@LadyCharlie It's perfectly okay to not enjoy obtuse difficulty in video games, but to say it's bad game design is a step too far.
If you don't want to get good, then yeah, that's perfectly valid. Not everyone enjoys that kind of gameplay, and there's no shame in using save states and the like if you're not down for it. If you feel like it's a waste of time to have to repeat a section, then that's completely understandable.
But, if the game is designed around the "get good" philosophy, then telling people to get good is a perfectly valid solution to their difficulty problem. To say otherwise is almost equivalent to saying that it's okay to go into a horror movie expecting a comedy, and then lable it bad because you didn't laugh.
Game design isn't black and white; the same thing can be either good or bad based on the context of surrounding design, or even the intention of said design. As an artistic medium first and foremost, video games aren't and should not be any one thing. The term "video game", I'd argue, is a poor term for the medium in general, because it seems to give people the expectation that it has to be fun or forgiving to play. It doesn't. Forgiving games absolutely should exist, but it shouldn't be all of them. There should be games for everyone, including people like me who enjoy putting our heads against a seemingly unconquerable challenge until we can achieve the impossible. Always remember: Not enjoying something doesn't mean that thing is bad or shouldn't exist. I don't like raw tomatoes, but I know plenty of people who do.
tl;dr: Punishing bad design isn't bad game design. It's just not the right game design for you.
Hey! I'm a long-time Metroid: Zero Mission hacker. I'd like to say that I don't think Mother Brain is as tough as people make it out to be, if you just be smart about it.
As for whether or not it's possible to no-hit Mother Brain: Absolutely! It's not actually particularly difficult, so long as you have Screw Attack and Hi-Jump. Without them, you can still rely on Ice Beam, but it's a lot tougher.
I wasn't able to no hit without screw attack, but I'm sure it's possible.
You can also kill Mother Brain faster by unloading four missiles and one super on each cycle!
Also, a word of warning for anyone who wishes to try the Project ZM improvement hack; the speed keep after landing from a jump makes it a lot easier to slip off from small platforms. Let go of the d-pad before landing on them when fighting mother brain!
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Re: Soapbox: Metroid’s Mother Brain And The Rewind Dilemma
@LadyCharlie It's perfectly okay to not enjoy obtuse difficulty in video games, but to say it's bad game design is a step too far.
If you don't want to get good, then yeah, that's perfectly valid. Not everyone enjoys that kind of gameplay, and there's no shame in using save states and the like if you're not down for it. If you feel like it's a waste of time to have to repeat a section, then that's completely understandable.
But, if the game is designed around the "get good" philosophy, then telling people to get good is a perfectly valid solution to their difficulty problem. To say otherwise is almost equivalent to saying that it's okay to go into a horror movie expecting a comedy, and then lable it bad because you didn't laugh.
Game design isn't black and white; the same thing can be either good or bad based on the context of surrounding design, or even the intention of said design. As an artistic medium first and foremost, video games aren't and should not be any one thing. The term "video game", I'd argue, is a poor term for the medium in general, because it seems to give people the expectation that it has to be fun or forgiving to play. It doesn't. Forgiving games absolutely should exist, but it shouldn't be all of them. There should be games for everyone, including people like me who enjoy putting our heads against a seemingly unconquerable challenge until we can achieve the impossible. Always remember: Not enjoying something doesn't mean that thing is bad or shouldn't exist. I don't like raw tomatoes, but I know plenty of people who do.
tl;dr: Punishing bad design isn't bad game design. It's just not the right game design for you.
Re: Soapbox: Metroid’s Mother Brain And The Rewind Dilemma
Hey! I'm a long-time Metroid: Zero Mission hacker. I'd like to say that I don't think Mother Brain is as tough as people make it out to be, if you just be smart about it.
As for whether or not it's possible to no-hit Mother Brain: Absolutely! It's not actually particularly difficult, so long as you have Screw Attack and Hi-Jump. Without them, you can still rely on Ice Beam, but it's a lot tougher.
Here's a video I recorded a while back (uploaded just now) to showcase! https://youtu.be/sN7xkw2aPhs?si=2G-2-zN_aW3FmY7S
I wasn't able to no hit without screw attack, but I'm sure it's possible.
You can also kill Mother Brain faster by unloading four missiles and one super on each cycle!
Also, a word of warning for anyone who wishes to try the Project ZM improvement hack; the speed keep after landing from a jump makes it a lot easier to slip off from small platforms. Let go of the d-pad before landing on them when fighting mother brain!