Friday, April 16

Unwelcome Flavour

I do like difficult games. I even try to love them.

Megaman 9 was a brutally difficult game. I haven't yet completed it and so far have only managed to complete one level (take that Plug Man!). As with all Megaman games that attended the old-school: enemies attack in patterns and deliver sizeable amounts of damage; there are pitfalls aplenty with jump distances that just (just) shyed away from being unfair; boss battles also follow predictable patterns but victory is never a sure thing. Imagine my delight when Capcom announced that Megaman 10 would have an Easy mode. This happiness was temporary however, as I learned that Capcom does not know the difference between a helping hand and flat-out giving you the prize.

Easy Mode in Megaman 10 is like having a red carpet rolled out all the way to each level's boss battle. Floating platforms cover nearly all of the difficult jumps, enemies deliver miniscule amounts of damage and boss characters readily await you to shower them with lasers. The amount of challenge it offers you is nothing short of an insult. Probably the worst thing about this mode is that it makes the level of challenge presented in the Normal mode appear almost insurmountable.



Games like Bayonetta have shown that an Easy setting need not necessarily mean a pushover, rather an ordinate decline in difficulty. I didn't die often, however I always felt as though I was being challenged. Further to that I felt the desire to try my luck on the higher settings after building up the strength and arsenal of my Umbran heroine. I didn't go on to finish the game in Normal difficulty but I do believe that I would be capable of doing so.

What games have you played that were either too easy or almost unfairly difficult? One of the hardest games for my money is Mortal Kombat 3. When I played it, I almost felt as though the AI opponents were cheating.

5 comments:

  1. I'm not a fellow who enjoys a hard action game...it's a bit "tree falls in the forest" for me. When it comes down to it, I'd rather go up against some seriously tough mofos online and spit the dummy after a round of endless respawns. Oh, never got past the first forest level of Alex Kidd when I was a young 'un. Either I suck or its damn hard.

    In regards to easy games...well...tower defense games. I end up abusing a lot of the strategies. Field Runners, for example...channeling breaks that experience with the only difficulty being air units.

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  2. I loved Alex Kidd in Miracle World and Shinobi World. The Alex Kidd on the Mega Drive (I believe it was the Ancient Temple) was soooooo horrible. One day my older brother, a few cousins and I played through Alex Kidd in Miracle World, awesome day.

    I suck at Tower Defence games! I do love them however, especially Pixeljunk Monsters.

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  3. MK3 ahaha loved that

    Seth in street fighter 4 is a cheat. still havn't unlocked akuma.... maybe im just a noob :D

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  4. easy games, ahh how i loved them. seriously anything that isnt developed by a japanese company is generally a cake walk. generally.

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  5. Unlocking Akuma and Gouken was difficult, even on Easiest level.

    Western games are generally a fair bit easier, however MK3 is developed by westerners and it was balls hard.

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