Platform Hell games.

Chagen

Why are they popular?

I've tried playing them, and they are impossible. This isn't the "fun" kind of hard. This is the "stupid" kind of hard. I feel as if I'm never getting better. And that's why they're annoying. Because no matter how often I play, I keep sucking. It feels as if I'm not even in control of anything, as if I've hit a brick wall I cannot get past. This isn't fun. This is bullshit.

Especially when the game gets to be brutally difficult in like the second level.

Topic inspired by the "What-the-fuck-is-this-bullshit" hard TastyStatic.

GLORIOUSLeader

You can make a platform hell game (like Donkey Kong Country Returns) fun.

DYRE

I dunno.  Some people like them.  It is, after all, fun to overcome a difficult challenge.  It just depends on whether or not you think that amount of fun balances out the amount of frustration you feel trying.

Chagen

Overcoming a challenge is fun.

Endelessly dying over and over and over and over and over again is not fun.

nohaynicklibre

Have you played IWBTG?

Chagen

Yes.

Died in the forest at the beginning.

Fuck that game.

Vorpy

HAHAHA Invisible Blocks and Double Corners

DYRE

Not everyone gets frustrated as easily as you, Chagen.  That's the difference.

Granted, a lot of people do.  They are kind of niche games after all.  Still, they do have an audience.

Chagen

It's not that get frustrated easily.

....Okay, I do. But I can play Motorstorm for hours on end attempting to get higher on the leaderboards yet these games enrage me within minutes.

Icalasari

That's the point. The games enrage you, making you more likely to slip up

DYRE

Also, the second level of TastyStatic isn't very hard. >.>

Unless that's not what you were talking about in that sentence.

Chagen

No, but the fifth and every level beyond that is flat-out Fake Difficulty.

DYRE

By fifth level do you mean The Elements Road 2?  Because... that's kinda easy... and the level right after it is even easier.  And the one after that is easier still.  Though it does get harder after that.

Crimson

I know for me, dying over and over in a Platform Hell game is part of the fun. Mainly because the difficulty is part of the joke.

Chagen

What the fuck are you talking about

Elements road 2 is fucking impossible

and then road 3 is just "Fuck you" in game form

DYRE

Elements 2 is like... practically a tutorial.  Once you realize you're not supposed to go as fast as possible the whole time, it's not so hard.

Elements 3 is just hold up and go in whatever direction there's a platform in, since you never need to worry about jumping or slowing down.

Chagen

That's the hard part.

My reflexes on three suck, and then I get flustered and hit the wrong thing halfway through.

Chagen

Okay, I somehow, against all odds, managed to beat those two levels....

DYRE

This game is fun though, thanks for posting about it.

It is hard though, I admit, but I'm not really getting frustrated.  And I definitely don't see how any of it is "fake difficulty."

Counterclock

I'd say Kaizo Mario is worse than IWTBTG.

nohaynicklibre

It is

Stormtroper

Judging from Let's Plays, It is.

Anyhow, they're an acquired taste. At some point you become accustomed to it and dying dozens of times on the same place becomes a part of the game like any other's.

nohaynicklibre

Besides Chagen,don't you like Touhou? I figured you should be more tolerant with insanely difficult games

Stormtroper

They're not spectacularly hard on Easy, though.

Chagen

>Imnplying that I'm not shit at Touhou

nohaynicklibre

So you can tolerate hard games if your main character wears a silly hat? Then just play IWBTG on Medium, problem solved [/loljoke]