On a whim, I decided to start playing an arcade run-n-gun I'd never heard of - Roosters from the Wonder 3 collection (known as Midnight Wanderers outside of Japan). I had read a review of it that described it as "extremely easy", which spurred me on to really try my hand at it... Surely it couldn't be that hard, right?

So, a couple days of practice and 1cc attempts later, I did indeed clear the game using only one credit (I even recorded it! Look, mom!) and I can confidently say: yes, the game is pretty easy once you know all the tricks. I'm not really good at arcade games, and certifiably crap at run-n-guns (I never beat Cuphead) but armed with some basic Roosters knowledge I was able to pretty consistently clear stages while avoiding damage.

It was kind of interesting seeing my evaluation of the game change in real-time. When I first started to play, I didn't know where enemies spawned, I didn't know how to get 1ups, I didn't know how the weapons system worked, so I was dying all over the place. I thought the game was pretty hard and I was confused as to why somebody would think it was easy. But slowly but surely, I learned what to do, what not to do, and how to safely and easily dispose of most threats. I think this game would've been a lot easier if I had some kind of strategy guide beforehand - "this is where the witch spawns, make sure to be ready and kill her quick" - "this is the safe spot to stand where the clown boxes can't hit you" - "don't take this weapon ever", that kind of deal.

This is a weird one, though - is the game actually "easy"? Or have I just beaten the "knowledge acquiring" part of the game too, a task in its own right? I still had to learn all that stuff, and I didn't know it when I started playing - so in a way, I have gotten "better"? Just not mechanically... My fingers aren't jumping and crouching and dashing much better than when I started.

This situation reminds me a fair bit of The Tower of Druaga, an old arcade game I've read about which relied heavily on secrets to deepen the gameplay. The idea was to take notes and share them with other arcadegoers on cool stuff to find to help you beat the game. The arcade version was a huge success when it released in the 80s, but when it got ported to the Wii virtual console, it was lambasted by critics for its perceived obtuseness and supposed reliance on walkthroughs. Food for thought... Sometimes the way the game is expected to be enjoyed is - shall we say - not so obvious to our feeble modern eyes, hm?

Thanks for reading... Munch, munch...