im down with maddeningly hard difficulty as long as I don't have to replay easier parts over and over due to bad checkpoint placement or no saves.

I can relate to the writer of this article after playing Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, namely that War Golem you fought that had the power orbs on it's body. I can't recall the last time I was so frustrated: I literally screamed myself hoarse and once I beat it I felt really good...for about ten seconds.

Offering a challenge that isn't actually unfair is tough but games need challenge otherwise it just really isn't worth playing.

I find harder games more fun than easier games. Probably why I prefer Mega Man 9 over any others in the series. Yet I don't like Megaman X6 at ALL. Perhaps because of all of the unfair 1-hit kills.

Hand holding is the worst thing to happen to gaming today. Everyone is so quick to PANDER to the casual market, that it really seems to strip games down from what they could be. I miss the feeling of accomplishment and wonder of exploring on my own and overcoming a problem by using the clues hidden for me in the game. This nonsense of AI partners lately telling me to "Go here, quickly!" and "Shoot the core when it stops!" is just asinine and frankly, ruins the fun for me.

You can make a game appeal to more people without PANDERING. I wish devs would learn that.

I find anything developed by Capcom this gen is just difficult at parts and their is no value in playing those parts, it's just frustrating. (Lost Planet, DMC4)

Unnecessarily difficult or unfairly difficult games can destroy the entire experience.

examples:

Ninja Gaiden
Midnight Club Los Angeles

I prefer my games to be more difficult which is rarer and rarer these days. How this guy found Odin Sphere to be difficult I will never know but I never ever had a problem with it. Common sense would tell you if you just got torn apart very badly during a boss encounter that maybe seeing as the game is a RPG that you might not be ready to take it on and perhaps should level a bit. Anyone who would spends hrs to figure this out might not wanna be calling themselves a gamer.

When it came to The World Ends With You again because I am a avid gamer and this being a RPG I fought plenty of enemies and made sure I would be ready for each boss. Never did I have to have my hand held as I knew what to expect out of common sense.

Games as a whole should be more difficult because the game will last longer therefore giving you more bang for your buck. Sure you have to do it right so you don't cause massive frustration however I never really understood people who would get so angry they would throw a controller. I beat Ninja Gaiden on the harder difficulty and never once got angry enough to do anything along those lines and I know people out there have broken plenty of controllers over Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Gaiden II. Hell Ninja Gaiden won a award from EGM called game most likely to make you break your controller.

I find this gen that the replay factor of games comes in the form of online play.
To me online play is great fun because its more challenging then playing AI in single player campaigns but i feel as though if devs had more focus on making the single player campaign , we wouldnt so highly seek out online play.

Its sad that a great game is so short nowadays especially if you take out cut scenes.I remember when instead of cut scenes you spent just asmuch time on finding out a puzzle or a boss' weakness.
You see in more games this gen then ever instead of making harder puzzles,harder bosses,and harder level designs(this never happens anymore since everything is open world)devs are worried about particle effects and motion blur.

WAS SO FREAKING HARD !

anyways i enjoy hard games, and hard trohpies (achievments if you have a xbox) for example for superstar dust hd the late boomer trophie has to be one of the hardiest trophy!

Those were the days. Such a fun looking game....two controllers broken.

And am I the only one who thinks that the difficult bosses in FFXII were just totally made hard by HORRIBLE game design? Just curious (Yiazmat, Omega Mark XII)