chaosblade

I find it funny, but has anyone else noticed that dying in a video game is becoming taboo?

Seriously, I'm 24 years old, I started with a Gameboy and a SNES (once it shipped with Zelda in the box), so I've been doing this a pretty long time, and I remember what games in my day were like. And they were tame compared to the old Atari and NES days. Wjhat I mean is that back in the days before mind-boggling graphics or incredibly complicated strategies, the way game-makers 'improved' games was making them more challenging.

I'm a huge Megaman fan, played every game in the series, and at the core of every Megaman game is the idea that you are going to die when you're first playing it. A LOT. Gotta get across the chasm with the disappearing blocks? Do it with trail and error. Get to the boss and realize you aren't packing what he's weak to? Gameover and try a different level. Now here's the crucial point....does anyone who remembers what I'm talking about, not remember it fondly? Did any of us care that we had to keep dying until we figured it out? No, that was the challenge and that's what made it fun.

I read game reviews nowadays that gives games an F basically, because the game has "cheap deaths" or "puzzles you can only figure out by dying". Now, I don't think a game has to be stupid-ridiculous-hard *coughninjagaidencough* to be a good game, but I also don't think we should condemn games for presenting us with the same challenge we used to love. Do you?