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Writer's pictureDaniel Sharkey

A Discussion of Difficulty in Platformers

A lot of games have difficulty settings; they are often times the first choice a player has. "Would you like easy, medium, hard, extreme, or would you not like any challenge at all? However, when a player first starts a game, how are they supposed to know what difficulty they should play at? A game I've never played before is asking me to rate how good I am at playing it. This can lead to frustrating situations where players end up playing on difficulty settings they don't enjoy and end up missing out on a lot of fun from the game. However, one genre traditionally not associated with difficulty settings is platformers, so why am I talking about it? Because some of the platformers we looked at this week, or games from their series have employed much better ways to allow players to choose their level of difficulty.


First we should start with the most venerated platformer series of all time: Mario. Mario doesn't have a difficulty choice when you boot it up, and the levels are often made for those of lower skill, so a veteran player may find these levels easy and uninteresting. A veteran might go through the entire game with that lack of challenge, but what's interesting, is that games like Super Mario World, Super Mario 3D World, and Super Mario Odyssey, have challenges for them after the main story. In Mario's most recent outing, once you finish the main story and rescue the princess, new (more difficult) moons are added to all the previous levels, and collecting enough moons allows you to go to an incredibly difficult final two levels called Dark Side and Darker Side. These levels will challenge even veteran players, and this may finally bring them the difficulty they enjoy, and if a player doesn't enjoy this new level of difficulty, that's okay, as since they have finished the main story there is no reason to feel unsatisfied with the game or yourself. Odyssey isn't alone in this regard; Super Mario World has Special World which functions in a similar manner. (Featuring such awesome levels as: Tubular, Mondo, and Way Cool) These bonus stages are a great way to add challenge for players who want it, while still keeping it accessible to newer or less skilled players.


However, these optional bonus worlds are not the only way to do this, another approach can be seen with Celsete, which offers a few ways for people to change the difficulty to their liking. The first one is for players who find the game too hard; the assist mode is there to allow various tweaks to the difficulty to make it easier for those who find the difficulty frustrating. The player can slow down the game, or give themselves infinite boosts. This allows players who enjoy the story to still enjoy it even if they can't beat the levels. However there is also a more difficult option for players in the game. This harder difficulty is done using the optional berries on the different screens. These berries are totally optional and often require tricky or difficult jumps to collect. They are not necessary to beat the main story, however they provide players who think they are skilled a way to test their mettle. These two ideas allow a person to find their personal level of difficulty that suits them, and allows a player to get comfortable with the game.


One game we played this week that notably did not have a difficulty setting was Problem Attic. This game was obtuse and (for me at least) frustratingly difficult. This game however offered no alternate way to play, there was no assist mode that allowed me to slow down the game, or golden tanooki leaf to help me clear stages I found difficult. In the end, I became frustrated and ended up finishing it using the help of a walkthrough, however there are numerous people who never finished the game. While the frustrating difficulty feels essential for the point the game is trying to make, I wonder if the difficulty ends up narrowing the audience of the game. Celeste has difficulty, however if one just wants to experience the story and the message they can, however if you can't finish Problem Attic, the only way for you to find out its ending and get the full experience is for you to find a video of someone finishing it. A video isn't perfect though, as it is no longer interactive, and I feel much of the strength of video games is their interactivity. Thus turning a game into basically a movie by making it a video removes much of the impact.


Perhaps though the difficulty is necessary for the story, or the story itself should be a reward for players able to get through the challenge of the game. There are many games that have different ways of challenging players, and I'd be interested to hear any ideas you guys may have about difficulty in games, as there is no one right way to do it.

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yansera
yansera
Oct 15, 2019

Great points, one of the more interesting points I found was the idea of difficulty being necessary for the story. It reminds me (though not a platformer) of the newest God of War as the game has a "story mode" which is the easiest difficulty mode. However even though it is a "story mode" there is still some level of difficulty to the game. You can still die, lose progress, and eventually have to overcome some level of challenge. This causes the player to grow with the story as you are still forced to get better, while also showing the challenges of the game. This idea can also be applied to platformers, as the story of the game, is not…

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Jimmy Christensen
Oct 14, 2019

Many interesting points were brought up in this post, namely on the evolution of platformers in today’s gaming world. The use of Mario was a solid example, as it is well known. However, the issue I have towards this argument is that a lot of these platforming games are marketed towards kids and not adults, thus making it easier for them should make the kids happier overall, raising revenue. While these Mario games have late-game levels that are a true challenge to veteran gamers, I disagree that they are there in terms of support for those veteran gamers, and instead a way of raising the difficulty for all players in a rather natural way, even if the learning curve g…

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xuy1
xuy1
Oct 14, 2019

Your point of reward is interesting. It seems like you're suggesting the player would only keep playing to/should get some identifiable benefit out of the game, whether it be satisfaction or a point gained from a story.


I didn't really see Problem Attic as a story, partially out of its level of abstraction, but more importantly, because of the ambiguity in its abstraction. Even though stories have motifs with multiple meanings, Problem Attic seem to deliberately leave room for confusion and unfixed interpretation, even for its most basic elements. For example, who are the haunting crosses? The abusive parents, religious fundamentalists, or medical expenses? There seem to be no fruit, no nicely laid out points to be plucked by the…


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Liben Hagos
Liben Hagos
Oct 14, 2019

While I do appreciate the ability of platformers to accommodate players of varying skill levels, I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with the opposing philosophy- a strict and immutable difficulty curve. Problem Attic was, like you said, intentionally frustrating and obtuse, and that's part of what made it so compelling. Overcoming obstacles you once thought insurmountable is an enjoyable experience, and you're never going to be able to ascertain just how "insurmountable" the obstacle was if you are allowed to take a game's built-in easy route.


Also, while this post mainly discussed difficulty in the mechanical sense, I think the same philosophy applies to games that are conceptually difficult as well. Braid and Problem Attic are interesting because it's…

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Jacob Briggs
Oct 14, 2019

The idea of the player making in-game choices to determine difficulty is very interesting, and can lead to players having different perceptions of the game and its themes. Using Celeste as an example, if a player chooses to use the game's assistance because they care more about the story, they would likely focus on the dialogue and plot more so than ideas presented in gameplay. On the other hand, if they chose to collect every berry before completing the game, they might associate the game more with perseverance and eventual accomplishment.


This discussion of player choice driving difficulty immediately made me think of the Nuzlocke challenge in the Pokémon series. This challenge is entirely self-imposed; it isn't an option that…

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