#15: Treasure Island Dizzy (Codemasters, Commodore 64, 1988)

Treasure Island Dizzy being set on, obviously, an island means that large sections of the game take place underwater. And while I’m sure no one would have questioned the logistics of an anthropomorphic egg being able to breathe underwater, the Oliver Twins decided to add a rubber snorkel that Dizzy must be carrying in order to survive in the sea. So if you dropped the snorkel in one of these screens, you would die, and respawn at the start of the screen. Without the snorkel. So you would die. Again. And so on, until all of your lives were gone. Or, even worse, if you dropped the snorkel underwater on a beach screen, you would respawn on the beach, with your snorkel left in the sea, totally unreachable, thus rendering the game impossible to complete. By the time this minor issue was noticed, the rapid approach of deadlines meant that there was no time to program in, for example, a system whereby any items dropped on the screen in which you died would be returned to you, or perhaps making the snorkel a permanently equipped item. No, they could either do nothing and leave the bug intact, or remove the lives counter and give you just one to work with. They chose the latter.