There was a time when I thought that I would never again see those videogames I couldn´t play at the moment or those that were too difficult for me (or intolerable but somehow with a powerful kind of attraction that made me want to try it even once, that type of game also exists).
The Lucas Arts master piece Grim Fandango, for example, was one of the games my eldest brother used to play in the computer back in the nineties. It’s a beautiful adventure with “calaveras” everywhere and I loved it from the beginning. I actually tried to play it a couple of times those days but I was not prepared enough to face such a journey. I was a child by then, and years later I just did not have the opportunity. During my university era I tried to install it several times in my own computer but (mostly because it was a pirate copy on a non-compatible system) it never worked.
So I kept thinking about losing all those virtual places and unexplored bit-lands, abandoned forever in old CD´s and dusty floppy disks. The pre-rendered scenarios of Grim Fandango, though, among many other images of antique videogames, still lingered in my brain like little ghost children playing hide and seek in the nooks.
There is also the invaluable experience of finishing a videogame. Those who love this post-modern art know the skills and satisfaction one could acquire after beating the final boss/puzzle/race of a game. But that great challenge is not always possible to achieve, you know? It needs time, mental strength, tough eyes and a bucket-load of good old patience. Not to mention the respective pack of cheetos, six pack of beers, countless cigarettes, chocolate, weed or wherever incentive you need to get that big quest done.
The most difficult attributes to find are, of course, time and patience. Fortunately there are people in this world who gather the qualities and share with us their travels along the virtual realities of videogames.
Turns out that, at the end, future amazed me with one more wonder: Longplays. These are videos where (usually expert) users show us a complete walkthrough of a specific game. Now I have seen a lot o them and always kept one or two in my weekly watch later list. Today I want to share this one with all of you:
It´s the complete journey through one hell of a difficult game, the legendary Ghouls n´ Ghosts, in the GameBoy Advance version, played with flawless style. I tell you, if not for this guy (o girl), I would never have seen all the fantastic levels in this hair-pulling platform.
Enjoy!
