Getting Over It Deserved Better

If you were to ask someone to describe Getting Over It, you would most likely receive a description along the lines of "a rage game." Even the game's description begins as follows: "A game I made / For a certain kind of person / To hurt them."
Countless streamers amping up their reactions and the game's explosive popularity certainly entrenched that tagline, but it does not describe my experience at all. Though it may have described Bennett Foddy's original mindset when setting out to make Getting Over It, I do not believe it describes what he ended up creating.

Fairness and Purpose

The obstacles in Sexy Hiking are unyielding, and that makes the game uniquely frustrating.
But I'm not sure Jazzuo intended to make a frustrating game - the frustration is just essential to the act of climbing, and it's authentic to the process of building a game about climbing.

A funny thing happened to me as I was building this mountain:
I'd have an idea for a new obstacle, and I'd build it, test it, and it would usually turn out to be unreasonably hard. But I couldn't bring myself to make it easier.
It already felt like my inability to get past the new obstacle was my fault as a player, rather than as the builder.

Getting Over It is not an unfair game. Unlike Sexy Hiking (its model), its controls are very consistent. Unfamiliar, extremely! But consistent. As a mindful player progresses through the game they will discover quirks and methods that should be avoided or exploited to ensure that Diogenes (the in-game character) moves how they intended him to.

Falling so far and no progress being fixed could be seen as unfair, and is the main (supposed) rage-bait of the game. However, unlike many Getting Over It inspired games or levels for existing games, starting over does not leave the player where they were two hours ago. Well, it does. . . but it does not leave them in the situation they were in two hours ago. They have two hours of experimentation and immersion with their foreign toolset the next time around.

I think here it is important to note how important purpose is in Getting Over It. Why is the player climbing the mountain? Not Diogenes, you, the player sitting in their chair? For most streamers, that is a hard question. Or perhaps an easy one with an unsatisfying answer. For a player who can get past their initial blinders-on, dogged focus of "complete the challenge," falling is not only a punishment. It is an opportunity.

Self Exploration and Improvement

During a stream where Bennett played the game himself, he takes a break after a fall at a challenging part. When questioned about whether it was a ragequit, he says absentmindedly to "call it a mindfulness moment; a moment of mindfulness where I took a second just to think about what I was feeling."
This is one of the two major draws of the game. Its description also claims it will make you "feel new types of frustration you didn't know you were capable of." It certainly did for me, in a very insightful way, even in much later playthroughs as I worked towards the golden pot (50 clears). Every fall elicits a new feeling, and I found myself drawn to examine not only these new feelings but debate my reactions to them and how I felt about those in relation to my sense of self. Bennett's voiceovers and varied music help nudge the player into or out of rage, introspection, depression, resolution, and countless other mindsets that I cannot begin to put to words. It pains me so much to see people dismiss the game expecting only rage or frustration, or not being willing to slow down and change how they were approaching it.

The other main draw to me is the opportunity for improvement. Like I said earlier, Getting Over It's controls are extremely unfamiliar. That, paired with both the range of expression allowed by moving one's cursor within a circle on their screen and the possible application of that expression to challenge a mountain, lays before the player the opportunity to build a physical skill and be rewarded for it. It is wonderful to suddenly realize that what used to be a devastating fall only elicited a twinge of annoyance, for you can now regain that ground in a matter of seconds or minutes.
This is an opportunity we don't often get as adults. It is even rarer that we get an opportunity for such that also fits our time constraints, outside of perhaps one's primary hobby; it takes most people around five or six hours to beat Getting Over it for the first time. Most seem to have forgotten what it is like to face a brick wall and try, try, try again until they can finally Get Over It. Was learning to ride a bike an exercise destined to be filled with nothing but frustration and rage? Learning to swim, to cannonball, to dive? Learning to play hopscotch, jump rope, do a cartwheel, or hula hoop? Learning to dribble a basketball, travel with a soccer ball, serve in tennis, hit a pitch, pop a volleyball? Why can so few people push past "unfairness" (real or not) and find the deep satisfaction offered by games like Getting Over It, Rain World, DDraceNetwork, and Rumble VR?

Success Stories

I debated whether to title this with "deserves" or "deserved." Unfortunately, I think Getting Over It's time has passed. Not in quality or relevance, of course - it has not been matched in providing so many textures of frustration and will always hold a special place in my heart - but in popular reception. I do not think I could ever recommend it and have a very good chance of them finding the love I have for it. However, Rain World (mentioned in Getting Over It's credits) and DDraceNetwork are two similar games which have had much more success in that vein! DDraceNetwork (DDNet) has had a similar description to Getting Over It since late 2022:

Want to play the hardest cooperative 2D platformer ever? Want to finish no map ever? Want to be in pain for hours and cry, getting nothing in return?

Both it and Rain World have the same unfamiliarity in their control schemes and huge depth in the possible ways to learn to use one's player. Rain World has a 60+ page movement guide while DDNet, a free game, has an average playtime of 265hrs and I, with 600+ at the time of writing this, can only manage to play a small subset of its maps. Rain World had a very slow start (I was as depressed about its obscurity as I was Getting Over It's reception) but saw massive growth with the release of major DLC and a new publisher. DDNet slightly beat out Rain World in popularity even after that, and has recently (late 2024) exploded outside of the US. DDNet's skill ceiling is much higher than Rain World's (which I had pretty maxxed at around 200hrs) and is currently my main video game.

Rumble VR and Jet Island are both virtual reality games which provide a unique skill to tackle. Neither has quite the same frustration and slog that the 2D games I have mentioned do, which bring with them aspects I value highly, but they have the same satisfaction and unique flavor. Each is "popular," as much as non-viral VR games can be.

Conclusion

Video games have the power to bring the world to our fingertips not only in representation, but in experience. Maybe you are reading this because you already appreciate what these games bring to the table. But if not, I would encourage you to give them more than a fair try. Yes, more. Push through if you can, take breaks if you need to - I abandoned Rain World for two or three years before coming back for it to become a favorite - but do your best to get through that wall. Just like with every other skill you put your heart into learning, I promise you will enjoy the experience in the end. Or if not the end, in hindsight, perhaps ;)

Everything's fresh for about six seconds - until some newer thing beckons, and we hit refresh.
And there's years of persevering, disappearing into the pile. Out of style. Out of sight.
In this context it's tempting to make friendly content - that's gentle, that lets you churn through it but not earn it.
Why make something demanding, if it just gets piled up in the landfill? Filed in with the bland things?

When games were new, they wanted a lot from you.
Daunting you, taunting you, resetting and delaying you.
Players played stoically. Now everyone's turned off by that.
They want to burn through it quickly, a quick fix for the fickle.
Some tricks for the clicks of the feckless.

. . .

Maybe it doesn't have to be approachable.
What's the feeling like? Are you stressed?
I guess you don't hate it if you got this far.
Feeling frustrated - it's underrated.