And I mean completely stumped. You've hit a stop on a certain section of a game, unsure on how to progress. You've exhausted every option and button combination you can possibly think of, and still have no clue what to do. You're just.... stuck. Has that happened to you before in a game?

I certainly have quite a couple of times, and these days, it's simple to search online through many walkthroughts and guides available. But back when I played this game, there was no internet around to help me out, and I had no strategy guides to check nor word of mouth from any kids on how to beat it. This is a game that has stumped me for so many years, and that game was...

As if the track at the beginning of the thread didn't spoil it already...

...And it's the 2 player mode to be exact!

        This is World of Illusion: Starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. Normally when you play this game in 1 player mode, it's fairly easy and straight forward. There isn't any strange puzzles to figure out to move forward in this mode. However, when you play with 2 players, a few changes are made. Some obstacles are changed in a way where you and your friend help each other to advance, but it's never quite explained how.

      ...So, many years ago, me and my friend would try playing the game together. The 1st level is a forest, and we're moving forward just fine, turning enemies into flowers and other cute things with our capes, and then we hit the 1st stop in the game.

So frustrating, Donald's shaking madly and Mickey tried to calm him down, to no avail...

            Under normal circumstances, in 1 player mode, there is a log on the seesaw to help you jump upward, but with 2 players, it's gone. So the 1st thing we try is bouncing one of us up, and this is where the frustration began. We had no idea how to get the other player up. We tried jump at the same time on the 1st seesaw, jumping on each other, search the stage for a usable item, and all sorts of different buttons. With this being the Genesis, there weren't many buttons to work with. We ran out of ideas on what to do. Me and my friend were stuck, and remained that way ever since.

            ...Until recently that is! After talking about classic Genesis games we used to play, shortly after my friend brings over his console along with all his games, and to my surprise, he owned this game. That painful memory of the seesaw came back to me, and I felt it was time to close the book on this game. So, determined, my friend and I tried again, and.... we got stuck in that spot again!!! The frustrations came back in full force. However, this time I was able to check a walkthrough, and the answer to passing this section was...

It was rope. Rope, that was never mentioned you had before Rope. Rope! ROPE!!(*)#*(_!HU(ID@)(U

         This was what was needed to do all those years ago. You lean to the edgh of the tree branch, hold a button, and let down a rope. Then the player below grabs it, and you slowly pull them to you. That was it, the big secret. Of course, right? How could have I been so dumb? It was so obvious.

         Of course, I was angry. I never would have figured that out. Who would? It was never hinted in game you had this rope to use, nor how to get passed this section. Well, it was no wonder me and my friend couldn't figure it out. And worst, it doesn't even end there. There are more sections like this in the game, such as crawling through a thin space, but Donald's feathery behind is too big to get through. So, the same with the rope, you have to hold onto them, and pull them out. At least I can say we did beat the game. It was disappointingly easy. But now I can put this game behind me and move on...

Have you ever suffered through a game like this like I have?

Yea. When I was playing homemate way back when, I was trying to have sex with that chick in the "stand up doggy style" position on the beach. So I did everything that was required like get her lewdness meter and love meter all the way up initiated the H scene. But for some reason, the chick was just doing regular doggy position. I was like wtf. So after many tries, she still wouldn't do it so instead, I went and did it with her sister and didn't have sex with her for a few in game days.

Then one morning, she woke me up and hit me since I wasn't having sex with her and then I was like fine fine. So I did everything again and bam, she did the stand up doggy position. I doubt that is what I was supposed to do cause I was probably just missing something but neh. If it works, it works.

And yes, she was a Tsundere

Furi - Sniper boss girl. Impossible to beat. Ive decided that anyone who has beaten her, has cheated. It doesnt matter if its true, Ive decided that. Its now the reality I live in. It has been decided.

Bloodborne - Got stuck on the Orphan of Kos boss during my first playtrough of the DLC.

Not stuck per se. But there are games that I am not terribly invested in where I hit a section or mission that is frustrating and that I decide is not worth pushing through to continue the game. I hit one such mission with MGSV. I think the game is OK, but one mission was just more annoying to complete satisfactorily than I wanted, and I couldn't be bothered playing on with a sub-optimal outcome, nor could I be bothered playing and possibly re-playing until I got the desired outcome. Kinda silly in that I can just complete the mission with a single sniper shot, but it's just totally unsatisfying and I don't want to do it.

I remember when Rhythm Heaven released back in '09. I became infuriated when I had to perfect some of the stages, especially the remixes. I remember having to try 50+ times to get a perfect on a game with two lizards rattling their tails, but never managed to get the perfect. It was one of the 6 games I didn't perfect

Ice column puzzle in Alundra was one of the first instances where I can remember getting really frustrated.  Some of the dream puzzles were also tough.

No, wait, actually the first game I remember getting stuck was E.T. on the Atari 2600.  I don't think I ever figured out the point of the game.  Yeah, what the heck is going on there?  

Portal 2 had a stage that really frustrated me, as well.  Even though I was determined not to look up solutions, I had to for this one.  It was one of the more story-driven levels and you had to fall from high up through a portal on the floor.

One of the Edna and Harvey video games frustrated me enough that I never went back.  Part of that was because you had to go through so many loading screens, though, when searching for clues.  I got tired of that.  Really interesting games but in this instance, I had about 5 different zones to search.

Battletoads. The hoverbike level.

I actually had a frustrating moment yesterday playing Ace Attorney 1.

I got Trilogy for a cheap a while back, and finally decided to give the games a shot, since everyone seems to enjoy them. Now...while I love the court sections...the investigations are soooooo freaking tedious. It's at the point where I lose interest in playing whenever I have to do an investigation sequence. Talk to someone...keep talking...get an item...show an item...new person appears...talk again. Maybe it gets better later, but these sections just feel so unnatural and immersion breaking. I'm not really getting clues on my own, I'm just reading something until I trigger the game to let me read something else.

Anyways, the point that frustrated me was in some section where I needed to get Gumshoe to break into the Chief's office, only I had to give him a certain item to trigger the next sequence of events. Only I didn't realize that the item was something that was mostly unrelated to the actual case. Not only that, it was covered up by the character standing in that area, which means I had to go out of my way to examine an unnrelated area in order to advance to the next section. Ugh.

Rant over. Probably seems like I hate this game...but I actually love certain parts of it. I've never played a game that I enjoyed and hated so much at the same time.

Castlevania 2, which is pretty famous for screwing over the player with cryptic, "How could I possibly know that?" nonsense, had me stuck for over a year at a certain spot. I was rescued by Nintendo Power, and spread the word to some seniors at my high school who had discussed the problem area with me a few times. I beat Castlevania 2, unlike Castlevania 1. The "stuck" in that game was just the insane difficulty.