Long before “Soulslike” entered the gaming lexicon, it was generally taken for granted that plenty of games would be tough as nails by design. This was especially true in the field of platformers, and to be sure, that genre has had so many difficulty-infused love letters written to it over the past decade that, in essence, there was only a brief window of time when those titles were notably easier on the whole.
Gamers of all ages frequently boot up retro games, be they platformers, racers, RPGs, shooters, you name it. Younger players who weren’t around when Mario first saved the day might rely on save states to blitz through Super Mario Bros. today. Veterans of the retro scene will often do the same. With the advent of things like Nintendo Switch Online’s built-in rewind feature, it’s easier than ever to overcome frustratingly tough game designs from bygone eras. But how does it all make you feel?
Let’s Try That Fight Again
The conversation popped off over at ResetEra, where a member called ScOULaris raised the following two-pronged question: “Do you use save states when playing challenging retro games? If so, do you feel guilty about it?” The ‘guilt’ part has been brought up by numerous posters as most definitely not a part of the equation for them, but there’s nuance and texture to the overall discourse.
“When it comes to using save states (or god forbid… rewind) in retro games that emphasis challenge in particular, I used to feel that using save states was robbing oneself of the game’s intended experience. Basically, the same line of reasoning some have used to argue against difficulty settings in Souls games.”
ScOULaris’ perception has shifted over the years, however. A recent playthrough of Castlevania: Bloodlines and Super Castlevania IV left him warmer on it. “Plenty of hard retro games’ difficulty comes from having to be sent back through challenging gauntlets (oftentimes with limited lives/continues) that you’ve already cleared because of a single cheap shot sending you plummeting to instant death.” It left ScOULaris realizing there was no need to endure “punishment for every little mistake”.
“I definitely use them and no I don’t feel bad about it,” is r_rose’s expressed belief in the thread’s very first reply, and it rather sets the tone. “If save states are available to me, I use them,” says poptire. EvaUnit787 provides some personal clarity: “I am usually beating some game that gave me a hard time as a kid. I also don’t feel it is any good accomplishment trying to beat some of these like the og Metroid without this stuff. Use cheats too.”
ResetEra’s average age demographic is notably higher than many other gaming corners of the internet – I should know, I’m part of it and I’m hardly an outlier on the late side of my thirties – so it’s worth bearing in mind in all of this that, for many of us, our return trips to games from our childhood are well and truly retro. I replay the Mega Man Legacy Collection every few years, for example, and I’ve given up on not using rewind functionality with those games. I just don’t have the same patience for death traps these days, y’know?
PeakPointMatrix is, well, pointed in their reply. “I have to pay taxes, cook, work, clean, enjoy life. Why on god’s green earth would I waste the very precious few moments I have to game redoing an entire stage + boss because I died once in some archaic save/checkpoint system that probably wasn’t even fair on release, and very likely only existed to artificially extend play time?” This is one of the realest things I’ve read all week.
While the overwhelming majority appears to happily tap into save states and rewind when possible, there are plenty of exceptions along the way. “[Kind of] defeats the purpose of me playing a challenging game otherwise,” hikarutilmitt declares. andrythedrifter is even more against it:
“No, I don’t use them. I like playing games under the intended ‘rules’ the game was designed and balanced around, otherwise the experience just feels super hollow for me. Giving myself the godlike ability to eliminate risk or rewind time saps my enjoyment. Might as well just watch a playthrough on YouTube instead.
I’ll be the first to agree that many retro games, particularly in the 8-bit days, had excessively punitive lives/continues systems, but at that point I’d rather just play a different game.” -andythedrifter
axbaxmit will only use them for training purposes, and won’t count these kinds of built-in cheat options as valid for completion purposes. “I will use them to practice tough parts, but [I] wouldn’t consider a game ‘beat’ unless it was the same as on original hardware.” And then there’s Urfe and jay with back-to-back posts, who both use them, and do feel guilty for doing so!
“Extreme shame, guilt and regret. I lost all of my friends and my wife when it was uncovered that I used multiple save states in Krusty’s Super Fun House,” laments Dunfish in a message brimming with grief that could not possibly be fabricated. It’s important to admit these things, Dunfish. My heart goes out to you during this trying time.
