A month or so ago I purchased the Jak and Daxter Collection for PS3. Anyone who knows me knows that those games have always been my favorite. The characters, settings, and stories are just amazing. I don’t want to say anything spoilerish so I’ll leave it at that. But it had been a while since I played them, and found myself having a difficult time every so often. After a while I got used to them, but it really got me thinking.
The Dynamic Duo: Jak and Daxter
I’m one of those people that will dive into a game by playing on the hardest difficulty as soon as I get it (though sometimes higher difficulties have to be unlocked). When I play, I want it to be a challenge and not something I can mindlessly get through. I think that’s why I really don’t like the Call of Duty series so much anymore. I don’t care about the multiplayer, but the story in the game. Sadly, story hasn’t been so great in those games since Call of Duty 3. Anyway, I want to feel like I’m having to fight through whatever the character had to fight through to progress in a story. I guess I’m just weird in that way.
Games like the Jak and Daxter series were like that back in the day. But now, games seem to hold your hand all the way through. Lately, I’ve been playing Mass Effect 3, and I’ve barely died on the Hard difficulty. The redeeming quality is that it is a “story” game, much like the Knights of the Old Republic games were, so the action isn’t what I’m playing for. But then I look back on my time playing the re-released Jak games. They were HARD. Maybe not the first one, but the second one was so difficult. Sometimes frustratingly so.
I found myself at times just cussing at the television. But the thing was, I wasn’t able to complete a mission because I “wasn’t good enough” and not because of anything else. Health bars were still around instead of regenerating health. Checkpoints were sparse, and sometimes didn’t even exist in a whole mission. If you died, it was because you sucked, end of story. By learning how to do things and getting tricky, you were finally able to get past a mission. I find this oddly lacking in games now.
We live in a time when everything in a game is given to you. The developers WANT you to finish a game. I can’t even tell you how many Sega Genesis or PS1 games I never finished. They were that hard. I go back every so often when I can after telling myself, “I’m older now, and more awesome. I can get through the game now!” But I still can’t. They were just harder, and I sucked.
I got the Super Mario Collection for Wii a year or so ago and tried playing that. What a miserable failure that turned out to be. The game didn’t suck. It was me. For my entire life, I have never gotten very far in a Mario game. I try to like Mario like everyone else, but I secretly despise him and his awesome mustache. I SUCK at Mario games. But that’s not true, either. I played games like Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Galaxy and was just fine playing those. But the old ones were unforgiving.
How my Mario gameplay looks
I’m going to switch gears now on this piece of written material. Games are easier now because people just don’t have the gumption to work hard anymore. People want things to be given to them, even in games. It’s the society we live in. Same thing with multiplayer. No one can do anything individually anymore. Call me a loner (which I am), but when I play a video game, it’s to get away for a little while. I don’t like to sit and play video games with people or watch them play. If I play a game while someone is at my house, it’s usually a sign that I want them to leave (an exception is Rock Band). Similarly, I’m an independent person that wants to do things on my own. I don’t like being helped, I prefer to do everything by myself. So when I play a game that constantly wants to help me by telling me what to do and magically regenerating my health, I get frustrated. But I’m frustrated with everything in the world, so why not video games as well?
So I’ll keep playing games that hold my hand. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it.
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