This game is amazing. Not because of it's simple yet addicting gameplay. Not because of it''s classic soundtrack. Not because of the nostalgic graphics. It's because of it's intentions and design.
This game is designed to keep you from playing it with it's difficulty. This is not the difficulty of 'less ammo and health'. It's the difficulty of 'I have to start again because the moon landed on me' . The difficulty in this game is masochistic in every sense of the word. You must really hate yourself to play this through. The difficulty is designed not to be challenging, it's designed to be unfair. Everything in this game has possibility of killing you and more so then often it will. Example: One of the first screens in the game has you facing with "harmless" apple trees with apples that look like there dancing. Take in this moment as those apples will be one of the most feared obstacles of all time let alone in the game. When you on a screen with an apple in it then you must take caution as that apple could fly in any direction and kill you. Sometimes it will fly out of nowhere and kill you, it's that hardcore.
The 'other' famous part of this game is it's nostalgia factor. The majority of the graphics, sound and even some of the gameplay has been ripped out of classic games through out the media's history. The first thing you see when you boot up the game is the famous opening of Mega Man 2. Throughout the game you will be face to face with some of the most famous faces such as Link, Ryu, Birdo and Dracula which are also part of the bosses in the game. The same thing can be said about the music in the game. 90% of the music in the game is all out of famous games such as Zelda, Kirby, Punch-Out, Ghouls 'N Ghosts and so on. The few pieces of original music makes it the exact reverse of the player's psyche with it's cheerful, happy sounds when all you want to do is cut yourself.
Gameplay is the most simple you can get. Left, Right, Up, Down, Shoot and Jump is all you need. No upgrades what-so-ever. There is a double jump which will be your best friend and worst enemy. The main objective of each screen is to get to the end (which in some cases is more then one) and save your game at the nearest save switch. The start of the game says that the game has 4 difficulty settings. This is not exactly true. While is does make it easier the level design and sheer challenge remains the same with the difficulty going from 'Normal' (which the game gives you a nice girly red ribbon to wear in your hair) to 'Impossible' (Which has no save points at all. You die, you go back to the very start).
The story is really simple. You are 'The Kid'. You wanna be 'The Guy'. To become 'The Guy' you must kill the current 'The Guy'.
This game does have it's problems. Setting the controls to different keys may not respond at all and the default controls are mapped in such a way that the Windows function 'Sticky Keys' appears and ruins your day. If your unable to change the controls and turn off Sticky Keys you cannot play 'I Wanna Be the Guy'. There is also graphic bugs with flickering textures which mostly effect moving objects. There is little performance settings which you can fiddle with. The only options are 'Reduce Death Splatter' and 'Turn Off Some Effects' and if you still have slow down some objects in the world doesn't respond to you like lifts. This is quite odd for a 2D game.
I believe that this is one of the greatest games ever made. Why do you ask this you say? Name one game on this planet that is designed top to bottom to make you hate this game and stop playing it, but you keep coming back to play and suffer.
Nothing. That's why there is nothing like 'I Wanna Be The Guy'.
