Don't you just love it when you beat a game? For some reason, it feels mighty fine to watch the credits roll.

Even when I was first playing Super Mario Land on the tiny green screen, I remember the first time I finally beat the whole game and got to hear the amazing tune for the end of it...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VztCEY5wFW4 <-someone amazing who put it on Youtube

Watching Mario fly off with Daisy, it was this mixture of extreme pride and extreme depression. After all, now that I had beaten it, I knew what was at the end, so it made the replay value decrease.

Just like most things, this feeling has stuck with me in my gaming lifestyle.

When I beat Ocarina of Time, I almost bawled my eyes out. It was so great, so awesome, so full of things to do, but then it ended and there was nothing else to accomplish in it. Same thing happened with beating Pokemon (red version). I felt that same bittersweet feeling inside.

And then, I played Donkey Kong land for Game Boy. I'm sure you know about it. It's not only challenging but also merciless on your characters. If you touch an enemy wrong twice, you have to start over the level again, and after months of fighting it, I almost got to the end to beat nasty King Krool, only he kept killing me over and over again. So I stopped playing, and it became one of the first games where I was, as the saying goes, "So close, yet so far".

As I've gotten older and gotten more games and game systems, I have noticed that one trend stays pitifully the same. My game style tends to be that I play a game little bit by little bit until I get almost to the end. And then, I suddenly get that "impending doom" feeling (you know what I'm talking about).

"Agh!" I say, "This game is oppressing me!" And I run off and start playing a puzzle game and get one of those irritatingly catchy puzzle-songs stuck in my head.

But eventually I come back to it. The other day, I finally pulled out the GameCube version of Twilight Princess and I beat the game. It was kind of humorous to see that the last save file I'd saved at was exactly at the end of the game when I'm stuck tromping around Hyrule Castle trying to find Ganondorf. It also said that I'd last played the game about a year ago.

I finally got the courage to beat the game itself, but it still left me with the lingering sadness that I always feel when a game that I've enjoyed is finally over. I keep hoping for a little extra snippet at the end, or possibly a bonus dungeon, but no...the game is over and done and it'll be another few years (if ever) before another game like it comes out.

It's like that with most of my other games. Sure, I close them out eventually, watch the credits roll, feeling detached and somewhat remorseful, but I've always been one of those people who loves the beginning of a game and the enjoyment of leveling and expanding the world until you get to the point where it becomes practically ridiculous.

But when that final credit rolls up the screen, I know that like anything, I have to move on, and take the next game for what it's worth. And of course, many games have a replay value (I am guilty of playing Ocarina of Time at least 10 times), but I know that in the end, that first time beating the game is like all other firsts; it can't be re-experienced with a replay.

Of course, what brought this on was the fact that I just beat Etrian Odyssey today, and I'm still amazed that I somehow beat the Etreant (which is a total bitch while also having cheap and bastardly moves). Of course, I'm kind of attached to all of my party members, so I almost fell off my chair when I found another bonus stratum under the boss battle room. YAY! I can still keep adventuring, even if it's just for a little while, and the best part about it is the fact that I can reap all the rewards and praise from the NPCs after having beaten the Hardest. Freaking. Character. Ever.

If you've read this post, feel free to post your list of games that you still have laying around, waiting to get that last boss fight or the last little quest or requirement to be met before the credits roll.

After all, while some gamers rip through a game like a rabid sugar-deprived child rips through his bucket of Halloween candy, many more of us sort of grieve when we finally get to the ending of a game that has captured our time, attention, and possibly a bit of our heart as well.

I wonder if this is the same sort of feeling I'll feel when I'm at the end of my life.