IMO it’s jumping that has almost no horizontal movement or that completely stops the character from running.
After playing Guardians of the galaxy, this was the thing I hated the most about it…why make the jumps move you so little?
DMC also does this, the jumps are high, but they barely move horizontally and your character stops dead on his tracks before being to jump.
If you want to know if the creative force behind a game is bankrupt. Look for “obligatory” stuff and filler they shoved in there just because the game “should” have it. Like a pointless water level, a completely unnecessary car chase. An utterly meaningless love story.
Games without soul is easily spotted by implementing mechanics, scenes, characters, or gameplay elements that feel like they are in there ONLY because they felt they should be just for the sake of it. Instead of going for something original, fun, or different.
Worst way to implement a mechanic is when a mechanic feels like a forced formulaic element shoved in there with zero passion. A useless water level, car chase, or a pointless love story are just some of the more basic examples but there’s hundreds of ways they can mess that up.