Current Events > SNES & NES games difficulty is ridiculously hard compared to todays games

(+) Yeah! (+)

after at least 10 years of trying to beat The Lion King on Super Nintendo, I finally beat it.

Played it on the Disney classic games, level 2 is ridiculously hard for no reason.

Game devs didn't care back then LOL.

The rewind feature is life saver LOL

Yep. By product of them being much less compromising and coddling as well artificially extending game length.

Arcades were cheap/difficult to eke out more quarters and that set the standards. Home konsols had to gradually break away from that.

IceCreamOnStero posted...

Yep. By product of them being much less compromising and coddling as well artificially extending game length.

Devs need to go back to being like this.

Alot of games in that era had the possibility of being an arcade game in mind, so you would want people continually having to dump quarters in them

Mr_Karate_II posted...

Devs need to go back to being like this.

Some do, they just get get special designations like "hardcore" or "The Dark Souls of X"

Yes they were. Send me Elden Ring and I raise you TMNT on NES.

Dark Souls ain't got nuthin' on TMNT or Battletoads.

It mystifies me how I beat MM4 as a kid but struggled with MM11. Sure, kids have more free time, but still.

IceCreamOnStero posted...

Some do, they just get get special designations like "hardcore" or "The Dark Souls of X"

I seen someone compare Lion King to the Dark Souls of the SNES.

Now games have achievement and trophies. It's easier to beat them. But then you have "beat the game without getting hit once " trophies.

I think it was also part of wanting customers to not feel like they got ripped off with a quickie but expensive game

The_Korey posted...

Arcades were cheap/difficult to eke out more quarters and that set the standards. Home konsols had to gradually break away from that.

TimeForAction posted...

Alot of games in that era had the possibility of being an arcade game in mind, so you would want people continually having to dump quarters in them

Its not just arcades, its also the nature of being unable to make the big sprawling games of today. A game back in the game would take like an hour or two to beat it in one straight run, so to prevent a kid renting the gsme and blowing through it in a day, you add a bunch of trial and error bullshit to get them to buy it outright or rent it over and over.

A lot of them were difficult because they were just intentionally made to be extremely unfair and frustrating though, I still remember Gradius 3 and how you'd lose all your upgrades when you died. You could come back from that in the early levels but eventually you reach a point where you're just fucked if you die.

Fucking Super Star Wars...

Metal_Gear_Raxis posted...

Fucking Super Star Wars...

Return of The Jedi was much harder in my opinion.

As frustratingly difficult games were back then, it definitely made be better at gaming overall.

For games being difficult back then, Turtles IV: Turtles in Time is easy as hell to beat on hard mode. That's one game I can play over and over and not get bored with it.

Mr_Karate_II posted...

Return of The Jedi was much harder in my opinion.

Empire Strikes Back is the hardest of the trilogy.

KFHEWUI posted...

Empire Strikes Back is the hardest of the trilogy.

You're probably right

Yes, when visiting my friend who had an NES, I was surprised to see him throw the controller at the TV after getting game overs.

These type of games were commonplace in rental stores.

Mr_Karate_II posted...

The rewind feature is life saver LOL

Word. It's given me the opportunity to fully experience (with a huge crutch, obviously) games I otherwise would not have bothered with. I'd say the game that's surprised me the most has been DKC2. I expected challenge from the "usual lineup" like Super Ghouls n Ghosts and Castlevania, but I figured Diddy Kong would be in line with the original DKC, which I've always felt was a pretty approachable game in terms of challenge. It's *so much tougher* and borderline relentless in spots.

KFHEWUI posted...

Empire Strikes Back is the hardest of the trilogy.

ESB is by far the hardest, SW is harder than RotJ, but that's more because it plays much worse.

Metal_Gear_Raxis posted...

ESB is by far the hardest, SW is harder than RotJ, but that's more because it plays much worse.

Yes, ESB - you were lucky if you got off Hoth. Super Star Wars had that Catina boss which was tough but thats about it. ROTJ, I mean the hardest level in that one was the annoying Death Star Trench run where you just had to keep the camera straight.

Mr_Karate_II posted...

Played it on the Disney classic games, level 2 is ridiculously hard for no reason.

it wasn't for no reason, it was so you didn't beat it in one sitting and would rent it again and again, or just buy it

FlyEaglesFly24 posted...

ROTJ, I mean the hardest level in that one was the annoying Death Star Trench run where you just had to keep the camera straight.

The Death Star Escape in ROTJ was atrocious.

The Palpatine fight was also rough.

Wasn't there a PC version of that Turtles NES game that couldn't be beaten because they messed up a floor?

Xenogears15 posted...

Dark Souls ain't got nuthin' on TMNT or Battletoads.

Once you learn the boss AI exploits for TMNT it isn't bad. Battletoads you need some pretty ridiculous memorization for parts though.

Mr_Karate_II posted...

Return of The Jedi was much harder in my opinion.

Empire was the toughest. Fuck Hoth with a rusty tuna can lid.

I breezed through the other two.

NES/SNES games were designed with "arcade" mentality in mind, in that they intentionally tried to help the rental industry by trying to force players to have to rent games multiple times to beat them.

This should not be praised.

Also, Mike Tyson/Mr. Dream is still a stonewall. I can pummel the crap out of everyone else with minimal effort, and that first 1:30 of Mr. Dream is still the biggest crapshoot in gaming.

If games weren't hard they could be beat in like an hour for the 80 bucks they cost.

Guide posted...

It mystifies me how I beat MM4 as a kid but struggled with MM11. Sure, kids have more free time, but still.

More like your reflex deteriorated over time.
It happens to everyone.

Meh. I feel like with enough time, I could beat most NES/SNES games. But I don't think it's physically possible for me to P rank all levels in Ultrakill on the hardest difficulty, or beat Doom on Ultra Nightmare, or Hollow Knight on Steel Soul mode

People overblow the difficulty of stuff like Dark Souls, but there's for sure some frustratingly difficult shit coming out today

Mr_Karate_II posted...

Played it on the Disney classic games, level 2 is ridiculously hard for no reason.

The programmers were told to come up with a cutoff point to prevent players from beating the game as a rental. Virgin was well into development when the mandate came down from Disney and the second level was the only place the programmers could find to inflate the difficulty accordingly. (There's also a glitch toward the end of the level -- an invisible branch which can impede your progress until you master the timing through trial and error.)

Anyway, congrats on beating the game.

KFHEWUI posted...

Empire Strikes Back is the hardest of the trilogy.

Overall, yeah, esp. by front loading its difficulty to the first few stages.
Jedi's Falcon escape from the Death Star 2.0 though is like the Joker laughing in my face. I don't think I've ever done it more than a single time.

As for NES hard, I actually appreciate it enough. Can you imagine Castlevania or Ninja Gaiden as walks in the park? Not as grand. Besides, back in the day, when many of us barely got 1-3 new games to own a year (we played a lot via rental), the difficulty was good value for the price & replay incentive.

Lion King was my first game ever so yeah that was brutal.

Funnily enough after playing through that collection with the rewind feature I then immediately was able play it again and beat it without save states. The game is trial and error made much more difficult with limited lives.

Difficulty is also from lack of QA testing

ExtremeLuchador posted...

Wasn't there a PC version of that Turtles NES game that couldn't be beaten because they messed up a floor?

Indeed.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/3/2/AAA_aCAADjyo.png
It was fixed in the European release.

Iirc a lot of the bullshit difficulty was so kids couldn't beat games within a rental period.

Beating Goldeneye on 00 Agent and unlocking all the cheats is as hard as any NES game. I don't think anyone could do it without consulting strategies from the Internet for some missions.

Bullshit games for coin sucking and hiding short length aside I dont feel much has changed. There are plenty of very hard games now and there were plenty of easy games then. As usual with past vs present its nostalgia goggles + limited knowledge of what you didnt play back then and what is out now.

Notti posted...

I think it was also part of wanting customers to not feel like they got ripped off with a quickie but expensive game

Yeah step grandad made a bargain with my brother and I. He would buy us a new video game when and only when we beat the last one he bought us. We got to where we'd beat them in a day. He had to pull that offer off the table real quick.

Guess he got that idea cause we actually struggled to beat the original Mario bros. We could get to the end but that final level whipped our asses. Probably cause we didnt know the level was a on a endless loop unless you took a specific path

Mr_Karate_II posted...

Devs need to go back to being like this.

God no!

Zwijn posted...

Bullshit games for coin sucking and hiding short length aside I dont feel much has changed. There are plenty of very hard games now and there were plenty of easy games then. As usual with past vs present its nostalgia goggles + limited knowledge of what you didnt play back then and what is out now.

Also for a lot of games nowadays you have difficulty settings, so the hard mode is there for those who want it without crushing those who dont. In the old days a lot of the notoriously hard games had just a standard difficulty you either take or leave.

Mr_Karate_II posted...

after at least 10 years of trying to beat The Lion King on Super Nintendo, I finally beat it.

Played it on the Disney classic games, level 2 is ridiculously hard for no reason.

Fuck that invisible branch or whatever when youre double jumping on the ostrich. I dont even know if thats supposed to be like that or if it was just an accident and they didnt care but fuck it.

rexcrk posted...

Fuck that invisible branch or whatever when youre double jumping on the ostrich. I dont even know if thats supposed to be like that or if it was just an accident and they didnt care but fuck it.

The Ostrich part is ridiculously difficult

MageSwordo posted...

Yes, when visiting my friend who had an NES, I was surprised to see him throw the controller at the TV after getting game overs.

That was how you wrecked a controller. Nowadays, a hard look wrecks the whole damn thing.

The games were certainly harder, but Im not going to ignore the fact that the controls at times were pretty bad along with the controller response times.