Topic: Are current Nintendo games challenging?

Depends on the game. If you're only going for story completion, then the main Mario platformers, Pokemon games and Zelda titles are pretty much at an 'easy to medium' level of difficulty. But for 100%? They end up becoming some of the hardest games out there, at least within the triple A games industry. Just ask anyone who tried the Perfect Run or Champion's Road or the Cave of Ordeals or the various Battle Tower esque challenges in Pokemon.

They just disguise what other console games would call difficulty levels as extra optional content.

And then, you've got other Nintendo games, which are a bit less mainstream. Those can be really, really hard. Like Donkey Kong Country Returns and Tropical Freeze:

Or Yoshi's Island DS, which was basically the nearest thing to a kaizo game released at retail...

And then there's some of those last few extras which are just about undoable by most normal people. Like that cucco minigame in Link Between Worlds and getting a score of 999 points...

Or Mario & Luigi Dream Team's Hard Mode Giant Battle Medley. Good lord that thing is ridiculous. Five bosses, three hits until you're dead, the bosses have about ten times your health minimum , attacks come thick and fast, and you cannot heal at all either between battles or while playing them. This is just (a badly recorded version of) the normal version:

And it still looks hard. Then again, the game in general gets stupidly hard in Hard Mode, that's kind of the point.

There's also really difficult DLC for other games, like the Impossible Pack in New Super Mario Bros 2:

Whether Nintendo games are easy or hard depends on which ones you play and whether you play the optional levels and modes.

Nonsense, all games niw can be easy or hard depending on the settings....

No. And I couldn't be happier about it.

They published Wonderful 101 and the recent DKC games, so the answer can't be no at the very least...

It's the internet - you're going to find people who like to think they think Ninja Gaiden was too easy or they claim they could beat Punch Out blindfolded, so it's not a reliable source. Miiverse is usually more accurate because people are not ashamed of admitting something is hard.
For me, Nintendo games didn't get much easier - of course with the NSMB serie the point now is not so much in dexterity anymore but in understanding where the secret coins are placed - people use a walkthrough and they blame the game for being too easy. Some stages in Super Mario 3D World are harder than Mario 64 (Champion's Road?!), and you can't blame the camera or the controls nowdays because they are perfect. DKC hasn't changed. Getting all the stamps in NintendoLand is a bloody challenge, and so is getting perfect ratings on NES Remix. Zelda is not getting easier, it's only getting less convoluted, which is all for the better. I think Nintendo is doing a good job.

This guy gets it, pointing it all out simply.

Play 3D World, and don't use the white Tanooki suit, and come back and let me know what you think.

I haven't even beaten DKCR: 3D. It's so hard.

Yes they are challenging. Hyrule Warriors is quite hard for example

Indeed, so far for the supposed ''mindless button mashing hack & slash''.

I definitely believe so, 3D world actually tripped me up quite a bit and don't even get me started on the later levels of the game. DKC Tropical Freeze was also incredibly difficult not counting the challenge levels. The only one that I thought was really easy was LoZ: A Link Between Worlds which came out last year.

I'd say that getting to the end credits of a Nintendo game is easier than ever. However, given that I like to getting 100% completion on their games. This can be much more if a challenge and matches the old skool games more. Mk8 was very easy I thought, especially the time trials. Dk:tf has been a real challenge so far for me but I'm still in the middle of that one. The 2d/3d Mario games were worryingly easy to beat but if anyone is saying they didn't find getting the secret levels and collectables difficult they're lying! I guess you have to be more committed to getting the most out of your games now?

Of course you need to be more committed, and the difficulty comes from additional content. It's because in the olden days, games had to be hard to make up for the lack of space for content, and to keep people playing the same few levels and bosses for hours.

Now though, they can please everyone; an easier difficulty for the mandatory levels, and a harder one for the bonuses. And this has been a thing ever since the SNES with games like Super Mario World.

Most Nintendo games nowadays are more accessible than before, and as such just playing through the main part is often quite easy. The post-game content, or aiming for 100%, can often be much more challenging, though some games (like most 3D Mario games) can be terribly tiring by having repetitive requirements. They often create weird excuses for playing through all levels several times (Green Stars, unlocking the final challenge level, stuff like that) without much of a change.
In general, the amount of challenging aspects in Nintendo games is much lower, but post-game stuff often serves as a steep rise in difficulty - or as a mindless collectible hunt...

First off, it was made by Ninja Theory, Nintendo published the game. Second, not really. I literally walked through most missions on hard without much of a problem. The game is challenging when just rushing head-on into every enemy troop, but only until you realize how exploitable the limited AI can be. However, that goes for almost every Warriors game, Hyrule Warriors simply lacks a Chaos difficulty to make up for it.

Best way to please everyone should be to make different games. The main game gets the most effort so people who have never played a game before get the best deal.

Plus they get to just start with the content they want to play the most (So do I - I hate collectables and messing about).

Super Mario World was when they started to go wrong. Super Mario Bros 3 was better and just reasonable difficulty curve start to finish. (And not being able to replay levels was a good thing).

Well said. Everyone always claims things are "easy" because no one can fact check on the internet! Same goes with people "playing" games they haven't, but that's a different story

Considering how saves work nowadays, the much more broad spectrum of players (we don't all have calluses on our thumbs from gaming), and variety that is usually demanded by the real fans (not the "hardcore" masochist whiners who think they're cool IRL because they play Dark Souls) I think Nintendo's balanced approach of initially easy ---------------> hard is a great approach.

So you basically want a Super Mario Bros 1 and Lost Levels for every Nintendo title? One for 'mainstream', one for 'hardcore'? Seems a bit silly if you ask me.

And being able to replay levels is definitely a good thing. Maybe not immediately afterwards, but come on, I've always disliked how I'd have to play through a Zelda game or Mario RPG all over again just to replay a single boss battle, or re explore a single dungeon. I don't want Mario games to be the same way, because believe it or not, some people have favourite levels they want to replay without a ton of back up save slots and crap.

I just want a scale of 1-5

1 Kirby
2 NSMBU
3 NSLU / Tropical Freeze
4 DKCR
5 Lost Levels

Games are best when the default difficulty is the best one for you. (It gets the most effort).

After they have made it then they can work out ways to potentially make it easier or harder. But they should have a good amount of content at all those levels of difficulty.