old games were hard!

i grew up with the ps1 onwards so never experienced old school difficulty but today i borrowed a NES from someone i know and played a few games and hot damn they were difficult!

megaman: Barely got past the robot master (cutman) , can't do the platforms at the start of gutsman

contra : even with the konami code took me about an hour to do the first 2 levels

battletoads : damn second level is kicking my ass

ninja gaiden : oh get lost

the odd thing is, in newr games if i get to a dificult part i'm usually reluctant to go back to it and avoid playing again for as long as i can help it. With these all i can think about is going back and showing the game who's boss.

its an interesting effect i've only experienced with NES games

makes me appreciate how easy current gen games are

Back then it was a major accomplishment to finish a game. Now games are designed to be finished by anyone who can lift a controller.Rocky32189

This is so true. I'm 33 and grew up in the glory days of the NES. And those games were just punishing. I played Mega Man recently and it felt like walking through my old neighborhood. :) One of my favorite games this gen is Demon's Souls, but I have to laugh a little at people who complain about its difficulty. Go try Solomon's Key, then we'll talk.

Oh thank jeebus. I thought i was the only one who found NES games difficult. I mean, i was a kid at the time, but back then i thought i just sucked.meteo_ryte

That's one reason why old games kick so much ass.Yangire

Being overly hard to compensate for teh fact that if it wasnt so hard you could beat it in an hour is a good thing?

[QUOTE="Yangire"]That's one reason why old games kick so much ass.warmaster670

Being overly hard to compensate for teh fact that if it wasnt so hard you could beat it in an hour is a good thing?

What's the problem with that? If someone enjoys the game why does it matter how long the game would be if it was easy?

While I like a good challenge I would hate for gaming to go back to its punishing days. Thank god for difficulty settings I suppose.GrandJury

I agree with you, yes the old games were hard and amazing, but now with new games they have difficulty settings, so you can play old school murder mode or easy.

If you think the second level in Battletoads is bad then wait until Level 3 In all my years I haven't beaten the level yet.Treflis

Turbo Tunnel of doom from hell.

I love my NES games. Games noware too easy though lots of fun but I love getting good at old games and beating them.

i cant beat mike tysons punchout :(

I remember too when you had to beat them in one sitting. There'd be that one kid in the neigborhood who was like "I'm almost done Super Mario Bros" and you'd be like "whaaaaaaaaat?" and go over to his house and he'd have it on pause while he played outside to get a break. The NES would be hot as a mother**** and if anyone got too close to it you'd be like 'GETAWWAYOMGDONTTOUCHITILLKILLYOU" so you didn't have to start all over again.

I still cannot beat Battletoads to this day, and the only Ninja Gaiden I could finish was Ninja Gaiden 2.

I love my NES games. Games noware too easy though lots of fun but I love getting good at old games and beating them.

0diN_7

Then play new games on hard, problem solved.

[QUOTE="0diN_7"]

I love my NES games. Games noware too easy though lots of fun but I love getting good at old games and beating them.

warmaster670

Then play new games on hard, problem solved.

They still aren't even nearly as hard, most games are hard these days should be labeled under "easy".

ninja gaiden : oh get lost Richymisiak

Games are a little too easy nowadays Demon's Souls is freakin awesome and is the hardest game in this generation in my opinion but thats not really a difficult feat to accomplish. Also the difficulty apparently gets uped everytime you replay it with your high level character but it just feels like its gettting easier and easier even though it's meant to get harder. But I agree it's still not as punishing as 15 or 20 years ago. I still have trouble beating Nintendo games. Granted they are not as difficult when I was 4 or 5 years old but they are still pretty punishing especially Mega Man (platformer from hell).

I know.Its because today games are designed to be beaten by anyone,so players will move on to other games,aka spin offs or sequeuls.At least thats what I think.But yeah,I get that same feeling of showing the game Who's Boss too.Its what makes older games so much fun,and so addicting.

Now developers care only with graphic improvements, that is why most old games are better and harder

there are hard games on n64 and ps1 /2 xbox gc just gotta know where to look

i know rugrats is possibly the hardest to play any of the followin because they rely on passwords to save progress

1-rugrats i gotta go party

2 goldeneye 007- thats a hard one , the last level god knows youll need a guide for the very very last level on just about any difficulty -geting to that level is hard as well not including unlockin all the cheats -w.o usin gamesharks or button codes dont start sayin oh i can do that easily by usn agameshark no sorry using a gameshark automatically disqualifies you

3 perfect dark -this game even today -heck im not sure why i didnt put this as number 2 since i hadnt beat either the 360 or n64 versions cheat wise and 100 percent

4 -super mario bros nes versions/vc versions lack of save function kills it for me

5 gta any 2d 1 without a map i seriously get lost in the ps1 versions

6 top gear 2 -i dont know for some reason the ai cars go alot faster then you do even oneasy and 3000 /1 were easy

7 -stuntrace fx , i mean come on the last section is impossible to beat that clock , i get one lap in and bam half way into lap 2 time expires

8 -saints row 2-even -the dl maps i cant stand them -the one makes me protect trucks and do this with all the guys shootin me ugh i gave up on that mission

9 -bully se/ps2 , these 2 classes will make you want to throw your controller -biology 5 and music 3-5 all geograph past 2 you need aguide

10 -driver all of them , ,ive only beatin 1 and 2 ,,

but 3 and 4 are hard as heck

11 -pretty mcuh all nes ;/snes games /gen games are past 11

me personally the games that made me yell at the tv

are

rugrats all of them except scavenger hunt and search for reptar allthough that incident in isl 7 really made me angry

goldeneye last level control and aztec 3 hard levels then the speed runs except runway and bunker 1/2

perfectdark pretty much all perfect agent levels

and duke nukem without coop -ii really cant stand doin it over and over again

nail biters these games are

i litterally broke a stick just palying marioparty 1/2 those minigame coaster things

i can get so frustrated with these games its not even funny ,

they like rig these games where you have a hard time actuallybeatin the ai -especally in marioparty 1/2 hard difficulty coasters -where the meca maratthon and tug o war-in marioparty 1-/2

these really broke my stick and gave me a blister as if screamin my voice out wasnt enough

Goldeneye was hard to beat maybe the first two times dude other then that once you knew what you were doing and knew your way around it wasn't that hard of a game to beat even on hardest difficulty other then that your right there are some hard games from recent generation consoles

i grew up with the ps1 onwards so never experienced old school difficulty but today i borrowed a NES from someone i know and played a few games and hot damn they were difficult!

megaman: Barely got past the robot master (cutman) , can't do the platforms at the start of gutsman

contra : even with the konami code took me about an hour to do the first 2 levels

battletoads : damn second level is kicking my ass

ninja gaiden : oh get lost

the odd thing is, in newr games if i get to a dificult part i'm usually reluctant to go back to it and avoid playing again for as long as i can help it. With these all i can think about is going back and showing the game who's boss.

its an interesting effect i've only experienced with NES games

makes me appreciate how easy current gen games are

Richymisiak

Battle Toads Battle Maniacs on the SNES was kinda hard too. If you can't pass the 2nd level of the original you have a long time before you can finish this.

Yeah I just got emulators for the NES and other old consoles, which isn't even the real thing but Ive just started the original Legend of Zelda running around like "WTF?!" and I don't even think it's supposed to be that hard! Next up is Contra and Battletoads. Whoo!

And by the way TC, I'm really digging the Muse. Best. Band. Eva.

Back then it was a major accomplishment to finish a game. Now games are designed to be finished by anyone who can lift a controller.Rocky32189

Hehe, so true. I remember back then when I completed Friday the 13th on NES for the very first time. I was so happy and overjoyed that I beat it that I totally disregarded that the ending wasn't a nice pay off for all of that hard work.

I remember beating all the cups on every difficulty in F-Zero X on the N64...then they unlocked the "Master" difficulty. I never felt more accomplished then when I finally got all trophies, on every cup, with the same hovercar.

I remember playing on Contra and beating that game so many times. My cousin and I would stop using the code to make it more difficult and still beat it. I'm not sure that games were more difficult back then, probably more the fact it was one difficulty level for the game as they were limited to what it can do. I think growing up with games like that made me a little gamer today.

i grew up with the ps1 onwards so never experienced old school difficulty but today i borrowed a NES from someone i know and played a few games and hot damn they were difficult!

megaman: Barely got past the robot master (cutman) , can't do the platforms at the start of gutsman

contra : even with the konami code took me about an hour to do the first 2 levels

battletoads : damn second level is kicking my ass

ninja gaiden : oh get lost

the odd thing is, in newr games if i get to a dificult part i'm usually reluctant to go back to it and avoid playing again for as long as i can help it. With these all i can think about is going back and showing the game who's boss.

its an interesting effect i've only experienced with NES games

makes me appreciate how easy current gen games are

Richymisiak

first of all i too grew up with a ps1 with easier games...

i never in my child hood played NES games..

but their actualy really fun... yes they are hard .. yes you might not ever pass it..

but dont give up on old games.. dont play them once and give up..

i started playing the 1st mario and keept dieing on the verry first level...

its been about 2 weeks that i have been playing it and i can make it all the way to level 6 without any cheats:D

that is what makes them so fun..

i hope you give the older games a chance and that this helps...

i think what people fail to realize is that most games on the nes weren't real long (aside from rpg's)and developers didn't have as much space to work with so games were generally shorter. because of this they had to make the game harder to have a higher replayability. arcade games in the 80's were programmed to woop you and eat your quarters (like contra) mega man 1 was really only difficult b/c of the lack of password system (that every subsequent megaman had)

all in all, if you spent a couple hours playing a game you could usually memorize most of the stuff for the levels and get pretty far. i remember getting contra one christmas and me and my step brother played for like 5 hours and almost beat the game (we didnt know thekonami code at the time)
i found that ninja gaiden 2 and 3 are considerably easier than 1, give those a try if you liked 1 but found it a little too hard. also i found castlevania 3 to be a bit easier than 1 and 2 (the super nes super castlevania 4 is even easier i think)

z4twenny speaks the truth. It wasn't until the sixth generation of gaming that eight hours became "short." The brevity of old games is something I actually miss. I'd rather play forty engaging minutes than forty boring hours. Though I have no idea what he's talking about Ninja Gaiden. The Dark Sword of Chaos' enemies were bordering on evil in design, even if the birds did a third of the damage and The Ancient Ship of Doom had limited continues and a health bar that was essentially half the series' normal length. The hardest thing Ninja Gaiden had was sending you back two levels every time you die to the last boss (not game over, I mean die), but the levels were much easier to get through than The Dark Sword of Chaos' final stage (which you also had to go through any time you lost to the final boss).Fragasnap

in the dark sword of chaos i found that the wall climbing and phantom placement could make the game pretty easy. on the ship of doom you got a sword extension and the special attacks were juiced up a little.

i only say this b/c i went through all 3 games about 3 months ago and sure i died a couple times but it wasn't too bad. now battletoads speeder bike and airplane levels, those were ridiculous

The level of difficult and challenge in old games more or less compensated for their relatively short length. Most 2D games (aside from RPG's at least) during the 8-bit and 16 bit era didn't take more than a couple of hours to actually beat (perhaps even less if they didn't have a "save" or password feature built in). So in that respect, it was necessary to make them as challenging as possible in order to make the experience more worthwhile. Unfortunatley though a lot of these games took it a tad too far at times, making the games more TEDIOUS as opposed to challenging.