History Main / TheComputerIsACHeatingBastard

* In ''VideoGame/Mother3'', [[spoiler:Miracle Fassad can be a serious case if he gets serious and will scarf down luxury bananas on a lot of his turns, and if you're low on PSI, items that can do damage, and/or are focused on trying to heal and revive other members of your party, he will heal more damage than you can deal, leaving the battle to end [[HopelessBossFight inevitably with your doom.]] He also has many PSI moves likes PK Starstorm, PK Brainshock Omega, PSI Shield Alpha, PK Thunder Gamma, and even PK Offense Down Omega.]]

* ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'' follows the typical RPG format where enemy parties tend to have "monster techniques", effectively Psynergy but it's free and can't be blocked by a seal, that can do some pretty bullshit stuff like [[ThatOneAttack the infamously unfair Djinn Storm]], but it's surprisingly subverted when battling the game's main antagonists Saturos and Menardi. Their arsenal consists of only basic attacks, psynergy and items that are available to the protagonist's party as well, and they each have one weapon unleash in Saturos's Heat Flash and Menardi's Death Size. They don't even have prohibitively high stats and a party leveled to only about 35 can sweep them with very little effort or healing. [[spoiler:Of course, even THEY throw this right out the window when you defeat them and they use their ForbiddenUltimateTechnique and [[FinalBoss fuse together into a dragon]]...]]

* ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear'' is very... [[JustForPun guilty]] of this:

* Even though ''VideoGame/SleepingDogs'' isn't primarily a racing game, the underground racing circuit the player can optionally join and the ''friggin cops'' employ rubber-band tactics, so much that it's much easier to just to slow down, wait for the cops to catch up to you, then ram them off the road rather then simply outrun them. In the racing side missions, you'll notice that you always start last and they always accelerate faster then you (no matter if you are using the best motorcycle in the game). On straight-ways, you could be going at the max possible speed and be using the same vehicle, except they'll still overtake you, then ''slow down'' right in front of you. Incredibly infuriating if this happens near the end of the race.

* ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'' has the "Rabid" variants of common mooks, who have pragmatism on their side, they have high health, high damage and attack in multiple hit charges at the player, quickly decimating even the tankiest of players. Luckily these loathed variants don't spawn until at least the second play-through (True Vault Hunter Mode, or TVHM for short, They also spawn on Ultimate vault hunter mode or UVHM), where Slag triples any consecutive non-slag damage, making these mooks more glass cannons with the right builds if anything.
** Averted in the Mission "Hunting the Firehawk" where just before confronting the Firehawk, two overlevelled Brutes are spawned, luckily [[spoiler: Lilith (the Firehawk) takes them out easily in a case of Cutscene Badassery]].

** A good example is in one of the earlier tracks - a fairly simple track with multiple alternate paths that shave small amounts of time off your run and are generally ignored by AI racers, it is pretty easy to get a decent lead. Then, coming round the second last corner is a short run up to a huge jump. Boost as much as you can and pull back for maximum airtime - in a decent podracer (and that early in the game you do not have one) and you might just make it. Finally, the jump, which you just hit at maximum velocity, is followed by a hairpin turn to the finish line.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Hitman}}'' series is very fond of this. Something as innocent as holding the wrong item in the wrong disguise means you're in for either a great deal of scrutiny ''or [[DisproportionateRetribution unprovoked assault.]]''
** The newest entry is better about this, with distinct differences between "trespassing" (if you're caught, guards will escort you out and only attack if you resist) and "hostile area" (guards attack you immediately if you're caught). However, you are still the only person in the universe they care about; the most noticeable example is areas where you have to be frisked to enter - {{Non Player Character}}s will walk right past the same guards without them so much as turning their heads.

** The opponent Drivitar cars in ''VideoGame/ForzaHorizon 2'' blatantly skip checkpoints to no penalty. Additionally, the AI in ''Horizon'' games have perfect traction and minimal speed loss in off-road races, even when driving RWD supercars.
*** ''VideoGame/ForzaHorizon 5'', and most likely earlier games, have other cars spawn around the player regularly, most often on street races. They do ''not'' spawn around Drivatars outside of a certain range, so any opponents which are far enough ahead of or behind the player can proceed unfettered.

* In ''VideoGame/YakumanDS'', a TabletopGame/{{Mahjong}} game from the same people at Nintendo who make the ''VideoGame/MarioKart'' and ''VideoGame/MarioParty'' games, the tougher computer opponents have ridiculously good luck. The AI performs Double Reach (only possible when your opening draw is one away from a winning hand) numerous times, often multiple times in a single match, not to mention a suspiciously high rate of Tenhou/Chiihou hands (i.e. when your opening draw ''is'' a winning hand. Tenhou and Chiihou are basically the equivalent of being dealt a Royal Flush in poker). [[https://riichi.wiki/Main_Page More details on Double Reach, Tenhou, and Chiihou here.]]

* In ''VideoGame/{{Yakuman}} DS'', a TabletopGame/{{Mahjong}} game from the same people at Nintendo who make the ''VideoGame/MarioKart'' and ''VideoGame/MarioParty'' games, the tougher computer opponents have ridiculously good luck. The AI performs Double Reach (only possible when your opening draw is one away from a winning hand) numerous times, often multiple times in a single match, not to mention a suspiciously high rate of Tenhou/Chiihou hands (i.e. when your opening draw ''is'' a winning hand. Tenhou and Chiihou are basically the equivalent of being dealt a Royal Flush in poker). [[http://www.reachmahjong.com/home/index.php?option=com_content=view&id=79&Itemid=48 More details on Double Reach, Tenhou, and Chiihou here.]]

->''[[Music/{{Train}} ♪~ Hey transistor, how'd that missile miss ya? Yet your hits KO, every go, the way you move ain't fair ya know! ~♪]]''

** Furthermore, ''Underground 2'' and ''[[VideoGame/NeedForSpeedMostWanted Most Wanted]]'' also had an JustForFun/{{egregious}} feature whereby even if you managed to build up a decent lead in spite of the RubberBandAI, in the last lap of the race one of the opponents would make a miraculous comeback and pass you unless you managed to block him or had a lot of nitro to burn. This was presumably done to make the races more dramatic, but of course the end result was just more frustration.

* In ''Wacky Races Starring Dick Dastardly & Muttley'' for Dreamcast and PlayStation 2 has Dick Dastardly in his boss levels starting the race during the countdown, while you have to wait until the narrator says "Go", Justified since it's Dick Dastardly, he has to cheat somehow.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Scrabble}}'' on the PlayStation 1. Firstly the game seemed to arbitrarily decide if something was an authentic word; many common words that are in any dictionary would be denied to the player but the computer could seem to use any combination of letters, [[ScrabbleBabble even total gibberish such as "gxfsetf"]], and score. The harder the AI was set to, the more nonsense it would score with.

** The xenomorph will teleport [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClmBS_BbAp0&ab_channel=JoshuaMorgan when trapped]], and sometimes even [[OffscreenTeleportation out of nothing]] when [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpTNkvXgFtM&ab_channel=PeterLeon not trapped (although in this case it's probably a glitch).

** The xenomorph will teleport [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClmBS_BbAp0&ab_channel=JoshuaMorgan when trapped]].

** The AI can also execute [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pugachev%27s_Cobra Pugachev's Cobra]] (in ''any'' fighter) to dump speed and upset your pursuit. Guess what the player can't do? While the devs did want to allow players to pull it off in ''VideoGame/AceCombat2'', given the player character's "official" plane in that game is a close relative of the one that invented the maneuver, they weren't able to implement it in time for release and never tried it until ''VideoGame/AceCombat7''. However, executing it is awkward at best (you have to be barely above stall speed and then execute a series of commands that wouldn't look out of place in a fighting game) and is more useful as a last resort to upset enemy pursuit.

'''Note:''' when adding examples here, please make sure whatever you're planning to claim is ''actually true'', meaning you have hard data saying there is cheating going on, not just some vague feeling that you ''always'' [[{{Franchise/Pokémon}} hurt yourself in confusion]] and the AI ''never'' does. The phenomenon making you feel that way is almost definitely ConfirmationBias, as any of the various people who have done actual testing with hundreds of data points can tell you.

Sometimes this is justified due to the RuleOfFun. Computers are often prevented from using certain tactics that are open to the player, either [[{{Scrub}} because it's "cheap" when your enemies do it]] or [[ArtificialStupidity there's no freaking way that a computer could manage to pull it off at a crucial moment]]. In order to make up the gap and still present a challenge, cheating is required. Ironically, players often think the AI is cheating when it isn't, such as strings of [[ArtisticLicenseStatistics good luck from an RNG that is actually perfectly fair]], while not noticing at all the subtle and behind-the-scenes ways that the computer is ''actually'' cheating. In fact, some games deliberately manipulate the RNG in the player's favour just to avoid the appearance of cheating.

'''Note:''' when adding examples here, please make sure whatever you're planning to claim is ''actually true'', meaning you have hard data saying there is cheating going on, not just some vague feeling that you ''always'' [[{{Franchise/Pokemon}} hurt yourself in confusion]] and the AI ''never'' does. The phenomenon making you feel that way is almost definitely ConfirmationBias, as any of the various people who have done actual testing with hundreds of data points can tell you.

*** Base skill enhancements such as absurd speed, counter beams and triple throw range. For the Goku fight, these enhancements, and ''all'' hitboxes, are doubled again. This results in a regular Kamehameha taking up most of the screen and killing most characters.These characters are now usable with a hacking device,so you can now give the bastards a taste of their own murderous medicine!

** In the original, Cervantes and Souledge have an attack called 'Self-Destruction' (renamed Geo De Rey in later installments); when the player uses it, it eats up 1/3 of their weapon gauge. The computer can decide arbitrarily if this applies to it or not; occasonally for Cervantes, hardly ever for Souledge. Souledge's version also has the advantage of controlling exactly when he launches, thus making it a nightmare when he starts spamming it, which is often, but you can control that too, so that's ok. It doesn't help that they (especially the latter) often get unbreakable weapons too while they suffer as much as everyone else when you control them, so good luck trying to disarm them. As the weapon gauge is never used again in such a fashion, it is no longer an issue from Soul Calibur onwards.

* In ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasy'', the AI also ignores equipment and accessory rules. Every piece of regular equipment (swords, shields, etc) has a level requirement that your character must meet in order to equip it, but almost every AI opponent will be wearing at least one item above their level. Accessories work somewhat differently. They are ranked from D to Star. The higher the rank, the fewer of that accessory you can use at the same time. Many AI will have three or four of the same Star-ranked accessory.

* ''VideoGame/BattleCapacity'' had major issues with Pyroak in the past. Pyroak has a lot of HP, excellent projecile attacks, and a useful anti-air attack which comes out quickly at adjustable heights. He is slow, however, and suffers against most characters at close range. When the AI was using Pyroak, there was literally ''no'' slowdown between launching projectiles and using his anti-air, making him all but unapproachable.

* Hellooooooooo ''VideoGame/SplitSecond2010'', whose idea of RubberBandAI is to give opponents virtually limitless Power Play ability, the wicked sense to wait til the final stretch of the last lap to use it on ''you and only you'', and to make Elite Races impossible for anyone who isn't a robot.

* In ''Wacky Races Starring Dick Dastardly & Muttley'' for Dreamcast and Playstation 2 has Dick Dastardly in his boss levels starting the race during the countdown, while you have to wait until the narrator says "Go", Justified since it's Dick Dastardly, he has to cheat somehow.

* One egregious example occurs in one of the final GDI missions of ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'', wherein the AI possesses the unique ability to build structures very far away from its own base, and covering a tiberian deposit with an obelisk of light (a strong defense turret that can easily destroy your harvester) somewhat early in the mission. While the AI player can normally rebuild structures without placement restriction, these structures aren't pre-existing.

* The RPG ''VideoGame/MetalHearts: Replicant Rampage'': When the player gets to the first part of civilisation they will note the following: By moving, the [=PCs=] will be penalised and completely lose their dodge bonus to range attacks, and when the guards are moving, the player will almost never hit. Small scorpions with poison at the start are easier to hit lying down from about 10 metres away with a handgun than point blank with a shotgun, SMG, or Sniper Rifle. Allies with firearms are less likely to hit than the players, but they tend to have weapons and gear that give bonuses to marksmanship, have the weapons strong enough to hurt evil guards. The players can't use those weapons due to stat requirements.

* The ''VideoGame/MonsterRancher'' series suffers from the same cheating as Pokémon, that PC simply ignores the missing rate, and top on this, your monster has far more chance of doing "foolery" instead of attacking, even when both are supposed to be equally unloyal due to master inexperience.

* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles1'' also has this in the player's favour. A big part of the game's battle system is being able to knock down enemies. However, some enemies will have an ability referred to as "Spikes" that, when you knock them over, deals damage to everyone nearby them. The only way for a player to know this is to knock down an enemy and get hit. The CPU allies, however, somehow know this by default, so the ''real'' way to figure out an enemy has a spike ability is to note that Reyn never uses his Break-topple combo (something his AI is [[ArtificialBrilliance actually pretty good at]]) or that your party members never knock down enemies you use "Break" on.

* In ''VideoGame/OctopathTraveler'', [[spoiler:several attacks by the OptionalBoss gods have secondary effects which are nowhere to be seen when the player defeats them and earns their respective jobs. This is most noticable with Balogar and Winnehild, wielding {{Status Infliction Attack}}s which the actual Runelord and Warmaster jobs don't get. Dreisang's Elemental Break also reduces both elemental defense ''and'' elemental attack, whereas the eponymous Sorcerer skill reduces only elemental defense]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Miitopia}}'' AI-controlled Miis are able to know when the random passive moves of their allies will take place, since they'll use attacks in ways that otherwise would make no sense, like a Scientist using the Ignite Formula, which causes the attack of an ally to also damage the two ajdacent enemies) just the time that the ally is going to use an attack on the enemy in the middle. Or a mage using a weaker spell because the allies will use the "Lend A Hand" assist to power it up. This, however, is a rare instance where the computer's cheating is actually ''beneficial'' to the player.

* ''Videogame/{{Littlewood}}'': Tarott Monster, the in-game CardBattleGame, usually has both the player and their opponent with ten starting HitPoints. The game consists of using the cards to reduce the oppenent's HitPoints until they run out and negate the opponent's attempts at doing the same. There is a group of NonPlayerCharacter oppenents called the Big Five whose members start each game with twelve to twenty, while the PlayerCharacter is stuck at ten no matter how much they level up their Tarott Monster skill. Also, GameplayAndStoryIntegration has not forgotten the fact that the setting's top Tarott Monster player is a sixth character and gave the guy significantly more hit points than the strongest of the Big Five.

** An effect available to both the player and the AI is called "Antimatter," and it grants everyone in a squad a huge evasiveness buff at the cost of making them a OneHitPointWonder. At least, as long as they're not the boss of an Inspection map, in which case they will recieve a huge evasiveness buff ''with no drawbacks whatsoever.''
** If an enemy squad is killed with a counterattack and one of your squads is supposed to move next, then the game will push their turn back to let another enemy move first. This is most noticable when you're severely overleveled, watching as every enemy on the map charges to their death one after the other, while the indicator at the top of the screen insists your turn is coming up any moment now.
* In ''VideoGame/FrontMission'', enemy armies are allowed to ignore the weight and engine limitations of their [[HumongousMecha Wanzers]], effectively allowing them to equip their units with whatever they want without having to manage these limits, are allowed to use unique armaments like the [[SpiderTank Clinton-Type]], and can deploy as many supply trucks as they want while you're limited to just one. [[JustifiedTrope Reasonably justified]], as they're a proper military force with supply chains and professional mechanics supplying and maintaining their units, while you're a mercenary group who has to do all of your own aquisition, customization, and repair by yourselves and out of your own pockets.

* Each of the ''VideoGame/{{Yakuza}}'' games has mahjohng in it, but the difficulty of table you sit at may as well be InNameOnly. The computer can have riichi (meaning they have one tile left to end a closed hand) and can just as easily end up not only winning it just as likely you'll end up [[NiceJobBreakingItHero giving it to them]], especially if they have a high enough dora.
* In later ''Franchise/FarCry'' games, if you miss once close enough to an enemy with a suppressed weapon, the enemies will start congregating towards where you were shooting them from, as if they somehow knew the shot came from. If you keep harrassing them, they'll continue to "follow" you.

* Sometimes in the ''TabletopGame/BloodBowl'' computer game, the AI does something no sane human would do (e.g, a hand-off and pass with dwarves past a high-agility interceptor, ''while'' it's possible to score ''another way'') and succeeds. Although the nature of ''Blood Bowl'' mechanics is such that actually succeeding on just about anything is certainly possible, especially with re-rolls, the computer seems to succeed almost every time it tries something so unlikely that even the most desperate human would dismiss the possibility out of hand. Furthermore, frequently the AI has set up so it can attempt this but then doesn't even try, so it's not like the AI has some bizarre preference for high-risk moves. The sequence of dice rolls in any given game is set before it begins, so the most likely explanation for the computer's overall behavior is that it consults the list of rolls then randomly decides whether to exploit that knowledge or to calculate odds like it doesn't have access.

* The generally fair AI powerups for ''VideoGame/TotalWar'' games have a few cheat moments (free money, quick build/recruit times etc) to balance the fact that it's an AI and you're not (presumably). However, a blatant cheat in ''[[VideoGame/MedievalIITotalWar Medieval II]]'': your own crusader/jihad/warpath armies will gradually lose units to desertion if you don't progress towards the designated target each turn. The AI however can raise such an army, park it near your settlement and wait 50 years until the crusade/jihad/warpath is over, without losing any units, at which point it will be free to turn the army against you. Of course, there's nothing to stop you pre-emptively attacking that army anyway, excommunication aside...

* ''TabletopGame/{{Scrabble}}'' on the Playstation 1. Firstly the game seemed to arbitrarily decide if something was an authentic word; many common words that are in any dictionary would be denied to the player but the computer could seem to use any combination of letters, [[ScrabbleBabble even total gibberish such as "gxfsetf"]], and score. The harder the AI was set to, the more nonsense it would score with.
* Inverted in ''VideoGame/GetterLove!!'', in which ''you'' get to be a cheating bastard. Mainly because of the map screen, in which you can see exactly where each of your opponents will be going before you choose a destination. (This aspect of the game would have worked better if, instead, you chose by pressing a button, instead of toggling on the map.[[note]]Let's see: For destinations, you have your home, Itoh Mart, the department store (divided into three sections for information, fashion, and CD&BOOK), China Hao Hao, Panda Amusement (two sections here, one each for gaming and karaoke), Panda Burger, the school plaza, the school grounds, the library, Panda Park, and Cafe Liquid. A Nintendo 64 controller has a d-pad (four directions), four C buttons (which aren't used for anything in this game as it is), and six other buttons (L, R, Z, A, B, and Start). Fourteen possible destinations, fourteen buttons to select with (not even counting the joystick), it's a perfect match![[/note]] And that's saying nothing about ArtificialStupidity.

** Here's how [[https://www.betson.com/wp-content/uploads/wpallimport/files/redemption-service-manuals/cyclone-redemption-service-manual-ICE-games.pdf Cyclone]] works. The jackpot light lights for the same amount of time as the other lights, but the jackpot window is smaller than the 20ms light window. This is to keep people from figuring out that the jackpot has a smaller window than all other lights, and to keep people from figuring out the skill setting with a video camera. The default is 3ms. If the jackpot light is lit, but you are not in the real jackpot window, the machine jumps to a nearby light. The easiest jackpot setting is 20ms. A one frame link in fighting games is 16ms, and within human reflexes. A 3 ms window can be hit maybe 1 in 10 times, if you actually find it, which is difficult because the game is lying about if you were early or late. If it's set on 1ms, it's impossible to hit reliably without a high precision robot, so that's often coupled with the winability setting which expands the window to 20 ms to match the light every X games. The game is not legally allowed to make it actually impossible, but it is allowed to make it practically impossible. The default setting (3ms, zero winability) is legal, but the 1ms+winability setting really stretches the laws.

-->-- [[http://kotaku.com/5271733/the-three-or-more-or-less-laws-of-gaming-ai Jonny Ebert]], lead designer of ''VideoGame/DawnOfWarII'' on video game A.I.

* ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars'': In the first two games, the AI flagrantly ignores the rules of FogOfWar. In such maps, you can neither see nor attack enemy units unless they're in your visual range. The AI, however, does not have this restriction, and will thus snipe you with impunity from halfway across the map even when your troops are well out of its vision. The only saving grace is that it ''does'' follow the rule of being unable to see or attack any units in cover, such as forests and reefs, unless it has a unit parked directly adjacent to it, so hiding your valuable units in these spots is crucial just to level the playing field. ''Dual Strike'' at least toned it back somewhat: the enemy AI still knows exactly where your non-hidden troops are, but it can no longer attack them if they're not in visual range, making parking your units out of cover much less suicidal. It wouldn't be until ''Days of Ruin'', however, that the AI finally started following all of the rules.

* ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars'' features the character of Flak (and later Jugger), considered a JokeCharacter by many players because his gimmick (his "luck spread" is very high, meaning his attacks randomly deal much more or much less damage than they should) makes the game into a LuckBasedMission. Standard strategy with Flak, especially when he gets his CO Powers and his luck spread gets even crazier, is to ZergRush with all units and pray that at least one crits. However, the computer appears to be aware ahead of time how well Flak is going to do on a given assault, and will plan accordingly. This gets particularly obvious when it activates Flak's Super CO Power and passes the turn after shuffling its units a bit, having detected no cases where its units would do more damage.

* Inverted in the ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar - Dark Crusade'' and ''Soulstorm'' campaign modes. On Easy and Normal, computer players receive a penalty to the hit points of their units, while Hard levels the playing field and gives their units the default health bars. This is to make up for the fact that all but the weakest battles are fought two-on-one.

** ''VideoGame/TrailsOfColdSteel'': [[HopelessBossFight You can't beat Sara in Chapter 2]]. Even if your party is strong enough to knock her HP down to zero in NewGamePlus mode, as soon as her HP hits zero, she unleashes a one-hit KO attack that immediately incapacitates your party.

* While the AI in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosMelee'' and ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl Brawl]]'' isn't of Rubber Band variety, it still can, for instance, [[TheAllSeeingAI always see everything in the stage]], while players have cited them having faster reflexes than what human players have, such as being consistently able to deflect projectiles with a well-timed shield.

** Throughout the series, changing a CPU's difficulty level changes three parameters: how aggressive they are, how likely they are to avoid your attacks, and their reaction time. In both versions of ''[=SSB4=]'', a level 9 CPU has a reaction time of ''one frame'' , meaning that the instant you input the button combination for a certain attack, they're already air-dodging out of harm's way. Meanwhile, of course, they're free to whale on you as much as they want.
** Picking up the hammer item will cause the player to only be able to move and jump for a duration, during which they will rapidly swing it back and forth, dealing heavy damage to nearby opponents. Getting sent offstage will ensure the wielder dies if the effect doesn't wear off fast enough to allow recovery moves. The CPU, however, will invariably drop it on its own if they are placed into a position where they will fall to their death if they hold on to it. In addition, the hammer's head will have a random but small chance of breaking off, leaving you prone to attacks until it wears off. The AI, however, is allowed to drop it under this circumstance too.
** The final match before Master Hand in ''Brawl'' is a free-for-all Battle Royale... except for the fact that it's not. CPU characters focus on killing the player, instead of each other, sometimes creating a grocery line of [=CP=] waiting to enact a team battle with friendly fire enabled. This is even more evident with the one-hit-KO tracking of Dragoon. It nearly-always focuses on ''you''. In fact, this seems to be the case in a regular free for all match. At least one guy will stalk you no matter how much you try to distance yourself and when they do, it attracts attention from the other AI players, thus you get caught in the "brawl". There are even accounts of such AI taunting a human player when one of the other [=CPUs=] KO'd him or her in a free-for-all.

* ''VideoGame/SlayTheSpire'': While it's not as blatant as the other examples, most enemies in the game, even the lowliest mooks, often have skills and abilities that are vastly superior to the ones you possess, and, more importantly cannot properly defend against. General enemies can permanently reduce your offensive and defensive stats for an entire fight, or stack debuffs so that you are reduced to doing chip damage while they rip you to shreds. Minibosses can add cards into your deck that you have to waste energy to eliminate when the optimal strategy is to have as few cards as possible, or add a ''permanent'' card to your deck that reduces your maximum HP if you find a way to remove it. Some of the bosses will outright cancel your turn while giving themselves a stat boost if you play too many cards, or put cards into your deck that damage you when you draw them, ''which you cannot stop them from doing''. This is egregious even with the starting minibosses, which have HP and attack scores that are so high that you can barely mount any meaningful offense or defense against, and the final boss, if you can reach it, can and will kill you in two rounds, regardless of how strong your character is.

** In some of the old Capcom fighters that ran on quarter-guzzling Arcade rules, such [[VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom the early days of the Marvel vs. Capcom titles]], there's two separate DIP switches between the difficulty of A.I., and how much ''[[MyRulesAreNotYourRules damage]]'' the A.I. does. It's entirely possible for a machine to be set to a situation where it seems like the computer is dumb as a brick, but they can K.O. you in a few well-placed attacks, grabs or specials, compared to you doing relative peanuts for damage to them no matter how hard you try. You can actually play with these yourself in the ''Capcom Fighting Collection'' for some of the games on offer.

** In some of the old Capcom fighters that ran on quarter-guzzling Arcade rules, such [[VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom the early days of the Marvel vs. Capcom titles]], there's two separate DIP switches between the difficulty of A.I., and how much ''[[MyRulesAreNotYourRules damage]]'' the A.I. does. It's entirely possible for a machine to be set to a situation where it seems like the computer is dumb as a brick, but they can K.O. you in a few well-placed attacks, grabs or specials, compared to you doing relative peanuts for damage to them no matter how hard you try. And any cabinet owner that cranked both up was probably desperate for sales or a {{Jerkass}}.

*** Super Turbo is the ''SFII'' CPU at its absolute cheapest, especially in the American arcade release where someone at Capcom USA believed that the AI had somehow become too easy over the years so they decided to raise the difficulty by about 2 or 3 levels compared to the original Japanese release. It utilizes all of the above mentioned shortcuts, plus a brand-new cheat that is physically impossible for a human to replicate even with the likes of autofire[=/=]turbo enabled: inescapable mash throws that are mashed out so inhumanly fast that a single one of them can either kill you outright or take off '''95%''' of your lifebar in one go. ''Pray'' you don't get hit with one of these, otherwise you'll be treated to your character helplessly getting their faces devoured by Blanka, the life squeezed out of them by E. Honda, or their skull bashed into a bloody pulp by Balrog headbutting them to death.

*** Super Turbo is the ''SFII'' CPU at its absolute cheapest, especially in the American arcade release where someone at Capcom USA decided that the AI had somehow become too easy over the years so they decided to raise the difficulty by about 2 or 3 levels compared to the original Japanese release. It utilizes all of the above mentioned shortcuts, plus a brand-new cheat that is physically impossible for a human to replicate even with the likes of autofire[=/=]turbo enabled: inescapable mash throws that are mashed out so inhumanly fast that a single one of them can either kill you outright or take off '''95%''' of your lifebar in one go. ''Pray'' you don't get hit with one of these, otherwise you'll be treated to your character helplessly getting their faces devoured by Blanka, the life squeezed out of them by E. Honda, or their skull bashed into a bloody pulp by Balrog headbutting them to death.