I Wanna Be The Guy: The Movie - The Game

aka: IWBTG
Moby ID: 35643

Description

The player is the Kid -- a rather diminutive, yet very ambitious character, whose goal in life is to gain the honorable title of "The Guy". To do so, he must kill the current holder of the title, but not before getting past numerous deadly platforming levels.

I Wanna Be The Guy is a platform game which is, in many aspects, a tribute to old-school '80s games - in terms of gameplay, graphics and difficulty.

Difficulty is perhaps the most prominent aspect of the game. IWBTG is (deliberately) an incredibly hard game, an endless chain of pixel-perfect dodging, jumping and manoeuvring; and of unexpected, surprise challenges, such as apparently harmless scenery objects suddenly becoming a menace. Some of the challenges may seem nearly impossible, and this isn't far from truth. Even the bosses (classic characters from '80s games) - while difficult - are still considered to be easier to beat than the platforming sections.

The controls are simple: the Kid can move left and right, shoot his pistol with Z, and jump with Shift. Jumping is, according to the author, "very controllable" - in other words, a little complicated: one can jump in mid-jump, and jumping height and distance are determined by how long the player presses Shift.

There are four difficulty levels - Medium, Hard, Very Hard and Impossible, but they differ only in the number of save points. On Impossible, there are practically no save points at all, so the whole game must be completed without a single death.

Groups +

Screenshots

Credits (Windows version)

49 People (37 developers, 12 thanks) · View all

Produced, Programmed and Designed by
With some art and a lot of music ripped from games by
  • Nintendo
  • Konami
  • Capcom
  • Enix
  • and possibly others!
Beta tested by
Original Music Composers (uncredited)
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 85% (based on 4 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.7 out of 5 (based on 6 ratings with 1 reviews)

I don't know whether I should laugh or cry.

The Good
This game is almost entirely based on making references to classic games, so, naturally, I love it. Any game that references NES classics immediately gets a thumbs up in my book. The level design is, for the most part, superb, the references are wonderfully implemented and the music is taken from the best of the NES library, so it's perfect. As loading takes about a second if it's being slow, the gameplay never comes to a stop. Unless, of course, you decide to rage quit.

Yeah, the other half of the game is the difficulty, which is where people will become divided. Speaking on a personal level, I feel that most of the difficulty is done unfairly in a way that feels fair. You will die once because you don't know what's coming, and after that you'll be able to avoid it. This makes up the entire premise of the game, so if you can't deal with the constant dying and/or the need for precise memorisation, you aren't going to enjoy the game at all. I found it fine, mainly because I was so desperate to discover what reference would be next I ignored my own pain and progressed.

The game's humour is another aspect I enjoyed. The reveal of the final boss made me laugh out loud, as well as several of the more surprising deaths, such as the Mario Paint aeroplane and Ryu. I went into this game expecting to scream out loud, and I did, but I also found myself laughing out loud, which just made me more enthusiastic to play on.

The Bad
There are problems with this game, one of which was probably deliberate and that is the controls. The Kid, whom you play as, has a very complicated jumping style and too often I found myself jumping in ways I didn't want to and dying unnecessarily. Furthermore, The Kid runs faster than makes sense for the screen size, which leads to deaths you might not have been expecting to encounter because you assumed the danger would have passed by the time you got there. I know that these two things were probably deliberate, or maybe I'm just terrible at platforming, but there you go. That was my experience.

The other significant problem is that the game keeps crashing at seemingly the most inconvenient times. This was perhaps what made me angriest. Though I find it likely that there was nothing the developer could do, as he even made one particularly shocking death that outright parodies the constant crashing of the game, so it's obvious that he knew that it was happening. Still, even if it isn't the game's fault, it's still a significant problem that I found more annoying than challenging.

The last problem I had with the game was the tunnel of death in the Ghosts'n Goblins section. Anyone that has played this game knows what I'm talking about. Anyone that hasn't... I'll leave you to discover the horror for yourself. That is, if you make it that far.

The Bottom Line
This is a game for those who don't get angry quickly and love their NES with all their hearts. If you don't fall into those two categories, don't play this game. If you do, the game will inexplicably keep you playing, despite the rage it may induce. That's perhaps the most surprising thing about this game - the fact that I kept playing, all the way to the end.

And then I died. I've never eaten an apple ever again since that day. Although, they're more like giant cherries...

Windows · by John Crius (4) · 2014

Trivia

Difficulty

If you set the game's difficulty to Medium, The Kid has a bow on his head, and all the buttons where you can save your game read "WUSS".

Analytics

MobyPro Early Access

Upgrade to MobyPro to view research rankings!

Related Games

I Wanna Be the Boshy
Released 2010 on Windows
SingStar: The Stone Roses - I Wanna Be Adored
Released 2009 on PlayStation 3, 2014 on PlayStation 4
I Wanna Fly
Released 2016 on iPad, 2018 on Android, 2019 on Nintendo Switch
I Wanna Maker
Released 2020 on Windows
I Wanna Brother
Released 2019 on Windows
Rock Band: The Stooges - 'I Wanna Be Your Dog'
Released 2010 on Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3
So You Wanna Be A Redneck
Released 1998 on Windows
Wanna Survive
Released 2019 on Windows, iPad, Android...
The Last Guy
Released 2008 on PlayStation 3

Related Sites +

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 35643
  • [ Please login / register to view all identifiers ]

Contribute

Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Havoc Crow.

Additional contributors: Solid Flamingo, Nelson340, Arejarn, Patrick Bregger.

Game added August 19, 2008. Last modified February 22, 2023.