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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.
00:05But there are certain sections in titles that aren't just difficult, they are borderline impossible.
00:10We're talking about teasers so preposterously asinine next to no one could deduce the solution
00:14without relying on a walkthrough or getting very lucky through guesswork.
00:19I'm Sy for WhatCulture.com and these are 10 video game solutions you'd never get without a guide.
00:25Number 10, the Inception bonus level, Donkey Kong Country.
00:29Completionists of the 1990s searched everywhere in Donkey Kong Country to discover all 43 bonus areas.
00:35By the end, nearly everyone got stuck on the same level, Oil Drum Alley.
00:40The first two bonus areas in this level are relatively easy to find,
00:43but the third one eluded even the most hardcore players.
00:46So where the heck is it?
00:48Well, the reason why it's so difficult to ascertain is because it's the only bonus level in the game
00:52that's inside another bonus level.
00:55After you use the first TNT barrel to blow up a nearby wall,
00:58you'll be transported to a secret area where you need to match up the images on the barrels to win a prize.
01:04You need to match the barrels so they display an image of a single banana.
01:07If you do this, you'll be rewarded with a barrel.
01:09You need to use this barrel on the right wall to unlock the extra bonus level.
01:14Just to make it extra tough, you cannot throw the barrel at the wall.
01:17You need to jump at the wall with the barrel and press right to enter this secret location.
01:22Good grief.
01:23Number 9. Resetting the computer.
01:25Literally. X-Men.
01:27The Mega Drive X-Men game is regarded as one of the toughest titles on the system
01:30due to its unfairly placed platforms and relentless enemies.
01:34Even if you memorized every jump and could counter every villain's attack,
01:37gamers tended to get stuck on the penultimate level, Mojo's Crunch.
01:40After you destroy the screen at the end of the area,
01:43you'll be instructed to reset the computer now to face Mojo.
01:46After exploring the area, you'll be mystified to learn
01:48that there are no switches or levers to restart the machine.
01:52Players scoured for hours seeking a reset switch,
01:54not acknowledging that there was one right in front of them the entire time.
01:58When the screen tells you to reset the computer,
02:00it means you need to press the reset button on your Mega Drive.
02:04If this puzzle was in the first or second stage,
02:06the player might consider resetting their console,
02:09but since Mojo's Crunch is the second last level,
02:11nobody wanted to risk losing all that progress up to a certain point.
02:15You have to commend the developers for concocting a brain teaser
02:17that Hideo Kojima would be proud of,
02:19but 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,
02:29how do you think gamers felt playing the original?
02:31At the time, most games revolved around blasting as many enemies as possible
02:35or racing towards a goal.
02:36When 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,
02:43you had to use your head.
02:45If you couldn't surmise where a certain key was,
02:47you couldn't complete the game.
02:49To make it harder, it was one of the first mainstream action adventure titles
02:52that didn't have conventional levels.
02:54The Legend of Zelda takes place in an overworld,
02:56which you must navigate through to locate weapons, artifacts, and dungeons.
03:00Because a lot of areas look similar or identical,
03:03players ended up going round in circles.
03:05For a game where to find a Legend of Zelda guide
03:07that 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
03:15to observe where you still needed to explore.
03:18How anyone managed to complete the original game without this option
03:21is nothing short of a miracle.
03:23Number 7, Egyptian Temple, Goldeneye 007.
03:26The Egyptian Temple level in Goldeneye 007
03:28can only be unlocked by completing every mission on 00 agent mode.
03:32Your mission is to locate the golden gun
03:34and use it to defeat the witch doctor, Baron Semidi.
03:37The Voodoo Priest's health is so high he's virtually unkillable
03:40unless you shoot him with the golden gun.
03:43Now, finding the weapon is a piece of cake.
03:45Obtaining it, on the other hand, is an entirely different matter.
03:48The second you take one step towards the pistol,
03:50it will become inaccessible,
03:51while four indestructible turrets activate,
03:53blasting you to smithereens.
03:55The only way to get the golden gun is to walk on the floor tiles in a specific order.
03:59Now, you have two choices.
04:01Try dozens upon dozens of tile patterns,
04:03knowing it will result in you dying more times than you can count,
04:06or use a walkthrough and beat the level in five minutes.
04:09It's possible to solve the tile pattern through sheer trial and error
04:11over a period of several hours,
04:13but you'll struggle to find a single person who did it without the assistance of a guide.
04:18Number six, log rolling, Asterix and the Great Rescue.
04:21Asterix and the Great Rescue was a platformer for the Mega Drive
04:23that was heavily criticised for its difficulty.
04:26Not only does the game have clumsy controls and unrealistic time limits,
04:29the puzzles are so vague,
04:31you'll be clueless how to progress most of the time.
04:34Probably the worst example of this is the third boss,
04:36the log rolling Roman.
04:38As the level begins, you'll land on a river log.
04:40There is a centurion on the log that will roll it to the left of the screen,
04:43killing you almost immediately.
04:45The first time this happens,
04:46your first thought will probably be what just happened.
04:49What you're supposed to do is press A, B and right at breakneck speed
04:52to force the Roman to the other side of the screen,
04:54knocking him off the log.
04:56Because there's no instructions on what to do,
04:57most people progress beyond this level using a password for later stages
05:01rather than defeating the Roman.
05:03Number 5, the NPCs lie to you.
05:05Castlevania II, Simon's Quest.
05:07The 1986 action platformer Castlevania was such a success,
05:11it was no surprise when a sequel was released one year later.
05:14It had some similar mechanics,
05:16but integrated RPG elements such as visiting towns,
05:18buying consumables and conversing with the townsfolk.
05:21When you can't figure out where to go or how to unlock a certain artifact,
05:25you speak to NPCs to gather clues.
05:27This strategy may work in other franchises like Final Fantasy or The Legend of Zelda,
05:32but it won't help if you play the Japanese version of Castlevania II.
05:35According to the producer, Koji Igarashi,
05:37the NPCs are deliberate liars and intentionally mislead you.
05:42One of the characters tells you that a magic potion will destroy the wall of evil.
05:46Naturally, the player will search every area for this evil wall,
05:49unaware that it doesn't exist.
05:50Since no rational person assumes that NPCs are deceiving them,
05:54gamers went on a wild goose chase.
05:56The only way to complete Castlevania II is to follow the instructions of the sacred texts
06:00hidden around the game, not the advice of the NPCs.
06:03Number four, a puzzle that goes meta.
06:06Last Window, The Secret of Cape West.
06:08Last Window, The Secret of Cape West,
06:10was a criminally underrated puzzle game for the Nintendo DS.
06:13Sadly, developing company Sing went defunct shortly after its release.
06:17Sing decided to go out with a bang,
06:19since Last Window harbours one of the most head-scratching riddles in video game history.
06:23For the puzzle in question, you need to literally think outside the box.
06:27When you're told to close a music box to receive a key,
06:29you assume you're meant to press a series of buttons.
06:32What you're actually meant to do is close your DS.
06:34But you're not supposed to close the DS fully.
06:36You need to keep it open a little until a certain note is played,
06:39then press a button before reopening the DS and tapping the screen.
06:43It doesn't tell you to do that, you're just expected to figure it out somehow.
06:47Also, 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,
06:55so they devised a game with an unreasonably tough puzzle,
06:58just to screw with everyone one last time.
07:00Number three, The Extractor, Grim Fandango.
07:03There's a rule of thumb with Grim Fandango.
07:05Don't use logic to solve a puzzle, ever.
07:08How do you make a guard move from his spots?
07:10Well, in a logical game, you would distract him.
07:12In Grim Fandango, you get a balloon animal of a dead worm,
07:15fill it with foam, stuff it into a tube machine until it jams,
07:19forcing the guard to fix it.
07:20If that sounds convoluted, well, it only gets worse.
07:23Some puzzles in Grim Fandango are hard, even when you know what to do.
07:27While in the Petrovide Forest,
07:29Manny and his friend Glottis come across an extractor,
07:31which they need to destabilise.
07:33To do this, you need to place a wheelbarrow on the hoses
07:36attached to the extractor, and then allow Glottis to climb on top of it.
07:40After you pull a lever, the extractor will shake like crazy until it falls apart.
07:43However, you can't just place the wheelbarrow randomly on the hoses,
07:47you have to place it on specific hoses,
07:49but only when they are in sync with the movements of the extractor's pumps.
07:53This is so confusing, watching a step-for-step video guide barely helps.
07:57More often than not, players complete this section purely out of luck.
08:00Number two, save the rats or die, King's Quest V.
08:04If you fail at completing a difficult section in most games, you can try again.
08:08However, if you didn't perform the right action or complete certain criteria in King's Quest V,
08:13the game becomes unwinnable.
08:15If you think that's crazy, the player doesn't realise until hours later.
08:19One example of this is when you see a cat chasing a rat beside a bakery.
08:23To help the rat escape, you need to hurl your shoe at the feline.
08:26When you're tied up in the swarthy hog inn later,
08:28the 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.
08:37If you saved your progress after the rat was killed, you have to restart the entire game.
08:42How frustrating would all other video games be
08:45if they demonstrated the same level of cruelty as King's Quest V?
08:49Imagine reaching the final boss of a Super Mario Brothers game
08:51only to receive a Game Over screen because you didn't pick up a specific coin hours earlier.
08:56Ironically, King's Quest V was criticised upon its release by some magazines,
09:00including Computer Gaming World, because it was deemed too easy.
09:03And number one, the entire game, 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.
09:15Takeshi's Challenge was masterfully crafted to make the gamer's life a living hell.
09:19When the game begins in your boss's office, you need to ignore him,
09:22go to the bank, empty your account, learn to play a stringed instrument,
09:26get 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.
09:36Oh, and by the way, if you think these series of tasks are impossible to work out,
09:39that's the first five minutes of the title.
09:41The rest of Takeshi's Challenge is just as punishingly difficult.
09:44Because there are almost no hints on what to do or where to go,
09:48the player will solve most of the puzzles through an unrealistic amount of experimentation.
09:52Although the game came with a free guide, it wasn't complete since the author died while writing it.
09:57Very few people in the world have completed Takeshi's Challenge,
10:00but 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 of the time.
10:09And speaking of doomed, here are 10 video games where you were doomed from the start.
10:14Click it to stay with us here at WhatCultureGaming,
10:16and otherwise, leave a comment down below on video game sections that you couldn't beat without a walkthrough,
10:21and make sure you like this video and subscribe.
10:23Head over to WhatCulture.com for more content every day.
10:26Don't forget you can follow me on Twitter at Siniac underscore one, two, three.
10:29I've been Si for WhatCulture, and have a good week.
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