I Wanna Be the Guy/Headscratchers

Wait, if you have to kill the current The Guy to become The Guy, then how can Bowser be both a boss fight in the current time, and a former The Guy? If he was a former The Guy, wouldn't he be dead already?

• Considering the number of times Bowser has fallen down a bottomless pit, into a lava pool, been fireballed, or otherwise killed, this troper is a firm believer Bowser uses 1-ups like Mario does.
  • This means Bowser can use 1-ups as many times as possible.
    • Actually, I think if you use fireballs to kill any Bowser that isn't the final boss, you find out that he's actually one of Bowser's minions in disguise.
  • Alternatively, the Bowser pictured in The Guy's castle is the Bowser from Super Mario Bros. Eight bit Bowser was The Guy until Mario beat him a couple of times, at which point he became a Former The Guy. The Bowser you fight is the Super Mario World Bowser, and as a former The Guy serves the current The Guy.
• On a related note, you'd think a former The Guy would be a harder boss...
  • • • But Mario killed more than one Bowsers who were indeed the final bosses.
  • Maybe it's a brand new portrait, put up between the time you beat Bowser and when you go to The Guy's castle. That kinda begs the question of why his portrait uses NES art when it's his SNES incarnation you beat, though.
  • According to Word of God, there is actually more than one way to stop being the guy. It's likely that Bowser simply resigned from his position at some point, probably because the next guy was an effing badass of some description and Bowser didn't want to die horribly.
  • Speaking of that... if Bowser was The Guy and Mario beat him, wouldn't that make Mario The Guy?
    • Mario doesn't wanna be The Guy.
• The apples fall up and kill you.
  • Never mind that, some go sideways. STRAIGHT sideways, ignoring that pesky "gravity" stuff.
  • They're really more like giant cherries.
    • Delicious Fruit.
    • Curiously, I don't believe there are any in the game that fly left (barring boss attacks)...
  • The developer should be arrested for breaking the most important law of all: GRAVITY. GIANT DELICIOUS CHERRIES ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO FALL UPWARDS!!!!!!!!! /ragequit
• What is a 'the guy' and what does he do? Why would the kid try so hard to be one?
  • From what I remember of 8-bit games, mostly they kidnap girlfriends.
• Why would "The I" wanna save The Kids? That's just so many more chances that he would be killed by one of them further down the line. Compassion? In IWBTG? Does he get a reward? Or is it just part of his new job aside from not being killed?
  • i think that's a prequel to IWBTG
  • Maybe it's just like the kind of deal the Sith have going on?
• The fact this game has Easy Mode Mockery really bugs me. Medium difficulty doesn't change the difficulty of the gameplay; the only change is the number of save points, which has little effect. If there had been some tangible effects on gameplay on the easiest setting, that would be one thing, but to slap a bow on The Kid's head, and label the save points "Wuss" for choosing the easiest setting on a ludicrously hard game is stupid.
  • Early versions of the game had an ACTUAL Easy difficulty setting. It'd blow you up on the menu screen to save you from the suffering of playing this game! Guess you just don't get the subtle message that the Easy Mode Mockery is trying to give you: If you're gonna play this game, do NOT expect an easy ride!
  • That's the thing, though: EVERYBODY who installs the game and plays it knows what kind of game IWBTG is and realizes that Medium will still brain-implodingly difficult. The difference between the mockery in this game and others is that the gameplay is no easier here, whereas it really is easier in other series.
  • The whole point of the game is the general evilness. If you try to limit its sadism, it finds a whole new way to punish you.
• Halfway through the final battle, The Kid picks up The Guy's large gun. Why doesn't he use it?
  • Because it's IWBTG.
• Can we just put down THE ENTIRE FREAKING GAME?
  • GAME OVER - PRESS 'R' TO TRY AGAIN
    • DANANANA-NUNA-NUNA NUNAnuNA! DANANANA-NUNA-NUNA-NUNunaNA! DUNANANA-NUNANANUNANANUNANADA DA DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!
• Collecting all six secret items doesn't do anything... yet
  • It gives you bragging rights.
• Why do so many people refer to this game as the standard for video game difficulty? This game was clearly designed to be an exaggeration, the pinnacle of video game difficulty. Using this game as the bar for a difficult game is like using pure capsaicin as the bar for spicy food. It's particularly bad with Mega Man 9 and Mega Man 10, where they seem so quick to make fun of people who have any trouble with those games at all. Are they just bragging?
  • What Measure Is a Non-Badass?, and add to the fact that I Wanna Be The Guy is like, you know, Chuck Norris of video games. A badass you cannot beat no matter what, and if anyone claims otherwise... HERESY!
  • Memetic Mutation on the phrase "Nintendo Hard." Some geek-macho types imagine the old NES games as being unbelievably, Satanically IWBTG-hard. It's a valid complaint that most modern games are way easier than older ones, but there's probably only one video game from the NES era that's truly on par with IWBTG: Nobunaga's Ambition, where on higher difficulty levels it is not merely possible but near-certain that you will be killed before you even get a chance to take a turn.
• How does Link have his sword when it's clearly in the room with the save point. Not to mention, that you can jump into it. Retard.
  • Obviously, the sword Link has is the one he gets to fight with BEFORE he gets the master sword.
• Why isn't Grandfather The Guy in the hall of Former The Guys?
  • We don't get to see every single portrait in the hall.
• This game has traps, including a Kaizo Trap. This game has falling spikes. This game has A̶P̶P̶L̶E̶S̶ G̶I̶A̶N̶T̶ ̶C̶H̶E̶R̶R̶I̶E̶S̶ DELICIOUS FRUITS THAT FALL UP. It even has a save point that tries to kill you. But it doesn't have ice physics? How could Kayin forget that? There were no instances in the fangame, either.