Are older games harder?

[Kakea]

Do older games seem harder than games now to you are is it only because there couldn't save how far you finished some of them?

 

[FLCL]

Older games aren't necessarily harder, many of them are just very frustrating due to bad design and technology limitations. Most modern games don't suffer from that problem, they are actually designed better and can be challenging from time to time, but not to a frustrating level.

 

[18]

@Lios ' reply is correct - technology limitations did make those games seem harder than they actually were - but I believe that they were also made harder than the standard level would be today to make them last longer, otherwise they'd all last about 15 minutes at best Which is why some people refer to really difficult games as 'Nintendo hard' in tribute to those games

As for the poll - I wish there was a 'both' option. While I agree that the seventh generation damaged gaming somewhat (more due to worse gameplay and shallower storylines than due to the better graphics - although the better visuals admittedly resulted in less creative artstyles), I don't pine for the 8-bit era either and I think developers who try to make their games 'retro' and use that as an excuse for poor gameplay are idiots. I enjoy both, I guess. It varies from game to game.

 

[Milan159]

Well, it's how you see it, old games are not "harder" they are just other design and not so clear because the design, but i like playing it and especially pokemon emerald i still play pokemon but X i really love it, the graphics are awesome and i love to wonder trade!

 

[P2.0]

Hard to say,I have trouble with both at times. When playing Virtual Console games,the limit to movement wasn't much.So you had get by with only few moves. D: As the games progressed in the years,more movement,and actions were added. (Yussss! ) The down side was some things required that you hit the buttons to perform combo attacks to beat larger enemies,or to make it past an obstacle and/or puzzle. @__@ (One way to describe it is Dragon Blade:Wrath of Fire.Ugh... :/ ) It gets confusing sometimes.

 

[Kakea]

Hmmmm everyone right,it technological gaps and how the games made are important to the difficulty level,we'll know how blunt the difference is when Zelda U comes out:since it's being compared to the original Zelda

 

[MathiasDrake]

Often times, older games seem harder to us because when we were younger we'd play them, get frustrated because we got lost(Original Metroid anyone?), stuck somewhere and couldn't figure out what to do, or just plain got game over's all the time. So our minds throw the idea of "This is impossible who actually finds this easy?" When really, the games weren't too hard(not all of them anyway, I'm looking at you 007 Goldeneye N64 <-<), we just didn't get it like we do now. I'm not saying there's no "Nintendo Hard" games, those exists and live to anger us gamers, but usually when you go back and play them again they don't seem as bad.

It's partially technology gap, but also the fact that as gamers we remember a game's difficulty by our own experience with it. And it's not always a cake walk experience either, so yeah curse you Goldeneye N64 and Ocarina of Time water temple! ...I mean, yes older games do seem more challenging that newer ones, but blame lazy game dev's and uncreative ideas for most of that.

 

[Artisan]

What @Spinnerweb said. Old games on the Game Boy and NES were made hard so they last longer (especially ones where you cannot save... maybe those games are shorter). It's a mix between strange moving AI and limited character movements (speed of shots fired in Metroid) that always gets me in old games. (I don't have trouble being lost @MathiasDrake I have fun exploring)

But that doesn't mean there can't be modern games that are uber hard too. DKCR and KIU are perfect examples of this.

 

[Kakea]

@Matthias Drake I loved how hard the water temple was(now unfortunately it's time consuming)I loved how Zelda games difficulty was! That's what made me a fan:I needed to stop playing and come back a while later to finish it! Now nothings that hard,it's more time consuming or have menial task that make it seem harder so I barely play now.

 

[Mikaya]

I think they are (from my experience). They seem to be more in-depth, more challenging, and I think there were less chances to save your game (motivates you to do better next time). Games nowadays are a bit more easy and have less gameplay value due to this.

 

[Icemario]

In many cases, yes. Like Zelda games, the older ones are much harder than the newer ones.

 

[Darrix]

I do think older games are harder as they include multiple challenges like, defeat a boss without this... Also you have to remember we can look online if we are stuck while in the older days there were no such things as online guides, and even if there were you would have to still have skill to beat the boss. Unlike today were if you are stuck, you can just go online and find how to beat it. Plus back then those secret tunnels in mario were not found, but now its in every website that shows you what to do. Im pretty sure that there is a manual to tell you when to jump! So, yeah they pretty much are harder, even though I like new games too. I am not trying to be mean, its just I know that I look up walkthroughs for Zelda way too much... lol

 

[Kakea]

Is there any games nowdays that seem to be hard as older games(without using walkthroughs)despite being able to save:it literary stops you in your tracks?

 

[jasjas]

Old games are harder because they have more content. Back then they were even more harder because there was no walkthroughs and everyone had to find out everything for themselfs.

 

[Kakea]

For real they have the instructions on the screen all the time!(it's OK for new challenges but sometimes it get's boring)

 

[Alex]

You've clearly never played Skyrim on Legendary difficulty.

 

[Slayerpon Tatsu]

Play wonderful 101% hard and then I am sure. But for your question, they aren't harder the controls are just sometimes really bad or bad programming.

 

[423]

Older games were harder simply because a lot of them were on arcade machines. Back in the day, kids would spend all of their hard-earned allowance just to play arcade games. If you really think about it, most arcade games are the somewhat equivalent to Flappy Bird (from the player's point of view). A player wants to get the highest score, so they try and try again in order to do so. This is one of the reasons developers made the older games difficult; in order to receive more profit.

 

[Kakea]

There are alot I havn't got a chance to play....maybe that's why I only remember the older onrs being harder....I'm playing now are games that are either hardish or easy(so far the hardest game I played this year was....Liberation Maiden:fighting the last boss on hard mode gives drives me crazy!

 

[jobby47]

I am not sure if they are harder. I think some are probably harder and some are probably easier. That is what I think about if older games are harder than newer games. The ones I have played are not.