How did I finish that?

everett_psycho

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Thought this was a quite interesting article some of you might enjoy and shar you're similar experiences:

Have games got easier?

I can certainly relate to some of them, to this day I don't know how I had the patience to:

collect all 150 pokemon in the original game
get all 120 stars on mario 64
get the * next to the save file on super mario world
 
Yes, the games years ago were much tougher, mainly for the reasons the article highlights and also due to technical limitations and lack of help that's available now. Also gaming has changed and gamers these days simply wouldn't wear a game as tough as what we grew up with. There's too much choice now so it would be discarded for the next title. We also didn't have that wealth of choice that gamers have now.

Two hella hard games I finished that immediately spring to mind are Super Ghouls & Ghosts and Diddy Kong Racing by Rare.

Ghouls & Ghosts made you cry and anyone who says otherwise is lying or hasn't played or finished it. Not only was it unbelievably and brutally hard due to the precision needed but, when you got to the end and beat the final boss, it dumped you back at the beginning to start again. You needed a ring to beat the final boss and it couldn't be collected on first run-through. Maddening doesn't describe it and don't forget, you only had 6 credits x 3 lives - for both run throughs.... I managed it though, through sheer dogged perseverance. That and the fact as gamer back then, I didn't know any different. We bought games and finished them no matter how tough they were. That was the way it was.

Diddy Kong Racing was another that was ludicrously tough. Like Mario Kart, it starts off easy enough but then once you have completed the game, the reverse tracks enter the fray with the dreaded red coin challenges. I cannot describe how frustrating these were. One mistake on any of the 3 laps in a red coin race meant the challenge was over. The coins were so devilishly hard to get that you had pull off slides round trees without hitting anything else all the while trying to stay in the lead without hitting anything or anyone else. The AI was also in full on elastic cheat mode in these races so each race had to be absolutely perfect. They were a nightmare and once I completed the game, I never played it again!

Another toughie was Castlevania - Rondo of blood on the PC-Engine. Very, very hard due in the main, to the awful sprite collision. Doable but, bloody hard.

Tbh, there's lots of tough games and I could probably reel off a shed load with some thought. Weirdly though, I found the 120 stars in Mario 64 no problem.

Gamers these days have it easy. Yes, Demons/Dark Souls are hard. That's not in doubt but, they're doable and actually become easy with patience and time. Same with Trials to a degree but at least with Trials it's almost old school in that if you cock up, it's over. It requires practice. Whilst mistakes in modern games are punished, they're not punished anyhere near as severely as in the likes of say; G&G or R-Type. You lost a life in those well into the game, and you were pretty much finished.
 
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I can't believe I completed so many games back in the day, the oldies(I'm talking 80's) were rock solid compared with today.

About the only tough game I've completed in recent years which was brutally difficult was Super Meat Boy, what a game! Mind you I didn't complete all of the dark world levels, I reached a point I couldn't take any more of those homing/shredding missiles:eek:

Super Meat Boy found a patience I thought I'd long since lost, but I think that game took all I had left, I can't face tough challenges any more after that :laugh:
 
Games are ridiculously easy these days. Imagine trying to complete a level with no saves and no lives. One wrong move and the whole thing has to start again.

Games these days you can save at pretty much any point. There's no difficulty there at all.
 
That's the problem. Gaming's changed and now caters first and foremost for the casual gamer because they are the main games buyers and they will not tolerate being frustrated by incredible difficulty. Titles like Trials and DS buck the trend and should be applauded for doing so. We're never going to go back to the days of G&G, Manic Miner, Contra and the rest of the 3 life tough as nails games, so we should appreciate the ones we get released now like Super Meat Boy or Spelunky for that matter.

I must admit that whilst I love the fresh influx of retro style games, I much prefer games as they are now. Health bars, save points and checkpoints etc, as I'm not sure at my age I have the patience or could be arsed being frustrated to the degree I was years ago.

However, I think we should petition for the re-release of Battletoads to teach modern gamers a lesson in toughness :devil: .That one game above all others remains the hardest game in history of video game existence in my opinion. I never finished it and remember smashing the cartridge against the wall (along with many pads) in a temper.
 
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I quite like the optional pain approach, so on final fantasy 7 the game itself was very beatable, but only the lunatics and the extremely dedicated took on ruby weapon and won. It added to the game without taking away from the bulk of it. I do remember a top 5 on some random gaming programme on TV of hardest boss battles, metal slug was in there (slashing away at a giant alien brain with a small wooden sword) and ruby weapon I think topped it for just mass murdering your team instantly. The big difference now is the difficulty settings, I like to enjoy my games so tend to play on medium so I can do it but not too easily, I'm not brave enough to put games like gears of war on brutal anymore.

Another one that sticks in my mind (that I must admit I never finished) was mario the lost levels, watching a housemate play that it was brutal in places, I have no idea how he did it, and that was lenient with the lives situation to let him keep using continues.
 
The big difference now is the difficulty settings, I like to enjoy my games so tend to play on medium so I can do it but not too easily, I'm not brave enough to put games like gears of war on brutal anymore.

Haha, I'm exactly the same now. I've lived through the pain of playing super hard games and persevering because of no other choice and am quite happy now to play for enjoyment without getting annihilated within 2 minutes. I still play FPS games on hard as I do find medium (depending on the game) a little too easy sometimes.

Demons/Dark Souls are modern one offs with one difficulty but tbh, I never found either that difficult. Demons for me was tougher because it was the first but, once you learned the ropes and levelled up, it was a breeze (a bit of an exaggeration but you know what I mean) - same with Dark Souls.

I vaguely remember something about that FF7 difficulty setting but never gave it a whirl. After beating sephiroth (which took about 40 minutes or so if I remember right), I couldn't be bothered playing it again. Mind you, I think he could take out the full party in one attack if you weren't careful anyway.
 
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FF7 didn't have a difficulty setting, but if you struggled generally you could grind a little bit and make it easier on yourself. It was the optional weapons that was stupid, to beat ruby weapon you basically had to level up all characters and certain materia and then give one character a certain set of materia to even last a minute let alone beat him, even then he could suck 2 members of your party out of the battle so you had to hope he didn't pick the character you gave it all to. Worst thing was all you got for beating him was something you had to spend hours doing already to get the materia to beat him, stupid game
 
I don't remember any of the Weapon bosses what so ever!! I remember the game and finishing it but not much else. Mind you, it is 15 or 16 years since I've played it...

I do remember you could miss out on some of the gods you could cast if you didn't do certain things. Knights of the Round I remember almost missing and the only reason I didn't was because my mate at the time missed it and set me straight.
 
Google ff7 hard mode. It's a mod for the game which makes it a lot more difficult. Couldn't even get past the first level!
 
Google ff7 hard mode. It's a mod for the game which makes it a lot more difficult. Couldn't even get past the first level!

I'm assuming the mod is only available for the PC version? I only ever played it on the PS1 and that like I said was years ago and I'm scratching my head trying to remember it. There were standout bits like the girl who dies, the cable car ride at the fair, the final battle but, a lot of it I can't remember.

I'm not sure I'd even want to try that Insanity Mode because the game was long enough as it was without adding extreme difficulty.
 
I'm assuming the mod is only available for the PC version? I only ever played it on the PS1 and that like I said was years ago and I'm scratching my head trying to remember it. There were standout bits like the girl who dies, the cable car ride at the fair, the final battle but, a lot of it I can't remember.

I'm not sure I'd even want to try that Insanity Mode because the game was long enough as it was without adding extreme difficulty.
The weapons I was talking about are these guys:

images


as part of the games story you have to beat the one on the bottom right (and if memory serves correctly the one on the top right too). The bottom left was diamond weapon who lived in the sea and was pretty hard to beat, ruby weapon is the top left and was found in the dessert as a small red tail sticking out the sand, looked unassuming but run in to it without all the prep work and you would die and die fast. Luckily the 2 on the left were optional but more than once I went underwater in the submarine and panicked as he was next to me.

No way would I try insanity mode though, I enjoyed the game but I get really bored of grinding and i'm pretty sure that would be a labour of love to get through it, and as this threads highlighted thats long gone now
 
When Everett mentioned the desert weapon, that rung a bell as I do remember something about a boss in the middle of a desert. Too long ago though and my brain cells aren't as numerous as they were...:rotfl:

Another couple of games I found tough were Graduis V and R-Type. Ignoring the treasure games with zillions of bullets on screen, these two were proper old school side scrolling schmups. I know Graduis V was made by Treasure (and it shows in the production and quality) but, it was still essentially the same game it was through it's previous incarnations. Get past level 5 or 6 though and it became incredibly difficult. I think it was level 6 where the level speeds up and you have to negotiate it whilst killing the enemies. Nightmare but utterly superb.

R-Type was another which was incredibly difficult past level 5 (there were only 8 levels). I remember finishing this when I was at College in the local arcade and the relief at doing so was unbelievable. If you lost a life (and all your powers ups) anywhere from level 6 on, you were pretty much finished. Brilliant, brilliant game though and the 3rd level in particular where the entire level is an attack on a mothership is truly outstanding and has been copied to many times since.
 
I remember hammering through commando on the spectrum, not only was it difficult but you were trying to move using the rubber 5,6,7,8 keys - slight mistiming and you were dead.

I also remember beating the aliens games in the first week it was out on a single credit, and also the enjoyment at completing final fight or double dragon on one credit. You had to work at those games to ensure you didn't lose life too early.

When gauntlet came out it was sold as "co-op" but you could end up with the group where it was everyone for themselves. In that instance the game showed you how bad you could really be :D

Don't think I could go back to the older games, you ended up getting loads of practice on the early parts of the game but not so much at the later stages.
 
Forgot about Commando. That was hella tough especially the latter levels when the game changed from being a military cannon fodderish game and turned into a verticle schmup dodging bullets.

I remember playing Gauntlet on the speccy with my mate when we were at school. One of us on the Kempston joystick and the other on the rubber keys..... Those were the days :thumbsup:

Talking of the Speccy, I always found Manic Miner tough. I did finish it (my reactions and abilities were much more dextrous in those days) but, it took god knows how many attempts. Some of the old platformers were super tough though. Monty Mole, Dynamite Dan, Thing on a spring, Hunchback.... the list could go on and on. I went through a fair few joysticks, I know that much :rotfl:

Another recent'ish game that I struggled with was Ninja Gaiden. Man, I found that ridiculous yet some people I've spoke to found it easy...:eek: That said, I am not and have never been a fan of combo games. They bore me to death... Give me Demons Souls difficulty and mechanics over combo button mashing mechanics any day.
 
For me it was ridge racer 1 back in the day. trying to beat the black car was so hard to do and to this day i have never done it
 
Play the final green star challenge level in Super Mario Galaxy 2 and tell me games are getting easier! Probably the hardest Mario level ever made.
 
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Ghouls & Ghosts made you cry and anyone who says otherwise is lying or hasn't played or finished it. ... you only had 6 credits x 3 lives - for both run throughs....
Sounds like easy mode of the Arcade version :p ;) I remember burning money trying to beat (as was locally known) Ghost 'n Goblins. After months I could finally get to the last double red demons on one credit, i had a self-imposed dislike of Continuing: 1-credit clocking or nothing, but had to use another to get to the end - i was gutted it wasn't the real ending!

But yes games are incompariable to arcade games of old for difficulty. That filtered into early PC/console games, but they've steadily grown easier.
Partly it's because games are no longer there to earn money (directly i mean, via lives/credits), but game design is different to cater for a change in tastes.

Even hard games aren't really: Res0gun on Master+ isn't as rough as R-Type, Sinistar or Defender.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown on Ironman-Impossible still wasn't as tough as the original. The original Tomb Raider required precision jumps and memorisation, vs the latest remake.
There's a few spikes, but we're definitely in an age of casualness... not saying this is bad, just different.
 

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