


The only difference in gameplay between the difficulty settings is the number of save points available throughout the game, with 62 in Medium mode, 41 in Hard mode, 22 in Very Hard mode, and none at all in Impossible mode. The game has four difficulty settings: "Medium", "Hard", "Very Hard", and "Impossible", with "Hard" considered to be the "normal difficulty". Thus, to complete the game, the first six bosses along each path must be defeated before the warp screen will allow the player to access the final area. From the starting screen, there are three different ways to progress all of them ultimately lead to the same warp screen which returns to the first screen. Although each death results in a "Game Over", the player is allowed an infinite number of attempts. The Kid always dies with a single hit, at which point he explodes into a mass of blood. Alongside a traditional range of recognizable dangers, such as spikes and pits, there are many less obvious threats as well, most of which are all but impossible to avoid without either previous knowledge or trial and error (such as Tetris pieces and "Delicious Fruit", which can fall downwards, upwards, or sideways). Most of the landscape is engineered specifically to kill the player character. The game parodies many 8-bit and 16-bit era video games, such as the frequent use of references and sound effects from the Nintendo game Mario Paint. The final boss, The Kid's father, is unique to IWBTG.

Wily in the Koopa Clown Car and a mix between the Mecha Dragon from Mega Man 2 and the Yellow Devil from Mega Man and Mega Man 3) are adapted from classic games, mostly platformers, but their behavior and appearance have been modified and enhanced for IWBTG. The first seven bosses ( Mike Tyson Mecha Birdo Dracula Kraid gief, a parody of palette-hacked character glitches Mother Brain Bowser, Wart, and Dr. At the end of each stage, a boss must be defeated to progress. IWBTG is made up of several stages split into many screens, which are mostly pastiches of Nintendo Entertainment System games, such as Tetris, Ghosts 'n Goblins, The Legend of Zelda, Castlevania, Kirby, Mega Man, and Metroid. The controls are limited to left/right movement, jumping, double-jumping, and shooting.

A screenshot of the remastered version of I Wanna Be the Guy
