EPTAnd now I head into an entirely different direction! Because I attempted 'I Wanna Be The Guy' (download from here).
And I cried hot, salty tears of frustration.
+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v468/Medi/gameover.png)
Think of the technical difficulty of Cave Story (very good game), the unfairness of La-Mulana's secret Hell Temple (more on this later, but also very good), and multiply by a factor of ninety-five billion. IWBTG pulls no punches and finds ways to kill you over and over and over again. It's fiendishly clever and unfair how he kills you: a lot of the deaths you have no way of knowing that it's coming until it happens and you scream FUCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKK because you're knocked back to your last save point again and cry cry cry ;_;.
The creator says it's a tribute to oldstyle platform game difficulty, and you'll recognize a lot of the music and bosses: from Castlevania, Ghosts and Goblins, Metroid, Megaman, etc, but honestly. They don't come close to the difficulty of this game.
+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v468/Medi/iwtbg1.png)
So try it, but you've been warned. Yeah my character has a pretty bow because I wimped out and am playing on Medium difficulty
The difficulty isn't really changed though, it's just the number of save points go down the harder you set the difficulty to (I think). If you do try it and get to a boss fight, you can press 'S' to skip the cutscene I think. At least it worked on the Mike Tyson fight: I'm trying to kill Mecha-Birdo right now :| (Jesus christ the ghosts and goblins segment was hard)
For an easier game that is still difficult, there's La-Mulana! Hooray~ \o/
Now La-Mulana (La-Mulana download) is also a tribute: this time, to ye olden days of the MSX, specifically 'Maze of Gallious'. Made by GR3-Project (who coincidentally also made
Rose & Camilla, the Japanese flash game where you bitchslap women), it's a very large adventure/platformer game where you take on the role of an Indiana Jones type character, exploring a large temple in hopes of finding the treasure before your father archaeologist does. And I do mean large. There are several worlds, most of which have mirror worlds that you must also explore. The game is also non-linear, and you progress by finding whatever treasure and reading tombstones with your MSX and Glyph Reader rom (have to buy this) for hints on what to do next.
+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v468/Medi/lamulana2.png)
The game is difficult technically at some parts: there's some tricky wall jumping that you will need to do later, and Bahamut is a bitch to fight. But most of the difficulty comes from figuring what to do next. To complete the game, you have to defeat 8 bosses and have the final showdown with Mother, but it's getting to these bosses that is tricky. The riddles are obscure, the block puzzles can be frustrating, and the helpful tombstones will give you clues, but what they point to might not be immediately obvious. I had to consult a video walkthrough (a SA goon named DeceasedCrab has a nice Let's Play on youtube, where he even finishes Hell Temple).
+ Show Spoiler +
This tombstone is found on the first level, but it warns you about something in Inferno Cavern, which is a few ways off :V
![[image loading]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v468/Medi/lamulana3.png)
So this is not a game you will finish in a few hours, or on your own. Both of these aren't actually. And to top it off, La-Mulana also has a Hell Temple. Remember Cave Story's Hell level and the fight with Ballos? Yeah that was pretty hard. But La-Mulana's Hell Temple is hard for a completely different reason: it will not kill you very often like Cave Story does, but it will knock you into a pit where you have to fight a bunch of monsters to leave. This doesn't seem too bad because you're in no danger of dying, really. But try falling into a pit every time you get to a difficult puzzle, like wall jumping between two rows of spikes, and if you miss or get hit, you fall into the pit and have to fight your way back a couple of rooms to attempt that same puzzle. Over and over again. And you HAVE to fall into some of these pits to solve one particular riddle. I never finished Hell
But like Cave Story, you'll probably block your way to Hell on the first playthrough. And La-Mulana on the second playthrough doesn't really offer much more: you could be a perfectionist and get every item and MSX rom like me, but it's not necessary I think to unlocking Hell. This shouldn't dissuade from at least attempting La-Mulana, because it is still a very good game with a very good soundtrack to go with it. I <3 the musics.
+ Show Spoiler +
Items \o/
![[image loading]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v468/Medi/lamulana1.png)
