@reed: Busted on the Goldielocks. I guess that's what I get for commenting tired.

The games that are too hard for me is a great question. The first game on the list is Sinistar. I don't know if it's because I never saw anyone else play or because I played it way past it's prime, but that game is crazy hard. Now I can't get that evil voice out of my head. "Run Coward! RUN! RUN!" #nightnote

@fuchikoma: I am like that with pretty much every RPG. I am so excited about getting into it, I tend to make rash decisions for skill stat placement, then my character or party sucks so I go back and make a new one that is better, stronger and faster.

If this is with a game I like, though, I have no problem starting over, as the material is still interesting enough to me that I don't mind seeing it again. #nightnote

Not counting design failures and rushed balance issues, there are two reasons for the range in difficulty - one good, one bad. The good reason is that there's quite a range in player skill levels, and having the games match that range means more players can have a fun, optimally challenging experience. Nobody likes a game that's too easy (boring) or too hard (frustrating).

The bad reason is that there are legacy game design trends that increase difficulty without actually adding anything valuable to the game experience. Tactics that merely punish the player, increasing frustration and inflating play time - things like limited lives, and so on. Some developers use them because they're what we've always done, and some developers are willing to break with tradition and remove them.

As it happens, I just wrote a blog post about this issue that may be of interest. It is available here:
[www.pixelpoppers.com] #nightnote