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Re: Games You Like but Can't Play
Great post. There's a ton of games I'm average to decent at, but I wish I was much better, but the ones I enjoy playing the most, but where I just can't "get it" and suck:
1. Frogger - I'm decent for a couple of levels, but it all falls apart really quickly. It's such a simple, pleasant game to play - great physics, bright colors, but I kill off frogs pretty fast after about 20k
2. Q*Bert - I love the concept, it was different for its day, and the potential marathon scores make me want to be sooooo good at this, but I suck, suck, suck, and always have. I just can't seem to process the spatial relations well enough to be very good. Once I get to levels where cubes need to be changed 3 or more times, and things start coming in sideways, I'm screwed. My frustration here is much like it is on Bubble Bobble. Just don't "Get" that game.
3. Gorf - I can hold my own for a few levels, but this ground-breaking game gets cruel in a hurry, and for most of us mere mortals, it's a lesson in humility. I always loved this era of Midway, with the Gorf Flagship level, the other cool Gorf levels, the speech synth, and Wizard of Wor was in the same arcade at the same time. I learned that one fast, though I'm woefully inept at The Pit.
4. Zookeeper - Another underrated game that gets too hard too quickly, almost absurdly so, with the number of animals, the time remaining, the lack of safe space, all counterbalanced by legendary jumps worth hundreds of thousands (if not more) points. Not as complex and ground-breaking as some of these others, but one in which I wish I could have been better, but seem to have hit a plateau I just can't clear.
Joust - I could do the pteradactyl trick and roll the game at 10 million, then kill off 255 lives, but I couldn't play straight up very well. Get me to level after level of those dark blue bastards, and I'm toast. It's a great game concept and play, with questionable mechanics, but still, I wanted to be good at this one SO BADLY, but . . . no.
Qix - One of my favorite concept games, I just could never play it AT ALL. 1 level, maybe 2. Before I die, I plan on picking this one up again, since i haven't touched it since I was probably 11 or 12. You'd think with the shapes, speed, math, strats, I'd be good at it. You'd think.
Ah, the hall of famer for me - Defender. When my arcade got its Defender, everything changed. You could hear those awesomely-cool Williams sounds all day and night. The game looked fantastic - lights colors, the dark, the radar, even the backstory. Success was possible - I'd seen people do this game very well. I, however, just couldn't master the complex controls and never will. I can do this one better in MAME or on RU, but stand-up? No. Miserable failure.
Most everything else I was either decent and good at (Xevious, Two Tigers, Scramble, Mr. Do!, Donkey Kong and Jr., Pac and Ms. Pac, and on a few things I was world class. My mom would drive me a half hour each Saturday and Sunday morning to the nearest Aladdin's Castle, for a full day's worth of 4-player Track and Field and Hypersports, with dudes twice my age and size. Even though I'm pushing back against father time (I'm 47), those are the games at which I still excel - pushing buttons super fast. And Time Pilot. I could play that to infinity back in the day.
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