A memorable villain in a game can be a powerful force. Players can learn to hate them, fear them, or even pity them.  Everyone who has played Final Fantasy VI remembers Kefka, and any StarCraft player in the world probably has a firm opinion on the Queen of Blades. The big villains – the bosses – have a lot going for them when it comes to memorability: the story usually revolves around them, they usually get the most epic battles, and quite often they get the best graphical treatment, too.

But what about the little guys?  What about the endless underlings the player crushes on their journey to the Big Bad?  What makes those guys memorable?

Consider, for a moment, the humble Goomba.  Almost anyone who has had contact with video games over the past 25 years can probably identify one in an instant, most likely right down to even knowing their name.  Even those that might not know the name still know they are “the little mushroom men from Mario” (as my father has called them). Koopa Troopas fall into that same category.  Heck, most of the enemies from the Mario series fall into that category.  But why?

For the Mario cast, much of it comes down to longevity and repetition.  Goombas and Koopas and the like have been harassing gamers for over two decades, remaining relatively constant throughout.  Though there have been subtle changes to their looks over the years, they remain easily identifiable, even after the jump from 2d to 3d.  Add to that plenty of out-of-game marketing of the characters, from cartoon appearances to plush toys, and you’ve got the makings of some pretty iconic underlings. So while the Mario minions have a lot going in their favor, what about all the other game baddies that stick in our minds, regardless of repetition or merchandising?  What turns a low-level baddie into something that stays with us, sucking up precious memory space?

Continue Reading…

A recent look back at some nemesis games raised one question over and over again: have games gotten easier recently?  Now, some may inclined to simply make the argument that we, as gamers, have simply gotten better at games on average as time has gone by, but that dodges the issue.  Instead, to really analyze this question, we first have to ask “what makes a game difficult?”

There are, of course, many answers to that question: intricate puzzles, tricky jumps, and twitch timing are all elements that can contribute to a game’s overall level of challenge.  At core of the matter, however, is something more critical.  In general, the difficulty of games can be broken down into two fundamental categories: challenges that, when encountered and failed at, a gamer says “I know what I did wrong there” vs. those that, following defeat, a gamer says “I don’t know what I did wrong.”

Continue Reading…