You know, I had a conversation with a friend maybe a year ago specifically about why games used to be so much harder (which isn't totally true. There were plenty of Mario Bros. back in the day for every Ghouls 'n Ghosts). There were a few reasons why games were so damn hard that makes complete sense. A lot of them were just poorly designed and/or programmed and managed to be fun anyway somehow. Ghosts 'n Goblins is a great example of this. There are points in the game where enemies and attacks are just plain unavoidable. If you could dodge them I dare say beating the game may be possible for the average gamer, but as it is they make the game an exercise in frustration.

There's also the simple fact that without ridiculous difficulty levels, most games back then wouldn't have had much replay value. Consoles of the day just couldn't support games with 80 hours of story and 200 hours worth of side quests and new areas to explore (barring procedural generation, but I digress), and unlockables were pretty much unheard of. There are more than a few old school games that wouldn't last an hour if you stripped away their difficulty and then you'd be left with no reason to ever touch it again. On the other hand, a challenging game would keep you coming back in the hopes of mastering it and be a much longer lasting and rewarding experience.

I'm not going to harp on about "casual games" this and "game crash" that now, because I personally don't see there being a shortage of challenging games. If anything, I think the shift in the industry to online multiplayer being a large part of gaming now has brought all new challenges to games now. Now the challenge isn't cheap AI or a limited number of lives; it's one players skill against another, and when it comes to online games, there are plenty of highly skilled players out there for those looking to be challenged and have to learn a game to test themselves against. I think most difficult games have simply become better designed so they're less of a baptism by fire and more, get you used to the game, then crank it up. And of course, there are plenty of indie titles that fill the niche of being so difficult right off the bat that they make you cry, and a few mainstream ones that do too. Try playing God of War on the highest difficulty and see how easy that is.

Personally, I don't think there are all that much fewer super difficult games out there as compared to the 8-bit days. As a percentage of the total market, definitely smaller, but overall? Maybe not. The market has grown tremendously since then and it's not all about us anymore. It just means if we want a challenging game we have to look a little harder, and maybe try cranking up the difficulty more often.