History Main / ScreenCrunch

* ''Sonic N'', the N-Gage port of the first ''VideoGame/{{Sonic Advance|Trilogy}}'', was a victim of the N Gage's vertically oriented screen--you can ''barely'' see ahead of Sonic making the whole game one giant LuckBasedMission. There is an option to letterbox the screen allowing you to see more but it's too small to make anything out, making it useless.

[[folder: Smartphones]]

[[folder: Non-Handheld Systems]]

* ''VideoGame/SonicJam'' on the UsefulNotes/GameDotCom had assets taken straight from the Genesis ''Sonic'' games--big sprites and all. Because of this, you'll often find yourself taking a LeapOfFaith, hoping you survive (or not, given the [[PortingDisaster quality of the port]]).

* ''Sonic N'', the N Gage port of the first ''VideoGame/{{Sonic Advance|Trilogy}}'', was a victim of the N Gage's vertically oriented screen--you can ''barely'' see ahead of Sonic making the whole game one giant LuckBasedMission. There is an option to letterbox the screen allowing you to see more but it's too small to make anything out, making it useless.

* ''Battletoads in Ragnarok's World'', the Game Boy port of the NES ''VideoGame/{{Battletoads}}'' featuring only eight of the stages.[[note]]Cut were Surf City, Volkmire's Inferno, Intruder Excluder, Gargantua Ducts, and Rat Race[[/note]] The smaller resolution can prove particularly problematic in Karnath's Lair, since a lot of the time the snakes (who have been made ''skinnier'') will be off-screen and harder to anticipate without TrialAndErrorGameplay.

* ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures 2: Montana's Movie Madness'': The sprites are very large for UsefulNotes/GameBoy standards. While this might have been done to counteract the "ghosting" issue that plagued the original model's screen, the game became hard to play for a [[TrialAndErrorGameplay different reason]], so much so that the [[DifficultyByRegion Japanese]] version removed several enemies and pits to compensate.

* The ''Classic NES Series'' attempted to combat this by editing the sprites so all the original resolution fits on the more horizontal screen, a literal screen crunch. This results in games having bizarre sprites. For example, in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1'', Small Mario has no neck and Super Mario's mustache disappears when walking.

** A common criticism of ''VideoGame/MegaManZero1'' is that enemies and obstacles that are impossible to see ahead of time are a dime-a-dozen. Boss fights, in particular, are often made more difficult than they otherwise would be, since most of them take place in arenas larger than the screen, so you cannot see their attacks coming and thus cannot prepare for them. Fortunately, the developers learned from this as the sequels are designed to account for the screen better.

* The ''[[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Super Mario Advance]]'' games aren't affected as much due to their smaller sprites and gameplay better translating to horizontal movement. All games attempted to make up for this by adding extra content and giving the player more opportunities to get extra lives. ''Super Mario Advance 2: VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'' added vertical scrolling for the camera button, while ''Super Mario Advance 4: VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'' suffers the least as the original NES game already had a smaller viewing resolution from the large HUD which the port completely replaces it with a thin status bar and [[https://themushroomkingdom.net/smb3_snes2sma.shtml a lot of levels have been edited]] to better suit the smaller screen.

* {{Defied|Trope}} with ''VideoGame/BubbleBobble''. It was yet another GG to SMS conversion, this time for ''[[PolishedPort Final Bubble Bobble]]''. Instead of replicating the Game Boy version's scrolling however, the developers simply created mini versions of the levels, resulting in a unique experience from its console counterpart.

** While the former at least took ''some'' measures to make the game easier (like removing Jungle Zone Act 2's RatchetScrolling), the latter game didn't even bother making certain levels ('''especially''' Green Hills Act 3) an absolute nightmare to complete.

** The worse example of ''Sonic 2'''s Screen Crunch is the first boss (pictured above). The bouncing balls are ridiculously hard to dodge in the Game Gear version--not helped by unpredictable heights they bounce at in the port. This trope singlehandedly turned a pushover of a boss into a ThatOneBoss.

* ''VideoGame/SonicJam'' had assets taken straight from the Genesis ''Sonic'' games--big sprites and all. Because of this, you'll often find yourself taking a LeapOfFaith, hoping you survive (or not, given the [[PortingDisaster quality of the port]]).

* ''VideoGame/CrashNitroKart'' would have been a PolishedPort of the GBA version... if it wasn't for the aforementioned screen. It's nearly impossible to see anything to the side of you, including the race track. In a misguided attempt to fix this, the camera is much more jumpy which only makes things worse.

* ''VideoGame/{{Rayman 3|Hoodlum Havoc}}'' was a port of the GBA version (itself a victim of this trope as seen above), trading in horizontal screen space for vertical. The already [[GuideDangIt hard to find]] lums have become even harder to locate thanks to the resolution and fighting enemies has become an absolute chore.

* ''VideoGame/{{Darius}}burst Chronicle Saviours'' features ''Dariusburst Another Chronicle EX'' as part of the package. ''DBACEX'' (like the original ''Dariusburst Another Chronicle'') uses a pair of widescreen displays for a total resolution of 2560×720 with a 32:9 aspect ratio. This is fine for the [=PS4=] and PC versions of ''DBCS'', and the PC version even has dual monitor support, the game will letterbox the screen and it's still fairly playable. Vita version? You better be playing on a PS TV, because if you decide to play ''DBACEX'' on a Vita, enjoy playing the game on a ''960×270'' window!

* ''VideoGame/MarioKart Tour'' got into a lot of controversy upon its release for displaying in ''portrait'' mode instead of landscape like most mobile racers. This meant that the player couldn't see the side of the road (much like Crash Nitro Kart mentioned above) which gave it a bunch of TrialAndErrorGameplay for new players. It wasn't until months after launch that a landscape mode was added.

* ''VideoGame/{{Darius}}burst Chronicle Saviours'' features ''Dariusburst Another Chronicle EX'' as part of the package. ''DBACEX'' (like the original ''Dariusburst Another Chronicle'') uses a pair of widescreen displays for a total resolution of 2560×720 with a 32:9 aspect ratio. This is fine for the [=PS4=] and PC versions of ''DBCS'', and the PC version even has dual monitor support. Vita version? You better be playing on a PS TV, because if you decide to play ''DBACEX'' on a Vita, enjoy playing the game on a ''960×270'' window!

* ''VideoGame/PacMan'', oddly enough, has a giant, unnecessary gray border on the right side of the screen that eats up nearly ''1/3'' of the resolution.

->''"With the camera panned out, and just, with enough viewpoints, [Mine-Cart Carnage] not that hard. You'll make some mistakes, your first time, sure, or if you're rusty like I am, but... at least it's not zoomed-in and like, requiring different timing. That'd be awful!"''

-->-- '''LetsPlay/ProtonJon''' Playing VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry on the SNES, after cutting from Screen Crunched version of Mine-Cart Carnage on the Game Boy Color port.

-->-- '''LetsPlay/ProtonJon''' Playing DonkeyKongCountry on the SNES, after cutting from Screen Crunched version of Mine-Cart Carnage on the Game Boy Color port.

* In the first [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoClassic Grand Theft Auto]], you would usually view the game through a top-down camera with a limited field of view surrounding your character. This could be mitigated once to got into a vehicle, as the camera would helpfully zoom out so you could see what was in front of you, as well as see enough to figure out where you were on the map. Come VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto2 however, and the zoom-out function appears to have been weakened drastically, to the point that it is much more difficult for you to properly utilize any of the benefits that could have assisted you as in the first game. As well as not having a good-enough field of vision to see the amount of traffic in front of you, (especially in the first sector where fast cars are scarce) or be able to make out where you were going, it also rendered your character much more susceptible to ambushes from threats, as well as compromising your ability to see enemies from far away if you were looking for them, or needed a strategy to approach them without blindly walking into danger. For the PC version, you would need to download a debug patch in order to just zoom the camera out in order to mitigate this problem, barring that you don't mind fewer vehicles and pedestrians appearing on the screen (you often required many people and vehicles to appear in order to pass a ''Kill Frenzy'') while doing so.

* In the first [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoClassic Grand Theft Auto]], you would usually view the game through a top-down camera with a limited field of view surrounding your character. This could be mitigated once to got into a vehicle, as the camera would helpfully zoom out so you could see what was in front of you, as well as see enough to figure out where you were on the map. Come VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto2 however, and the zoom-out function appears to have been weakened drastically, to the point that it is much more difficult for you to properly utilize any of the benefits that could have assisted you as in the first game. As well as not having a good-enough field of vision to see the amount of traffic in front of you, (especially in the first sector where fast cars are scarce) or be able to make out where you were going. It also rendered your character much more susceptible to ambushes from threats, as well as compromising your ability to see enemies from far away if you were looking for them, or needed a strategy to approach them without blindly walking into danger. For the PC version, you would need to download a debug patch in order to just zoom the camera out in order to mitigate this problem, barring that you don't mind fewer vehicles and pedestrians appearing on the screen while doing so.

Enter Screen Crunch. This is what happens when a game's bad camera is caused by the screen resolution (or lack thereof). While it's not a porting-specific issue, ports to handheld consoles tend to be plagued by this due to the small screens.

This trope mostly got its start with the release of the UsefulNotes/GameBoy in 1989, though it wouldn't become infamous until the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance due to the many ports on that system.

[[folder: Other]]

* The ''Donkey Kong Land'' series and the UsefulNotes/GameBoyColor port of the original ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry1'' are what happens when you import the art of the ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'' series into a Game Boy game. The result is four games where it's near-impossible to dodge ''anything'', making it one huge TrialAndErrorGameplay fest. Making matters worse is a GameBreakingBug in the first ''Donkey Kong Land'' where falling below the camera kills you even if there's ground below you.
* ''VideoGame/PacMan''--on top of being impossible to tell which ghost is who (without understanding their individual A.I.) thanks to the lack of colors--has a giant, unnecessary gray border on the right side of the screen that eats up nearly ''1/3'' of the resolution.
* ''VideoGame/{{Shantae}}'' has the player make plenty of [[LeapOfFaith Leaps of Faith]] as a result of the smaller resolution combined with the large sprites and frequent instant-death hazards, making travelling around Sequin Land a TrialAndErrorGameplay-riddled chore.

* ''VideoGame/DisneysMagicalQuest'' got hit with this '''hard''' in its [[MisbegottenMultiplayerMode two player co-op mode]]. The developers forgot to remove the rule forcing both players to be on the same screen (as the originals could only be played on a single screen), resulting in an ''extremely'' cramped experience.
* ''VideoGame/EarthwormJim'' suffers from the "sprites are too large" issue, which resulted in several unintended traps when trying to jump over pits. The sequel's port has this as well.
* ''VideoGame/MegaManAndBass'' did nothing to account for the lower resolution making an already NintendoHard game even harder now that you could barely see what was ahead. Or above. Or below. In particular, Tengu Man's stage (already a ThatOneLevel in the original) became [[FakeDifficulty absurdly cheap]] in the port.
* Enemies and obstacles that are impossible to see ahead of time are a dime-a-dozen in the ''VideoGame/MegaManZero'' games. Boss fights, in particular, are made much more difficult than they otherwise would be, since most of them take place in arenas larger than the screen, so you cannot see their attacks coming and thus cannot prepare for them.
* ''VideoGame/PacMan Collection'' is an interesting case. In ''Pac-Man'' & ''Pac-Man Arrangement'', only one half of the maze can be on screen at once, though using the shoulder buttons will allow you to see the other half. But in ''Pac-Mania'', due to the big sprites, you can't even see so much as a ''fourth'' of the maze, making it incredibly difficult to play.

** Despite being a ReformulatedGame, ''VideoGame/Rayman3HoodlumHavoc'' focused more on sprite detail than playability. As a result, finding lums is an absolute chore thanks to the limited view. Its sequel, ''VideoGame/RaymanRavingRabbids'' wasn't any better about this.

** A large criticism of the ''VideoGame/SonicAdvanceTrilogy'' is the fast speed not suiting well with the limited view of the GBA screen. The games' odd enemy placement and increase of sudden bottomless pits gives players less reaction time. The first game fares better due to slower gameplay, but it's annoying when the camera only moves when the characters are at the right side of the screen, not at the center like previous 2D games.

* ''VideoGame/BubbleBobble'' was yet another GG to SMS conversion, this time for ''[[PolishedPort Final Bubble Bobble]]''. Instead of replicating the Game Boy version's scrolling, the developers simply created mini versions of the levels making the game feel rather cramped.

* The Window 95 port of ''VideoGame/{{Ray|Series}}Force'', also known as ''Layer Section'', on top of being regarded as an inferior port of the arcade game, it had most of its screen real estate crunched down to a 4:3 320x240 display ''horizontally'', from an arcade version that originally used a vertically-oriented 7:10 224x320 display, and unlike the game's Sega Saturn port, the Windows 95 port did not have a TATE display option, meaning players were forced to see a portion of the game being cut off vertically and the HUD and VanityWindow taking up over half of the right port of the game screen.

* In The First [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoClassic Grand Theft Auto]], you would usually view the game through a top-down camera with a limited field of view surrounding your character. This could be mitigated once to got into a vehicle, as the camera would helpfully zoom out so you could see what was in front of you, as well as see enough to figure out where you were on the map. Come VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto2 however, and the zoom-out function appears to have been weakened drastically, to the point that it is much more difficult for you to properly utilize any of the benefits that could have assisted you as in the first game. As well as not having a good-enough field of vision to see the amount of traffic in front of you, (especially in the first sector where fast cars are scarce) or be able to make out where you were going. It also rendered your character much more susceptible to ambushes from threats, as well as compromising your ability to see enemies from far away if you were looking for them, or needed a strategy to approach them without blindly walking into danger. For the PC version, you would need to download a debug patch in order to just zoom the camera out in order to mitigate this problem, barring that you don't mind fewer vehicles and pedestrians appearing on the screen while doing so.

* In The First [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoClassic Grand Theft Auto]], you would usually view the game through a top-down camera with a limited field of view surrounding your character. This could be mitigated once to got into a vehicle, as the camera would helpfully zoom out so you could see what was in front of you, as well as see enough to figure out where you were on the map. Come VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto2 however, and the zoom-out function appears to have been weakened drastically, to the point that it is much more difficult for you to properly utilize any of the benefits that could have assisted you as in the first game. As well as not having a good-enough field of vision to see the amount of traffic in front of you, (especially in the first sector where fast cars are scarce) or be able to make out where you were going, it also rendered your character much more susceptible to ambushes from threats, as well as compromising your ability to see enemies from far away if you were looking for them, or needed a strategy to approach them without blindly walking into danger. For the PC version, you would need to download a debug patch in order to just zoom the camera out in order to mitigate this problem, barring that you don't mind fewer vehicles and pedestrians appearing on the screen while doing so.

* In The First [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoClassic Grand Theft Auto]], you would usually view the game through a top-down camera with a limited field of view surrounding your character. This could be mitigated once to got into a vehicle, as the camera would helpfully zoom out so you could see what was in front of you, as well as see enough to figure out where you were on the map. Come VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto2 however, and the zoom-out function appears to have been weakened drastically, to the point that it is much more difficult for you to properly utilize any of the benefits that could have assisted you as in the first game. As well as not having a good-enough field of vision to see the amount of traffic in front of you,(especially in the first sector where fast cars are scarce) or be able to make out where you were going, it also rendered your character much more susceptible to ambushes from threats, as well as compromising your ability to see enemies from far away if you were looking for them, or needed a strategy to approach them without blindly walking into danger. For the PC version, you would need to download a debug patch in order to just zoom the camera out in order to mitigate this problem, barring that you don't mind fewer vehicles and pedestrians appearing on the screen while doing so.

* The Window 95 port of ''VideoGame/{{Ray|Series}}Force'', also known as ''Layer Section'', among being an inferior port of the arcade game had most of its screen real estate crunched down to a 4:3 320x240 display ''horizontally'', from an arcade version that originally used a vertically-oriented 7:10 224x320 display, and unlike the game's Sega Saturn port, the Windows 95 port did not have an TATE display option, meaning players were forced to see a portion of the game being cut off vertically and the HUD and VanityWindow taking up over half of the right port of the game screen.
* The PC port of ''VideoGame/{{Bombergirl}}'' is presented in widescreen, however, its original arcade version was developed with a vertically-oriented display in mind, which causes a great deal of vertical visibility to be lost on a game with majority of its maps being designed vertically in the former. Despite this, it does make up for the shortcoming by giving PC players a mini-map they can view from the upper-right corner of the game screen, and many of its HUD and UI elements were refitted to work with the wider-than-tall aspect-ratio.

[[quoteright:248:[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screen_crunch.png]]]]

* The PC port of ''VideoGame/{{Bombergirl}}'' is presented in widescreen, however, its original arcade version was developed with a vertically-oriented display in mind, which causes a great deal of vertical visibility to be lost on a game in the former with majority of its maps being designed vertically. Despite this, it does make up for the shortcoming by giving PC players a mini-map they can view from the upper-right corner of the game screen, and many of its HUD and UI elements were refitted to work with the wider-than-tall display.

* The Game Gear ports of ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' and ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2'', which were originally made for the UsefulNotes/SegaMasterSystem, suffered from this badly.

SubTrope to CameraScrew. Also see PortingDisaster and FakeDifficulty. Often goes hand in hand with TrialAndErrorGameplay. Not to be confused with CameraAbuse (when the viewscreen is crunched into smithereens either for humor or adding tension) or ShootTheTelevision (when a character destroys an in-universe screen). [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant And don't mistake this for a breakfast cereal]]. This is one of the reasons why developers might make a ReformulatedGame instead.

* ''VideoGame/{{Rayman}}''
** ''Rayman Advance'', the GBA port of ''VideoGame/Rayman1995''. The original game had big, detailed sprites that didn't translate over to the GBA's screen very well, and this is seen when fighting the first boss. In the original, [[https://raymanpc.com/wiki/en/File:BziiitPC.png you had a lot of space to move]], but thanks to the GBA's lower resolution, the arena became [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rayman_advance_usa_enfrdeesit_1594999488089_5.png ridiculously small]]. The developers were kind enough remove certain obstacles throughout the game and get rid of the knockback but it only helps so much.
** Despite being a ReformulatedGame, ''VideoGame/{{Rayman 3|Hoodlum Havoc}}'' focused more on sprite detail than playability. As a result, finding lums is an absolute chore thanks to the limited view. Its sequel, ''VideoGame/RaymanRavingRabbids'' wasn't any better about this.