Steam Achievements are a divisive phenomenon. While they sound like a neat way to keep you playing a game, they also tap into the obsessive sides of our personalities. Where before, playing through a game's campaign or story from beginning to end was enough for you to feel satisfied that you've completed it, now there's a whole new layer of meaning to the word 'completion'. None of us feel quite fulfilled until we have gain every achievement in a given game, and yet in most cases we simply don't have the time or skill to do it. It's like they're designed to keep us playing to fill a psychological void that keeps on growing and growing. Achievements aren't all bad though. They encourage us to try new ways of playing, opening us out to a whole new gameplay experience simply by taking us out of our comfort zones. They can push our skills and expand our game-time far beyond what the initial campaign offers us. Then there are the ones that take things to the absolute extreme; they force us to grind monotonously for hundreds of hours, hone our skills to near-professional levels, or even make us question whether they're possible to complete. This list is a tribute to Steam's little stamps of honour that have frustrated, confused, and challenged PC gamers most over the years.
15. Super Meat Boy - Impossible Boy
Achieved by 0.6% of players Super Meat Boy is a fast-paced, meticulously designed platformer that's infamous for its exponentially-increasing difficulty. While the early levels are a breeze, it takes tens of hours of hardcore, death-filled platforming before you'll be skilled enough to overcome the 'Dark World' levels. "Impossible Boy" is the achievement you get for completing the Dark World version of Cotton Candy World - by far the hardest world in the game - without dying once. That's 20 of the game's toughest levels in a row, many of which have to be completed in one long streak of momentum as the ground crumbles beneath you, spin-saws chase you down, and homing rockets do what they were designed to do. Despite its difficulty, "Impossible Boy" deserves credit for being one of the ultimate skill-based achievements in gaming. There's no luck or dreary grinding involved here, just raw platforming skills for which you get an achievement to be truly proud of.
Gamer, Researcher of strange things.
I'm a writer-editor hybrid whose writings on video games, technology and movies can be found across the internet. I've even ventured into the realm of current affairs on occasion but, unable to face reality, have retreated into expatiating on things on screens instead.
