10 Ridiculous Design Decisions In Video Games
8. Press Down To Jump - Conan: The Mysteries Of Time
Don't feel bad if you've never played the 1991 NES disasterpiece Conan: The Mysteries of Time, because it's quite probably one of the worst video games ever made.
And its most egregiously irritating feature? The baffling choice to assign the 45-degree jump manoeuver to the freaking Down button on the D-Pad, like a maniac.
This is obviously antithetical to the idea that all upward jumping moves should be executed by pressing the Up button - or better yet, a separate button away from the D-Pad - and that pressing Down is typically reserved for activities such as ducking.
But what truly makes this table-flippingly annoying is the fact that Down + A is also used to pick up items, and so in order to avoid accidentally jumping to your own death while collecting an object, you need to press A slightly before Down to successfully grab the item.
Seriously, what the hell?