It’s Christmas time again, the jolliest time of the year! You know what else makes me jolly? Video games. What a shocker. And don’t you just love those moments of victory where you throw your arms up into the air and celebrate the completion of yet another epic challenge? And that’s why for this Listmas, I’m going to list my personal achievements in gaming, those moments where I have overcome unspeakable horrors and just need to shout for joy. These are the moments I live for!
- Completing night 6 of Five Nights at Freddy’s. Those two hours of absolute misery paid off.
- Beating Canary Mary’s fourth and final race in Banjo-Tooie. My carpal tunnel has since flared up, but I’m too happy to care. (And man, can that old bird fly!)
- Defeating the Omega Chocobo Eater in Final Fantasy XIII: Lightning Returns. Enough said.
- Getting the Lum Medal in Rayman Origins’ Moody Clouds. And I got it all recorded, too. I’m sure any screams of rage were edited out….
- Beating Super Mario 64 after a decade of attempts. And after collecting every star, too.
- Completing event 50 in Super Smash Bros Melee. Will never attempt again. I’m just happy I beat it once.
What about you guys? Any awesome gaming victories you want to tell us about? Let us know in the comments.
Best Moments in the Life of a Duck
Defeating the final boss in Xenoblade Chronicles was a huge high point for me this year. It definitely ranks up there with my all-time best moments. But from the past…completing the Penguin race in Super Mario 64 comes to mind. I was (and remain) so terrible at that slide race — beating the Penguin for the first time after so many failed attempts was amazing. Also, finally finding all the Jinjos in Banjo-Kazooie, that was pretty exciting. I’ve just started playing the game again, and I forgot how difficult it is to locate some of them.
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That penguin race was indeed tough. I’m never very good at slide races because I go too fast and slide off the edge a lot. It’s only when I stop panicking and slow down that I win. And Banjo-Kazooie could indeed be difficult at times, too. I always thought the second race with Boggy was tough. I remember lots of frustration with that one. I also had trouble finding the empty honeycomb pieces.
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What about stage 2 or 3 of that crocodile minigame in Bubblegloop Swamp? It took so many tries to get that Jiggy for the first time!
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Those mini games against Mr. Vile were indeed tough. They always stressed me out so much, and I hated when he would bite me afterward. I very much disliked when I had to revisit this mini game in Grunty’s Furnace Fun. I usually lost.
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I think my proudest moments came when I beat event match 51 in Super Smash Bros. Melee. I believe I only ever managed the feat once, but I was able to do it with Yoshi, a character that (it turns out) is not on the recommended character list for that challenge. It took multiple daily attempts and a bunch of time spent practicing against computers, but it was totally worth it to get that clear! I like to think I’m still good at Smash Bros, but I doubt that current me would even stand a chance against past me. :D
Also, clearing the “Hard” version of Test Chamber 18 in Portal was particularly satisfying. The base test chamber was hard enough, but in this one you had to figure out how to solve the chamber while also figuring out how to avoid being killed by the turrets (without cover to hide behind). They were protected by cages, so you couldn’t knock them over. So satisfying when I got the clear!
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I don’t remember if I ever did event 51 or not (that’s why I only listed event 50), but I’m sure it must have been pretty darn brutal. Event 50 certainly was. I beat that one as Samus. It was quite a shock when I finally got through it. And I, too, think that my present day self probably doesn’t have the same SSB skills as my past self. I think part of it has to do with the fact that, once I beat something really tough like event 50, I never want to put myself through that ever again. I’m just not as determined now.
And I remember test chamber 18. That one was awful. I recall that being one of the worst, if not the worst, test chambers in the game.
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I kinda wish I was still that good at smash. I could take on 3 lvl 9 computers at a time and win back when I was practicing to beat that event match, but now I have difficulty getting a decisive victory against just one. It’s kind of a shame how easily our skills deteriorate, isn’t it?
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I often didn’t stand a chance against 1 level 9 AI character, heh heh. I was never super good at SSB, but I guess I must have been pretty decent, considering the challenges I was able to complete. That’s probably why I didn’t really get into the new SSB game on the Wii U, though. I’m just not that good at the series anymore, and I haven’t felt very motivated to rebuild my old skills. Where have my skills gone?!
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I’ve got a few great moments, like beating the original Rayman on PS1, but I’m most proud of completing Goldeneye 007 on 00 Agent difficulty and unlocking all the cheats. That took a good few months. The best (or worst) part was unlocking the invincibility cheat. You have to race through the Facility level on the highest difficulty in 90 seconds. According to GameFAQs, the time limit is so tight, it’s only possible to beat the level something like 20% of the time because one of the objectives involves the random placement of an NPC. If this scientist guy happens to be in an out of the way place and not directly in front of you, you’re screwed. You have to laugh otherwise you’ll cry.
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I have the first Rayman game, but it’s the version on the Game Boy Advance. I was never able to beat it, though. That’s quite a tough one. And that Goldeneye challenge sounds pretty tough indeed. It’s always frustrating when there’s some random thing that can cause you to fail. FNAF could be frustrating because the characters wouldn’t behave the same every night. I often would do okay as long as Foxy wasn’t super active. Darn, unpredictable Foxy. Luckily, gamers are a persistent bunch.
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I’ve not played Five Nights at Freddy’s, even though it looks interesting. I know what you mean though and persistent is definitely the right word! I’m a real masochist for tough games. I mentioned Rayman partly because I know you’re a fan of the series and so you can appreciate how hard that game is! Near the end Rayman has a Ghouls ‘n’ Ghosts-esque pull-the-rug-from-under-you moment, where after you beat the penultimate level, the game tells you to go back and destroy all the cages on every stage before you can unlock the final level. Complete dick move. I love that game, but I’m also relieved they scaled back the difficulty in Rayman 2.
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That’s actually where I got stuck in the first Rayman game. I was so excited because I was finally starting to make progress in it again after being stuck for a long time. Then, I’m told to find every cage, and I just gave up. I kind of lost the will to finish the game after that point. Yeah, I’m really glad Rayman 2 and 3 were easier. Origins and Legends were pretty tough, too, but mainly only if you want 100%.
Another similar situation happened in DK64. I got to this door at the very end of the final world, and then I learn that the Donkey Kong Arcade you can play in world 3 is required to reach the final boss. Not only must you beat the regular version, but you then must beat it on hard mode. And score a certain number of points in Jetpac, some other old game. Here I was thinking those were just optional extra challenges, and now I find they are necessary. I was not happy. Not one bit.
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