Topic: What is an hardcore game?

I'll tell you a game that isn't hardcore and that's House of the Dead : Overkill. It seems to have 'hardcore' written all over it but actually it's the perfect casual game. You can pick up and play it without being a gamer and anyone can beat. Trust me it's easy. Harcore games have to be difficult to play.

Ding! We have a winner!

This is the best reply I've read on this thread so far.

I hate this term. The only people who use it tend to be people who's gaming tastes I don't respect. The types of games that typically get labeled hardcore tend to be the ones I find the most generic, at least by the general masses (they tend to be the bigger-better-deal style of games--Call of Duty, Halo, etc.) It's been said a few other times in this thread and I agree--who needs labels? I play 2 straight hours of Progear, then play Pop Plus Solo for 30 minutes, move onto some Half Life 2: Episode 2, then finish with an hour of Phantasy Star IV. I don't once think about which games are casual or hardcore and still have a blast the whole time I'm playing.

@zss_shadow In that case, the Mega Man Star Force games are uber hardcore. As are the Pokemon games.

But the Megaman Battle Networks series, that was twice the length, somehow escapes the label...fascinating.

Thanks for the link zss_shadow, even if i didn't understand all, i get the points of the article. Very interesting, i should try to translate it in italian, but i have fear that the result would be catastrophic
The only thing that i didn't like (for what i understanded), it's that it seems to explain money revenue and Nintendo's success rather than pure gaming. I mean, i liked Wii Sport, but i loved more Little King Story (bridge game?) or Knights in the Nightmare.

I liked how he explain the success of Nintendo and Blizzard, these two are my favourites software houses, one thing i didn't understand at 100% it's what is a disruptive technologies.

I still remember how Iwata said, years ago, how games becomed too much complex, and how i was worried and how the media react. In italian we say, "ride bene chi ride ultimo", something like "smile good who will smile last", Iwata should have a great laughing now!

Star Force is set to beat it.