Is anyone else kinda annoyed with how obsessed games have been with difficulty?

[Cirta]

So over the past few years, it seems like people have been obsessed with difficulty in games, and more specifically what people call "good" difficulty. This kind of annoys me, not because I dislike difficulty, but I'm kinda getting tired of how much games are relying on their difficulty to get a name, I'm talking about things like Cuphead, Celeste, Silksong etc.. I'm not saying these games are bad btw, I really like Cuphead for example but I feel like people are a bit exaggerating about how balanced or fair those games truly are. I'm not criticizing these games in particular but more generally this type of games. This trope can also be found in other games that aren't that difficult like in Undertale in the genocide route bosses (Undyne the Undying and Sans).

If I'm being honest, I think the reason those type of games are so common is because game devs find it a lot more tricky to design a simpler game without it being boring. Because if you make a design mistake in a hard game, players will just overcome it and say "It's fun once you master it" when in reality they're just satisfied of doing overcoming it. I feel like a good game should be fun no matter if it's your first time playing on it. But what do you think about that?

 

[Really Ilini]

Hm... I think this is partially personal taste speaking, but there is a point that a fair chunk of recent popular games have a level of difficulty higher than average. I would say the type of difficulty is different from older games; many older titles gain their difficulty from trial and error, think your Battletoads and Ghosts n' Goblins and the like. Meanwhile I think newer games build their difficulty more around endurance; like you said, the most famous Undertale fights are moreso fights for your life as you dodge a plethora of attacks to get your pokes in, along with other encounter-heavy titles like the more recent Elden Ring.

My theory is that there's been a greater emphasis on difficulty to raise the stakes while playing, so to speak. Games are being taken more seriously as an art form that the player can directly interact with, so having super difficult bosses for example could be a way of the player feeling involved in a story trying to be told by overcoming them. Though I also feel like not all of the titles you listed have just difficulty going for them; I wouldn't say Cuphead was intently designed to test only the most resilient players, it's also a love letter to both an era of animation and the more bombastic classic game designers like Treasure. Really the big challenge in designing difficult games is just making them fun regardless, not making the difficulty feel artificial from trollish design tropes.

 

[CM30]

Yeah I do agree with this. It's one reason I don't play that many platformers or Metroidvanias anymore, because those genres seem to have begun synonymous with 'extremely difficult gameplay' first and foremost.

It feels rare for a 2D platformer not to be designed under the assumption you're able/willing to bang your head against a wall for 3 hours trying to beat some incredibly hard series of jumps/incredibly long and spammy boss fight. It just feels like even when people try to make Wario Land style platformers, they're closer to Rayman or Donkey Kong Country in difficulty, and games like old school Mario and Kirby (where a good player will generally breeze through and you can relax while making good progress) are basically non-existent.

Turn your brain off and chill style design seems to have basically died in indie games, and certain genres in general.

 

[Really Ilini]

There is also definitely a tendency for recent games to be designed around high ceilings, that is to say the ability for a player to perform perfectly takes a lot of skill. Pizza Tower is a good example, having a player character with a ton of moves that chain into each other in a speed-focused game mainly about getting high scores is going to attract those kinds of players the most. I do miss those simpler, lower floor platformers though... maybe that comes from the general public getting bored of them or not thinking they're innovative enough.

 

[Cirta]

It just feels like even when people try to make Wario Land style platformers, they're closer to Rayman or Donkey Kong Country in difficulty, and games like old school Mario and Kirby (where a good player will generally breeze through and you can relax while making good progress) are basically non-existent.

I was actually a bit worried about that when I got Pizza Tower but thankfully it's not a hard game at all if you're just looking to complete it. It's more similar to something like old Sonic games where a decent player will breeze through it while playing normally, but if you're going for time attack or score attack, then that's where the challenge of the game lies. You can't take damage in Pizza Tower by the way in true Wario Land 2, 3 fashion. Funnily enough, I think it works better in PT than it does in the WL games.

 

[Really Ilini]

Yes, Pizza Tower definitely has a low enough skill floor for casual players to get to the end and have fun along the way. There's just also a sizeable chunk of the game that is designed around much higher ceilings, namely the P ranks.
There may also be a case of sequels having higher skill ceilings due to wanting to one-up what players previously accomplished. I have yet to play them, but I'm pretty sure the general opinion is that Silksong is more difficult than the first Hollow Knight. Not that most indie games have been popular and profitable enough to allow for sequels though...

 

[Hotel Horror]

You definitely made the right choice choosing Pizza Tower over Antonblast. Love both games, but Antonblast can get frustratingly hard! Even on Normal.

Here's an example of just how intense this game can get