The 4D Slip - Difficulty In Gaming

Those that I talk to about video games might think I have an unnatural obsession with tough difficulty in games, but that's not really the case at all. I find the balance of legitimate challenge in gaming on top of clever level design a sort of zen experience. Not that I can't find joy in a lack of challenge and a streamlined experience, as long as the game design is still strong (Super Mario Bros. 3, Sonic 3 & Knuckles, and TMNT4 fall into this category), but there is something magical about throwing yourself into a seemingly inescapable situation and coming out on top.

However, with the release of Modern Warfare 2 (which I have not played, but I have heard remains an issue) and NSMBWii (which brings back 'Nintendo hard') I would like to bring up the idea of different styles of difficulty.


1. Quarter Muncher Difficulty

For those that have played a hard arcade game, you know what this means. Developers in the old days would pretty much throw the player into situations where unless you were basically a 'God of Gaming', you would need to keep pumping quarters into the machine to keep going. Very rarely was it 'impossible' to beat a game, but quite frankly it was infuriating to try in most cases, and instead move on or just accept your defeat and put in another quarter.

Somehow this style still lives on in games like Street Fighter 4 with crap like Seth. A random spike in difficulty made to make you go to the continue screen and try again. Even OCCing (One Credit Complete) these types of games is tough because you frequently have to exploit bugs and dumb design decisions to get past them. SNK Boss Syndrome was made purely for the reason of getting the player to do just that. (I love you SNK, but I hate you so much)


2. Old School Difficulty

Named as such because it's been at the forefront of gaming for a long ass time (also known as 'Nintendo hard') and still remains active in gaming, this is my personal favorite style of difficulty. The difficulty revolves around the developers testing the player by deliberately making challenges the player has to work their way through, and challenge themselves to get better at the game. This is different from quarter munching difficulty in that its frequently (but not always) less frustrating and more forgiving with the chances it gives you to conquer an obstacle, since you're not pumping quarters in, there's really no need to bother.

My favorite example of this is Contra for the NES. A seemingly impossible game full of one hit deaths and screen filling chaos. However, after playing the game enough, and getting used to the rules of the world, you can navigate yourself through without much of a challenge at all. This is, in my opinion, true difficulty. Unlike the other examples of difficulty, these perfectly designed games test only your skills as a gamer and when you die it is ONLY your own fault.


3. Bad Design Difficulty

This is by far the worst kind of difficulty, in my opinion. Difficulty made because the developers made a bad decision in the making of the game and made things much harder than they're supposed to be.

But not just that. Some games are designed specifically with strange design issues or control quirks in mind, (Castlevania and GnG come to mind) and base their difficulty on the player working around these issues instead of any challenge the actual game may possess. Heck, some include that too (Ninja Gaiden has the damn birds, but still remains challenging for other reasons such as legitimate level and boss design), and this still remains a popular style of difficulty to a lot of retro games. Even if it feels archaic to most newer ones.


4. Fake/Cheese Difficulty

This is probably the most controversial one, and the one I'll receive the most flak for (who am I to judge difficulty and whatnot), but I will say it anyway. Fake Difficulty is when developers simply kill or harm you and there is no way to avoid or work around it. There are multiple forms of this cheese in gaming, but it is by far the worst form of difficulty, one that punishes players simply for the hell of it. There are many games I could include here, but the one I will focus on is Call Of Duty's veteran mode.

Call Of Duty is well known for being a game that has "no AI". The enemies always know exactly where you are and will spray bullets over your location no matter where you are. You can't sneak around unless it's scripted and when you blow your cover, enemies instantly know where you are and fill you full of bullets. COD is known for the 'wall of death' difficulty that simply kills you for walking where the developers don't want you to go, without any warning, and spam instant kill grenades that you simply can't avoid (and in a certain level in COD4, it's basically up to chance if you can even make it through) all the while pouring enemies out that only stop when you walk over an invisible switch. Sort of like a shooting range.

Enemies can't be worked around, or strategized around. You simply need to shoot them until they fall and hope you have enough cover so that a grenade or a wall doesn't find you first. It's not difficulty you can overcome, merely put up with.

I hope you enjoyed this look into my thoughts on game difficulty, I always wanted to write it down somewhere, and now I have.