/vr/ - Retro Games

The ultimate in bad design: LJN's X-Men. You all know the horrible details of actually playing it-- ugly graphics, bosses and characters that all play and look identical, bizarre enemies, retarded AI, forced to select two characters even in a one player game. But the honest worst part of it is the last level. Not for difficulty, but because to get there you have to beat all the other stages... and then put in a cheat code.

To learn the code, you have to beat 30 "special" enemies in a stage. Sometimes they're a different color, but not always. After you do, part of the post stage text is highlighted. Copy down the highlighted words and you get a message:
>THE LAST MISSION. CAN BE REACHED FROM THE MISSION. SCREEN BY PUSHING SELECT AND SEEK THE ADVICE OF THE LABEL TO MAKE IT TO THE FINAL MISSION.

"The label" in this case means the actual label on the NES catridge itself. Printed there in microscopic text is the rest of the button code. Words you wouldn't be able to even read while your game is inside your NES. So you'd have to turn the game off and take it out of the console, notice the tiny letters, and then replay the whole game all over again to have a chance to enter in that button code.