You’re having a good time on a game you’re playing, then the next thing you know you hit a part of the game that just isn’t fun. Well my friends if you like to cruise down this road of fun or blaze right through it sometimes you’re going to get stopped by the Fun Police which are these horribly designed levels, puzzles and mini games. So I want to go into detail about how to figure out about these little speed traps of fun and what you can do to avoid them. However even before all that I’d like to give a few examples and some history behind the problems. I’ll start off by talking about characters that have been in the gaming world for years, so pretty much everyone who is reading this can relate in one form or another.

I remember playing the old Sonic the Hedgehog games on the Sega Genesis. They worked wonders with just using a button for jumping and pressing one direction most of the time on the D-pad. Since that worked they applied the same thing to Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and 3. Plus let’s not forget the Sonic the Hedgehog games for the GameGear and Sega CD. Then Sega started to change things up when it came to Sonic Adventures 1 and 2 for the Sega Dreamcast by moving him and his friends over to 3D.

Nintendo had it right when it came to moving Mario from 2D to 3D with the Super Mario Brothers series. Both 2D and 3D versions of the Mario games are very enjoyable. Even though Super Mario Sun Shine wasn’t as ground breaking as Super Mario 64 it still didn’t stop Nintendo from keeping up that fun factor bar by releasing Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii. Nintendo always stuck to what works.

Both Nintendo and Sega found something that worked with their mascots. If you have a formula that works you really don’t have to change it that much. When playing the first Sonic Adventure game it’s like the Fun Police showed up and said “I’ll let you off with a warning.” because there were times when the fun in the game just stopped. It’s not like Sega sent in the Fun Police when it came to Sonic Unleashed, it was more along the lines of a Fun Swat Team breaking down the door after each day time fast level and having you go really slow with the WareHog that he turned into at night. If it was anything that Sonic did unleash it was the fun.

I don’t fault Sega for trying something new, I fault Sega and for that matter Sonic Team for not sticking with what worked no matter how hard it is to do in 3D. Mario went from being a 2D platformer to 3D platformer with no problem. Just by keeping the basics, however Sega could have kept the same push forward to move with some jump attacks that were great when they moved the game over to 3D themselves. I understand that building 3D levels is harder than 2D but in that case just make a shorter game. Both Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 1 and 2 had 6 to 8 hours of kick ass, balls to the wall and down the halls kinds of awesome gameplay.

When it comes to gaming consoles look at the Wii. You’ll think that Nintendo is paying the Fun Police off with a game console like that. Just keep in mind that the Fun Police don’t profile my friends when it comes to consoles and the gaming world. That’s like when I see a hot looking female with some ugly big lip, fat ass bust the balloon looking mofo. I know why she’s with him because he’s doing something I can’t do. It’s the same thing with Sony and Microsoft they were looking down on the Wii saying “The Wii isn’t as tall and good looking as us”, but little do they know that the Nintendo Wii is a freak and will do all kinds of things. So what do Sony and Microsoft do? They say “Oh we’re freaks, we like to get down and nasty too!” you know why Sony and Microsoft said that? Because a lot of hardcore gamers went “Man, that Nintendo Wii sure knows how to give me a work out.” which made them flip the script. Keep in mind that Nintendo have always been making money all this time. So long as Nintendo take the fun and apply it to their next game console Sony and Microsoft will be singing a different tune.

Now time for a quick run down of what not to do if you’re a game designer or even plan on being one. Like I said before if something works don’t change it. I’ve used Sonic as an example, but what about Prince of Persia for the Xbox, PS2 and GameCube? That was a great game, it did things that were awesome and it moved from 2D to 3D with no problem. Soon as game designers at Ubisoft said “Let’s make Prince of Persia: The Warrior Within a darker game.” that’s when the Fun Police agreed it was a good choice as he broke out his ticket pad for righting fun violations.

Having a fun game with a good story is a bonus in my book for example take BioShock. Not only the story and environment sucked me in but the mini games were fun and the rewards for completing them were even better. I never looked at something I had to do in BioShock and said “Damn, I hate having to do this.” it was a smooth ride. I was interested in the story for Too Human with the focus on gods but even the Fun Police took the form of one in that game. He came out every time I died in the form of an angel in a cut scene that I couldn’t skip to restore my life. If it was something that happened quickly it would have been no big deal. Nope, the Fun Police took his sweet ass time on that one.

Something that shocked me when it came to story, environment and taking the game in a different direction all together was Resident Evil 4. That came out of left field and took something that was slow and made it a very fast paced game. The puzzles kept that game at a great pace, Capcom didn’t do anything crazy like turn the main character into a Resident Evil in RE5. They did the next best thing by adding in Co-op and even Deathmatch later on as a download.

So over all watch out and remember to read game reviews and ask for others’ input before paying money for a game. There are a ton of good games out there these days and there isn’t any point playing a game that have parts that just out right suck. Plan out what games you’re going to get based on if you’re a solo gamer or you always have people over. I find myself starting up Mario Kart for the Wii when I have people over or playing an RPG game when I don’t have to worry about other people. If you do those things you’ll never get stopped by the Fun Police.