I've decided to make a little rant every now and then about certain things that bug me, or things I feel should be better but just aren't. The first of which obviously is about how video games nowadays seem to lack in difficulty.
First off, let me make it clear that I don't consider myself a pro gamer or anything like that. I'm good at most games, but save for a rare game or two, I'd be what is considered a fairly average gamer. Back in the day, the hardest game I'd ever played was Super Ghouls and Ghosts (Still haven't beaten it), and the easiest would have been something like Kirby's Dreamland or Pokemon. I can still say that Ghouls and Ghosts is the hardest game I've played, but no longer do I know what the easiest is. Kirby's Epic Yarn? New Super Mario Bros. ds? Drawn to Life? It seems like every game under the sun requires very little skill to beat, save for a few tough sections that only require dying once you figure them out.
I'm not gonna complain that a game like Dora puppy or whatever the hell kids play now adays is too easy, because those are targeted at a very young audience and so it only makes sense they require no skill (Even reaction time which is essential for most games). But why is Mario so easy? I remember nearly strangling myself playing Super Mario Bros. 3 and constantly dying on that stupid level where you have to climb up the pipes (It's in world 7 I believe), EVERY stage in Megaman 1 through 6 nearly had me in tears when the robot masters would hand my ass to me, and Donkey Kong Country 2 which still gives me nightmares for ramping it up so fast. Even though some might say that the difficult elements made these games discouraging to play, explain how several thousands of gamers grew up on these and were able to beat them?
Humans naturally want to have their mind and body challenged to improve those attributes. If everything was easy and required no skill, we would never evolve and beyond our normal means. We would be idiots. And that's what I think is the problem. It seems to me that the majority of our society embraces laziness. Can't beat a level in Super Mario Galaxy 2? Super guide will do it for you. Is Kirby's Adventure causing you grief? Play Epic Yarn and you won't die once. The worst part about it all is that we've come to accept this laziness. Take the release of Marvel vs. Capcom 3. The amount of attack buttons has been reduced to 3 dramatically lowering the difficulty of becoming a good player. Is the game still fun? In some respects, but for the gamers who already found depth in the 4 or 6 button system, they will find that the game is sorely lacking in difficulty, and so the crowd of gamers who originally played these games is left out. If in 1999 we were able to learn to play Marvel vs. Capcom 2 with 4 buttons, there's no reason to reduce the buttons. Or is there? The ONLY reason I can see to lower the difficulty is because with less complicated controls, a wider audience will embrace the game and make Capcom more money. I'm not saying MvC3 is a bad game, but anyone who's played both the second and third game will likely tell you they not only prefer the second game, but wish to play it more than the third. So even though Capcom can get away with making a game like this and have both new and old gamers happy, it really just lowers the quality of the game overall and leaves a bad taste in the mouth for the gamers who played the old games and remember it being so much more fun.
Another example I want to cite is Kirby. The game Kirby's Dreamland was made with a younger audience in mind. If you wanted, you could fly over everything, but not only does it diminish the enjoyability of the game, it also makes it too easy. It was a good compromise, and to this day I still recommended classic Kirby to new gamers since that's the kind of difficulty a new player needs to be accustomed to. Jump to 2011, and now we have Epic Yarn. It's a cute game, and it's just as fun to play as past kirby, but I have one huge beef with it. IT'S TOO EASY. Instead of flying over everything with the price of not enjoying the game, you can now play through the game without paying attention to enemies/pits and you'll probably enjoy it just as much (Or more) than the average gamer. The reward for playing well is minuscule when compared to past Kirby games. So you unlock more things and maybe a secret ending for finding all the items and collecting enough gems. Big whoop. Most people (Myself included) just don't care enough to play through a game that doesn't reward good playing. There should be a challenge in completing the core, game, but in Epic Yarn, there's none.
In this regard, I feel games are going in the absolute wrong direction. The only outlet I foresee in the future for gamers like myself is Indie games like Braid or Super Meat Boy which offer old school challenge with moder sensibility. These are the kinds of games we need to see, but as long as money is involved, I can only see it getting worse.
First off, let me make it clear that I don't consider myself a pro gamer or anything like that. I'm good at most games, but save for a rare game or two, I'd be what is considered a fairly average gamer. Back in the day, the hardest game I'd ever played was Super Ghouls and Ghosts (Still haven't beaten it), and the easiest would have been something like Kirby's Dreamland or Pokemon. I can still say that Ghouls and Ghosts is the hardest game I've played, but no longer do I know what the easiest is. Kirby's Epic Yarn? New Super Mario Bros. ds? Drawn to Life? It seems like every game under the sun requires very little skill to beat, save for a few tough sections that only require dying once you figure them out.
I'm not gonna complain that a game like Dora puppy or whatever the hell kids play now adays is too easy, because those are targeted at a very young audience and so it only makes sense they require no skill (Even reaction time which is essential for most games). But why is Mario so easy? I remember nearly strangling myself playing Super Mario Bros. 3 and constantly dying on that stupid level where you have to climb up the pipes (It's in world 7 I believe), EVERY stage in Megaman 1 through 6 nearly had me in tears when the robot masters would hand my ass to me, and Donkey Kong Country 2 which still gives me nightmares for ramping it up so fast. Even though some might say that the difficult elements made these games discouraging to play, explain how several thousands of gamers grew up on these and were able to beat them?
Humans naturally want to have their mind and body challenged to improve those attributes. If everything was easy and required no skill, we would never evolve and beyond our normal means. We would be idiots. And that's what I think is the problem. It seems to me that the majority of our society embraces laziness. Can't beat a level in Super Mario Galaxy 2? Super guide will do it for you. Is Kirby's Adventure causing you grief? Play Epic Yarn and you won't die once. The worst part about it all is that we've come to accept this laziness. Take the release of Marvel vs. Capcom 3. The amount of attack buttons has been reduced to 3 dramatically lowering the difficulty of becoming a good player. Is the game still fun? In some respects, but for the gamers who already found depth in the 4 or 6 button system, they will find that the game is sorely lacking in difficulty, and so the crowd of gamers who originally played these games is left out. If in 1999 we were able to learn to play Marvel vs. Capcom 2 with 4 buttons, there's no reason to reduce the buttons. Or is there? The ONLY reason I can see to lower the difficulty is because with less complicated controls, a wider audience will embrace the game and make Capcom more money. I'm not saying MvC3 is a bad game, but anyone who's played both the second and third game will likely tell you they not only prefer the second game, but wish to play it more than the third. So even though Capcom can get away with making a game like this and have both new and old gamers happy, it really just lowers the quality of the game overall and leaves a bad taste in the mouth for the gamers who played the old games and remember it being so much more fun.
Another example I want to cite is Kirby. The game Kirby's Dreamland was made with a younger audience in mind. If you wanted, you could fly over everything, but not only does it diminish the enjoyability of the game, it also makes it too easy. It was a good compromise, and to this day I still recommended classic Kirby to new gamers since that's the kind of difficulty a new player needs to be accustomed to. Jump to 2011, and now we have Epic Yarn. It's a cute game, and it's just as fun to play as past kirby, but I have one huge beef with it. IT'S TOO EASY. Instead of flying over everything with the price of not enjoying the game, you can now play through the game without paying attention to enemies/pits and you'll probably enjoy it just as much (Or more) than the average gamer. The reward for playing well is minuscule when compared to past Kirby games. So you unlock more things and maybe a secret ending for finding all the items and collecting enough gems. Big whoop. Most people (Myself included) just don't care enough to play through a game that doesn't reward good playing. There should be a challenge in completing the core, game, but in Epic Yarn, there's none.
In this regard, I feel games are going in the absolute wrong direction. The only outlet I foresee in the future for gamers like myself is Indie games like Braid or Super Meat Boy which offer old school challenge with moder sensibility. These are the kinds of games we need to see, but as long as money is involved, I can only see it getting worse.
