Twenty years ago, Tecmo was known for their extremely difficult (often read as "cheap") games that would kick a player's tail, and leave them crawling back for more. And perhaps the most notorious of all were the Ninja Gaiden trilogy on the NES.

In a recent issue of Nintendo Power, Namco Bandai Chief Producer Hideo Yoshizawa, who had once worked for Tecmo during that time on games such as the above, explains how the company's mindset worked back then: "Tecmo had the philosophy that the user would throw a game away if it wasn't hard enough. So we made games really hard."

However, in the time since the late 80's and early 90's, the philosophy has changed: "Nowadays, a lot more people play games, so we ramp up the difficulty much more gradually. We want everybody to be able to play it and get good at it."

Some would say there has been a definite softening of the hobby, through various new implements in games such as save points, and Nintendo is taking it even further with their "demo play."

As for Tecmo's fare, I've not been able to play the newer Ninja Gaidens at length, but I have heard that they are quite difficult in their own right; they do have easier modes, but also ways of making the player feel more indignant in the process. On the other hand, I have played a few of the Dead or Alive games, and have definitely noticed a gradual incline in difficulty; those final bosses can be rough, though I think it's more from the effects around the fight than the boss itself.

Nonetheless, it seems ever rarer to find a game that holds the kind of challenge more commonly seen which will whup you, but still make you want "one more try," because "I can get it this time" without being cheap about it.