History Main / SurpriseDifficulty

** ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'': Due to the open world nature of these games and the lack of level scaling, many challenges will be absolutely brutal if you choose to take them on early. However, even if you stick to the level curve many of the story events can be pretty challenging. As far as gym challenges go, most players will come across at least one they thought was pretty tough. Though the difficulty REALLY gets amped up with the Team Star bosses, who all send out a Revaroom as their last Pokemon, though it's not a Revaroom so much as a giant Pokemon-powered vehicle that has a Revaroom strapped to the front for some reason. These things soak up tons of damage and give back just as much, and it'll likely take multiple Pokemon to bring down even when you have a type advantage.

* '''''VideoGame/FreedomPlanet'''''. It's a ''Sonic''-inspired platformer with a girly art style and adorable characters. And it has very few BottomlessPits, CollisionDamage, or MercyInvincibility, this should be a piece of cake! Wait, combat is a big chunk of gameplay? Well okay, simple enough. Wow, the levels are pretty long, and why is the second boss so hard? What do you mean most enemies are spamming BulletHell attacks? Turns out the invincibility goes both ways, and the aforementioned BulletHell attacks will shave off most of your health if you're lucky. And that's without getting into the masochistic Hard Mode, where enemies deal double damage, shields break in one pop, and the bosses are faster and completely randomized their strategies. And playing as Milla gives you a very awkward combat style, with half the health of the other characters. Yeah, hope you don't lose your marbles. This game was hard enough that it received patches that lowered the difficulty, and it is still this trope.

* ''VideoGame/WarioLand 4'' and ''[[VideoGame/WarioLandShakeIt Shake It / The Shake Dimension]]'' are colorful and have a silly atmosphere, but turn brutally difficult rather quickly. For the former, it's not the easier difficulties, those are incredibly nice to the player. But then you've got Super Hard mode. Yes, it's HarderThanHard, but compared to the normal difficulty levels, is like going from Normal to Intense in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros.'' Some levels like Pinball Zone and Arabian Night. for example, literally have next to no time for the level's length in question, and getting over 10,000 coins for 100% completion is nigh on impossible due to incredibly mean enemy placement and time limits. The first boss in the game has a time limit of '''15 seconds''', just to give you an idea. ''Shake It/ The hake Dimension'' just has the much more difficult than the rest of the series boss battles and the bonus challenges which make you survive {{Marathon Boss}}es as a semi one hit wonder.

* You wouldn't expect a game with cartoon-style graphics about a boy trying to rescue his dog from monsters to be anything other than an easy kids game, would you? Well, if that game is ''VideoGame/HeartOfDarkness'' for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation, prepare to be surprised. The game is a PlatformHell powered by NightmareFuel.

** The 1991 [[UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem NES]] [[VideoGame/TinyToonAdventures game of the same name]] would chew you up and spit you out. It doesn't help that, unless you have a heart in your inventory, everything [[OneHitKill kills you with one hit]].

** ''[[VideoGame/TinyToonAdventuresBustersHiddenTreasure Buster's Hidden Treasure]]'' for the UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis is also brutal towards the end, notably because of the SpikesOfDoom that instantly kill you, placed under [[TemporaryPlatform disappearing platforms]] in the [[SlippySlideyIceWorld Ice Mountains]].
** The first UsefulNotes/GameBoy game, ''[[VideoGame/TinyToonAdventuresBabsBigBreak Babs' Big Break]]'', is comparatively simple while still having its tough moments, but the second, ''Montana's Movie Madness'', while remaining easy enough for its first two stages, hits this trope in the third with a rocket ship-flying sequence that could give the ostrich ride in ''VideoGame/TheLionKing'' a run for its money.
** ''[[VideoGame/TinyToonAdventuresBusterBustsLoose Buster Busts Loose]]'' for the [[UsefulNotes/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem SNES]] has its moments as well, particularly [[ThatOneLevel that]] [[LocomotiveLevel train level]]. It's the hardest level in the game bar-none, and it's [[SchizophrenicDifficulty only the second stage of the game]]...
** ''[[VideoGame/TinyToonAdventuresBustersBadDream Scary Dreams/Buster's Bad Dream]]'' for the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance is a BeatEmUp, and it's about as difficult as any other game in that genre, especially considering that while you do have unlimited continues, you have only one life. Thus, if you die, you start all the way back at the beginning of the stage.

* ''VideoGame/TheWizardOfOz'' for UsefulNotes/{{Super N|intendoEntertainmentSystem}}ES. [[HitboxDissonance Glitched-out platform and hit detection]] along with just about any kind of FakeDifficulty you can think of, this [[ObviousBeta broken mess]] of a [[TheProblemWithLicensedGames half-century old film adaption]] does everything in its power to make the player feel crippled and helpless in a [[MalevolentArchitecture twisted]], [[EverythingTryingToKillYou sadistic]] world of [[CrapsaccharineWorld brightly-colored hell]]. As WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd discovered, it's a game that [[http://cinemassacre.com/2008/03/04/wizard-of-oz/ needs to be seen to be believed.]]

* ''[[Videogame/HarmoKnight HarmoKnight]]'' is meant to be a fun, happy game for the UsefulNotes/Nintendo3DS. You'll swipe through each world with ease, but once you reach [[LethalLavaLand World 7]] and [[LevelInTheClouds World 8]], you might even want to throw your 3DS out the window. (Don't think we like you, [[spoiler:[[BrutalBonusLevel Final Trial]]]]!)

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'' is usually scoffed as a LighterAndSofter version of the more grim ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'', but many players can easily get caught off guard with the harder missions that can have nasty enemy setups as well as laws (rules that dictate what you can and cannot do) that can make some fights very difficulty. ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsA2'' retains the same colorful style and harder fights.

** ''[[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl Diamond and Pearl]]'' seem to have an accidental case of difficulty. Due to the fact that Sinnoh's region dex had little variety, the Gym Leaders and Elite Four didn't had enough of their chosen type to actually fill a team, and the resulting loosely connected replacements (PlayboyBunny on the fire team? Sure it's "[[IncrediblyLamePun hot]]" but...) make them impossible to sweep with a single move like the past 3 generations.

* ''VideoGame/{{Stray}}:'' People who had heard about "the cat game" and were expecting a game about exploration and purring might have been taken by surprise by the threat level posed by the Zurks, and by the fast reactions and precise movements needed to dodge them.