Getting Stuck in Video Games

This happens to me a lot in platformers, especially Sonic games. And it really isn't anyone's fault but my own; I just can't seem to get Sonic to do what I want him to do. It took years for me to beat DKC2 and Super Mario World...

 

I can confess I have never finished Zelda II: The Adventure of Link because of the giant blue jellies (Bots) in the Great Palace. It doesn't help that they just drop out of nowhere.

 

There are only a few times I've been stuck in a video game-

- I first remember being stuck at the first Pokémon Ranger's Steelix as a kid. I'd imagine most of the people here would be aware of the fact that you have to spin your stylus around a Pokémon to consider it caught, and thankfully, the size does not scale for the most part, so most Pokémon end up being relatively small. Steelix is still massive though, and the lines you can draw can only be so long before the start of the line can't reach the end anymore. Normally the line touching a Pokémon or removing your stylus makes you start over again, but only the Pokémon directly attacking the line will make it lose HP, but Steelix touching the line makes it lose HP. Even though it has no other attacks, this boss was the hardest in the game for me as a kid, and it took me countless tries to finally beat it.

- As a kid, I also got stuck at HGSS's Snorlax of all things. In this particular save file I used the GTS a lot and had quite a few kinda overleveled Pokémon from it (with the standout being a hacked Level 70 Jirachi that the guy wanted a Ditto for, I had raised it to about Level 90), and I did not know how to use the Poke Flute. I knew that the radio let you use it, but when the guides online said "at the top of the radio," I had no idea what they had meant. That game ended up getting stolen from me before I ever figured out anything.

- This one obviously was not as a kid but I cannot beat Hollow Knight for the life of me. There's no one specific part that makes me stuck, it's just...all of it. The game promotes exploring but I always feel like I'm running around to places where I've already been until after a few hours of playing, I finally end up finding a new area. This was fine at first since the game was still new to me, the visuals and gameplay were both very good, but this cycle was nonstop for me because of how little I play games centered around exploration, so I ended up dropping the game. I wish I could have played it through because I know it would have been fantastic, but using a guide to beat the game doesn't really sound that fun to me.

That's about it. I haven't really played too many video games up until recently, and most of those were your straightforward Mario or Pokémon games where what you're supposed to do is somewhat obvious and pretty easy.

 

Getting stuck in a game doesn't really happen very often for me. If I am not progressing in a game, 95% of the time its me getting distracted by other things or just putting the game down for a long time. I think the one exception was doing Dark Cotton Alley in Super Meat Boy, which is designed to be incredibly challenging and takes forever to get through.

 

In Kirby Planet Robobot, I cannot for the life of me beat the true arena. And that’s all I have to do to beat the game 100%. I’ve replayed it so many times, but the final boss, Star Dream, has 4 different parts, back to back, and ou don’t gain any health in between parts. I can get through the first half easily, but towards the end, I get a little nervous. There was one attempt that, had I used my healing item (you can carry a healing item to use in a battle), I probably would’ve been able to win. However, I wasn’t watching my health bar, and when I died, I realized that I could’ve healed myself. I’m still very salty about that. EDIT: oh I forgot one important detail: doing a run of the true arena takes forever because of the cutscenes. The bosses have such over-the-top death cutscenes (explosions and stuff) and you can’t skip them. And I’ve kept my eye on the time in the game and the actual clock... by the time I lose, I’m usually around 25 minutes in on the game, but it takes 40 actual minutes. So those short, unskippable cutscenes eventually rack up into minutes of extra time.
Final edit I swear: I FINALLY BEAT THE TRUE ARENA!! I’M SO HAPPY!

Also in Kirby Mass Attack, I have been stuck on one mission for years now- to get a gold medal on every level (which means you can’t get hit at all). Then I will also beat the game 100%. I just have 2 more levels to go, but they are both so long. One of them has a bunch of mini bosses, and the other I’ve played so many times that I’ve practically memorized the whole stage. I beat the final boss without getting hit, but I can’t finish 2 levels without getting hit. :p

On, and then there’s that one level in the Subspace Emissary that always trips me up, no matter how many times I play it. It’s one of the levels with Samus and Pikachu, and there’s a bunch of moving platforms over a gap where if you fall you die, and one of them leads to the door to the next part. It’s so frustrating to find the one specific platform, especially when it’s difficult to get on it in the first place without falling. (I’m having flashbacks of using Samus’s up special to try to get on one of the platforms but not being close enough and falling.)

 

The only time I can think of this happening to me was the last boss Darkrai of the Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Sky game. No matter what I do, I could never actually complete it. I was too difficult and I can't even complete it now. Its the one game that I can say it was too tough for me and I didn't lower the difficult to beat it or just lost interest.

 

There's this one part in Banjo Tooie, where you have to race this bird thing named Canary Mary. You have to race her a total of four times in the game (two for cheato pages, and two for jiggies), and I can seriously not beat her the second two times. It's not even all that complicated, you just have to do some button mashing, but because of the way that the game was made, I just can't beat her those second two times. I can't even get anywhere close, so I don't even try anymore. I'm just content to not get that last jiggy and cheato page. In fact, I consider myself beating the game 100% after I have everything but those two. I just pretend they don't exist at all.

 

There are many games I have been stuck in growing up but these days I shouldn't have an issue getting past it.

Except for Bloodborne. Love that game to death but god does it confuse the hell out of me how it's laid out