Getting Over It is a masterpiece

Dismissed by too many as a novelty, or a rage game made more for the spectacle of people being broken by the almost offensively unforgiving nature of the game, Getting Over It is actually a masterpiece.

Like most people, I first encountered Getting Over it not long after it was released through streamers and general internet culture. I was immediately intrigued, but the first time I actually played it, like a true Patient Gamer, was in 2020, after I discovered it on sale. However, that's not when I first reached the top. That happened almost a year and a half later, in late 2021. It took almost 10 hours of gameplay, which I believe is worse than the average.

The game has three achievements: the first is for reaching the top, the second is for reaching the top twice, and the final one is for reaching the top 50 times. I got the first two achievements in quick succession, as it's the kind of game where, once you know how to do it, doing it again is a lot easier. From memory, that second attempt took around an hour and a half.

The final achievement took over a year. Scaling the mountain 50 times seemed like a mammoth task at my level of skill, so as much as I loved the game, sitting down and grinding for it wasn't something that I was ready to do. But I did keep coming back to it, and seeing my time get lower and lower was extremely satisfying.

As that final achievement drew nearer, I realised that I wasn't playing for it, but for the enjoyment of it. Despite its reputation as a rage game, for me, Getting Over It is fun, and strangely relaxing. I'm well past 50 wins now, but that hasn't stopped me from returning to it.

For those who only know Getting Over It from the fail compilations, let me assure you those reactions are real. Anyone who wants to play it should prepare for their spirits to be broken, because it will happen. There were times when I had to quit the game, because I could see the obstacle ahead of me, and I knew I wasn't going to get it first try. Failure in GOI often means losing hours of progress, and if you're not ready for that then it's better to quit and only try it when you are ready for it. Those moments really do hurt, and they really do make for amazing YouTube videos.

Here's what you don't see, though: getting back up. In the moment, you feel like you've lost hours of progress, but this is an illusion. If you've made it once, then you already have a technique that works, and what I found, over and over, is that repeating it is way easier than you would expect. So, getting back to where you were might take only 1/4 of the time, and experiencing that progress feels really good. You don't see it in the YouTube videos, because it doesn't happen in a moment, but trust me it happens.

And, as you get better, you start to see the mountain differently. Obstacles that were once terrifying start to feel like not such a big deal, because you realise that it's not hours of progress that you're losing if you fail them, but minutes. And they're not even bad minutes, because every time you feel that improvement again. This is why it was so natural for me to start again as soon as I finished: I knew that second climb would be a lot faster, and I also knew that it would feel good to see that.

The background to all of this is an amazing art style that references both B games, and the speed at which the internet's rapid cycling turns the new into trash (Getting Over It embraces the latter). The soundtrack is sparse, with slower playthroughs accompanied mostly by atmospheric sounds and light sound effects. Some carefully selected, royalty free music accompanies falls, and the game's designer, Bennett Foddy, provides commentary at various points along the path up the mountain. I've heard the commentary described as pretentious, but this does not come through at all for me. I detect no ego, just a game designer who empathises with you, and wants you to know that everything about the game is intentional.

Of course, the most unique part of the game is the mechanic itself. It's almost guaranteed to be unfamiliar, and it's this unfamiliarity that sets, not just the seemingly absurd initial level of difficulty, but also the rapid improvement, and sense of progress, that most players feel.

All up, Getting Over It is far from a novelty, or a throwaway rage game. I'm definitely going to keep coming back to it, and I highly recommend it to those who haven't already given it a go.