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Remember when you were a kid? You got a new game, excitedly unwrapped it, and put it into your chosen console. The title screen appeared, in all of its glory, and you pressed Start to begin. Then, you were faced with your first choice: Easy, Normal, or Hard? Which did you pick?
For me, it was Hard. Or Very Hard, or Lunatic, or whatever the game decides to call it. No matter the name, I start every game that I play with the full intent of sucking at it. Is it because I want bragging rights when I finally beat the game on the hardest difficulty? Is it because I instantly master every game that I play and need an extra challenge?
No, I choose the hardest mode because I like to lose.
See, when I was a kid, I played a lot of NES. We've all heard the term Nintendo-Hard before, and that's exactly what I was raised on. Some of my favorite games from my childhood include Ninja Gaiden, Megaman, Battletoads, and Ghosts'n Goblins. As a kid, I never beat a single one of these games (Hell, I've still never beaten Battletoads or Ghosts'n Goblins), but I enjoyed every moment of them. Where other kids would feel controller-tossing frustration, I would laugh and eagerly press Start to begin again.
By the time the Super Nintendo came out, I was already starting to think that games were becoming too easy. Instead of practicing for weeks just to beat a single level, I was finishing whole games in a week. I started to gravitate towards RPGs around this time because, despite not really being hard, they were games that I could play for a long time.
More than I could ever fear dying in a game, I was terrified of the day when I would inevitably finish it. I had it set in my mind from childhood that games could be infinite. Because I was never able to beat any of the difficult games on the NES, I thought I could play them for years and still feel that there was something left for me to do.
And now? I'm lucky to find a non-RPG game that lasts more than eight hours. Many mainstream games are phasing out difficulty for mindless fun, and beginning to focus on multiplayer more than single-player.
Even Nintendo, the company that used to be known for the difficulty of its games, is releasing New Super Mario Bros. Wii with an option that allows the game to play itself.
Now, let me clarify. I have absolutely nothing against people who like their games to be easy. I have nothing against Nintendo for putting this new feature in their game; it won't stop me from playing through the game without it.
What I am, however, is afraid. I'm scared that this is not a trend, and that it will only escalate. That games focused on single-player narrative adventures will start to be phased out, and multiplayer frag-fests will take over. While I do enjoy multiplayer games, there is a simple sense of pure satisfaction that comes from beating a difficult single-player game that cannot be achieved through any other media.
Do you feel proud of yourself after watching a complex, psychological film? Do you feel a rush of accomplishment after finishing a hard-to-understand novel?
Now, how did you feel when you finally beat Ikaruga?
I realize that few people reading this blog have ever beaten Ikaruga, but think of any game that you were proud to finish. It is a feeling unlike any other. It is something only video games can give us, and it is slowly starting to fade into oblivion. Games like Mega Man 9 let me know that there are still gamers like me out there, but there's no guarantee that will continue forever.
I like to suck at games. Not because I am a masochist. Because I know that, someday, I will master them.
Contest:
7:00 PM on 08.26.2009
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Thanks for the comments, guys!
I was really laughing too hard to keep my mouse steady while making that header image.
... are you sure you're not that kid that rode the short bus and wears a hockey helmet when he games? :)
Actually I greatly admire the patience it must take to play games on their most difficult settings. I just don't have the patience. I guess now I get some semblance of that challenge when I play online competitive shooter games... but I know that the game will eventually end... even if I don't manage to kill that big boss or make that stupid jump! :)
As far as I'm concerned, MGS1-3 were meant to be played on extreme difficulty. As for Nintendo's decision to allow games to play themselves, I can only lament the potential effect it might have on gaming if it becomes popular mainstream.
Another thing that made it bearable was load times. They were basically instant so you died, a second later you were playing again. Even if you started from the beginning of the stage there was no down time to make you ponder or get annoyed between loosing.
And Arttemis, I totally agree about MGS. Changing the difficulty from Normal to Extreme makes them completely different games.
I agree that there is a feeling that can't be replicated by other media when you beat a really hard single player game, and that's a valid argument, but length is a non-issue for games these days.
Saying that, kudos for playing in hard mode by default, I used to try that but found the unbalanced difficulty spikes annoying. It's like modern games expect you to go through in normal mode just to have a chance in hard mode (DMC3 in looking at you!).
And yes I know some games only allow you you play hard mode after you've beaten normal mode :0p
A lot of companies just simply cut your health in half, or make enemies do more damage or whatnot, but that's just adding a new restriction to Normal mode.
As for Evil modes. I like that they're generally unlockable after playing the game once through. They're MEANT to be hard as hell, but I don't think they're meant to be doable without already having prior experience with the game.
And to look at good vs. bad "Evil" modes, just look to God Of War 1 and 2. The God mode (or Titan? I can't remember) in GoW 1 was awesomely designed in that the bad guys now took more skill to beat but weren't unbeatable. In GoW 2, God mode was basically just "Ok, now every bad guy blocks everything and twice as many spawn." It simply didn't feel fair or well made at all.
And I'm no masochist either, possibly a sadist. I can't remember if I do a victory dance or yell "in your face!" when I beat hard/expert games. Which reminds me, I should go see if I can still re-beat Tekken Force mode again, it's old but I still like it.
IDK if it is just me but I like games that you have to start from the beginning every time. ( mainly for 1 player mode )
I loved the fact that you had to master insane button combos to survive a level, cause back then it was a big feat to get to level 2.
I miss 1 hit = instant death
I have for the most part made a huge library of NES games in my room so that I can well... play them cause they are hard and you do have to have some skill to beat them instead of being a retarded middle school boy that plays them every day.
I use to play Super Mario Brothers 3 every Sunday when I was a kid, I would get owned but it was hell of a lot of fun, just two years ago after ten years of not being able to beat that game and I did it.
it was by far a great awesome feeling, better than ***.
yeah multilayer skills neat, but it all depends on how long you have played the game and frags and some stupid kid cussing all the time in your ear.
Multi-player skills back in the day for me was when I could play Mario Brothers to level 8-3 without dieing and my poor friend was still waiting to play the first level.
yeah if you like a medium level game you should play "metal storm nes" its great.
These "I suck at games" musings have convinced me to go back on my games and do them in hard mode. I'm currently playing Halo 3 on Legendary and enjoying the challenge. (though, as you mention, it's not "Nintendo Hard")
I don't believe that truly challenging games will disappear forever, but like independent cinema it will go underground and may well get a resurgance when people get sick of walking through a game to win.
Sin and Punishment 2, Bit.Trip Core, Super Mario Galaxy 2 and No More Heroes 2 show that even on the Wii, arguably the most mainstream, family-friendly console of current gen, there are still bastard-hard games on the horizon. And thank goodness for that!
That being said, you want Nintendo-hard again, play a Fire Emblem game on its highest difficulty (I think you have to beat them on normal first to unlock it though), absolutely horrifying how hard some of the battles can be.
For instance, with Wolfenstein, I and probably no one else cares whether it has multiplayer, because if we cared about multiplayer that much we're probably playing CS:S or CoD4 or whatever else are the established staples of multiplayer FPS games. Now, if Raven had been pushing the multiplayer and it was SUPPOSED to be something awesome, then I can understand giving negative marks for not living up to what was expected.
And this only happens with FPS games. It's like FPS games are just expected to all contain some incredibly robust multiplayer experience. Frankly, I couldn't care less half the time. Which goes back to the part in my original statement where I said I preferred single player gaming.
If it's good, you just can't top a solid single player experience. Unfortunately, most single player components in games these days feels so rushed. Just look at Prototype. It moves so incredibly fast: gameplay to cutscene to mission, to gameplay to cutscene. It just BLAZES along, there's NO character development and it all just feels incredibly rushed along for no reason. I don't expect Metal Gear Solid levels of storytelling, but games can do better than most do.