Easy Mode Mockery Strikes Again

You know what game I'm all fired up to play? Freaking Star Fox Zero, baby! Developed by Platinum Games, Star Fox Zero sees the long, long awaited return of the beloved Star Fox franchise. I haven't been following the game too closely, but I have heard bits of news here and there and the latest info is why I'm here today. Star Fox Zero will feature an optional Invincibility Mode allowing less skilled players to experience the game. The hardcore gamer crowd of course, reacted as one would expect. Message boards and all forms of social media was lit up, Super Saiyan rage was unleashed and tables were flipped over. All I could do was let out an uncaring shrug.

I grew up in an era where games savagely, repeatedly beat the player over the head with a blunt object so I'm no stranger to games that go above and beyond to serve up a challenge. But when games give players adjustable difficulty settings or ways to make the game easier, it doesn't make my blood boil. Yet so many gamers are in an uproar over Star Fox Zero's optional Invincibility Mode. For the life of me, I cannot understand why. No one is holding a gun to these people's heads and forcing them to play Invincibility Mode. The fact that this mode is optional doesn't even matter to all the people throwing a hissy fit. The fact that the game even has Invincibility Mode at all is what has them seeing red.

I'm not really even surprised that Star Fox Zero comes with a mode that lets novice players experience the full game without the harshness that it sounds like the default setting is going to present to us in some areas. Nintendo has been implementing ways for lesser skilled players to see more and more of what their games offer for years. There's the Super Guide of the New Super Mario Bros. games, the White Tanooki Suit of the Super Mario 3D Land/World games and the Mellow Mode of Yoshi's Wooly World. The most these modes have ever done is annoy me at best. Not because they exist within the game because I'm perfectly fine with them being there. They annoy me when the game reminds me that they are there when I've failed so many times. I already know I have the choice of taking an easier route but I don't like to have it brought up after so many futile attempts.

If Splatoon had the option to choose from world wide or regional only online matches, I bet a good chunk of players would never battle with our friends in Japan. Why? Because a lot of Splatoon players from Japan are really frickin' good at the game. True the Japanese players have superb internet connection but even when the game doesn't lag and things are running smoothly, the skill of most Japanese Splatoon players is something to be feared. They are amazing when it comes to scoring kills, have exceptional team work, use motion controls like nobody's business and if a sniper spots you, you're already dead. You need only search the comment section of select Splatoon articles to find fans bemoaning how much it sucks to go up against players from the Land of the Rising Sun because of how much they excel at the art of wrecking others. In other words, the playing field would be much more leveled if the Japanese Splatoon fanbase could be cut out all together. You know, making the game easier for players not on the same skill level of the Japanese. Do you see the hypocrisy here?

To people crying about Star Fox Zero's optional
Invincibility Mode, take one of these and kindly STFU.

This may come as a shock to so many hardcore players but the truth is, a lot of people are playing video games these days and not all of them are of the same skill level. I'm am all for bringing in new blood to video game franchises and gaming as a whole and if one way of doing that is giving players that don't have the same skill set an easier option, then I'm not going to complain. It is, after all an option. But then, crying is also an option and for all the gamers claiming easy modes in games is for babies, they sure do a bang up job of behaving like an infant.