Solgryn hates you. Or, at the very least, he wants you to feel like the universe is actively conspiring against your thumb muscles and your sanity. If you've ever spent six hours staring at a single pixel-perfect jump only to die to a falling cherry that wasn't there ten seconds ago, you've met I Want to Be the Boshy. It’s mean. It’s loud. It is arguably one of the most polarizing artifacts of the "masocore" platformer era.
Back in 2010, the indie gaming scene was obsessed with a specific kind of digital torture. We had I Want to Be the Guy, a game that basically invented the "fake-out" death. But then Jesper "Solgryn" Erlandsen looked at that and decided it wasn't quite fast enough. He wanted something smoother, more technical, and infinitely more punishing. Enter Boshy.
What is I Want to Be the Boshy anyway?
Basically, it's a fan-made tribute to everything difficult in 8-bit and 16-bit gaming, wrapped in a physics engine that feels like it's coated in butter. You play as a tiny character—often the titular Boshy, though there are plenty of unlockable skins—navigating a world where every single object is a potential murder weapon.
You're jumping. You're shooting. You're dying.
A lot.
The game is famous for its "troll" mechanics. You think you’ve cleared a gap? A giant face of Billy Herrington appears and crushes you. You think you found a safe spot? The floor turns into spikes. It’s a rhythmic, high-speed test of memory and reaction time that makes Dark Souls look like a cozy farming simulator. Honestly, the game isn't just about skill; it's about the psychological warfare between the developer and the player.
The Rise of the Masocore Titan
When Boshy dropped, it didn't just stay in the niche forums of Delicious Fruit. It exploded because of Twitch. Or, more accurately, Justin.tv back in the day. High-level speedrunners like Witwix turned the game into a spectator sport. There is something morbidly hypnotic about watching a guy lose his mind over a boss fight for three days straight, only to finally hit that final shot and scream at the top of his lungs.
It became a rite of passage. If you could beat Boshy, you were "legit."
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The Bosses: Where Spirits Go to Die
The boss fights are the real meat of the experience. They aren't just patterns; they’re endurance tests. Take the Sonic boss fight. It’s not just Sonic. It’s a distorted, hyper-speed nightmare version of SEGA’s mascot that requires frame-perfect movement.
Then you have the Cheetahmen. Or Ryu from Street Fighter. Or the infamous Solgryn himself—the final boss.
Solgryn is a masterpiece of "bullet hell" design. The screen fills with projectiles, the music is pounding, and you have to find tiny pockets of safety while managing your own damage output. It’s chaotic. It’s unfair. But when you see a runner like CalebHart42 or BBF handle these fights, it looks like a choreographed dance.
The complexity comes from the hitbox. In I Want to Be the Boshy, your hitbox is tiny, but the obstacles are massive. You have to learn the difference between what the game shows you and what the game counts as a hit. This nuance is why some people claim the game is broken, while others swear it's the most precise platformer ever made.
Why the Physics Feel Different
If you’ve played I Want to Be the Guy, you’ll notice Boshy feels... slippery. That’s intentional. Solgryn built the game in Multimedia Fusion 2, and the movement speed is significantly higher than its predecessors. You have a double jump that is much more floaty, allowing for massive gaps to be crossed, but it also means you have less "weight" when trying to land on a single-pixel block.
It’s frantic.
The Speedrunning Culture and the "EZ Mode" Myth
There’s a common misconception that playing on "Easy Mode" makes the game a cakewalk. It doesn't. In I Want to Be the Boshy, Easy Mode just gives you a few more save points and maybe a slightly different block layout in some spots. You still die in one hit. You still have to deal with the same absurd boss patterns.
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The speedrunning community has pushed this game to its absolute limits. We’re talking about finishing the entire game in under 30 minutes. To do that, runners use "Save Quitting" and other glitches to bypass certain cutscenes or animations.
- 100% Runs: These require collecting every single CD and secret item.
- Any%: Just get to the end before your heart gives out.
- No-Death Runs: These are rare and usually performed by people who have transcended human limits.
The sheer volume of RNG (random number generation) in some fights—like the Skeleton King or certain phases of Solgryn—means that a perfect run can be ruined by a single bad dice roll from the game's engine. That’s why Boshy is often called a "marathon killer" at events like Games Done Quick (GDQ). One bad boss can add 20 minutes to a run instantly.
Why People Still Play It in 2026
You’d think a game this frustrating would have faded away. But it hasn't. It’s a cultural touchstone in the "I Wanna" fangame community. It’s the game that proved there was a market for extreme difficulty combined with meme culture.
It's also about the "Aha!" moment.
There is a specific chemical hit your brain gets when you finally pass the "Spider" section or the "Mega Man" stage. It's a mix of relief and pure, unadulterated spite. You didn't just beat a level; you beat a developer who was actively trying to ruin your day.
The Legal Gray Area
Let’s be real: I Want to Be the Boshy is a legal nightmare. It uses assets from Sonic, Mario, Kirby, Street Fighter, and about a dozen other franchises. In today's hyper-litigious gaming world, a game like this would be DMCA’d into oblivion within hours of hitting Steam.
But because it’s a free fangame, it lives in this weird, protected bubble of internet history. It represents a time when the internet was a bit more of a "Wild West," where you could mash together a bunch of copyrighted sprites and create a cult classic.
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Technical Hurdles and Modern Systems
Trying to run Boshy on a modern Windows 11 or Windows 12 setup can be a pain. Since it was made in an older version of Multimedia Fusion, you often run into frame rate issues or weird controller mapping bugs.
Most players use a controller, but a vocal minority swears by the keyboard. If you’re using a keyboard, you’re basically playing a piano concerto where every wrong note kills you. You’ll likely need "Joy2Key" or similar software to get a modern gamepad working correctly without input lag. And in a game where a 3-frame delay is the difference between life and death, input lag is the ultimate boss.
Survival Tips for the Brave
If you're actually thinking about booting this up, don't go in blind. You will quit within ten minutes.
First, accept that death is the primary mechanic. You aren't "failing" when you die; you're gathering data. You’re learning that the third block from the left falls, and the fourth block shoots a laser.
Second, watch the replays. The Boshy community has documented almost every safe spot in the game. If a boss feels impossible, it’s probably because you’re standing in a spot that was designed to be a trap.
Third, take breaks. Seriously. This game is a recipe for carpal tunnel and high blood pressure. The "twitch" nature of the movement means your hands are constantly tense.
Actionable Steps for New Players
- Download the latest version: Make sure you have the "v1.7" or the most recent community patch. These fix some of the game-breaking bugs that plagued earlier builds.
- Map your "R" key: You will press the Reset button more than the Jump button. Make it accessible.
- Start on Totally Average Mode: Don't let your ego push you to "You're Gonna Die" mode immediately. You need to see the levels before you try to master them.
- Use a windowed mode: Running Boshy in full screen on a 4K monitor can sometimes cause weird scaling issues with the hitboxes. Keep it native.
- Listen to the music: Honestly, the soundtrack—mostly ripped from other games and remixed—is fantastic and helps keep the rhythm of the jumps.
I Want to Be the Boshy isn't for everyone. It’s probably not even for most people. It is a loud, obnoxious, unfair, and brilliant piece of gaming history. It demands perfection and offers nothing but a "Congratulations" screen in return. But for those who find joy in the struggle, there’s nothing else quite like it.
If you want to test your limits, go find the installer. Just don't say I didn't warn you about the cherries.