Blogs The decline of memory challenges in games

I've been replaying Link to the Past and wondering how the hell me and 2 younger brothers completed it at the ages of 12 and under!

 

Like playing Ninja Gaiden on the NES, now that is a hard game. It took me until last year to actually complete that basterd of a game.

Mental challenges just don't appear in games now. It's all shoot and shoot (aka COD and that large genre of similar games). Look at the ATARI 2600. The Swordquest games were games that required a large amount of remembering; you had to get items, and put them in rooms in the correct order, just to get some codes, which you then had to figure out where to find the words in the included comic book. You then had to make a sentence with the words using the words that were prime numbers. That's a brain cruncher right there.

 

had exactly this problem with ff6, i think it's more that people don't sit down and play the same game in long sessions as there are far more games and distractions, not to mention portable and mobile gaming. breaking up of games has led to quicksaves and checkpoints wheras time was you could be a long time between savepoints, plus as mentioned the game assumed you'd be back and gave no objectives or synopsis.

was going to disagree with there being no memory challenges though, but casting a quick eye over my games collection aall the ps3 stuff is shooters and beat 'em ups and the pc games library mostly stuff where i have to remember ammo points on maps, tank weakspots or elemental weakness'/resistances. still don't want to go back to the days when i used to game with a notepad and pen nearby (still do for tracking somethings like skillpoints/upgrades/resources needed etc.) for codes, notes, etc. as that could get confusing and frankly no memory was involved
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Two AAA games that require memory: Mass Effect 2 (when you have to seduce the Ardat-Yakshi by remembering her opinions, favourite band etc.) and Deus Ex Human Revolution (when you have to answer the guy at the LIMB clinic with the secret code so that he will talk to you).

And a game that requires not just a pen & paper but numerous excel spreadsheets and community created tools to get anywhere: EVE Online

 

maybe the problem just lies more with the fact that anyone that has forgot a memory challenge such as a code would probably tab out and google it rather than spend time backtracking when they know where they can find the clue and rather not waste half an hour ? fast internet, juggling multiple processes and net-capable phones really change how this situation goes down - most recently i've been playing 'trails in the sky' on my psp and after hunting up and down a highway i'd rather google where to find a particular bounty monster than hunt all the many maze-like paths.

 

Lol yeah, kids back then were hardcore! I remember my friend's little brother playing Mario 2 and just dying over and over and over and it was really sad. Then about 3 weeks later when I went round to their house again, he had completed it And when I watched him play, he was amazing.

Back then there were no walkthroughs and spoilers and you couldn't just play another game either because you tended to only get 1 new game every 6 months or something. So you just played it and played it until you mastered it.