The Rebirth of Hard Games
For a While Video Games Lightened up, but Are Now Coming Back to Their Roots
Remember the old days when you would rent a Nintendo game and rush home to play? Remember how hard it was? You could play for hours and die just to start all over again. If you don't, then allow me to fill you in.
One of the first games I remember actually playing competently was "Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!" Now in the realm of "hard" games this one wasn't so bad (if you knew what you were doing). Shortly after that I played "Contra," now this was my first experience with a really hard game. "Contra" was unforgiving and punishingly difficult, even with the "Konami Code" (granting players 30 lives instead of three to start), it still would stomp a mudhole in you and walk it dry. Then there was "Megaman." I think by now we all know the "Megaman" formula as well as the Capcom formula. "Megaman" redefined what a hard game was; the boss battles, the stages themselves and the little enemies throughout, it was all hard. Lets not even get started on "Battletoads." I still have nightmares of the dreaded "Tunnel Stage."
As technologies in gaming advanced, difficulty took a back seat to new progressions in story and character development. Some people noticed while others really didn't. So when "Ninja Gaiden" came out for the Xbox and most people couldn't beat the first boss, it caught a lot of backlash - so much, in fact, that they released a version of the game that was easier called "Ninja Gaiden Black," and it was clear then that hard games were not going to sell anymore.
This "Age of Hard Games," if you will, lasted for quite some time. Japan made their games easier for us here in America, and most gamers liked it that way. I really think the age reignited with "Demon's Souls" for the PlayStation 3. "Demon's Souls" was hard just like back in the day with no real checkpoints, monsters respawns if you left their vicinity and returned, and enemy blows taking chunks - not bits - out of your health bar. This game sold surprisingly well to a cult following. While not for everyone, the game still made its mark and reinstated the law that "video games can still be challenging AND fun." Two years later, "Dark Souls" was released and now continues to please the hardcore masses with a growing base to back it up.
Fast forward to today and we have all kinds of games coming out that are hard:
- "Ninja Gaiden"
- "Volgarr The Viking"
- "Rogue Legacy"
- "Faster Than Light (FTL)"
- "Shovel Knight"
- "1001 Spikes"
Just to name a few, and these games are partially marketed for their difficulty. The fact that now some games are being marketed as "hard" marks a divergence from where we used to be. We still have these amazing story telling games that tell a story with beautiful scenes and loveable characters, but these games don't necessarily challenge us. Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy these story-driven games, but as these titles come to dominate top-selling charts, they don't offer the same challenge titles like "Megaman" do.
So what do you think? Are you going to try some of these "harder" games, or are you content to play the games at the normal level of difficulty.
