History PetPeeveTrope / ZeroPunctuation

* MoodDissonance: While not a huge pet peeve, he does get annoyed when a game's story/gameplay can't keep a consistent tone. His review of the 2012 ''VideoGame/TwistedMetal'' has him take umbrage with the way the DarkerAndEdgier story clashed with the over-the-top goofy violence of the gameplay, which he felt was unnecessarily limiting the audience.

* WorldOfSnark: One of the reasons he strongly dislikes Creator/JossWhedon's works, believing that it gives all characters the same "voice."

* StoryBranching: As he explains in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNInRhrXHM0 "Stop Pretending Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Games Are Innovative"]], he's thoroughly ''sick'' of adventure games like ''VideoGame/UntilDawn'' or everything [[Creator/QuanticDream David Cage]] has ever made that are basically just big-budget ''Literature/ChooseYourOwnAdventure'' books, but are so self-important and pretentious about presenting themselves as a bold evolution of the medium of video games when they're anything but. He points out that they're not even really branching narratives, as the various branches always have to be kept close to each other because there are only so many assets and locations to go around, so all they're really doing is withholding content for the repeat playthrough, which is even less exciting than the initial one. He's better-inclined towards AlgorithmicStoryBranching because they're closer to proper role playing since they're informed by your gameplay, but still doesn't think they're all that. His ''preferred'' form of player-controlled narrative are the ones where the player gets to influence and control and entirely unscripted [[ProceduralGeneration procedurally-generated]] character's story arc, such as his soldiers in ''VideoGame/XCom'' or the orks generated by the Nemesis System in ''VideoGame/MiddleEarthShadowOfMordor''.

* OddlyNamedSequel2ElectricBoogaloo[=/=]ColonCancer: Yahtzee dislikes game titles with a colon and a subtitle, particularly for games that are not sequels (as in ''VideoGame/BeyondTwoSouls'' and ''VideoGame/LichdomBattlemage''), as he feels it's incredibly pretentious. After losing patience with the trope in the latter game, he has taken to pronouncing the colons in such titles by retching. He also has a specific dislike of game titles that use an abbreviation followed by the name in full, such as ''VideoGame/DmCDevilMayCry''.
* OneHundredPerCentCompletion: By his own admission, he has trouble understanding the completionist mentality, as he himself couldn't care less and focuses on gameplay and story first of all. Therefore, he tends to think lowly of games like ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' that bank on this as their selling point. This also extends to games like ''VideoGame/YoshisIsland'' and ''VideoGame/TemboTheBadassElephant'' that emphasize the need to find all the secrets to "properly" complete a level. In his review of ''Videogame/YoshisCraftedWorld'', he darkly suspects that this was the start of the industry's idea to exploit the "obsessive insinct" that lead to the lootbox-infested live service games of today.

* {{Doorstopper}}: He tends to rag on games that are heavy on dialogue and cutscenes, like ''Franchise/MassEffect'', the ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' series and especially ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'', which he describes as suffering from "verbal diarrhea." Yahtzee loves a good game story, but the operative word is ''"game"'' and he hates games that regularly sit you down and force you to basically watch the most boring parts of a movie instead. This applies as much to text-heavy games like VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment and VideoGame/PillarsOfEternity (though notably subverted in the case of VideoGame/DiscoElysium).

* {{Doorstopper}}: He tends to rag on games that are heavy on dialogue and cutscenes, like ''Franchise/MassEffect'', the ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' series and especially ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'', which he describes as suffering from "verbal diarrhea." Yahtzee loves a good game story, but the operative word is ''"game"'' and he hates games that regularly sit you down and force you to basically watch the most boring parts of a movie instead.

* {{MoodWiplash}}: While not a huge pet peeve, he does get annoyed when a game's story/gameplay can't keep a consistent tone. His review of the 2012 ''VideoGame/TwistedMetal'' has him take umbrage with the way the DarkerAndEdgier story clashed with the over-the-top goofy violence of the gameplay, which he felt was unnecessarily limiting the audience.

* MoodWiplash: While not a huge pet peeve, he does get annoyed when a game's story/gameplay can't keep a consistent tone. His review of the 2012 ''VideoGame/TwistedMetal'' has him take umbrage with the way the DarkerAndEdgier story clashed with the over-the-top goofy violence of the gameplay, which he felt was unnecessarily limiting the audience.

* ItsTheSameNowItSucks: One of his repeat criticisms of Nintendo is that they essentially keep remaking the same games over and over for each of their franchises, especially when said games don't seem to evolve the story or mechanics in any meaningful way from the older titles. ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosWii'' in particular got a blistering TheReasonYouSuckSpeech calling it "a game that has absolutely no right to exist".

* OneHundredPerCentCompletion: By his own admission, he has trouble understanding the completionist mentality, as he himself couldn't care less and focuses on gameplay and story first of all. Therefore, he tends to think lowly of games like ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' that bank on this as their selling point. This also extends to games like ''VideoGame/YoshisIsland'' and ''VideoGame/TemboTheBadassElephant'' that emphasize the need to find all the secrets to "properly" complete a level, which he considers the start of the industry's idea to exploit the "obsessive insinct" that lead to the lootbox-infested live service games of today.
* OscarBait: Has stated a dislike for games such as ''VideoGame/{{Gris}}'' and ''VideoGame/SeaOfSolitude'', since he feels they're all poor attempts at this, following an easy formula for critical success without having any actual depth or subtlety. Often, he finds that the emphasis on atmosphere and art comes at the expense of gameplay direction. Even games like ''VideoGame/OriAndTheBlindForest'' that ''don't'' skimp on gameplay, tend to rub him up the wrong way for affecting this appearance.

* WorldOfSymbolism: As he explains in his ''Videogame/SeaOfSolitude'' review, he dislikes games that affect the ''appearance'' of depth without having any surface level to them, merely shoving unsubtle symbolism in the player's face. He brings up ''Literature/MobyDick'' in comparison, pointing out that while the reader can interpret the book in many ways, they can also just accept the adventure story on it's face, which is something these games don't allow for.

** WorldOfSymbolism: As he explains in his ''Videogame/SeaOfSolitude'' review, he dislikes games that affect the ''appearance'' of depth without having any surface level to them, merely shoving unsubtle symbolism in the player's face. He brings up ''Literature/MobyDick'' in comparison, pointing out that while the reader can interpret the book in many ways, they can also just accept the adventure story on it's face, which is something these games don't allow for.

* RecycledTitle: He really doesn't like the trend of franchise reboots that reuse the name of the first game, such as ''Tomb Raider'', ''Thief'', and ''God of War''. Illustrated in his ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'' review, where he spends the first paragraph talking about the original ''VideoGame/MortalKombat'' and being confused for a while before realizing his "mistake".

** WorldOfSymbolism: As he explains in his ''Videogame/SeaOfSolitude'' review, he dislikes games that affect the ''appearance'' of depth without having any surface level to them, merely shoving unsubtle symbolism in the player's face. He brings up ''Literature/MobyDick'' in comparison, pointing out that while the reader can interpret the book in many ways, they can also just accept the adventure story on it's face, which these games don't allow for.

* OddlyNamedSequel2ElectricBoogaloo[=/=]ColonCancer: Yahtzee dislikes game titles with a colon and a subtitle, particularly for games that are not sequels (as in ''VideoGame/BeyondTwoSouls'' and ''VideoGame/LichdomBattlemage''), as he feels it's incredibly pretentious. After losing patience with the trope in the latter game, he has taken to pronouncing the colons in such titles by retching. He also has a specific dislike of game titles that use an abbreviation followed by the name in full, such as ''VideoGameFTLFasterThanLight''.

---->"''DO YOU SEE HOW CONFUSING THIS GETS?!''"

* ItsPopularNowItSucks: Tends to get his rag on when it comes to the latest industry gameplay trends, such as hero shooters, battle royale games etc., especially when it becomes too prevailant. His ''VideoGame/GhostOfTsushima'' had him whine about the overexposure of "open world stealth/action with crafting and collectables", which he decided to rename to "Jimminy Cockthroat" in the same way he derisively reffered to overly-linear military shooters as "spunkgargleweewee".
* ItsTheSameNowItSucks: One of his repeat criticisms of Nintendo is that they essentially keep remaking the same games over and over for each of their franchises, especially when said games don't seem to evolve the story or mechanics in any meaningful way from the older titles. By the same token, he rails on Ubisoft for most of their games essentially being the same - a sandbox filled with meaningless challenge markers and too much emphasis on player freedom as opposed to structured challenge or story progression.

* OddlyNamedSequel2ElectricBoogaloo: Yahtzee dislikes game titles with a colon and a subtitle, particularly for games that are not sequels (as in ''VideoGame/BeyondTwoSouls'' and ''VideoGame/LichdomBattlemage''). He has taken to pronouncing the colons in such titles by retching.

* RealIsBrown: He's rather frequently put out that everything is either grey or "dogshit brown" in "realistic" games.
* RecycledTitle: He really doesn't like the trend of franchise reboots that reuse the name of the first game, such as ''Tomb Raider'', ''Thief'', and ''God of War''.

* {{Sequelitis}}: [[invoked]] His biggest issue with the current games industry.

* {{Waggle}}: [[invoked]] One of his key issues with Nintendo consoles, because how shoehorned-in it seems.

* ItsPopularNowItSucks: Tends to get his rag on when it comes to the latest industry gameplay trends, such as hero shooters, battle royale games etc., especially when it becomes too prevailant. His ''VideoGame/GhostOfTsushima'' had him whine about the recent overexposure of "open world stealth/action with crafting and collectables", which he decided to rename to "Jimminy Cockthroat" in the same way he derisively reffered to overly-linear military shooters as "spunkgargleweewee".
* ItsTheSameNowItSucks: One of his repeat criticisms of Nintendo is that they essentially keep remaking the same games over and over for each of their franchises, especially when said games don't seem to evolve the story or mechanics in any meaningful way from the older titles. By the same token, he rails on Ubisoft for their recent games essentially being the same - a sandbox filled with meaningless challenge markers and too much emphasis on player freedom as opposed to structured challenge or story progression.

Yahtzee Croshaw has a lengthly list of peeves, and its gotten longer as time passes. As he's been releasing videos weekly for over ''twelve years'' now, and trends have inevitably shifted, and some of his pet peeves are elements that were ''extremely'' common trends in games across the industry at one point (which meant he was exposed to them very frequently), but aren't as common now.

* PressXToNotDie: Trope namer, as noted above. He has clarified that he doesn't mind (well, doesn't mind as much) QuicktimeEvents when they're part of the core gameplay (as in ''VideoGame/HeavyRain''), but objects when they are unexpectedly thrown into the middle of a cutscene, as in this trope. Ironically, despite it being one of his best-known peeves, the fact the trend is far less common after the seventh generation of consoles means it doesn't come up as much. When some game still does have them, he makes abundantly clear he still hates them.
* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: Nothing turns Yahtzee off a protagonist quicker than the dissonance between how the writing portrays a character and the horrible, horrible things they do in course of the plot. Naughty Dog protagonists grind his gears the most, accusing the stories of running on the philosophy of "Fuck you, got mine."

* RecycledTitle: He really doesn't like the trend of franchise reboots that reuse the name of the first game. Examples include Tomb Raider, Thief, and God of War. He actually seems to have developed quite a few pet peeves when it comes to naming games beyond this.

* UpdatedRerelease: Especially when Creator/{{Nintendo}} do it. This isn't true in every case, however. He supports rereleases for older games that are more difficult for newer gamers to play, such as ''VideoGame/{{Okami}}'' and ''VideoGame/Killer7'', and supports some as preserving important pieces of the medium. Or in the case of games he really likes, such as Resident Evil 4, he's far more understanding of ''constant'' porting to new systems.
* VideoGameLives: Believes the trope to be long obsolete.

* KarmaMeter: He argues that usually "you need to be all the way good or all the way evil to unlock the best toys" which eliminates choice and forces an evil player to do some really ridiculous things to maintain their evilness. He also argues that such meters are "just forcing us to play the game twice to see all the content."

* ItsTheSameNowItSucks: One of his repeat criticisms of Nintendo is that they essentially keep remaking the same games over and over for each of their franchises, especially when said games don't seem to evolve the story or mechanics in any meaningful way from the older titles. ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosWii'' got particular ire in this regard, as he declared it as having no right to exist when older games were ostensibly better and accused Nintendo of being willfully blind to technological innovation.

* FakeDifficulty: ...except when [[SomeDexterityRequired the controls suck]], [[ArtificialStupidity the AI sucks]] and TheComputerIsACheatingBastard.

*** In his review of ''VideoGame/{{Inversion}}'', he compares cover-based shooting to the glue holding a model airplane together, i.e. the bits connecting the interesting parts of a game. Therefore, the idea of any gameplay gimmick existing to serve the cover-based shooting is akin to, in his words, [[InsaneTrollLogic "grinding up the model airplane components to help beef up the glue."]]

** OneHundredPerCentCompletion: By his own admission, he has trouble understanding the completionist mentality, as he himself couldn't care less and focuses on gameplay and story first of all. Therefore, he tends to think lowly of games like ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' that bank on this as their selling point. This also extends to games like ''VideoGame/YoshisIsland'' and ''VideoGame/TemboTheBadassElephant'' that emphasize the need to find all the secrets to "properly" complete a level, which he considers the start of the industry's idea to exploit the "obsessive insinct" that lead to the lootbox-infested live service games of today.

* RummageSaleReject: He often criticizes [[EasternRPG JRPGs]] for their eccentric costume designs.

* TakeCover: One of his main beefs with shooters (particularly during the seventh-generation of consoles). In his [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/1976-Kane-Lynch-2-Dog-Days review]] of ''VideoGame/KaneAndLynch 2: Dog Days'', he observed that he doesn't mind this trope as long as it's not the ''only'' thing the player is expected to care about. In his words, "you can still have it, in all its pop-up shooting gallery tedium, but you've got to have something else!" Such as stealth gameplay for ''Deus Ex: Human Revolution'', BulletTime for ''Max Payne 3'', or an amazing story for ''Spec Ops: the Line''.

* WorldOfSnark: One of the reasons he strongly dislikes Creator/JossWhedon's works, believing that it gives all characters the same "voice."

* SeasonalRot: Probably his single biggest example is seeing a terrible game in a series that he loves. He was downright savage to ''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeFederationForce'', and the less said about ''Franchise/SilentHill'', the better.

* PressXToNotDie: Trope namer, as noted above. He has clarified that he doesn't mind (well, doesn't mind as much) QuicktimeEvents when they're part of the core gameplay (as in ''VideoGame/HeavyRain''), but objects when they are unexpectedly thrown into the middle of a cutscene, as in this trope. Ironically, despite it being one of his best-known peeves, the fact the trend is far less common after the seventh generation of consoles means it doesn't come up as much. When some game still does have them, he makes abundently clear he still hates them.

* TakeCover: One of his main beefs with shooters (particulary during the seventh-generation of consoles). In his [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/1976-Kane-Lynch-2-Dog-Days review]] of ''VideoGame/KaneAndLynch 2: Dog Days'', he observed that he doesn't mind this trope as long as it's not the ''only'' thing the player is expected to care about. In his words, "you can still have it, in all its pop-up shooting gallery tedium, but you've got to have something else!" Such as stealth gameplay for ''Deus Ex: Human Revolution'', BulletTime for ''Max Payne 3'', or an amazing story for ''Spec Ops: the Line''.

** SeasonalRot: Probably his single biggest example is seeing a terrible game in a series that he loves. He was downright savage to ''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeFederationForce'', and the less said about ''Franchise/SilentHill'', the better.