The Gaming Wall - What stopped you playing your favourite games?

[Silverline]

When I ask this I am not speaking in terms of the quality of gameplay, I am talking about GOOD games (well, games that you actually like), that you just stopped playing because you simply reached a point which seemed impassable. Here are a few of the 'Walls' I have hit in video games.


Banjo Kazooie - N64 - Rusty Bucket Bay and Onwards
Now you may not have played Banjo Kazooie, but believe me when I say this, it is a very good game, and is similar to Super Mario 64, in the sense of going to various different worlds, and completing various challenges in order to collect treasures, in BK's case, Golden Puzzle Pieces or 'Jiggies'.

In the game there is one particular world called Rusty Bucket Bay. To even REACH the world you need to do a LOT of exploring and Jiggie collecting. In fact, if you were playing BK for the first time, you will soon realized that as you get close to the entrance of a world, the music will change to fit the theme of that world. Before I discovered Rusty Bucket Bay, I would sometimes notice that when I swim in a certain area of water, the music would change to something a little deeper and slower. It isn't very noticeable, and every time I was in that pool of water i'd be baffled.

Several months later I discovered that the pool of water where the music changed could be raised by hitting a specific and VERY well hidden switch. When the water reaches the top you will find an alcove in the wall, leading to a tunnel, which ultimately leads to Rusty Bucket Bay. I felt like crying. Moreso because I didnt have the right amount of Jiggies to even enter the world. I gave up completely. I had gotten a fair amount of jiggies from other worlds, but the ones I left out, I left because I either have NO idea where they are, or because I know where they are, they just seem impossible to reach.

One day I might download it again for an emulator and try again, (bear in mind I was playing this, like 4-5 years ago.) but until then Halo 3 and Brawl will have to do.


Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker - Gamecube - Triforce Charts
I confess, yes I had trouble on what is apparently one of the easiest Zelda games out there. But honestly, who would have realized first time that TINGLE, yes TINGLE, the stupid green bugger is the one you could turn to in your hour of need to decipher your stupid faced Triumph forks *cough* I mean Triforce Charts.

Thats right, I was happily sailing (pun intended) through the game, got my first Triforce chart, tried to read it, and found it needed to be deciphered. At first I simply assumed your weird talking boat would point you in the right direction after you get all the charts, so I continued my quest with glee.

Nothing. I looked in every major place on the map. I read every chart, map, compass that I had looking for some clue. Again, I gave up.

About a month or two later I got into a conversation with a friend about the game, he told me he had beaten it, and at the time I had completely forgotten why I had stopped playing in the first place. When he asked if I had played it, I happily told him that I am still looking for a way to decipher charts. I knew my friend would explain it to me, and I expected a long detailed guide that would probably need to be written down. "Tingle." he said to me.

Those words crippled me for a brief moment, but I didn't let it show, no no no. I simply nodded, and looked for an excuse to **** off home and finish the game off.

When I turned WW on I quickly loaded up my file, and looked at my charts again. It all came together.

TINGLES CHART!? Who would have thought a chart with ONE seemingly unimportant location on it would be the answer I was looking for. Lets not forget it was given to me with a guy dressed as a green... fairy?

Just recently I started a new WW file. After freeing tingle near the start of the game, it was one of those moments where I started crying deep down inside. I shall copy and paste exactly what made me cry from a Game FAQs WW quote guide.

'Oh, Mr. Fairy! You want to come to my
island, don't you?
Don't you? Don't you?

(get Tingle's Chart)

When you go out to sea, open it!

If you ever need any help with your charts,
just leave it to Tingle! Don't ever forget it!

If you ever need help with charts...


Don't forget it!'


Final Fantasy 9 - Playstation 1 - Memoria
I'll keep this one brief. The final area of the game is a place called Memoria, and in it there are a fair amount of Boss Fights. The first one you come across is extremely abrupt, if you havnt played before there is no way of knowing a boss fight will occur, it just seems to randomly happen.

The fight is hard yes, but manageable. (I played the Co-Op mode of this with a friend, so he somewhat shared my pain.)
I managed to beat him, only to find out that before his death he uses an attack called 'Raining Swords' which seems to KO your ENTIRE party instantly, so its GAMEOVER despite the fact you killed the boss. We tried for days, only to give up.

Now again this was a few years ago, in a time where the term 'RPG Elements' didnt exist in my mind. My friend and I's major flaw in this FF9 playthrough? We didn't understand the concept of levelling up. Oh I wish I didn't flee from just about every single random battle. I wish I had just spent a little more gold on GOOD weapons. Alas I did not. If I HAD done all those things (as I found out on my second playthrough), the boss fight would have been a breeze, and my characters would have had enough HP to survive the bosses final attack.



All of those games I have completed now, apart from Banjo Kazooie. If you managed to read through all of that the congratulations. If you skipped it all to this part. Screw you, and go back and read what just took me 9 minutes to type.

[HaloOfTheSun]

I read it all, Oswald. A very touching story. *sobsob*

I know the feeling though. At the time of typing, I can't think of any specific games where this has happened to me, but it definitely has happened. Especially in my younger days when I wasn't a very competent gamer, and when I was stuck on something I'd get really frustrated and not play again for ages, and the cycle would continue. It's strange now though, with some of my N64 games, I go back and play them and the bit I was stuck on when I was 8 years old is now so simple.

That's life for ya. I'll edit with some games I've had this problem with if they come back to me.

[D3fence]

lol at the WW thing... Ive got a GC but no where sells WW.. ill jsut stick to TP on my wii.. mabye ill buy it offline.

PS: I just realised how inactive this forum is.. everyone is a veteran or mod +..

[Footballer]

Pretty much every Wii game I have.
Wario Ware - only fun when there's other people around to play it with.
Twilight Princess - I tried a couple days ago. I got bored instantly. I've beaten it too many times for these couple years.
Guitar Hero - I don't play unless someone else is.
Mario Galaxy - Too easy. Way too easy.
Wii Sports - Hah.
I forget what other game(s) I have.

Very heartfelt story, Oss. Brought tears to my eyes.

[LickThePaint]

Originally Posted by D3fence

lol at the WW thing... Ive got a GC but no where sells WW.. ill jsut stick to TP on my wii.. mabye ill buy it offline.

PS: I just realised how inactive this forum is.. everyone is a veteran or mod +..

I'm not

And GoW due to the fact the guy I was playing it with became a dick lol

[LinkMasterSword]

OoT water temple.
Need I say more?