I am sure everyone knows what the tutorial level is and I am also sure that some of you readers can agree with me that they are one of the most annoying things about video games today and within the past decade. For those who don’t know what I’m talking about, the tutorial level is a level in a game that teaches you the basic mechanics of the game. Why is this so bad that I’m raging about it? It’s the fact every developer out there deems it necessary to have this level mandatory to complete in order to learn how jump and then double-jump. This makes the notion that these developers are targeting their games toward the “casual” crowd, non-gamers, or even your grandmother. Because, hell, everyone is a brand new player into the world of video games but let’s get back on track.

I know neither that all games do not have a tutorial level nor that all games have it mandatory – but I’m not talking about all games. I am talking about the games within this generation and those in last generation where the majority of games had the tutorial level. I am sick of playing a level where it does nothing to teach me, does nothing to advance the story, and most importantly, it does nothing to entertain me. Press A to jump, press square to shoot, swing your controller to awkwardly attack – it’s just plain annoying, especially when the game offers nothing complex to the already copy-and-paste game play of its genre.

I remember back in my day, we would actually read the game manual to know what the hell to do it and I got to admit I find it more entertaining because the manual was there to help get familiar with the game and sometimes double as an art book. It takes mere minutes to completely understand the game when reading the manual which is far greater than listening, waiting, doing, and repeating those same things within the game for good half an hour just to get into the game. Hell, I remember when games didn’t even have tutorial levels at all and that was great because if I rented a game which most likely won’t include a manual, it will require me to think and actually figure it out – to me that was fun.

I want to name a few memorable horrific tutorial levels or tutorial-esque levels to show how horrible that they really are. Let’s start with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time which I’m sure a lot of people have played. This game made it feel like the whole beginning of it was a tutorial level thanks to the nagging little fairy that won’t ever shut up or even that stupid owl that kept blabbing on and on, forcing you to smash the A button until you realize you just made him repeat the same explanation all over again because the developers thought it would be funny if they made “No” or rather “No, I do not understand please waste more of my time” the default choice after the long winded explanation.

If anyone is a fan of the Thief series, knows that the third one had a bad tutorial level as well. I know very well the first two had a “Training level” but guess what? They didn’t force it down your throat; so why make the third in the series any different? It might be the fact to dumb it down for the console playing faggots to tell them that moving slowly equaled sneaking or to try to make the fact that light made it so people can see you. What’s worse is that the tutorial level forced you do it the exact way they wanted. What the hell is this? I did whatever the hell I wanted to complete my mission and that choice of freedom is what made me like the games so much. This just proves the trend that developers are following, to dumb it down for the ADD ridden kids of today or for your mother – thus the “casual” problem that we see today. The first two Thief games,

I think the worst of the worst though is Kingdom Hearts 2. What the hell were the developers thinking to make the first 2 hours a tutorial level? Yeah, 2 hours. That whole entire 2 hours of tutorial and “story” could have been summed up in five minutes, or if you like it easy, a few seconds – press triangle to win. I enjoyed the first Kingdom Hearts fully and its tutorial level was nowhere as bad as its successor. The only entire first two hours of this game felt like a real chore to get to the actual game, it’s like eating broccoli to get that piece of unfulfilling candy – all because of the tutorial level.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I understand that some players out there love the tutorial level to get a grip on the game and that’s fine and dandy. It’s just seems like developers out there forget that, there are people who hate tutorial levels as well as the people who like the tutorial levels. Thus the simple solution to this is that making the tutorial level skippable or even out of the whole story completely. Having that extra option at the main menu of game dedicated to the tutorial level might be a good way to go. Another simple way is having the tutorial level non-intrusive to the game, like a little float saying what button does what and that’s it; not stopping the action completely and waiting for you, the player, to repeat what they just said. I hope the trend of bad, forced tutorial levels will end soon and the developers remember who the original video gaming audience is, because we have not forgotten how to play video games.