I was never into video games as a child. The first home system I ever purchased was a GameCube when my wife and I had a young daughter and we thought there might be some interesting games that she could enjoy. And there were. She really liked Mario Party. The fact is that the GameCube was a perfect system for a family with young children and little gaming experience.
We’ve advanced, as we should. We bought our daughter a DS when Nintendogs was all the rage. And now we have a Wii which gives us the odd tennis game or bizarre tank battle. Plus we can play old GameCube games. This means that I can learn about video games that were new when I was young, and they can be new for me again. With the benefit of hindsight I can play only the games that my peers thought were exceptional. And thus I learn how badly I suck at everything.
Case in point #1: Chrono Trigger. It was recently re-released for the DS and I picked it up second-hand at our local game store. My daughter and I played it together for a while. She got stuck fighting a dragon tank, and then I got stuck fighting a mighty boss with independent hands and magic attacks. Great game; lots of fun puzzles, but impossible, impassible bosses.
Case in point #2: Metroid Prime. I picked this up because it was rated as one of the best GameCube games ever, and I’ve had a lot of fun exploring the worlds and solving the puzzles. It’s beautifully detailed with rich environments and complex sensor and attack systems. I first got stuck fighting Flaahgra. I went back and started again – from nothing – using web walkthroughs to find all the powerups and I finally beat Flaahgra. I got as far as the Omega Pirate. Now, despite all the details from the walkthroughs (which say he’s easy), I cannot defeat him. So I’m stuck.
Thus for games that were designed for entertainment I (and my daughter too) experience limited enjoyment. Why? Because of bosses that are too powerful. In case #1 I guess if I backtrack to find all the power-ups I could beat this boss. Maybe, but it took me so long to get to this fight that I’m simply not motivated. In case #2 it requires dexterity and reflexes that as a 50 year-old I no longer have, so I suppose I’ll never see the end of the game. I may try it a dozen more times but at some point I’ll give up, game unsolved, frustrated.
My plea to game designers of the future is this: please don’t make boss fights a brick wall. Some gamers will defeat the boss – and they should be properly rewarded – but some players cannot, for whatever reason. They should not be forever stuck, like Sisyphus pushing that rock uphill that will always roll down again and again. You should always provide another path, no matter how weak, for those players with limited skills. Or limited time.
- jack*
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