You ever have a game that, no matter how hard you tried, and no matter how many times you tried, you just couldn't beat it?

Well, that happened to me back in 2003. There was this game, Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga. And I absolutely loved it. It was engaging, and hilarious. And with my Gameboy Player, I was able to play the game on my TV, so my dad would watch, creating that many more memories of the game (he found it quite hilarious as well).

The game ended up becoming one of my favorite games of all time. But there was one problem. I never beat it.

The final boss in that game is rough. Like any good JRPG final boss, it has two forms. The first form isn't especially difficult, but the problem is that at the start of the second form, Mario and Luigi only have 1 HP a piece, regardless of how well or poorly you were doing. And, of course, the second phase starts with the bosses turn, or rather turns, as the boss gets three turns (or each part of the boss gets a turn, and there's three parts to it). So, you have to successfully dodge/counter its attacks, because if you die on that first turn, it's game over. And then you reload from the last save, and have to fight the first phase all over again.

And, despite my numerous attempts, I never beat the final boss back in 2003. Eventually I just gave up. Until today.

See, the other day, I brought my GameCube over to my cousins' house so we could celebrate the Cube's 10th anniversary, but beforehand, I noticed that my copy of Superstar Saga was still in the Gameboy Player. So, I took it out and put it with my DS and all my Gameboy games. And, today, I decided to give the game a try (rather than the various essays I need to write within the next couple weeks).

And, after three or four tries, I beat it! Then it turned out that there was a little bit of platforming afterwords (which was timed, and I almost ran out, which would have been terrible), but I did it! I BEAT THE GAME!

I can't tell you how good it felt. This was something that's been in the back of my head for around 8 years. And I finally beat it!

Man, that felt good. Now I know how my dad felt when he beat the story mode in Diddy Kong Racing 9 years after starting that (though he didn't play it for 7 1/2 years). Yes, that actually happened.

So, now thinking about it, there's only one other game I haven't beaten that I feel like I need to: Dead Rising. But I'll take another stab at that game another day. For now, I bask in the glory of my accomplishment.

So, anyone else have stories of years spent trying to beat games (or coming back years later and beating something)?

Also, I am happy.

Oh, and I feel like I should say that I beat the other Mario and Luigi games a long while ago. And the Paper Mario games. So I'm caught up on the Mario RPGs that I've played. And yes, I know about the one I haven't. I'll get on that one day. Watching Chrono Trigger has definitely increased my interest in JRPGs (especially 2D SNES-ish ones).