10 Small Details Video Games Still Can’t Get Right

6. Avoiding The Rule Of Three

Super Mario Odyssey
Nintendo

The rule of three is a video game design structure that once you know about, is impossible to not notice every single time you play a game. It doesn't matter the genre, whether you're playing Mario or Call of Duty this little sucker turns up everywhere, and makes every gameplay section feel like an arbitrary, repetitive slog.

The general idea is that when you're tasked with something in a game, be it beating a boss or solving a puzzle, you'll have to do an action three times. This might be avoiding certain attacks and then hitting an enemy, which you need to do three times in a row before they die, or getting three items before you can progress to the next area.

It's not always as obvious as that though; sometimes it's how many paths are in a level, or how many abilities you're given. The number will always be three.

Deadpool made a joke about the design principle being overdone back in 2013 and here we are six years later and nothing has changed. Come on, developers, listen to your pal Wade Wilson on this one.

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Writer. Mumbler. Only person on the internet who liked Spider-Man 3