[butterguns]

"- Don't make the player go all the way to the end, then all the way to the beginning, then all the way to the end again."

I'm looking at you, Metal Gear Solid.

[qcoh]

I think it made the location in Metal Gear Solid seem much more real. Aside from maybe Deus Ex I don't know any games where this worked well without feeling like backtracking.

[butterguns]

For me, I just felt that brought on a sense of monotony. The entire sequence could take a good couple of hours. Good game design drives you onwards because you're excited about what's coming next (the same rule applies with good novel writing). I would instead groan to myself and think "ugh, again?".

The story was the redeeming feature throughout this sequence however.

[petercooper]

To get the top "grandmaster" rank, Tetris: The Grandmaster 3 requires you beat the game to the second hardest rank 4 out of 7 consecutive runs. To even get that second hardest rank once require years of practice. (Yes, I've been watching AGDQ this week to learn this. Supposedly only 5 people have ever accomplished it.)

[_random_]

Portals could be an in-app-purchase, so it's better to do exactly that all the time.