10 Video Game Solutions You'd Never Get Without A Guide
Genuinely impossible.
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00:00One of the most satisfying feelings for any gamer is when you solve a puzzle all by yourself.
00:04But there are certain sections in titles that aren't just difficult, they are borderline
00:09impossible. We're talking about teasers so preposterous the asinine next to no one could
00:13deduce the solution without relying on a walkthrough or getting very lucky through guesswork.
00:18I'm Si for WhatCulture.com and these are 10 Video Game Solutions You'd Never Get Without a Guide.
00:2410. The Inception Bonus Level Donkey Kong Country
00:28Completionists of the 1990s searched everywhere in Donkey Kong Country to discover all 43 bonus
00:35areas. By the end, nearly everyone got stuck on the same level, Oil Drum Alley. The first
00:40two bonus areas in this level are relatively easy to find, but the third one eluded even
00:44the most hardcore players. So where the heck is it? Well, the reason why it's so difficult to
00:49ascertain is because it's the only bonus level in the game that's inside another bonus level.
00:55After you use the first TNT barrel to blow up a nearby wall, you'll be transported to a secret
01:00area where you need to match up the images on the barrels to win a prize. You need to match
01:04the barrels so they display an image of a single banana. If you do this, you'll be rewarded with
01:09a barrel. You need to use this barrel on the right wall to unlock the extra bonus level.
01:13Just to make it extra tough, you cannot throw the barrel at the wall, you need to jump at the
01:18wall with the barrel and press right to enter this secret location. Good grief.
01:23Number 9, Resetting the Computer. Literally. X-Men. The Mega Drive X-Men game is regarded
01:28as one of the toughest titles on the system due to its unfairly placed platforms and relentless
01:33enemies. Even if you memorised every jump and could counter every villain's attack,
01:37gamers tended to get stuck on the penultimate level, Mojo's Crunch. After you destroy the
01:41screen at the end of the area, you'll be instructed to reset the computer now to face Mojo.
01:46After exploring the area, you'll be mystified to learn that there are no switches or levers to
01:50restart the machine. Players scoured for hours seeking a reset switch, not acknowledging that
01:55there was one right in front of them the entire time. When the screen tells you to reset the
02:00computer, it means you need to press the reset button on your Mega Drive. If this puzzle was
02:04in the first or second stage, the player might consider resetting their console, but since Mojo's
02:09Crunch is the second last level, nobody wanted to risk losing all that progress up to a certain
02:14point. You have to commend the developers for concocting a brain teaser that Hideo Kojima
02:19would be proud of, but it's baffling that they thought players would figure it out without help.
02:238. Navigating Through the Overworld – The Legend of Zelda
02:26If you've ever been stumped by a section in a Zelda game, how do you think gamers felt playing
02:30the original? At the time, most games revolved around blasting as many enemies as possible or
02:35racing towards a goal. When The Legend of Zelda was released in 1986, it blew gamers' minds.
02:40You couldn't beat it by killing every Octorok you stumbled upon, you had to use your head.
02:45If you couldn't surmise where a certain key was, you couldn't complete the game.
02:48To make it harder, it was one of the first mainstream action-adventure titles that didn't
02:52have conventional levels. The Legend of Zelda takes place in an overworld, which you must
02:56navigate through to locate weapons, artifacts, and dungeons. Because a lot of areas looked
03:01similar or identical, players ended up going round in circles. For a game where to find a
03:06Legend of Zelda guide that showed the entire map must have felt like discovering the Triforce itself.
03:11Thankfully, a simple button press will bring up the map in most future Zelda games to observe
03:16where you still needed to explore. How anyone managed to complete the original game without
03:20this option is nothing short of a miracle. 7. Egyptian Temple, Goldeneye 007
03:26The Egyptian Temple level in Goldeneye 007 can only be unlocked by completing every mission
03:31on 00 Agent mode. Your mission is to locate the golden gun and use it to defeat the witch doctor
03:36Baron Semidi. The voodoo priest's health is so high he's virtually unkillable unless you shoot
03:41him with the golden gun. Finding the weapon is a piece of cake. Obtaining it, on the other hand,
03:46is an entirely different matter. The second you take one step towards the pistol, it will become
03:50inaccessible while four indestructible turrets activate, blasting you to smithereens. The only
03:55way to get the golden gun is to walk on the floor tiles in a specific order. Now you have two
04:00choices. Try dozens upon dozens of tile patterns, knowing it will result in you dying more times
04:05than you can count, or use a walkthrough and beat the level in five minutes. It's possible to solve
04:10the tile pattern through sheer trial and error over a period of several hours, but you'll struggle
04:14to find a single person who did it without the assistance of a guide. 6. Log Rolling, Asterix
04:19and the Great Rescue Asterix and the Great Rescue was a platformer for the Mega Drive that was
04:24heavily criticised for its difficulty. Not only does the game have clumsy controls and unrealistic
04:29time limits, the puzzles are so vague you'll be clueless how to progress most of the time.
04:34Probably the worst example of this is the third boss, the Log Rolling Roman. As the level begins,
04:39you'll land on a river log. There is a centurion on the log that will roll it to the left of the
04:43screen, killing you almost immediately. The first time this happens, your first thought will probably
04:47be, what just happened? What you're supposed to do is press A, B and right at breakneck speed to
04:52force the Roman to the other side of the screen, knocking him off the log. Because there's no
04:56instructions on what to do, most people progress beyond this level using a password for later
05:00stages, rather than defeating the Roman. 5. The NPCs Lie to You, Castlevania II,
05:06Simon's Quest The 1986 action platformer Castlevania was
05:10such a success it was no surprise when a sequel was released one year later. It had some similar
05:15mechanics but integrated RPG elements such as visiting towns, buying consumables and conversing
05:20with the townsfolk. When you can't figure out where to go or how to unlock a certain artefact,
05:25you speak to NPCs to gather clues. This strategy may work in other franchises like Final Fantasy
05:30or The Legend of Zelda, but it won't help if you play the Japanese version of Castlevania II.
05:35According to the producer Koji Igarashi, the NPCs are deliberate liars and intentionally
05:41mislead you. One of the characters tells you that a magic potion will destroy the wall of evil.
05:45Naturally, the player will search every area for this evil wall, unaware that it doesn't exist.
05:50Since no rational person assumes that NPCs are deceiving them, gamers went on a wild goose chase.
05:56The only way to complete Castlevania II is to follow the instructions of the
05:59sacred texts hidden around the game, not the advice of the NPCs.
06:034. A Puzzle That Goes Meta – Last Window, The Secret of Cape West
06:08Last Window, The Secret of Cape West was a criminally underrated puzzle game for the
06:12Nintendo DS. Sadly, developing company Sing went defunct shortly after its release.
06:17Sing decided to go out with a bang since Last Window harbours one of the most
06:20head-scratching riddles in video game history. For the puzzle in question,
06:24you need to literally think outside the box. When you're told to close a music box to
06:28receive a key, you assume you're meant to press a series of buttons. What you're
06:32actually meant to do is close your DS. But you're not supposed to close the DS
06:36fully. You need to keep it open a little until a certain note is played, then press a button
06:41before re-opening the DS and tapping the screen. It doesn't tell you to do that,
06:45you're just expected to figure it out somehow. Also, if you played Last Window on an emulator,
06:49you cannot complete this part since there's no DS to close.
06:53It's kind of like Sing knew they were going bankrupt, so they devised a game with an
06:56unreasonably tough puzzle just to screw with everyone one last time.
07:003. The Extractor Grim Fandango
07:03There's a rule of thumb with Grim Fandango. Don't use logic to solve a puzzle. Ever.
07:08How do you make a guard move from his spot? Well, in a logical game, you would distract him.
07:12In Grim Fandango, you get a balloon animal of a dead worm, fill it with foam, stuff it into a
07:17tube machine until it jams, forcing the guard to fix it. If that sounds convoluted, well,
07:22it only gets worse. Some puzzles in Grim Fandango are hard, even when you know what to do. While
07:27in the petrified forest, Manny and his friend Glottis come across an extractor which they need
07:32to destabilise. To do this, you need to place a wheelbarrow on the hoses attached to the extractor
07:37and then allow Glottis to climb on top of it. After you pull a lever, the extractor will shake
07:41like crazy until it falls apart. However, you can't just place the wheelbarrow randomly on the
07:46hoses. You have to place it on specific hoses, but only when they are in sync with the movements of
07:51the extractor's pumps. This is so confusing, watching a step-for-step video guide barely
07:56helps. More often than not, players complete this section purely out of luck.
08:002. Save the Rat or Die – King's Quest V
08:04If you fail at completing a difficult section in most games, you can try again. However,
08:09if you didn't perform the right action or complete certain criteria in King's Quest V,
08:13the game becomes unwinnable. If you think that's crazy, the player doesn't realise until
08:18hours later. One example of this is when you see a cat chasing a rat beside a bakery. To help the
08:23rat escape, you need to hurl your shoe at the feline. When you're tied up in the Swarthy Hog
08:28Inn later, the same rodent will return to nibble through your ropes, allowing you to break free.
08:33If you didn't rescue the rat earlier, you cannot progress beyond this point. If you saved your
08:38progress after the rat was killed, you have to restart the entire game. How frustrating would
08:43all other video games be if they demonstrated the same level of cruelty as King's Quest V?
08:48Imagine reaching the final boss of a Super Mario Bros game only to receive a game over screen
08:53because you didn't pick up a specific coin hours earlier. Ironically, King's Quest V was criticised
08:58upon its release by some magazines, including Computer Gaming World, because it was deemed
09:03too easy. 1. Takeshi's Challenge
09:07In Takeshi's Challenge, you play as a salaryman who seeks a treasure located in a mysterious cave.
09:12Although that sounds pretty straightforward, it's anything but. Takeshi's Challenge was
09:16masterfully crafted to make the gamer's life a living hell. When the game begins in your boss's
09:21office, you need to ignore him, go to the bank, empty your account, learn to play a stringed
09:25instrument, get drunk, pass out, divorce your wife, pay alimony and speak to your boss to get a raise.
09:32If you don't carry out these steps precisely, you cannot complete the game. Oh, and by the way,
09:36if you think these series of tasks are impossible to work out, that's the first 5 minutes of the
09:40title. The rest of Takeshi's Challenge is just as punishingly difficult. Because there are almost
09:46no hints on what to do or where to go, the player will solve most of the puzzles through an
09:50unrealistic amount of experimentation. Although the game came with a free guide, it wasn't complete
09:55since the author died while writing it. Very few people in the world have completed Takeshi's
09:59Challenge, but it's a safe bet that most haven't done it without the use of a walkthrough.
10:04Takeshi's Challenge is kind of like its own bizarre level of hell where you feel doomed all
10:08of the time. And speaking of doomed, here are 10 video games where you were doomed from the start.
10:14Click it to stay with us here at WhatCulture Gaming and otherwise leave a comment down below
10:17on video game sections that you couldn't beat without a walkthrough and make sure you like
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