Classic Nintendo Games are Hard

[ferofax]

I thought we already defined Nintendo Hard.

...whew. trapped me for 30 minutes. and that's without clicking ANYTHING on that page.

these things are dangerous.

 

[DDTarZan]

But none of those games are hard! In the case of Pokemon, Zelda, and Metroid, the hardest part about them was not knowing where to go. But Donkey Kong, as in the original one, is so fucking hard. It was actually harder in DK64 when it started you off with just one life, and then the difficulty was raised trying to just get the Rare coin. So much ragequitting was had.

 

[Deleted_171835]

NINTENDO. WE CHALLENGE ALL PLAYERS. YOU CANNOT BEAT US.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

[media]http://www.youtube.c...h?v=Ta0DlcxyY5M[/media]

NINTENDO. WE CHALLENGE ALL PLAYERS. YOU CANNOT BEAT US.

OH GOD NIGHTMARES FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE.

 

[PolloDiablo]

Zelda II still gives me nightmares

 

[elcow]

To everyone commenting on how this is proof games today are too easy or things like that, this study has nothing to do with the difficulty of the games. NP-hard is a term in computer science refering to the time required for a computer to solve a given problem. Think of it as how much time it would take an AI to solve any given level for the game (time in this case not being a matter of seconds or minutes, but more of the relative difference between cases, for example will a level twice the size take twice as long to solve, four times as long, or more?). NP-hard means that as the size of the case grows (i.e. bigger levels), the time taken for a computer to solve it generally increases exponentially. Any modern game is likely to be NP-hard as well, but it would be more difficult to prove.
This is a pretty big simplification, but if you want to read more, Wikipedia has several articles about computational theory, though they are not very beginner-friendly: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NP-hard.

 

[enarky]

To everyone commenting on how this is proof games today are too easy or things like that, this study has nothing to do with the difficulty of the games. NP-hard is a term in computer science refering to the time required for a computer to solve a given problem. Think of it as how much time it would take an AI to solve any given level for the game (time in this case not being a matter of seconds or minutes, but more of the relative difference between cases, for example will a level twice the size take twice as long to solve, four times as long, or more?). NP-hard means that as the size of the case grows (i.e. bigger levels), the time taken for a computer to solve it generally increases exponentially. Any modern game is likely to be NP-hard as well, but it would be more difficult to prove.
This is a pretty big simplification, but if you want to read more, Wikipedia has several articles about computational theory, though they are not very beginner-friendly: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NP-hard.

The original article is complete crap in terms of wording, no wonder that people here are confused by what's meant by the term "hard". Nice first post for being registered two years, btw.

 

[Qtis]

This is a case of the ease of saving. It's not really about the game itself being too easy. Imagine Pokémon without being able to save until after each gym. Or Super Mario 3D Land and saving only after you complete the game (like the original NES games). Sure there are hard spots in all games but being able to save whenever you want helps quite a bit!

 

[ZAFDeltaForce]

This takes me back to the time I was playing Castlevania on the NES.

Good grief

 

[Zekrom_cool]

Pokemon is only hard if you try and collect every bloody pokemon every game its released otherwise its not that hard.

That's not hard, that's just tedious and long.

Sorry still its bloody annoying.

Being tedious and long is as good as hard. Not all pokemon have the same catch rate and not all pokemon are found in one single game. It is quite a hard job.

 

[Deleted-236924]

Pokemon is only hard if you try and collect every bloody pokemon every game its released otherwise its not that hard.

That's not hard, that's just tedious and long.

Sorry still its bloody annoying.

Being tedious and long is as good as hard. Not all pokemon have the same catch rate and not all pokemon are found in one single game. It is quite a hard job.

Sorry, but I don't think it can be considered hard if it's easy, but long to do.

 

[aburas]

I was only 5 when I beat super mario land from beginning to end on the original gameboy.

 

[Kuragari Ryo]

The difficult old games gave a feeling of accomplishment once you've gotten to the end or see the credits. I was maybe eight or so when I beat Dragon Quest(warrior) 2 for the first time, and once it was through I was happier than a porcupine meeting a pineapple. (Then I never played it again because screw doing that to myself again lolo. The game sparked my love for Dragon Quest however so either way~) I forget how young I was when I beat the original Zelda. Didn't have a strategy guide or the map that came with the game; my cousin and I just sat there wandering around and slowly discovering where the dungeons were and trying to figure out what in the shit the eastmost peninsula was supposed to be. Games used to let my imatination go to town when I played them (Especially with Dragon Quest) even when the translations were silly or with just the basic black-background-white-text RPGs and such. Good times~ /nostalgia

 

[Shunrei]

maybe Nintendo is the real Hardcore Console, wonder why they don't count Etrian Odyssey into account :|

 

[Schizoanalysis]

Yep; made in the days before ADHD took ahold of the youth, and left them incapable of commiting to difficult tasks.

 

[nl255]

However, keep in mind that by "hard" they are referring to the (computational) difficulty of finding the perfectly optimal path in a tool assisted speedrun. There are many "hard" problems that have "easy" solutions that are good enough 95 or even 99 percent of the time (like if you only care about finishing the game or even finishing the game with no lives lost or not getting hit once).