Why Gamers Like It Nice and Hard

For many, video games are a form of escapism. Our lives may suck, so we play something engaging for the next several hours before bedtime. In the past, I always associated escapism with RPGs (or at least science fiction and fantasy settings). However, I recently read a post on The AV Club about escapism, and I was pleased with the diverse choices. It’s no coincidence that an abundance of these posts have appeared post-election, and don’t worry - I’m not here to insert my politics into games. I just thought it would be a neat idea to discuss the kind of game I like to play whenever I’m feeling at my lowest – simple yet difficult games – and offer some suggestions to you in case you’re in a similar situation. Please feel free to leave your own suggestions in the comments.

At my lowest point, I borrowed my brother’s Wii and turned to Ninja Gaiden (NES) because I was going through a retro phase, and many writers have included it on their hardest games lists. Although I had a lot of fun controlling Ryu’s swift, acrobatic movements, I constantly yelled in rage due to the brutal difficulty. With just a slight scroll of the screen, an enemy can respawn like magic. This design choice contributed to most of my frustration, and made act 6-2 the hardest level in the game. I replayed this level so many times that if I were to play Ninja Gaiden today, I would possibly be able to beat this level through sheer muscle memory. If I lost to the final boss, meaning I never learned his attack pattern. It was very tempting for me to call the game out for being unfair, even though it was likely my own fault in retrospect. Although I was constantly angry at the game, I was equally inspired by it. I ended up creating a plan to compensate for my lack of knowledge about the final boss’s capricious attack patterns. Basically, I learned where all the fireballs were located, and then spammed them on the final boss’s second form. Then, I died, collected the fireballs all over again, and then used them on the final form. Admittedly, my strategy could have been more efficient, but it worked, and the satisfaction I felt afterwards inspired me to go and do something productive. Did beating Ninja Gaiden make all my problems go away? No, but I certainly felt like I could tackle life one day at a time, much like act 6-2.