Have you been playing video games since at least the NES? Did you ever play one of the Lemmings games? How about classic adventure titles? Does it seem like games today are dumbing down, protecting you from thinking too hard, treating you like a baby who's hand must be held? Yeah, sometimes I feel the same.
Discussions over today's games lack of difficulty have been cropping up lately but usually they cover plain 'ol hardness: surviving swarms of enemies or scrolling levels of death. It seems to me that in addition to this, games are also wussing out on cerebral toughness. I call this hand-holding and complained bitterly about its prominence in Metroid Prime 3.
I like to think in my games, not just twitch the controller. I don't want the solutions to problems to be obvious. Creative thinking is a good thing, critical thinking is imperative. Yet, it feels like many games with thinking elements are easier than past incarnations, as though mental challenges are bad marketing and above all else games should make you feel good about yourself and protect your fragile ego from the harsh, harsh world. But maybe I'm just being cynical.
Even as I sit here stewing over the thought of video games playing into the general malaise of anti-intellectualism (at least here in the USA) I can't help but also think of counter examples. Zack and Wiki promoted fun creative thinking puzzles, and games like Ico and the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time trilogy made critical analysis of the environments a central challenge. And yet, these titles are tertiary to the point-and-shoot or tap-button-to-punch genres.
Are games more prone to catering to the lowest intellectual denominator these days? Was there ever really an enlightened period or am I a victim of nostalgia?
Oh, and don't even get me started on paint by numbers gaming with a FAQ.
Related Links
GameTrailers' Top 10 Most Difficult Games
Metroid Prime Trilogy Retrospective: Part Three