Nothing I love more than some testosterone embellished alpha-male trying to find some shred of manhood in his ability to beat a game or game mode that is universally truly, truly hard. Of course, they must add "Yeah, it was easy." Ninja Gaiden Black on Master-Ninja mode? Easy. Devil May Cry 3 on Dante Must die Mode? Not hard. Shin Contra? Nothing.
The truth is this:
I'm not impressed by people who can beat easy games. I am impressed by people who can beat hard games/modes. In other words: you will impressing me by beating a hard game, and owing up to the fact that it was hard. When someone goes up to the challenge of thrashing a game like Gradius 5 without dying, does it, and says: "Man that was HARD, but I beat it!" then, and only then am I impressed. If the person said it was easy, then eh. That's nice.
My point is this: Guys who try and seem like great gamers by calling a hard game easy really need to check thier manhood somewhere else. Nope, this isn't the rant of someone who sucks at games: I myself, am a pretty good gamer. Not to toot my own horn, but I beat Devil May Cry 3 on Dante Musit die mode, and I'm proud to say that it was one hard, hard, HARD challenge. Yet, I did it. I can beat Ninja Gaiden Black without dying, and it's a great challenge. Not very easy my friends, and I'm more than willing to admit that. In other words: I take pride in beating a hard game, and I acknowledge that it was indeed, hard.
These guys who love to make everything sound easy, aren't earning any points. If it was easy, then they had no challenge, therefore nothing to brag about. Nothing to work for, nothing to gain. It's a bit like tattoos: part of the experience, is living through the pain to initialize yourself with a life-long symbol. After you do it, you feel as though you accomplished something significant. Then walks in Mr. Lead-Follow-Get-out-of-the-way: "Nope, these didn't hurt!"
I feel trully bad for these individuals. They missed the ENTIRE experience. Literally no-pain, no-gain, just like a game (man, I can rhyme).