[General Discussion] Difficulty in games

I like challenging games. I don't like games that are just "hard". A challenging game is one that requires you to put your brain and/or reflexes to work. A "hard" game doesn't necessarily challenge you...it just puts you against ridiculous odds without any sense of direction and expects you to figure out how to exploit the game in your favor to win. Generally those games are the ones where you can do crappy at one point and then great the next time you play it without changing how you play at all, essentially boiling it down to luck.

I think a game such as Ninja Gaiden has a good level of challenge. Sometimes it does seem a bit based on luck, but overall it's difficult enough to keep you on your toes without being extremely frustrating (at least to me), and requires you to understand the game mechanics in order to do well at the game. I actually can't think of any other examples at the moment...but in any case, I'd rather have a game that's too easy than too hard, but I'd prefer it comes in between the two.

Jam it back in, in the dark.