Ice.  It's gotta be ice. 

games don't use the winter wonderland theme very often but i swear every single one that does falls into the same trap:

"Winter?!" the game director says.  "What unique gameplay element can i introduce with winter?!   I know, ice is slippery!"

"But won't that make the game frustration to control?" asks the developers.  "Frustrating gameplay isn't fun gameplay you know.  We'll have to remove all of the obsticles and enemies in this section just to make the section playable to the typical gamer?"

"Fuck 'em, this is my game to direct"

Examples: Mario, Ratchet and Clank, Pupeteer.

look how flat and oversized and boring these sections are.  but they have to be.  when the most basic of gameplay elements (like walking) are practically impossible to accomplish.  anything beyond an occasional turn in the road and the entire section is unplayable.

I grew up in the far north and know that ice can be a joyous experience to walk upon.  but i have never played a video game that comes even remotely close to capturing that feeling.  i fucking hate ice levels in games.

Zelda does that too.

Water cause a lot of games have an air mechanic where when you run out of air, you die

Or if its like Mario, then you can't platform worth shit and there are douchbag fishes everywhere about to kill u

At least with ice, you can exploit it to gain momentum if you are skilled enough, but with water, you are basically a retard magnet

yeah, a lot of games do.  i just game off of playing ratchet and clank and then puppeteer and i was angry at those sections.  i threw mario into the OP because i remember hating that one a lot too but soo many games abuse this mechanic.  i just had to rant about it.

i'll agree for mario,.. the water levels are the worst.  i don't see that abused too often at least.  most games tend to go with the "omg you touched water you die now" mechanic.

I hate the ones in Zelda games... I always fall into the bottomless pit, end up with a quater of a heart, and get hit by an enemy and die.

I usually hate escort missions, every enemy has the deadliest aim in the galaxy while I stuck with a handicapped pacifist.

I'd be inclined to agree, but...

This is one of my worst nightmares... Water. I really can't remember a game where I liked the water mechanic... so it's the worst by far. Ice can sometimes on rare occasion be fun...

Water. Not necessarily underwater though. Moving through water is just a pain. It's fucking slow and in open world games you will never know if the 2h swim trip into the ocean will yield any rewards. Even the water passages in Sega Allstar Racing Transformed were awful.

Also ladders. Very few games get them right.

Yeah ice is a funny game trope.

It's just something that everyone accepts even though it makes no sense.