It has happened. A video game has finally driven me bat shit crazy. Not even a specific game even, but rather just one part of it. The title in question is Castlevania 3: Dracula's Curse. I have been trying to beat Level 6, Section 3 for two days straight now and my every effort has been rebuffed by constant failure.

It's not even that I can't get past this brutal bit of gaming sadism. I've actually beaten it a number of times in the past few days, the problem is that getting past the area itself is so hard that I generally find myself without any health or lives to spare come Section 4 and if you get a game over it sends you right back to the beginning to challenge the onslaught over and over again.

What does any of this have to do with digital distribution? Let me explain.

I can be very physical when I get angry with video games. Back in my younger days I routinely hucked controllers across the room. It's a miracle that I've never actually broken one doing so, and in recent years I have been more of angry vulgarity guy than anything else.

That said, tonight I had the definite desire to break a video game.

I've only done it once in the past. I was playing Wing Commander II, and after spending three straight hours on a single mission to no avail, I found myself unable to take anymore. In my fury I popped the disc from my PC and snapped it in two. In retrospect it was stupid, as I've never found another copy, but damn was it satisfying at the time.

Every fiber of my being wants to bust up Castlevania 3. It's a great game. I love it. But it -and my wife playing "I Guess That's Why They Call it the Blues" every time I die- has driven me to the brink of gaming insanity. But alas, I downloaded it via my Wii's Virtual Console and I'm not willing to wreck a 250 console because of one game it happens to be harboring.

People have talked a lot about digital distribution lately. The pros, the cons. For my part I'm a lover of real world software that I can hold, touch and if the need should arise throw out the window into the street.