Video games are always a journey, with players taking on the challenge and attempting to complete them – if they can.
Some games, including a number of the most enduring hits in the medium's history, are often more about the continuous task of beating one’s previous best than making it to the end.
One that was thought to be unbeatable is the original Tetris, a block-clearing video game first created in the Soviet Union by Alexey Pajitnov in 1985.
The game, which requires players to place shaped blocks in position to clear lines, gets progressively more difficult with each level as they fall faster, giving players little time to decide where to place them.
Streamer Willis Gibson, 13, who goes by the screen name Blue Scuti, managed a feat previously thought to be impossible – completing Tetris.
The accomplishment was achieved during the 2023 Classic Tetris World Championship, and Gibson broke three world records in the process.
Seeing a 38-year-old game being completed for the first time begs the question, which video games have yet to be beaten despite decades of popularity?
Here are a few of the biggest games left unbeaten.
Dr Mario (Gameboy)
Released five years after the original Tetris, Dr Mario is similar in spirit but with pills, instead of blocks, falling on viruses .
The game presents challenges in the form of rapidly expanding virus clusters as well as increased speed.
When played on the Nintendo Gameboy, which the Japanese gaming company launched in 1989, Dr Mario presents an endgame screen after level 20, but then resumes until 28. Players have been unable to advance past this level due to technical limitations, but a solution may still be found.
Mario Party 4's Doors of Death (GameCube)
The Mario Party games are known for having fun and challenging mini games that pit friends against each other as well as the automated computer player.
The mini games vary from simple and achievable to complicated. One mini game that is both simple yet difficult is Doors of Death in the fourth iteration of the game, released on Nintendo GameCube in 2002.
Players are faced with the choice of two doors – one advances players to the next set of doors while the other opens to face Bowser, Mario’s arch nemesis.
The mini game is said to lock at 30 doors, after which Bowser will show up regardless of the choice, but no player has recorded reaching anywhere near that. The most passed has been 14 doors.
Statistically speaking, players have a one in a billion chance of reaching the 30th door.
RoboCop (Commodore 64)
The metal-clad police officer has featured in many games since the character burst on to the scene in film form in 1987.
One such video game that seems to offer more difficulty than necessary is the 1988 Commodore 64 console version.
The game is a side-scrolling shooter playable on multiple consoles and arcade machines.
The version on the Commodore 64 was particularly challenging, mainly because there is no conceivable way to surpass the third level of the game.
The level has a time limit during which players must clear all enemies on the screen, but no one has managed to finish it without the game promptly crashing as the fourth level starts.
It should be possible to complete the level and move on, but there’s no known possible way of getting past the fourth level, rendering the game potentially unbeatable.
