Talk:NES Godzilla Creepypasta/Epilogue/@comment-24434528-20140124220920

I've read this twice now, and I don't think I'll ever get truly tired of it - I will count this among the many books I own as a story I will always have on hand to return to.

What makes this pasta so exceptional is, well, the screenshots. Most pastas like this, if the possibility is even acknowledged at all, an author's out is used - "I tried taking a screenshot, but something went wrong so you'll just have to take my word for it." I mean, the low resolution and simple style of the original game allowed for all the screenshots to be made with simple pixel art, but they still added several layers to the story, not only of realism but also in terms of the reader's ability to visualize what was going on - few things were left to the imagination, and in this story, that's a huge plus. And of course, at the end, the screenshots did a MUCH better job of telling the story of the final battle with Red and the golden thing than words could ever have done - both readthroughs, I was scrolling through them like mad, my eyes trained to focus on the next pair of health bars first, the following image second, then repeat, all while on the edge of my seat…it was almost like a movie! And the epilogue finishes it nicely by illustrating Zach's state of mind in the aftermath AND explaining why he even wrote this story to begin with, tying this story to reality by giving an explanation for why it's a written story (with pictures) on the internet. VERY well done, author, VERY well done indeed.

The only criticism I have for this pasta is how Zach made it through every level without dying. The author even acknowledges this at times - Zach saying "I was lucky enough to do it" "My reflexes were fast because of adrenaline" etc. - but if anything, that just makes it that much more unlikely. I have never played ANY game for the NES, let alone this one, so maybe the difficulty in the original game is so low that it seemed incredibly high for this twisted version but was still low enough to allow for one-try victories across the board, but I can't help but feel skeptical of it all in that sense. I mean, I know it's made up, and that the idea was that if Zach had died at ANY point, he would have died for real, which would have ruined the rather lovely ending (high five to anyone who gets THAT reference - though if you don't, you need look no further than this very site), but it kind of breaks the suspension of disbelief that the images and other aspects of the story work so hard to instill. Well, not quite BREAKS…more like cracks, maybe. My point is, both readthroughs, I found myself thinking at several points "If it was so impossible etc., how did you manage to do it in one go? That's awfully convenient… >.> " But then again, his character did die at one point, on the first chase with Red when he looked away for two seconds, so that helps mend the cracks a bit - not completely, since the levels only got harder but no more deaths happened, but a bit.

Of course, only when you really think about it do you realize that the author kind of called himself (or herself, I guess) a sick bastard, pretty much. Several times, Zach questions the mental health of whatever "game developer" came up with various images, texts, and so on…but the author made both Zach AND the stuff Zach was calling psycho - INCLUDING the images - so in a sense, the author was kind of taking a stab at themselves for even having enough vision and a proper imagination to create all this stuff, especially the "screenshots". Things like that lend yet another layer of realism to the story, when an author has their main character call parts of the story sick or psychotic, because who would say that about THEMSELVES? It's like why Jeff Dunham's puppets seem so alive - they constantly insult him and put him in awkward positions, so they can't possibly BE him, because he wouldn't intentionally subject himself to all that…right? XD

All in all, amazing story from start to finish - it has a typical opening for a video game creepypasta to make the reader all comfortable, followed by a buildup of eerieness and suspense that all authors should try to emulate, giving closure in the aftermath, and finally ending with a final tie to the real world AND an almost humorous note that comforts the reader in the same way the predictable opening did. Whoever wrote this should get paid for every time someone reads it - I for one would certainly be more than happy to pay money for each readthrough. THIS is what a story should be, online or not. Author, if you ever see this (which I realize you might not), BRAVO!!! *applauds very enthusiastically*