Wspr

Title#

I thought for a long time about the title, and in the end, perhaps only "suffering games" fit best. Among the three ACG fields, I am most interested in and know the most about games. I can't get into anime, and I'm not interested in manga; I've loved games since I was a child. However, I'm not a player who enjoys everything. Rather, after playing games for so long, I've discovered some types of games that I just can't experience the charm of.

1: Games that require brainpower. Although playing any game requires some thinking, here it mainly refers to, but is not limited to: tower defense games (Arknights, Bloons TD), roguelike deckbuilders (Slay the Spire), puzzle games (Baba Is You), strategy games (RTS, 4X, tactical games), etc. When I play these games, my actions often lead to disastrous results. The main reason: I completely fail to make any long-term plans and often act randomly.

2: Games that balance gameplay and story. For me, I can only focus on either the story or the gameplay; if a game tries to do both, I probably won't be able to continue playing. So I can't get into most RPGs, except for a very few.

3: Open-world or broadly goal-oriented games. This includes games like Minecraft and TR; if I play them alone, I feel completely lost. Then there are open-world games; looking at the vast map makes my scalp tingle.

4: Slow-paced games. This mainly refers to games with a slow pace, such as Souls-like games, Monster Hunter, where various actions are very slow, and the constipation-style monster fighting in Isaac. As long as a game can't quickly capture my interest (whether positively or negatively), I can't continue playing.

So you can probably tell that my brain is basically in a state of near collapse. Given these limitations, what games do I enjoy? One category is suffering games. Since I was young, before I even touched a computer, I played difficult games like Touhou and Electronic Super Joy on other people's computers. This laid the foundation for my taste. I enjoy games that have simple mechanics, almost no story, fast pace, and high difficulty. They are either extremely stimulating dopamine games or their extreme opposite—slow-paced visual novels or AVG games.

I've said a lot of nonsense, so now I'll talk about the mindless games I like.

1: Nuclear Throne
Brain capacity requirement: very low
Suffering level: infinitely high

First, I must mention my favorite gameplay-focused game—Nuclear Throne. Nuclear Throne perfectly meets the criteria I mentioned above:

Extremely simple mechanics. Pick up a weapon and kill enemies; after killing, you automatically move to the next level, occasionally upgrading and choosing a mutation, which are special abilities, not RPG-style stat points. You just keep killing until you blow up the throne or do it in a special way and then do it again until you die.

Almost no story. The only story is the loading tips.

Fast-paced. The entire game basically reduces waiting time to zero; you only get a moment to breathe when generating levels. The rest of the time is spent continuously killing monsters, and after killing, a portal appears on the last corpse, so you don't even need to find the way.

High difficulty. Because you can loop infinitely, the difficulty can increase infinitely. Even if you just want to clear it once, you still have to put in some effort.

Nuclear Throne is a roguelite game. This means that when you die, you start over, and each time is random. However, the random elements in the game are pitifully few; aside from mutation weapons and layouts, there are no other random factors. At this point, you might as well treat this game as an arcade game. However, in my mind, roguelites should embody the spirit of arcade games. I really, really dislike the rampant permanent upgrade elements in this genre. But I've already criticized this, so I won't say more here.

In short, in Nuclear Throne, you can unlock some elements that can make your start easier, but let me tell you, that doesn't matter much. Because the game itself does not follow an RPG approach. The enemy's numerical design is very reasonable, so reasonable that you can clear the game using only the starting weapon throughout, even without upgrading. For the game's L0, which is the first loop, you can pass no matter how you play. This also means that when you get beaten up at this stage, you can't blame anyone. It's 99.9% your fault, and players more skilled than you can handle it better. The strength you accumulate in the game is not reflected through in-game numbers but is determined by your neural pathways operating the game outside of it. Through practice, you can develop a better brain and make better choices.

However, I can only say good things up to L1. Starting from L2, the game will gradually only allow a few types of gameplay to exist, and mutations, as a permanent deciding factor, become a troublesome matter of luck. If you want to have a good run, say L6 and above, you need to keep playing until you get good mutations. And it doesn't end there. You also have to ensure that you don't die from the start to L6, which takes about 90 minutes on average. During these 90 minutes, you must stay alert and not die at all, or your efforts will be in vain. This is very exhausting. In the community, various loops are divided into three stages: Normal—below L6, Deep Loop—L6 to L12, Abyss Loop—above L12. And reaching L12 takes three to four hours. Continuously breaking through in this game is very difficult.

So, isn't such a long period of mental strain exhausting? Fortunately, Nuclear Throne is not as stingy as other roguelites, hoarding resources tightly. The game mainly has three resources: health, ammunition, and radiation (experience points). The main source of these three resources is killing monsters. Moreover, the lower your health and ammunition, the higher the drop rate. This means: the more desperate the situation, the more aggressive your strategy becomes safer. And radiation later becomes ammunition for a special type of weapon, so when using these weapons, if you can't manage your ammunition well, your radiation won't convert at all. This is an extremely aggressive, high-risk, high-reward system that complements the fast-paced experience. Additionally, it adds a layer of "monster control" strategic elements. In most later stages, most monsters are completely harmless; they are just your resource reserves. So controlling the battlefield is also a necessary course for going deep. Mutations and weapons qualify you for deep runs, and these words can't fully explain it; only the strategic details built through practical experience are truly important.

I previously mentioned the exquisite numerical design, but the character design in the game is also very distinctive. For example, Eyes can use telekinesis to push enemy bullets away and pull drops and enemies closer, Plant can release traps that can quickly kill enemies when combined with mutations, Melting can explode enemy corpses, and Rebel can summon minions at the cost of health, etc. The pixel art for these characters is also very well done and easily recognizable. Besides the visuals, the game's sound design is also excellent; the satisfaction of killing enemies comes from this. You can hear the juicy sound when blowing up scorpions, the tragic cries of robots in the snow, etc. The various sound effects of firearms are also very satisfying, and the details of melee weapon swings are maximized.

Overall, even now, Nuclear Throne has many designs that are not outdated and even very innovative, and it surpasses most roguelite shooting games. Indeed, most choices in the game become useless under the infinite loop setting, but can you really blame the game for this? What game can be without some meta? If you want to join the meta army, I suggest you download mods that allow you to choose mutations. I don't think this is cheating at all.

The fast-paced gameplay combined with the kill-to-recover feedback loop, along with a completely non-dragging, fast-loading experience and extremely satisfying visuals and sound design, makes the enjoyment of Nuclear Throne off the charts. What? You say Survivors? My opinion is that survivor games are all trash. Come join me in the wasteland to blow up Nuclear Throne.

Around 2020 to 2021, a group of Nuclear Throne fans created a game that continues the spirit of Nuclear Throne while increasing the game's difficulty, speeding up the pace, and reducing the randomness. Next, I will talk about Stardust Arena.

2: Stardust Arena
Brain capacity requirement: low
Suffering level: extremely high

The creators of Stardust Arena are veterans of Nuclear Throne, so this game is much more difficult from the start than Nuclear Throne. Therefore, this game is generally only recommended for players who enjoy the former, unless you are a master of twin-stick shooters.

The randomness in SA is not much better than NT; the mutation system has mainly been replaced by an equipment system. These pieces of equipment can be upgraded by combining two identical components, and after a while, the game will provide an Assembler where you can spend money to buy the same type of component; similarly, you can dismantle unnecessary components for cash. This setup makes equipment no longer fixed like mutations, giving players greater operational space. At the same time, it also reduces the element of luck significantly. Most of the time, you can manage quite well.

But this is just a trap left by the creators. SA is an Arena Shooter, and here it doesn't refer to multiplayer shooting games like Unreal Tournament, but rather that your battlefield is a circle, and you need to kill waves of enemies. Currently, the game has 50 waves. The first ten waves are basically for you to familiarize yourself with the game and slightly build your character; if placed in NT, that would be L0. After that, the game's intensity starts to rise rapidly. It won't be long before you need to understand a key principle of this type of game—circle running. While circling, you also need to: counter snipers, dodge randomly appearing mines on the ground, avoid enemy bombs, evade a centipede enemy's timed charge, heal with small monsters, be wary of possible explosive barrels, circle around tracking lasers + avoid the plasma bullets that explode after they die, dodge meteors or dig meteors to recover ammunition, and occasionally seize opportunities to build your equipment. Yes. These details are what you need to pay attention to on top of the already very fast-paced game. Even in NT, you rarely need to pay attention to so many things at once.

The controls in SA compared to NT only replace the skill key with digging and add a dash. Other than that, there is no difference. However, mindless dashing will only harm you. Although you are invincible during the dash, the distance is also uncontrollable. Additionally, the damage in the game is very high. With a default of 50 health, just two big bullets can kill you. So you are very likely to die from just a small mistake. This game has both high and low tolerance. SA still has the kill-to-recover tradition, but this time all your ammunition needs to be recovered by killing enemies or digging meteors, which makes ammunition management very important from the start. Moreover, your weapons consume more as they upgrade, making it easier to run out of ammunition. The unchangeable terrain also makes it more difficult to maneuver around enemies, and the entire open circle has no cover for you; you either kill or die. So the game basically forces you to play aggressively throughout.

The tolerance for builds in SA is also much higher. Most builds can go quite far—this is the conclusion I drew from the leaderboard. Because compared to NT's long-term design items, the items in this game are designed from the start for the endgame, so there are no transitional items. In NT, transitional weapons also appear repeatedly. I personally can only reach nearly wave 30; I haven't seen the world beyond that. Moreover, the types of weapons and components are not many, so building them together is relatively less torturous, taking at most a dozen minutes. However, the energy consumption of this game is indeed very high; after playing for a while, I am already exhausted.

The pixel art in the game cannot be said to be amazing, but it is definitely visually appealing. The music is limited, but all are electronic music like Jungle, which sounds very good. The sound effects also inherit NT's tradition, providing a strong sense of satisfaction, though the explosion sounds of enemies can be tiring. Overall, if you want a faster, harder, but less luck-based shooting roguelite(?), SA is definitely your choice.

3: Devil Daggers
Brain capacity requirement: medium
Suffering level: extremely high+

Boards of Canada is one of my favorite bands. They have an album—Geogaddi. This album is filled with tense, eerie, and beautiful atmospheres. The duration of sixty-six minutes and six seconds and many details in the album have led many to associate it with demons. In this album, there is a song called The Devil Is In the Details, which is very fitting to describe Devil Daggers.

I generally don't play first-person games much, mainly for one reason: they make me dizzy! However, DD can be said to have gradually made me accept this type of game because DD is incredibly simple. The game only has black and a circular platform; the rest is just enemies, with no elements that can cause dizziness. In recent years, there has been a trend in FPS, especially among independent or small studios: Boomer Shooter. These games return to the designs of the ancestors, creating Doom-like/Quake-like games. While DD may seem like this at first glance, it has modern ideas in both aspects.

Before discussing gameplay, I must mention one point that I really like about DD: extreme minimalism. There is basically no UI during the game; you can choose to turn on the timer; the menu has only a few options, and the gameplay is very pure—you are a hand(?), can shoot daggers, and need to kill various skeletons. The development team Sorath may not be familiar to you; they are actually the team behind Dustforce, which I will mention later. They have virtually no social activity, and the game has only one achievement, which is generally a testament to your complete mastery of the game. In DD, this achievement is to survive for 500 seconds. Currently, the completion rate is 0.3%; before the game became popular again, this achievement had long been at 0.1%.

Is surviving for 500 seconds really that hard? Yes, it is. As an arcade-style game, DD has very strict control over rhythm. You must complete certain tasks before a specific time; otherwise, the scene will immediately spiral out of control, and you will die. Although it is a first-person game, DD and its spiritual successor HYPER DEMON share a characteristic: extra perception. In HYPER DEMON, you have a 360-degree field of view, and enemies behind you appear as red phantoms on your screen, while DD relies on sound. There is no music while you play. Only the roars of enemies. Every sound effect in the game is carefully designed to be both comfortable and provide reasonable information. Various enemies in the game emit different sounds, occupying different frequency spectrums, allowing you to hear clearly. You could say that until there are too many enemies later on, this system is very helpful.

As mentioned earlier, your actions are basically predetermined, so the backdrop is somewhat of a factor. However, just having a backdrop won't save you. Because later on, even if you know what will appear, you can't guarantee that you can handle it. This is because the positions of enemies appear randomly. This is also the only variable in the game. Therefore, judging the situation is also very important. The game also has several iconic difficulty spikes, such as 39, 120, 170, and 200, 260, 350, etc. These spots require a long time of practice.

Now let's talk about the creative design of the game. In STG games, you rarely need to stop firing, unless it's a special scoring mechanism like in Hellish Abyss; in most games, you really don't need to stop firing. In this game, killing enemies drops gems, which can only be absorbed when you stop firing; continuously firing will cause these gems to disappear. After reaching a certain level, your gems will turn into homing bullets, so this is another game that combines killing with resource management. Do you see the pattern? Every enemy in the game has its own particularly annoying aspects, and the solutions are different. Your goal is singular; this is an extremely pure yet extremely brutal game. However, the first few seconds of downtime in the game are quite lengthy; even if you choose to farm gems, there is still some waiting involved. This might be a downside. DD is so tight that it is difficult to find any flaws. The more you say, the more mistakes you make; the less you say, the fewer mistakes you make.

If you enjoy suffering, pure design philosophy, old-school retro FPS, and a brutal arcade game experience, and are fascinated by the black, white, and red aesthetics of the game, then you must try DD.

4: Celeste
Brain capacity requirement: medium (game content itself) extremely high (community maps)
Suffering level: medium (game content itself excluding golden strawberries) infinitely high (golden strawberries + community maps)

Celeste's reputation really doesn't need me to explain how good it is. This game is often referred to as "the hardest game/platformer on Steam." Although I think there are quite a few that are harder, I won't dwell on that.

The design philosophy and gameplay experience of Celeste are very coherent and tight, with a smooth difficulty curve, only a bit steep between the second and third levels. The core of the game lies in the dash; the entire game is built around this one action. From the very beginning, familiarizing yourself with the controls, to using the dash jelly in the second level, to many mechanisms related to the dash that repeatedly teach you how to use it. Besides the dash, Celeste also has an element of momentum. Of course, there are many platformers that play with momentum; the later mentioned N++/Dustforce also play with momentum, but here it is more about acceleration through the rapid movement of objects to fly. Besides using objects, the later taught wave dash is also a form of acceleration. If you want to go even faster, there's also the Ultra. The advanced gameplay of Celeste revolves around stacking momentum with the dash.

However, setting aside community maps, the nine maps in the game each have their own characteristics, accompanied by a bit of story I don't care about and nice music. The A-side levels feel more like a sightseeing tour, allowing you to gradually resolve your inner conflicts alongside Madeline, while the B-side shows you a glimpse of your potential. The C-side feels more like an extra challenge for players who haven't had enough. As for the later DLC Chapter 9, it adds more creative systems while combining the A, B, and C sides, making it very enjoyable to play.

Although Celeste has many interesting designs, I personally don't like some elements in it. This is not related to the design itself; I just don't like certain specific levels. Fortunately, the elements in the main game are generally not difficult enough to make you give up entirely, which makes Celeste the most suitable for beginners among the platformers I want to mention. I died nearly 10,000 times after completing all elements except the golden strawberries; it seems like a lot, but it doesn't feel that way while playing.

In addition to the levels in the game, community maps are also an important component of Celeste. Here, players can discover the true potential of game mechanics. If you want to try community maps, I suggest you first play the Strawberry Jam map collection, which has very comprehensive tutorials on game mechanics. Although it looks dazzling, in reality, each chapter only introduces about ten new techniques, and the first two major levels are of similar difficulty to the main game.

Celeste is an excellent game for entering the world of Precision Platformers, allowing you to appreciate the astonishing depth hidden beneath a few simple button presses, as well as the importance of level design quality and excellent control feel. I do not recommend using assist mode while playing.

5,6: N++/Dustforce

Brain capacity requirement: medium (N++) large (Dustforce)
Suffering level: very high (N++ single-player mode without considering coins) extremely high+++ (N++ full collection) extremely high+ (Dustforce)

Next, these two games are heavyweight. Since I haven't invested much time in them, I can only briefly mention them. First, let's talk about their common elements:

You will feel immense pressure right from the start. Without long-term practice, even very basic obstacles can be very difficult to pass. The state of being airborne feels very helpless; you can't move left and right like in other games. The controls have inertia and feel very sluggish.
Terrifying depth. I haven't played these two games much, but both require hundreds of hours of practice to grasp their intricacies, and before that, the strange controls and high difficulty levels will torment you to death. Completing N++ is relatively okay, but collecting coins is very annoying. In Dustforce, you need to put in a lot of effort just to enter the levels.
Excellent visual design. N++ is the perfect embodiment of minimalist graphics; the game has only a few colors, and the shapes are very simple. Dustforce's visuals are very clean, and the animations of characters and other creatures are very smooth. After mastering these two games, the controls feel very fluid and graceful, truly giving a sense of being a martial arts master.
Excellent music. I believe most people learned about Dustforce through one person: Chubbyemu. This person often uses the game's OST as background music for videos. As for N++, if you enjoy IDM, Ambient, Techno, or similar bleep music, you will be very happy.

If Celeste hasn't made the levels so extreme that most players can enjoy playing through, then N++ and Dustforce will likely give players who just found confidence in Celeste a harsh reality check. In Celeste, you can complete all elements except the golden strawberries in just a few dozen hours, while here you might still be exploring. Therefore, I only recommend those who already enjoy Precision Platformers or are just stubbornly determined to play these games. However, these people probably don't need me to tell them; they already know about these two games.

First, let's talk about N++. N++ is an enhanced version of N+, and N+ is an enhanced version of N. N was originally a Flash game, and after two iterations, we have the N++ we see today. The promotional video claims it to be the Best Platformer, which is not an empty statement; it might just be missing a "One of." N++ has over 4,000 levels; yes, you read that right, over 4,000. These levels start by hand-holding you through the basics of the game and then reveal their evil nature later on. N++ is like a cram school; from the very beginning, the game is eager to teach you how to play, and the vast number of levels is like mandatory practice questions—if you want to get better, you have to tear through these levels with tears in your eyes. After you finish the vast number of levels, the game is probably only about halfway through. Because these levels also have coins.

N++ starts with a 90-second countdown, and collecting a coin adds one second. The placement of these coins is very malicious; if you want to collect them right from the start, you will definitely be tortured. Besides collecting coins, the game has many challenges, to the extent that there are currently fewer than 50 people worldwide who have achieved all achievements.

Alright, even if our goals aren't that ambitious, playing well in N++ isn't easy. The game only has three buttons: left, right, and jump. However, the chemical reaction between these three buttons and the terrain is incredibly terrifying. As I mentioned earlier, even very basic terrain can be difficult to navigate, and N++ is like that. Even with simple block terrain and stationary obstacles, you have to be extremely careful while controlling. And unfortunately, this ninja either moves very fast or very slow, so to master movement, you first need to be calm. Because of such immense momentum, if your controls are off, there is very little room for correction. Unlike many agile platformers, N++'s unique movement mechanics lead to its potential difficulties. Although it differs from the clunky controls of games like Ghosts 'n Goblins.

N++ is like a subject in the college entrance examination, constantly being explored by its creators, ultimately resulting in a very compact, rich, and brutally difficult Precision Platformer.

Next is Dustforce. Dustforce has significantly fewer levels, but that doesn't mean your playtime will be much shorter. As mentioned earlier, the creators of Dustforce also adhere to a minimalist philosophy, so the game has only one achievement: SS for all levels.

What is SS for all levels? First, we need to discuss how Dustforce is played. You are a cleaner who needs to sweep the ground, but dust blocks are also in the air, and there are dust-polluted monsters attacking you. You need to pick up a broom to clean the ground.

The controls in Dustforce also feel very sluggish; the character jumps quickly, but can still hover in the air for a while; after jumping, you still can't move left and right significantly; dashing can quickly cancel inertia, and swinging the broom has a front-and-back swing. This is also a game that can't be played recklessly; if you don't know what you're doing, you will likely fail.

The game's rating is based on speed and completion. However, the conditions for achieving SS are simple: as long as you clean all the dust throughout and maintain a dust combo, you will achieve SS. Sounds simple, right? But once you start playing, you will instantly realize how sluggish you are, while the masters in the recordings can eliminate the feeling of stagnation in the game, making it feel like a normal game. The difference between Dustforce and N++ is that Dustforce's fluidity is genuinely graceful, and the levels won't just have one side. I personally feel that the advanced play in Dustforce is more visually pleasing, and the game's style isn't as... cold? Sweeping is truly an art.

Since Dustforce has fewer levels, there is more variety in level selection. You need to explore the map in Nexus; by completing levels, you can obtain keys, which can be used to unlock more levels, but the premise is—you really can reach the door. Without understanding how to operate, even if you have keys, you may not be able to unlock many levels. The final series of difficult levels are locked behind heavy golden doors, which is the ultimate challenge of the game.

Overall, both of these games are time sinks. I haven't explored their terrifying depth and difficulty much yet, so I can only speak generally. If you feel that Celeste isn't challenging enough and many platformers are too boring, then these two games will definitely open your eyes.

7. I wanna

Brain capacity requirement: infinitely high (floating)
Suffering level: infinitely high (floating)

【【Determined despite physical limitations】I can jump through this insane IWANNA—Bilibili】 https://b23.tv/vUFPVga

Earlier, we mentioned that platformers are the most suitable genre for hitting a wall, and if we were to find an even more extreme example, it would be the I wanna series. The I wanna series has developed over many years, producing various works and interesting stories, and the culture surrounding it cannot be summarized in just a few words. So I can only try to say a bit. If you are very interested in I wanna, you can check out 【I wanna series game introduction & common FAQs for newcomers—Bilibili】 https://b23.tv/CGb6rvA and a series of columns written by Lucien.

I can say that I have a complicated relationship with I wanna. Before I even touched a computer, I saw a commentary on I wanna GB on Youku, and at that time, I didn't know much about games, so I immediately became interested in this strange thing. After that, I watched many videos of I wanna games. Later, when I got my hands on a computer, I quickly started playing I wanna, even though my skills were very average.

Because I wanna is linked to community creation, there are all kinds of games within it. We can mainly divide them into: jump and stab, which are ordinary platformers; endurance, which involves dodging all projectiles within the duration of a song; and adventure, which is more comprehensive but has more conventional boss battles compared to endurance. Of course, there are many subcategories under these directions; jump and stab can be divided into: regular jump and stab (also known as jtool jump and stab, because the jtool software contains all the elements), gimmick jump and stab, which focuses on various novel elements, and L-game, known in China as single-letter games, which is a very special and extremely precise jump and stab, among many other classifications.

Within such a diverse range of categories, the quality of the games varies. Some games are well-made, creatively exceptional, and of quality that rivals or even surpasses many paid games, while others feel like they were made by authors who were high. In I wanna, you can see many people's inner projections reflected in their game works. Some extremely iconic works or authors are even categorized separately, becoming xxx-like. For example, FTFA-like, which is a type of jump and stab composed solely of 32x32 grids (though FTFA itself isn't entirely 32), is a highly difficult jump and stab type, and rukito-like, which focuses on mechanisms and back-and-forth movement, as well as gravity jump and stab, etc. Besides these, there are also sudoku games, which are filled with torturous levels, sanity-dropping visuals and sounds, and nonsensical designs. Everyone can find their preferred type.

What I wanna is most known for is its difficulty. Of course, nowadays you often see some popular I wanna videos, but the challenges in those are probably still too trivial. For platformer players, dying thousands of times is a very natural occurrence. The difficulty of I wanna remains off the charts. In the community, games are divided into 100 levels. Level 100 is completely impossible. Level 99 is theoretically possible (tool-assisted), and levels 98 and below are within human reach. The most famous level 98 game is probably Melanzana. This is a three-minute endurance challenge where every second requires extremely precise movements with a tolerance of zero; even remembering the entire route requires very precise inputs. A young man in China who had never been exposed to it spent thousands of hours to break through. Most level 90 games require immense perseverance and exceptional skills. Level 80 is very torturous, while level 70 is a difficulty that platformer veterans would enjoy. Moreover, unlike commercial games, I wanna rarely teaches you slowly (because they are individually made), and sometimes there are extremely confusing designs, so playing can be very stressful. However, modern works have fewer of these issues.

Of course, I wanna is filled with all sorts of wonderful maneuvers; bunny hops, jump cancels, and alignments are common knowledge, and if you want to get really hardcore, the jumps in I wanna can be very mystical. These extremely deep jumping techniques are also referred to as needle tech. Specific knowledge about these has already been documented in thousands of words in thesis-level articles, so I won't embarrass myself here. However, I wanna is truly the most terrifying platformer I've seen in terms of jumping techniques; I haven't encountered anything deeper yet.

Alright, alright, what if you don't want to be so hardcore? Well, that's actually possible. Most good games don't require so much torment and skill. Even if your level is average and you don't want to suffer so much, you can still enjoy many games. On Delicious Fruit, you can find quite a few well-made games with lower difficulty, such as the often-discussed Marathon, which is very suitable for beginners.

What supports I wanna is this community. Every summer is probably the most anticipated time for I wanna players because two speedrunning events are held during this time: the foreign Fangame Marathon and the domestic FASF. These two events have many programs every year, and if you want to see what the community looks like and the excellent works of recent years, then these events are not to be missed. In addition, there is also the annual Fangame Awards, which is equivalent to the TGA. It can be said that the I wanna community is very vibrant and full of talent. There was a puzzle game that became very popular called Patrick’s Parabox; this person is a veteran in the I wanna circle. Many games are collaborative creations by multiple people, and they are all very complete and excellent works. One of my personal favorite works is I wanna walk out in the morning dew, which has a very strong personal style, and the game's art design, music selection (because it's a free game), and various styles have deeply influenced jump and stab games.

There is so much to say about I wanna that even writing something as long as this article again would be difficult to finish. In short, I wanna is definitely not the scammy little game that the public perceives; it is one of the most vibrant, creative, and rewarding game series you can play for free, provided you can love suffering.