You Have to Win the Game

 PC
User Score
7.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 25 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 12 out of 25
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 25
  3. Negative: 2 out of 25

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  1. n0837
    Jul 15, 2014
    5
    This game is decent. I got a couple of kicks out of it because it was one of the first games I got on Steam. Now, I don't touch it because I got really bored of it. I don't like the game anymore because I got frustrated. Maybe once in a blue moon I'll try it again but for now I'm good. There is no fun stuff to do and there is absolutely no music whatsoever. I just don't like this game.
  2. Pwnixer
    May 11, 2014
    7
    "You have to win the game" is a game based around the retro styled PC games and it makes sure of this as the game's screen is rounded like an old pc monitor, has screen glare and the games art style is a two dimensional 16 bit platforming game. This adds the factor to the old game aesthetic. As the title suggests, the main objective like many other games is to beat it, that is the problem,"You have to win the game" is a game based around the retro styled PC games and it makes sure of this as the game's screen is rounded like an old pc monitor, has screen glare and the games art style is a two dimensional 16 bit platforming game. This adds the factor to the old game aesthetic. As the title suggests, the main objective like many other games is to beat it, that is the problem, IT IS REALLY HARD TO BEAT IT. You are an adventurer and you are in some sort of world and it is full of things that want to kill you and confuse you. You will find yourself not beating this game in one sitting or you will break your monitor. There is no story as I can see and no explanation to what you do and I find this horrible. The reason being is that you will end up going to dead ends because of this. And there is no maps which I find more irritating, however that is the point of the game.

    Personally I do not like these types of games and for that I would recommend people who want to be overly challenged to get this as it is free to play.
    For those in my situation, who like games with a bit of help or guidance, you are not going to enjoy this as much as you want to.    … Expand
  3. TitaniumDragon
    Sep 25, 2014
    5
    You Have To Win The Game is a short retro platformer game designed to look as though it is being played on an old CRT monitor. The game is deliberately evocative of ages past, and contains various standard platforming puzzles.

    Story The game has no story. Gameplay At the start of the game, the character can do two things – move, and jump. Over the course of the game, the    You Have To Win The Game is a short retro platformer game designed to look as though it is being played on an old CRT monitor. The game is deliberately evocative of ages past, and contains various standard platforming puzzles.

    Story

    The game has no story.

    Gameplay

    At the start of the game, the character can do two things – move, and jump. Over the course of the game, the character also unlocks the ability to double jump and to wall jump, as well as activating red and blue walkway bricks; all four of these things open up new places for the player to go. The platforming starts out pretty easy, but gets progressively more difficult throughout the game. There are no bottomless pits in the game, but as per usual, there is lava and spikes.
    Enemies in the game exist, but there are only a very small variety of them; however, this isn’t really a problem as the game is so short and the gameplay so basic. Touching any enemy is instant death, and there are fundamentally two kinds of “normal” enemies, creatures which crawl on the ground (snakes and crabs) and creatures which fly through the air (bats). In addition, there are a small number of unique monsters which spit out patterns of projectiles that the player must navigate through to win.
    Most of the gameplay consists of exploring the environment, collecting all 64 money bags (though 5 of them are actually hearts instead, they serve the same purpose), unlocking all of the abilities, and navigating through to the end of the game, where there is a little mini-puzzle which allows you to “win” if you solve it. Winning or losing brings up a short message on screen, then sends you back to the beginning of the game without any upgrades, but all of the other collectibles remain collected.
    The platforming is very basic, and overall the gameplay is very evocative of older platformer games, with very simple gameplay that isn’t anything special, but does what it needs to do. Unlike older platformers, are bells scattered throughout the game which serve as checkpoints, and their extremely high frequency means that the player is never sent back too far if they die; in this sense, the game is rather evocative of VVVVVV, in that the platforming deaths have little consequence because you can immediately try again, which is a good thing as it reduces frustration. The game gets to be fairly difficult by the end of it, but even still, the game is quite short; 100%ing the game took me under two hours, and to do that, you must beat it twice.

    Graphics

    The game is meant to look like it is being played on a computer out of the 1980s, and the game does a great job of achieving exactly that. This means, however, it isn't really very pretty to look at, though it is mostly reasonably clear what is going on; a few of the money bags are deliberately hidden by maching the surrounding colors closely, which is a somewhat questionable decision from the point of view of collectability, as all the others are simply hard to get to, whereas those two are easy to simply never see in the first place.

    Final Summary

    You Have To Win The Game is exactly what it promises to be – a retro platformer out of the 1980s. It isn’t the best platformer ever, but it is competent enough. However, there’s really nothing to recommend it either – if you miss out on this game, you aren’t missing anything from your life. If you get a free copy and are bored, you might get some enjoyment out of it, but there’s a reason games have moved on from such basic mechanics – they’re too limited to really grab you and leave you feeling as if you’ve done something new.    … Expand
  4. karakenio
    Oct 25, 2016
    10
    Videojuego del 2014 que emula los antiguos de computadora de 4 colores (Gráficos CGA), y encima tiene una emulación configurable de TV (monitor CRT). La jugabilidad acertada. Excelente para nostágicos.
  5. lordT
    May 29, 2014
    7
    This game looks like a general retro game and wouldn't be bought if it wasn't free however the style of the game changes every thing,İt's a legend of Zelda type, with Mario like gameplay and those two combine beautifully
  6. Sandweech
    Jan 23, 2015
    7
    This game is entirely free and that's a wonderful thing, because it's definitely worth a few bucks. And besides, who doesn't love something for nothing? I know that I do! I mean, free stuff is awesome. But I digress...the first thing you may or may not notice about this fantastic little platformer, depending on the year you were born, is the fact that it looks and feels exactly like anThis game is entirely free and that's a wonderful thing, because it's definitely worth a few bucks. And besides, who doesn't love something for nothing? I know that I do! I mean, free stuff is awesome. But I digress...the first thing you may or may not notice about this fantastic little platformer, depending on the year you were born, is the fact that it looks and feels exactly like an old-school classic NES title from that colorful decade: the 80's. The 1980's, not the 1880's, of course. That may be the first strike against this game to some of you, but for me this game feels just as reminiscent as those classics I sunk so many hours of my young life into way back when my mother was still picking out my clothing for the day.

    This game is also surprisingly challenging despite the fact that it looks rather easy. There's also no music, extremely limited sound effects, and the only action your character has is to jump. But despite all of this the game still works extremely well as a whole. And for these reasons and these reasons alone, I feel compelled to yell at you to get out there and try this game. You don't even have to wait until the next big sale because did I mention earlier that it's entirely free?    … Expand
  7. Bumblebugbee
    May 12, 2016
    6
    I love free things. This is especially true for games on steam that pay tribute to one of my favorite genres. You Have To Win The Game is a free game and rightly so. Its not bad but it is quite bland. It offers a fun little bite-sized adventure but not much else. Sit down, take about an hour to play through it, then move on and forget about it.

    You Have To Win The Game is pretty    I love free things. This is especially true for games on steam that pay tribute to one of my favorite genres. You Have To Win The Game is a free game and rightly so. Its not bad but it is quite bland. It offers a fun little bite-sized adventure but not much else. Sit down, take about an hour to play through it, then move on and forget about it.

    You Have To Win The Game is pretty straight-forward Metroid clone. You run around from one screen to the next seeking new abilities and switches needed to access more areas. Sadly, there is no map feature and I often found myself running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to find out where I could proceed next. Thankfully, after a half-hour or so the layout becomes quite familiar and its begins to get easier to memorize how to get around. Once you obtain a new ability you'll already have been by several areas where it can be utilized.

    The visuals and sound effects are about as retro as they come. The backgrounds are pure-black with just a couple specks of light while the foregrounds are often purple with occasionally with a bit of green or white thrown in. There really isn't much to see. The sound design is just as bland. All you hear is your characters beeps every time you jump. At least the "boss" enemies that come before the power-ups give you some rhythmic beeps for variety. Did I mention the soundtrack? Oh wait, there is none.

    What this game lacks in aesthetics it makes up for in level design. This game offers a increasing challenging hurdles but it never feels like its asking for too much. Learning to navigate the map as you acquire access to new areas is quite rewarding. The game offers several unique obstacles never repeating the same idea twice. The learning curve may be fairly steep but it seems to be a pretty smooth.

    I enjoyed playing this game despite its short-comings. The fun gameplay manages to trump the out-dated aesthetics. I will say however that my experience was nearly ruined in by the ending. It would appear that as you played you where supposed to find a magic word that you are prompted to enter at the end of the game. So when I finished without this password it simply reset the game. It was a very unsatisfying conclusion after all the work but what should I expect at this point. This is a free download, take it or leave it.    … Expand
  8. apokalipto
    Aug 26, 2023
    9
    Very good game. I enjoyed playing this game a lot. I strongly recommend this.

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  1. SpazioGames
    Jul 18, 2014
    80
    You Have to Win the Game is a wonderful tribute to the 8-bit age of videogames. A traditional retro-style 2D platformer oriented to exploration and backtracking, that turns a demanding challenge into his own distinctive sign. It will be loved from those gamers that were born in the 80’s.
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