplant at the start line, Getting Over It asks
09:41players to climb a mountain with only a sledgehammer. As such, the controls for the game
09:46are really the only mechanic it has, lining up that hammer to propel yourself forward,
09:50hoping to high heaven with each movement that it won't backfire.
09:53The controls are, of course, intentionally tough, and you'll know within minutes if this game is
09:57for you. You'll either quit out immediately, or prepare yourself for the long haul of toughing it
10:02out to the end. The highs in overcoming a spot you've been stuck in for 15 minutes are unmatched,
10:07but the game will not make it easy for you. With no checkpoint system, mistakes can be so
10:12bad that even the chillest gamers will find out what rage quit really means.
10:171. Fatality – Mortal Kombat Mortal Kombat is known as the game that was
10:22so violent it basically birthed the need for video game rating boards. At the centre of all
10:27the controversy was the Fatality system, a character-specific kill animation that is
10:31gratuitous and wonderfully deranged. It says it all that even 30 years into the franchise,
10:36the Fatality remains one of its most important and beloved aspects, with each new title offering
10:42new twisted ways to add insult to injury when you beat your opponent. Pulling off one of these,
10:46however, requires you to be more than just a casual player. We've all been there,
10:51you pick up Mortal Kombat with very little experience, and if you manage to successfully
10:55put down your enemy, the match ends somewhat unceremoniously with your opponent wiggling
10:59in place for a moment before collapsing. You weren't going to button bash your way
11:03into the Fatality. Perhaps more than any other fighter, Mortal Kombat rewards players for picking
11:08a character and learning every combination of button inputs, including and especially their
11:12coup de grace. Even when you think you've got it memorised, that small window of opportunity
11:16puts the pressure on, and you'll still crack and mess it up. Sure, you might win a fight in Mortal
11:21Kombat, but it doesn't really feel like winning if your opponent's body is still in one piece now,
11:25does it? And that's the list! Let us know what you thought of this video down in the comments
11:30below, as well as any other video game mechanics that you thought were awesome, but just way too
11:35hard to pull off. Make sure you like this video, share it with a friend, subscribe and hit that
11:40notification bell. I've been Sy for WhatCulture, and have a good week.