There are games out there that just aren’t possible to finish or “beat.” There are games out there that you never WANT to finish. Then there are the games that you play over and over again, never getting any further than the play before, and for no reason.
First, games like Tetris, Lumines, and puzzle games of the like aren’t really games that you finish. These are games of dexterity and skill more than completion. You play these games to show your friends (and enemies) that you are better than them and can stay literally in the game longer than they can. It’s hard to count out games like these simply because pretty much everyone and their Grandmother has played at least one session of Tetris at some point. However given their style of play these are more for one-upsmanship than anything else.
There are several games that I vividly remember playing, re-playing, and playing again, that I loved, but never got anywhere close to finishing. First up would have to be Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. Though the game really wasn’t all that well received by most for it’s departure from the original, I enjoyed the hell out of it. I could probably play through the first several castles with a blindfold on. I never completed it, and honestly have no idea how that game ends.
Next for me would probably be Top Secret Episode: Golgo 13. For most, this is probably some random obscure game you have never heard of, but for me it was amazing. This was the first game that I remember ever seeing a “love scene” in. Oh sure, they may not play it up like that, but what else are we supposed to think. He’s in a woman’s hotel room, at night, the lights go out, and his energy level increases. Sure… he was just sleeping it off. This game also had one of the coolest “first person” moments in games, at least when I was a kid. After flying your helicopter through tons of enemy fire, you get to play the role of sniper and shoot a guy presumably miles away in a tower from the copter. Awesome!
More often than not, the games that have a higher degree of difficulty are usually the ones that go unfinished in my book, as I am sure they do in others. Things get too hard at a certain point in the game and you just give up. If you played most titles before the advent of codes and passwords, this meant that you had to start all over again the next time you picked up a game. This could be the final nail in the coffin for most early games. I probably never would have beaten Mega Man II had it not been for the codes Dr. Light kept feeding me. Games like Spy Hunter or Ghost and Goblins, on the other hand, would sadly never be beaten. I sure did like playing it up until the part where you get to be the boat. After that, it was game over and I never got any further. I don’t even want to go into Ghosts and Goblins. That game frustrated me beyond belief, yet I still to this day will go back to it on occasion, for some insane masochistic reason.
More recent games pose the same problem. However I chalk them up to the erosion of skill. When I was younger, I could dominate friends and foes alike based on my memory of levels, and the quickness of my hands. Now however, I find myself dialing back the level of difficulty, just so that I can enjoy the game without the added stress. Games like Call of Duty, played on Elite are just too much for me, as I am sure it is for others. I enjoy playing games because they are pure fun. If I really wanted to get frustrated by a guy that can see me from 2 miles away and pop a shot in my ear canal from the same distance, I would join the real Army.
The final category of games that I find extremely difficult to finish are what I call part of Short Attention Span gaming. Games that fall into this category include titles like Just Cause, Saints Row, and Grand Theft Auto (the entire series). These games all draw you into a “sandbox” type world, then give you the keys to the city. Most of the time I find myself following the story line and only the story line, until I hit a mission I either can’t finish in one try, or one that I need to get other missions accomplished before hand. That’s when I lose all sense of direction and end up wandering the streets either doing side missions, or just generally causing trouble for everyone I see.
This is of course the biggest draw for these types of games. The “go anywhere, do anything” type of play gives you a wonderful sense of freedom. However, it also allows the players minds to wander and wonder. “Can I reach the top of the building?” or maybe “I wonder how many people I can kill before the cops hunt me down.” For a gamer that loves the freedom to do the his own thing, I’ve also have come to realize that what I need (sometimes) is more direction. I am not saying that I need to have my hand held while I walk down a hallway, but nudge me every now and then, just to keep me focused.
These are the reasons why I have started the my own pile of shame. A stack of games that are long overdue for me to finish. I try my best to take at least one game off the pile a month, but some times it’s not an easy task. As the pile grows larger and larger with each passing month, I am pretty sure that there will never be a day when it is gone. I have come to terms with my addiction and affliction, I love to play games. Even if some of the time it is only the first couple stages over and over, games make me happy, and I am fine with that.
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