It seems that no genre can cause quite as much frustration for the average gamer as the puzzle genre. With a game of skill you can just walk away, but when you know that there is a logical solution to a puzzle you feel absolutely worthless if you can’t derive the answer, regardless of how difficult it may be. Below is a list of the ten games that made you feel so frustrated, that you feel like tearing your hair out in anguish. Note that I’ve been rather liberal with what exactly defines a puzzle game but, regardless, these are ten brain teasing games that you do not want to attempt on a bad day.
10. Puzzle Quest
Puzzle Quest isn’t frustrating like other games are. Rather than the single fatal flaw, or a generally annoying nature, Puzzle Quest just has the odd few things that really grind your gears. Like the way you save up all your mana for a skill only for the board to reset as there are no more gems to match, causing you to lose all of the mana in your reserves. Or the way the gems that fall from the top always seem to be working against you, giving your adversaries unfair chains of skulls. What’s probably the most distressing thing about PQ is the fact that, in spite of all these irritations, you still keep coming back for more. Puzzle Quest is too addictive for its own good, so much so that you’ll keep coming back no matter how annoying it gets, and you’ll keep enjoying it regardless.
9. Portal
Us gamers are generally used to dealing with abnormal worlds and situations. Mushroom Kingdom? No problem. Gun-slinging marines who can carry fifteen guns on their back without impairing their movement? Standard. But the moment you start bending the general rules of physics and gravity within a puzzle game situation, things start to get a little sketchy. Combine this with the skillful requirements of shooting your portals in the right places and Portal could really get on your nerves. Don’t even get me started on some of the harder challenge chambers.
8. Peggle
The very nature of Peggle is to frustrate gamers. Peggle isn’t all that hard but once you’ve fired of your pinball from the cannon, you can only watch and pray that you made the right shot and that your ball (don’t smirk) will be clearing all those orange pegs. I know the animals on screen are meant to be cute and stuff but they didn’t help with my anguish. It just took me back to that stupid dog from Duck Hunt mocking my feeble shooting abilities. Shut up stupid Unicorn! I know I missed a few orange pegs!
