What was you
most satisfying
video game moment?
Was it finally getting past that one GODDAMNMOTHERFUCKINGSHITASS level in Candy Crush? Flying through “Freebird” in Guitar Hero on Expert? Getting all of the secret levels in Angry Birds?
Video games are primed to give us these moments if we work hard enough for them. What’s the one that left you feeling like you could take over the world at that moment–your biggest virtual victory?
In my case, it has to be when–after around 160 hours of game play–I finally finished Dark Souls, the even more difficult sequel to the notoriously punishing Demon’s Souls. I probably could have gotten it done in 100, but at a certain point I found a strange zen beauty in spending countless hours grinding away in order to level up and collect humanities. When I finally made the move to finish it, getting to and killing that one final boss made me feel better than I did finishing any of my books (most of which were written in the same amount of time, if not a bit faster).
Figuring out that you had to use the Bubble Gun to defeat the final boss in Mega Man 2.
That or realizing that hairpin turns are always telegraphed by a black notebook in the background on the desk levels of NES’ Micro Machines.
PvE: I was elated the first time I beat Sonic with all of the Chaos Emeralds. Anyone hear of a show called Nick Arcade? I hated watching them play the game. They sucked at it, and they called it “Sonic the Hedgehog”. n00bs. PvP: I was quite proud of myself when, at the age of 7, I beat my dad at a round of Mortal Kombat (the original Genesis version). Then, 8 years later, I owned him at Tetris. After a few rounds, I started losing focus because my mom was watching some home renovation show. My little brother thought… Read more »
Catching the Riddler in Batman: Arkham City. If you aren’t familiar with him the Riddler is an enemy of Batman that is occupied to the point of obsession with proving that no one is smarter than he is (hence why you almost never directly fight him in a video game). In Arkham City he has 440 of riddles and small trophies scattered around and you have to collect/solve at least 400 of them to catch him (I got about 403 and I got nearly 300 of them with no help or net searching). You ever almost break your controller when… Read more »
This is a great post! Thank you! Hands down, my most enjoyable moment occured for me while I was stationed in Italy. (USAF) I don’t think I’ll get in trouble at this point, since its been over 10 years ago that I did this. But I used my workplace (which then was the Dining Facility) to host a LAN party for Duke Nukem! We tried so many times and at so many different places, other members office space, homes, rec centers, etc. We had to lug our towers, keyboard, mice, joysticks, headsets, cabling, and oh yes, the heavy ass monitors… Read more »
Finishing Super Mario Brothers. Maybe I peaked too soon?
I am a fairly obsessive player of Bethesda’s single-player action role-playing games such as Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. These are all immense constructions that can eat up hundreds of hours of time on a single playthrough. My single most memorable incident was in Oblivion, in the Knights of the Nine quest line. I was looking for the various pieces of the Crusader’s Armor, and had found the Boots of the Crusader, which make wild animals lose their fear of you. I don’t quite remember how it started, but soon after… Read more »