OMG! This game is SO HARD!!!

[Mass Distraction]

So basically, what I'm doing here is transferring some of my old threads here. Have fun replying to these again.


What do you guys think about the difficulty of games nowadays? Do you prefer your games to be hard or are you just in for the story and nothing more?

I came up with this when I was playing Ninja Gaiden 3 for PS3. It's so odd to see a game that was once known as the hardest game ever to hold your hand like this. Rarely I even see games holding your hand as much as this game does, reminding me every few minutes to hit enemies by pressing the "attack" button or to check where I'm going even when I'm in a straight hallway with absolutely nowhere to go but forwards. I'm well over halfway through the game and I'm still feeling like I'm in a tutorial mission.

There are still legitly hard games out there too but when a game actually is a tough nut to crack, so to speak, it seems to result in some reviewers saying that "the game is too hard, minus 10,000 points". What happened to appreciating the difficulty? Where's the challenge in just walking through what is essentially an interactive movie? Am I the only one who feels good about triumphing over an insanely difficult part? Backtracking and free roaming in most mainstream games seems to be a thing of the past. The lack of innovation nowadays hurts me. Sometimes people even need to come up with more difficutly themselves, hence the uprise of things like Permadeath, Nuzlocke Run and Green Demon Challenge.

Getting back to NG3, the game is okay but... repetitive. They improved on a lot of things but the cost was a really dumbed down game. Is that really what people want?

So many questions, so few answers... That's why I'd appreciate your input!

[Klonoa]

When I was younger, Sonic 2 for the Master System was just brutal, as was Crash Bandicoot 1.

Nowadays, whenever I play Blazblue on any difficulty other than the lowest, it chews me up and spits me out alive. Dynamite Headdy is another game that I can't really beat, even to this day.

[Mass Distraction]

You know, I still haven't beaten the first Crash game. It's been ages since I last even had it in any system. I might have even completely passed on playing it through the dawn of PS2 up until now. I think I gotta get back to that and finally finish it.

[Salseh]

Any arcade games, ever. The level of difficulty in those things are maddening.

Currently, I think i've had the most frustration from Dark Souls. But once you get how the combat system works, it's a trip down easy street.

At least until SmoughStein. Then the difficulty bar rises back to nightmare mode.

[Xannidel]

FFX-2 for me, I do not know if it was the dressphere or what but I just could not grasp that game at all.

[Mass Distraction]

Any arcade games, ever. The level of difficulty in those things are maddening.

I dunno. Not all arcade games are THAT hard, like the Metal Slug series for example. Challenging but not to a frustrating level. I'd be happy to waste my quarters on those machines.

[Salseh]

Any arcade games, ever. The level of difficulty in those things are maddening.

I dunno. Not all arcade games are THAT hard, like the Metal Slug series for example. Challenging but not to a frustrating level. I'd be happy to waste my quarters on those machines.

Yeah, then again, thinking back. They're probably hard because I suck at them, haha.

I just wish there was a rewards system from the amount of coins that i've thrown into House of the Dead machines.

[Dazz]

Silver Surfer for NES.

[Psychospacecow]

Well for me, Assassin's Creed games are pretty unplayable because I suck at them.

[FUS RO DAH]

Ikaruga

[pyoro64]

I could never beat Punch Out on the NES, because of that damn Bald Bull.

[Benny the Miraj]

I came up with this when I was playing Ninja Gaiden 3 for PS3. It's so odd to see a game that was once known as the hardest game ever to hold your hand like this.

Too be honest, I don't think Ninja Gaiden was as hard as it's made out to be. It was truly a "Thinking Man's" platformer, and a lot of the game was made up of challenging platforming puzzles where the right moves at the right time can win the game. Yeah, it's hard, but not THAT hard. ...The second and third games were harder though.

Too be honest, I don't care all that much about the challenge. I don't like games that are too easy, but I don't like games that are too hard, either. A nice amount of challenge should be nice.

[BumblebeeCody*]

Ikaruga

Ikaruga has an awesome learning. It's the only game that honestly felt like challenge and I love it! I don't think I've ever come across any game that's been hard. Most are just overhyped like DMC3, NG2 or Demons Souls.

[2D Brain]

I love a good challenge in a good game, but I don't specifically choose games based on difficulty. I don't enjoy masochism in games without polish and reward, and I don't find any reason to play anything that might as well be, or would be better as a movie.

I really think the industry's constant endeavor towards casual cinematic experience stems from assembly line style development that never meditates on the language of gaming. They know only the bluntness of tutorials and the design sensibilities of television and film. Follow an established archetype, don't bother to develop it as a self evident piece of interaction, and assume every game is someone's first game. It's stagnant and it's one dimensional.

There is a place for the $15 impulse-buy world but it doesn't belong everywhere. The concept of modern Dragon's Lair with no game over is an orthodox marketering agency's dream and their audience is a TV audience. They're like Mad Men in the cigarette days trying to make tampons that can be smoked. Journey did most of it right, concerning approchability, and plenty will do it wrong because it recieved so many accoldes... way wrong

[Maxpphire]

IIDX, I've been playing that game for a year and it has a difficulty of song charts 1-12. I'm just barely breaking through the walls of Level 10 song charts.