230: The Pains of Being The Guy

[Richard Poskozim]

The Pains of Being The Guy

For some players, it's about the humor. For others, it's the nostalgia. But regardless of what keeps them coming back, most players agree that the game is pure torture. Richard Poskozim speaks with the creator of I Wanna Be The Guy, the hardest videogame of all time, ever.

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[Voltano]

Wow...Reading this makes me realize how much of a sadist the developer of "I Wanna Be The Guy" is.

I suck at platformers (and don't care to much for them), though I only got as far as the Moon scene in medium difficulty in that game.

Though it makes me wonder if I'm a sadist like the developer because I enjoy watching people's pain on Youtube as well. xD

 

[Bernzz]

With that game, I gave up. I'd simply had enough of it. Some people, however, have a lot more devotion than I do. A lot. And no, I don't hold any of that anger and frustration against the creator. He sounds like an alright guy.

An alright guy that makes impossible games, yes, but an alright guy.

 

[Snork Maiden]

It's not impossible unless you put it on impossible (unless you aren't mortal). Sure it took me 7 hours and 1700 deaths, but I did it. I actually thought it was quite a well put together platformer.

 

[Syntax Error]

It was once said that Kayin locked a group of elementary school kids in a room with the hardest of Nintendo Hard games. Whichever sections made them cry are the challenges found in IWBTG.

 

[mcmicker]

I didn't actually find IWBTG /that/ hard. Of course, it did take me countless days to get to the final boss, and I still haven't beaten him...

 

[Hiphophippo]

I've played a large amount of iwtbtg getting probably only 8 screens in. It's strangely addicting. I've always thought it'd be a great addition to xbox live. Achievements would make it worth the pain.

 

[Dectilon]

"the hardest videogame of all time, ever."

Buuuuuull-shiiiiit

If that was true no one would enjoy playing it. The hardest game wouldn't even allow for memorization.

I'm a fan of ROMhacks of Megaman myself, of which many are ridiculously difficult. The thing is though, they're expertly designed and inventive. I'd go so far as saying that, for instance, Deus ex Machina (a Megaman 2 romhack) is better than the game it is based on.

IWBTG is unfair, sure, but it's unfair in a way that keeps you interested. You want to see what new and bastardly ways the creator has thought up to kill you on the next screen. And so you keep on playing. The same thing (kind of) applies to games like Kaizo Mario World, but to be quite honest those games rely a bit too much on having exactly the right timing on a ton of different jumps, many of which are almost entirely luck-based. IWBTG has more room for error; you actually have time to react to things that happen for the most part.

 

[CopperBoom]

It was once said that Kayin locked a group of elementary school kids in a room with the hardest of Nintendo Hard games. Whichever sections made them cry are the challenges found in IWBTG.

Wow this game even has "Lore" to it, are there commandments written on huge stone slabs?
Like "Thou Shalt Not Play On Easy" or "Thou Must Invoke The Words Of Curse Upon Death".

 

[Scrythe]

It was once said that Kayin locked a group of elementary school kids in a room with the hardest of Nintendo Hard games. Whichever sections made them cry are the challenges found in IWBTG.

That. Fucking. Water. Temple.

 

[Heart of Darkness]

Heh, I want to go back and finish this game now. I only have one boss left before I fight the dragon and The Guy. (Mother Brain is haaaarrrdddd....)

 

[Shattubatu]

I love this game, my friend and I had a race to see who could beat it first and he won I pretty much gave up after that, I think I've killed about 5/ bosses and im stuck on the bowser/wart/willy/clowncopter boss. Still, awesome game

 

[Sylocat]

Funny story: I escaped the "fake error message" trap the first time I got it... because I was playing on a Mac via WINE, so I knew a Windows error message couldn't be real.

 

[Mertruve]

Wait, I thought that when the first guy reported beating the game on Impossible, it was the creator that said "you're not serious are you" Oo

 

[esperandote]

I didn't actually find IWBTG /that/ hard. Of course, it did take me countless days to get to the final boss, and I still haven't beaten him...

Same here, i mean, i found it hard but i got to the boss and i still haven't beaten him.

Funny story: I escaped the "fake error message" trap the first time I got it... because I was playing on a Mac via WINE, so I knew a Windows error message couldn't be real.

That is funny.

 

[Motakikurushi]

I originally found the concept of IWBTG funny, and some of the levels were hilarious, but after watching a 'Let's play' and witnessing the player literally have an emotional breakdown atfer trying and failing the same screen over 100 times (he was physically weeping), the fun dissapeared.
I thought Inward Chaos from Dissidia was PSP-snappingly difficult, but I played about 1 minute of IWBTG, realised that I wasn't having fun, and stopped. I'm glad I made that decision.

 

[arcstone]

I've played this game.

All I can say is that if satan was a game, he'd be IWBTG.

 

[Satin6T]

i fucking love/hate this game

 

[JLrep]

It's amusing enough, and I'm all for difficulty, but I'm fundamentally against any game where the only way to improve is to memorize every screen.