Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy (PC) (2017)

Overview: Use a Yosemite hammer to get the player character - a man whose lower body is inside a cauldron - up a mountain and beyond. Fall and lose progress, but try again.

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20190730:
I have seen this game played by various streamers on Twitch.tv. Many League of Legends players had played this game while waiting for queue. In particular, I specifically remember watching SK Telecom T1's Faker play this game. In any case, I eventually acquired the game in the Humble Indie Bundle 20, but as often the case, I never got around to playing it. Recently, however, I've been making an effort to break even on my Humble Bundle purchases - starting with the most recently purchased bundle and working backwards. As such, when I arrived at the Humble Indie Bundle 20 today and saw Getting Over It as one of the games in the bundle, I didn't hesitate to choose it as the game that would break even on my purchase.

Setup: Increased the resolution, turned up the graphics quality, lowered the sounds.

Gameplay Log:
Playing for the first time. Taking things slow. A lot of static movement.
My first small fall was from near the top of the mountain.

The vertical tunnel was difficult but I eventually got it.
My next small fall was from the drop past the slides.
Then I made a large drop back to near the beginning of the game.
I was frustrated and decided to play for 12 more minutes - subject to change based on my mood (it was 10:48PM and I chose 12 minutes because then it would be 11:00PM)
As I repeat the beginning, I find that I'm able to do a lot of it in a more dynamic way. Perhaps in part after learning how to jump.
When I got back to the vertical tunnel, I couldn't help but feel there was an easier way. Eventually I got to the top in more or less the same way I did before [I later watched a speedrun and the way the speedrunner executes the segment does seem more efficient]
Reaching the construction site for a second time, I go for a much more dynamic and ambitious technique and it works (after one or two tries).
The crane section is harder than the first time and I hear a new audio clip. At this point I've heard a couple of new clips and they help me feel not as bad for falling back to the beginning.

This time I make it to the floating cardboard boxes, but fail the subsequent stairs area. At that point it's about 10:59PM and so I called it. Had I made it past the stairs, then I would have likely played the game until the next big fail.

Steam Game Time: 61 minutes

[20190801]

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Thoughts:
Pros:
+ The game feels like it has about the right amount of difficulty; just enough to be frustrating, but not so much that I would instantly rage quit.*
+ Narration has a nice effect and balance to an otherwise frustrating experience
+ Simple to learn, hard to master

Neutral:
~ Hard on my wrist

*The closest I came to this was taking a big fall (from just past the crane to the valley near the beginning) and instead of rage quitting, I set aside the amount of time I would continue playing the game.

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Summary:
Part of what makes the game work is that the game acknowledges it is difficult. Therefore, getting upset over its difficulty is natural, yet negated. It's kind of like when a kid cries, because he doesn't want to go to school. It's one thing if his mother/father gives in. It's another if his mother/father says, "I know you're going to cry, but you're still going to school."

With that being said, in my hour of playing the game, my peak frustration was reasonable and experience extra tidbits of the narration made up for it.

Overall, I would highly recommend the game. There's much to love about it if you can tolerate the difficulty.

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Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy (PC) (2017)

Relevant Links:
Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy (Wikipedia.org)
Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy (Steam Store Page)