PixlBit

I hate this game. I've been considering grabbing it again to see if I'll like it any more these days. I'm guessing not, but it would at least be interesting to revisit it.

I think we're in an usual time right now where we don't really understand how tough we should actually make a game. As stated, back on the NES, games were as tough as they were due to hardware constraints, plain bad design, or as a means of artificially extending the length of the game.

Today, it has become very easy to just give the player whatever they need to progress. If it's altering the difficulty of AI on the fly, providing more health or ammo, or just offering infinite retries - the game understands how to help you past where you're stuck. On face value, this is quite nice and can allow players to see the entire game, but on the other, it's done so subversively, you never know if you are taking on the game at the right difficulty level and being properly challenged. This is no good.

On the other end of the spectrum, we have games like Demon's Souls. That game is punishingly hard and built on the old school ideals of pure repetition to figure out the set of moves required to progress. Even after figuring out the intricate ballet, you're required to execute it perfectly in order to actually move forward. It's quite akin to something like the hell blocks in MM2. Clearly this design isn't going to engage most players.

If we consider Demon's Souls a reaction to the pathetically low difficulty of most games, it's clear that we need to at least shift slightly back to something a bit more challenging. Death should have consequences and games shouldn't pander to poor performance - they need to produce difficulties that players should have to work through. I think most games today would be much more memorable if they didn't handhold the player to the finish line.

Eventually game designers will figure out how to strike a better balance, but right now, I believe we're in a generation of completely forgettable games, primarily due to how devoid of challenge they are.

I've just emailed our 4 winners their codes! Thanks to everyone who participated. If you didn't receive a code, don't fret just yet, I plan to go back to our PR rep and see if I can get a few more codes so that I can hook everyone up.

Based on the great response we've gotten, we plan on doing some other giveaways, the next of which will be kicked off in the coming week. We'll be celebrating our 2 year anniversary on the 24th and will be giving away some E3 2010 swag!

I agree with Kyle. I'd sooner assume they'd want to put in the extra effort to remake 7 because it would be a gravy train. Honestly, who wouldn't buy it? I don't even like the game all that much, but I'd be inclined to grab it to see if a new coat of paint makes it more appealing.

I seriously considered naming this episode that, but decided that it might not be received very well out of context. But yes, pre-show talk with Nate is always interesting...

Hurry up everyone, we're going to be closing things out at the end of Friday night!

Ahahahaha. I can taste the FF7 fanboy tears.

Wow, this game continues to strike me as unbelievably ambitious. People asked for a change to the Zelda formula - they're definitely getting it.

November can't come soon enough!

This trailer makes me a whole lot more excited for this game.

Well this was the news I was waiting for. It's an official peripheral and its already got some pretty strong support. Redesign is undoubtedly on the way.

Nintendo can blame the investors all they want, but they ultimately control the product and should've just pushed it out for a late 2011 release if that's when it would've been ready. Next to the Virtual Boy, this must be the most blundered Nintendo product launch ever.