So I was watching a few youtubes and remembered how the vast majority (of like the ten) nes games me and my sister had were hard as all hell. I loved to play Little Nemo and Street Fighter 2010 but I am pretty sure I never made it past the third level of either. Let alone infamously hard games like The Lion King.
Which got me thinking. Basically every game for the past 20 years has been designed around instant gratification and being accessible. We outright had to make a new concept "hard but fair" to account for games like Dark Souls that are designed to be difficult but beatable as opposed to putting you in a death spiral if you hesitate too long on a hard jump (hello Ninja Gaiden).
So do the younger folk even have a concept of a "favorite game" where you likely never experienced more than fifteen minutes worth of content?
oh yes, a bunch.
Sekiro wasn't as hard for any of my friends then if was for me, that game practically made me not hesitate, even just a little.
Then there's ULTRAKILL that game aant you to do everything from muscle memory or it's straight up going to kill you, Have not perfected the final challenge, but the game is extreamly fun.
And to give you another example, let's sag the Keli games. Oxygen NotnIncluded and Don't Starve (Together), these two can be the two hardest games I've ever played. Easly clocking in more then double the playtime then the previous two, and yet I've never beaten neither of them. In Oxygen I managed to get to the "mid game", as the community calls it, ONCE, on m most recent. In Don't Starve all my notable achievements are because I have friends that play way better than me and we played co-op.
These games are easly in my top 10, making me work for the reward is much more fun. Played Legue and Fortnite 1k hours in both. I hate them for making me addicted and stealing my life. Oh, also you asked for younger gamers, I'm 17.