10 Most Infuriating Escort Missions In Gaming History

By Jack Pooley /

3. The Alchemist - Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage

One of the most infamous missions in any platformer to date is the Alchemist escort mission from the otherwise excellent Spyro 2. The Alchemist must be escorted to Hunter, whose boots have been turned to stone, and only he has the potion to fix it. Lying between the two, however, is the Earthshapers, golem-like creatures who will attempt to attack the Alchemist, and one hit is enough to have you restart the whole dirty mission again. The problem is that the Alchemist doesn't walk in any clearly fixed, delineated pattern, but it's erratic and changes at the last moment: the key is simply to memorise his programmed route, though this is easier said than done because it's so woefully convoluted. Another issue is that the Earthshapers' attacks are very sudden, and as such putting yourself between them and the Alchemist is not as easy as it sounds. I don't think many missions gave me as many angry nights as this: I hate, hate, hate this mission.