I grew up on the NES so I've played my fair share of difficult video games. What I want to talk about here though is this retro-chic trend of indie platformers that instantly throw you into the shit.
To name a few:
Super Meat Boy
VVVVVV
Super House of Dead Ninjas
Cloudberry Kingdom
Electronic Super Joy
The reason these types of games are not rewarding is that as soon as you make it past the very brief tutorial that goes over the mechanics there is no learning curve at all. No room for improvisation. The entire point of the game is a binary code, digital rewiring of your human brain to be as precise as a robot for as long as your patience lasts.
As much as I love indies and as much as I love platformers, until these developers learn how to create a learning curve these types of games can fuck right off.
Or maybe I'm missing something... Feel free to explain the appeal to these types of games if you disagree with me.
PS - This also applies to bullet hell shmups.
To name a few:
Super Meat Boy
VVVVVV
Super House of Dead Ninjas
Cloudberry Kingdom
Electronic Super Joy
The reason these types of games are not rewarding is that as soon as you make it past the very brief tutorial that goes over the mechanics there is no learning curve at all. No room for improvisation. The entire point of the game is a binary code, digital rewiring of your human brain to be as precise as a robot for as long as your patience lasts.
As much as I love indies and as much as I love platformers, until these developers learn how to create a learning curve these types of games can fuck right off.
Or maybe I'm missing something... Feel free to explain the appeal to these types of games if you disagree with me.
PS - This also applies to bullet hell shmups.