Superman 64 however was the most horrible game I have ever played, I would even group it with yoshi’s story

Also, yes, don’t get me started on how the screen can literally blind you with white as you progress in any mode, making you die just because you can’t see.

I just finished playing Geometry Wars 2 for the first time tonight. Only having that one joke of a gun /completely/ ruins it for me. It’s just too difficult for me to use and survive for longer than a few minutes in any of the game modes.

So, it’s just not fun. I want my money back.

Also, what the #### were they thinking with the ridiculous quantity of fireworks? I’m sorry, but when I can’t see /anything/ because a single black hole enemy makes the entire screen go completely white, there’s a problem.

I think the deadly gate-ends are necessary. When blue diamonds increase in density, that doesn’t make them more deadly (they bunch up into a “blob”), it just gives you a higher score. The deadly gate-ends are the only thing that makes the game get more difficult as time goes on.

By stating your 5% ranking it sure sounds like you’re dealing with the challenges just fine. What’s the problem? That it makes it harder? Well…

…why pick on the gates? Why not complain about the speed of the blue square thingies? The size/speed of your ship? Lack of a screen-clearing bomb? You already mentioned the limited explosion radius of gates. You could focus on a dozen different gameplay features that make pacifism more difficult then it otherwise could be.

You are dealing with all the other variables yet you can’t deal with this because you think it breaks some eldrich writ of game design? I’m sorry, but like most others who’ve responded (if you haven’t figured out the trend so far), it really just sounds like a whine more then anything else. Which is fine. I whine about features in lots of games too. Most of which I then simply don’t play. Calling something ‘broken’ because it doesn’t suit my taste would just come across as arrogant more then anything.

Now, is it frustrating to die by those accursed gates? Sure. Also frustrating to die after 1000 points because of laziness, bad piloting, or a hundred different ways to misjudge a maneuver resulting in game over.

I’m addicted to death with pacifism. No idea where I rank (high score 49 mil which currently is around 7700, only managed a 92% toward a Wax Off so far). I have no problem with the gates being what they are. I’m not fighting with the gates, I’m fighting against my own high score and those of my friends. Just like any other game. As long as we’re all competing using the same game rules, which of course we are, nothing is ‘broken’ per say.

In fact, I’m sure by now you’ve got the Achievement for getting 1 million in each game mode. Bizarre considers each mode to be equal on that front. I’m willing to bet good monopoly money you’re highest score in terms of sheer points is in Pacifism. Mine sure is. It was, in fact, the easiest BY FAR to get 1 million points in. Based on criteria of points attained, it’s the easiest of all the game modes (for me anyway). So again, this hardly sounds broken.

Now, if they did patch the game to change the orange parts to simple solid ends (so you couldn’t run into a gate sideways, you’d still need to cross the blue line on a more or less perpendicular flight path) I’d be fine with that too. Whatever, it’s Bizarre’s game to build. High scores would go up I’m sure, and we’d still compete based on the new game conditions. In the end nothing changes. 1 less challenge to overcome, unless as part of the patch they introduce enemies that behave differently then the blue squares, thereby making it even HARDER then orange gate ends. Would it be broken then too? You see? It can go back and forth like that forever with a zillion different boons or banes inserted or removed to affect the difficulty of the game. Focussing on just one item and calling it a game-breaker just seems out of left field.

I have the Wax Off achievement as well, if that helps at all.

Is a game mode broken when the enemies can kill you?