Video games of the 90s were torture Driven by a wider audience thanks to an ever more diverse offering and the possibility of playing anywhere and anytime with smartphones, new forms of players have emerged over the years. “Hardcore gamers” and “casual gamers” therefore coexist in our era where we can clearly state that there are games for everyone. But not so long ago, the average difficulty of games was much higher, for several reasons that we will see together. The lifespan of games What we call in the industry “the lifespan” of a game is the time it takes to see the end of it. If today most of the big games that we call “triple A” and which correspond to cinema blockbusters (to simplify) offer a fairly substantial lifespan (open world games), this has not always been Standard. Already for an obvious reason of available space on cartridges and CDs: the games were much shorter (apart from a few larger RPGs like Final Fantasy and their 4 CDs). But if the adventure was shorter, it didn't mean it was completed any faster, because the difficulty of the games was much higher than most of today's standards. At the time it wasn't uncommon to burst your controller in annoyance and scream with joy when you finally beat a bastard boss. Game Over Except in a very limited number of games, the principle of Game Over has today almost disappeared. This was characterized by losing a level's progress which caused the player to start from scratch after losing the game. In this idea, Crash Bandicoot 4, released recently, offers two game modes: a “current” mode in which the player has no lives counted and an “old school” mode that aims to be respectful of the games of the time with a limited number of lives and a return to the start of the level when it is exhausted, causing you to lose progress even if it is accompanied by checkpoints. Clearly, old school mode is better. The absence of checkpoints Checkpoints, omnipresent in today's games, allow you to restart the game following a failure at an "advanced" place in the level by means of self-saves which are almost disconcertingly ubiquitous for those looking for a bit of challenge: it saves all the time and doesn't frustrate the player when they fail. In the old days, either they were rare and required patience before being reached, or there were no checkpoints at all and we cried for our mother when we lost the level before turning the joystick. little brother. The absence of saving A good number of games from the 80s and 90s suffered from this principle of the impossibility of saving your progress: when you lost it was ruined.We clearly had to repeat the whole adventure that we ended up knowing by heart as we had seen and re-watched the levels that made it up. Subsequently, memory cards and other backup formats arrived, relieving us of hot tears of annoyance and ambient frustration. However, finishing a game has never been as rewarding as it was back then. Word from an old man. The absence of degrees of difficulty Today, we can easily select the difficulty of a game: general difficulty with the "easy", "medium" and "difficult" modes but also going further while being able to gauge the different parameters (difficulty of combat, puzzles, assistance during the adventure, etc.). In fact it's a very good thing since it allows less accustomed (or less patient) people to finish the game, but at the time we generally had only one possible difficulty and it was quite difficult. Basically you had to continually surpass yourself to succeed, and overall it was much more rewarding (but we complained a lot and yelled about the poorly balanced difficulty). Games without updates When a game is released today, it is generally accompanied by updates (sometimes too many) and many studios are accused of releasing “unfinished” games. Bug fixes, improvement of graphics quality, addition or removal of functionality... These updates are numerous and varied. At the time, when there was a bug in the game, well there was a bug in the game. It was shit, no way to change it. Not to mention latency in movements, camera problems with the appearance of the first 3D games, invisible walls... In short, a whole bunch of things destined to stay forever in the game (like lousy controls) and with which it was necessary to compose. A tough education is no joke. Lack of solutions When you find yourself stuck on a passage, on a quest, a boss or any other moment in a game, you can definitely check on the internet how to get out of it. But back then it was a different mess. Tips were either in dedicated magazines or in the playground. Sometimes there was a friend of the big brother who knew how to beat a boss, but generally you had to start again and again to get through a difficult passage. But there were also action replays and cheat codes, just to be able to get out of it when things really got too messy. A new science Why were the games so difficult? Because the developers were simply creating this sector. These pioneers then suffered the setbacks, making the mistakes they had to make, misjudging the difficulty of certain passages, inventing new gameplay mechanics (handling the game) that were not always ingenious,venturing into punitive and uncertain level design (level architecture)… In short, dozens of parameters which were not yet standardized, for game styles still in their infancy. And we were basically the guinea pigs of all that. This is why an entire generation of players has become the most perseverant and mistreated in history. The legacy of an old era: "die and retry" For those most nostalgic for this past era, there is a fairly wide range of games incorporating what made the essence of this generation of games. In terms of graphics, there is first of all a slew of pixel-art games, borrowing their inspiration from many aspects of consoles of yesteryear. But in the art of difficulty we also find a whole category called “Die and Retry” (which is aptly named the naughty one). These are quite challenging games where you will have to be extra attentive, skillful, quick and thoughtful to overcome them. In this exercise we could cite many titles, “Ori And The Blind Forest” is an example which borders on perfection (in every way) which behind an enchanting artistic direction offers a difficulty at times precise. The continuity of punitive games Well without being inspired by the difficulty of the time, we are still entitled to a whole bunch of complicated or extremely difficult games today. Between very complex puzzle games, extreme survival horror and precise platformers there is plenty to do. Many "mainstream" games also offer more extreme modes, like "The Last Of Us 2" and its "near death" mode (you die once and it's over). But I'll be burned at the stake if I don't mention the studio "From Software" here with its famous "Souls" series or even that damn Sekiro and the other bastard boss "The Owl" on which I used all my crudest vocabulary for almost three days. Nuggets for those who want to shit, cry, and feel alive.speed and reflection to overcome it. In this exercise we could cite many titles, “Ori And The Blind Forest” is an example which borders on perfection (in every way) which behind an enchanting artistic direction offers a difficulty at times precise. The continuity of punitive games Well, without taking inspiration from the difficulty of the time, we are still entitled to a whole bunch of complicated or extremely difficult games today. Between very complex puzzle games, extreme survival horror and precise platformers there is plenty to do. Many "mainstream" games also offer more extreme modes, like "The Last Of Us 2" and its "near death" mode (you die once and it's over). But I'll be burned at the stake if I don't mention the studio "From Software" here with its famous "Souls" series or even that damn Sekiro and the other bastard boss "The Owl" on which I used all my crudest vocabulary for almost three days. Nuggets for those who want to shit, cry, and feel alive.speed and reflection to overcome it. In this exercise we could cite many titles, “Ori And The Blind Forest” is an example which borders on perfection (in every way) which behind an enchanting artistic direction offers a difficulty at times precise. The continuity of punitive games Well, without taking inspiration from the difficulty of the time, we are still entitled to a whole bunch of complicated or extremely difficult games today. Between very complex puzzle games, extreme survival horror and precise platformers there is plenty to do. Many "mainstream" games also offer more extreme modes, like "The Last Of Us 2" and its "near death" mode (you die once and it's over). But I'll be burned at the stake if I don't mention the studio "From Software" here with its famous "Souls" series or even that damn Sekiro and the other bastard boss "The Owl" on which I used all my crudest vocabulary for almost three days. Nuggets for those who want to shit, cry, and feel alive