History Main / DifficultySpike

** ''Carbon'' packs especially nasty surprise when you unlock Silverton, with everyone and their grandmother getting tier 3 cars, while you have to try and keep up using your underpowered tier 2 to win some races before you unlock your first tier 3.

** The third mission of ''Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising'', though not impossibly hard, is a cruel spike in difficulty compared to the earlier missions. Your opponent is [[PerkyGoth Lash]], the best commander in the entire game next to [[BigBad Sturm]] himself, and you're using Sami, the ''weakest'' of the three Orange Star commanders. Not only does the enemy get a factory to deploy new units while you don't, but you also only have seven turns to win the battle. There's ''very'' little room for error; even playing the level flawlessly still typically ends on turn 6 or 7.
** ''Dual Strike'', at least on Normal Mode, is relatively easy up until the first ThatOneLevel, "Verdant Hills". From that point, the difficulty ramps up, and after the ClimaxBoss "Crystal Calamity", nearly every mission is listed under the ThatOneLevel page. For good reason.

* ''Wolfchild'' for the SNES, Genesis, and other consoles gets frustratingly harder in Stage 3 due to dozens of [[FakeDifficulty irritating and unfair]] [[GoddamnedBats places where enemies come out of nowhere from the floor and the ceiling in narrow tunnels.]]

* ''VideoGame/LordOfTheRingsOnline'' is very easy at the beginning, like most [=MMORPGs=]. By the time you hit level 15 or 20, you think you have your class figured out. You may have even grouped one or two times. Then you decide to try the Great Barrow at level 20, and fight the first boss where the worms start emerging from the ground, spraying acid everywhere and throwing you around. If your Fellowship is all new and doesn't know standard MMORPG roles, it's a wipe. Granted, this first boss fight is harder than the rest of the dungeon.

** Ceroba in ''VideoGame/UndertaleYellow''. Just Ceroba. [[spoiler: And Zenith Martlet in the Genocide route.]]

** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'' picks up in difficulty when you get to the Sunken Ship. Enemies here and beyond pack quite a punch compared to even Star Hill (excluding Pulsar), which comes right before it. From that point on, if you thought the Work Pants were better than the defensive armors, you might be re-thinking that once you see magic attacks doing 40+ damage, especially Yaridovich's Water Blast.

* ''VideoGame/StarCraftI'' had a few levels that tested people's patience. Protoss mission 7 had the player fighting against an army of Protoss that was further up the tech tree. This lead to some frustration, as the presence of Arbiters and Carriers made it difficult for anyone to reasonably counter the enemy. Most players won by massing troops or Photon Cannons instead of using any real strategy. In Brood War, Terran mission 8 got rather ridiculous when the Zerg sent in a much harder to kill Ultralisk every few minutes to harass your troops. The worst offender had to be Zerg mission 8 and 10 (in Brood War), with the former having a deadly Zerg/Terran air force, and the latter had two powerful Terran and a Protoss attacking players at once.
* ''VideoGame/StarCraftII'''s last mission is significantly more difficult than, well, any of the previous ones. Except maybe ''Supernova.''
* ''VideoGame/WarcraftII'':

* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'':

** While ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII'' is difficult throughout, the back-to-back dungeons [[TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon Crystal Tower/Dark World]] turns it from "difficult but manageable" to "9th circle of hell". The Crystal Tower is filled with difficult enemies and a difficult boss, then after a long, unskippable cutscene you get thrown into the Dark World. From there, the player needs to beat 4 extremely difficult bosses with OneHitKO attacks (unless they want to get destroyed by the FinalBoss immediately) in a dungeon also filled with [[BossInMookClothing Bosses in Mook Clothing.]] While none of this out of control for the game, the kicker is that there [[CheckpointStarvation are no save points.]] You have to go through the 2 hour long gauntlet ''every time.''

* ''VideoGame/PunchOut'''s final fight against [[FinalBoss Mike Tyson (Mr. Dream in later versions after Tyson's contract ran out)]] takes NintendoHard to ridiculous extremes. In fact, the World Circuit as a whole (save the opening [[HardModeFiller Piston Honda rematch]]) is a [[JustForPun sucker-punch in the face]] after the relatively manageable fights that came before. In addition to having to face [[ThatOneBoss Bald Bull]] ''again'', you get the nice little [[AccidentalPun one-two punch]] of Mr. Sandman and Super Macho Man. These two fighters, along with Soda Popinksi from earlier in the Circuit, make the rest of the game look much like how Tyson makes ''them'' look.

** ''VideoGame/{{Sonic Rush|Series}}'' is even more brutal on that note, because once you get to [[ThatOneLevel Night Carnival]] in order to notice everything that allows you to get past that stage without falling into those BottomlessPits, you have to play the game very differently than you're used to: in other words, TakeYourTime and you'll survive. Probably. It's even more jarring when you play as Blaze as Night Carnival is the FIRST LEVEL, then it gets easy again until the 5th stage.

** Up to the second world, everything's a breeze. Then you get [[MinecartMadness Mine Cart]] [[ThatOneLevel Carnage]]. Don't expect it to get any easier from there.

* 'VideoGame/CrashBandicoot'':

* ''Franchise/CrashBandicoot'':
** [[VideoGame/CrashBandicoot]] gets sudden increase in difficulty when you access Native Fortress. Previous levels were short and relatively simple, while Native Fortress is a MarathonLevel with tricky jumps, vertical segments requiring you to set up temporary platforms and with [[GuideDangIt boxes hidden in background]]. After this level the game does not let up much, beyond some odd levels such as Temple Ruins.

* While the first three Warp Rooms in ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot2'' scale the difficulty gradually, Warp Room 4 is where things get intense. Two of its levels, Diggin' It and Cold Hard Crash, are ThatOneLevel normally and even worse to get the box gem on (both require ''backtracking'' through [[BrutalBonusLevel Death Routes]]), and Ruination has a lot of tricky platforming over bottomless pits. And N. Gin at the end is the closest thing the game has to ThatOneBoss.

* ''VideoGame/{{Everquest}}'' had particularly infamous difficulty spikes called "Hell Levels." These usually came along at already naturally awkward levels(30, 35, 40, etc.; where you're growing out of your current leveling zone), and amplified them by increasing the amount of experience needed to level by insane amounts; so much so that the next level will actually REQUIRE LESS experience than the hell level did. Also, 50-60 were considered a bit of a "hell bracket" since the needed experience jumped up to relatively high amounts because 60 was the original level cap(and thus had a LOT of xp "padding" that was never reduced when 60 ceased to be the cap).

* Areas 4, 5 and 6 in ''VideoGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles''. The latter two are full of DemonicSpiders that take tons of punishment to kill, and the former's boss is in a [[LuckBasedMission random location]]. And the FinalBoss can kill you in one hit, not to mention the hallway full of [[DemonicSpiders Laser Troopers]] leading to him. In the former's case (the Airport), most of the previous two stages' difficulty—and length—goes away once you figure out where the underwater bombs and downtown {{Plot Coupon}}s are. The Airport, on the other hand, is one long, confusing [[TheMaze maze]] that seems [[MarathonLevel neverending]] without a guide, and even with one it's still an exercise in patience and tedium. Which wouldn't be too much of a problem if it weren't for the added SpikesOfDoom, [[OneHitKO instant-death]] {{Lava Pit}}s, and MalevolentArchitecture that makes all the GoddamnBats from the previous levels, as well as the aformentioned death traps, all the more fearsome. The only respite is the AnticlimaxBoss (the HumongousMecha from the series) at the end which, if you've kept [[GameBreaker Donatello]] with you the whole time, you will beat without even being so much as attacked.

--->'''Peach Wilkins''': What was that?... My boy, you are ''fucked!''

** "Dark Carnival" has two gauntlet crescendo events (racing to turn off the the Screaming Oak's alarm in The Coaster, which involves running three quarters of the rollercoaster's tracks while being hassled by nonstop waves of Infected; and the sprint to the stadium safe room in The Barns, the map immediately afterwards, which is much the same except you have to HoldTheLine until the gates open first) that will make you tear your hair out. If you didn't bring a Bile Bomb or Chainsaw to make these event easier, you will have a hell of a time getting to the final objetives; also, there is a possibility that you will encounter a tank or a witch on the way[[note]]but at least in The Barns you can snipe it into action to get rid of it before triggering the hordes[[/note]]. The first two maps and the start of the third, up until the Screaming Oak, are relatively manageable.

* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' at least has the courtesy to clearly mark its difficult spike, though the transition from Low Rank quests to High Rank still comes as a shock. Low Rank starts you off at base camp with some loaner supplies, and said supplies are often enough to carry the player through the quest without items of their own. High Rank starts you anywhere on the map at random -- possibly right under the monster's nose -- and once you do scramble back to base supplies can arrive up to 20 minutes late and will not be enough to carry you, and even a monster you've seen before now hits much harder and has lots more health. Thanks to the way ''Monster Hunter'' works, grinding previous quests won't help either; you ''must'' clear several high-rank quests to scrape together a set of equipment balanced for the new challenge. The gulf between High and G-Rank is nowhere near as much of a shock as the sudden lack of Low Rank's handholding.

* The ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' series does this quite a bit.
** ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1991 Sonic 1]]'' has the infamous Labyrinth Zone, where players are introduced to water physics, which severely slows the player down. That combined with the claustrophobic and maze-like level design filled to the brim with annoying traps. This is also where the OxygenMeter (and the infamous Drowning theme) is introduced. Sonic cannot stay underwater for very long and will drown unless he grabs air bubbles to give players another stressful mechanic to worry about.

** 5-2 in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros''. 5-1 is certainly harder than the last few levels, but nothing too nasty. 5-3 is just a revamp of 1-3 with smaller platforms and a Bullet Bill generator. 5-4 is a revamp of 2-4 with a few more Firebars. 5-2? ''[[DemonicSpiders Hammer Brothers]] on STAIRS''.

* ''Franchise/{{Mario}}'' RPG games:

* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil'', both the original and the remake, get a nasty difficulty spike when you've beaten the guardhouse and get back to the mansion. Cue ShakyPOVCam charging through the courtyard and down the balcony ''you just used to enter the mansion'' and your first battle with a [[DemonicSpider Hunter]]. You'd better pray you didn't burn through all the ammo and health caches in the mansion either, since this guy isn't a BossInMookClothing: the mansion is ''crawling with them now''.
* Most of the early ''VideoGame/SilentHill'' games suffer from this on their hard modes; 90% of the game is only a modest step up from normal mode, while the other 10% is a handful of fights that feel like pulling out teeth. One of the worst is the Brookhaven hospital chase in ''2'', which turns a BreatherBoss into a brutal EscortMission that can only be won by exploiting the AI through [[TrialAndErrorGameplay trial and error]]. Though it initially seems like you can get away with playing recklessly, the later stages of ''2'' and ''3'' on hard will mercilessly punish you for not hoarding as many items as possible, with the [[DamageSpongeBoss bulkiness]] of their bosses cranked up to an insane degree.

* ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' progressively gets worse as the week goes on, but on Night 5, [[spoiler:all the animatronics' prior patterns are reversed. DamnYouMuscleMemory, indeed! It's also commonly believed that the AI adapts to your playing style]].

** The DLC's Inkwell Isle IV has greeters that make the prior two islands look like a simple affair and show that the extra campaign is not to be taken lightly. One of the initial two bosses, the Moonshine Mob is relatively straightforward, aside from a nasty trick at the end. The other one? Glumstone the Giant, who assaults you with tons of minions, tricks, moving platforms, no safe ground to stand on, and only gives a relative break on the second phase before giving even less ground afterwards. What's more, beating the former saddles you with Esther Winchester, a real menace with the worst spread of projectiles in the entire game and easily qualifies as the island's toughest boss aside from the final one. Then there's the Pawns from the King's Leap, who swiftly show that parrying opponents with no charms is the only way to earn coins here.