- Joined
- Dec 14, 2011
"IF YOU have ever struggled to complete classic Nintendo games, don't feel bad - they are officially difficult.
An analysis of the computational complexity of video games, including those in the Mario and Legend of Zelda series, proves that many of them belong to a class of mathematical problems called NP-hard. This means that for a given game level, it can be very difficult to work out whether it is possible for a player to reach the end. The results suggest that some hard problems could be solved by playing a game."
The original article: Mario is hard, and that's mathematically official - 14 March 2012 - New Scientist
I think that there is some truth in this but then again, I'm not that great at maths but I'm pretty decent at most Mario & Zelda games... Also a good friend of mine is excellent at maths and is terrible at all games...
I think they need to factor into this study that some people are just natural born gamers.
Still, interesting stuff!
T-L-H
An analysis of the computational complexity of video games, including those in the Mario and Legend of Zelda series, proves that many of them belong to a class of mathematical problems called NP-hard. This means that for a given game level, it can be very difficult to work out whether it is possible for a player to reach the end. The results suggest that some hard problems could be solved by playing a game."
The original article: Mario is hard, and that's mathematically official - 14 March 2012 - New Scientist
I think that there is some truth in this but then again, I'm not that great at maths but I'm pretty decent at most Mario & Zelda games... Also a good friend of mine is excellent at maths and is terrible at all games...
I think they need to factor into this study that some people are just natural born gamers.
Still, interesting stuff!
T-L-H