Difficulty Level of NES games then and Now.

[PizzaKat]

I started playing the first Castlevania and I got to the mummies. I did die numerous times but Im still wondering how far I got when I was a kid. I rented this so I only had it a few days. My question is do you consider yourself more advanced and better at NES games then you were as a kid or do you think you've lost your touch or at the same level?

[Tanooki]

If I just had to leave it up to not looking into the why behind it, at face value -- lost my touch. The reality of it though is the games are just as easy/hard as they always were, but the problem is when you're 5-15 years old you have a crap ton of free time, you don't as an adult with a full time job (or more), potentially a woman/wife and maybe a kid(s) around too. Once you are too tired to bother more than a few hours a week at most, you lose it.

[Arkanoid_Katamari]

I'm actually better at NES games now then I was back then. I was like 5-7 when I was playing NES games, so how good is a 5yo really at video games? Still can't beat Ninja Gaiden though.

[retroman]

For me I would still say the same. A few games I may be out of practice a little, but most of the ones I mastered as a kid is still like riding a bike.

[kupomogli]

I'd say I was better back then than I am now, but not by a lot.

[celerystalker]

Definitely better now. I never really stopped playing them, so I'm generally much better. The biggest difference for me as an adult is that I can think through the obtuse, cryptic, and erroneous puzzles and clues games like Simon's Quest or Legacy of the Wizard put out there way better. I don't like to use FAQs or online help these days, as I found it takes away the satisfaction from beating games, and my adult mind is way better than 10 year old me wandering around in circles in those games.

[wizardofwor1975]

I'd say I was better back then than I am now, but not by a lot.

Yeah, I'd say I was better back then too. I'm not getting any younger so maybe my reflexes/reaction time is slowing down a little bit. I also think their is something to what Tanooki said about a lack of free time for practice. The amount of time I spend gaming these days is minuscule compared to when I was a kid. I think the old idiom of practice makes perfect fits this discussion perfectly.

[Rickstilwell1]

For me it's weird. I am better at some but worse at others when I get rusty. With some practicing I can usually catch up though. I've been pulling off a bunch of new game completions in the last 2 years.

[8-Bit Archeology]

Same here I'm better at some and worse at others. I can't say why I'm worse other than I just don't spend too much time to redo hard parts. But I know I'm better at some simply since, as an adult I can now understand subtleties and mechanics a lot better than as a child.

[XYXZYZ]

I think it's a use it or lose it kind of thing. Whether or not I was better or worse at a game as a kid vs today depends on how much I practiced it then and now. Back then I certainly had more patience to learn a new game than now. (I even suffered through several days of practice to finish Back to the Future... I still don't know why the hell I did that.)

These days, I can spend a few days practicing a game, an be able to finish it without problem. But when I stop playing it and move on, my skill fades. I could finish Castlevania without dying when we had that "let's all play" thread. But I can't do that now. The last few weeks I've been playing TMNT (the first NES game everyone else sucks at) and I can finish it without losing a single turtle. I was, for about a week earlier this year, starting my day by waking up, eat breakfast, finish Ninja Gaiden (NES) in one or two credits, then get on with whatever else I had to do. I really doubt I'd be able to do that just out of nowhere today.

I've been trying to learn Battle of Olympus, but I just don't have the patience for it. I know I would have happily put the time in as a kid. I'm also taking a swing at Ghosts and Goblins, and after spending six credits to get to stage 2, I think my time is better spend on something else...

[EDIT- After posting this I felt the urge to play a round of Ninja Gaiden. Finished it in two credits!]

[Aussie2B]

I'm about a million times better at NES games now than then. I was pretty young when the NES was in its prime, so most games were too hard or confusing for me. Most of my NES memories are actually of watching my older brother play and enjoying that. Plus the system was his, so I couldn't exactly play any game at any time I wanted. I do remember playing a lot of Duck Hunt, Super Mario Bros., and Super Mario Bros. 3 myself, though. (Not to completion in the Mario games; I was nowhere near good enough to beat them.) Now those games are a cinch for me, and I've beaten many others without too much difficulty. There are definitely some hard as nails NES games out there, but overall I think the whole concept of "NES/Nintendo hard" is flawed and exaggerated.

[Tron 2.0]

When the nes originally came out i was in my teens by that point.By then i was starting to get really good at video games.Though when i play just about any nes/famicom game now,i will have my ass handed to me Part of it is due to being rusty when i haven't play a nes since the early 90's.It wasn't until 2006 when i bought a famicom av that i got into it again.Some games i do remember how to play while correctly,while others i don't.I guess you could say i got to use to modern gaming being easy where retro is where it's at for difficulty.

[Tanooki]

You see that's why I said what I did before, it's my problem. I got the NES in 85 for Christmas, I was 8 at that time, and had bummed around the Chuck E Cheese or pizza parlor here and there enough I had full idea on what I was doing, it wasn't like 3 year old kid fingers. When all I had was a few friends, homework, and no lame totalitarian parent garbage about video games going on if schoolwork was done I could real time into it. No job, no home, no wife n kid, and no long college reading/papers to screw around with either. Each of those adds more and more time.

As it is right now my day works roughly as such -- up at 6 and work through 2 with a break (I stack my 15s and a given 30) for lunch. Anytime between then and 3 the kid wakes up from nap which is no time to get any good work in on a console (laptop, handheld is fine.) Then she's up until 8 when it's bed. 50/50 we eat with her or make something after which means around that and catching up on shared tv I'm not free until at least 9pm. That leaves me 3 hours in the evening if I'm not worn out and still in there I shower in the evenings and do other needs too. My free time is just shot. If I could put happily 2-3hr/day on old games still when I'm in the mood I could kill it as I did as a kid no questions, but now I can't.

These days I won't bother with hard games, or modes over easy/normal on stuff I do buy as I want to experience it, not re-run the same crap 10-20x over getting my ass blown up or tossed into a pit until I can work it out like I could as a kid. I tend to get more stuff on the laptop I can sneak in since the TV is tied up or the handheld for the same reason, perhaps I should play ROMS of my NES games on it? Console games I want them shorter and not annoying as hell so I can get my money and time worth out of it with hopes to finish which many NES games do fit into. I won't buy console based RPGs anymore, I can't sink 3-6mo into one game to get the hours eventually to kill it but I'll get them on a handheld as I can in the chair or even in bed for an hour or so at night (Bravely Default, Tales of the Abyss on 3DS.)

That's the issue there -- I'm not worse due to age, I'm worse because I can't get the time and because of that NES games are harder due to that, but the games themselves aren't harder on their own merit alone as it's environmental cause and effect.

[genesisguy]

I'm a smarter gamer now.

I would have never beaten Batman as a kid. I worked on that a few weeks every night after work and nailed it.
As a kid I had to use the Contra code, now I can run through it without the code. I used to rage quit a lot of games as a child too. That never happens now.

As a kid I used to think brute force and quick response would win games. I blame it on Super Mario Bros. I always held down the b button and ran like hell through that game.

Flashcarts and youtube have revolutionized the way I play NES, SNES, and Genesis. Some may call it cheating, but remember when you were a kid and there was one kid that figured out something in a game and you'd all watch him, go him and instantly be better? Well, youtube is full of that kid now.

I may have more time now than I did as a kid. I dunno if that's a good thing. But I got my master's degree 2 years ago and the past two years have been basically working 40 hours a week and then my time is my own. Girlfriend on the weekends, but no kids yet so I'm able to come home after work and do what I want. It's nice. But I know it won't last.

[Tanooki]

To that last block of text. You're damn right. Once the GF moves to throughout the week, or ends up living with you/married. Chop that down some depending on what she likes to do with you (tv shows, sex, whatever.) Then pop out a kid and you'll be down to maybe an hour or two a night once everything is quiet and over -- if you're not too tired to even bother.

[Einzelherz]

I'm worse unless it was a game I was particularly good at as a kid, like Megaman 2 or DKC.