I’ve been playing video games for a good long while, but there are some games that, to this very day, haunt me.  Not because the game is bad per se, or because something happened to said game that made it unplayable.  No, I’m talking about games that, for the life of me, I could never beat or still haven’t beaten.  I’m pretty sure I’m not the only gamer who has this problem either, and since it’s October I’ll be writing a series of articles based on games that I still haven’t beaten, took me over 2 decades to beat, why I haven’t beaten them, and if I ever will.  So lets start this with one game that is near and dear to my heart, and still haunts me to this very day.

Mega Man 8 for the PlayStation.  If memory serves this is the first Mega Man game I’ve ever played and my entry point into the series.  I knew who Mega Man was thanks to the old cartoon series but didn’t dive fully into the games until much later.  Now 8 may get some flak in the community for the bad voice acting (yes it truly is THAT terrible) but it’s still a solid Mega Man game.  All 8 robot masters may not be available to fight right at the get go but its still a fun game, even if Clown Man haunts players nightmares.  Now the part that really gets me, even when I first played it, was the snowboarding part from Frost Man’s stage.  Now after a few times memorizing the stage, getting through it to fight Frost Man isn’t the worst thing in the world, its the snowboarding part thats in the beginning of Wily’s castle at the end of the game.

This is the part that haunts me, and has haunted me ever since I first played the game.  For the life of me, I could never get past the snowboarding part.  Now for those who have never played the game, while on the snowboard there’s a high pitched voice that will prompt you to either jump or slide, and of course the commands get quicker the further into the level you get.  However with the last jump you have to jump, then slide, then jump again all in one pixel perfect jump.  I have tried so many times to get that jump right and no matter how many times I try I could not get it.  I have always either made the jump way too early and missed the last edge to get to the end of the level, or hit the jump button way too late and instantly fell to my death.  I’m honestly surprised how I haven’t destroyed my PlayStation controller.

That dang jump has haunted me for over 15 plus years, and every time I get there, I try it for a while, then put down the controller out of sheer frustration and play something else for a while to let out some steam.  Will I ever go back to Mega Man 8 to beat that accursed jump?  Of course I will.  Even though the game doesn’t really add to the Mega Man formula, it’s a fun game and the first true Mega Man game I’ve ever owned.  It’s just that ONE part that gets me every time.