I sometimes find that my taste in books, movies, and obviously video games clashes with others, but there is always that one popular mainstream product everyone seems to enjoy. One of my favorite games is Grand Theft Auto 3, and what made it doubly-great is that everyone I talked to seemed to think the same. It was great shock to me then when in 2006, after moving to a new project I suddenly found myself surrounded by people who actually thought Grand Theft Auto 3 sucked. I was completely puzzled by their hatred for one of the best games ever made.
Their logic for hating on this masterpiece? It lacked skill. Skill apparently is that aspect of a game that makes it maddeningly difficult and controller-chucking-across-the-room frustratingly impossible. I am not a big fan of these types of games, and so began my long battle of trying to explain to these "skill" gamers how wrong they are about games and how the most important aspect of game should be how much fun it is. Apparently these strange people don't find jacking cars and killing hookers fun. Why you may ask? Because there is no skill involved.
It was then, after years of arguing about what makes a game good, that I was presented with this article: http://insomnia.ac/commentary/arcade_culture/ explaining the arcade culture in Japan, the "one token rule" and how a frustratingly hard skill game can become fun after you have mastered it. I set to test this theory and decided to buy the hardest game I could find.
Contra 4 is so hard, that my most skilled gamer friend only managed to reach level 2. And so, armed with my DS and a 16 hour flight to Israel, that unfortunately turned into a 30+ hour flight, I popped in the cartridge and started playing. Actually I didn't, I watched movies on my iPhone, got sick from being seated close to disgusting germ-covered passengers and spent the flight and numerous hours lounging in airports around the world being sick and puking.
But when I finally did get a chance to play the game, I approached it with the arcade one-token rule mindset. My goal was to master the game, and I knew that while at first I could not even get past the first bad guy on the screen, that one day I'll be able to breeze through that section and the fact that it used to be impossibly difficult will make the game even more fun. Contra 4 definitely plays like a coin-slot arcade game. This game is hard, you will die A LOT, and you'll need to replay the same levels over and over and over again. Luckily it is fun shooting bad guys and I got a tremendous feeling of success every time I managed to get past a stage that seemed impossible at first.
When I first started playing, I couldn't get past the first set of bad guys. Now I am able to reach the first level boss without dying even once. Perhaps in a few days I'll even be able to reach level 2. This is not a game for the casual gamer, nor is it a game for someone who does not want to spend a lot of time on a single game.
If you have a 10-15 minutes to play every day, don't have a lot of games, like the feeling of being able to master something very difficult, have a DS but can't afford a musical instrument or another time-consuming hobby, and enjoy shooting people, then Contra 4 is the game for you. The game is fun, but if you aren't prepared for the difficulty your DS and the game cartridge will find their lives ending suddenly as they explode against the wall across the room.
Final score: 90/100
If you are interested, you can read my other reviews here: http://www.vgviews.com/profile.php?profile=1&type=2&start=0&range=25
Their logic for hating on this masterpiece? It lacked skill. Skill apparently is that aspect of a game that makes it maddeningly difficult and controller-chucking-across-the-room frustratingly impossible. I am not a big fan of these types of games, and so began my long battle of trying to explain to these "skill" gamers how wrong they are about games and how the most important aspect of game should be how much fun it is. Apparently these strange people don't find jacking cars and killing hookers fun. Why you may ask? Because there is no skill involved.
It was then, after years of arguing about what makes a game good, that I was presented with this article: http://insomnia.ac/commentary/arcade_culture/ explaining the arcade culture in Japan, the "one token rule" and how a frustratingly hard skill game can become fun after you have mastered it. I set to test this theory and decided to buy the hardest game I could find.
Contra 4 is so hard, that my most skilled gamer friend only managed to reach level 2. And so, armed with my DS and a 16 hour flight to Israel, that unfortunately turned into a 30+ hour flight, I popped in the cartridge and started playing. Actually I didn't, I watched movies on my iPhone, got sick from being seated close to disgusting germ-covered passengers and spent the flight and numerous hours lounging in airports around the world being sick and puking.
But when I finally did get a chance to play the game, I approached it with the arcade one-token rule mindset. My goal was to master the game, and I knew that while at first I could not even get past the first bad guy on the screen, that one day I'll be able to breeze through that section and the fact that it used to be impossibly difficult will make the game even more fun. Contra 4 definitely plays like a coin-slot arcade game. This game is hard, you will die A LOT, and you'll need to replay the same levels over and over and over again. Luckily it is fun shooting bad guys and I got a tremendous feeling of success every time I managed to get past a stage that seemed impossible at first.
When I first started playing, I couldn't get past the first set of bad guys. Now I am able to reach the first level boss without dying even once. Perhaps in a few days I'll even be able to reach level 2. This is not a game for the casual gamer, nor is it a game for someone who does not want to spend a lot of time on a single game.
If you have a 10-15 minutes to play every day, don't have a lot of games, like the feeling of being able to master something very difficult, have a DS but can't afford a musical instrument or another time-consuming hobby, and enjoy shooting people, then Contra 4 is the game for you. The game is fun, but if you aren't prepared for the difficulty your DS and the game cartridge will find their lives ending suddenly as they explode against the wall across the room.
Final score: 90/100
If you are interested, you can read my other reviews here: http://www.vgviews.com/profile.php?profile=1&type=2&start=0&range=25