Tag: difficulty

What makes a game difficult or easy? Good question. Game designers walk a delicate balancing act of making a game challenging without causing it to be frustrating. Like any job, there are techniques to accomplish this goal. Major points that contribute to difficulty are the implementation of a navigator, success of game controls and mechanics, and in Zelda games the puzzle quality. However, the most important factor for determining difficulty in any game is the use of patterns. The balance…

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is a game with some truly revolutionizing techniques that helped shape the rest of the series. It also enhanced many of the techniques from the older games and built upon their themes and stories. But was it a truly amazing game, or was it just an average game that people have over-glorified? Well, we think that it was an amazing game, even though it could be very much improved with today’s…

There’s a saying that “You can’t please everyone.” Yet this is often the challenge game designers face in the process of creating a game: to release a game that appeals to a wide variety of players, from young to old, from new gamers to veterans. When it came time to begin designing Ocarina of Time, it’s not hard to imagine that there were many challenges in transitioning the game play from 2D to 3D. One advantage, however, is easy to…

We all know Majora’s Mask to be a rather infamous Zelda title. Don’t get me wrong, the game is great, but heavily criticized. Why? This is mostly because of the time cycle. Even a lot of people who like the game a lot are frustrated with this fact as well. I, for one like the cycle, it separates it from the other games. On the first half of the game, the cycle lasts for about a half-hour so you can…

These days we seem to be hearing more and more talk about the Zelda series getting stale. Nintendo reusing the same structure in each game is a good example. And I don’t just mean the game in general (collect three items, plot twist, collect some more items, final showdown). I’m also talking about specific elements, such as dungeon structure. Even other elements of the series have been reused again and again. Villains, items, plot twists, kidnappings, magical objects. Some people…

So here it is, guys, the last Curiosity Shop before E3! Next week’s going to be one hell of a party, expect some big things! Until then, I’ll try to keep you satiated with some discussion videos. The questions and their timestamps are: (00:30) – You said you wanted less dungeons, but what if the dungeons were done well? (01:15) – What do you think is the hardest game in the series? (02:18) – Do you think Midna will be…

Alrighty, guys! Unlucky #13! Weird stuff might happen this time because of the unlucky number. Wonder what, though? And hey, 13 questions! Most I’ve ever answered! About half the questions are Zelda Wii related, which should be a relief to those who didn’t like the Zelda Wii focus last week. Enjoy! Questions and their timestamps: (00:19) – Do you think Twilight Princess’ bosses were big to hide how easy they were? (01:15) – What do you think of the original…

Hey there guys! Got a new discussion video for you! In order to keep something of a Zelda Wii theme this week, I’ve made a Zelda Wii video to go along with the Zelda Wii themed mailbag earlier this week. This video is a list of things I’d like to see in Zelda Wii, and in some cases I discuss the merits and the likelihood of seeing these come true. It’s quite packed, actually. Some of the subjects I cover…