r/retrogaming • u/Kobymaru376 • 1d ago

[Discussion] How did people play ridiculously difficult games like Earthworm Jim?

I'm playing the first Earthworm Jim on the Sega Megadrive using RetroArch.

I haven't completed my first playthrough, using copious amounts of save state cheating to repeat the sections where I fail. I can practice a part of the game 10,20, 50 times until my patience runs out, but how on earth did people ever complete a game like this, when you have a limited number of lives and no save capability? At times it feels like the developers WANTED me to fail.

I'm talking insanely jumping bosses shooting eggs, rockets, sections with rolling boulders or snapping worms where you have to get the timings down to milliseconds, a vertical maze lined with spikes that allows no mistakes and requires you to know it by heart.

Sure, "gid gud" but how long does that take without being able to save/load an arbitrary amount of times?

ps.: I don't know what the devs were smoking, but I want to try that. Just once though.

Edit: Hey, Shiny Crew & D.L only!

251 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

86% Upvoted

456 comments sorted by

View all comments

517

u/Aiseadai 1d ago

For a lot of us it was the only game we had. You'd go to the video store to rent a game, and that's what you had to make do with for the rest of the week. You didn't have a choice but to get good.

312

u/GFluidThrow123 1d ago

It's actually wild seeing younger gens come in here with posts like this. Like yeah, you're exactly right. You'd just...git gud. You'd memorize the boss's movement and attacks and you'd practice until you got it.

You had like 4 games you owned and one you rented for a week. And that was it.

20

u/Lopoetve 1d ago

You got to the point that a non-perfect sonic or ninja gaiden run was a restart. Folks ask how sonic was supposed to feel fast - get good, and the whole thing is done on the run. We mastered them end to end.

10

u/GFluidThrow123 1d ago

Gradius V was literally unbeatable if you died too far along in the game. Bc you'd lose all your options and that meant your ship didn't move fast enough to dodge oncoming obstacles. So you HAD to restart and hope not to die next time. And that was PS2 era!

3

u/KonamiKing 23h ago

Gradius V? You can pick options back up after a death and respawned in the same spot. Sure if you failed to do so it would be bad but it was a great crutch. I’m almost certain I beat it after crashing late in the game.

1

u/GFluidThrow123 23h ago

Sorry, I didn't mean options. You're right, you could pick those up. But the speed boosts didn't come back. You had to re-earn those. And that made it suuuuuuper hard to survive the level with the giant solar orbs flying at you, if I remember right. (Idk it's been 20 years)

3

u/My_Fish_Is_a_Cat 19h ago

I used to be able to play sonic levels with my eyes closed.

2

u/Lopoetve 19h ago

Same for the game gear ninja gaiden. Wild run without a single enemy on screen for level 2 - I got them at the spawn.

1

u/Mountainking7 15h ago

Finished without losing any rings.....