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Every once in awhile we run into a game that is not necassarily irredeemably bad–although it very well might be–but is so poorly designed and repetitive that it is absolutely mind numbing. We have to ask ourselves "Who designed this, and for what sick purpose?" Well, there is one game that was intentionally designed for this reason, although it was never officially released…

Desert Bus simulator.

                                                            Dear GOD.

I am referring of course to Penn & Teller's Smoke and Mirrors, a game that was nearly completed for the Sega CD but was (fortunately?) cancelled. Included in this work of possible genius was the mini-game Desert Bus. In this portion of the game, you are required to drive from Tuscon to Vegas, and your reward is the ability to drive back…and forth. It was a trick game, designed so that you could not just tape down the accelerator button because the truck would slowly drift to the left or right, so constant monitoring was required.

A charity playthough of this title was just completed at http://desertbus.org/ where a group of gamers take shifts torturing themselves playing the game in order to raise money for Child's Play. Well, they raised a LOT this year, so they deserve some hearty congratulations.

To get to the point, my question… "What is your personal Desert Bus?". What game do you find so repetitive and sleep inducing that the only way you would want to play it is to raise money for sick children? Arcade games do not count, unfortunately.

For me personally, I would have to say Stranglehold for the Xbox 360 or Playstation 3. I made it up to the second stage with all of it's running and diving and shooting-in-a-crowd-of-doves before I started to get a little bit sick of it. However, after all that Inspector Tequila grabs on to a helicopter and you must gun down wave after wave after wave of what I think were drug dealers. After what felt like half an hour I had to put down my controller with the realization that I will never play this game again, except for the children.
They somehow made this scene very unexciting.

                                                      Never again, John Woo. Never again.

I should mention that Strangehold is neither the most repetitive or the worst game I have ever played, not by a long shot. It is a recent example of a game that made me quite literally fall asleep in the middle of an action sequence.
In conclusion, Strangehold is my personal Desert Bus! What is yours?