Forbidden levels drive me mad!

[Guest annet]

I think it's time for developers to make their games more accessible when it comes to higher levels. I have bought a lot of puzzle games for my spv that will only unlock game-levels once you have finished an easier level. Now I know you're supposed to have some kind of play element to make the game worth playing, but I'm stuck at various levels in TMAX, Swix, Toki Tori, Done in 50 seconds, Mini Golf, you name it! It sometimes gets so frustrating that I want to throw my phone out the window! :x My view is that I paid for these games so I think I should have access to all of the levels! A nice example I think is Bust M where you can access everything through a hidden menu. I hope someone will develop the same for the other games mentioned! :wink:

[Guest Coucou]

But if you're stuck what makes you think you'd get on any better on higher levels? :)

[Guest Disco Stu]

.....and think of the thrill when you eventually get through to the next level :)

You'll never get anywhere in life unless you keep trying blah blah :wink:

[Guest annet]

The next levels are not necessarily harder, just different. It's more the basic idea that you buy something and then can only use half of it that frustrates me. Of course I know all about the thrill of getting to the next level, believe me, I've come a long way in these puzzle games, but I've never actually finished one! :) Am I being silly or does anyone else see my point?

[Guest Coucou]

If you're stuck on Toki tori there's a forum you can go on to get help.

[Guest Disco Stu]

I do see your point, but I wouldn't admit to being defeated in public... DOH !

There perhaps should be a built-in cheat for the extra levels, although not for games with online high score tables. As you say, you've paid for them.

What really bugs me is when the game resets itself after a phone crash and you fail to get as far as you got before :evil:

[Guest midnight]

whats the point in buying a game that you can see every level straight away though? waste of money if you ask me, and this is what makes games a challenge .

yes its frustrating sometimes, but when you finally crack that level, you feel real pleased with yourself, and this is what a game should be like, a mix of emotions contributing to the whole gaming experience, this is what ultimately makes a good game and a bad game. Good games are challenging and fun, making you come back for more, bad games do not offer a challenge. Of course, when developing a game you must guage this carefully, cos make it too hard too quickly and that just frustrates the gamer too quickly without giving them any satisfaction.

The other argument is that games devlopers have to cater for all levels of gamer skill, which is hard to do, but is done well in games like Toki Tori, easy enough at first to get through lots of levels, but eventually gets very hard on the harder levels. Opening the game up so that you can play all levels on a game like Toki Tori would kill the games lifespan.

[Guest beersoft]

Im with midnight on this one,

If i have just spent $20 on the latest game, i don't want to sit there and complete it in an hour, but on the other hand i don't want to have to restart from the beginning if its a big game.

its swings and roundabouts, you have a quick and easy gaming fix or something thats a bit of a challenge

later

Owen

[Guest annet]

I can understand how most people would want to have the challenge of solving difficult levels in games. But I've experienced that once I'm stuck at some level, have tried to find a solution in all kinds of ways I simply stop playing it because I get too frustrated and it spoils my fun. I don't agree that without a challenge a game is bad. Just taking your mind off things by doing something simple and fun can also be rewarding. If I could get to the final expert levels in Pocket Mini Golf for example, I'm sure I would play it a lot more. Now I just feel cheated. I guess I'm not cut out for these sorts of games or I'm just impatient, but I feel no shame in declaring defeat in public! :)

I think a simple solution might be to give people a choice. Either you open the whole game up or you choose to go through it step by step. That would make everybody happy I think.

[Guest midnight]

doesnt quite work like that, can you imagine sonic or mario with all levels available to te user from the start?

or how about scrabble but you are allowed to use a dictionary?

it depends on the type o game i suppose, but if i had access to all levels of toki tori it would have lasted me a day or two, as it is, it lasted me a couple of months, same goes for boxy pocket

[Guest agent.m]

like midnight said, it depends on the game. toki tori has a good learning curve. ex-bubble has a option to choose level to start on. I think depending on the game or wether it would work, cheats could be put into games some games.

[Guest moo_ski_doo]

I agree that it depends on the type of game; like midnight says it'd suck if you could get to the any level on Mario straight away. On the other hand, when it comes to mobile phone games I totally agree with annet. If I'm playing a game on my phone it's probably because I've got a quick 10 minutes to kill, and not because I intend to sit there for hours trying to get on to the next level. I also feel cheated if I can't access all the levels that I've paid for, although it does feel good when you finally do crack it. Having said that, I totally appreciate that different people play mobile phone games for different reasons, so this really is only my personal opinion :)

[Guest midnight]

as a games designer you also have to come up with new things to see and do in games as players get better at them (its a reward for clearing the previous level), if you can see everything there is to a game within 5 minutes of purchasing it, then all that time and effort (and money in the case of the game player) is lost, the player has seen everything the game offers, so why play it if theres nothing more to see/no reward? I think Aim have done the correct thing and opened up a forum for Toki Tori where the players and developers discuss and give hints how to beat certain levels. This works for puzzle games, but platform games/racing games/shoot em ups should never open up all levels to players, players should have to beat these types of game, and they should offer a challenge. Burnout 2 took me about a month to complete and i enjoyed every moment of it.

[Guest moo_ski_doo]

That's fair enough but surely you can see how frustrating it can be from the casual gamers' point of view? Pocket Mini Golf was a classic example for me, I wasn't even that bothered about playing it after the initial interest had worn off, I just wanted to have a look at the other courses.

[Guest midnight]

thats something you'd have to take up with the creators of pocket minigolf, but you've gotta understand that many players (like me) want the challenge of beating the game fair and square (i actually thought pocket minigolf was easy to be quite honest)

how proud i felt when i completed games in my local amusement arcade.... Darius, R-type, Zero Wing, Thunder Hawk, Truxton, Raiden, Ridge Racer, Sega Rally, Tekken, Virtua Fighter etc. All on one credit mind you, not on multiple credits (i liked the way how some games reset your score if you continued, made sure people couldnt cheat the high score tables), how can you feel proud of skipping levels (because you cant do them)to get to the final level in a game? like i said, depends on the game, but i dont think everyone should be able to complete every game, thats what allows games makers to make difficult games that only the select few, the hardcore gamer can complete, but the hard part for the devlopers is making something thats fun that makes people want to try and try again so they too can be one of the elite :)

[Guest beersoft]

Im not sure if i put my point from earlier across corectly.

i find it boring when i have to do the first 5 levels or so to get to the bit i always die at/can't do due to being drunk/falling asleep/meeting finishing so i like to skip the levels i have already done and take on the callenge of the new and un explorered levels,

like in supermario where at the end of each world it saved and you can start again from the begining or on world 2 or 4 or whatever. or you have a game like ssx where its easy to unlock the levels but takes time to unlock all the secrets

games arn't fun if there is no callenge in them but they are also no fun if they are too hard, so i say hidden level select cheat codes are ok but quake with no_clip wasn't fun to play

later

Owen

[Guest annet]

I still believe there should be the POSSIBILITY of using a cheat to open up a game. Everyone can then choose to use it or not. And a few more helpful forums like the one for Toki Tori. It would really help a casual gamer like me! And all you hardcore gamers out there can simply ignore them. And now my thumb hurts. :) Posted from my SmartPhone!

[Guest Gorskar]

You can cheat on Done in 50 seconds.

Just install PHM Registry Editor (Look for registry editor under "Utilities on http://www.airfagev.com/)

Then use it to go to ->HKEY_CURRENT_USER -> Software -> Aim Productions -> DIFS -> View "Values" -> select "lastlevel" -> Change it to 60 -> Done!

And what do you know, all levels unlocked :)

[Guest Coucou]

doesnt quite work like that, can you imagine sonic or mario with all levels available to te user from the start?

or how about scrabble but you are allowed to use a dictionary?

Er, you do use a dictionary in scrabble don't you? And if you're playing against a computer it definitely does! Some dictionaries have special supplements just for word games, like scrabble.

[Guest midnight]

no, in scrabble you are only supposed to check the word if the other person thinks its not a real word, you cant just sit there and look through a dictionary trying to find words that match the letters you have, some people do, but its cheating

[Guest Coucou]

Ah yes, I realise that, just thought you didn't like the use of dictionaries at all. Then again if you've memorised chunks of rare words that's not against the rules. As I say if you're playing against a computer it's using a dictionary as a look-up table, which is hardly fair! If you're playing with friends the rules are as strict or as loose as you want them to be.