How did I find this difficult before?

Have any of you played a game, had difficulties getting past a certain part, then tried again at a later time (hours, days, months, etc.) and had absolutely no problems getting past it?

I'm curious to see if this happens to others, 'cause it happens to me fairly often.

My example for tonight is the NES game, Monster in My Pocket. When I was younger, I could not beat the Warlock at the end of the game for the life of me. I played through and beat the game earlier tonight and I nearly made it through the fight without even taking a single hit of damage. I just can't figure out what gave me problems with this fight in the past.

If this kind of thing has happened to anyone else, tell your story here. I think they'll be interesting reads.

It's happened to me. I used to have trouble with Sonic 3 and Knuckles, but now I'm a natural with the game's mechanics and breeze through the Chaos Emerald challenges and the various sign post games. I've probably worn the game out too much, actually, and now it's hard to find something new to appreciate about it. I guess I could still screw around with debug mode or something.

I don't know if it's because the later games are easier, but I had such trouble with F-14 Tomcat for the GBA (despite the fact I knew the trick to bogey splashing), while the later Majesco flight simulators were a breeze for me when I played them recently, late 2010.

I also used to have trouble jumping in the Super Smash Bros. games, but I've gotten used to Brawl and thus that's no longer a problem.

On the other hand, in my more dedicated focus on certain genres I've become less able to play first person shooters well. I used to be pretty good at Perfect Dark, but I tried recently and had a bit of trouble.

That's happened to me a lot, probably because I've played video games at a really young age, and a 7 year old isn't really expected to get everything right.
All of the Spyro the Dragon games were especially impossible. I would skip whole worlds I didn't want to complete, and boss battles took ages and many many lives. Now I can play the entire first game in less than six hours, 100% completion.

Also, the for me Ratchet and Clank series used to be tough, especially giant Clank sequences. But now those games are a breeze as well.

The Materia Keeper and Carry Armour from Final Fantasy VII, damn those guys!

i agree with materia keeper. my first playthrough, i couldn't beat that thing for the life of me...must've tried at least ten times before i finally beat it. every playthrough since, i haven't had a single problem with it.

i'll also mention hilary from gta: vice city. when you have to beat him in a race. i just plain couldn't do it. i believe a friend of mine actually beat the mission for me so i could continue on. i played through the game a couple years later, and on the first try i won the race with hilary so far behind me, that he was nowhere to be seen....leaving me wondering how it managed to frustrate me so much on my first playthrough.

I'm not a big fan of FPSes, more for my disdain for blood and gore, not because they're "bad," but I remember the first time I went through Halo on Legendary...it was a Master Chief massacre. Now that I own a couple more FPSes, going back to Halo on legendary wasn't nearly as bad, at least until I hit the library. That's still tough.

Starocean: Till the End of Time was the same way. The learning curve seemed to be much steeper when I was younger.

Similarly, Mega Man 8 has also become surmountable in the recent years. The sliding dynamic eluded me when I was little. Sword Man used to always take me out.

Mike Tysons Punch Out... Oh wait, I still never beat that! lol

I used to have Landstalker on the Genesis, which by the way is an excellent adventure game if you've never heard of it. I got stuck when I was like 9 in the ice cavern where you need the ice boots. Then when I was like 16, somehow I played it from the beginning and beat it without a hitch. Then I played it again when I was like 22 or something and I got stuck on the same part with the ice boots. So, if the past is any indication, I should be able to beat it now without a problem now that five years have gone by.

I used to have a lot of problems with Zelda II and TMNT 1 on NES. I couldn't beat them when I was younger and now can roll right through them without dying and they have became a couple of my favorite games. However, I cannot beat Milons Secret Castle to this day or the final boss in Ninja Gaiden.

When I`m tired, or play for a long time, I start making many stupid mistakes.. so I need to stop and rest (or calm mysel). This way, usually I'm able to go trough the first try the next time I play.
But, talking about a long period, I remember when I was a cild, that beating any Megaman was impossible. For my surprised, I played again Megaman 8 and X in their respective collections for PS2, and was waaaaaaaaaaaaay easier.