I Wanna Save the Kids! (pc game) : A diabolically difficult prequel
If you are not familiar with I Wanna be the Guy some of this might be lost on you but let's just say that it was, without question, the most difficult platformer that I have ever played. I did not finish the game, I didn't even come close. I don't have near enough patience for that nor do i think I ever did. I Wanna Save the Kids is designed by the same person, has that same ludicrously difficult gameplay and that sadist introduced even more elements of difficulty, just in case you haven't destroyed a mouse in gamer-rage lately.
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The original game achieved some level of fame for developer Michael "Kayin" O'Reilly's simplistic design using elements that are outright lifted from very popular classic games such as Zelda, Ghosts and Goblins, Punch Out, and others. It's amazing to me that he didn't get sued. I guess it was because he gives away the games for free download link.
The same is true of the prequel, which he released a mere 2 months after the success of I Wanna be the Guy. download link
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The game looks friggin dated and a bit stupid and in a lot of ways it is precisely that. The novelty of the fact that literally everything is trying to kill you in this game will probably wear thin on most people pretty quickly... I mean everything reduces you to a pile of mushy blood, including apples and clouds.
This was evident in the original, but I Wanna save the Kids introduced an additional level of difficulty by necessitating not only saving your own butt, but now you gotta control a group of kids that will continually march forward, to their own deaths, unless you instruct them to do otherwise. This has been compared to Lemmings because, well, that is precisely what it is.
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I suppose that "Kayin" was a little bit nice to us this time because he actually gives us some instructions on how to prevent the little idiots from dying and if you make a mistake, such as allowing them to fall a great distance without an umbrella (which results in their bodies turning into fruit punch) he at least tells you what to do next time.
If you don't think you have it in you to play a game this difficult (I don't, beyond a few minutes) you can at least revel in other people's suffering.
From Piece of Pie Software
I'm not suggesting that most people try this game, but if you have a PC and some free-time, you can see for yourself exactly how insanely difficult a platformer actually can be. These games are so near impossible that between this and Super Meat Boy there are a ton of people vying for the speed run records.
"Kayin" apparently lost interest in completing IWSTK and ceased development after a few months. However, as is the case with the first game, he made the source code available and there are TONS of fan-made levels that are even more absurdly difficult than the originals.
Download I Wanna Save the Kids
Download I Wanna be the Guy
For me, this is just something to have a look at and 10 minutes later be like "fuuuuuuck that" as I am more of a Ghosts and Goblins person as the highest level of difficulty I am prepared to take on... Actually, as i get older i think i am more likely to enjoy a difficulty level somewhere around Rayman.
Sounds like a game that's interesting to watch someone Lets Play but highly frustrating to do that yourself. Don't know why people like to make impossible fan levels, they do that with Mario Maker too (not that I played it.)
i think only because no matter how difficult a game is made, there is someone that is willing to beat it....seriously, the original game was so hard i can't believe anyone ever finished it but yet they did,.... now it it one of the most popular Twitch titles
Yeah, I guess that's right.
I even watched a video about this phenomenon, but I can't find the link.
I used to save the position i always wiped out on so as not to have to repeat all the steps getting back there. There is nothing worse than a game that gets you every time and it is frustrating. I would just toss it away eventually and say "fuck it". Nothing is that important in life to get you down especially a game that is meant to take your mind of stuff and make you relax.
these two games have none of that and I think that was the point. While i have never spoken to the dev it seems (after playing it for just a little while) that he knows what people are looking for in games and even how elite platforming gamers behave and tried to eff them up around every curve.
I truly believe that if there was no internet that the first game would have not been completed.
I suppose if you want a challenge then that is great but you also want fairness knowing you will beat the game eventually. There are only a few games I have struggled with and it is an achievement sometimes. No one wants a game to be over quickly and wants to be tested as that is the fun par but it sounds like this game was an extreme type of game.
oh yeah, it was totally designed to be one of the most impossible games ever, and just by luck it attracted an audience that was ready to take on the challenge. haha
I was always a pretty horrible gamer even though I enjoyed doing it. I like sticking with solo games because there isn't much I can do about getting whooped on by a twelve year old kid. Unreal Tournament is probably the last multiplayer game that I was kind of decent at besides WoW. Platform games were always hard for me. I think I beat the original Mario once and that was about it. I never had much luck with Mega Man or any of those even though I enjoyed them.