History Main / ICantReachIt

* This happens to children in [[TheSims The Sims 3]], who are too short to reach some things on countertops, like the goldfish bowl. This problem was avoided in ''The Sims 2'' by giving the children a small footstool to use.

* In [[VideoGame/LegoAdaptationGame Lego Adaptation Games]], a character will turn towards the player and shrug if they're told to interact with an object that they don't have the qualifications, tool, or spell to interact with.

* This happens to children in [[TheSims The Sims 3]], who are too short to reach some things on countertops, like the goldfish bowl. This problem was avoided in ''The Sims 2'' by giving the children a small footstool to use

*** Well of course not, it's one of the most famous red herrings in video game history.

*** You aren't supposed to be able to do that. Once you move the cursor over the rat, one of the Men of Low Moral Fiber admonishes you.

* ''VideoGame/MonkeyIsland2LeChucksRevenge'', when Guybrush is back in the dark alley on Mêlée Island (with the circus poster), he doesn't want to move the [[InsurmountableWaistHeightFence traffic cones blocking his way]] because it'd be breaking the law. [[note]]hint: Guybrush is a [[ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything pirate]] [[/note]]

** In fact, the only thing stopping Travis from leaving Silent Hill all-together is a fallen tree. Not a thick fog, not an invisible wall, not a magically-appearing chasm with no visible bottom...but a ''fallen tree''. He simply refuses to step over it, with no other explanation besides: "Looks like I can't go that way!"
** The other characters aren't that much better, but their motivations are at least a bit more clear: [[SilentHill1 Harry's]] not leaving Silent Hill without his [[CatchPhrase little girl, short black hair, just turned seven last month]]; [[SilentHill2 James]] is suggested to be subconsciously suicidal (and he is DrivenToSuicide in one of the endings) and will refuse to leave town in the car he arrived in; [[SilentHill3 Heather]] refuses to leave the bathroom via the front door because "that creepy detective guy" is waiting there (though of course one wonders if she considers monsters spawned from the UncannyValley to be worse than Douglas); [[SilentHill4 Henry]] is just plain ''stuck'' in his apartment until he finds a way out and even then his travel destinations are limited to wherever Walter lets him go; [[SilentHillHomecoming Alex]] is doggedly looking for his little brother; [[SilentHillShatteredMemories Harry (again)]], is, well, guess ([[spoiler: and probably doesn't exist except as a fragment of Cheryl's imagination anyway]]); and [[VideoGame/SilentHillDownpour Murphy]] is outright told by the local {{NPC}}s that the titular town ''will not let him leave'' until whatever business he has there is done.
*** This trope better manifests itself in each of the [[MoonLogicPuzzle Moon Logic Puzzles]] in the game. For example, in one, a character who is carrying no small number of weapons cannot bust a few bicycle locks with brute force; they have to search out a number of clues. Sometimes, the character with a crowbar, chisel, shotgun, and [[{{BFS}} Big Freakin' Sword]] can't break down a simple wooden door; they have to solve obscure riddles or make a handle out of some wax, a horseshoe, and a lighter. No one brings bolt cutters with them in Franchise/SilentHill; everyone prefers to SolveTheSoupCans. Even [[GameBreaker alien blasters]] are no match for a door if the plot demands you solve a riddle instead.

* One mission in PerfectDark involves throwing a transmitter onto a radar dish. Upon finding it, Jo mentions she can't throw the transmitter that high, but she underestimates her throwing arm: she ''can'' throw it that high but lowering the radar first makes it much easier.

* ''[[VideoGame/DarkSeed 2]]'' has many of these moments, but the worst is when Mike Dawson won't move an anvil on an ice-box that has life-saving medicine in it, even though the person who needs the medicine is close to dying. The anvil is too heavy for Mike to lift, but he doesn't even attempt to push it or jimmy it off. Hell, even breaking the table's legs so that the anvil and medicine box fall down would have made more sense. Somebody ended up ''dying'' because Mike wouldn't even attempt to move the bloody anvil.

* ''{{Darkseed}} 2'' has many of these moments, but the worst is when Mike Dawson won't move an anvil on an ice-box that has life-saving medicine in it, even though the person who needs the medicine is close to dying. The anvil is too heavy for Mike to lift, but he doesn't even attempt to push it or jimmy it off. Hell, even breaking the table's legs so that the anvil and medicine box fall down would have made more sense. Somebody ended up ''dying'' because Mike wouldn't even attempt to move the bloody anvil.

* Travis Grady wins a [[DarwinAwards Darwin Award]] for [[TooDumbToLive refusing to leave an abandoned monster-infested hell hospital]] in ''VideoGame/SilentHillOrigins'' until he checks on a girl who's almost certainly dead at this point.

* Justified in the old ''VideoGame/TheHobbit'' text game, in which Bilbo must frequently ask for help from Gandalf or Thorin the dwarf[[note]]Dwarves are taller than hobbits.[[/note]], because he's a hobbit and therefore too short to climb out windows and the like.

** The other characters aren't that much better, but their motivations are at least a bit more clear: [[SilentHill1 Harry's]] not leaving Silent Hill without his [[CatchPhrase little girl, short black hair, just turned seven last month]]; [[SilentHill2 James]] is suggested to be subconsciously suicidal (and he is DrivenToSuicide in one of the endings) and will refuse to leave town in the car he arrived in; [[SilentHill3 Heather]] refuses to leave the bathroom via the front door because "that creepy detective guy" is waiting there (though of course one wonders if she considers monsters spawned from the UncannyValley to be worse than Douglas); [[SilentHill4 Henry]] is just plain ''stuck'' in his apartment until he finds a way out and even then his travel destinations are limited to wherever Walter lets him go; [[SilentHillHomecoming Alex]] is doggedly looking for his little brother; [[SilentHillShatteredMemories Harry (again)]], is, well, guess ([[spoiler: and probably doesn't exist except as a fragment of Cheryl's imagination anyway]]); and Murphy is outright told by the local {{NPC}}s that the titular town ''will not let him leave'' until whatever business he has there is done.

** The other characters aren't that much better, but their motivations are at least a bit more clear: [[SilentHill1 Harry's]] not leaving Silent Hill without his [[CatchPhrase little girl, short black hair, just turned seven last month]]; [[SilentHill2 James]] is suggested to be subconsciously suicidal (and he is DrivenToSuicide in one of the endings) and will refuse to leave town in the car he arrived in; [[SilentHill3 Heather]] refuses to leave the bathroom via the front door because "that creepy detective guy" is waiting there (though of course one wonders if she considers monsters spawned from the UncannyValley to be worse than Douglas); [[SilentHill4 Henry]] is just plain ''stuck'' in his apartment until he finds a way out and even then his travel destinations are limited to wherever Walter lets him go; [[SilentHillHomecoming Alex]] is doggedly looking for his little brother; [[SilentHillShatteredMemories Harry (again)]], is, well, guess.

* ''VideoGame/MonkeyIsland2LeChucksRevenge'', when Guybrush is back in the dark alley on Mêlée Island (with the circus poster), he doesn't want to move the [[InsurmountableWaistHeightFence traffic cones blocking his way]] because it'd be breaking the law. [[hottip:* :hint: Guybrush is a [[ThePiratesWhoDontDoAnything pirate]] ]]

** Used brilliantly, there is one item in the game, which this could be considered an Easter Egg. If you direct Sam to pick it up he says "I can't pick that up"
do it again "Really, I can't pick that up" again... "I would like to pick that up, but I cannot pick that up" do it over and over he eventually breaks down sobbing. In which Max threatens the player "If I was real and not just a lovable computer game character I would totally come out of the monitor and rip your lungs out!" going it any more, Sam simply whimpers with Max saying "Don't worry Sam, maybe they'll go away"

* ''MassEffect'': want to send your squaddies on ahead of you, but there's a waist-high box, corner of a wall, or ''one side of a doorway'' between you and the location you order them to? Steel yourself for a barrage of [[MostAnnoyingSound "I can't get there!" "Not without an airlift!" "Can't make it!"]]

** Also, in Thy Dungeonman 1&2, along with Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People, YouCantGetYeFlask.

* Early in ''RuleOfRose'' you must get scissors hanging from a rope just out of your reach. The only way to get to them is to find a crank in a locked room to lower the said rope, never mind that the room contains, among other things, a rubbish bin you could stand on to get your hands on them.

* An early puzzle in the 2008 ''VideoGame/{{Alone in the Dark}}'' has you balance a fire extinguisher on a wooden platform, then pull a rope to carry it to the upper floor where you can retrieve it and use it to clear out some flames. Because the game won't let you just carry it up the climbable ledges on the other side of the room.

* An early puzzle in the 2008 ''Alone in the Dark'' has you balance a fire extinguisher on a wooden platform, then pull a rope to carry it to the upper floor where you can retrieve it and use it to clear out some flames. Because the game won't let you just carry it up the climbable ledges on the other side of the room.

* ''Darkseed 2'' has many of these moments, but the worst is when Mike Dawson won't move an anvil on an ice-box that has life-saving medicine in it, even though the person who needs the medicine is close to dying. The anvil is too heavy for Mike to lift, but he doesn't even attempt to push it or jimmy it off. Hell, even breaking the table's legs so that the anvil and medicine box fall down would have made more sense. Somebody ended up ''dying'' because Mike wouldn't even attempt to move the bloody anvil.

* In VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006, Silver claims that he "can't stop lasers with [his] Psychokinesis". Normally it would make sense, because the lasers would be too fast to stop, but in this game the lasers move ''incredibly slowly'', so it would be feasible for him to at least put something in front of it before it hits.

* Delphine Software's ''FutureWars'' has a point where you have to soak a robotic wolf with a leaky carrier bag of water before it runs dry, and you have to stand ''almost'' on top of it to do so. It's a good thing it's the world's laziest cybercarnivore.

* ''Darkseed 2'' has many of these moments, but the worst is when Mike Dawson won't move an anvil on an ice-box filled with life-saving medicine, even though the person who needs the medicine is close to dying. The anvil is too heavy for Mike to lift, but he doesn't even attempt to push it or jimmy it off. Hell, even breaking the table's legs so that the anvil and medicine box fall down would have made more sense. Somebody ended up ''dying'' because Mike wouldn't lift the bloody anvil.

* Travis Grady wins a DarwinAward for [[TooDumbToLive refusing to leave an abandoned monster-infested hell hospital]] in ''VideoGame/SilentHillOrigins'' until he checks on a girl who's almost certainly dead at this point.

* Justified in the old ''TheHobbit'' text game, in which Bilbo must frequently ask for help from Gandalf or (oddly) Thorin the dwarf, because he's a hobbit and therefore too short to climb out windows and the like.