You kids today. You have no idea what manner of torture we endured in the days when some video games were borderline impossible.
Mega Man is one of the most challenging franchises in all of history. It was hard for just about anyone who ever tried it, even back then.
To teenagers today, it must be absolutely ludicrous…and so it is. In the latest "Teens React: Retro Gaming" installment on YouTube, today's teens take a whack at the original Mega Man and it's hilarious . Some of my favorite quotes are, " everything is hitting me!" and "am I at the beginning again?" Ah yes, remember the days when you had to start the level over if you died?
Oh man, this is so funny it could bring tears to your eyes.
Games are too easy today.
Amen to that.
I think there's still those types of hard single player games, but mostly in the indie scene. I think a big part of popular console gaming these days is driven by "fun" and/or being immersed in a very content driven experience. If it's not that then it's competitive multiplayer. That's where gamers can scale up their difficulty exactly to their ability.
Something like Journey never existed back in those days. But something like Journey probably wouldn't be revered if it placed a heavy emphasis on trial and error.
I almost feel that games like Mega Man and such classics share a lot in common with like a Guitar Hero. There's a whole lot of memorized time sensitive sequences to play through. It's how you win and find enjoyment in both games.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 12/15/2014 1:05:03 PM
Good point Temji. I do miss these games. UN Squadren was one of my favorite games of all time. Very difficult. I've tried some of the Indy games that try and bring the difficulty back but they're just not as charming as Mario, Mega Man, UN Squadren or Contra, etc.
I recommend either of the Splosion Man's or Runner 2.
While they both start easy it doesn't take long before they get hard. Tons of charm and tons of old school awesomeness.
EDIT: others keep popping in my mind like Joe Danger and Velocity 2x.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 12/15/2014 2:06:27 PM
Nice. I'll check out Runner.
Or that meatboy game. At least I thought that one became hard pretty quick.
It's interesting how gaming has changed. I remember being able to play Mega Man and Contra, etc… and play them well when I was young. I downloaded Mega Man X on the PS3 and my reactions were the same as these kids. I forgot how hard they were because it's evolved so much.
But what makes this funny is that they never had experienced it before.
They were hard for you? I blasted through X4 in an afternoon.
Yeah I mean considering what I'm used to playing now days, it was pure frustration.
Have you tried Mega Man 9 and 10? Now those are maddening. Hah
It may have been 10 that I downloaded now that you mention it… shoot I don't remember because I gave up in less than an hour haha. It was maddening that's all I remember.
Mega Man the original was wicked hard.
I never did finish it. I got deep into Wiley's Castle though.
I basically mastered MM2 and MM3 though. They were easier.
I can compete most Mega Man and Mega Man X games with relative ease. But I played A LOT of Mega Man in its hay day. It's Mega Man 9 and 10 that were made by Inafune for Nintendo's WiiWare and later released on PSN before he left Crapcom that I cannot for the life of me beat. They're incredibly difficult for some reason.
I was a huge mega man fan. I even went out for Halloween as Mega Man one year. I remember getting so mad when people asked if I was supposed to be a space man… As if they'd never heard of Mega Man! 😉
X4 is definitely the easiest entry in the series.
Although I must have cleared the first X game a hundred times or so. I can still beat it without ever dying, except for when I want to get the Haduken or whatever it's called. (You have to die 4 or 5 times to open it)
Last edited by Underdog15 on 12/15/2014 1:52:15 PM
I thought you just had to reach the point where the pod shows up 4 for 5 times then quit the level to unlock the Haduken? I don't recall having to die but it's been a long time since I played the first X game. I still own the SNES cartridge. I tried hooking up my SNES to play that and UN Squadren but it seems newer TV's don't support old consoles that require a coax connection. My Bravia doesn't anyway.
Yeah, I suppose that would work. But dying takes you back to the halfway mark instead of exiting and doing the entire level over again. You also have to have full health when you get there.
At the beginning where the big bat is among the little bats, you can keep killing that big bat for an extra life. Drops at like a 80% rate or something. You can stock up on lives for the dying.
Last edited by Underdog15 on 12/15/2014 4:22:19 PM
Jawknee: Yeah, I don't think newer TVs support co-ax. You can find some older flat-screen LCDs that do, though; I've got my SNES hooked up to one of those.
Nice. My Samsung is an older one. I'll give it a try on that. I managed to get the SNES to show up on my Bravia a few minutes ago using the cables that came with my N64 but there were these weird horizontal lines all over the screen. Made the game unviewable.
Underdog, Wow, that would have saved me a lot of time had I known that. When I learned of that secret I was told I had to quit and start from the beginning. Ha
Last edited by Jawknee on 12/15/2014 6:16:11 PM
Had the younger me known to exit and restart, I would have. Any date BC (before children) my pride would have wanted to beat it with no deaths whatsoever.
I love how one guy said hey this is actually fun. Imagine that a game is fun even though it doesn't pat you on the back every three seconds.
What I'm trying to say is mobile gaming has ruined so many peoples expectations of what a game is supposed to be.
Some people at work got me to play a game called battlecamp, I seriously don't know how they find it fun. The gameplay is so basic, southpark made an episode making fun of freemium and everything was spot on in that episode.
Love it. 🙂
This made me smile. Good stuff, and good times…
Makes me feel old. Haha
Back then we were ok with never finishing a game. Can you imagine the flack a game would get today if you couldn't easily finish it? They'd call it Demon Souls, probably. Some of my favourite games back then I never actually finished. Snake, Rattle, and Roll, for example. Battletoads (I eventually beat it with on an emulator on PC, but I'd save to disk at various points to give me an edge) was a real toughie, too. The first ninja turtle game…
Battle toads was rough… I don't know that I ever beat it.
Last edited by bigrailer19 on 12/15/2014 4:40:42 PM
I never did. I distinctly recall a couple levels that gave me fits…there was a vertical one where you were standing on a platform going down, and another level where you rode a weird jet-ski of sorts and had to jump over obstacles.
Just silly hard.
The Lion King on SNES was another tough one. That one was just unfair. Haha
I remember the Lion King. I don't think I ever beat it, but I do remember doing at least a couple levels as adult Simba.
That jet ski level was stupid hard… especially for what… level THREE?!?! The emulator saving at every start of a new section after beating it made life so much easier. Kind of feels like cheating, but oh well. lol
lol they sucked I coulda done that easily
Megaman games on the NES are hard, but not impossible. I'd say the hardest game that I've played on the NES is the first Adventure Island game and Battletoads. Those 2 games are almost impossible to beat.