What's the worst thing a game's made you do?

6:00 PM on 03.15.2009   |   Jim Sterling

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The above picture was taken by Destructoid reader John E. In case you can't make out the shattered remnants, that's a PSP which was utterly annihilated by its owner after a particularly frustrating round of LocoRoco 2. For a game that is supposed to be quite relaxing, the idea that it could inspire one poor gamer to channel the rage of the Gods is quite confusing, but we'll let him explain.

"So, I was playing LocoRoco 2 again. I bought this game like 3 weeks ago, and finally reached BuiBui Fort 3 like a week ago," states John. "I have tried bazillions of times to get through it, but could never do it. Luckily for me, I reached my breaking point today. I reached the first elevator, one of those retarded BuiBuis threw a pretty well aimed stone at me, which hit me right in the head, sent me flying off the elevator and into the spikes.

"At that moment, everything turned black in front of me. I was so furious and angry. I totally lost control of myself at that point. I just held the PSP like a hammer, and smashed it on the edge of the table as furiously as I could. Years and years of working out have finally paid off! It was gone in one hit! I decided to take a few pics for fun."

The sad irony is that his copy of LocoRoco 2 survives the incident perfectly, and currently sits in pristine condition, awaiting a swift GameStop trade-in. 

John asked us what the worst thing a game has ever made us do, and we thought we'd extend that query to the Destructoid community. What's the worst thing a game has ever made you do? Have you lost possessions, furniture or even limbs thanks to a frustrating experience? How far has your gamer rage taken you? Let us know, and hit the jump for my own confessions.

While I've personally never gone as far as to destroy an entire system, a number of games have met their end at my furious hands. I must admit I have a bit of a temper sometimes, and the destruction of inanimate objects often helps. Like the time I flung a copy of Sonic Heroes against the wall. It only cost six quid, and I never regretted my decision to toss the game at the wall so hard that the disc shattered. If anything, £6.00 was worth it just to destroy a copy of that infernal piece of shit.

When I lose my cool, I have a nasty tendency of taking it out on myself rather than others, and my anger has caused me a great deal of pain in the past. As a much younger child, I recall getting so angry at Primal Rage, I headbutted the Mega Drive controller as hard as I could. Quite how I thought that would help the situation, I'm not sure. Talon remained undefeated, and I now had a stabbing pain in my forehead. Very fucking wise. 

Sega Superstars Tennis made me draw blood once when I ended up cutting my finger on the broken disc. I think that was the moment I realized I needed to actually not break things. Now that I'm married, I've found that my desire to destroy stuff is no longer present. This is mostly due to having a nice, soft female face to punch repeatedly when I suffer yet another stupidly cheap death in Far Cry 2. 

If you think I'm bad though, let me recount the story of my brother, who decided to destroy not one of his games, but the game of a friend that he had recently borrowed. My memory is hazy as to what the exact game was, but I'm pretty sure it was a Street Fighter II Mega Drive cartridge. Having endured a particularly humiliating defeat, the youngster did what any reasonable gamer would do, yanking out the cartridge and flinging it against the wall. The obvious happened, and the cartridge was sent flying in several different directions. 

From what I recall, the cart was in three pieces. Two halves of the cartridge shell, and the interior chip board with all the bits and bobs. We were industrious in our youth, as well as stupid, and decided that we could put the board back inside the two halves of the shell, and then glue it all back together. Surprise surprise, it did not work. The game was well and truly fucked. 

So, my brother now owed his friend a game, and had no means to repay this debt. We did the only thing we could do. We took the fucking cartridge, unboxed and crudely glued together, to a a game store and tried to trade it in. The resulting situation, as the store worker explained to us that he could not accept such a game, was almost as embarrassing as the time I tried to take my scratched up copy of Spyro the Dragon to HMV, without a receipt, and attempt to "return" it. Children are not very clever. 

You now have some examples of some rage-induced stupidity. Feel free to share you own!