Are Mario games getting easier?

[Edware]

Mario games have definitely gotten easier, but I don't think their too easy either. In Super Mario 3D World you have an optional overpowered invincible powerup that appears when you die many times on the same level, but it's optional. You don't have to use it if you don't want to. Also, now we actually have save points, but I think that's important to have. Back in the old days you had to beat the entire game in one sitting or pause and not turn off your console, which is not something everyone is willing to do.

 

[averus]

I don't think the games got easier, I think we, the gamers, have become more used to games.
I remember when I started playing my first videogame (Super Mario Bros), it was difficult as hell. Now I can beat the game with two fingers.

That's what's happening to all games in my opinion. They don't get easier, we become tougher

 

[polski691]

I wholeheartedly agree with the notion that Mario games are getting easier with the passing of time. I mean, think about it: on the first Super Mario Bros., we had a clock that we were scared of, enemies whose movements we'd have to carefully track to get past, and 1-Ups were a thing to marvel at. Today's Mario games, on the other hand, have shunned the race against the clock altogether (or at least get pretty close to that), have enemies that are total pushovers, and you can find an extra life at each and every turn of the game.

What's happened is that we've found more ways to prolong games than to jack up their difficulty, I guess, and so we are given space to dumb down our games.

 

[steeleda]

I don't think that they are lowering the difficulty. I find that I struggle the same amount whether I'm playing Super Mario World or Super Mario Bros. Wii. I still get killed by the turtles, I still can't get all the special coins, I still don't know the function of blue coins, and I still always lose Yoshi mere seconds after I get him. Maybe it is just me who still struggles with the game, I don't know. I do think that maybe the game has changed because the players have changed. While most of us struggled through the Super Nintendo levels, the kids now days don't even know what that is and how much time we all spent struggling through the levels (mostly as Luigi I imagine) and it was hard. The games now are still plenty difficult and still pretty fun to play and accomplish.

 

[Livvy]

I wouldn't say that the Mario series is getting any easier, no. I mean, have you ever played the games on the Wii U with your friends? They're brutal, really brutal. Part of that might be that you're playing with friends however, so you know, there's an element of the difficulty being with the people you play, rather than the game itself, but still.

 

[Kwriter93]

I personally own both many old SNES Mario games as well as all of the newer ones for both Wii and Wii U. I find that the older games are much more challenging, because 1. You can't exactly always have 2 players on the older games and 2.There seems to be much hard obstacles and opponents to work around.

Maybe it's just me, I don't know, but it seems like I can beat the newer games in a matter of days and the older ones take weeks.

 

[camsdad]

I don't think the games got easier, I think we, the gamers, have become more used to games.
I remember when I started playing my first videogame (Super Mario Bros), it was difficult as hell. Now I can beat the game with two fingers.

That's what's happening to all games in my opinion. They don't get easier, we become tougher

I completely agree. When I got my first system I was three or four years old and was finding it very difficult to play games like Mario on NES. By the time I got SNES and Super Mario World I was more used to playing games and it just got easier and easier. I do believe that the developers play a big part in the ease of the newer games, but I also think I'm more advanced in skill now too.

 

[gamerboy]

I don't really think that they are becoming easier I just think hat they are beginning to appeal more to a younger audience. To me I just think that the games are getting more fun to play and nowadays I am really enjoying playing them.

 

[queenbee]

I definitely understand why you would say this. Personally, I thought the difficulty dipped a little in previous years but is beginning to pick back up, especially in regards to the platformer-oriented games (Super Mario Bros). Or rather, I think there is a much wider range of difficulty across the games now. The latest (Super Mario 3D World) has some extremely difficult levels in the "extra" worlds. Me and my sister, who are seasoned mario players (two decades experience) had trouble completing some of them, even on multiplayer and bubbling-up every two seconds.

 

[Johnny Hopkins]

I do feel like they are getting easier. In the very beginning not many people ended up finishing super Mario because it was too hard. Now games like super Mario galaxy are too friendly and easy to the user in order to generate sales.