With the release of Sekiro we have been having the same old conversation about difficult games. Difficulty in games is a form of gatekeeping, they say. An unnecessary quirk of game design which ought to be abandoned. Difficult games are disrespectful, even, and good developers would add an easy mode.
And I disagree. I don’t believe some games being difficult is disrespectful, elitist or wrong but simply necessary.
Chicago Express is a game of alliances. But they are not the kind of alliances made explicit through negotiation. Rather, they are the kind that naturally arise from shared interests.
Set at the height of railroad expansion through the Appalachians, Chicago Express is a challenging game of stocks and manipulation. Quick and heavily streamlined, its simple rules hide a tremendous amounth of depth and a degree of tension that it’s often missing from many other train games.
JRPGs were my favourite genre when I was a teen. I loved them all, from Chrono Trigger to Final Fantasy to more obscure series such as Shadow Hearts or Shin Megami Tensei. For a while, they were all I would play. To me, they were synonymous with gaming, a pillar of the medium.
Until one day, I stopped liking them. And never did again.
Since Magic: The Gathering‘s release in 1993 there have been hundreds of customizable card games. Covering different ideas, mechanics and themes the genre has gone far beyond its humble origins and grown increasingly diverse.
And I think one of the most interesting examples of this growth is the way different games handle card draw. Let’s give them a look.
The battle against Red is one of the most epic and important fights in the history of Pokémon. It’s the last battle, the last challenge of the second generation and also the hardest of them all.
But amongst the reasons this battle is so memorable, the most important of them all is its context. Continue reading »
