Hardcore Gaming Means What?

Destructoid has a good article on what makes a hardcore gamer.  It isn't nostalgia.  There were some games that if you could beat them regularly, you were "hardcore."  It all goes back to the games not having enough memory back then to have great depth.  I mean, if Gradius had been easier, it would not have been played as much in the Arcade.  The article will challenge you to think of games you've yet to finish and whether that's because you got tired of them (you like "playing games") and those that were too hard to beat yet (you like "winning games").  So I'm dusting off the cobwebs in my head and suggesting a few games that require hardcore devotion.

1) Solomon's Key (Wii Virtual NES Console).  I used the continue feature to level 40, I think.  Whichever level, the last 10 levels have to be done in one game.  They are the hardest levels.  I never beat this game in the 80's, and I don't know about today.  Consider back to when it was a Japanese arcade game and people could complete it in one go.  That's hardcore.

2) Mighty Bomb Jack (Wii Virtual NES Console, TBA).  I think this one can be beaten with enough practice, but who wants to?  Still, you have to get thru all of the scrolling platform levels and all of the arcade levels inbetween.  I game genie-d this puppy, so my completion doesn't count.  I'll warn you, though, most people hated the NES version anyway.

3) Thunderforce III (Genesis).  Hard, hard, hard.  It has free-roaming Xevious play alternately with Gradius-type play.  If you die, you start over.

4) The Tower of Druaga (various Namco collections).  A time limit.  A maze.  Indestructable fireballs.  100 levels.  Again, hats off to the hardcore Japanese players who still play it today!  Do this with one credit.  Dare ya.

5) Super R-Type (or any R-Type).  I understand some versions of R-Type are more hard-core than others, but I distinctly remember the Super NES version being really nasty.  Hell, even R-Type Delta is really hard on the PSone.  In the later R-Types, the super-huge mother ships that you have to destroy have to be attacked on at least six different sides.

I'm sure there are lots more to add to the list.  The criteria of hardcore is extreme difficulty, but the game has to have merits, too.  Take Total Recall for the NES.  Supremely difficult, but the game couldn't be less compelling to play.

Another reason there was a rise of the hardcore game was cost.  I mean games were $30-50 back then, which is about $50-80 now.  I was in college when Zelda first game out.  At $50, that was the only game I bought for awhile.  6 months, to be exact.  The concept of bombing the walls was completely alien to me.  Once I got over that hurdle (thanks Nintendo Power!), I could finish that non-hardcore game.

As the cost of games is seemingly skyrocketing (but it really isn't), I think we can look forward to an ever-increasing amount of hardcore games so that people have something to play while refilling their bank accounts.