He got there by himself?! (Destiny)

by Korny , Dalton, Ga. US. Earth, Sol System, Saturday, April 04, 2015, 00:06 (3329 days ago) @ Funkmon

Jesus. When I was 6 I couldn't even beat World 7 of Super Mario Brothers. Tell him good job!

Reminds me of a story that I shared recently of one of my favorite moments in gaming...

I was six years old, playing the Lion King game for the SNES. It was a tough game that threw all kinds of twists and turns every level, but I loved it.

Anyway, I can't remember if you couldn't save, or if I was just too young to understand Save systems, but it was one of those times where Game Over meant Game Over, and no matter what I would do, I could never beat Scar during the final boss battle. Whenever he pounced and got me on my back, I didn't know how to get him off, so he'd just slash away at my health, and that would be it for me. Start over from Level 1.

That was frustrating, until one day I got to him with plenty of extra lives, and carefully focused on avoiding his pounce. But I couldn't; eventually he'd always land it.

Extra Lives: 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2.

I finally figured out (through desperate button mashing) that if you hit left on the D-pad and attacked (IIRC), you could actually toss him off, and then counter with a grapple that would launch him away from you and buy you some time, which was a game changer, but I still couldn't beat him for some reason. Extra Lives: 1

Still struggling. I couldn't beat him. I had no idea what I was supposed to do, but no matter how many times I slashed at him and tossed him off of me, he'd still come after me and chip away at my health. I couldn't figure it out. Extra Lives: 0

Final chance, and I was hopeless. I'd slash, and back up whenever he was going to attack. What do I do!? I thought. I was running out of space, getting pushed closer and closer to the cliff on the left as my health drained. And then I ran out of space as he successfully pounced on me.

Noooo! I thought, mashing desperately to get him off. And then... I managed to kick him off, grapple him, and send him flying... Over the cliff... That was it. That's what I was supposed to do...

Simba stood up, walked to the edge of the cliff, and roared victoriously.

I can't describe what I felt, but it's stuck with me as my greatest victory in gaming. Zero saves, zero lives left, and zero help. 20 years later, and I can still remember it vividly.