Topic: Unpopular Gaming Opinions

I feel like not many games make it fun to 100%. Games where the main game is fun and the post game simply isn't that exciting are common and games where getting to 98% is fun but then they put in something rediculous and tedious for the last 2% are common. Having it be fun and worthwhile all the way to 100% is a rarity.

Being fixated on "fully completing" a game to the extent that it makes you dislike the game is self-defeating and frankly somewhat pathological behavior.

That's not to say I haven't done things I wasn't thrilled with to "complete" a video game before (hello, blue coins in Mario Sunshine!), but if continuing to play a game is making you enjoy it less, END THE GAME.

Some games are designed to be fully experienced. Some games toss in a ton of padding to flesh out the experience for people who want more, or to fill up a big world (Breath of the Wild and its countless koroks come to mind). Not everything is meant to be played in the same way.

There's a point where doing everything in a game just becomes a reflection of the player's own neurotic approach to the hobby.

That's not the problem. The problem when a game hits that exact point way too late, and I have a feeling of "might as well at this point". If I'm meh on the side content halfway through, yeah, makes sense to do that, but when I'm like 80% there when I realize that, might as well. Pikmin 4 was exactly that. Not helped that certain aspects of its side content were actually enjoyable to fully do (the Olimar side mode).

Best example that this is not an easy answer is the open world Zeldas. BOTW I didn't fully appreciate until AFTER I had stopped playing it. Whereas TOTK I had put 200 hours in, beat the game, but thought I'd enjoy getting the rest of the shrines but spent the next 50 hours doing that and filling the remaining underground map, only to not even be done with the shrines For 200 hours, TOTK I liked almost as much the previous game, but those last 50 hours and realizing I still hadn't finished finding shrines made me question my fondness for the game.

Or Xenoblade 2, whose sidequest issues went from funny to boring and obnoxious as I tried to do more after beating the game. I had reasons to believe I'd get past the worst of it only to find more frustration undermining every improvement they attempted to make.

And in general the problem is also less that I stopped having fun but that I had notably less fun than I would have wanted based on the high points of those games in particular. And also that I had played the game much the same way I played past games in these series, so it was reasonable to think that even through SOME meh parts that things would pick up even for games with too much content. Yeah, obviously, choice I made, but that doesn't change my issues exactly. Even with Pikmin 4, maybe my time could be better now in a replay when I try not to 100% so much of the game, but I'd rather just replay the older games that are shorter instead.

Funniest thing about this is btw that I'm a Luigi's Mansion 2 enjoyer, which I think many people here would use as exhibit A of this problem (if certainly not just because of its increased length compared to the previous game).

And don't get me wrong, with Pikmin 4 is still like an 8/10 at absolute worse, but its a shame that I feel like it could've been my favorite game in the series and then it wasn't.

My take on 100% completion is that I won't go for it if it's too difficult or time-consuming (which it usually is most of the time). To this day, I've 100% completed just one game (or mode I you want to be picky about it): the World of Light story mode in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Though I've also completed the Paldea and Teal Mask Pokédexes in Pokémon Violet, if that counts.

@ShieldHero woah, 100% world of light is impressive! since the object of a game is to have fun, usually doing everything is not rly my thing either, so i agree with you. i think experiencing many different games first is good before 100%ing. although im gonna try to 100% MKW like i did w 8 deluxe haha 😸

I do think in general that 100% games is often kinda bad. Too often, even in awesome, reasonably paced games, it feels like there's almost always SOMETHING that'll ruin it. One aspect that's so much more obnoxious than the rest. (I have done the Nintendo Gallery in Minish Cap twice and will have to do it a third time if I want to avoid the glitch that prevents 100% completion ;___; )

Like 2 years ago before TOTK, along with doing the DLC for AoC for a quasi-Zelda marathon I guess, I tried to 100% both OOT and the Link's Awakening remake. For OOT I found out first hand that you can lock yourself out of an insignificant upgrade if you do a completely unrelated sidequest, and I realized this after doing nearly everything else, including all the skulltulas and the very annoying giant poe hunt. I did 100% Link's Awakening remake, which was far from the worst example of 100%, but that dungeon creator mode did last longer than it needed to, and it still kinda feels like the extra content only exists to justify selling a Gameboy remake for 60 bucks. (which I guess looking at BD/SP or DKC:HD, could be worse)

I hope it doesn't sound like I automatically hate large games, as a Hyrule Warriors enjoyer that's inherently untrue. But because I have Hyrule Warriors and Xenoblade and BOTW etc, I don't need all my favorite 15-20 hour games from the 2000s to decide they have to be 40 hours now because reasons. They were awesome at 15-20 hours, and would still be awesome at 15-20 hours actually. stares at Prime 4

@OctolingKing13, good job 100 percenting Mario Kart! I've gotten all of the kart parts and characters except the golden kart and golden tires (one of which involves beating the time trial staff ghosts, and I haven't managed to beat a single one), as well as getting gold + all 3 stars on all 24 cups in both 50 and 100 cc, and gold in all of the non-dlc cups (necessary for gold Mario), as well as doing the 150 cc stuff for the alternate title screens, but my skills aren't good enough for anything else. As for World of Light, I did set it on the easiest difficulty for parts of the game! Some of those 4-Star spirits were frustrating as heck! 🤣
Some of them literally made me act like this (in my head, of course, because I'm civilized):

@ShieldHero thank you!!! yeah the hardest part is the time trials it took me a while, the first one alone (i feel like it was the most difficult) took me abt ten hours 😭😭💔 i couldnt even get through world of light on the easiest difficulty, i only got halfway through. LMAO screaming inside is sooo real tho during some of those spirit batyles.

@OctolingKing13, it's even worse on the Spirit Board, which doesn't have any difficulty options at all, and in the optional multiplayer, if one player dies, all of the others also die. I absolutely hate any multiplayer in games that is like that. 🤣 Thankfully, Spirit Board items like making helpers weaker and health drain exist. Currently, counting both World of Light and the Spirit Board / DLC Spirit Boards, I have slightly over 1,300 out of slightly over 1,500 spirits in the game. With the fact that I'm finding so many duplicates on the Spirit Board, I'll probably never get them all, since I don't even play the game much these days. but getting all of the spirits was never my goal to begin with. I just battle a few Spirit Board spirits, play regular battles with my brother or uncle, or play in the occasional online tournament every once in a good while since I love Smash Bros. It's one of the few good ol' reliable games that I can always return to. 😄 Random question, did you actually watch the screaming sheep video? I always laugh like a stupid idiot whenever I play it.

@ShieldHero MULTIPLAYER IN GAMES LIKE THAT IS SO IRRITATING. thats a crazy amount of spirits tho, with that playtime no wonder ur 2nd favorite is smash. whats your main? mines always sora or isabelle 😝
i did play it since i had headphones on, i love it. i hear the sound effect on youtube a lot, and it always makes me smile

@ShieldHero Cool you got 100% on WOL, I was actually pretty close to getting it, but I remember mine was stuck on 98%-99% percent? Don’t know what I’m missing, since I swore I got all the fighters, cleared each map and got all three endings. I remember playing SSBU like crazy in 2021 or so, and it made me want to attempt to 100% WOL and get all the spirits. I had the most fun doing the Spirit Board, but it’s also kind of frustrating with how overpowered they make certain Spirits, but also the terrible RNG with the Spirits. That’s one of my biggest gripes with SSBU, the spirits in the battles have conditions and attacks that are supposed to be referencing the character, but they tend to be extremely unfair if the spirit is a 3-star or 4-star, especially if your tackling Spirits alone.

Because I liked SSBU a whole lot at the time, I really wanted to try collecting all the Spirits, but because I have a lot of them (if I recall, 1510 or something out of 1528), paired with how frequently the Spirit Board was filled with the same spirits I had before, it made finding new Spirits impossible, though I was also missing three fighter spirits for DLC characters I’ll admit I wasn’t too interested in buying. Pretty much gave up after that but I honestly didn’t really care that I couldn’t 100%, I’m pretty satisfied with getting a percentage close to that. Usually if I like the game so much, I’ll attempt to get it to 100%, but the only games I can think of that I got to 100% in recent memory was the first Banjo game and Conker’s Bad Fur Day.

@OctolingKing13, my exact playtime according to my playtime activity on my account (which I check constantly, I'm that kind of person) is 215 hours or more. And the first 70 hours were from a completely different save before my current one, so technically 150 hours on my current save. My mains, in no particular order, are:
Shulk (my most used one throughout the past 10-ish months, I like creating strategies with the Monado Arts)
Link
Lucario
Corrin
Pyra / Mythra
Sora (originally Sonic, but once I purchased the DLC fighter passes, Sora replaced him because I really like Sora's air combo)
I played the screaming sheep as well, I have earbuds on right now. Also, it's kind of ironic that we've kind of turned the Unpopular Gaming Opinions thread into a mini Smash Bros. Thread now! 🤣 To go back to the original topic of the thread now, I'll share an unpopular opinion: it's probably because I haven't played it at all in my entire life, but I just don't care for Melee like seemingly everyone else does. I did play Brawl before I started playing Ultimate during the early days of the Pandemic, but honestly, after Ultimate, I don't want to go back to the older ones (also partly because neither I or any of my other family members own the older ones, my parents sold Brawl years ago).

@Pastellioli, you played it a lot in 2021? That's interesting. From what I recall, in 2021, I played hardly any Smash Bros. If I recall correctly, my playtime added up year by year (I'm counting the total hours accrued by the end of each year, including the total from previous years) is:
2020: 45-50 hours or more?
2021: 50-55 hours or more?
2022: 55-65 hours or more?
2023: 70 hours or more (after this year, I needed a break and ended up deleting my previous save, I still regret doing that to this day)
2024: 150 hours or more (restarted my save and 100 percented World of Light)
2025: currently at 215 hours or more
I've played it more in the past year then I did in the three and a half years before that! 🤣 Though I also play more video game time every day then I used to, so that probably helps.

@ShieldHero wow thats a bit more than me, in smash i have about 170. shulk and link and sora are great mains, shulk users always seem super skilled. oops we did turn it into a smash thread bahaha 😅😭

@ShieldHero Yeah, actually, either 2021 or 2022, can’t remember a whole lot since it’s been a while. Mainly because I ended up getting some of the DLC fighters and wanted to try them out.

That’s a whole lot of hours! I can’t imagine how much progress and content you got from playing a lot. 2021 or 2022 was the only year where I played SSBU a lot. The following years after, I didn’t really play it, also because everyone else lost interest in playing with me and the fact I have an Xbox and played more mobile games. I wanna say the last time I played SSBU was last year in June, though the online play was terrible and I just stopped.

And I also agree with your other take, I haven’t really played the old Smash games, only really Smash 4 and Ultimate and I played Melee on the GameCube at some point years ago, but I really like Ulitmate a whole lot (besides some small criticisms) and the gigantic amount of content and the polish makes me not want to go back to the older games. I know a lot of people like the older Smash games and some prefer them over the modern installments, but I like Ultimate a whole lot more. I know there are some other game series where the fans sometimes like the older games over newer games, but when it comes to that, I prefer the new ones over old ones.

I’m getting Mario fatigue with how many Mario games have released in rapid succession.

Most years during Switch had 2-3 Mario adjacent games. The 7 games in 2024 with Mario characters was definitely a bit rediculous, especially when the two 2023 games were both late 2023.

I love Mario, but I'm not too sad it has been sparser this year.

Sad reality is that Mario consistently dominates Nintendo releases. There is always more Mario, there will always be more Mario.

If Nintendo has the option to make one new F Zero or Kid Icarus or Star Fox or Pikmin or 5 Marios, they will push the 5 Marios button with zero hesitation. And unfortunately, most of the time they're proven right sales-wise. Super Mario Party has probably doubled the sales of the entire Metroid Prime series, re-releases included. That's not even the good Switch Mario Party! (apparently)

@kkslider5552000 I'm just worried that the sheer amount of Mario releases in recent years is going to end up causing people to become tired of the franchise as a whole. Especially given they released 7 games in the series back to back.

@VoidofLight I think "Mario fatigue" would play a lot differently from say, "CoD fatigue," because Mario games are pretty diverse in terms of genre. They're never the same game twice, y'know? The closest we've ever gotten to "Mario fatigue" would probably be during the Wii U era, where the games were limited in terms of ideas - almost all of them restricted to the basic roots of what Mario should look like as a brand.