I Wanna Be The Guy

Infobox VG
title=I Wanna Be The Guy: The Movie: The Game


developer=Mike "Kayin" O'Reilly
publisher=Independent
designer=Mike "Kayin" O'Reilly
license=Freeware
engine=MMF2
released=October 2007
genre=Action-adventure game
modes=Single-player, boss rush
platforms=Windows
media=Free download
requirements=Windows 98, 2000, XP, Vista, Mac OS X or Linux (via Wine)
input=Keyboard or gamepad

"I Wanna Be The Guy: The Movie: The Game" (abbreviated "IWBTG") is a freeware [ [http://www.consolenauts.com/2008/02/01/free-game-fridays-i-wanna-be-the-guy/ Consolenauts] ] video game first released in October 2007 by Mike "Kayin" O'Reilly, [ [http://kayin.pyoko.org/iwbtg IWBTG! A Very Hard Game About a Boy and 8-bit Masochism! ] ] but is still under development as of June 2008 (making it a beta release). The game is an adventure platform game and designed in the style of 8-bit video games. The game is best known for its difficult platforming elements and unorthodox level design. [ [http://www.boingboing.net/2008/02/20/i-wanna-be-the-guy-p.html Boing Boing] ] The game was created with Multimedia Fusion 2. [http://kayin.pyoko.org/iwbtg/faq.php Iwbtg! - Faq ] ]

Plot

Like many of the traditional games that "IWBTG" parodies, the game's plot is straightforward and does not heavily impact gameplay. The player takes on the role of "The Kid," who is on a mission to become "The Guy". The entirety of the plot is given in a rather cryptic message during the opening credits, a parody of bad Japanese translations and broken English in early NES games. [ [http://www.tigsource.com/articles/2008/01/13/i-wanna-be-the-guy The Independent Gaming Source] ]

:"In the year 200x on his 15th birthday... a child left home on his dangerous and epic quest to become The Guy! Many years ago, "The Guy" left world and retreat to "Dungeon of Doom". Now "Young Boy" goes to defeat "The Guy" and become "The Guy" with his gun pass handed down by former "Grandfather the Guy". Go find the "8 units". Now become "The Guy"."

Gameplay

"IWBTG" is made up of several stages split into many screens, which are usually pastiches of Nintendo Entertainment System games, such as "Tetris", "Ghosts 'n Goblins", "The Legend of Zelda", "Mega Man" and "Metroid". At the end of each stage an oversized boss must be defeated to progress. These bosses are generally hybrids of traditional boss characters such as Bowser's Klown Kopter, Dracula, and Mother Brain. "IWBTG" parodies many 8-bit era video games along with less obvious ones, such as the frequent use of references and sound effects taken from the Nintendo game "Mario Paint".

The player controls "The Kid", whose sprite is tiny compared to most of the objects in the game. The controls are limited to left/right movement, jumping and shooting. Non-boss enemies are very rare.

"IWBTG" is most famous for its difficulty. [ [http://letsplaymag.com/index.php/reviews/34-cat-reviews/54-review-iwbtg Review: I Wanna Be the Guy ] ] Most of the landscape is engineered specifically to kill the player. Alongside a traditional range of recognizable dangers, such as spikes and pits, there are many less obvious threats as well, most of which are all but impossible to avoid without either previous knowledge or trial and error (such as "Delicious Fruit", which can fall upwards or sideways). "The Kid" always dies with a single hit, at which point he explodes into a mass of blood. Although each death results in a "Game Over", the player is allowed an infinite number of attempts. [ [http://kayin.pyoko.org/iwbtg/manual.php How to play] ]

Trivia

*The delicious fruit featured in the game have become a running gag with the creator, his affiliates and the dedicated players that serve as one large community. At first impression, they are often mistaken for apples due to their unnatural size, to which O'Reilly responds with in his site's FAQ and forum signature, "They're more like giant cherries...".

*Several other video game characters make appearances, usually attempting to destroy "The Kid". These include an oversized Mike Tyson, Bowser in his traditional Clown Car, a Mecha Birdo (a heavily modified Birdo sprite), and Zangief from "Street Fighter", who is shown as being oversized and completely covered with a green color palette. He is given sounds obtained from the boss Kraid from "Super Metroid", and is named "Kraidgief" in the game's credits.

*Throughout the "Dungeon of Doom", the final level of the game before the player faces "The Guy", "The Kid" goes through a part of the Castle which the game calls the "Hall of Former The Guys". Throughout this level, the player can view portraits of iconic video game characters, vehicles, and manga (Japanese comics) respectively; such as an early 8-bit version of Bowser, a recurring enemy in the Mario series, Lü Bu, Sinistar, Vic Viper, Mike Haggar from the "Final Fight" series, Ryu Hayabusa, the main character of Tecmo's "Ninja Gaiden", Master Higgens, Karnov, Big Boss, from the "Metal Gear" series, M. Bison, Scrooge McDuck, Kenshiro, famous manga character from world-wide known "Fist of the North Star" and Pitfall Harry.

References

ee also

*List of freeware games

External links

* [http://kayin.pyoko.org/iwbtg Developers' website]
* [http://kayin.pyoko.org/iwbtg/forums/ Official forum]