10 Huge Video Games That Screwed Up Basic Things
6. The TERRIBLE Game Over System - Crash Bandicoot
As the release of Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy reminded us a few years ago, the original Crash is an indecently difficult game, defined by absurdly imprecise hit boxes and infuriatingly floaty controls.
As a result you're going to die a lot, which wouldn't be quite so frustrating were it not for the game's pointlessly archaic lives system.
On some of Crash Bandicoot's tougher levels it's perfectly possible to lose dozens of lives before making it to the end, and so if you're not sufficiently stocked up, you'll eventually hit zero and end up at the Game Over screen.
To make matters worse, the game will then revive you with just four lives, basically forcing players to grind their way through previously completed levels in order to hoover up a decent stockpile of lives.
It becomes tedious busy-work in a game that's already immensely challenging, and just encourages players to create alternate save files filled to the brim with lives.
Thankfully this wasn't so much of an issue in the sequels, which boasted a far more balanced degree of difficulty and invited only the occasional Game Over at most.