History NintendoHard / NonVideoGameExamples

* The casino game "Diana". [[OlderThanTheyThink Surprisingly old]], predating [[OlderThanTheNES Nintendo]], [[OlderThanTelevision the TV itself]], and even [[OlderThanRadio radio!]] Was introduced to the Wild West in the 1800s, but did not gain popularity as the odds were apparently murderous.
** To clarify, Diana involved a betting system similar to Roulette where players would bet on things like suit, face value, red or black, or even a specific card against a single card drawn by a dealer.

* ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'' has the "Death Road of Despair" mini-game during the first two chapters that is very difficult to beat, but it is possible, leading to an EverybodyLives (if completed in the first chapter) NonStandardGameOver ending and giving you a new theme for the Monopad and 100 Monocoins.

* An example OlderThanRadio, and likely OlderThanSteam, is Frustration Solitaire. Dating back to at least 1708, this Solitaire variant involved shuffling a deck then drawing cards one at a time while calling each card in order, if the card matches what is called GameOver. The only way to win is to draw all 52 cards without ever getting a match.

* ''Fanfic/TheSuperheroGame'': Namedropped, and more than once, by the Era 2 Leaguers and those who fought against them alike. Every member of the Era 2 League member is a CombatPragmatist who's willing to fight dirty and ruthlessly against their opponents, to the point where (after they'd been brainwashed and turned against their predecessors) only a few of said predecessors were still standing by the time the Era 2 Leaguers were each knocked back to their senses.

* The Monaco Grand Prix is the hardest, if not one of the hardest, tracks for F-1 racers, since it consists of twisty windy city roads that two cars are barely comfortable in side by side. In fact, it's the only course that's given an exception to F-1 track rules (which most is laid out for safety reasons, Monaco having been grandfathered for the sake of tradition).

* In ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline'', the beta testers for SAO only made it to the tenth floor over a one-month period, and it took players two months after the official launch just to clear the first floor's boss.

* London's contribution is "The Knowledge", an agonizing pass or fail test requires applicants for taxi permits to display an almost photographic knowledge of the city's winding, maze-like streets. To pass, you must show knowledge of over 20,000 streets and over 300 predetermined routes - as well as all landmarks and institutions within half a mile. The whole process requires 34 months to study for and pass.
* Marathon is nothing. Now, historically, the marathon race is based on the supposed run of an Athenian warrior from Marathon to Athens, to notify the people about victory. In reality, the guy actually ran from Athens to ''Sparta'', to ask for help. That's an ''over six marathon long'' journey. Some people are running that race every year - it's called the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spartathlon Spartathlon]]. One of the ways to qualify is having finished a 200 km race in the past.

* The Royal Navy's Submarine Command Course is informally known as "Perisher". It has been running since 1917 and has extremely high standards - the US and Danish Navies often send their officers to train on the course. Although the historical pass rate is around 70%, candidates who fail are immediately taken off the training boat and barred from serving in Royal Navy submarines ''ever again''. In most cases this means the end of their naval career, so the course only attracts the most competent candidates.

* [[UsefulNotes/IvyLeague Harvard University]]'s "Math 55" course is, by the university's own admission, "probably the most difficult undergraduate math class in the country": it covers several years of undergraduate math in two semesters, with the homework per week taking well into the double digits in hours and only a few students typically remaining at the end. The faculty deliberately made the course so difficult not simply as a weeder but to give students a new understanding of depth.
** For that matter, the notorious "William L. Putnam Exam" is also this. Out of 120 points, the average score is only ''1 point'', with roughly half its test takers scoring 0 points. You can literally count on one hand the number of people who have ever earned perfect 120's on the exam.

* Most puzzle- or skill-based toys are simple once you get the trick. However, there are a few that remain fiendishly difficult, even after hours of practice. Worth special mention is [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labyrinth_%28game%29 Labyrinth]], in which the object is to navigate a marble through a maze by using the knobs on the sides to tilt the maze itself. It wouldn't be that hard, except that the platform has a bunch of holes in it in addition to the walls of the maze. Falling through a hole forces you to start over, and all it takes is a momentary lapse in concentration.
** There is now a 3-dimensional version called Perplexus, which is a ball encased in a clear plastic sphere with many obstacles. This one offers points to start from in the middle, but also many new challenges.
* Martin Gardner wrote of a man who made 3D puzzles where you had to insert a ball into a hole in an ''opaque'' cube and then make it come out of a hole on the opposite side (with all kinds of obstacles inside). The man who made them used to give some to a friend to try... there was a puzzle that took said friend a year, and he had to X-ray it.
* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' parodied this trope. There's the easter egg game [[UnwinnableJokeGame "Super Kingio Bros,"]] in which you cannot possibly avoid the first enemy, who you find within the first second of the game.
* ''[[http://realescapegame.com/ Real Escape Game]]'' is a series of {{Room Escape Game}}s, except in the real world--you are physically locked inside the room with a team of other players and have to find the key to the room to escape within the [[TimedMission time limit]]. Most if not all versions of the game have clear rates of less than ''five percent.'' Even with a full stock of teammates, you'll need to think swiftly and outside of the box if you so much as want a chance at victory.

* The eponymous VRMMORPG in ''Anime/SwordArtOnline'' is notoriously difficult. Even discounting the fact that [[AbsurdlyHighStakesGame death in SAO means death in real life]], the beta testers were only able to make it to the tenth floor. Once the game officially launched, it took ''two months'' just to defeat the first floor boss.
* The whole concept is parodied in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESq27B9YI4Q the music video for "Nintendohemian Rhapsody"]], a spoof of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody", by [=YouTubers=] Brent "brentalfloss" Black and Pat "the NES Punk" Contri, who lament their inability to beat classic Nintendo games.

* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Marathon Boston Marathon]] is widely known as exemplifying Nintendo Hard in road races. First if running 26.2 miles wasn't hard enough, to limit the number of entrants one must qualify for the race by first meeting a challenging benchmark time in another marathon. Then, while the Boston Marathon course features an overall elevation drop, the undulating New England terrain includes frequent uphill segments including several late in the race located precisely at the point where human runners are at their most vulnerable.

* "Rule Britannia", the unoffical alternative national anthem of the UK, has a very wide pitch range and is very difficult to sing for people without classical vocal training.

* London's contribution is "The Knowledge", an agonizing pass or fail test requires applicants for taxi permits to display an almost photographic knowledge of the city's winding, maze-like streets. To pass, you must show knowledge of over 20,000 streets and over 300 predetermined routes - as well as all landmarks and institutions within half a mile. The whole process requires 34 months to study for and pass.

* The ''Literature/LoneWolf'' [[ChooseYourOwnAdventure Gamebook]] series got progressively more difficult around book eight or so, but never really reached this level of madness... except for ''The Prisoners of Time''. In addition to the usual death traps and RandomNumberGod bullshit, there were three extremely difficult fights right at the end. In the first, if you brought the InfinityPlusOneSword from an earlier book, the boss' stats were nearly impossible to overcome. The second featured similar issues, regardless of equipment. And the third was on ''the next entry,'' giving you no chance to heal, '''and''' you started by taking unavoidable damage.

* The Monaco Grand Prix is the hardest, if not one of the hardest, tracks for F-1 racers, since it consists of twisty windy city roads that two cars are barely comfortable in side by side. In fact, it's the only course that's given an exception to F-1 track rules (which most is laid out for safety reasons).

* The ''Literature/LoneWolf'' {{Gamebook}} series got progressively more difficult around book eight or so, but never really reached this level of madness... except for ''The Prisoners of Time''. In addition to the usual death traps and RandomNumberGod bullshit, there were three extremely difficult fights right at the end. In the first, if you brought the InfinityPlusOneSword from an earlier book, the boss' stats were nearly impossible to overcome. The second featured similar issues, regardless of equipment. And the third was on ''the next entry,'' giving you no chance to heal, '''and''' you started by taking unavoidable damage.

* The AIM-4 Falcon guided missile (used in Vietnam) was infamous for how it hard was to lock; it required seven seconds to establish a lock, which is no easy task when you and your target are whipping through the sky at Mach 1. The missile was also rendered useless if the user failed to achieve a lock the first time, as it had a limited supply of coolant for its targeting sensor. In a twenty year service history, it had only five confirmed kills. Its successor, the AIM-9 Sidewinder, is a significantly more effective (and easier to use) missile.

* RealLife ''as a whole'' is this. Many aspects of life, from difficult education classes to trying to manage enough income to have a roof to live under to even just ''trying to stay alive'' can be challenging, depending on a variety of circumstances such as one's geographical location, bodily disorders, political and economical climate, and the way one is brought up (especially setbacks such as AbusiveParents). To quote an old cliché: Life isn't fair.