Uncle Andross's List of Ways to Make the Gaming Industry Better and More Hardcore

1. There needs to be more 2D games. Seriously, in order to improve the gaming industry and make it more "hardcore," we need to appeal to the older, more dedicated gamers- the gamers who have been around since the NES and before. 3D doesn't necessarily mean fun, for a good, old-fashioned 2D game can provide a great time.

2. Less damn checkpoints/extra lives. Seriously, what's the point in playing a game if you can just go back in time five seconds before dying with little penalty? In fact, automatic checkpoints should be removed altogether- all games, of all genres, should return to optional savepoints which are few and far between, and they must be at least 1-3 hours apart. Unless you're in some "central hub" or "world map" zone, of course. If you don't use them, too bad- you get a game over, and go back to the last time you saved. That would, without a doubt, make the industry more "hardcore."

3. More badly translated dialogue. Seriously, some big interwebz memes are based on memorable lines from videogames- and those lines are usually memorable because they were badly translated. More badly translated dialogue will mean more laughs, which means happier gamers- of course, the bad translation in portions of the game must not drag down the entire plot. FFVII had bad translation, but it still had a wonderful plot. Follow examples set by games like that.

Uncle Andross will update the list when he sees fit. If you kiddies wish to contribute to the list and/or complain about it, by all means, do so- but remember, you're less of a hardcore gamer if you do complain.

I don't agree with number 3. Lines like "You spoony bard" are fine, but I prefer having the characters speak in a refined manner, not like 5 year olds. We can still have funny lines in games without them being mistakes.

First off, great idea for a thread, Andross.

Secondly, more Nintendo games. Face it. It's the one thing that's been sorely missing this generation. And while all but a very few of Nintendo's development studios have "no" current projects, this generation, even on the DS at this point, the unique, quirky takes on current mascots, long with new games such as Pikmin has been severely lacking. Instead, we've gotten mostly some retreads from last generation, such as Animal Crossing and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, while completely missing out on the new experiences that made the Gamecube unique. At least we're getting a main Tales game next year, instead of a fanfare spin-off. Needless to say, with almost all of Nintendo's many teams' projects under wraps, I would expect 2009 to be a big year.

One thing I half-disagree with is save-states. I do agree that there is the trend with many games to make them less challenging, more of just a trek to one end of the game to the other, with no real challenge, but automatic checkpoints are a natural evolution to gaming. Above it all, however, what matters most is how well the save points/save system is implemented. What I think we see more of these days is sloppy save point placement and development, rather than the need to go back to the most hardcore difficulty completely.

Originally Posted by Mr. Wonderful

First off, great idea for a thread, Andross.

Secondly, more Nintendo games. Face it. It's the one thing that's been sorely missing this generation. And while all but a very few of Nintendo's development studios have "no" current projects, this generation, even on the DS at this point, the unique, quirky takes on current mascots, long with new games such as Pikmin has been severely lacking. Instead, we've gotten mostly some retreads from last generation, such as Animal Crossing and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, while completely missing out on the new experiences that made the Gamecube unique. At least we're getting a main Tales game next year, instead of a fanfare spin-off. Needless to say, with almost all of Nintendo's many teams' projects under wraps, I would expect 2009 to be a big year.

One thing I half-disagree with is save-states. I do agree that there is the trend with many games to make them less challenging, more of just a trek to one end of the game to the other, with no real challenge, but automatic checkpoints are a natural evolution to gaming. Above it all, however, what matters most is how well the save points/save system is implemented. What I think we see more of these days is sloppy save point placement and development, rather than the need to go back to the most hardcore difficulty completely.

2009 seems like it will be Nintendo's big year. They seem to be putting out smaller games this year to satisfy some people, while their big projects take time. But yeah, the industry still needs Nintendo.

Continue to make shovelware casual games. This gives the hardcore something to complain about untill the next hardcore title. At which point they will complain about said hardcore title for a couple of months.

Originally Posted by Shark Boy

Continue to make shovelware casual games. This gives the hardcore something to complain about untill the next hardcore title. At which point they will complain about said hardcore title for a couple of months.

Ah, you too recognise the Twilight Princess Syndrome that has infected the hardcore community lately?

Originally Posted by DarkVaati

Ah, you too recognise the Super smash bros. brawl Syndrome that has infected the hardcore community lately?

Fix'd.

Ah, you too recognise the Metroid Prime 3 Syndrome that has infected the hardcore community lately?

Double fix'd.

We could go on for hours doing this.

Options, options and more options.

Difficulty settings, customizationable control schemes, different character skins, single-multi-player (both online and local) and co-op dammit!

Tis What made Perfect Dark (64) awesome!

Sounds like someone just wants to play 2D games.

Oh, yeah, and:
-Less Mario Party ripoffs
-Less Mario Parties
-More game series (like TLoZ, Mario, Metroid)
-Difficulty settings
-Less cheesy promos
-Less promos
-Less cheese
-Less sports games (the only difference each year is 4 people and more versions of Madden saying "Boom! That's what I call a tackle!"). No hardcore gamer spends hours on that.
-Less sports in general

So your saying we should erase every good idea that the gaming industry has thought of since 1990? I suppose we should start riding in horse drawn carraiges and using telegraphs too.

Hardcore doesn't mean we should go back to the 80s. Hardcore means we should move forward with the same spirit as the 80s. For example, we have checkpoints, but we put 10 more enemies into the room. That way the gamer is chalenged, but his time is not waste spending 20 minuets trudging back to where he got greased.

For the record, the 80s were not devoted to hardcore gaming anymore than we are now. There were still movie games, sports titles, and all the other games that people deam "casual", they were just in 2D.

The gaming industry really doesn't need to be more hardcore.

Let's see here, I do agree w/ SheikahSage on this one, checkpoints are good, but to make up for it, you need more challenging gameplay. Just look at Mario Galaxy. Well done in most aspects except challenge. Granted, a few stars towards the end were HARD, but otherwise, the difficulty was on a 'casual' level. Of course, this is to be expected for the first Wii Mario. From what I've heard, there may be another one in development, let's not forget that the NES had 3 games (4 in Japan...sorta...). Anyway, let's see here, what to add... Ah, here we go!


Worthwhile downloadable content. Yep, that's right. Especially on Wii. After the advent of the Internet was finally placed into the world of home console gaming, the next step was to add to the games the way patches have done in PC games for years. The main problem is what is worthwhile. Obviously, anything on Wii would be nice. New levels, maps (for multiplayer titles), songs (Guitar Hero, Rock Band, DDR, etc.), and fixes for games have been done on non-Nintendo systems to great effect (*coughcough*Xbox Live*coughcough*), but for the Wii to become more 'hardcore', it will need to address this issue. Now I know that we didn't have this until recently, but it's still something that should be considered. Throw in a free download here and there, along with resonable prices, and you've got yourself promise. Just don't charge anything like $5 just for a few costumes/characters, that's just stupid, bundle them in with something else and make it $10, you'll sell more that way.

Avoid stupid AI. Devos shouldn't have to put in 40 enemies into a room just to make it hard, they should only need five, each with enough smarts to avoid your attacks, requiring the gamer to think. No, wait, did he just say think? Of course, especially in games like Zelda, where the only thing you don't think about too much is combat. Speaking of which...

Make better puzzles in adventure games. Zelda, I'm looking at you. Thoung I loved Twilight Princess, I have to say, the puzzles were a bit on the easy and sometimes pushing the stale side. By making creative, new and hard puzzles, the gamer will have to make more time, and should have a more enjoyable experience, as long as they're up for the challenge. At that point, you may want to...

Include different difficulties with distinct differences. By doing this, it will increase second playthroughs. This is something games like Mega Man had that made them great. You could play it again with more of a challenge, something unheard of at the time. More than one difficulty helps, just look at Call of Duty and Halo's success with this. However, developers need to think of next gen AI as well, discussed above the last question.

I'll likely have more later.