I figured enough of you play video games that I can rant here and you’ll at least understand what I’m talking about.
We rented Rugrats Royal Ransom for the Gamecube. I actually really like the game…just challenging enough that I had a ball playing, easy enough for Michael to complete some of the levels. I actually love some of the games – they’re really unique and fun (you drive a buggy on the moon (with moon gravity) trying to find cheese bits, etc.)
Yesterday I was complaining to Mr. Dump about to UI design flaws in the game that really ticked me off because there was NO NEED for the game to be written this way. These are two levels of play – the regular game and the extras, unlocked games that you have to “buy” by collecting funny money on each level. Well Junior learned the hard way that after you buy a game you damned well better save because when you exit out so that you can PLAY the game you just bought, it doesn’t prompt you to save, so you will have lost all your progress to that point…and the game you just bought. WTF? Why not have a save prompt whenever you exit the game? Are they stupid? It’s a game for small kids who don’t always REMEMBER to save. Grrrrr.
You shouldn’t HAVE to exit the game to play the extra levels, either. Oh, and related to that…when you finish a “room” if you hit the start button to try to save, Save isn’t an option unless you step away from the doorway. HUH? I should be able to save WHEREVER I WANT. You can’t even save when you’re IN a room. Oh man, that’s nice.
I got SO ANGRY at that damned game today. You want design flaw? I’ll give you design flaw. We worked all morning to reach the end of the game (in a manner of speaking…the goal is to defeat Angelica to get your toys back, but we still had rooms that we hadn’t even started to complete yet…) As SOON AS we defeated Angelica it runs the credits, etc., and then dumps you back to the main menu….you guessed it…WITHOUT SAVING THE GAME. So all the work we did after our last save was GONE, including defeating Angelica. What is WRONG with these people? And because you can’t save mid-level it’s NEVER going to save the game with all the money you are collecting on that last level (and there’s a LOT of it.)
I am going to write THQ. This is so avoidable, and he was SOOOOO disappointed to lose the three levels we had worked on since our last save.
