If you are not familiar with I Wanna be the Guy some of this might be lost on you but let's just say that it was, without question, the most difficult platformer that I have ever played. I did not finish the game, I didn't even come close. I don't have near enough patience for that nor do i think I ever did. I Wanna Save the Kids is designed by the same person, has that same ludicrously difficult gameplay and that sadist introduced even more elements of difficulty, just in case you haven't destroyed a mouse in gamer-rage lately.
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The original game achieved some level of fame for developer Michael "Kayin" O'Reilly's simplistic design using elements that are outright lifted from very popular classic games such as Zelda, Ghosts and Goblins, Punch Out, and others. It's amazing to me that he didn't get sued. I guess it was because he gives away the games for free download link.
The same is true of the prequel, which he released a mere 2 months after the success of I Wanna be the Guy. download link
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The game looks friggin dated and a bit stupid and in a lot of ways it is precisely that. The novelty of the fact that literally everything is trying to kill you in this game will probably wear thin on most people pretty quickly... I mean everything reduces you to a pile of mushy blood, including apples and clouds.
This was evident in the original, but I Wanna save the Kids introduced an additional level of difficulty by necessitating not only saving your own butt, but now you gotta control a group of kids that will continually march forward, to their own deaths, unless you instruct them to do otherwise. This has been compared to Lemmings because, well, that is precisely what it is.
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I suppose that "Kayin" was a little bit nice to us this time because he actually gives us some instructions on how to prevent the little idiots from dying and if you make a mistake, such as allowing them to fall a great distance without an umbrella (which results in their bodies turning into fruit punch) he at least tells you what to do next time.
If you don't think you have it in you to play a game this difficult (I don't, beyond a few minutes) you can at least revel in other people's suffering.
I'm not suggesting that most people try this game, but if you have a PC and some free-time, you can see for yourself exactly how insanely difficult a platformer actually can be. These games are so near impossible that between this and Super Meat Boy there are a ton of people vying for the speed run records.
"Kayin" apparently lost interest in completing IWSTK and ceased development after a few months. However, as is the case with the first game, he made the source code available and there are TONS of fan-made levels that are even more absurdly difficult than the originals.
Download I Wanna Save the Kids
Download I Wanna be the Guy
For me, this is just something to have a look at and 10 minutes later be like "fuuuuuuck that" as I am more of a Ghosts and Goblins person as the highest level of difficulty I am prepared to take on... Actually, as i get older i think i am more likely to enjoy a difficulty level somewhere around Rayman.