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WEEKLY SURVEY BLOG
This week: Now or Then?
I recently fired up my Nintendo emulator for the first time in a long while for an extended session of Mega Man 3. I selected "Crash Man" as my starting level and, after the nostalgia-inducing intro, I was off on my journey. Things started off well enough as I moved from screen to screen, doing a decent job of dodging bullets and baddies.
After about 5 minutes, however, I realize that just about every enemy is pegging me at will, and I'm dying every 2 screens. Many frustrating deaths and restarts later, I finally arrive at the boss, Crash Man.
Cue dramatic music, aaaaand I'm dead. No worries. I have another life, and this time I'm facing him at full power. Bring it on Crash Man! Well, Crash Man indeed brought it on, mopping the floor with me in a less than a minute. Ouch. I restart and try again. Same result. Over and over again, same result. I can't touch this guy.
Okay, fine, maybe Mega Man isn't my forte. I try Contra: Can't get past the second level on ten tries. Bionic Commando: Wiped out before the end of the first board. Rygar: killed repeatedly by those lowly rolling snail thingies. Over and over again, these ancient 8-Bit bastards put me in my place, exposing my pathetically slow reflexes and lack of fast-twitch muscle control.
Games were just a lot harder then, weren't they?
In this age of hi-res 3D graphics, destructible environments, screen-filling particle effects and $100 million game budgets, developers seem to have forgotten to keep the games challenging. Advanced enemy AI and interactive cut scenes will never make games as difficult as one hit kills and the lack of a save feature.
There are, of course, some modern games that have ramped up their challenge level (Ninja Gaiden and Resident Evil 4 come to mind), but overall, the difficulty level in gaming has dropped sharply since the old days.
The question is whether or not this is a good thing. Would today's 20+ hour adventures benefit from the demanding gameplay standards of yesterday? Are we getting gypped out of the level of challenge that used to be commonplace? Or are modern games set up better with more easily reached achievements?
Please to discuss.
Comments
i'm not sure i agree with that. a lot of games (zelda and bounty hunter are good examples) would be impossible to get through without the strategy guide. i don't remember ever buying or needing to buy a strategy guide for older games like mega man or contra.
maybe i'm just not very good at the newer games!
I personally think that a lot of these "emulator" programs miss something in the original code. Either that or modern controllers are not as responsive as old school ones.
Right on. Or should I say Write on? This all the cumulative effect of parents and teachers not wanting anyone to have "low self-esteem", so they grade on the curve, and all sporting events end in a draw. Hogwash. Horse-hockey. Let 'em lose.
Maybe games need to come in different achievement levels. Maybe a warning label
that says "Caution losing may result in ridicule and scorn".
Just a thought.
The difficulty of old school games has been replaced by sheer game length. If you're good (and I mean gooood) at Mega Man 2, you can play through that game in less than an hour. Try doing that with modern game, even a super easy one like Prey or Psychonauts. I think it's a fair trade-off.
Today's games do not compromise the level of challenge at all in my opinion. Different games, different difficulty. For example, have you played the newest Super Mario Bros on the DS? While graphically and depth wise, a superior game from the original, you still die if your shoe string grazes a koopian eyelash (yeah, I just used the work "koopian", it just felt right). I too have experienced the aforementioned "Contra frustration." I used to be able to beat that game with 4 lives, tops. Now I can not get past the stupid second board with the metal logs rolling at you. My theory is this - We have become so accustomed to the quality of todays controls that we find it difficult to adjust back to the archaic four direction D-pad movement that old school games used. I mean we are trying to be so precise with our timing that we end up screwing it up every time. Also, we are so used to modern collision detection that we expect to be able to jump last second or hang in the air a bit longer than the original games allow us too. Don't get me wrong, I do believe that games are less difficult all around these days. But that is because they are more realistic. Now, please don't ask me how Halo is realistic...you know what I meant. Try playing Rainbow Six Vegas on "realistic" mode. Freakin' impossible right? Well I feel like I was really all over the place with this message. Maybe it is the pressure of wondering if my boss is going to walk up behind me any second and ask why I am on a "gaming" website. Oh well.....I like to live dangerously.
I still can't beat the very first sonic game but I beat Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Adventure with really no problems. In fact I had more lives than the the number of levels in both games. I've played the very first Ninja Gaiden and can't get off the second level but Ninja Gaiden on Xbox I had trouble in the middle of the game. So yeah I must say that games these days need a lot more challenges. I'm okay with them being long but please make them more challenging.
I kind of agree with Makyo. It's NOT a misplaced memory, that I'm getting actually HAVING the time to die and restart and die and restart until I finished a game because a little kid has nothing better to do, confused with the fact that I'm just good at games or the game's difficulty. Old games were very linear in their game play. MEANING, you knew what you had to do to beat it because there was only one way to play it. But neither were they hard because of that. After all, good titles were good titles for a reason, depending on how the maker utilized the technology. Newer games' game play, coupled with technology to match it, have made today's games, I think, not necessarily harder or easier, but more stumping. You know, making you just play it differently. It's basically just because games are different now. Whether that's a good or bad thing is up to every one of us. Tomb Raider? Saga Frontier 2? Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth? That game stumped the SHIT out of me. Anyone ever played that game Ergize? There was like 70 billion ways to play that game, haha. I personally think earlier games were as easy as they were on the eyes. It's all 'bout dim' dere' technology homes.
All through the ages people have been playing games and changing the rules as they go. How many ways can you play poker and make assorted cards "wild". You can play Monoply the "correct" way and have the game take forever to play or you can play the short game. Is either way more correct?
Lets not take any of this too seriously, it is after all just a GAME, yes a VIDEO GAME meant to be enjoyed however you want.
Old games were harder. To me, beating Battletoads is a far more impressive feat than beating Gears of War or God of War 2. Continues,regenerating body armor and save points have made games too easy.