While I feel it’s absolutely necessary for each of us to come up with our own versions of the “perfect”, it’s an impossible task. The thing is, in our culture, we’ve all been taught what the “perfect” looks and feels like to us. For instance, when looking at pictures of the perfect house, we are taught that the blue walls are perfectly balanced.
I can understand that feeling. I grew up in a house that was completely off-the-wall, from the outside. In fact my father used to take us to the Sears catalog to find our ideal house and we would spend hours talking about the perfect color for the walls, the perfect size for the room, the exact layout of the kitchen. But the fact of the matter is, we were all too afraid to try it because it was so terrifying.
We were afraid the walls would break, the roof would fall in, the furnace would fail, and the house would fall apart. The point being that the perfect house has a million and one aspects that have to be perfect all at once. So if you’re a perfectionist, you probably avoid things like being able to breathe for a while while standing in the shower.
It’s easy to get afraid of things that you don’t understand. But it’s also easy to get afraid of things you do understand, like the possibility of disaster. And the fact is, you can’t really avoid it. It’s not like, just because you think you know what to do with your life doesn’t mean you will. There was a time when I wanted to be a doctor, so that I could solve life’s problems.
So, I’m not going to say I have perfect recall of this game, but I do remember being scared of the possibility of disaster. Although I was somewhat relieved I still had the chance to do something to help, like run away from the building where I was trapped.
Now, as you probably know, there are a lot of possibilities for disaster in this game, and it definitely shows. The worst being that the last place you could be in the game is the same place you are now. As you may have guessed, the last place to escape is the city of Arkanoid, with the only way to get out being to run to the nearest town.
The danger comes when there is nothing to do. If you get stuck in the city and you start to lose consciousness or become a zombie, the only way to escape is to go to the nearest town and run away. This usually involves a lot of jumping, which you can do with the game’s jumping mechanic.
So, we have two options: either we can jump around in the game, which we already have, or we can use the jumping mechanic to get out. And, of course, the only thing that jumps is the camera. And when that camera moves, so does the game. And since the game is made up of lots of jumping scenes, things like the death of an NPC or the breaking of a window will also result in a dead-end in the game.
The most important thing to remember in any of these situations is that the only thing on the other side of the screen that will move is the camera. So if you want to have a real life-like experience of a game, do not jump.
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