This is not a review of a single game. Rather, it is a little statement of mine I'd like to put out. Love it if you want, Hate it if you want, Flame it if you want. I don't care. I just feel like saying this.
Let's face it. Games have, since the beginning, been slowly dropping in difficulty.
And now, an explanation.
When you look back down the road at older games, you can remember their difficulty in playing them, and also how, regardless of how hard it may have been, you would still return to it later to take another crack at it. Games today, however, compared to the games of old, are spoiling us.
Let's look at some examples:
First example: The Original Super Mario Bros. (NES) VS. Super Mario Bros. Deluxe (GBC)
This pairing is, essentially, among the best examples I can think of.
Think back to the days of that large gray box what was large and heavy enough to give someone a rather nasty bump on the head. Remember one of the first games made for it? The game that came with the system featuring two legendary gaming icons? Super Mario Bros. essentially set a bar for gaming, and a rather good one at that. It was simple, straightforward, and fun. Maybe the music could have been less catchy/annoying, but it was essentially, the pinnacle of platform gaming.
Super Mario Bros. Deluxe is simply a re-release of the game for the Gameboy Colour system. Same graphics, same music, etc. (though they did add a few bonus modes that you could play in)
You might be wondering, how can I compare two games that are the same game? The answer? Like this:
When you played the original SMB, there was a screen that everyone dreaded seeing - and that was the game over screen. Game Over in that game meant game over, as hitting start to try again would take you all the way back to the first level. Imagine if you were at world 8-4 and died by Bowser's claw on your last life. It was infuriating! And yet, we would come back and try again later.
In SMBD (no anagrams please), Beating a level on your file (yes, the GBC version had save files) would 'unlock' the next level. You could essentially re-play the first level over and over again. The problem with this system, is that you can turn the game off, go back to it, and then start at the last level you unlocked with a full slew of lives. Game Over doesn't have quite the devastating effect that it used to have. Game Over is essentially now just something you can walk away from.
Essentially, this action eliminated the 'skill' portion needed for games, since half the reason people played the original SMB was to beat it - They played this game for game itself, trying to beat it. If they got a game over, they were that much wiser and could handle the level (hopefully) next time, while also remembering what they had to do to get there.
Footnote: Serenade has not beaten the original SMB. She would have, but her NES fried and cooked
--------------------
Let's move onto another game comparison, shall we?
Second Example: The Castlevania Series.
The very first Castlevania game was (naturally) for the NES was a side scrolling action/adventure. It was also hard, apparently-
Footnote: Serenade has yet to try the NES Castlevania
- and involved lots of lovely fun Whip action, killing zombies, skeletons, etc. There were no savegames, so you always started at the first world. I don't know if it was as hard as the original Nintendo, but eh.
Around the middle of the Series, there's still the lovable whip, however, they bring in alterable stats, leveling up, and in some cases, Magic spells/Subweapons. The games were still tricky, but less so.
Now, looking at the games of today, it makes me wonder 'How is this Castlevania?'
-Game has gone from Action/Adventure to Action/RPG.
-Enemies respawn, but you're likely to grind against them now to gain either A: That one item, B: That bit of Experience.
Also, the whip has been removed. The whip. The Signature weapon of the Castlevania Game. Sure, you get the original 'Vampire Killer' Whip in the game 'Portrait of Ruin', but there are several weapons stronger than it (It is simply the strongest -whip- in the game.) You equip weapons, spells, equipment, etc. to fight in large sprawling castles. They give you stronger weapons when enemies get stronger so that you don't -die- in two shots.
Essentially, not only has Konami (Castlevania's Developer) nerfed the game, but they've deviated from its original course. What is it that makes these games still Castlevania?
Oh right, Dracula as a boss. Except now, in some cases, he's a 'Right Ending' Boss (In other words, play the game right and don't screw up)
More Footnotes: Serenade would like to add that these games are not, however, bad games. She is rather enjoying The newest game, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia - which is actually, surprisingly difficult.
So now, it's not just save games we're adding, but we're also making the game easier to beat with things being added along the way. Yay.
------------------
Next Example - Megaman!
Ah, Megaman. you might wonder, how can I poke at the little Blue Bomber himself huh? I can do so looking at the series Megaman has been in:
Megaman -> Megaman X -> Megaman Zero -> Megaman Battle Network -> Megaman Star Force. (I am not doing ZX or ZX Advent)
I'm considering this the Canon for the purposes of this statement.
Let's start with the original Megaman:
Hard. The First game is friggen impossible. I can't even get to any of the bosses, with the Exception of Cut Man - but he slices me a new Orifice every time because of how fast Megaman jumps - 'tis difficult to time. The first Megaman game was deemed so hard that a song was made to make it known [http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=EG_GnjntufY]
The games after ward are comparable, but not -quite- as vicious with the implementation of the Slide.
Footnote: Serenade would like to add that she can defeat Airman [http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=FLzCfUM7BM8]
Now let's move to the Megaman X games. Still a tricky platformer, the charge-your-buster being available from the start and such.
One of the main thing this game adds though is Upgrades.
Upgrades which, naturally, make you stronger and harder to kill.
Not much of a lessening on the difficulty, but significant enough to mention.
Megaman Zero. This game series is good in my books. It starts at a difficulty and stays there, if not ramping up. There aren't any full-on 'upgrades' unless you count your weapon leveling up after using them. It's not as hard as the older games, but still pretty challenging. The Variety of weapons combined with an onslaught of enemies makes you wonder just how to kill them all.
Footnote: Serenade's beaten the Zero Series. She remembers Copy X with a passion for his difficulty in Megaman Zero 1
Next Up is the Battle Network Games.
These games are fun
The difficulty curve is... it fluctuates depending on your knowledge. Not skill, knowledge. If you know how chips can work and how to use them to your advantage, as well as Megaman.EXE's capabilities, then the game becomes easy. I recall employing a Game-Breaking idea in the third game. (Long Story short, if no one used Panel Breaking or Fire, I was Immortal. Dead Serious, nothing could kill me).
However, the game takes the classic side-scroller from Megaman and replaces it with an Action RPG with Random Encounters (An ARRE if you will). It's still fun and they bring a few classic enemies/characters from older games (Protoman, Roll, Gutsman, even several of the bosses - even the main villain of several is still 'Dr. Wily!')
These games are fun, but they're not really difficult if you have an inkling of what your doing.
Footnote, liking these?: Serenade has beaten each of the MMBN Games except for 5. She remembers with a passion that Serenade.EXE and BassGS from number 3 were nice and tough, and also remembers that number 5 had ridiculously stupid 'Liberation Missions.' Maybe when she feels more like a completionist she'll go back to them.
And lastly, Megaman Star Force.
This... I'm not 100% sure what my take is at this time. This series is basically a spin-off to the successful MMBN Series. I can't say much since I'm not that far in the 'Pegasus' version, but I'll say what I know.
This game is, thusfar, easier than the MMBN games. You don't need to worry as much about enemy attacks since you can see them coming from miles away.
It's still fun, but they nerfed the chip system, the battle grid, and essentially, enemies.
Footnote: Serenade is about to get the actual 'Star Force' power in the game, unsure whether it's a game breaker, a simple ability, or a plot device though
So Sorry little Blue Bomber, you've been nerfed.
------------------------------
Next Series: Legend of Zelda
This part will pain me to write it, but it must be done.
The Legend of Zelda. Among the many Icons of gaming. Zelda has, unfortunately, been suffering from nerfitis as well.
The First game was difficult in two ways. One, it was very non-linear. Instead of a side scroller, it was a top-down adventure game - with no directions.
Plus, you can only hit things with your sword if they are right in front of you.
So basically, in this game, you wander aimlessly and get killed lots.
Footnote: Serenade's beaten this!
As the games went on though, they added more and more gimmicky stuff, making the games easier and easier.
Rest assured, these games were not bad. Far from it, I love the Zelda Series and always will to the end of time.
Fact is, they're getting easier
Phantom Hourglass took me two days to beat, it was that simple.
Twilight Princess, took me a few days to beat.
Ocarina of time, one week.
Original Legend of Zelda? I can't remember, but it was a fair amount of time.
Footnote: Serenade's actually beaten every Zelda game with the exception of the CD-i games and Legend of Zelda: Adventure of Link.
--------------
Now, in retrospect also, games may be getting easier to also try and draw in newcomers to gaming, rather than hand them a hard video game from the start - but if you think about it, that's what they did at first! Now, there are a few games these days that can replicate the difficulty of older day games, and also, some of the earlier games were subjective to difficulty because of a lack of direction (The Original Zelda, and also Metroid)
Some of the toughest games now that are out there are, unfortunately, freeware games and rom hacks by random internet people. I Wanna Be The Guy and Kaizo Mario World are some of the more well-known games.
While companies are trying to appeal to a wider field though, they're slowly weeding out the old-school gamers that are looking for a challenge.
Anyways, I think I may have gone on about this for long enough, so I'll leave this to let you guys ponder.
Let's face it. Games have, since the beginning, been slowly dropping in difficulty.
And now, an explanation.
When you look back down the road at older games, you can remember their difficulty in playing them, and also how, regardless of how hard it may have been, you would still return to it later to take another crack at it. Games today, however, compared to the games of old, are spoiling us.
Let's look at some examples:
First example: The Original Super Mario Bros. (NES) VS. Super Mario Bros. Deluxe (GBC)
This pairing is, essentially, among the best examples I can think of.
Think back to the days of that large gray box what was large and heavy enough to give someone a rather nasty bump on the head. Remember one of the first games made for it? The game that came with the system featuring two legendary gaming icons? Super Mario Bros. essentially set a bar for gaming, and a rather good one at that. It was simple, straightforward, and fun. Maybe the music could have been less catchy/annoying, but it was essentially, the pinnacle of platform gaming.
Super Mario Bros. Deluxe is simply a re-release of the game for the Gameboy Colour system. Same graphics, same music, etc. (though they did add a few bonus modes that you could play in)
You might be wondering, how can I compare two games that are the same game? The answer? Like this:
When you played the original SMB, there was a screen that everyone dreaded seeing - and that was the game over screen. Game Over in that game meant game over, as hitting start to try again would take you all the way back to the first level. Imagine if you were at world 8-4 and died by Bowser's claw on your last life. It was infuriating! And yet, we would come back and try again later.
In SMBD (no anagrams please), Beating a level on your file (yes, the GBC version had save files) would 'unlock' the next level. You could essentially re-play the first level over and over again. The problem with this system, is that you can turn the game off, go back to it, and then start at the last level you unlocked with a full slew of lives. Game Over doesn't have quite the devastating effect that it used to have. Game Over is essentially now just something you can walk away from.
Essentially, this action eliminated the 'skill' portion needed for games, since half the reason people played the original SMB was to beat it - They played this game for game itself, trying to beat it. If they got a game over, they were that much wiser and could handle the level (hopefully) next time, while also remembering what they had to do to get there.
Footnote: Serenade has not beaten the original SMB. She would have, but her NES fried and cooked
--------------------
Let's move onto another game comparison, shall we?
Second Example: The Castlevania Series.
The very first Castlevania game was (naturally) for the NES was a side scrolling action/adventure. It was also hard, apparently-
Footnote: Serenade has yet to try the NES Castlevania
- and involved lots of lovely fun Whip action, killing zombies, skeletons, etc. There were no savegames, so you always started at the first world. I don't know if it was as hard as the original Nintendo, but eh.
Around the middle of the Series, there's still the lovable whip, however, they bring in alterable stats, leveling up, and in some cases, Magic spells/Subweapons. The games were still tricky, but less so.
Now, looking at the games of today, it makes me wonder 'How is this Castlevania?'
-Game has gone from Action/Adventure to Action/RPG.
-Enemies respawn, but you're likely to grind against them now to gain either A: That one item, B: That bit of Experience.
Also, the whip has been removed. The whip. The Signature weapon of the Castlevania Game. Sure, you get the original 'Vampire Killer' Whip in the game 'Portrait of Ruin', but there are several weapons stronger than it (It is simply the strongest -whip- in the game.) You equip weapons, spells, equipment, etc. to fight in large sprawling castles. They give you stronger weapons when enemies get stronger so that you don't -die- in two shots.
Essentially, not only has Konami (Castlevania's Developer) nerfed the game, but they've deviated from its original course. What is it that makes these games still Castlevania?
Oh right, Dracula as a boss. Except now, in some cases, he's a 'Right Ending' Boss (In other words, play the game right and don't screw up)
More Footnotes: Serenade would like to add that these games are not, however, bad games. She is rather enjoying The newest game, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia - which is actually, surprisingly difficult.
So now, it's not just save games we're adding, but we're also making the game easier to beat with things being added along the way. Yay.
------------------
Next Example - Megaman!
Ah, Megaman. you might wonder, how can I poke at the little Blue Bomber himself huh? I can do so looking at the series Megaman has been in:
Megaman -> Megaman X -> Megaman Zero -> Megaman Battle Network -> Megaman Star Force. (I am not doing ZX or ZX Advent)
I'm considering this the Canon for the purposes of this statement.
Let's start with the original Megaman:
Hard. The First game is friggen impossible. I can't even get to any of the bosses, with the Exception of Cut Man - but he slices me a new Orifice every time because of how fast Megaman jumps - 'tis difficult to time. The first Megaman game was deemed so hard that a song was made to make it known [http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=EG_GnjntufY]
The games after ward are comparable, but not -quite- as vicious with the implementation of the Slide.
Footnote: Serenade would like to add that she can defeat Airman [http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=FLzCfUM7BM8]
Now let's move to the Megaman X games. Still a tricky platformer, the charge-your-buster being available from the start and such.
One of the main thing this game adds though is Upgrades.
Upgrades which, naturally, make you stronger and harder to kill.
Not much of a lessening on the difficulty, but significant enough to mention.
Megaman Zero. This game series is good in my books. It starts at a difficulty and stays there, if not ramping up. There aren't any full-on 'upgrades' unless you count your weapon leveling up after using them. It's not as hard as the older games, but still pretty challenging. The Variety of weapons combined with an onslaught of enemies makes you wonder just how to kill them all.
Footnote: Serenade's beaten the Zero Series. She remembers Copy X with a passion for his difficulty in Megaman Zero 1
Next Up is the Battle Network Games.
These games are fun
The difficulty curve is... it fluctuates depending on your knowledge. Not skill, knowledge. If you know how chips can work and how to use them to your advantage, as well as Megaman.EXE's capabilities, then the game becomes easy. I recall employing a Game-Breaking idea in the third game. (Long Story short, if no one used Panel Breaking or Fire, I was Immortal. Dead Serious, nothing could kill me).
However, the game takes the classic side-scroller from Megaman and replaces it with an Action RPG with Random Encounters (An ARRE if you will). It's still fun and they bring a few classic enemies/characters from older games (Protoman, Roll, Gutsman, even several of the bosses - even the main villain of several is still 'Dr. Wily!')
These games are fun, but they're not really difficult if you have an inkling of what your doing.
Footnote, liking these?: Serenade has beaten each of the MMBN Games except for 5. She remembers with a passion that Serenade.EXE and BassGS from number 3 were nice and tough, and also remembers that number 5 had ridiculously stupid 'Liberation Missions.' Maybe when she feels more like a completionist she'll go back to them.
And lastly, Megaman Star Force.
This... I'm not 100% sure what my take is at this time. This series is basically a spin-off to the successful MMBN Series. I can't say much since I'm not that far in the 'Pegasus' version, but I'll say what I know.
This game is, thusfar, easier than the MMBN games. You don't need to worry as much about enemy attacks since you can see them coming from miles away.
It's still fun, but they nerfed the chip system, the battle grid, and essentially, enemies.
Footnote: Serenade is about to get the actual 'Star Force' power in the game, unsure whether it's a game breaker, a simple ability, or a plot device though
So Sorry little Blue Bomber, you've been nerfed.
------------------------------
Next Series: Legend of Zelda
This part will pain me to write it, but it must be done.
The Legend of Zelda. Among the many Icons of gaming. Zelda has, unfortunately, been suffering from nerfitis as well.
The First game was difficult in two ways. One, it was very non-linear. Instead of a side scroller, it was a top-down adventure game - with no directions.
Plus, you can only hit things with your sword if they are right in front of you.
So basically, in this game, you wander aimlessly and get killed lots.
Footnote: Serenade's beaten this!
As the games went on though, they added more and more gimmicky stuff, making the games easier and easier.
Rest assured, these games were not bad. Far from it, I love the Zelda Series and always will to the end of time.
Fact is, they're getting easier
Phantom Hourglass took me two days to beat, it was that simple.
Twilight Princess, took me a few days to beat.
Ocarina of time, one week.
Original Legend of Zelda? I can't remember, but it was a fair amount of time.
Footnote: Serenade's actually beaten every Zelda game with the exception of the CD-i games and Legend of Zelda: Adventure of Link.
--------------
Now, in retrospect also, games may be getting easier to also try and draw in newcomers to gaming, rather than hand them a hard video game from the start - but if you think about it, that's what they did at first! Now, there are a few games these days that can replicate the difficulty of older day games, and also, some of the earlier games were subjective to difficulty because of a lack of direction (The Original Zelda, and also Metroid)
Some of the toughest games now that are out there are, unfortunately, freeware games and rom hacks by random internet people. I Wanna Be The Guy and Kaizo Mario World are some of the more well-known games.
While companies are trying to appeal to a wider field though, they're slowly weeding out the old-school gamers that are looking for a challenge.
Anyways, I think I may have gone on about this for long enough, so I'll leave this to let you guys ponder.
