Then, as their spirit begins to drain while still in the first area, tell them they have to beat it TWICE, IN ONE RUN, just to get the real ending.

“How dare you enjoy a challenging but rewarding and well designed game. Back in my day we had shoddily designed bullshit that was intentionally filled with poor design decisions and artificial difficulty because otherwise players would finish the game in ten minutes and we LIKED it.”

Older games were bound by their graphical and technical capabilities.  This does not make them “shoddily designed”.  They could only fit just so much content on a cartridge, which limited the scope and features of the games.  At that time, game development was also prolific, and many titles needed to distinguish themselves from other franchises in regards to the obstacles set before the player.  We’re not talking about some LJN bullshit here–we’re talking about a well-respected game.  “Mega Man” was a difficult game.  “Castlevania” was a difficult game.  “Ninja Gaiden” was a difficult game.  OF COURSE difficulty is added to a game to increase its lifespan, because this was not a time of open-world MMOs.  Nowadays, they try to drag out a game’s lifespan via new game+ features, achievements, and DLCs.

Older games are still “video games”.  Especially with retro-styled games such as “Shovel Knight”, there’s no reason to exclude them.  Not having HP bars, save points, or methods of healing is no longer done these days because they don’t NEED to be.  We’re ABLE to include these features, and many more.  To actually go back to stricter limitations is a legitimate challenge that should not be undermined simply because it came from a simpler time.  Newer games are difficult for different reasons, and its frankly disrespectful to disregard what came before them.  Without Nintendo, no one can say if we would even HAVE video games today.

Ghost and Goblins, Ha, No, have them try 10 minutes of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde., then watch them really rage about difficult gameplay and challenging odds.

Um, excuse me, but this discussion is about video games of at least average quality, not methods of torture.

ET on the Atari.