In the 16 bit days games were an actual challenge. The dificulty of most games now feels neutered. I remember when the Mega Man X remake came out. People who never played the game before were complaining about how hard it was. Meanwhile fans of the original were complaining about how easy it was.
Pure dificulty aside, with sites like GameFAQs any dificulty present goes out the window. I rememebr playing Mario RPG and for the Sunken Ship password puzzle. I couldn't figure it out for the life of me. Me and my dad ran all the letters through Excel and created a spreadsheet of every possible combination of the letters. Took a while but when I finally found "PEARLS" and realized that was it, it was so much more satisfying than logging into GameFAQs and just skipping to the section of the FAQ you needed.
I was playing Metal Gear Solid 4 on The Boss Extreme, and it wasn't that hard, just time consuming.
Games today takes longer and cost more to develop, game developers nowadays have to cater to a wide range of gamers and also attract new ones. Hardcore gamers are few, most of them grew up and don't have as much free time as they used too. We have to face the fact that majority of the gamers out there are college students and young parents who don't have a lot of spare time in their hards... and the gaming industry caters to this people. A lot of games are developed to have simple and easy to remember controls and gameplay so people with only 30 mins freetime can get in and out with ease. Gone are the days where you sat there hours and hours trying to beat a stage, or trying for days beating that last boss..there are still games out that that makes you throw the controller(or your DS for that matter) in the wall but they are very few and far in between.
Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Clearly Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Gaiden 2 have not been played by any of you fine people. A serious challenge on the second of four difficulties. I can't even imagine the others.
And Battletoads was a game that I had to come back to. I first got it when I was 10 and could never even get close to finishing it. Finally beat it when I was 19 and dear lord I've never been so giddy about a game.
I too have noticed most games have been getting progressively easier.It could just be that they finally fixed all those glitches like bad hit detection and such.Not sure if this was confirmed,but I remember games like Contra and a few other shooters had bullets that would "track" you.Hated that.Also wasn't a big fan of trying to jump on that half inch rock while dodging a stupid eagle and missile fire from a respawning enemy soldier,thanks Ninja Gaiden! Still,i'd just pick up my just tossed controller and continue with the self torture,love it.
Plus a lot of games that seemed hard were really just examples of the AI cheating. Super Spike V'Ball comes to mind, and Tecmo Super Bowl, mid-season on the NES.
I do not agree with the title of this thread. Either that or I have been playing the wrong games
Ninja Gaiden was tough, as well as Devil May Cry 3.
Rainbow 6 Vegas was kinda tough on realistic, and I must be the only person with this problem, but I don't fare too well against the CPU on Madden unless I have an unbalanced team (All Madden, anyone?)
Bioshock was, well, perfect; but it was important that the game be completed by most people, since a main goal in that game was to tell a story.
I found Doom 3 to be on par in difficulty with original doom.
But, taken as a whole, most games seem far easier to finish than back in NES days. In fact, I finish nearly all of my games (if I enjoy them). During NES, though, it seemed that I finished very, very few--mostly due to difficulty. I think that it has to do mostly with the change in what people expect from games.
For President!
Not to burst your bubble but only the final boss in Mario RPG was hard
I never said Super Mario RPG on the whole was hard (Though Yaridovich and the Axem Rangers gave me a problem for a little while). I was using it as an example of how a pretty decent puzzle is wasted in the age of GameFAQs.
A couple of tough old games are Star Wars Dark Forces, Hellbender, and Magic Carpet. In Dark Forces, it was the puzzles and trying to see through the 16 bit graphics. In Helbender and Magic Carpet it was the seemingly endless supply of levels! Those were the days...
I for one, don't want to play games that are crazy hard. Challenging, sure, but if I'm getting really frustrated with a game, it's not worth it to me. When I sit down to play a game I want to feel like I am making forward progress. If I have to keep doing something over and over and over, I lose interest. When I was a teenager all I did was game. I could care less if it took me all day to perfect something, what else did I have to do? Now I have a family to take care of and responsibilities and I don't have the time for that.
I hear you on that one.Thank god there's a save feature,which is another reason most games are so easy now.
darkspark:Thank god there's a save feature,which is another reason most games are so easy now.
Exactly! That's what makes some games so easy. You can save before going into a tough area, scout it out with no fear of dying, and know exactly how to do everything for the final run! FPS games are instantly easy then. I have used this method many-a-time, particularly when I play Pazaak in KOTOR and KOTOR2. Easy money!
I like games with checkpoint saves better now that I am tired of my "unrealistic" strategy. Far Cry is awesome and I am eagerly awaiting Far Cry 2!
