You’re walking. It’s a 2D world. There is a delicious-looking red cherry hanging from a tree. You walk under it, and suddenly, the cherry falls upward. Dead. You’re back at the start. That is the fundamental loop of I Want to Be the Guy: The Movie: The Game. It’s a game that hates you, yet thousands of people have spent hundreds of hours trying to beat it.
Released back in 2007 by Michael "Kayin" O'Reilly, this game basically invented a sub-genre. We call them "Masocore" games now. It’s a mix of "masochism" and "hardcore."
Most games follow a set of rules. If you see a pit, you jump over it. If you see a spike, you don't touch it. I Want to Be the Guy (IWBTG) doesn't care about your rules. It uses your gaming instincts against you. It knows you expect the floor to stay solid. It knows you expect gravity to pull things down. Then, it breaks those rules just to see you explode into a shower of red pixels.
Honestly, it shouldn't work. It sounds like bad game design. But somehow, it became a cult classic that defined an era of early internet gaming culture.
The Absolute Chaos of the Design
Kayin didn't just make a hard game. He made a game that is a literal tribute to—and a parody of—the 8-bit era. You play as "The Kid" on a quest to become "The Guy." To do this, you have to navigate levels filled with assets ripped directly from Mega Man, Metroid, and Ghosts 'n Goblins.
The genius isn't in the difficulty; it's in the comedic timing.
There’s a specific screen where you have to jump between several platforms. As you land on the third one, a giant Moon (straight out of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask) crashes into the screen. It's unavoidable the first time. You just laugh. Or scream. Probably both.
👉 See also: Finding the Right Words That Start With Oc 5 Letters for Your Next Wordle Win
The game relies on "trial and error" in its purest, most distilled form. You cannot beat I Want to Be the Guy with fast reflexes alone. You need memory. You need to know exactly which pixel triggers the hidden spike trap. It’s a choreographed dance where one wrong step leads to instant disintegration.
Why We Actually Keep Playing
It's about the "Aha!" moment. Every time you die, you learn one more thing about the level.
- The first jump is safe.
- The second jump triggers a falling apple.
- The third jump triggers a rising apple.
- The fourth jump is actually a fake floor.
When you finally clear a screen that killed you fifty times, the rush is incredible. It's a psychological trick. The game beats you down so much that the smallest victory feels like winning the Super Bowl.
The Legacy of the "Fangames"
If you think the original game is hard, you haven't seen the community it spawned. The "Guy" engine was eventually shared, and since then, fans have created thousands of "fangames."
Some of these are even harder than the original. We’re talking about games like I Want to Be the Boshy or I Want to Be the Kamilia. These games take the concept of precision platforming to a level that seems humanly impossible.
The community lives on sites like Delicious Fruit, a hub for these types of games. They've developed their own terminology. "Needle" levels involve jumping through gaps that are exactly the width of the character. "Gimmick" levels use weird physics or visual illusions.
✨ Don't miss: Jigsaw Would Like Play Game: Why We’re Still Obsessed With Digital Puzzles
It’s a bizarre, niche corner of the internet. But it’s one of the most dedicated. Speedrunners at events like Games Done Quick (GDQ) often perform runs of these games, and they are consistently some of the most-watched segments. Watching a person navigate a screen filled with 500 moving spikes without breaking a sweat is basically watching a digital circus act.
Debunking the "Bad Design" Argument
Critics often say I Want to Be the Guy is poorly designed because it’s "unfair."
In a traditional sense, they're right. Good design usually means the player has all the tools to succeed on the first try if they are skilled enough. In IWBTG, you must die to understand what to do next.
However, fairness isn't the goal here. The goal is subversion. Kayin was poking fun at the frustration of old NES games. He took the "unfair" moments from our childhood and turned them into the entire point of the experience. It’s a meta-commentary on gaming history.
When you fight the boss that looks like Mike Tyson, and he suddenly turns into a giant building, that’s not bad design. That’s a joke. And if you’re in on the joke, the game is a masterpiece of dark humor.
The Technical Side of the Frustration
The game was built in Multimedia Fusion 2. Because of this, the physics are a bit... "janky" is probably the nice word. The Kid has a double jump that feels slightly floaty. His hitbox is tiny, but the spikes have hitboxes that feel massive.
🔗 Read more: Siegfried Persona 3 Reload: Why This Strength Persona Still Trivializes the Game
This technical limitation actually adds to the charm. If the game felt as polished as a modern Mario title, the unfair deaths would feel like a betrayal. Because it looks and feels like a frantic hobbyist project, you give it more leeway. You expect the chaos.
Is It Still Worth Playing?
If you have a high blood pressure or a low tolerance for repeating the same thirty seconds of a game for three hours, then no. Stay away.
But if you want to experience a piece of internet history, you sort of have to try it. It’s free. It’s small. It’ll run on a potato.
You’ll probably quit within twenty minutes. Most people do. But those first twenty minutes will give you a better understanding of modern "difficult" games like Dark Souls or Elden Ring. Those games are hard, but they are generally fair. I Want to Be the Guy is the crazy ancestor that showed us just how much punishment gamers are willing to take if the payoff is satisfying enough.
Actionable Tips for the Brave
If you're actually going to download this and try to beat it, keep these things in mind:
- S is for Save. There are "Save" blocks. Shoot them. If you don't shoot them, they don't save. There is nothing worse than clearing a hard section and realizing you forgot to shoot the box.
- The Apples are Traps. Almost every cherry or apple in the game is designed to kill you. If it looks like a power-up, it’s a bullet.
- Watch the "Ghost." When you die, your blood stays on the screen. Use those blood splatters as markers. They tell you exactly where NOT to stand on your next attempt.
- Use a Controller. Playing this on a keyboard is an invitation for carpal tunnel. Map your jump and shoot buttons to something comfortable.
- Look for Secret Paths. Sometimes the obvious way forward is a death trap, and the "real" path is through a fake wall or a hidden jump.
The game is a test of patience more than anything else. It asks the question: "How many times can you fail before you give up?" For the Kid, the answer has to be "never." Because to be the Guy, you have to be willing to die a thousand deaths just to see the next screen.
Start by downloading the original version from Kayin's website. Avoid the "Remastered" versions for your first run if you want the authentic, slightly broken experience. Once you can consistently make it past the first three screens, look up the boss fight against "The Guy" himself—it’s one of the most absurd sequences in gaming history involving a very familiar face from the world of Street Fighter.
Good luck. You're going to need it. And you're definitely going to die. A lot.