Getting Over It with Bennet Foddy is a game
in which you attempt to get this person up this mountain.
You do so in this way.
You fall off in a similar way.
Getting Over It is a game in which any amount
of progress you gain is insecure and conditional
on your continued success. It takes a long
time to get anywhere, and even longer to get
back there again.
I bought Getting Over It after seeing the
Game Grumps’ crack at it, intrigued by Bennet’s
narration and concern for the nature of games.
What can i say, i’m an arts student and
I liked The Beginners’ Guide. Anyway, it’s
fair to say my experience of the game was,
intense.
In fact, it enraptured me. I once played a
lot of GIRP, an earlier Foddy game, and Getting
Over It shared a strange magnetic movement
that I’m drawn to. But really, I was attracted
to the idea that there was a conclusion: the
game is called Getting Over It, and I felt
like if I was going to experience what Bennet
had to offer, then I had to get over it myself.
Every small story about the game’s inspirations,
or the nature of trash art, or even Bennet’s
little slam poetry bits, propelled me onwards,
even if I was currently propelling myself
off the mountain.
It took. Ages. In a single day I spent 12
hours playing the game in a feverish attempt
to reach the top and see what the hell happened
there, because I knew that whether or not
it was satisfactory, it would feed into the
manic emotional experience I was having.
Fall. Swing. Jump, swing, swing, swing, over,
stop. Steady. Balance. Lower. Adjust. Pogo.
Grab, swing, pull, press. Fall. I spent my
time repeating these completed sections by
listening to podcasts, or VoDs, or for a while,
with Hbomberguy’s stream in the background,
playing Haydee, a terrible game he couldn’t
help but be compelled to finish. At one point,
Shaun (of Shaun&Jen) promised Hbomb he would
play the game if Hbomb could finish Getting
Over It. And their frustration at Haydee felt
like a little slice of solidarity as I struggled
to climb on.
But Getting Over It isn’t a bad game. It’s
just fair. Your movements are your own. Sure
the game pokes at you a little, but it didn’t
aggravate me, and nor did I feel it tried
to.
So. Let me place you in my position. I’ve
been playing for pretty much six hours straight,
since I got back from class; normally time
I would spend napping, replying to emails,
et cetera. I have finally passed a point troubling
me, and I’ve sprinted ahead, past a jumping
section I have no business failing.
And I hear Bennet’s voice. His interjections
have been getting more conclusive for a while
now, but this time it’s obvious we’re
nearing the game’s end. He tells me I don’t
want to finish the game, and that I can keep
playing if only I follow the snake.
Fuck that!
So I struggle on, I lassoo over the bucket
and I leap over the gap and I dance up the
ice wall with a speed that, since finishing
the game, I still have not seen emulated by
speedrunners. I reach this pantheon. I learn
the name of the person in the pot. Bennet
recounts all the sections I’ve passed to
get here. I pogo up from the shopping trolley,
try climbing the radio tower, and propel myself
backwards.
Past the pantheon, down the ice wall, and
beyond the bucket. I accidentally hook myself
on the snake.
And there, 17 hours into Getting Over It with
Bennet Foddy, I am, at the start.
When I finished Getting Over It, I was serene,
and I was proud. I immediately compared my
time with the game to the sub-2 minute speedruns
you can find on youtube. But, that didn’t
diminish my sense of accomplishment. The people
who have the game down to a fine muscle memory
haven’t completed it any more than I have,
we’ve both just, experienced this thing,
we’ve both worked to the top of the mountain
in our own ways. Universally, it was hard,
and we did it, and now the only thing left
to do is climb it again.
I loved the experience of Bennet Foddy; the
feeling of improving in skill, the surreal
architecture, the jokes with friends about
what exactly ‘The Bennet Foddy’ is, but
most of all, the struggle, and the persistence.
I have depression and social anxiety; this
comes as no surprise to anyone. And not to
be the film student you all know I am
but this game, to me, was mirroring
a lot of my struggles with my health.
It’s often difficult for depressed people
to do basic tasks; we tie ourselves in knots
by overthinking things, or we just cannot
muster the energy to talk to people, wash
the dishes, do our homework. Getting out of
bed can be something that requires Herculean
effort. We’ve been given bodies that seem
ill-designed to navigate our world, activity
is awkward and jarring, and often we fail
at what we aimed to do in a day.
We fall down. And not to get too after-school
special on you, but the only thing to do when
that happens is take a moment on the ground,
and start climbing up the mountain again.
Whatever ridiculous route or method we choose,
whatever speed and whatever slip-ups, we get
through. Things that were once easy become
hard, become easy again, need repeating. We
get past them only to do them again. Whether
or not we make any progress, we make the mountain
as much a home as we can.
I didn’t care whether Getting Over It had
a real resolution. I expected that the only
thing really waiting for me was the same beach
I had started on. And that is perfectly okay.
That one simple journey- one which some can
make in 2 minutes- was done, and it was time
to start another. One task done, and we’re
climbing again. It never really stops being
hard, but it does get better. It doesn’t
matter that it took 23 hours, what matters
is my own perseverance. I did myself proud,
so I am proud.
I don’t think Getting Over It with Bennet
Foddy is really a game about getting to the
top of the mountain. It’s about getting
over what’s right in front of you at any
given time. It’s not about being the best
at getting to the top, it’s about having
the hutzpah to keep trying in a world where
movement is hard.
Maybe you can only get so far, at a certain
speed, before falling down. Maybe you can
only ever do what you have the energy to.
Maybe we just have to make the mountain comfortable.
Getting Over It. It’s not easy, but it’s
worth trying.
