10 Worst Parts Of 5-Star Video Games
6. The Dam - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Successfully creating an underwater level in a video game that is both playable and unrestrictive control-wise is a mortally harrowing task for game developers.
1989's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the NES achieved this - but it wasn't enjoyable in any sense.
The aim of The Dam, ironically named given that players will certainly utter an expletive or two when trudging through the 140-second mission, is to subdue a series of underwater bombs that, if detonated, will destroy the dam. Much like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' "easy on paper, aggressively difficult in execution" Wrong Side Of The Tracks mission, there is a glut of issues plaguing your road to success; tight paths, electric fences, marine life who'll easily eradicate you, and the preposterous 140-second time limit.
It was a trauma-inducing level for many who played - or attempted to play - through the level in the nineties, resulting in many calling it a day without finishing the mission and, thus, the game itself.
Such achingly backbreaking missions have their place when done right. The Dam could've been one of them; all the mechanics were there for a successful underwater level. Instead, Konami opted to torture their fanbase over several two-minute and twenty-second periods.