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Flawless victory!
Whether its rage at a vicious boss, panic during a frantic escape, or carefully held back not-tears at an emotional scene (that isnt sad at all, shuddup), todays games are carefully programmed to get just the right reaction from you at just the right moment. This is especially prevalent with feelings of victory as you overcome a games many challenges: the idea is for you to feel a certain way so youll be compelled to go on playing. Companies spend millions every year to make that happen, and do all they can to keep you at the controls.
When you kill a boss with one hit-point left to your name
You're nearing the end of a grueling battle, and things are looking grim. Your health packs are depleted, your comrades are down for the count, and you're on your last legs. The boss is close too, at the end of their humungous health bar, and if you drop now all that effort will be wasted. So you go in guns blazing, throwing out every ounce of firepower you've got in a screaming hellfire assault (or hiding behind a box and taking potshots, whatever), and after several pulse-pounding moments the boss drops dead, with you a strong sneeze away from death yourself.
When you beat a boss who's been kicking your ass
Take that last scenario, remove the victory part, and do it over and over until your TV is in danger of meeting your controller at high speed. As tough as bosses are meant to be, some are just over the top, subjecting us no end of frustration as they kick our butts repeatedly. Sometimes it feels like youll never best them and all your efforts are for nothing and that just makes your eventual victory sweeter.
When you pass a stage you never could as a kid
Everybody's gotta start somewhere, and for many gamers, that was the days of our carefree youth. Few of us were in peak gaming condition at the time, and many an older sibling was called to beat that one level that was just too haaaaaard. But big brothers and tough games can be equally cruel, so when the first wasn't interested in helping us with the second, games got shelved indefinitely. That is, until we came back as adults, blew off the cartridge, and realized this wasn't so hard after all.
When you snag an achievement that's absurdly hard to get
You know you shouldn't do it. The reasonable adult in you says it isn't worth your time to collect every gold scarab in Hyrule or go through Ravenholm using only the Gravity Gun, or whatever other absurd achievement youve got your eye on. You don't need it, developers put that in there just to mess with you--and then you do it anyway and a feeling of victory hits you like a tidal wave.
When you beat that friend who's way better than you at this game
We all have that friend who has more time to play your favorite game than you do and is about 10,000 times better at it than you as a result. You swallow that bitter pill, but it always gets a little worse every time they beat you, even though you know its inevitable. As much as developers may try to balance out multiplayer or allow for handicaps, there's no accounting for raw playtime, and that friend is always gonna beat you six ways to Sunday.
When an enemy's attack misses, just when you really need it to
You're in a bad spot, in the thick of a hard battle with your back to the wall and you haven't saved in about six hours. You know if you had a minute to breathe you could regroup, but all of a sudden the enemy whips out their smackdown move and you know it's all over but the wrathful sobbing. But then the magical Missed message blossoms on the screen, or their attack goes in the wrong direction, and it's like an angel chorus takes over the soundtrack and youre given one more chance.
When you make a glitch work in your favor
Something about this game just isn't working. Not in a critical/metaphorical/existential way, but actually not working in the face of horrible glitches. You truck on as best you can, but you're kept from completing your objective by bad programming so many times that it feels like more effort than its worth. Youre ten seconds from seeing how the disc fares strapped to a firecracker, when suddenly you manage to launch yourself past the point you were stuck at using the same weird glitches that thrwarted you before. Well! All right then.
When you finally figure out that puzzle all on your own
Like sitcom husbands that refuse to pull over and ask directions, some of us gamers refuse to use walkthroughs. Wheres the fun, the challenge, in being told the answer instead of searching for it? That mindset keeps us staring at screens and digging through our gray matter, not because were stubborn nerds (though that too), but because the elation of solving it all on your own is like ego-based potato chips.
It's all on you
Though many of us have these victories in common, and can easily swap stories of successes experienced by many, each of us has our own unique tale to tell about how we pulled them off. How many times have these things happened to you? What other impromptu triumph didnt we think of? Tell us in the comments below, and dont forget to share your story--youve got a good one, I know it!
