gaming Useless or pointless power up or weapon in a video game?

[Lost 1,410]

All that comes to mind right now are:

 

The Ballistic Knife and War Machine in Black ops 2 Zombies, using these will generally just get you killed. Also the Bomb pickup in zombies, it gives you like 400 points but kills all the zombies, easentially robbing you of thousands of points, sure it saves you if you're surrounded but you shouldn't really be in that situation in the first place.

 

The falmer weapons and armour in Skyrim, by the time you are encountering them, you likely have much better weapons and armour.

[long gone 8,929]

Dry Mushrooms from the Paper Mario series. They only heal 1HP. Really useless when you're in a pinch and need to recover your HP, but your star points are low and you can't call a Star Spirit (I say this because several can heal you) or use Sweet Feast because you don't even have one star point.

[Misty Shadow 7,902]

There are just way too many to keep track of...but the one I remember best off the top of my head is the axe from Ghosts n Goblins. The torch was good for a few things, but the axe was just...huh. And don't even get me started on Super Ghouls n Ghosts. There was no weapon in that game worth bothering with other than the Knife and the Crossbow.

[Zygen 6,066]

Oh yeah another one came to mind for me, i dunno if it counts as a powerup or weapon technically, but i'll include it anyways.

 

The dust blowing thing from Luigi's mansion, its technically just what happens when you have no elements in the 1st luigi's mansion, but still , all it does it blow dust around.

 

Although i did have some fun blowing dust everywhere xD.

 

I'm also getting The 2nd Luigi's mansion for 3DS in like 2 days, so thats why i felt like bringing it up .

[Discordian 6,015]

In Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow there is one particular soul that is completely useless. The Sand Man soul allows you to move around in the sand without slowing down.

 

Here's the thing: There's only about four rooms, all clustered together, with sand in them. They do not impede you in any way except slow your movement.

 

One could argue there are a lot of useless souls in the Sorrow series though since every single enemy has their own soul with a power you can obtain and most of them will go unused in all situations except just to use them for kicks.

Edited September 4, 2013 by Discordian

[Flutter's lover <3 8,206]

Another useless thing. The ability to take photos in GTA IV with your cellphone. Other than during missions where you had to take a pic of something and send it to someone, outside of the story it was USELESS.You can take a pic, but it doesn't do anything.

 

On console, I think it would've been neat to link your Facebook/Twitter to it and take random screenshots and upload them. Like you can in Minecraft on Xbox.

Edited September 4, 2013 by Flutter Dash

[CornBreadGang 514]

The swing speed upgrades from Spider-Man 2. Spider-Man 2 was one of the greatest games of all time in my opinion, but the swing speed upgrades seemed weird to me. The only time you need them is when you need to buy them to get to the next level. The speed increase is very slight, and even with all the upgrades, I still think that Spider-Man swings the same speed as at the beginning.

[Solar Cloud 493]

This lousy pokemon. When I manage to grab a poke ball in Smash, I expect a useful Pokemon to come out. Instead, I get this useless pile of Tauros dung.

[Jack Spades 162]

Super robot pixie crime fighting mega ultra tae-kwon-doe good smelling fresh minty squeaky clean Japanese anime fun making BREATH!

[Mars Caramel 319]

Every single purchasable power-up in the Sly Cooper series that isn't required to advance in the game. The main thing I look for in a game nowadays is challenge, so the only reason I bought them all in the first place is because it's required to get 100% in the game.

 

I like Sly Cooper, but it's just way too easy for me.

Edited September 4, 2013 by Mars Brownie

[An Old Head 4,816]

I have the perfect answer to this thread. Here is a rocket launcher from Borderlands 2; look at some of the power-ups it details in the description.

 

 

Notice it? It says "Consumes reduced ammo per shot" and then on the next line it says "Just kidding, no it doesn't". So there were two bullet points for perks that end up doing nothing! The game tricks you

[Fluttermena 1,223]

The Chinese pistols from Fallout 3. The damage is complete garbage, so much that it ties with the freaking BB guns for damage. These are the worst guns in the game. It uses 10mm rounds, which are very common in the game, but that doesn't matter since there are other weapons that use the same ammo and are much better.

The pistols' only use is as vendor trash. Their only redeeming quality is that they look cool:

 

 

 

 

[idonotreallycare 94]

I found the powerup that lets you stop time in Mega Man 2 to be almost entirely useless. Sure, you stop all the enemies while it's active, but you couldn't turn it off, you couldn't switch weapons, and it only worked on one of the Robot Masters! You would have to wait till the power runs out, so you would have to either get an energy refill or beat the level to use it again. The only place I found it useful was the lasers in one of the levels. (Quick Man?)

 

I think it was brought back in MM4 as the Flash Stopper, but I'm not certain.

[Splashee 28,564]

On 8/26/2013 at 7:16 AM, CloudMistDragon said:

There are just way too many to keep track of...but the one I remember best off the top of my head is the axe from Ghosts n Goblins. The torch was good for a few things, but the axe was just...huh. And don't even get me started on Super Ghouls n Ghosts. There was no weapon in that game worth bothering with other than the Knife and the Crossbow.

The axe, yes!

Even Ghouls n Ghosts for Sega Genesis has that powerup.

[ExplosionMare 18,065]

Literally all the items for attack right at the end of Genocide in Undertale. Attack doesn’t even matter cause the only time you can really do anything is right at the very end.

[Cash In 22,366]

Kamaro's Mask in Majora's Mask. You use it to get a Piece of Heart from the dancing sisters in Clock Town, but after that, it may as well be useless. Mind you this mask can be obtained very early in the game.

[Vefka 1,499]

These score multiplier pickups. I never understood why they exist, like yeah you want a high score, but as a pickup in actual gameplay they're useless!

[ZiggWheelsManning 10,540]

Just played halfway through EA's 2017 Star Wars:  Battlefront II and find the Pulse Cannon weapon be very useless due to long charge-ups and no effect on enemy groups  

[DixonTheAdversary 1,632]

The standard Ice Gun pickup in Hot Wheels: Beat That. It's hard to aim, and if you do land any hits, they don't really do anything. Whenever I get that weapons, I immediately use it, just to get rid of it.