A few weeks ago, we reviewed Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2, a game centered around the strange satisfaction that only a truly high score can provide. Thus, when we found ourselves with an extra copy of the game to give away, we knew it had to go to the right person — a competitive, dedicated, gotta-catch-em-all, fanatical gamer who would be able to give this merciless shoot-em-up a good home. We invited you all to share your most impressive gaming achievements with the world in our comments section, and several of you shared some awesome feats, but in the end, we had to pick just one story as the winner. After all, it had to be a tale that impressed us, and we know a thing or two about overzealous gaming.
We’ve all pulled the occasional all-nighter to take down a final boss, or finish off the last chapter of an epic RPG, or show those jerks on the Blue Team a thing or two. As a lad, my copy of Final Fantasy III (or FF6, I guess they call it now) has easily 20 more hours on the clock than it actually took me to win, because I repeatedly played so long into the wee hours of the morning that I fell asleep in front of the game. Also, as I hinted at in the initial contest article, I have brazenly marched into an arcade with a sack full of quarters, for the singular purpose of beating a particular nemesis of a game, on no less than four occasions. Those games, if memory serves, were Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Blood Bros., Skull & Crossbones, and Total Carnage — quarter-hungry fiends, the lot of them, but I can now count them all among my victories. I suppose I’m showing my age with all of these arcade-based exploits, but I can also proudly claim that, after, many quarters’ worth of practice, I beat Time Crisis 2 without a single continue. Still, to this day, I think I still have to cite my biggest gaming achievement as follows: I beat Impossible Mission, back on the original Commodore 64, back when the game’s buggy software often did make victory truly impossible. I found every puzzle piece, dodged every robot, and heard Atombender’s digitized voice cry “No… no! No!” I am the only one of my friends to have done this.
As for my co-editor Sean, he’s not here to tell us his stories right now. This is because he’s preparing to go to NVISION 08 tonight, and attempt the freaking Guinness World Record for the longest non-stop LAN party in history. His goal is to remain conscious for 36 straight hours while still retaining the wits and wherewithal to kick ass at his games of choice. And he’s going to be blogging it. So you tell me if he knows about gaming dedication and fanaticism or not.
With all that in mind, we still had a tough time choosing a story. Tales of Dreamcast-based heroism warmed our hearts, and we gnashed our teeth in frustrated sympathy at those of you who managed to grind your way through flawless performances on MGS4, or the infamously punishing Ninja Gaiden. Spending 150 hours in Oblivion without starting the first mission… I’m sure that’s achieving something, but I have no idea what. We would salute you if we were less worried about you.
In the end, though, the GameCyte Geometry Giveaway must go to Josh, for having completed Rock Band’s endless setlist, on expert, with all four players. The fact that this is extremely difficult to pull off is one thing, but bringing together a group of like-minded gamers, and non-gamers, in order to complete it — that’s an achievement unto itself. It’s by no means difficult to get people interested in Rock Band, but enlisting three people to become good enough at the game that they can play songs like Run to the Hills on expert is fantastic. Further convincing three people to set aside some 5-6 hours of their life to attempt the game’s ultimate test of skill is, quite frankly, incredible. Our hats are off to you, Josh, and we can think of no better recipient for this competitive XBLA title. Do us a favor and get your 4-player band to play the game in co-op mode, and send us your high scores.
Our thanks to everyone who entered. Keep shooting for those achievements, and we’ll see you next giveaway!
September 1st, 2008 at 10:36 am
Congrats to the winner!