Seriously, are they?  Over the years, I’ve been noticing that an increasing number of new games take less and less effort to beat nowadays.  I never have to wonder if I’ll be able to beat a new game or not.  In the past, I had many games sitting around that I needed to return to and finish.  Now, it is quite uncommon for me to start a game without being able to finish it.  When the rare game comes along that I can’t beat on my first playthrough, I’m rather surprised.  Such things never happen anymore.

I remember games definitely used to be much harder.  Back when I was playing a bunch of Super Nintendo games for the first time, I couldn’t beat any of them.  Finally, I got through “Donkey Kong Country 3”, but the second game stopped me near the end, at the stressful Castle Crush level, while the first game of the series stopped me earlier still at world number three.  It took quite some time before I was good enough to beat those games.  And to this day, I can’t beat any old “Mario” games except for “Super Mario World”, with help.  I have not beaten one game on the “Super Mario All-Stars” collection.  Not one.  Even “The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past” was hard, and it wasn’t even part of the platformer genre that used to cause me so much grief.  You remember that big worm centipede boss thing where you have to hit the tail, and it keeps pushing you off the platform, forcing you to start the battle over again?  Yeah. Continue reading Are Games Getting Too Easy? →