What single game mechanic can't/couldn't you get enough of?

[Alphizzle]

As a hobbyist game-designer, I'm always exploring ways to make each individual game mechanic as engaging as possible.

So, I'm curious, which one game mechanic, no matter how repetitive it may be, can't/couldn't you get enough of?

For me, oddly enough, I think back to the simple, yet smart implementation of True Crime's 'frisk' mechanic.

This mechanic allows you to frisk civilians. If you find them to be in possession of a weapon or drugs, you'd auto-arrest them.

I love this mechanic, for it's reasourceful nature. if you have no weapon in your inventory, frisk a civilian: "Oh, you're in possesion of a weapon? Well you're arresred. Also...thanks, I needed this."

[ratsoalbion]

Simply cutting long grass and nabbing rupees in Zelda games. Why? I DON'T KNOW.

[KSubzero1000]

Izuna Drop in Ninja Gaiden - Great properties, reasonable execution barrier, cool animation which is just lengthy enough so that it doesn't become repetitive.

Knife and melee combat moves in RE4&5&6 - Perfectly intuitive risk vs. reward system that incentivizes spontaneous decision making.

Aerials in Rocket League - I'm not that great at RL, but I can't stop trying for these. Insanely satisfying to land.

Dodge system in God Hand - So delightfully layered. Not to be confused with...

Dodge Offset in Bayonetta - Simple, yet brilliant.

AR Mode in Vanquish - Best iteration of Platinum Games' signature slow-mo mechanic.

Plasma Pistol + headshot combo against Elites in Halo - Perfect blend of timing, animation and result. Plasma Grenades qualify as well.

Glory Kills in Doom (2016) - Same as above.

Spider Ball in Metroid Prime - I'm not even sure why exactly, but there's something incredibly cool about it. Probably the sense of weight and the sound effects.

Laser in Nex Machina - ZYYY-YOOOOOM!

Sunbroing in Dark Souls - Perfect for the altruistically-minded.

Holding guards up in MGSV - I love the brief respite and interesting options it provides.

Takedowns in Burnout - Schadenfreude at its finest.

Drift Turn in F-Zero GX - Difficult to land, but incredibly smooth. A lot of people don't even realize it's a separate technique from Slide Turn.

Holds in the DoA series, especially the advanced types from Leifang and Bayman - Best fighting game technique as far as I'm concerned. So much more fluid and responsive than the memorized combo chains metagame from Tekken and the like.

V-ACT and body burning in REmake - Perfect short-term / long-term benefits trade-off.

Support system in old-school Fire Emblem - Brilliant combination of gameplay benefits and characterization that rewards the player's care and dedication.

Environmental puzzles / use of magic in Golden Sun - I really wish more JRPGs did this to give the player something interesting to do in-between fights and dialogue sections.

Presenting the exact evidence that contradict the witness' statement in Ace Attorney - Pure Hedonism, especially when they start dissolving or whatever.


Stick pushing in TLoU - Let's be real: If they didn't walk, how could I tell that it's art?

[Suits]

The flow and beat of most Pro Evolution games, is so addictive to me.

The movement and rhythm of the inputs is beautiful.

I'm also a guilty of over playing chipped through balls just because the whole process is so satisfying.

[kintaris]

There's something deeply satisfying about winding up and releasing a trick in a decent skateboarding or snowboarding game, and wonderful feel in SSX in particular (and Steep, I suppose) of almost lazily carving up the snow by drifting your thumb over the analog stick. I suppose pulling off drifts in racing games is a similar rush.

And I say these as someone who is really not into either genre.

I'm also obsessed with Alchemy games, and it probably comes from my point-and-click upbringing. I have a very strange addiction to trying to combine the thing with all of the other things and getting pleasantly surprised (or wonderfully confused) when it works. I suppose this is also why I enjoy games like Viva Pinata as well - there is something satisfying about stumbling across a new Pinata variant through feeding them all kinds of stuff. I guess it's a combination of creative thinking and comforting list-ticking.

[Flabyo]

I’m a sucker for a good traversal mechanism, if the game I’m playing makes it super fun just to move around the world then it goes a long way to making me stick around.

Two recent examples of that would be Sunset Overdrive and the Koei Attack on Titan game. The latter especially is one of the best examples of identifying the ‘one thing from this anime show that everyone remembers’ and hanging a whole game off it.

[Simonsloth]

I would say RPG-like elements in hook me most consistently or rogue-likes with progression systems.

I think crackdown or rogue legacy are the perfect examples.

It’s that one more go feeling to get to the next level of something so you punch a bit harder, jump a bit higher or die a little less.

[Simonsloth]

In terms of an actual mechanic rather than feature I love the ability to switch from horizontal and vertical firing in modes in dead space to dismember.

This never got boring

[Stanshall]

Been out of the game for a while with this, that and the other but my all-time favourite mechanic is the reverse steer bunny hop in Super Mario Kart to straighten yourself out of over/understeer. It's the best any game has ever felt, to me.

Also, in close second, scoring from sixty yards out in Sensi Soccer with a dipping, swerving, lobbed hoof from seventy yards, straight in the top corner past a diving keeper.

[ThirdDrawing]

Castle building and recruiting allies in Suikoden 2.

[stvnorman]

Dashboard view in racing games. Never got on with out of car experiences.

[Craig]

Gameplay effecting music.

I love the music changing up the style of the same piece depending on what’s going on in the game. Ocarina of Time’s Hyrule Field is wonderful for this - walking around you get a triumphant theme, stand still for a rest the music pulls back, an enemy comes by and it all goes a bit angry.

Even something as simple as the music in Yoshi’s Island map screen or Streetpass plaza gradually becoming a fuller arrangement as you progress in the game.

Even more so I love when your actions directly influences the notes of a tune so it’s like you’re creating the song. De Blob’s solos changing up depending on your ink colour, for example. There was a neat Galaxy Wars clone for Xbox360 in which your bullets would play a note (changing tone depending on what the music was doing at the time) and destroying enemies would also add something to the music. As a game it was fine, but that mechanic just tickled me in all the right ways.

[Scrustle]

The Zandatsu from Metal Gear Rising. So satisfying and cathartic!



I second Dodge Offset from Bayonetta and other Platinum games too. Very simple and elegant solution to a problem that a lot of action games with long combos have, which opens up the depth of the game massively. Also very satisfying to pull off. More games should use that mechanic.

Also agree on takedowns from Burnout. Similarly cathartic to the Zandatsu actually.

Could also mention the Celestial Brush from Okami. It's really fun to affect a game by literally drawing on it. Especially with how some of them change depending on how you draw it too.

[Alex79]

I love it when games get really specific about where you can attack an enemy. As mentioned above the slicing in Dead Space but also in Severed. It was so awesome the tactile feeling of swiping off limbs of the monsters. When you powered up, the heavy blow really felt like it had weight behind it. Even Fruit Ninja on mobile had me grinning from ear to ear.

[Jobobonobo]

Scanning in games is usually something I adore. It is a great way of learning more about the game world and also usually gives much greater depth to the narrative of any game. My best examples of games doing this well is the Metroid Prime series and Horizon Zero Dawn. In Horizon in particular when it came to investigating the ancient remnants of civilisation I would compulsively scan everything so I did not miss out on any detail on the old world. Scanning for Riddler trophies in the Arkham games was always a good laugh as well.

Collectables in general also please my internal hoarder and when done well make exploring a world very rewarding and encourage you to use all your skills. Well designed collectathons are amongst some of my favourite experiences in gaming.

Also enjoy playing as agile speedy characters, makes going through the environment a lot more fun.

[Todinho]

The Fulton Recovery System- This mechanic is genius in a myriad of ways but the satistfaction of attaching a ballon to a guard and seeing him rocket off into the stratosphere never gets old, but not only that tough you were limited to guards in Peace Walker Phantom Pain expanded it allowing to fulton everything that isnt nailed to the ground, including bears! You can also use the ballons for many tatical purposes and even as an emergency exit. Just to ilustrate an instructive video on the joys of fultoning


The parrying/viceral attack in BloodBorne- See an enemy wildly swinging at you, stop him with a single shot and then stick your hand inside his guts and pull his heart out! It's no coincidence that my favorite bosses in the game all are very suceptible to parrying.

Stamina/Ki reload system in Nioh- This not only adds a layer of the depth to the combat but once you get used to it the system becomes second nature, everytime you end a combo you reload either by dodging or pressing R1 at the right time do it well and you`ll regain the stamina spent on any given combo in a fraction of the time you would otherwise.

All out attack in persona- This is a great little addition to the combat system that makes you constantly look to exploit your enemy weakness, once all enemies have been hit by their weakness they are left in a prone state allowing you to do a devastating group attack on all of them, I think this mechanic is one of the main pillars as to why Personas combat system is so satisfying versus many other JRPGs.

The Drill Dash in Bioshock 2- My favorite ability in all Bioshock games, see an enemy on the other side of the screen thats shooting you just jump all the way there with your drill and crush him. This ability alone makes Bioshock 2 better then Bioshock Infinite

[Alex79]

Haha yes I pretty much completed Bioshock 2 using that one move!

[macstat]

Its more about presentation than mechanic but those make me do a repetitive thing over and over again

Jumping and vaulting + counter animations in Assassins Creed 3
Shield Bash in Vermintide 2
Dash in Nier Automata
Wall jumps/runs in Prince of Persia
Misc animations in Far Cry games (like when you bandage yourself or when you jump down)
Dashing and cutting grass in Hollow Knight
Running through the grass in Titans Quest
Destroying environment in Diablo 3
Roll in Rayman Legends

Also im a huge sucker for lore stuff. Right now I'm playing very mediocre Tom Clancy's Wildlands just because i like collecting all those little stories about Columbian Cartel they keep throwing at me.

[Alex79]

I'm playing Infamous Second Son at the moment and I love the graffiti spraying mechanic. Done it loads and never gets less fun!

[AndrewBrown]

Two Words: Arkham Brawling