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Thread: Games aimed at children that are too hard for most children to beat

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    Pretzel (Level 4) shopkins's Avatar
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    Default Games aimed at children that are too hard for most children to beat

    I use "most children" as a disclaimer because I'm sure there were some of us that were beating Ghouls 'N Ghosts when we were six. But watching my cousins fumble around with games, I think it's weird that so many games lead children in with a cute and cuddly character they love and then provide a challenge that could only stump them and turn them away. I'm sure some kids toughen up and practice until they can beat it and then grow up to post on Digital Press forums, but I bet more just put the game down and go on to something else.

    I posted this here because it seems to show up more often in classic games, but the game that made me think of this was Scooby Doo: Night of 1001 Frights, which I decided at random to pull from my PS2 collection and play last night. With infinite lives and generous checkpoints it's not exactly Ninja Gaiden Black, mind you, but I still managed to get a little frustrated with some of the jumps and really lost because of the game's vague clues about where to go next. That's not exactly what I expected to be provided for the audience that would want a game about a cartoon dog who likes to eat.

    A good classic example might be the first Ninja Turtles game for NES. I just find it hard to believe the skill levels of eight-year-old Ninja Turtles fans were really taken into account when designing that dam level.

    A lot of of times this comes down to poor programing. Bart Vs. The Space Mutants is ridiculous in its difficulty for all the wrong reasons. And there was a Rocky and Bullwinkle game for SNES that's so frustrating and clunky it's stupefying, I remember getting stuck on the first level because the collision on the platforms was so dodgy I would always walk to the wrong place and fall through them.

    So what games can you think of feature both children's characters and surprisingly high difficulty?

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    The Simpsons = children characters???

    I'm going to say The Lion King for Genesis and SNES. As a kid, I never got past "Can't Wait to Be King." Way too many cheap deaths on the ostrich part. Just about any other vehicle part in a sidescrolling game was easier. Shame too, because as a kid, I was dying to play as adult Simba, where you could actually attack.
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    I just remember Athena for NES being impossible to get through, mostly because it was constructed in such a wonky fashion.

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    The Majority of Super Hero games (that are not strictly fighting games), Captain America and the avengers is a real pisser....the arcade game was made so depending on how many quarters you pumped in, thats how much life you get....when they ported the game they must have assumed SNES and Genesis had a quarter slot somewhere....

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    Quote Originally Posted by BetaWolf47 View Post
    The Simpsons = children characters???

    I'm going to say The Lion King for Genesis and SNES. As a kid, I never got past "Can't Wait to Be King." Way too many cheap deaths on the ostrich part. Just about any other vehicle part in a sidescrolling game was easier. Shame too, because as a kid, I was dying to play as adult Simba, where you could actually attack.
    I was gonna say the same thing. The game itself is relatively easy, but the "Can't Wait to Be King" level is harder than all the other levels put together. I just remember thinking, "This is only level TWO for cryin out loud... on a KIDS' game no less!". Definitely annoying. It took me two days to beat the game when I rented it years ago... one day to finish the "Can't Wait to Be King" level, and one day to finish the other 8 levels. Unbalanced difficulty at its finest.
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    rocky and bullwinkle for the NES, even as an adult i can't get past the first couple levels

    nthing the "can't wait to be king" level, fuck that level
    And don't bring up that stupid girlie Aladdin rip off! Shantea?

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    I think you could probably throw half of the Nes's library on this list. The whole system was marketed to kids as a toy/video game system. While it was definitely a fun machine there were tons of games that clearly weren't made for the purpose of having kids beat them.

    Although the already mentioned TMNT for Nes was rather tough, this then-11-year-old still managed to beat it. Also, Duck Tales wasn't the easiest Nes game in the world either.
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    Quote Originally Posted by The 1 2 P View Post
    Also, Duck Tales wasn't the easiest Nes game in the world either.
    What? The Capcom Disney games were some of the easiest on the system.
    .

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    I'm with others, most games up to about the end of the 16-bit area fall into this category. I'm not going to go so far as to say they're impossible for kids to beat, because with enough time spent, any non-broken game is eventually doable, but it's still somehow amazing that these games were marketed at kids.

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    Hmm, I'm not sure if I even got very far in any 2D games as a kid other than the Mario games.
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    Tiny Toon Adventures for NES sure had some hard spots. Especially the last level.
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    Platformers are usually the games that has these mascots and stuff geared towards kids. They frustrated the hell out of me as they usually had cheap deaths or something rather unfair. I always had to use game enhancers on them as I never really enjoyed playing them without the extra help to make the game easier. Recently I'm playing the New Super Mario Bros. Wii and I am tearing my hair out over some of it as there is no game enhancer for the Wii. I don't see how any kid could seriously play most Mario games as many of them just challenged me too much.

    I'm trying to think of platformers that were NOT too hard for me from the 8 and 16 bit classic era and I'm having a hard time. I went with all the popular titles and most of them required me to use a game genie and a Nintendo Power to beat.

    Before that era, I remember annoying kid bait stuff like Commodore 64's Transformers and Colecovision Smurfs that are still impossible for me to beat today. Yet I somehow I was able to understand and beat E.T. many times as a child of 10. How very strange.

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    There is a Spongebob platformer for the Wii with some tricky sections. My family often is babysitting for a 4 year old that loves videogames, so we're always playing games when he's here. He has this game that he loves but can't really play well at that age so he has me play while he tells me what direction to go in and such.

    But there's one section on a large gear wheel pretty early on that is pretty tricky and I died an embaressing number of times on it before getting by. And I'm someone that has no trouble playing through most any platformer in 2d or 3d.

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    by the 'can't wait to be king level' are we talking about roaring at those monkeys to get them to throw you in the right sequence and jumping on those wildabeast tails or whatever they were?

    the teenage mutant ninja turtles game with that water level where you had to avoid getting shocked

    and A Boy and His Blob. what kid has any idea what to do in that game???

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    Toy Story for the SNES was very difficult. It looked great, but was very frustrating.

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    The Harry Potter games especially Chamber of secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban, my brother had to return prisoner of azkaban because it was so hard for him but we kept chamber of secrets.

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    Quote Originally Posted by fairyland View Post
    Recently I'm playing the New Super Mario Bros. Wii and I am tearing my hair out over some of it as there is no game enhancer for the Wii. I don't see how any kid could seriously play most Mario games as many of them just challenged me too much.
    Really? I finished Super Mario World as a kid in third grade, and probably got through the secret world (after Star Road) with a lot of practice. I find practically every platformer to be easy enough, aside from Ghosts 'N' Goblins. I recently played Super Alfred Chicken for SNES, and although it's considered difficult I never had too much trouble. By the time I cleared it (granted I got the bad ending) I have around 50 extra men remaining.

    As a 14 year old.I fiund NSMB Wii to be pathetically easy. I finished the damn thing (without all the star coins) 3 days after I got it, with maybe 97 lives stockpiled and not even coming close to activating Super Guide. A week later, I got all the star coins and extra routes. I know you don't believe me, but I ALWAYS played games for hours on end as a kid- and most of them being platformers I know all of the tricks they can throw at you.

    When I was in sixth grade I got that TMNT game for NES. The water level got me stumped for maybe a day but then I got all the way to the interior of the Technodrome (still haven't beat that part) by a week. That's probably because I found a map of the water level on Gamefaqs and of course all you had back then was a friend to tell you or Nintendo Power.

    When I first started playing Mario as a seven year old (beginning with SMB3), I was PWNED by every enemy when I would boot it up. Nowdays, I can beat any of them very easily.
    Last edited by ReTrO-pLaYeR; 05-04-2010 at 10:26 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by jordandavid View Post
    by the 'can't wait to be king level' are we talking about roaring at those monkeys to get them to throw you in the right sequence and jumping on those wildabeast tails or whatever they were?
    Yup, that's the part. My wife was actually playing it last week and got stuck there so I pulled out my nomad to see if I could catch up and pass her up. We ended up both playing and replaying the same level at the same time over and over again to no avail. It was pretty funny and frustrating at the same time.
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    google 4 gaga
    Last edited by UnpluggedClone; 05-28-2010 at 06:39 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by ryborg View Post
    What? The Capcom Disney games were some of the easiest on the system.
    Cant speak on all of them, but I did beat Duck Tales with the giant pile of gold coins ending many, many times. I had a bitch of a time with Rescue Rangers though, still do to this day.

    OT: To this day I still find Adventure Island to be a massive pain in the ass. I beat it using a emulator and like a 1000 quicksaves. Caveman kid with skateboard=definite kid aimed game.
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