Personally, I feel like the common trap most indies fell into 15 years ago was making things overtly simplified for the sake of it. It's how you ended up with so many one-note platformers that focused more on trial-and-error vs. charm, character, or variety. Your Meat Boys, your Ns, your Jumpers, your Mighty Jill Offs, your I Wanna Be the ____ games, and so on.
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So many people back then jumped on the train of calling Battletoads the hardest game ever made, but so many of them failed to realize there was more to Battletoads besides just being hard.