I'm tired of people saying games are too easy these days.

[kingddd]

Generations is actually much easier for me to get good ranks on than the Adventure games, though. I usually got E through C rank on sonic adventure 1 and 2 levels, but I usually get As on generations levels. That's in part because generations doesn't seem to consider your ring count in your ranking...they just go by time.

Yeah the adventure titles demanded you to chain kill as much enemies as possible, time based, do every single trick available and ring count. It was quite demanding especially considering you need to A rank everything just to unlock a single bonus stage in adventure 2 with bad camera angles. Not to mention that dying at least once loses all those points. You have to go perfect or bust.

Edited February 4, 2015 by kingddd

[Sentacotus]

I rented Adventure DX and I think finished it? I own GC Adventure 2 Battle and I do like that game despite its camera controls being fucked and the action button being finicky at times. Not too long ago I got all the Emblems for that game :D. I own Advance... 2 or 3? Maybe both? I can't remember if I finished those.

I was on the fence to try Generations since I'm not a Sonic fan or anything but maybe I can go for it if it goes on a really good sale. Just recently made my first computer build. I wonder how much better it would look and play on PC than console.

You raise Ninja Gaiden, I raise Battletoads.

It gets so bad that one person kept dying in one stage and they wanted to turn off the infinite lives so they could restart the stage from the beginning as opposed to restarting from the checkpoint.

I bet both games would make bad good drinking games.

Stop giving me ideas I'm going to kill my liver.

[Skynstein]

Old games were much harder but they also suffered from terrible game design like unforgiving hitboxes and slippery physics. SMB is an example. I recently played the classic on the 3DS and it surprised me how difficult it is to control Mario and to make precise jumps. Remember that back then you had only three lives and you had to restart from the beginning of everything if you lost them all, I think. Mario on the SNES was FAR more forgiving, because of the open world and the easy ways to abuse lives, but also because Mario's controls were much improved on the SNES. I think something similar happened with Sonic, too.

Personally I think a good game is beatable by everyone but only the best can truly master it. Like Sonic 3 & Knuckles. Most people can probably beat it but to get all the Chaos Emeralds you need to be pretty good at Blue Sphere. I can beat Doom 2 on Ultra Violence but really skilled players will speedrun it in less than half an hour.

Edited February 4, 2015 by Cerberus87

[Siruppercut]

So many new posts. Yup some people bring up a good point. If the game is easy play a harder game.

You need to stop making yourself into a victim over everything, Ana. Life is so much happier when you just don't.

Also, I don't care how much easier games nowadays are, Etrian Odyssey is still evil. And I love it.

What is evil in EO2 is encountering a Muckdile(think it is the right name been a long time) for the first time. Random encounter from mining or harvesting(I don't remember) near the top floor of the last stratum. Thinking it's just a normal mob in game until it rips you to pieces. I enjoyed Etrian for the difficulty but desired a game that is similar but with a better combat system. Involving more strategy than using a Medic with immunize, + some items if necessary for every boss encounter.(repetitive strategy) Labyrinth of Touhou 2 was the answer. Character variety is huge, many ways to fight most bosses. Buffing up, healing and turtling will not make you invincible.

That third one though...shudders...

Is it just me or did Ninja Gaiden 3 have poor controls compared to the first 2 games? I only played it on the ZSNES emulator which isn't very accurate. I have tried out the first and second game as well and the controls seem ok even on the emulator.

Ninja Gaiden on the PC Engine is more difficult than the NES. What I didn't like on the PCE is the background parallax scrolling. While some stages do look nice, it can get distracting.
Music isn't as good as the NES which was a huge surprise. PC Engine port or remake of games in general usually sound better.

While a lot of people agree NES games are hard. The length of the games was the problem for me. I grew up in the NES era and paying $40-$50 for a game only to beat it in a single day or even few hours is a huge disappointment. My parents bought me Castlevania. Took me 5+ hours to beat the game. Borrowed Contra from a friend. Took me less than a day without using the Konomi code. There was a cartoon called Captain N and the Game Masters. I got the nick name "Captain N" because how good I was at video games. People enjoyed watching me play because I can easily beat most games and they were interested in seeing the ending. Karnov had the best ending ever. "Thank you for playing" cheesy music playing in background. I suppose the game developers didn't expect people to actually beat the game and left out the ending?

There is a few NES games that was impossible for me to beat at the time. Battle Toads that game was hard. Section Z, Ghost 'n Goblins, few others but I don't remember at the moment.
20+ years later I beat Battletoads. Being older sure didn't make the game any easier. Section Z on the other hand was easy. I have improved so much on shmup games due to playing Touhou.

[Magical CC]

I played many franchises that new games are way harder than the old games but I also played many franchises that new games are way easier than the old games. Playing a lot and getting used to a game dont mean it will become easier. The same monsters I killed for breakfast in MH3U gave me a really hard time when I decided to play MHFU, mostly because the control was more rigid, the hitboxes were more buggy and the choice of weapons were not very good.

Instead of saying old games were harder, I say the new games were more convenience for the players. Please remember how awful it is to walk around the island in Morrowind when fast travel was not a thing yet and how you have to backtrack the whole dungeon unless you use a certain spell instead of having the exist gate right next to the end of the dungeon.

[Refa]

Too lazy to post it, but basically agree with everything in Czar's post haha. Anyways, personally I like playing on the harder difficulty settings of games (even though I usually wimp out and pick Normal my first time through when I'm not used to the game) because it tends to make the game design shine. Elements that were not particularly prominent or necessary in the easier difficulty settings suddenly have renewed importance (for example, in Mega Man 10, it means you have to learn the levels more and probably get better at using the Robot Master weapons), and to be super cliche it feels more rewarding after you beat them. Easier difficulty settings are great though, even for me, in case I want to steamroll the game with my SUPER SKILLS (Fire Emblem series is one of the few that I'm actually any good at though lol) or get used to a game that I wouldn't be comfortable playing on hard mode my first time through due to new mechanics or some interesting gimmick or whatever.

Although I fucking hate ranking systems in games (for the most part, they work well in games like Devil May Cry and the like because they're integrated into the design of those games). I BEAT THE LEVEL CUT ME SOME SLACK.

Also I know people stopped talking about Skyword Sword, but this is a really good indepth review of it.

[spoiler=Nah, it's just Porn]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qAjK7wd5QE

Megaman 8 is another to consider as well.

Mega Man 8 is a fairly easy game by most standards (besides some painful boarding sections which more more rote memorization than actually difficult).

For the rest of the games, stuff like Pokemon is easy for me, because I'm well aware of how certain mechanics work (types, moves, etc.). Once I step outside of my comfort zone, games feel like they're harder - they could've been "dumbed down" over the years, but I wouldn't be able to tell the difference. I think it's a matter of perspective.

Yeah, I find playing games for the first time (with mechanics I'm not used too) to be a lot more difficult than they are on repeat playthroughs specifically because of that (e.g. Awakening). It's why I start with Normal Mode sometimes.

Unfortunately, there is a very real possibility that the game you want simply doesn't exist. In the real world, there are no hard games that play like Kirby, or easy games that play like Ikaruga. In this case, your best bet is to ask a friend (or me) for a suitable alternative, or become a game developer yourself.

The design of Kirby games is antithetical to the games actually being hard. It's wonderful.

[Raven]

My 10/11 year-old cousin has a 360, but doesn't play games seriously. He's been brought up around people who play mobile games, and I think he had a DS in the past, too. However, I'm not sure exactly what games he plays. I put him on Sonic 2 (Mega Drive) over Christmas when I saw him, and he truly struggled to make it through Emerald Hill Zone. But he did it eventually, and then Chemical Plant Zone owned his ass.

I blame the mobile gaming market, saturating the gaming industry with shitty, easy to play-easy to win-pay to win games. Young people of this generation, unless they have a hardcore gaming parent/s who lets them play older games, just can't handle old games - designed and made to last, since there were no such things as expansion packs, pay to win, etc. back then, only sequels. Like my cousin, a lot of kids these days don't have gaming parents and don't have access to any of the old stuff. I think a lot of the mainstream games these days are created with simplicity and ease of understanding in mind. Basically to accomodate for these kids who have been brought up on shitty mobile gaming.

On that note, I got owned several times even on normal mode in MGS4 when playing it through the first time. MGS games - next to Sonic games - I will never stop going back to play them. However I'd hate to have to witness someone like my cousin try to make his way through MGS1.

[Kon]

Also I know people stopped talking about Skyword Sword, but this is a really good indepth review of it.

[spoiler=Nah, it's just Porn]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qAjK7wd5QE

This review is perfect, it highlights all the problems I had and even pointed out where Skyward Sword really shined~

And they mentioned thinking that aiming was being done through the motion control rather than the Sensor Bar, and I can confirm that it is. It was one of the view games that I could play after the vacuum ate the Sensor Bar cord. I still had to use it when calibrating the Wiimote and doing that dumbass tightrope thing, but I found a quick workaround using some candles.

[algae]

My 10/11 year-old cousin has a 360, but doesn't play games seriously. He's been brought up around people who play mobile games, and I think he had a DS in the past, too. However, I'm not sure exactly what games he plays. I put him on Sonic 2 (Mega Drive) over Christmas when I saw him, and he truly struggled to make it through Emerald Hill Zone. But he did it eventually, and then Chemical Plant Zone owned his ass.

That could well be a matter of (in)experience too, though. I could probably give the same game to my brother (twice your cousin's age, gamer for most of his life) and he'd struggle because he just doesn't play Sonic.

Not to downplay the effects of mobile gaming or anything, since they're more or less built (for people that want to jump in and play something without any investment (when they're evoking old-arcade-style quarter thieves), but I'm a bit curious about how far it goes. A lot of the modern conveniences we're talking about here resolve things that made older games more frustrating or tedious, as Magical Amber said; fast travel instead of backtracking through an empty dungeon, autosave instead of replaying an entire area because you got killed by one enemy near the end, things like that.

[Vaporblack]

I mean as long as you're having fun and have a sense of challenge it's all good. I'd honestly play a game that's enjoyable and easy than something that's frustratingly hard. Some games for example Dark Souls II made the controls smoother which might have made the game easier. That kind of difficulty adjustment is reasonable in my opinion. Certainly I hope people are not trying to say OH ITS NOT CONTRA HARD. GET ON MY LEVEL or that kind of nonsense. Twilight Princess is slightly easier than Ocarina of Time but I doubt that makes it in any ways inferior but more so just convinient. Then again, I am not quite sure what "easy" games people are referring to.

[omglmaowtf]

People need to stop thinking that all the game companies of the world got together & vowed to stop making hard games.

We're barely into Feburary, but so far in 2015 alone:

Grey Goo, RTS from the original studio behind Command & Conquer. It got hard right from the tutorial mission. I'm now on mission 5 & it's are-you-kidding-me absurd.

Darkest Dungeon: It's still early access but it's still a roguelike with permadeath, those are never easy.

[Irony]

I'll tell you a story about Professor Layton and the Lost Future.

There was one puzzle near the end of the game. Puzzle 127- A Real Heart Swapper.

That puzzle made me cry. I had no hint coins. No internet. That puzzle took me a DAY before I solved it. (Most satisfying feeling ever)

If someone said that Layton is easy, I beg to differ.

Let me tell you another story. Etrian Odyssey IV.

Got in January 2014.

Finished it in December 2014.

Holy hell- picnic mode!? More like hard mode!!! It was my first Etrian Odyssey, and everything seemed to be able to kill me. From the Tree Rats (jk jk) to the Heaven Bringer (twice). And I was overleveled.

If someone said that EOIV was easy, I beg to differ.

A third story. Trauma Centre: Under the knife.

Perfect title for an impossible game.

Still haven't finished it.

If someone said that this game was easy, I beg to differ.

[Ein]

EO4 is never easy. Except when it is.

[Emeraldfox]

Game is 'too easy'? Sit back and enjoy the ride.

Game is 'too hard'? Knuckle down and git gud.

Iunno, that's how I see it anyway. People complain about difficulty regardless.

[Original Alear]

EOIV got kind of easy for me during the last couple of strata (I mean 4 and 5, not 6). I think I did die in one hit from the prince's super attack, though. I had a tough time against the flame lizard though, and the berserker king was a bit rough for me too.

[Siruppercut]

Never played EO4 but EO1 and 2 beginning is difficult especially when your under leveled with no skills to abuse. Once you get enough skills unlocked. Cheese that MP recovery on Bard, Hexer dmg, etc and the game is easy until usually the last stratum.

If you want to play a game similar to Etrian but more difficult try out 7th Dragon(Etrian with a overworld map) on the DS. It's in Japanese but there is a English translation for the game.

[Original Alear]

Never played EO4 but EO1 and 2 beginning is difficult especially when your under leveled with no skills to abuse. Once you get enough skills unlocked. Cheese that MP recovery on Bard, Hexer dmg, etc and the game is easy until usually the last stratum.

If you want to play a game similar to Etrian but more difficult try out 7th Dragon(Etrian with a overworld map) on the DS. It's in Japanese but there is a English translation for the game.

You really think 7th Dragon is more difficult than Etrian Odyssey? I admit I didn't beat the game, but that was because I found it kinda boring and too easy and so I stopped...I think the last major boss I fought was either the dark themed dragon in the cave near japanland, or if there was a boss in the desert I think that came after the dark dragon.

Mages do incredible damage in that game and totally trivialize random encounters, at least for where I was in the story. And their focus skill is really really powerful.

[Siruppercut]

You really think 7th Dragon is more difficult than Etrian Odyssey? I admit I didn't beat the game, but that was because I found it kinda boring and too easy and so I stopped...I think the last major boss I fought was either the dark themed dragon in the cave near japanland, or if there was a boss in the desert I think that came after the dark dragon.

Mages do incredible damage in that game and totally trivialize random encounters, at least for where I was in the story. And their focus skill is really really powerful.

I never used Mages. Was assuming they were not that good from trying them out in Etrian 1 and 2. Guess my party setup probably made the game harder. Random encounters were easy but I had some problem on certain bosses. I used Knight defender, Princess lovely voice, Rogue bow, Samurai don't remember

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

EO is more punishing than hard since most of the time they punish you for making dumb/wrong decision, but if you do make those decision, the difficulty is lowered significantly

Best example I could think of is EO3 Second Floor. You can trivialize that floor by simply going in during the day. I'm wayyy to ignorant to do that and get to YOLO a Giant Bird up on my ass. Admitably the difficulty of EO3 pretty much goes down the gutter after that point since you unlocked every broken shit ever,

[Irony]

Though I will say that EOU was easy. The final boss fight of classic mode was so disappointing. (Admittedly this was picnic mode, and next time I play it I will play it on a harder difficulty.) I killed it in....13-4 turns?