jim how does you house have room for a podium?

It's too bad Jim has a life. I'd like a Daily Jimquizition.

I tend to look at Metal Gear and Deus Ex as games that also look beyond traditional difficulty. There is death in those, but the challenge can actually become avoiding kills or avoiding being detected entirely (save for key points, of course).

I enjoy the option of having more than just kill kill kill as an objective. Then again, cruel harsh death is something I still love and games like Demon's Souls, ESIV: Oblivion and Etrian Odyssey seem more than happy to provide it.

So while I might lament the lack of challenge in most games today, they still have those experiences and I know where to find them if I want to die instantly in a game.

I gotta admit, the latest stages of Epic Yarn were somewhat challenging for me. I think one particularly difficult stage was flying through space as a rocketship or something. I lost like all my gems every time. >.>

nicely said!!
(and hopefully there is no "difficulty" with that poo!)

This reminds me of when I played the first Jak & Daxter game on the PS2 - completing it is a piece of piss but it took me ages to get all of the power cells.

Megaman. Difficulty at its finest.

Love these =)

Old games are hard because they were poorly made.

Well said. Certain challenges need to come from within out of a personal sense of obligation or creativity. That's part of the reason why I dislike trophies.

I played Kirby's Epic Yarn with my younger brother through to the first few fire levels, but since then he has refused to play with me because he says it's too easy. I've been trying to tell him the same thing...that we should try to get the beads. I didn't finish the game because I enjoy it much more playing with him.

He has a lot of respect for Jim Sterling, so maybe after showing him this he will give it a shot again, lol.

Was talking bout it for quite some time. Bayonetta also nailed the concept of "it's difficult if you want to" great, but on a different level. I mean, it was pretty hard on its own as an action game, but you could infinitely restart and change difficulty on every unlocked level be it higher or lower

Damn you, why do you have to keep reminding me I haven't gotten around to buying Kirby's epic yarn yet.

Also thanks for reminding me I hadn't gotten that yet, that should hold me till Solatorobo and that should hold me until Skyward Sword and then I'm done with Nintendo until whatever comes after the WiiU, unless they manage to knock my socks off with some decent game support for it.

How DARE you not use the term "cunting" in a Jimquisition, Jim Sterling! This is an OUTRAGE! I am outraged.

Sometimes difficulty in a game will completely go over gamer's heads.

Case in Point: VANQUISH.

If you didn't love it, you played it wrong. The reason you played it wrong, is because it was difficult to play it right.

When you put in the time, and learn the skills needed to learn to tackle the game on its highest difficulty, and you come out on top, THAT is what gaming with difficulty is all about. Too bad less than 200 gamers worldwide knows what that feels like....

Ah, the good ol' self-inflicted challenge.

While true, Kirby can be harder than Megaman if you impose a challenge on yourself in the first and not the second, the self-imposed challenges in Megaman games are in a league all their own.

People who do the game with just the default weapon, people who do "no death" runs and, most sadistically, the people who do "no hit" runs, which are more about self-flagellation than difficulty. Of course, I've done an all-Squire game of FFT, so I'm not one to judge.

Good Jimquisition.

the idea of choose your own difficulty games isn't anything new, is it? kirby's been doing it since the days of gameboy. and aren't most mario games in this category as well? but seriously, the only thing wrong with kirby is not enough brown... or assault rifles... or halos, amiright?

Trying a bit too hard to troll megaman fans this week Jim.
Megaman isn't even hard.

Braid. Now that was a different kind of difficulty. Where Mega Man Zero tested my reflexes and general skill, Braid tested my brain power. Both great games, both difficult games, but a very different kind of difficulty.

I have to slightly disagree this time.

Optional difficulty usually feels artificial, whereas a game in which the developers specifically aim to deliver a challenge almost always feels more satisfying to me.

Any game *can* be difficult, either via cranking up the difficulty settings or self-imposing your own set of rules. But the fact is, most games are intended to be played a certain way.

It's no surprise that in games where the difficulty curve is a big focus of development - something that gets fine-tuned and tweaked to death - that overcoming said challenge feels more rewarding in the end. It's simply a matter of that aspect of the game getting more love.

dammit Jim I was writing a C-Blog about this
way to steal my thunder

I'm down with the general "point" of this week's video, but I'd say that Epic Yarn is a rather poor choice for a game that you can "make tough" within its own boundaries, for lack of a better term: yes, getting gold medals and finding all the trinkets is more difficult than just breezing through to the end, but even that isn't particularly taxing compared to most other games, from any era you'd care to name.

Now watch me drink this water for 10 seconds.

Problem?

The difficulty you're going to have with your poo is seeing how few wipes you can get away with.

While I agree with you to a point, I think you miss the target. I mean the way you're talking about Epic Yarn is, for all purposes, a perfect run. Playing a game perfectly(I suppose that be a loose sense of the word) for any game makes in difficult. Such as getting pure platinum medals in Bayonetta, or not getting hit in megaman.

It's not really that revolutionary to play a game for rankings, or score. In addition to surviving the levels in Ninja Gaiden, people do runs to try to rack up high scores, or Master Ninja rankings for every level, or runs without getting hit. Under no circumstances is Epic Yarn more difficult than Ninja Gaiden.

And I'm definitely aware that you can play Epic Yarn and try to go for higher rankings. The thing I don't like is that it feels like I'm inventing the difficulty on my own. It's like playing a game with infinite continues, and then telling yourself that you're going to self-impose a 3 continue limit on yourself so that the game will be more interesting. After a while, you just hit continue anyway, beat the game, and it becomes boring and forgotten.

What you're not getting about hardcore gamers, is that they take the games that people consider extremely hard, and then on top of just surviving it, play those games to mastery - going for precisely the same kind of rankings, medals, and score attacks that you think are unique to Kirby. Those same things are in almost every game out there.

I'm surprised he didn't mention Fable 2 and 3. They have the same treatment to death in that it's merely a slap on the wrist. However, the difficulty is within the choices you make to improve your character throughout the story, whether it be cosmetic, skill-based, or based on your morality.

I've never played Epic Yarn, but it looks to have the same difficulty scheme Traveller's Tales' LEGO games. Getting the top ranking in LEGO Star Wars levels can be quite a challenge.

I think the lack of death in Warioland 2 & 3 worked great. Creative level design was made a requirement in order to maintain a fair level of difficulty.

I dont think Epic Yarn is HARDER by any means, but it could present a different kind of difficulty, yeah. I hate when people can't make their own replayability in a game and up the difficulty on their own. Those sort of challenges actually usually exist in the realm of "ye olde" games like Megaman (only use the Mega Buster) or what have you. I don't see why we dont see more of this brand of personalized challenge more often. It's interesting and fun to me

I got a slim jim ad. get it? Slim JIM? *trollface*

Excellent work, Jim! I've always had difficulty (no pun intended) convincing other people that certain games are more challenging than they seem. For example, try doing a permadeath (turn off Vita Chambers) runthrough of BioShock or FarCry 2 (as dear Anthony Burch would say). Many of these games are easy in order to let the player go through the full experience without being stuck in one place, which more difficult games did. True, there is skill in completing Megaman 2, Ikaruga or the Touhou games without getting hit even once, but the good thing with the challenge offered by the new games is that the challenge is both optional and emergent. Note, this doesn't work for all games. Metro 2033 is good because it is difficult in the old-fashioned sense. Limited resources and an oppressive atmosphere do well to make it a frightening game at times. Final Point: If you still have an issue with Kirby's Epic Yarn being easy, play it with a friend. Go ahead, it becomes at least three times as difficult (to the point you're screaming at each other).

While I can understand your point, I finished Epic Yarn with 86% on my first try. I nearly Golded every level and I made the effort to get Platinums on the bosses as that actually unlocked something. That game was easy.

I like this.

Good vid, as usual Jim. So, here is a not so secret about gaming today. First, our parents are not buying us the games (lordy I hope that is true for all of us) and the old school games came out so sparsely that they were designed to be ball breakers. Second, buying a game now means, for some not all, spending money on very, very few games in the year. You do not want to essentially throw away your money because you can only get through the first quarter of a game. Gamers want to see their hard earned cash well spent and have a sound investment, namely, complete a game while not wanting to punch kittens over it. Who needs that kind of bullshit stress in our modern life? And this little secret is well known to developers and some are actually willing to admit it aloud.

And if your biggest complaint is that games are too easy, I have some alternative hobbies for you.

I'm afraid I don't actually agree on this one. Of course, I agree that there are other forms of difficulty than death, but I'm just not so sure that modern games have anything more than older games. Games have always had hidden rooms and extra bits to do. In fact, I think games probably used to have more of those bits. There is also a ton of extra difficulty to be found, if it is wanted, in completing games 100%, or without use of a particular gameplay element. All those thousands of Mario etc. speed-run videos attest to this.


RING STING LAWL.

Wow, Jim. Bold episode, as usual.

Oh snap.

@ Zantetzuken

I know,right? Jak and Daxter was an easy game on the surface, but getting 100% was quite challenging. I did it a few months ago, and it was oh so satisfying.