Joe Cool

Reminiscing on the past, I see myself, I see Alex the Kidd - I remember how surpassing the jungle level on the motorcycle was somewhat a feat of gaming. I remember the highly commended NiGHTS: Into Dreams on the Saturn, I consider how it took me hour upon hour to figure how to slam the fat, inflated rabbit through the walls. But where did this get me?

Nowhere.

Why? After the initial 'I can do this, If I persist' idea wears off, I'm left feeling under whelmed, unexcited and unprepared for anything which even dwells upon difficulty. Fact is, once a challenge is distinguished, I back off. There's something about a challenge which I seem to evade, something I fear.

Taking a look at my collection - it's vast, it's decent, there's no denying, some highly favoured games, some "incredible adventures" - but this is where it ends. A quick browse at my save files for games like Metroid Prime, Zelda and Knights Of The Old Republic will soon put you in the picture. Whereas I couldn't count the number of times I've booted up the likes of FIFA on an abacus the size of Africa.

This is where I realise I really am not some hardcorer-than-thou gaming slaughterer with a touch of Godliness, but infact something less glamorous, something I have seemingly hated. When I think about it, I am no more than another Joe Cool, with pretty streamlined, one-way tastes, with the occasional outing on 'something different'.

I'm not saying I'm completely devoid of enjoying such games as Prime, because I'm not, I simply cannot avoid the temptation of switching off if a challenge does arise. I can feel the passion and emotion, which has been captured in such "legendary" games like Zelda - but I just cannot access it, with the challenge inept fashion in which games are being produced nowadays and the way I have adapted to them.

One quick browse over the gaming charts will undoubtedly support my argument wholeheartedly, with instant cash-in-hand titles are accepted as kings whereas classics are thrown aside in abundance. Is it a sign of the industry losing it's exclusivity it once had? Does this mean that with more and more people buying half-arsed bastardisations of games rather than true quality, that developers will churn out trolley load after trolley load of the same souped-up licenses, resulting in the market gradually accepting and becoming adapted to this new era of challenge-less tripe?

I am not hoping for the gaming industry to change, quite definitely the contrary. I don't want a game handed to me on a plate, despite what this may have led you to believe. I have put fourth my weaknesses and I am the one who I hope shall change as I know quality gaming is already contained before me and I can already see the transformation of the industry happening before me. "Joe Cool? Who?" They shall say. One day, one day.