Hard/Difficult Video Games
Once again, tonight I was killed by Meta Ridley in Metroid Prime for the Nintendo GameCube. No matter what strategy I use nor the walkthroughs/guides I read, I simply can not beat this boss. I originally left the game for a while only to come back and wind up in the same place.
After I threw down the controller in disgust, I started thinking. Why in the hell do some game developers make their games so difficult/hard? I don't mind a challenging games, but a extremely frustrating game really sucks.
What are some of the most difficult video games you have played?
Why do some companies make their games so difficult? Because I still can't beat Metroid Prime, I am going to even think about purchasing Metroid Prime 2 (especially since reviewers have deemed that title even harder than the first). I just don't get it. How is this suppose to be fun?
After I threw down the controller in disgust, I started thinking. Why in the hell do some game developers make their games so difficult/hard? I don't mind a challenging games, but a extremely frustrating game really sucks.
What are some of the most difficult video games you have played?
Why do some companies make their games so difficult? Because I still can't beat Metroid Prime, I am going to even think about purchasing Metroid Prime 2 (especially since reviewers have deemed that title even harder than the first). I just don't get it. How is this suppose to be fun?
Comments
I may try again when it comes out for the PSP.
Spend a few days with SSX tricky or Baldur's Gate, to quiet your nerves, and then try again. If you are upset, you will die for sure.
Mario 64 has some really difficult levels that I still cannot fully complete to this day.
The most notoriously difficult level of any game for me was in the super secret "AWESOME" zone of Super Mario World for the SNES. The 2nd level of the Awesome zone was called 'Tubular', it took me at least 100 hair pulling teeth grinding tries to finally complete it.
The stinger was, I replayed the game not too long ago and beat that level on my first try. But man, when I was 12 or so, that was tough shit.
The other infamous 'impossible' moment of a game for me was the wall jump level of Super Metroid for the SNES. When those little alien dudes are trying to teach you how to wall jump effectively. It's a really long ways up, and given the system, it can be kind of tricky to sustain the motions required for effective wall jumps. I had a bitch of a time with that one.
The game was released in such a buggy state (it had to be) so that it was impossible to make it past the two first scenes.
To understand how bad this is one "scene" is one screen wide...
So why was it impossible?
You could ony move in one direction, to the right and that was it. From time to time (say every 3-1 seconds on average) the "predator sights would show up moving in (90% of the time) from the rightmost spot to the left where you stood helpeless just waiting to be killed as the sights touched you. If the sights appeared from the left you where allso allmost certain to be screwed as the sights moved about 100-200% faster then the game character could run. There was no way of jumping/ducking to aviod the sights, or to shoot in the predators direction to throw hims off ... actually you had no weapon/means of offence at all. All you could do was to move slowly to the right ... and get massacered. The absolutely worst bit though, was that the second screed looked exactly like the first one, twenty minutes of trying for bloody nothing ... bleh.
when i saw the topic of your post, i was going to respond with MP, but then when i opened it i saw you had already mentioned it. i am glad i am not the only one that thinks it is hard. i originally stopped playing it when it first came out, but decided to give it another shot due to everyone saying how great it is and getting info. on MP3.
it is much harder than halo, that is for sure. i am stuck on the sun creature right now - how do i get the multiple sun reflectors to stay down with out the creature knocking them back up. it is frustrating - after not beating the creature for several attempts, i switched to a game i know will go well (animal crossing).
i am sure i will get back to it. i have already bought MP2 and have never even played it yet, so i need to finish MP sometime.
Originally posted by Dave K.
Once again, tonight I was killed by Meta Ridley in Metroid Prime for the Nintendo GameCube. No matter what strategy I use nor the walkthroughs/guides I read, I simply can not beat this boss. I originally left the game for a while only to come back and wind up in the same place.
After I threw down the controller in disgust, I started thinking. Why in the hell do some game developers make their games so difficult/hard? I don't mind a challenging games, but a extremely frustrating game really sucks.
What are some of the most difficult video games you have played?
Why do some companies make their games so difficult? Because I still can't beat Metroid Prime, I am going to even think about purchasing Metroid Prime 2 (especially since reviewers have deemed that title even harder than the first). I just don't get it. How is this suppose to be fun?
I've gotten past Meta Ridely, but now I can't beat metroid prime.
I think I need to go back and find the missile expansion packs I've missed and the one or two energy blocks I don't have either.
After a couple long tries with Meta Ridley I started feeling like I was wasting time. It's one thing to spend a couple hours doing new things in a game, but after one or two repetitive fights with bosses lasting for that much time I start thinking about more productive things I could be doing instead.
Originally posted by Dave K.
Why in the hell do some game developers make their games so difficult/hard? I don't mind a challenging games, but a extremely frustrating game really sucks.
What's particularly bad is when you have a huge disparity between bosses and missions. Metroid Prime is good because the bosses, for the most part, introduce a new kind of gameplay strictly focused on patterns. However, having them be so frustrating at the end compared to the rest of the game just makes people give up.
Originally posted by MajorMatt
I know. I dont buy games to be frustrated and make it feel like a job. I buy them to have fun. Right now in MOH: Spearhead, I just cant get pass the escape level. If Im late in execution of something by a second, I get shot and I lose.
Well, there's a difference between "fun" hard and "frustrating" hard, and it generally has to do with the amount of control a player has.
For instance, Final Fantasy Tactics has a huge variety of, well, tactics to try. The game was pretty hard and I lost a lot of battles, but when I did, I was well aware that it was my fault and even though I died a lot it was hella fun to figure out a strategy that worked for my party.
Xenosaga, on the other hand, was terribly imbalanced. I always had to level up before bosses. The second time I tried playing it through, I got to this one part where five enemies would gang up on me, attack one character right from the start, killing her, leaving me with one other character who I was stuck with but had never used before in the game. Through no fault of my own I was getting my ass handed to me. Not fun.
Then there's games that just have awkward controls and the like, frustratingly hard for similar reasons.
To make a game hard but fun requires the game designer to develop a strong sense of trust from the player that "I'm not going to do anything annoying, lame, or stupid." Most game designers aren't talented enough to do that, unfortunately.
Originally posted by midwinter
I've gotten frustrated trying to beat the Ancients in Diablo II: Electric Boogaloo, er, Lord of Destruction.
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who sticks Electric Boogaloo onto <anything> II. Guess you suffered through Breakin' II too, eh?
As far as hard games go I get my butt handed to me when trying to play Darkstalker's Chronicle for the PSP. Mostly because I don't know how to do the cool moves and trying to do some of the combos on the PSP's D-pad is really tough.
Guess I'll stick with Lumines & Twisted Metal: Head On.
Megaman2 (NES). It's hard but ok'ish untill the final showdown. I don't know whos brain in Capcom shortcircuted when they did that, but it's daaamned tough. I've managed to beat it though, once.
Ghosts and Goblins. This title I've not been able to beat though (I never managed to get past the third stage). And if you have, you do are a god amongst men.
Can't say that I've stumbled across a modern game that's really tough yet though. I suppose it's because I don't play as many games as I used to.
I beat the game by backing up my save file, and it still took me 6 months.
Originally posted by e1618978
I beat the game by backing up my save file, and it still took me 6 months.
That save file must've been HUGE! har har har
Originally posted by midwinter
That save file must've been HUGE! har har har
http://www.nethack.org/v343/ports/download-mac.html
try it out for yourself and see.
To those frustrated on MP... On normal, it's not that hard. Meta-Ridley and the second form of Metroid Prime are the hardest bosses. Wait until you all play it again on the 'hard' mode that you unlock once you beat it. I'm stuck on the Omega Pirate. I think part of the reason is that I try it off and on, but don't play the game for months in between so my skills sort of diminish in the meantime. I'll admit that I had to use a guide once or twice on MP... but for the most part the guide just saves me an extra hour or so of beating my head against a wall to figure something out.
Devil May Cry
I couldn't get past the first boss the first time I played this (I played it all the way through on easy mode which was.... a joke really). I came back to it maybe a year later, and I used the gamefaqs.com to figure out what the moves were and which powers were the best to purchase. I got pretty far on regular mode after that.
The thing about Devil May Cry is that there are a bunch of moves and combos that you have to figure out on your own... which sucks. Once you 'figure it out' Devil May Cry is a lot easier. Just having a moves list and practicing a little to be able to do them gives you a HUGE boost in playing the game.
Suggestion for the first boss, buy 'Stinger Level 1' and hit him in the face with it, and you use moves after that to finish him off. I could have given you some other tips around the time that I was replaying it but that was like 9 months ago. If you have trouble, check out gamefaqs.com for the boss's weaknesses.
Halo
Halo isn't that hard of a game. But on legendary it's insane... and if you are playing it on legendary on single player... try the 2-player coop mode on legendary. I was able to beat it on legendary though. It was a lot of really repetitive playing.
With Halo, you can try a lot of combinations because the locations of all the enemies is set so you can try different combinations of trying to take out enemies to get through a level....
One example, where I 'cheated' on the level where you are going to help the Monitor activate Halo to repel the Flood. You know the checkpoint where you come outside to cross a bridge into another door... at the bottom of the ravine is the complex that the end of the level is in? I played that checkpoint over and over until I was able to get into one of the Banshees before the Elite that is 'set' to run and jump into it. Then I just had to kill the other Banshee and I could fly to the bottom of the Ravine and walk through to the end of the level. I got to skip working my way down to the bottom of the ravine and working my way through all of the enemies that defend the complex... (I don't remember if there were Covenant defending the complex on the way in... I know that they are there on the way out which is the next level though)
Originally posted by Eric_Z
I just thought I'd add two more games (non bugged this time).
Megaman2 (NES). It's hard but ok'ish untill the final showdown. I don't know whos brain in Capcom shortcircuted when they did that, but it's daaamned tough. I've managed to beat it though, once.
Hard? Which end boss are you talking about? Dr. Wiley in that machine? Or when Wiley turns into that alien thing? Bubble Lead takes out that alien thing quickly. I think that Metal Man's power was the best on Dr. Wiley in that machine...
I still own the cart. I beat that game many a time as a kid. One thing I never could do was beat Quickman's level without using Timestopper... until it came up on a thread on another forum talking about how hard the level was. I tried it again in an emulator, and I was able to beat it first time through.
Dragon Warrior
Dragon Warrior was one game I never figured out as a kid. I actually traded it to my friend for Mega Man 2 because I could never beat Mega Man 2 (because I never could get enough play time with it at his house). He agreed because he could easily beat the game. Even now, playing in emulators, Dragon Warrior is one game I haven't beaten, though I havne't put in that much time on it either.
My friend's mom beat it back in the day though. We all thought she was so cool back then. She would put in time on the game after work to take out her frustrations, she eventually beat the Dragon Master (I think that was the final boss's name).
Originally posted by Eric_Z
Ghosts and Goblins. This title I've not been able to beat though (I never managed to get past the third stage). And if you have, you do are a god amongst men.
Well, Ghosts and Goblins is one of those games that is idolized by how hard it was. I never played it though. I think there are a lot of people that think it was *the* hardest game of all time.
Ninja Gaiden and sequels are games that fall into the same category. Lots of people say they were hard, but I never played them as a kid.
Viewtiful Joe
I bought this on the recommendation that it was really cool. "The awesomest game ever" I think that the game sucks. It has a following though. There is even an anime airing in Japan based on it, I believe.
I had the hardest time just beating the first boss in this game. The second boss was easy. The third boss doesn't 'seem' hard, but I gave up on trying to beat him. By 'seem', I mean that his patterns are pretty predictable, but I don't know why I have a hard time beating him. For the first boss, I just couldn't find a good strategy. The boss battle seemed like it was harder than it should be.
Aside from that some of the levels and mini-bosses are pretty tough too. I don't know what it is about this game. At first glance, it doesn't look like it should be that tough, but I guess I just suck at it. I can get pretty frustrated with the game. I think that I must have invested at least 5 hours just to beat the first boss... and the level isn't really that long.