The release of Elden Ring a little over a year ago (February 22, 2022) once again brought to the table the debate about difficulty and accessibility in video games. Social media became the battleground it usually is, and few midpoints were reached. The history of video games shows that this matter is not the exclusive domain of FromSoftware. Comes from afar.
Streets of Rage 3 (Bare Knuckle II in Japan) is a video game beat ’em up side scroller that was published by Sega in 1994 originally for the Mega Drive. We are before another expert in “punishing” players with his difficulty. Unlike FromSoftware, which mercilessly pummels those who refuse to learn its mechanics, Streets of Rage 3 it is more subtle and mocking.
The video game has final four: good, bad and two neutrals, which we will call Neutral 1 and Neutral 2. The latter is the ending that interests us. It is usually qualified as Alternate or Secret Ending, although it has little secret because many players saw it on their screens… and they didn’t find it funny at all. If you choose Easy difficulty, the levels in Streets of Rage 3 look reduced to five. Getting to the final boss, Mr. X, is much easier.
The question is that Streets of Rage 3 wait until you defeat Mr. X to reveal his trap. When you are celebrating victory, he tells you that you have defeated a robotic clone of Mr. X. You have not completed the main mission and on top of that he calls you “beginner”. A subtle way of saying: “you lack street“. The robotic clone commands you to replay the game on Normal or Hard to face the real final boss.
villain translation: All that effort and you only defeated my understudy. You haven’t discovered the location of my hostage and while I hold him, Alex is believed to be a criminal. You play this game as a beginner. You’ll have to do better than this to defeat Mr.X.
This Streets of Rage 3 little joke It got very mixed reactions among the fans: from offended that the game called them “beginners” to laughter and humor. The point is that it finally became one of those details that transcend time.
So now you know, the issue of difficulty in video games is not new. It comes from quite far… although not all developers transmit it in the same way. What other games do you know that do this? How would you take the Streets of Rage 3 joke if you saw it while playing? The comments are all yours.
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