💾 Archived View for s73.girv.in › glog › 2024 › 2024-06-20-dont-bossblock-me.gmi captured on 2024-07-09 at 00:12:21. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Don't Bossblock Me

20 June 2024

I recently accquired a Retroid Pocket 3+ and have spent some time playing Metroid Zero Mission on the Game Boy Advance. There's a box labelled "When I Make A Metroid" that lives rent-free in my head and I will, occasionally, make time to play a Metroidvania as "research". Previously, it was the NES version of Alwa's Awakening, and now it's Zero Mission. An actual Metroid, no less.

I like these games. I like the varied platforming, the puzzling exploration, the key tenets of unlocking new abilites and areas, the story that usually unfolds as you progress. Sometimes I'll try tricky maneuvers to uncover deeper secrets and items, even though I'm really fairly terrible at games and eye-finger-controller coordination in general. This week I learned what a Shinespark is, for example, though I've yet to manage one.

Then a boss enemy appears and the fun stops. My heart sinks at the thought of the looming frustrating, ill-fated repeat replays of the same fight. A mountainous progress gate that I often find impassable without cheats. I don't have the time, motivation or likely ability to 'git gud'. Probably, I'm well past being as gud as I was ever gonna git.

[IMG: Ridley - Screw this guy]

Why does this mean I have to abandon your game though? People get enjoyment from games in different ways. Don't bossblock me.

By all means, though, put in bosses. Fill your rocket boots. All I'm asking is that you don't make them artificial progress blocks. Let me switch them off, skip them like a cutscene, or make them easy. Whatever works. I would argue that skipping the bosses would barely affect the gameplay in Alwa or Zero Mission.

As @blerkotron@mastodon.social put it:

After all these years, I still loathe boss fights. "Hey, you know this game you're enjoying and you've gotten reasonably okay at and you're making progress and having fun? What if we put something completely different and unfamiliar and ten times as hard here and stopped all that for you? Wouldn't that be great?"

And:

I would like separate difficulty levels for boss fights. Including one that just says "hit him once and you're done". Thank you.

I made the mistake of skimming ahead in a walkthrough of Zero Mission to see what lay ahead. At least two more bosses, and tacked-on extra missions involving stealth (ugh), time limits (don't get me started) and another boss (groan). I haven't gone back to the game since reading that. Alwa on NES suffered from levels added on after the previous natural end of the game too.

In Turbo Tomato, I made it so you can skip any level including bosses with no penalty. I'm working on an update for Rogue Declan and I'll think about adding an "easy boss" option (not a trainer) there too.

I know what I'm putting in the "When I Make A Metroid" box at least.

Don't Bossblock Me

Related Links

Tags