☆ Me & Video Game Ladders Just Don't Mix….☆ #GamersUnite

A simple ladder…….

In real life the common ladder represents a means to climb to a higher platform…..

In video games the common ladder represents utter frustration!

I think it may just be me, but whenever I encounter ladders in any video game I've ever played it always ends in tears!

I have decided to exorcisethisdemon on Games Freezer in order that I can move on with my Video Games playing and somehow resolve all the angst I have against ladders.

Thinking back to simpler times a ladder in a video game was pretty simple to navigate.

Think back to Donkey Kong and you will remember that once you were near the ladder, you would push up and you went up the ladder…simple…

Then of course there was Link's ladder in his pocket in the first Legend Of Zelda game on the NES….again this was a simple device that did exactly what you wanted it to do…get you from A to B….simple…

I think the problem has evolved since the introduction of more complex worlds and the advancement of 3Desque environment with two analogue sticks controlling your protagonist…

My main gripe on ladders came in the form of the Half Life series…..I can't remember playing any other game ever where a ladder caused so much pain and untimelyDeaths (except maybe "Window Cleaner Simulator 2001")

In Half Life, if you weren’t aligned correctly you'd easily plummet to your impending doom….or if you align yourself to your desired ladder you can quite easilt end up climbing up instead of down and then having to start all over again….grrrr

The Half life problem carried on throughout the series and if we ver get to see a Half  Life 3 I guarantee it will still be the case! (maybe that's why they havn't released it yet, the ladder AI just isn't quite right!)

More recently I have been playing The Last Of Us, an amazing example of perfect controls and easy to undertsand action buttons but with pesky ladders. This time, you have to place certain ladders in certain positions to get to otherwise unreachable parts of the game world.

Maybe I'm just cackhanded but I just can't seem to place a ladder in TLOU without having to really concentrate on doing so. I think I may have a mental block against these damned ladder actions!

Then there's the most famous ladder in all of video gaming……

The ladder that is easy to climb but hard to get off as it never ends!!

It's Metal Gear Solid 3 and Snake has just defeated "THE END" and begins a slow ascent to the top of the longest ladder in video gaming history…..to this day Snake's footsteps can still be heard clomping up the ladder one slow step at a time….there's probably a hidden meaning to his action and then again maybe it's just an elongated loading screen animation put into the game by Mr Kojima?

Overall I think ladders in video games belong, but I'd prefer it if I could stand somewhere near the ladder and and then just press up to climb to the top….a simple ask made complex in the day and age of the most complex of game worlds….

Step Into The Ladder Surgery 

And Tell Me All About Your Ladder Woes!