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I wanted to write this a bit earlier - right after the review in fact - but I never got the motivation to do it. Here it is now.

I just realized there is one thing I forgot touch upon in the review, and that is the wierd difficulty. Some parts of levels will be absolute cakewalks, whereas others will kill you constantly, to the point that it may get frustrating. Most notably, a few bosses will lock you into a stunned animation for some time. And it's not due to a glitch. It's just the way that boss' attack pattern is set. I didn't quite understand why at first, but during my second playthrough, I think I understood: it's because I'm so damn powerful. If it were only up to me, I'd fry and toss everything to Kashyyyk and back.

Yet, I was not always this godly. At the beginning, my poor Starkiller could barely survive attacks from multiple foes. As he grew and gained powers, though, the tables quickly turned, and a single move could clear a room. Then a few cheap grenade throwers would knock me down long enough for me to get hit by another explosive as I got up, greatly weakening me before I could get to them.

Yeah, yeah, I know. I may be dragging on here, but I need to draw a picture. Clear enough yet? Okay then. 

After a few ordeals of that nature, I thought that this kind of practice - artificially increasing difficulty, as I call it - is something that I find more often in recent games. Recall the punishing bosses in the new Ninja Gaiden, for example. Then I thought of the NES Ninja Gaidens, that, while hard, were not desgined to force you into a "stun-lock." Battletoads, Double Dragon (maybe except III, that one was a bitch), TMNT: Turtles in Time, Final Fight, Streets of Rage... The list goes on. Same thing with them: they were hard because they required mastery and memorization.

So what happened? My best guess is the (IMO) silly notion, which some people believe, that some games absolutely need "RPG elements." Increasing in power. I think this is a problematic addition to some genres, but beat-'em-ups more specifically. It's much worse when there are multiple "skill paths" to select from, as sometimes the game is made so that one can take advantage of a certain skill, but the player who didn't emphasize it is somewhat penalized. By doing so, developpers need to come up with "creative" solutions so that the powered-up player doesn't have it too easy. (See above examples) 

I remember what made the old school brawlers fun. Punch, kick, air attack and the occasional power-up. It worked. Why change the formula? I understand that a player may enjoy the feeling of getting better and stronger, but when it is poorly executed, it can be detrimental to the rest of the game. Having too many options create unnecessary challenges for the designers who try to balance the game, who often get it wrong. Back in the day, the entire game would revolve around four directions and two buttons. Having such limited options, it was easier to come up with imaginative levels and enemies that would be balanced and not create a frustrating experience. For future games, we may have to take a look at what made them so great, and try not to get too sophisticated. I'm really glad MegaMan 9 came as it did. Four directions, two buttons, two dimensions.

All in all, I think we might be at a time when we need to look back and try to get a tad more minimalist. I believe that in modern gaming, having too many options can be a bad thing, as it tends to create a jumbled mess of odd decisions that can ultimately affect the final product. Just remember when people said it was surprising, yet refreshing, to see simpler games like Lost Winds or Braid. Those games work on one or two simple mechanics and live by them.

Come to think of it, Braid, MegaMan 9, Lost Winds, Little Big Planet and the Wii series - heck, even Puch Out!! - may be signals. Signals that simpler times are ahead, not only behind. Just like these titles, it should be refreshing. But thats an entirely different topic.

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