Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

[A Black Falcon]

And yes, what's wrong with being stuck in a game completely stumped as to how to progress? That's part of the fun! Yes, if the puzzle is so hard that the only way to solve it is in retrospect, and you have to "force" it by doing random stuff until something happens, then it's too tough, or just not very clever sometimes.

When it's too random -- see the kind of stuff NES games like to pull -- it's bad. For instance, the heart containers in the overworld in Zelda 1. And 'extremely cryptic and not really helpful hints' aren't too good either... see the infamous Desert Palm Trees Puzzle in Final Fantasy Adventure... puzzles like that got you to give up on those games, or to go and read the strategy guide... they are gone now and I don't miss them much. :)

However, LA had about the perfect level of puzzle difficulty. I remember being stuck for days in the Face Shrine, and sure I got frustrated, but the puzzle WAS logical there and when I finally figured it all out, it was great! I also managed to get really stumped in the eagle tower and the flame dungeon, both found on the mountain.

Yes, LA got its difficulty right... high, but not so high as to be impossible... and with just enough clues to get you through. I remember that the first time the game took me three months to beat because of how I'd play a bit, get stuck, then stop again in frusteration, but oh well... and now that I've beaten it five times it seems easy (the puzzles I mean, it's still all too easy to die)...