You know me. You may even be me. I'm the one who gets the controller when there's that boss someone just can't beat. That is the essence of being a gamer.

When the original Nintendo came out I was 5 or 6. Yet I was intuitively or luckily the one who seemed to be able to get past the hard parts in games none of my older brothers or friends could seem to manage. Until fairly recently that is.

However, in an effort to make games more rewarding to people who suck at gaming, and thus increase their audience and fatten the bottom line, game developers have done something that is inexcusable and shameful. They've made video games EASY.

What happened to the NES generation and the Genesis generation? Or the game system I played most once I started having money for games, the SNES. At the high tide of my SNES Gaming "career" I owned more than 30 titles, which nowadays doesnt sound like all that much to an adult with a full time job buying a game or two every month, but to a kid its quite a stash. Think back hard, gamers, of all the games you used to own roughly what percentage would you say you saw through to the end credits. I'd guess it was a good deal lower than the current generation. Now the only reason not to finish a game is because it flat out sucks.

Lets examine this through the lens of two recent releases. One being Mega Man 9, available through xbox live, playstation network and Wii Virtual console. This is a faithful resurrection of a venerable classic of old school gaming. This game will eat you alive and hwarf up the bones and indigestible bits. This game forgives failure not at all and doesnt care if you suck. It is what it is. It doesnt care if you cant win. Mega Man doesnt mind telling you "You just cant hack it."

Now lets look at a 2nd release, Prince of Persia, for the 360. This game has taken fond memories of a nigh unbeatable final boss from the original game who would only finally met his end at the hands of a deft controller jockey, and soiled them irrevocably. Some of the greater platform games of the last console generation, the Prince of Persia line was characterized by in many cases, more difficult than the average. Now look at it..... its impossible to die. I mean physically impossible unless you are so horrendously retarded that you shouldnt be allowed to live. You could hold the controller with your feet and still beat this game.

Why dear gamers, why has it come to this?

Because Master Chief doesnt want you to feel bad for not being a badass. Because its a nice mechanic to regain your health simply by not being shot at, it rewards being a sniveling coward and not using things like cover and dodging. Because we need a world where EVERYONE can be a winner. When its a simple fact that some people are losers. When you take something that could be justifiably called an artform and dumb it down for the lowest common denominator you rob it of any value to the people who used to appreciate it for the challenge, for beating a worthy enemy. In the old TurboGrafix game Bloody Wolf, you fight your way through legions of soldiers armed with machine guns and grenades and get to a final boss who would rip rambo a new one only to decide, "Sure you have a high tech assault rifle with a bayonet and I could kill you with my equally as good assault rifle, or a well placed grenade, instead I think I'll only be allowed to use a knife just so you understand what a badass I am." Thats what is, for the most part, missing from games today.

Game developers for the most part are making games easy so that even the poorest gamers can be winners. This unfortunately means that gamers looking for a challenge are the ultimate losers.

Long live Mega Man, Long live the health meter and limited lives. Long live games without continues, games like Steel Battalion. Long live Ninja Gaiden Black and TMNT for NES. Games SHOULD be difficult.