I need to knock some games off of my list.
So seeing as how you're reading this, you probably like video games. After all, you are on a site about video games. You've probably played them, too. You have also - most likely - gotten stuck in them. Why do we get stuck in video games? Isn't it the designer's job to make sure we know where we're supposed to go? "Well, yes," you say, "but you can also get stuck at parts that are too hard, and that's not always the designer's fault." Okay, I suppose. What if you're too stubborn to change the difficulty level?
There are different circumstances under which one can get "stuck" in a game. Yes, it happens less frequently nowadays, but we all come to a grinding halt sometimes.
Confusion
(Yes, FAQs make this very scarce, but in this scenario we can either be back when they weren't readily available, or without an internet connection, playing a portable game)"Where am I supposed to go?" "What am I supposed to do here?"
If you've ever asked either of these questions while playing a video game, and you haven't made any progress at all for a few hours, congratulations. You're stuck. Maybe it's late at night, and you're not thinking as clearly as you should be. That's fine, I suppose. Go to bed, wake up, and if you beat it the next day - great. The cases I'm specifically talking about here, though, are the more extreme ones. Stuck in a certain part for days, weeks, or even months. If you've ever experienced this, you know that it's horrible.
The best example of this happening to me has to be in Paper Mario. I love the game to death, but as a kid there was one part I could never get past.
Did you see it? A series of torches indicates which door you should take through the series of next rooms, whether it be on the top or bottom floor. For whatever reason, I COULD NEVER BEAT THIS AS A KID. I swear I did it right! It never worked. Never. I was stuck on this room for months. I bought the strategy guide. That helped! I followed the pattern... nope! Nada. Nothing. Zilch.
When I finally got past this room, I cried tears of joy.
There is another, more recent example, but it's a bit embarrassing. You see, I'm stuck in Metroid Prime 3. There's a morph ball tunnel that I can't seem to navigate correctly. A shame, because I love the Prime series, and I really want some closure. FAQs do nothing to ease my pain. Oh well. It stays on the list.
Difficulty
You know the drill on this one. This is the more common form of getting stuck in a video game. This is the throw-your-controller-at-the-wall situation. This is where you can't beat an enemy. This is where you can't make that last jump. This is where you miss the note in the middle of the solo.This is when a game is just too hard.
Ninja Gaiden, Mega Man, Devil May Cry. All great series, all hard as hell.
Do I even need to explain it? You've tried everything. You've tried using a different weapon. You've tried killing different enemies first. You've tried timing your jumps better. At the cost of your own pride, you'v even tried lowering the difficulty level. But nothing seems to work.
If you can beat it, the payoff is incredible. The suffering, however, is the worst part.
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Gonna take a chance and post this in the General Discussion section. So discuss!
Do you have a game you can't (or couldn't) beat? Don't know where to go next? Tried everything, to no avail?
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