20 Difficult Games: And Why We Love Them
Think you’ve got what it takes the best the hardest of the hard? Those notoriously difficult titles that haunt you till the wee hours of the morn for years on end. The ones that provoke you to pull out all of your hair, and make you come back screaming for more. There is something admirable about a designer that wants to test their audience, but rewards them with a solidly designed game that takes skill and perseverance to complete.
Gamasutra has gathered 20 of those titles and dissects them for all they are worth. Their cover story Game Design Essentials: 20 Difficult Games breaks down each game on the list to expose what makes the games so difficult, but also elaborates on the genius behind their notorious design.
Their coverage is delightfully in-depth and revels in the challenge each title presents. Some titles you would expect to make the list are present like Defender and Sinistar. When Defender came out, I plugged a few quarters into it, died repeatedly several seconds later and rarely touched it again. That is, until I see another machine. Damn you Defender! You won’t get the best of me!
I really enjoyed seeing the Adventures of Lolo for the NES make the list. The classic title is definitely getting the respect it deserves. That game will challenge even the best puzzle gamer, with a saccharine visage and unrelenting block-pushing gameplay.
So check out their coverage and see how many of these baddies you’ve beaten.
Game Design Essentials: 20 Difficult Games [Gamasutra]
Toots
Posted to Video Games on 31 August 2007
· Comments (1)
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I found Sinistar a LOT harder than Defender ("the end of the world" is annoying just for the mutant sound effects, but I don't think it's the game-ender they describe at all.)
But then, I didn't have a Sinistar unit in my living room during college.