Thread:JeloElducal/@comment-27480112-20190410070014/@comment-26888167-20190420033008

In my opinion there's two types of hard levels: Those that are challenging, and those that are unfair.

Challenging levels require you to use skill to beat them. They can take many deaths to master, but it's rewarding because as you get more skill, you start to enjoy them more and you can beat them with greater ease. Examples are Cuphead bosses, Mega Man levels, some Sonic levels, etc. I'd say Shovel Knight stages fall into this category as well.

Unfair levels are those that rely too heavily on RNG, or those that require you to use trial and error to find out how to beat them. They aren't rewarding because beating them doesn't depend on you getting skill and learning to react to what you see. It depends on either having good luck in the RNG, or in memorizing every single part of the level so you don't make any mistake. I think Cala Maria is the one Cuphead boss that relies mostly on RNG, since in her first phase, your success mostly depends on what attacks she combines. Most combinations don't give me much trouble, but don't get me starting on the electric thing + the pufferfishes.

Besides her, I'd argue that any game that tosses unexpected things that you couldn't possibly counter unless you knew of them ahead of time would count as an unfair level too. For example, in Sonic Advance 2 there's a stage called Sky Canyon Zone. That level is possibly the most unfair sonic level I've played, due to the ridiculous amount of bottomless pits in that stage. Falling into them is way too easy, and most of the time, you die not because you failed to pass a certain obstacle you were aware of, but because you randomly fell into a bottomless pit you didn't even see coming. That's another unfair level.

For the most part, I love hard levels. That's why I enjoy games like Megaman or Cuphead so much. But when levels become unfair, that's where I draw the line. I never completed Sonic Advance 2 due to that single stage. And it's sad, because I really love the rest of that game. I love the style of that game's bosses, and most of the stages in the game before Sky Canyon.