History Main / ScreenCrunch

-->-- '''LetsPlay/ProtonJon''', playing ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry1'' on [[UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem SNES]] and comparing it to the UsefulNotes/GameBoyColor port

* 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 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.

* ''VideoGame/SonicJam'' on the UsefulNotes/GameCom 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]]).

* Parodied in ''VideoGame/{{Zadette}}'': The {{Retraux}} screen resolution would be acceptable if not for the enormous player character sprite that takes about 80% of the height of the screen. It's also a 3:4 screen, meaning you can't see further ahead than about the main character's height, all played for StylisticSuck.

[[folder:Smartphones]]

* Creator/{{Gameloft}}'s mobile versions of ''VideoGame/SplinterCell'' on low-end devices such as the [[Creator/{{Nokia}} Nokia 3510i]] (96x65) took the ''Super Mario Bros. Deluxe'' approach by scrolling the screen vertically when needed, as the games were based off the 128x128 Series 40 versions.

** ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1 Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis]]'' is the king of this trope on the GBA. The sprites were virtually unchanged from their Genesis counterparts resulting in Sonic's sprite taking up most of the screen. Labyrinth Zone's RiseToTheChallenge section becomes nigh-impossible to beat, since the camera remains centered on Sonic while immediate obstacles are just off the top of the screen.

** ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1 Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis]]'' is the king of this trope on the GBA. The sprites were virtually unchanged from their Genesis counterparts resulting in Sonic's sprite taking up most of the screen. This naturally makes the game hard to play for the [[FakeDifficulty wrong reasons]] and makes [[ThatOneLevel Labyrinth Zone]] nigh-impossible to beat.

* ''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 UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 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. UsefulNotes/PlaystationVita 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.

* The arcade version of ''[[VideoGame/PacMan Pac-Mania]]'' is '''infamous''' for this, as Namco made the perplexing decision to use a TATE (vertical widescreen) display despite the game's [[IsometricProjection isometric mazes]] being more suited to a 4:3 display. The result is a game that's NintendoHard at best and--in [[ThatOneLevel Jungly Steps]]--[[FakeDifficulty incredibly cheap]] at worst. The biggest reason most of the (pre ''Namco Museum'') home ports are seen as {{Polished Port}}s is because of the increased horizontal screen space.

* 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 you 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. It could also wind up 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.

* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilRemake'' and ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilZero'''s HD remasters are vertically crunched for 16:9 aspect mode, which the game attempts to alleviate with vertical panning, though important objects and enemies still often get hidden out of frame. Therefore, the pillar-boxed 4:3 mode is preferable.

* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilRemake'' and ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilZero'''s HD remasters are vertically crunched for 16:9 aspect mode, which the game attempts to alleviate with vertical panning, though important objects still often get hidden out of frame. Therefore, the pillar-boxed 4:3 mode is preferable.

''VideoGame/ResidentEvilRemake'' and ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilZero'''s HD remasters are vertically crunched for 16:9 aspect mode, which the game attempts to alleviate with vertical panning, though important objects still often get hidden out of frame. Therefore, the pillar-boxed 4:3 mode is preferable.

''VideoGame/ResidentEvilRemake'' and ''ResidentEvilZero'''s HD remasters are vertically crunched for 16:9 aspect mode, which the game attempts to alleviate with vertical panning, though important objects still often get hidden out of frame.

* The first ''Donkey Kong Land'' had this problem due to Creator/{{Rare}}'s inexperience with the Game Boy's smaller screen. This resulted in them importing the sprites from ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry1'' without properly resizing them. Future ''Land'' games would try to resize/redraw the sprites to make things more fair, though some problems still remain.

** Despite being a ReformulatedGame, ''VideoGame/Rayman3HoodlumHavoc'' focused more on sprite detail than playability. This made the game's primary goal (finding lums) much more difficult than it should have been. Its sequel, ''VideoGame/RaymanRavingRabbids'' wasn't any better about this.

** ''Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis''. The original ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1''[='=]s assets were haphazardly imported into the ''Sonic Advance'' engine with no regard whatsoever for the engine's art size limits. The result? The engine chokes while trying to deal with the massive sprites.

** 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.

* ''VideoGame/{{Rayman3|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.
* ''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.

* The UsefulNotes/AtariST version of ''[[VideoGame/PacMan Pac-Mania]]'', rather annoyingly, suffers from half of the screen being taken up by the HUD and VanityWindow.

* ''VideoGame/{{Shantae}}'' sometimes makes the player perform [[LeapOfFaith Leaps of Faith]] due to the developers sacrificing screen space for smooth sprite animations. This makes travelling around Sequin Land much harder than intended.

* ''VideoGame/{{Pandemonium}}'' had bad draw distance and low frame rates on top of the screen problems.

[[folder: Atari Lynx (160×102)]]

[[folder: Game Boy (Color) (160×144)]]

[[folder: Game Boy Advance (240×160)]]

[[folder: Game Gear (160×144)]]

[[folder: Game.com (200×160)]]

[[folder: N-Gage (176×208)]]

* ''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.

** 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.

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. Similar to PanAndScan for movies.

* ''VideoGame/DoubleDragon'' is a ''doozy''. As the graphics, which were of a 256×224 game, were ported more or less 1:1 to the UsefulNotes/AtariLynx (aside from some sundry alterations such as the player's foot during a kick), this means you're getting only ''2/7'' of what the arcade game offered and character sprites stand at almost ''half'' the height of the screen.

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