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[lucebuce12]

Active reload in Gears of War was just soooo satisfying.

 

[Ouroboros]

Shifting world planes in Soul Reaver was always fun and a great puzzle solving mechanic.

 

[theaffection]

Red Faction Guerilla- Geomod/Destructible environment

 

[shoryukens]

The parry from Third Strike.

The press turn system from Shim Megami Tensei Nocturne onwards.

 

[FiveSide]

Limited saves in any games that implement the mechanic. Early Resident Evils, Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter, etc.

There is no better way to ramp up a constant sense of tension and dread in the back of the player's mind. If you're going for that kind of atmosphere, turning saving into a precious commodity, instead of an endless luxury, is probably the best way to accomplish it.

 

[RooMHM]

Halo:
- Recharging health, so action is always tense and character still vulnerable without needless time spent searching for healthpacks
- Dedicated grenade, just as important as shooting + perfect trajectory mechanics
- 2 weapon limit
- Universal driving / FPS controls, this was a stroke of genius
- Set standard for dual stick/triggers for FPS

Changed console FPS forever, like Mario 64 did for 3D adventure.

Wow, perfect list of fps regression. All these changes for the worse ...

 

[Begaria]

Bloodborne's Rally mechanic is a brilliant risk/reward system that encourages you to play aggressively. After taking damage, you're able to regain some of your lost health if you decide to counter (at the risk of being punished).

Nioh's Ki Pulse is a bit like Active Reload in Gears, but it proves to be crucial for intelligently managing your stamina and adds a great deal of depth to the game's combat (especially if you want to turn battles into speedy ordeals).

I second this.

 

[koss424]

Z targeting probably changed 3d combat the most in the last 20 years. But Portal blew my mind.

 

[TheSpaceBetween]

Dokey Kong Kountry series roll jump
Grinding in Sunset Overdrive
Sliding/Time stop combo in Vanquish
morphball/bombs/boost/spiderball in Metroid Prime series
cartwheel and long jump in SM64.

To name a few...

 

[Ravelle]

Dungeon Siege's evolving skills and class.

The more you use a weapon or spell, the better you become at it and the better you get at the skills or spells the game assigns a class title to you, if you spent a fair amount of time with a sword and spells for example you become a battlemage or whatever the game's naming for that was. It was really amazing for that time and don't see that type of progression save for Elder Scrolls.

 

[Crab Milk Mickey]

VFX in Viewtiful Joe: easy to understand, yet multi-faceted in its capabilities and enables unrivalled flow of mobility in a side-scroller.
Ki Pulse and stance-swapping in Nioh: conceptually straight-forward, but allows for a great amount of nuanced depth.
Unite Morph in Wonderful 101: creative method of seamlessly swapping weapons or abilities without interruption.
Judgement Ring in Shadow Hearts: adds an interesting, active dynamic to the turn-based battle system.
Glory kills in DOOM: when enabling the runes that give you a speed boost and cut down the animation length, that is.
Water in Wave Race: Blue Storm: nothing else like it in a racing game (especially in thunderstorms) and I like how the tracks subtly change per lap.
Shifting in Gravity Rush: could use a better camera, but the feeling thereof trounces other games that attempted flight.
Timer in Dead Rising 1: nothing special in isolation, but like Majora's Mask the entire game (map, quests, story, ...) is intricately balanced around it.

 

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

Limited saves in any games that implement the mechanic. Early Resident Evils, Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter, etc.

There is no better way to ramp up a constant sense of tension and dread in the back of the player's mind. If you're going for that kind of atmosphere, turning saving into a precious commodity, instead of an endless luxury, is probably the best way to accomplish it.

This is a good one. Hitman uses them really well, too.

 

[Raptor]

Bloodborne

A fucking bullet to the face to parry and then visceral with the bare hands with a bucket of blood spraying!!

Cant get more satisfying than that.

 

[Mr. Poolman]

Scream button on Chivalry: Medieval Warfare.

So goddamn funny!

 

[autoduelist]

Nemesis system in Mordor -- this was a brilliant, brilliant idea and it's amazing no one thought of it earlier. There's no 'tech requirement'... we could have had recurring random enemies back in ascii games if someone had thought of it, so it merely took this long for the idea to be born. Amazing new mechanic when so much has already been done.

Aiming/shooting in Valkryia Chronicles -- I love the idea of an aim circle... that is, your stats dictate how big the circle you'll hit within, and you choose where the circle goes. Do you secure a body shot? Risk going for the head and missing? Love it. It feels more organic than hit percentages, hiding numbers behind a very visual mechanic [note: I also like hit %].

 

[BrianRoyale]

Mega Man 4 (or 3) having the Charge shot. Thought that was pretty cool stuff. I think in MM 3 he could slide, which was also great.
No clue if MegaMan was even the start of that stuff in games, but it's the first time i remember it.

 

[Ushay]

Can't believe nobody has mentioned this yet.

Environmental combat in Divinity OS. Superbly implemented, more games need to do this.

Also aim assist in Halo was a game changer.

 

[Ushay]

Shifting world planes in Soul Reaver was always fun and a great puzzle solving mechanic.

This classic still hasn't been toppled in my eyes, one of the greatest games ever made.

 

[Noboru Wataya]

Katamari's sticky ball. Ticks so many boxes, feels intuitive to control, and is just so satisfying cleaning up all the mess in your path.

 

[Elfstar]

Timer between checkpoints in old arcade racing games, it forces you to actually learn how to drive through every track and to always give your best performance.

 

[sonicmj1]

Over the shoulder aim in RE4/5, it's perfect and allows for incredible precision during the action. It doesn't work without how your characters move and the actions they can perform but it's still the key to these games being some of the best action games ever.

For me, it's the combination of the over-the-shoulder aim and the context-sensitive melee attacks it enables. It creates this great push-pull that I always find satisfying, where you're put under pressure by having to stop and aim (restricting your movement and your peripheral vision), and then rewarded with this climactic payoff that makes you temporarily invincible and clears space around you.

I think Bayonetta's Witch Time feels great for very similar reasons.

 

[Cranster]

Halo:
- Recharging health, so action is always tense and character still vulnerable without needless time spent searching for healthpacks
- Dedicated grenade, just as important as shooting + perfect trajectory mechanics
- 2 weapon limit
- Universal driving / FPS controls, this was a stroke of genius
- Set standard for dual stick/triggers for FPS

Changed console FPS forever, like Mario 64 did for 3D adventure.

Yup, the golden tripod of FPS games was one of the biggest game changers of the 6th console generation.

 

[JCHandsom]

Pausing

 

[Katzenjammer]

Splatoon is pretty much the most interesting game I have played from a game design perspective in years and years, recently only The Witness has come close to it for me. Of course everything in the game revolves around the squid button, so I'd have to say: the squid/kid mechanic.

 

[Keym]

 

[jg4xchamp]

Dodge offset in Bayonetta.

 

[Tiops]

- Final Fantasy XII Gambit System
- Super Metroid style wall jump (with full control and requiring the player to change directions during the input)
- Dark Souls 1 parry and riposte
- ZOE2 Zero Shift
- Chrono Trigger Double and Triple Techs
- Grandia cancel system in battles

 

[KingBroly]

Scanning in Metroid Prime

 

[old]

Gears of War - Action reload cancel.
Risk/reward during reload. Even made reloading fun.

Suikoden - Recruiting 100+ people and base building
Made the game feel epic. Gave you lots of to do and to see the effects of your actions.

Shadow Hearts - Fate Wheel
Made turn- based combat fun. Shout out to Legend of Dragoon for using a similar rhythm based attack mechanic.

Burnout - Boost through dangerous driving
Risk/Reward. Drive dangerously, go faster. Drive on the other side of road. Weave through traffic. Near miss cars. All make you go faster.

Borderlands - Second Wind
Get a second life if you kill someone during your dying breaths. Encourages aggressive play.

Call of Duty - Kill Cams
I stole so many usable class setups, perk setups, weapon setups, and general gameplay tactics and positioning from watching other players beat me. Should be called STEAL CAMS. Cuz I stole all your decision points. Makes games massively more approachable. Let's new players quickly steal what the informed players are choosing for their setups and how they use them.

 

[Rajang]

Telltale, press X to story.

So deep.

 

[Baron von Loathsome]

Changing direction mid-air in Super Mario Bros. That by itself redeemed the platformer genre.

 

[Van Bur3n]

Bullet time. Shooting and slow motion was meant to be.

 

[Jo Shishido's Cheeks]

Drift Boost in Mario Kart is legitimately one of the greatest of all time.

 

[phantasmic_glaive]

Street Fighter 2's

 

[tiebreaker]

Ico's designated button to hold hands.

 

[Stiler]

Donkey Kong - Jumping
Duke Nukem - Kicking (not sure if it was the first or not, just the one I remember it in)
Half Life 2 - Use of physics to manipulate the world/objects
Assassin's Creed - Climbing/Parkour; You could put BOTW here as well, it lets you climb a lot more things but it's not as detailed as AC's climbing.

 

[Spooky Scary Skeleton]

Advanced Warfare's Press F to to Pay Respects

 

[Layell]

Two screen combat in The World Ends With You

Two screens, two complementary combat systems, and one health bar between both players. The top screen is your partner who dishes out combat on the D-pad and helps you build your super moves. On the bottom screen is your character who has a ton of damage dealing and healing options. You have to balance your combos on both screens and pass the light puck between both screens, essentially a hot potato that builds your score higher. The system also enriches the story element of working together and trusting your partner. You are rewarded for working well together, and as the game progresses you both gain more abilities.

It's so darn addictive and it's genius.

The bash ability in Ori is also really fun too, I love all the crazy stuff you can do with it, feels game breaking when you get it really early.

 

[rackham]

Mega Man X style dash and wall jump

Dishonored vaulting, sliding and BLINK. Especially Blink. Daud's blink preferably.

 

[hey_it's_that_dog]

Not to take anything away from Glory Kills but why does DOOM get the credit for doing what God of War has done since 2005? And maybe some game even did it before that.

 

[ethomaz]

Probably Destiny's gunplay.

 

[nny]

Portal Gun
Gravity Rush's "falling/flying"

 

[Neptonic]

The parry in any game

 

[old manatee]

I loved recycling and fabricating in Prey. You pick up all kinds of trash and dump it into the recycler, which spits out little cubes of raw materials, and then you use those at the fabricator to craft anything that you've found a schematic for. A million recent games have variations on these systems, but the way they are implemented in Prey is ridiculously satisfying. They streamlined everything down by making it perfectly clear which stuff is trash, and by not making you remember or input recipes manually. Also the machines look and sound cool, and you operate them by using a little touch screen on the machine instead of just a menu popping up. Also Also there are recycler grenades that recycle enemies and trash in the environment and spit out little cubes of raw materials.

 

[CrimsonCrescendo]

Mario: Platforming in general. Been innovating and perfecting mechanics for three decades in both 2D and 3D.

Devil May Cry: Style Meter, Taunting, Devil Buster, and Exceed.

Resident Evil 4 - 6: Melee and gunplay interplay

Mario RPG series: Timed Hits

Gears of War: Active Reload

 

[NathanDiego]

A lot of good choices here,so one I not saw mentioned yet,one of my favorites is in Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons,controlling them at same time,each brother his own sticks and buttons,solving puzzles at same time

 

[Nasbin]

Skiing from Tribes for sure, and it was the result of a bug! It's criminal that nobody has ever really sought to salvage this for other games.

 

[shawnoftheshred]

I doubt it's been mentioned yet, but NHL's skill stick was a revelation...made huge strides in making video game hockey feel more accurate and more creative. It's a really under appreciated mechanic at this point, I think, but I can't imagine ever playing a hockey game that doesn't use it.

 

[David___]

Rocket boots in Vanquish. Without those it would be just a normal 3rd person cover shooter. With those it transforms the game into a character action game/tps hybrid. So satisfying getting close to an enemy, blasting it to pieces with a shotgun, then boosting away from gunfire

 

[AmyS]

No question in my mind, holding down the fire button to build up energy and release it in one shot.