By John Walker on April 8th, 2008 at 12:13 am.
Pretty much a certainty for our Game Of The Year, You Have To Burn The Rope is the game that’s taking the world by storm. Since we originally covered it here, things that already existed have been noticed by us, inevitably a result of our coverage + time machines. Here’s a quick round-up:
First off, the teaser trailer:
If you’ve kept up with the updates on the YHTBTR site, you’ll have seen a few other bits and pieces appearing.
There’s the Spanish Wikipedia entry.
There’s, of course, our Exclusive Walkthrough, along with this inferior version, and one in German.
RPS reader extraordinaire Mike Cook has written a text adventure based on the classic original. (Use this to play it). And now there’s a really grumpy review of it on ifdb!
And there’s now there’s competition – a speedrun to beat: (Warning: this video contains spoilers)
By the way, we’ve been inundated with people asking for tips or cheats for the game. So here it is: You have to burn the rope.
08/04/2008 at 00:22 Chris Evans says:
Oh I love that ending song :D
08/04/2008 at 00:46 Dracko says:
Okay, yeah, now I’m starting to see why some loathe this game: It’s a quick joke with a quirky song that’s starting to wear out its welcome, not unlike Portal.
08/04/2008 at 00:50 Chris Evans says:
I must admit the speed run, Spanish Wiki etc. are going too far….the ‘teaser trailer’ rules :D
08/04/2008 at 01:05 Lh'owon says:
Well, Portal was slightly more extensive. Ever so slightly.
08/04/2008 at 01:08 Down Rodeo says:
I never even found out you could chuck axes. This makes me love it more. :D
08/04/2008 at 01:08 Kieron Gillen says:
Dracko: YHTBR is like Portal. Wh…wh…what?
YOU MAY BE ONTO SOMETHING.
KG
08/04/2008 at 02:56 Thesper says:
Basically, any game that ends with a song is awesome. It’s pretty much an unbreakable rule by this point.
08/04/2008 at 03:08 Dracko says:
Gears of War puts a hole in that theory.
08/04/2008 at 03:29 Nick says:
CoD4 too.
¬_¬
08/04/2008 at 04:26 Lh'owon says:
Fixed.
08/04/2008 at 05:45 SenatorPalpatine says:
Corollary: Any game that ends with a crappy song is crappy.
I challenge anyone to find a counterexample!
08/04/2008 at 08:20 James T says:
Nonono, the game has to end with a song about the game.
As such, applying that inexplicably popular ‘Mad World’ shit to your game wins you nothing.
Meanwhile, they definitely should’ve gone with the Gremlins/Fight Club ‘three rules’ model here.
*booming Terminator drumbeat*
(THIS SUMMER) IN A WORLD TERRORISED BY THE GREATEST MONSTER HISTORY HAS EVER KNOWN, MAN IS GOVERNED BY THREE RULES (THIS SUMMER):
*boom*
YOU HAVE TO GO THROUGH THE TUNNEL.
*boom*
YOUR WEAPONS WILL NOT KILL IT
*boom*
AND…
*boom*
YOU HAVE TO BURN THE ROPE.
ALSO, YOU CAN’T DIE.
COMING THIS SUMMER.
08/04/2008 at 08:26 Mike says:
The final version of the text adventure is up – now tweaked for utter impossibility. Also, I received a very disgruntled review from the IF community, which I was grateful for.
http://www.effseven.co.uk/2008/04/08/you-have-to-burn-rope-with-torch-v10/
08/04/2008 at 08:27 hidden_7 says:
Call of Duty 4 would be the counter example to “any game that ends in a crappy song is crappy” since it was awesome, but the song was not.
08/04/2008 at 08:43 James T says:
It was a bit funny though. Like the vocals version of the San Andreas theme. Although both of those trouble my ‘it has to be about the game’ coda. But then, I never said the SONG has to be good, so go me.
08/04/2008 at 08:49 John Walker says:
Mike: that review is fantastic. For some reason I really hope he’s serious.
Dracko: Your being a grump doesn’t stop anyone else from having fun around you. So ner.
08/04/2008 at 09:07 Mike says:
If that review’s not serious, then by god what’s the Internet for. Anyway, it had a good run. Next: fanfiction.
08/04/2008 at 09:29 Schtee says:
What if…what if I don’t burn the rope?
08/04/2008 at 09:42 Phil says:
@Schtee
Someone gives you a cake.
08/04/2008 at 10:27 drunkymonkey says:
I like the fact that the trailer is actually longer than the speedrun.
Also, I just had my mother play it. She asked me why she needed to pick up a torch to burn the rope. When I told her that you needed it to burn the rope she said, “What rope?”
“Er. Like it said on the instructions.”
“Oh, I don’t have time to read instructions.”
I laughed all the way through
She got it on her third go, though!
…didn’t even stay by to watch the credits…
08/04/2008 at 11:09 Ian says:
I just discovered the music and that you can throw axes. My 8-page review was only going to give it 7/10 for the Longevity rating. Now I’m bumping this sucker right up to 8/10.
08/04/2008 at 11:20 Sam C says:
SenatorPalpatine says: Corollary: Any game that ends with a crappy song is crappy.
That doesn’t follow. Any game that ends with a crappy song could be crappy, awesome or anything in between.
I need to get out more.
08/04/2008 at 11:44 Dorian Cornelius Jasper says:
This probably doesn’t quite fit, being a PC blog and all, but…
God Hand had an ending theme song.
It’s an awesome game, but in precisely the same way its ending theme sequence is awesome. It’s not awesome in the way people expected or even wanted, but damnit, it’s still freaking awesome. Which is why critical reviews and conventional wisdom panned it, but devoted fans on the internets still swear by it to this day.
So here it is. God Hand.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yq0GSi_OMfI
08/04/2008 at 11:46 Kieron Gillen says:
God Hand is a PC game. I’ve decided.
KG
08/04/2008 at 11:56 Phil says:
God Hand – 10% Fist of the North Star/10% The Good, the Bad and the Ugly/30% Moulin Rogue/49% 3D Final Fight but Good/1% insanity chillies – Clover, you’ll be missed.
08/04/2008 at 12:30 matt says:
Well, yesterday i could not play or download YHTBTR, but i can now participate in the madness. That was such a brilliant game ! And a heavy contender for the “best ending song ever in a game”…
Still, one thing i’m wondering is.. how am i going to spend the rest of this da-ay ?
08/04/2008 at 12:31 Acosta says:
Frankly, I don’t know what to think about this. I have the uncomfortable feeling I’m missing a part of the joke. Maybe I’m trying to search a satire or a message when there is none, or maybe I’m dense.
08/04/2008 at 12:47 Schtee says:
God Hand’s insano-credits seem to be fairly good. Loving the screeching guitar solo. What? lol
08/04/2008 at 12:50 Shanucore says:
Who remembers the rap song at the end of Incubation (aka. Battle Isle 4, IIRC)?
Yeah, that was “awesome”.
08/04/2008 at 13:39 John Walker says:
Acosta: The secret lies in the knowledge that you have to burn the rope.
08/04/2008 at 14:00 Acosta says:
But how I know that burning the rope is right? Why me, being an immortal being, should take the life of a creature that is not a menace for me? who gave me the knowledge of burning the rope? What if I’m being the evil one in this story?
Insightful minds need to know these important facts.
08/04/2008 at 14:11 Cyrenic says:
Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne had an amusing end song. Funny it never gets mentioned, was it that forgettable or did anyone ever actually beat that game?
08/04/2008 at 15:28 kadayi says:
The Griggs rap in CoD4 left a lot to be desired, plus it seemed a bit daft given we’d just seen the guy get flatpacked in the last mission…
08/04/2008 at 15:48 Lunaran says:
I think, as a level designer who’s been required more than once to implement extreeemely forced, on-rails scenarios, that the best part is when the colossus will move under the chandelier to make sure he gets hit by it.
08/04/2008 at 17:49 MarvintheParanoidAndroid says:
MDK had an ending song that was so crappy it became awesome again. And the game itself was awesome of course.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAL9fwNX8B0
08/04/2008 at 18:08 Jonathan says:
Reply to Shanucore
I was trying to tell people about that in another post and no one believed me and I was ignored.
You have just got to love a rap song, as I always call them, which includes the sound of monsters chomping.
And yes, can we finally drop this joke? Please it’s had it’s time. Likewise jokes about cake, it was a great game but come on people.
08/04/2008 at 18:14 Frans Coehoorn says:
Because of Portal I can’t eat cake again, that’s even worse than all the jokes.
08/04/2008 at 22:42 Elle Munster says:
This game is great! I wrote up a little thought on it on my blog. I didn’t want to drown you guys in text on here, so go head on over. The main idea is that I think its funny that I sort of tended to over think the game. I’m so used to more complex puzzles, I guess.
http://gmunster.wordpress.com
09/04/2008 at 02:22 Dogun says:
I dunno about you guys, but I think this was a triumph. :)
In all seriousness, I thought it was fun. I wouldn’t want to play two stages. 1 stage was Just Right.