failure Archives - Unwinnable

Title art for Getting Over It with Bennet Foddy with the player character in a cauldron on the left by a tree and the mountain looming to the right

Learning to Love the Mountain While Getting Over It

By J.M. Henson • May 9th, 2024

To begin the task of climbing was to promise myself that I could reach the summit.

Friction Burns

A screenshot from Mosa Lina with the player character jumping in the air off a tower of blocks over to a balloon platform and a fish balloon?

(Sometimes) Literally Unwinnable

By Ruth Cassidy • March 29th, 2024

It would be easy for Mosa Lina to feel like an opponent to conquer, but instead it feels like we’re on the same team.

title card for The People You're Paying to be In Shorts, with Michael Jordan holding back some tears front and center and many images of basketball players in various stages of jump and throw behind him

The People You’re Paying To Be in Shorts: Dorktown on the 2011-2012 Charlotte Bobcats

By Van Dennis • October 17th, 2023

Dorktown’s strengths are on full display here yet again: surprisingly little footage of actual people on the court, a superb soundtrack, and a completely honest appreciation of the men in the titular shorts whose job(s) it is to go out and get their asses handed to them.

Let Me Make Mistakes: A Plea to Developers

By Matthew Byrd • March 9th, 2017

If the medium is going to mature, we need developers willing to make players feel dumb, allowing them the chance to figure things out via trial and error.

Why I’m Okay With Never Winning

By Matt Sayer • February 7th, 2017

Enter the Gungeon is the most-played game I’ve never beaten, and I’m a-okay with that.

Please, For the Love of God, Don’t Watch The Ridiculous Six

By Megan Condis • February 1st, 2016

Ridiculous 6 is 6 kinds of ridiculously bad.