So many comments about how it is meant to artificially extend gameplay, or motivate the player to continue.
Could it not be as simple as the game cartridge only holds 1MB of game data max, and restarting the level from 0 when you die uses less valuable storage space?
I’d go as far as to even implement a 1-Up mushroom cash-shop, $1 for five 1-Ups
Anon invents arcade cabinets
“Green Mario” because the kind of people who have these ideas should fear his true name.
Gr8 b8 m8
I r8 8/8
Now that takes me back.
Please. Please please please please PLEASE be satire.
*enshittifies
I used to play this game when I was like 10 I don’t remember it being particularly frustrating it wasn’t easy but I don’t remember it being impossibly difficult.
I use save states fuck that paywall BS
Emulators are great. Just found a Family Guy Game iso for PPSSPP after my original PSP died years ago. Now I can play with my favorite controller.
A game is something that has a goal within certain bounds/rules. You accept that when you play and tedium isn’t relivent except as maybe a thing you don’t like, just like you might not like how a piece feels or character looks or a particular rule.
A toy is something you play with for “fun”.
I think people that want a toy accidentally start playing a game then get upset that it isnt a toy.
Why can’t/shouldn’t a game be both? Plenty of games have easy modes and cheat consoles.
They CAN be, but they are not obligated to be.
Fair enough.
During COVID I beat smb1 for the first time. On Switch. Where you could rewind 😓
I beat this game back in the 80’s and I still don’t know how
In the 90s I beat smw so hard, all the dragon coins, all the secret exits, tubular, the palette change, etc. it took years. I was convinced there was still more to find in that game even when the gba version came out and I finally had access to walkthroughs. I’m pretty sure I consulted Nintendo power on a few things though
I recently watched a guy play through the nes Bart vs the space mutants though and that was legitimately a like “no kid ever beat this”
Back in the day games were hard (often in unfair ways) to stretch out the game, because there was only like 4 levels and if it was easy you’d be finished in a single afternoon.
Now games are thousands of hours long and they hold your hand every step of the way to make sure you actually see all that content; and then the majority of players quit after completing only about 1/4th of the total game.
This is probably why I love Soulslikes so fucking much. I grew up with the first kind, and have suffered long enough with the latter kind. Soulslikes are the perfect blend of new and old school design philosophy (when done right). Tough, but also not short. They don’t hold your hand, but they don’t exactly keep you entirely in the dark on how to play. They reward community action not just in the game with the message systems, but also because it doesn’t spoon-feed you everything, certain deeper ideas are discovered more from talking to other players who found things you missed; which is something we did back in the day before the internet.
I’d agree with you mostly except that nobody out there making a “soulslike” actually seems to understand what makes Dark Souls so good. There are so, so many garbage soulslikes out there, and exceptionally few good ones.
To be fair, there are also a ton of games using the term “souls like” just because they have a respawn system and checkpoints. I don’t include these, personally.
Some of the good ones not made by From soft, IMO, include Lies of P which is probably the closest to form, and The Surge, but 1 over 2 for level design, and 2 over 1 for boss design.
Mortal Shell could be good if it wasn’t so buggy that enemies only actually appear once they’re in your face. It’s got atmosphere and the weighty combat part pretty good.
Another Crab’s Treasure nails everything while having a totally different, satirical take on the concept.
I haven’t tried Entoria, but the reviews don’t look good. I was hoping it would be at least to the level of Lies.
I’ve played all these and agree that Lies of P is one of the few good ones. The Surge is actually one I had in mind when I wrote my response. I think it’s absolute trash. The limb targeting gimmick and the forced quicktime finishers constantly stopping the action are just awful. I agree with your assessment of the others.
At the end of the day I’d almost always rather just play Dark Souls (yes, even Dark Souls 2) again rather than any of the crappy copycats out there.
Don’t forget to add mounts and pets.
Some kind of plucky green dinosaur would fit in well.
we need that Yoshi armor dlc
I am slowly recognizing what I don’t like about modern gaming.
Is it the lack of people recognizing how great you are and how much money you have to spend?
How about every dollar you spend a twitch streamer will be forced to say your name?
You good now?
Okay? I was before, but I am now, too, thanks.
Nintendo is way ahead of these guys. The last few mario games let you pick a character that can’t be hurt or killed. And if that’s too hard for you, they’ll even show you exactly how to play the level.
I can at least support baby mode for, like, extremely small kids and maybe co-op with that one person who’s never touched a video game in their life but wants to play along with the other three. You know, the kids are over at grandpa’s, and he wants to feel like he’s playing and having fun with them instead of just setting and forgetting them on the magic dopamine box, but he’s no good at it, so he takes the invincible character. I think that’s reasonable, inclusive game design.
What I take issue with is when baby mode drags down the difficulty of the rest of the game modes. For example, you as a game designer benchmark “normal mode” against “being literally invulnerable”, and so you now have to play hard mode to even vaguely feel any sort of tension.
I agree completely. Idk why they do it. They got filthy rich off kids 5-10 playing the shit out of NES games.
The way it works is this: The people catch hold of something, and make magic. It makes a ton of money, because people can recognize magic. Then other people with investment money get involved. Gradually, the magic oriented people are outnumbered, the fun of their average working day declines, and they leave or simply get shouldered into some niche somewhere by the unimaginable torrent of motivated people who have something else on their mind.
No one involved in Mario, Zelda, Metroid, or Contra has been anywhere near the design team at Nintendo for decades. These guys own the rights to call it “Mario,” but if they weren’t making games where you can turn Mario into an elephant, they could be just as happy making sweat pants with writing on the ass. And the magic is off somewhere else, doing its thing.
Mario Wonder both had a “baby mode” mechanic and yet also had some genuinely interesting and challenging levels.
Celeste is extremely difficult yet also has a baby mode feature.
Many games have a “tell me a story” difficulty level which is more or less the same idea.
Games having an easy difficulty without detracting from the game’s main challenge and balance is not a problem IMO.
Don’t tell Soulslike players that. They think that even the slightest concession to accessibility makes the game unplayable garbage, even if you choose not to use it.
The real problem with the “improved” SMB from the post is not that it has ways of making the game easier, it’s that the “fixes” amount to a microtransaction hellhole, complete with intrusive prompts.
I’m all for games with configurable difficulty. Nobody thinks less of Doom for having difficulty settings. But everybody does think less of games that pair frustrating mechanics (like difficulty spikes or countdown timers) with bypass MTX.
To use the default controversial genre, I think that a soulslike with difficulty settings would work just fine. But a soulslike where your healing flask only restores one charge every ten minutes unless you buy more charges from the store (but store-bought ones can exceed the normal maximum) or where game-breakingly OP equipment is available as MTX would not go over well.
streamlining
you mean instead of playing the game, i could pay you to not play the game i’m playing instead?
sign me up
I have this same mindset and it’s great because it results in 0 temptation to spend money on game progression or items. If I’m playing a game where it feels like spending money like that is the only way to have fun with it, I just drop the game.
Actually, I don’t even really bother with any games that I understand to have p2w aspects or any mtx that aren’t just cosmetic.
If I’m playing a game where it feels like spending money like that is the only way to have fun with it, I just drop the game.
A big part of the “hook” in GACHA and other whale-hunting games is the initial hook of a fun and engaging setup. Genshin Impact and Sword of Convallaria both stick out to me as initially very fun and captivating games. They draw you in with the cut scenes and ramp up the curve like a normal open world JRPG.
But the longer you play, the more you start tripping over resource requirements and timers on abilities and the need to do “daily” activities that involve logging on every day. All of this is fun in the early cycles but feels more and more like work by the later stages of the game. Dungeons start looking more and more basic - big empty rooms with a bunch of respawns in the center. Fights feel more contingent on having a bigger number than any kind of strategy or skill.
If you’ve played older traditional JRPGs before, it’ll start feeling weird because you know you should be expecting the game to pick up towards a dramatic conclusion after 100 hours of play. But these games just… go on forever. There’s no payoff. You get tired and bored and you leave.
But if you haven’t played older traditional JRPGs, you’re just falling into this skinner box of induced anxiety. The game becomes habit-forming. The induced reflex to trigger a feature or use a power that’s increasingly paywalled encourages you to open your (parent’s) wallet.
Actually, I don’t even really bother with any games that I understand to have p2w aspects or any mtx that aren’t just cosmetic.
There’s a networking effect to a lot of these games. Up front, you’re strongly encouraged to get your friends to join in. And friends playing a game together can have enormous staying power. I know people who have been running the same D&D game for 20 years (literally the same characters and world, going on into the level 200+ range as they just crank those numbers higher). I know a couple that’s been doing WoW for their entire relationship - they started playing when they started dating and now they’ve got their ten-year-old son along for the ride.
I think part of what gives these games staying power is that they don’t require you to empty your savings account to participate. But I think its naive to discount the addictive power of a community space you’re comfortable socializing in.
These places are predatory. I can’t discount them just because I’m not one of the ones that got eaten.
For the love of God Gen Z is gonna kill us with sighs
