I hate "rubber band" physics in racing games, too. If I hit the computer opponent with a fucking nuclear turtle shell, they shouldn't be passing me on the next curve like nothing ever happened!

Same goes for fighting games. Computer opponents have the unfair advantage of being fucking computers! I'm a human. Quit blocking/ countering everything!!

AI that team up against you in a free-for-all multiplayer match. E.g., SSBB.

Adventure games that force you to solve a puzzle by some single incomprehensible string of bizarre moon logic, when there are clearly several more reasonable/practical/possible options present.

Screw-you-missions: Where you're originally sent to accomplish objective A, and immediately afterward have to accomplish B or fail - B, of course, will cause you to fail at least once since you don't expect it. Ie. in the Rising Sun campaign of RA3, you have to destroy a huge base mainly with a single super unit. Roughly ten seconds afterward, you'll have to shoot down an aerial unit within 15 seconds or fail the mission. The super unit has no AA capabilities.

Badly made alignment-related choices. Ie. in most Bioware games you pretty much have to be either Retarded Evil or Nutless Good - the games actually to tend to punish you for being anything in between, provided you get the choice in the first place. This is especially jarring in D&D-based games, where there are usually NINE aligment options in total - yet the games keep pushing the player towards either Lawful Good or Chaotic Evil, even when it makes no sense to do so.

Reminds me of Tales: Dawn of the New World.

Mine:

- Backtracking. I know it takes time to build new levels but i HATE having to go through the same area more than once in a usual linear game. This includes games like mario galaxy that have stars for doing the same thing twice, except against star mario or whatever. Devil May Cry 4 is especially atrotious with its bad level design for forcing you to backtrack to get keys.

- Quick Time Events. God of War did these ok because they weren't overused and we at least somewhat predictible and didn't feel unfair. Games like Resident evil 5 however... wtf? There's a quick time event for some regular dude lunging at me with a spear? Give it a rest.

- Rubberband AI. F-zero FX (worst offender) and mario kart among others are guilty of this. You are going as fast as possible and you look on the minimap to see the AI make up an impossible distance faster than should be possible.

- Multiplayer where it isn't needed. Not every game needs multiplayer! Please, I know you want people to keep your game instead of trading it in, but stop putting half assed multiplayer modes and focus your efforts on a better single player experience.

- Frustrating terrain. If there's a knee high wall or ledge I should be able to see what's behind it or climb it. Stop pretending that minor obsticles are somehow preventing me from getting through. So many games are guilty of this.

What about the other extreme of the rubber band.

For instance in Star Wars Ep1 Pod Racer on the N64, if you lag behind in 12th place, you can catch up to 11th and 10th almost immediately when you race well again, but then there is a big gap to 9th.... but if you stay in 9th or better, the racers behind you keep up just fine.

I don't know if those 2 would really count, but:

I really hate how in a few games, the developers omit some things all because they don't feel like translating it. For example, the Japanese version of Samurai Shodown V has introductory quotes, proper endings for each character, & cutscenes that explain the story of the game. The North American & maybe the European Neo Geo AES versions however got rid of all the story elements from the game, even the introductory quotes got axed. Secret of Mana might also be guilty of removing a lot of story elements too.

Another thing that bothers me is not having an option of changing the language in the game. Dynasty Warriors is guilty of this, but at least I had a good laugh at some of the cheesy voice acting.

That happens in the Wii Super Paper mario. It asks you

will you save the world?

"no"

Are you sure, it' be great if you did?

"no"

This is your last chance, please save the world

"no"

Game over + plot explaining what happens

I loled.

Also, fail conditions being too strict. As an example. In RTS, having to complete a certain objective before mass enemy reinforcements arrive. If the countdown timer hits 0, then spawn as many enemies as the ram will handle and then the player must complete the objective before being slaughtered. Don't just give me a game over screen. How lazy.