Don't you hate it when you're playing a game and then a boss or obstacle or task gets thrown at you that's a real bitch? And suddenly all the fun you were having is just sucked out of the game. It goes from being a nice way to relax and have fun to being a chore. I always attributed this to bad design, or a developer trying to lengthen the game's play time. A cheap trick. :dammit:
Some people really like that sort of thing. Personally, I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand it is a bit annoying sometimes, but on the other hand the feeling of satisfaction when you finally beat the boss/obstacle sometimes makes up for it. Certainly there are times when it is "cheap." I think it can be done well, though.
I love a good challenge, but I hate it when something is designed ridiculously (Tag Challenges in Dead or Alive Dimensions) or is simply tedious.
Yeah, I'm not saying I don't like a game to be challenging; but there are times where you have an absolute WTF moment were you say to yourself "oh, come on!"
After playing a few Cave shooters, each time I get to a boss I drawn in a breath. If I manage to beat the boss, then I feel immense satisfaction. Without that challenge, the games wouldn't be anywhere near as good. The only other game I play right now is Wipeout HD, where only my skill, or lack of, is my enemy.
It's probably useful to distinguish between bosses that are just hard, and bosses that break the rules. Well-crafted games may not bear a lot of resemblance to reality, but as long as the rules are consistent then we can get enjoyment out of playing well. But what would happen if hopping on top of Bowser didn't always kill him? When a boss is inconsistent with the rest of the game, there's less satisfaction because we can't possibly form a strategy to beat him. Structure and rules are the difference between a boss that's challenging and a boss that's unfair.
This sounds like almost every SNK fighting game's final boss to me. It makes sense to some extent for it to be tough since it's the end but some of them just seem so cheap. Sometimes games seem damn near impossible ( Bart Vs Spacemutants ) and you'll get mad and just resign yourself to it being bullshit. But if you keep at it you might actually figure out something that works very well and it won't seem so impossible anymore.
I was really really into Tales of Vesperia. I really loved that game. But when it really got exciting, and when my party was really strong and everything, I get to this fucking unfair fight in the snow with a flying enemy that then burrows into the ground. Cannot, for the life of me, hit the fucking bastard. He's either too high to hit, or under the ground. I've been stuck at that since January. I stopped playing the game. Really ruined it for me.
Hard vs easy, and everything in between, is something the developer has to decide. Lots of my favourite games fit either side. I think the real downfall is in not providing the player adequate means to figure something out. These days I'm relatively quick to check an FAQ when I'm in doubt - I've spent enough of my life banging my head against poor gameplay design and exposition. If an FAQ can explain something quickly to me that the game should've made more obvious, and that saves me half an hour of frustrating trial and error, that's fine with me. Maybe I'm just not "hardcore", I'm fine with that too.
Oh, I'm with you on that. SNK Fighters are pretty easy until you get to the final guy and then the difficulty level boosts x10! The KOF games are a good example. Oh, how I hate that. Even when using the service continue options the last guy can be a right bastard. Yakumo
When I was growing up there were a few games that I found super hard like this. I think Ecco was one. I remember being totally gutted as I was really looking forward to it, but I had to stop playing. Ended up getting an Action Replay.
The game that's currently pissing me off is Metroid: Fusion. I'm at Nightmare and I just keep getting killed over and over and over to the point where it's really not fun anymore.
I love me a good challenge. I was hooked on Demons Souls for a long while. Seemed like every step you took and enemy you faced could end you if you werent careful. No checkpoints, no pausing, lose your souls(currency/exp) on death and restart the stage with all enemies respawned. A nice change of pace from the norm these days.
I remember being able to get pretty good at King of Fighters 99' where I could beat the final boss almost every time on the first try. But KoF 98 was alot harder and I gave up on KoF 2000 early on after the Zero guy would use his cape of blades to drain your life seriously even while blocking. I lost interest in KoF mostly after that. I still think 98' and 99' are excellent though. I enjoy some other SNK fighters like Garou MotW and I'll play Rage of the Dragons or another game sometimes but I'm not hooked on them due to the difficulty imbalance/cheap ass bosses. One thing that bothered me for a long time was that KoF 98 and 99 were never ported to Saturn. I always thought they could have been awesome on there. I know they got DreamCast ports but I don't really dig the DC as much as the Saturn. Also I was disappointed that Metal Slug 2, X, and 3 never were on Saturn.
i always liked KOF '97 the most but yes, 98 & 99 were also good. 2000, 2001 where a bit crap IMO. the one on Xbox live is pretty good though.
Games are too easy now a days. The challenges of games are what made them feel so great of an accomplishment when you beat them. An example would be my most previously played game, LA Noire... Love the story and puzzles, but damn, that game was a walk in the park, failed a single mission due to a bug.
The game I can think of that was driving me nuts, that I had to stop playing was Crono Trigger. One hit from some of those bosses take you down to 1 hit point, and you don't get a turn to heal. Grrr... :dammit: =Hugh
Chalk up pretty much any damn ESCORT mission as a major annoyance. Nothing destroys and overall flow and joy of a game more than a poorly implemented escort or "defend the tower" round.
