Computer Games Are Dead...

[I accept the terms of the]

The key jumps there because the last time you were at that point in time (as marked by your horizontal position) that's where the key was. As soon as you move right again you overwrite that point in time, which might involve you having the key at that point too. So it's possible (and likely) for the key to jump position because you're winding over time that has been partially overwritten with the key in very different positions.

[madhair60]

The big question, then, is how does on consistently solve the puzzle?  I've done it before using the same techniques, but through pure luck, I'm sure.

[I accept the terms of the]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfeDL4aCp-o

Note that the route you take early on in the level is important.

[madhair60]

Oh, of course, you rewind back through the platform.  Why did I not think of that?  I retract what I said, it's not the worst level of anything ever.  Puppy Love from Earthworm Jim 2 is.

[I accept the terms of the]

Oh, of course, you rewind back through the platform.  Why did I not think of that?  I retract what I said, it's not the worst level of anything ever.

Hooray! I think the fact that we've had this conversation shows what's special about the game.

Puppy Love from Earthworm Jim 2 is.

Hooray! It made me long for the days when I thought Tubular in Super Mario World was a major source of frustration. So naive, so naive. At least the prize for getting through that was being one level closer to the bit that makes all the game graphics look shit.

[madhair60]

I used to really dislike Braid, but recently I properly sat down and beat it and now I'm a definite fan (and I like it even more after today's efforts), but I do think the prose is appalling.

Braid's one of the best uses of a limited set of skills that I've seen - it gives you a new skill, and then makes you use it in every way imaginable before taking it away again.

Worst Braid level is the one where you have to use the Time Ring to keep 2 grunts alive through a gauntlet of those piranha plant-esque claws, then bounce off them both to reach the top.  It's not badly designed or owt, it's just a total cunt.

[SetToStun]

The two worst levels that spring immediately to mind are the very last one in Mickey Mouse and the Castle of Illusion and one of the boss levels in the Cat in the Hat game-of-the-film. MMatCoI was a brilliant (if bog-standard) platformer, right up until the end, where you reached a window looking out over a chasm. The only was across was to take a blind leap of faith and see if you could hit the invisible stepping stone. Do so and you get to take another wild guess as to where the next one was (but be quick; the "stone" you're standing on has a very finitie and very brief lifespan). It's lazy; lazy, lazy, lazy. Can't be bothered to put together a decent final screen? Then just make it an exercise in dying time after time until the gamer has finally memorized the sequence. Why? What's the point? There is no amount of skill or acquired knowledge of the game that can help you complete that level at all. You're locked into a cycle of losing lives until the last random jump actually works. I utterly loathe shoddy, lazy little tricks like that.

As for tCitH - the boss I'm thinking of has a flying (well, hovering) machine of some sort. You have to dash around it collecting stuff (doughnuts, I think) and then avoid the exhaust pipe or whatever when the machine spins round suddenly. You cannot outrun it, you can't jump over it, you can't duck under it and jumping on the ship itself has the same effect as being hit by the exhaust: you lose the stuff you're carrying (which only persists for a short time, eliminating the ability to recapture it all) and if you get hit without stuff, you die. I gave up in the end. This game was aimed at kids and even after playing games for most of my lfe I couldn't figure out a way past, no matter what I tried. Any game aimed at eight-year-olds that needs a walkthrough for an adult to complete it is not - in my opinion, for what it's worth - very well designed.

[madhair60]

The two worst levels that spring immediately to mind are the very last one in Mickey Mouse and the Castle of Illusion and one of the boss levels in the Cat in the Hat game-of-the-film. MMatCoI was a brilliant (if bog-standard) platformer, right up until the end, where you reached a window looking out over a chasm. The only was across was to take a blind leap of faith and see if you could hit the invisible stepping stone. Do so and you get to take another wild guess as to where the next one was (but be quick; the "stone" you're standing on has a very finitie and very brief lifespan). It's lazy; lazy, lazy, lazy. Can't be bothered to put together a decent final screen? Then just make it an exercise in dying time after time until the gamer has finally memorized the sequence. Why? What's the point? There is no amount of skill or acquired knowledge of the game that can help you complete that level at all. You're locked into a cycle of losing lives until the last random jump actually works. I utterly loathe shoddy, lazy little tricks like that.

And that's why the Master System version is Just Better.

[SetToStun]

The war that would not die still rages on, I see.

[Still Not George]

It's never over. NEVER!

[SetToStun]

It was over the very day Flashback came out on the MegaDrive. Sorry and all that, but it's an objective, empirically proven FACT. Case closed.