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| 2 | %% The examples on this page have been put into alphabetical order. |
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| 4 | %% Please add new examples in the correct order. |
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| 7 | %% Image removed per Image Pickin' thread: |
| 8 | %%https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1651345258066899400 |
| 9 | %% Please start a new thread to discuss a new image.. |
| 10 | |
| 11 | ->''"Silly gamers expecting games for kids to be easy... have you forgotten who the target demographic of the original NintendoHard games were?"'' |
| 12 | -->-- '''Troper Tropers/{{Servbot}}''' |
| 13 | |
| 14 | Naturally there are a lot of things that happen that we just don't expect. This trope is when you just don't expect a game to be NintendoHard. You'd expect a shooter with robots spraying machine gun fire to be difficult, but a game with fairies shooting spells at you from their wands can still hand your ass to you. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | Difficult games can be ''anywhere'', in any genre. Of course this is YMMV, but the fact of the matter is that difficult games don't exactly have any kind of official way to mark themselves, so they can show up when we least expect them. As these examples show, woe betide those who judge a game by surface "cuteness". |
| 17 | |
| 18 | When occurring in {{licensed game}}s based on children's series, chances are that you expected the AnimationAgeGhetto to be applied to them. Often goes hand-in-hand with ArtStyleDissonance, as people often expect a "cute" game to be non-challenging, both in mechanics and in plot. UnexpectedlyRealisticGameplay is also related, as part of the difficulty may stem from the fact that the game avoids certain conventional simplifications and shortcuts found in other games of the same genre that players have come to expect by default. Also another reason AmericanKirbyIsHardcore. |
| 19 | |
| 20 | Compare SequelDifficultySpike, contrast SequelDifficultyDrop. |
| 21 | ---- |
| 22 | !!Examples: |
| 23 | |
| 24 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 25 | |
| 26 | [[folder:Action]] |
| 27 | * How hard would you expect a shooter starring a cute little yellow ''VideoGame/AlienHominid'' to be? Well, if you know the inspiration was ''VideoGame/MetalSlug'', that should answer ''all'' your questions. |
| 28 | * ''VideoGame/{{Battletoads}}'', for the time. Now this game is famous for its difficulty alone, but back then, when the reputation wasn't so widespread yet, you didn't expect a game that had two cute frogs with ridiculously cartoony special moves and colorful stages to be hard. |
| 29 | * ''VideoGame/CopyKitty'': A bright and lighthearted game about a CatGirl destroying adorable and strange robots in a VR program with tons and tons of StuffBlowingUP. The titular copy abilities give you incredibly explosive and overpowered weapons to play with, causing screen-filling lasers, homing rockets that explode on contact, several weapons that smash walls and enemies alike, the list goes on. And you will need every one of these weapons to get through levels custom-made to take advantage of their limitations and properties, with bosses that can tear the little kitty to pieces if you don't memorize their patterns well. The unlockable Hard Mode takes everything the game's taught you up to this point and puts it all to the test with levels filled with so many explosions and swarms of more powerful robots you'll wonder how you're supposed to fend them off. And the bosses...are some of the most difficult this side of Creator/{{Treasure}} with the creators citing them as a heavy influence. |
| 30 | * ''VideoGame/{{Cuphead}}'' has a 1930s cartoons aesthetic with cute and silly cartoon characters. It's also a CuteEmUp run-and-gun BossGame inspired by the likes of ''VideoGame/{{Contra}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Parodius}}'' and ''VideoGame/MetalSlug'', where you get (by default) only three hits, no opportunities to replenish health mid-level, and no checkpoints. You ''will'' be struggling to beat bosses as early as Hilda Berg, but you are guaranteed to be pulling your hair out against any of the first three available bosses of ''the second world''. |
| 31 | * Hmm, a third-person actioner/shooter/platformer called ''VideoGame/DarkenedSkye''. Involving Skittles, you say? Probably finish it in an hour. Wow, why am I dying so much? These jumps, especially involving those freakin' sinking lily pads, are HARD, and the enemies are really good shots! What, there are puzzles too?! |
| 32 | * ''VideoGame/{{Flicky}}'' is about a cute mother bluebird trying to save her chicks from hungry cats and iguanas that want to eat them. The levels are only as big as the screen, and are very brightly colored. The chicks don't actually die if the aforementioned enemies get to them (unlike ''VideoGame/ZombiesAteMyNeighbors'')...but Flicky does if she touches a cat, and the cats like to ambush her. And the iguanas can run along any surface at about the same speed as Flicky can run. Flicky can't fly, only jump high. Your only defenses are apples, telephones, cups, and other objects which Flicky can pick up by touching them and throw...but they use the same button as jumping. And there are only so many throwable objects per level. And due to the aforementioned issue, you're likely to waste a lot of them while frantically guiding the chicks to the exit. And the cats and iguanas come back after about 7 seconds even if you do manage to kill them by throwing stuff at them. |
| 33 | * ''VideoGame/MegaManPoweredUp'' may have inflicted the ''VideoGame/MegaMan1'' cast with [[SuperDeformed Super Deformities]], but the difficulty department definitely doesn't slack off, and HundredPercentCompletion for New Style mode ''requires'' you not only to complete every stage on every difficulty, but ''also'' to use every character for each of these difficulties, even characters who [[ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman clearly aren't suited for certain stages at all]]. And hey, the original NES levels are available for you to tackle too, and they're all in Old Style mode... |
| 34 | * ''Noah's Ark'' (the one by Creator/{{Konami}}, not the one by Wisdom Tree), one of the few Bible games WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd doesn't think outright sucks, is actually insanely difficult, despite its cutesy graphics and, well, status as a Bible game, especially chapter 4. Of course, it's made by the same people who made Contra. But pressing [[KonamiCode up up down down etc.]] on the title screen does nothing. |
| 35 | * Please do not mistake ''Spy Muppets: License to Croak'' for a very easy game. |
| 36 | * To some extent, most of Creator/{{Treasure}}'s output falls under this. With their whimsical art style and characters, you might not expect (for instance) ''VideoGame/DynamiteHeaddy'' or ''VideoGame/MischiefMakers'' to be as hard as they are. |
| 37 | [[/folder]] |
| 38 | |
| 39 | [[folder:Adventure]] |
| 40 | * ''VideoGame/ETTheExtraterrestrial'' the reviled game for Atari 2600. Cute movie your kids liked, what could go wrong? Cue even adults ripping their hair out trying to get out of the pits. |
| 41 | * While the setting is dark, the characters in ''VideoGame/HollowKnight'' are adorable bugs. The game is known for being one of the hardest Metroidvania games ever made. |
| 42 | * The first ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' game is surprisingly hard to anyone who came to the series by its sequels. You probably heard the second game is the hardest of the series, but the first game can be a surprise since its difficulty is not discussed as often. Most of the difficulty comes from [[QuicksandBox lack of clarity of objectives]], with no clear storyline or progression path and many dungeons and important items hidden in totally random places. Players were supposed to work together to figure out where to go, because scouting it all out on your own would take ages. |
| 43 | ** Eiji Aonuma, who is one of THE most important people in the making of the ''Zelda'' series, has never beaten the first game. |
| 44 | * The first ''{{Franchise/Metroid}}'', since, unlike the sequels (and even the [[VideoGameRemake enhanced remake]]), there is no map, you can't shoot kneeling, [[CopyAndPasteEnvironments all the rooms look the same]], and when you continue you only have 30 health no matter how many energy tanks you have. |
| 45 | ** While not as difficult as the original ''Metroid'', those who went from the first ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'' to ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime2Echoes'' [[SequelDifficultySpike were shocked by an utterly unforgiving game]] with large worlds, few save points and some notoriously difficult boss fights such as [[ThatOneBoss The Boost Guardian, The Spiderball Guardian]] and others, and finally a second dimension that hurt Samus when she went into it. You fight almost all of the bosses in the Dark Aether dimension (which cuts 1 to 5 health every second), essentially turning every fight into a TimeLimitBoss if you can't manage to stay in a safe zone without getting shot. Some of the later fights had NO safe zones in the arena at all. ''Metroid Prime 2'''s boss battles are so legendarily difficult that apparently the testers ''used debug mode'' to beat the Boost Guardian. The game's difficulty was nerfed in the ''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeTrilogy'' release. |
| 46 | * ''VideoGame/TheSecretOfMonkeyIsland'' is all fine and dandy until you have to procure a credit note (which requires memorising the turns of the shopkeeper's safe combination that correspond to 'pushes' and 'pulls'), which is one of the trickiest moments in a VideoGame/MonkeyIsland game, and thankfully, the only one of its kind. |
| 47 | * ''VideoGame/{{Stray|2022}}:'' 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. |
| 48 | * ''VideoGame/{{Tunic}}:'' What do you mean, this colourful game featuring a cute fox is really a SoulsLikeRPG, complete with stamina management and rock-hard bosses? |
| 49 | * ''VideoGame/AnUntitledStory'' is an indie {{Metroidvania}} game about a cute egg...which has plenty of pixel-perfect jumps and many bosses tend to have a BulletHell phase. |
| 50 | * ''VideoGame/ZakMcKrackenAndTheAlienMindbenders'' looks like a simple adventure game set in the city, with a cheerful main character and humorous premise. It quickly becomes apparent that almost nothing you do in this game makes sense in real life, and you have to try many ridiculous items to find something that works. If you don't pick up something before going somewhere it will be [[PermanentlyMissableContent lost]] and you won't be able to progress when you need it. Not only that, but on occasion you're going against an (unseen) time limit which will send you back to earlier in the game if you don't succeed, and you can be trapped or killed quite easily...which means you have to reload the game. |
| 51 | [[/folder]] |
| 52 | |
| 53 | [[folder:Fighting]] |
| 54 | * ''[[VideoGame/DragonBallZBudokai Dragon Ball Z: Infinite World]]'' may be easy to pick up and play (especially since it streamlines some of the mechanics from ''Budokai 3''), but the AI is needlessly brutal, abusing things like teleport counters, [[SuperMode Aura Burning]], [[LimitBreak Ultimates Attacks]] and attack canceling. If you can't figure out any of the advance mechanics even at their base level, you ''will'' get bodied all the way to King Kai's and back. |
| 55 | * The first two ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' games seem to be the best example - simple controls and limited movements...but insanely hard. |
| 56 | * Anyone who underestimates ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' just because it's by Nintendo and filled with their mascots is in for a shock. Yes, [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] and [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Pikachu]] and Franchise/{{Kirby}} are all there, but they're not only beating the stuffing out of each other, the interplay of attacks, movement, and inherent character traits is extremely detailed. Sure, you can pick a character and probably grasp their concept within 15 minutes, but step up past Normal mode without at least a bit of practice and you can easily end up with Mario shining his shoes with your buttocks. |
| 57 | ** The difficulty of the more difficult Challenger Approaching battles in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'' became infamous the day the game first came out. In fact, it was made notable as those kinds of battles were attributed to them being set at the 9.0 difficulty. Unlike the previous games in the franchise, where the AI simply [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard cheats]] at 9.0 without seeing any notable increase in actual skill, the AI in this game is far more competent than before and will constantly dance around the player while comboing them to high percents and teching off walls and ledges at inhuman rates. They still do appear to cheat a little, but cheating aside, they're much more difficult to take on, which can make unlocking fighters outside of World of Light more of a hassle than it needs to be for less-skilled players. Even the dedicated Challenger's Approach mode doesn't help much, as losing here still leads to a cooldown period before the character can be fought again. One of the first launch week patches was forced to tone down the difficulty of these battles after the fandom became too vocal at being unable to unlock certain characters due to how downright hard these battles were. |
| 58 | * ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}} 2'' is much harder than the other entries in the series, despite being the game where the series came into its own. |
| 59 | ** ''Tekken 3''[='=]s Tekken Force Mode starts off as a relatively simple sidescrolling beat-'em-up. This is until you get to Dr B, who you face after beating the mode four times. As you have one life in this mode, if you lose to him you have to complete the mode four more times in order to face him again. Luckily, there is a way of getting around this by playing a certain number of matches in versus mode. |
| 60 | ** ''Tekken 6''[='=]s Scenario Campaign mode gets frustratingly difficult in the later stages, specifically when you have to defeat four or five different bosses within the same level. |
| 61 | *** That goes double for the DiscOneFinalDungeon, where you must fight [[spoiler: your own BrainwashedAndCrazy NPC sidekick- without help from your sidekick, naturally.]] |
| 62 | * ''VideoGame/ThemsFightinHerds'' has an artstyle that makes it look more like a children's Saturday morning cartoon than your typical fighting game aesthetic (which makes sense considering the game was originally a ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' [[VideoGame/MyLittlePonyFightingIsMagic fangame]], and even got its character designs from [[Creator/LaurenFaust the original creative director of the series]]), and the raw input motions are fairly tame as far as fighting games go--only 4 buttons, and no inputs more complicated than a z-motion or a half circle. Despite this, the game has a ''brutal'' skill ceiling competitively--the combo system is more reminiscient of something like the ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom'' series or ''VideoGame/{{Skullgirls}}'', and has equally as much character complexity. |
| 63 | [[/folder]] |
| 64 | |
| 65 | [[folder:Platformer]] |
| 66 | * Any PlatformHell/Kaizo game. Many of them use default ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'' graphics or graphics that look fairly similar to either ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' or ''Franchise/MegaMan'', yet all of them will absolutely '''destroy''' an unprepared player with their insane difficulty. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teAqRZX4hbY just look at it]]... |
| 67 | ---- |
| 68 | * ''Series/TheAddamsFamily'' games for the SNES were just...insane. In the first like most platformers can give you a ridiculous number of lives if you know where to look. However it is probably the only game that expects you to ''use'' them. ''Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt'', completing a single area would take upwards of half an hour (if you knew where to go and how to progress through the levels), you were required to fight a difficult boss at the end of it (by which stage you'd be severely low on lives and energy), and then you got to do the whole thing ''again'' for the other eighteen million items you needed to collect. Oh, and did we mention that you can't save or in any way record your progress? Yeah. This from the TV show that gave us Lurch. |
| 69 | * ''VideoGame/TheAdventureOfLittleRalph'' seems very child-oriented - after all, it's got a child protagonist. The first few levels are hard, but still pretty standard, but from then on, the game turns NintendoHard. Hazards seemingly pop out of nowhere, catching the player by surprise, and the very last level is pure PlatformHell. It doesn't help that Ralph, the main character, is a OneHitPointWonder. |
| 70 | * ''VideoGame/AladdinVirginGames'' would be a nice platformer if not for the escape from the Cave of Wonders level in which you have to very, very carefully navigate the magic carpet through tight areas while avoiding projectiles and incoming lava. Not to mention that one hit kills you, even if you crash. |
| 71 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfnSqLzUzfM On a special "Making Of" episode]], WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd plays ''Barbie'' for the NES. This sums it up: |
| 72 | -->"It's a game for little girls! I can't make past the first levels! |
| 73 | ** WebVideo/JoueurDuGrenier also noted the difficulty when he reviewed the same game. |
| 74 | ---> "You'd probably expect this game to be easy since it's a game for little girls. (Looks nervously at his lives counter (which decreases every time he makes a sexist joke)) But no. You alternate between levels that are ridiculously easy and levels that are [[NintendoHard surprisingly tough]]. |
| 75 | * Like the book that created it, the world of Green-sky in [[Literature/GreenSkyTrilogy Below the Root]] seems pretty easy to manage at first. Then you find out just how difficult it is to jump some of those gaps between broken branches and what happens when you don't ''crawl'' across bridges you've made with your vine rope. You can spend a whole day -- ''your'' day, not game day -- trying to get up into the farheights of Skygrund. |
| 76 | * Despite being one of the games in the "Sega Club" line of games aimed at children under 12, ''VideoGame/BerenstainBearsCampingAdventure'' has relentless enemies and some tricky platforming. Set the difficulty to Grizzly Bear and the game pushes the very limits of NintendoHard. |
| 77 | * ''VideoGame/BillyHatcherAndTheGiantEgg'' runs on this. It's very cute on the surface, but the bosses are pretty tough and the stages later on embody this trope. |
| 78 | ** Not to mention the Rainbow Eggs which are hard to find and even harder to get. |
| 79 | * ''VideoGame/BlasterMaster Zero'' is unique in the sense that the core campaign is consistently criticized for ItsEasySoItSucks. However, Ver. 1.2 adds a Destroyer Mode, which is unlocked after beating the main campaign at least once. Destroyer Mode looks at the main campaign, jeers in its face, and then breaks it in half over its knee. [[NintendoHard It's that big of a difficulty jump.]] |
| 80 | * ''VideoGame/BlinxTheTimeSweeper'': Cutesy main character? Yep. Charming fantasy worlds to explore? Yep. Is this deceptive at all? YES. If some of the later levels weren't difficult enough, there's also the eighty hidden cat medals (some of which are deviously hidden) to collect, and the Nintendo Hard final boss, who is an absolute nightmare to defeat. |
| 81 | * While the remake of ''VideoGame/ABoyAndHisBlob'' cuts down on the GuideDangIt moments of the original, and the beginning levels are so easy they've [[ItsEasySoItSucks earned ire,]] everything after World 1 is a guaranteed behind-kicking at least once. The main stages have generous checkpoints to ease the pain ''slightly,'' but the [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Challenge Levels]]...don't. Screw up just once? HaveANiceDeath! |
| 82 | * For being an innocuous little game about bouncing cat heads, ''VideoGame/CatPlanet'' gets difficult when it introduces threats that can kill the protagonist. Especially in the last stretch, where you become sandwiched between [[DemonicSpiders crows]] and deadly spikes. |
| 83 | * Those unfamiliar with ''VideoGame/{{Celeste}}'' can be forgiven by its presentation (The official art and music seems like it came from the creators of ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse''). However, the game also tells you to "be proud of your death count". |
| 84 | * ''VideoGame/{{Claw}}'' is bright, colorful, undeniably charming, and fiendishly difficult ''even with the infinite-lives cheat enabled''. In fact, using said cheat is pretty much mandatory if you want to have any hope of completing the game. The code is even listed in the manual, so the developers were probably self-aware. |
| 85 | * ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot''. Especially, [[Videogame/CrashBandicoot1996 the first one]]. It's ostensibly for kids and the other games in the series are more manageable... but not the first one. Even if you manage to get through 2-3 levels without running out of lives (you start with 4 every time you load) AND find all the "Tawna tokens" in the level, you only have one shot at a bonus level to even be able to ''save'' or ''find out your level password''. The physics fall into DamnYouMuscleMemory, even (or especially) for people who have played the other games in the series. The lack of analog control also makes fine movement very, very difficult at times. |
| 86 | ** Collecting gems requires you to destroy every single destructible crate in the level. In the first game, some levels require you to fully explore two paths in order to do this. Have fun backtracking with very little view of what's ahead! You also won't know until you finish the level whether you missed any. Good luck. Oh, and you have to finish the entire level without dying. |
| 87 | ** ''[[Videogame/CrashBandicoot2CortexStrikesBack Crash 2]]'' is only more forgiving in that they removed the "finish the level without dying" gem condition. To make up for it, the developers kept everything in from the first one...''and added more''. Branching paths? Have fun exploring them [[BlackoutBasement in the dark]], with bottomless pits everywhere! Secret levels? Be prepared to not only endure {{Platform Hell}} to get to them, but the levels themselves are brutal. Backtracking? Of course - and let's throw in a few levels where you not only have to backtrack, but you have to backtrack ''without dying''. {{Have A Nice Death}}! |
| 88 | ** ''[[VideoGame/CrashBandicoot3Warped Warped]]'' eased up on difficulty a bit, but still has plenty of challenges to throw at you. Of note is the new Time Trial mode, requiring you to finish the level within a certain amount of time to win a relic. Getting the Sapphire and even Gold isn't too tough, but if you want the Platinum relic you'll virtually have to speedrun the level. |
| 89 | ** ''VideoGame/CrashBandicootNSaneTrilogy'' mercifully made some difficult challenges a little easier, such as removing the no deaths requirement to earn a regular gem. However, it has plenty of difficulty all its own: The physics are now the same across all three games, making some challenges significantly harder than they once were, and Crash has a pill-shaped hitbox that can result in him slipping off of edges. Time Trials have been added to the first two games, bringing a whole new challenge to the already difficult games. Two new levels, Future Tense and Stormy Ascent were added as DLC, both extremely challenging... the latter of which was a dumied ''Crash 1'' level removed for being too difficult. ''Too difficult for the game that is generally considered the hardest in the series''. |
| 90 | * The ''VideoGame/{{Croc}}'' games for the [=PlayStation=] are more challenging than you'd think, mainly due to their camera angles and dodgy jumping. Oh and the enemies respawn a few seconds after you beat them. |
| 91 | * ''VideoGame/DewysAdventure'': Don't be fooled by the cute main character; the game will tear you apart if you mess around. Tons of bottomless pits, tough jumps, large groups of enemies, long levels and very low health pickups, and there are no checkpoints, meaning if you die once (Twice if you have the item which revives you when you die), you have to start the level all over again. Let us not even start on getting S ranks... |
| 92 | * ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'': |
| 93 | ** It might look gorgeous, and no sane player would expect a game about monkeys collecting [[FollowTheMoney bananas]] to be hard, but worlds 5 and 6 in the [[VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry1 first game]] cross the line rather quickly into NintendoHard. |
| 94 | ** [[PlatformHell The penultimate level and the bonus world, on the other hand...]] |
| 95 | ** ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryReturns'' upholds the tradition. You have to wonder if the universe seems to really hate gorillas after playing some of the temple levels. |
| 96 | * ''VideoGame/DrillDozer'', in which the game stars an adorable little girl with a little adorable robot with drills for arms...but to get 100%, you have to beat levels with platforming so hard you will cry. |
| 97 | * ''VideoGame/DynamiteHeaddy'' is bright and cartoonish, but only a little harder than you might expect, until it ramps up significantly during and after the flying world. The Nasty Gatekeeper (following the much easier normal Gatekeeper) is pretty much the definition of SurpriseDifficulty, with music to match. |
| 98 | ** That's the American/European version, by the way. The original Japanese version is still not easy, but the difficulty level is much more reasonable (and it gives you 3 continues by default). |
| 99 | *** The Japanese version has its own surprise difficulty (though technically more a DifficultySpike) in the form of Twin Freaks. It's already considered to be one of the hardest bosses in the American/European version, and has twice as much health in the Japanese version, ignoring a certain glitch. |
| 100 | * The ''VideoGame/EccoTheDolphin'' series stars a dolphin as the player character. This dolphin will die, many, many times, be it via drowning, sharks, angry telepathic DNA, alien technology, or a particularly murderous [[AutoScrollingLevel edge of the]] [[ScrappyLevel screen]]. |
| 101 | ** It also ramps up the difficulty for certain stages. When sharks were easily something you could dodge or fight, in "Open Ocean" they suddenly have a much more damaging attack and litter the entire screen. Near the end, scrolling stages occur. One being five minutes long. The Vortex Queen isn't easy either...and if you die or get eaten by the Vortex Queen? Back to the five minute long level. "Welcome To The Machine" will be burned into your retinas by the time you memorize it. |
| 102 | ** ''Tides of Time'' features the Skyway, a set of gorgeous mazes in water tubes high in the sky. Hope you like falling! ''Defender of the Future'' plays a loving homage to the Skyway with the Hanging Waters levels...breathtaking beauty and enraging difficulty and all. |
| 103 | ** Ecco was such a severe case of SurpriseDifficulty that a kid-friendly spinoff ''Ecco Jr.'' was eventually released, as an apology of sorts to all the children who asked their parents for "the cute dolphin game" only get their asses utterly kicked by the sadistic difficulty of the main series. |
| 104 | * '''''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. Though at least [[MeaninglessLives the extra lives system]] is extremely generous. |
| 105 | * ''VideoGame/GianaSistersTwistedDreams'' starts off as a simple cutesy platformer until a certain level where the game stops having mercy and forces the player to go through several segments full of spikes and devilish enemies specifically made to be only avoided with the DualWorldGameplay mechanic while the player still has to be careful with spikes and other hazards. |
| 106 | * The cute looks of ''VideoGame/Gimmick1992'' for the NES will disguise its tricky enemy and level design. It is actually even worse due to your main weapon being pathetic, and the character having a ''very'' annoying inertia. |
| 107 | * 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 Platform/PlayStation, prepare to be surprised. The game is a PlatformHell powered by NightmareFuel. |
| 108 | * ''VideoGame/HenryHatsworthInThePuzzlingAdventure'' is a fun little puzzle/platform hybrid that looks like your typical casual game at first glance, but the difficulty curve goes sharply up after the first world, with tricky platforming and tough bosses. The final world in particular contains some of the most challenging platformer gameplay out there, and beating the final boss is an achievement to brag about. And if you're playing [[NewGamePlus Gentleman Mode]], [[PlatformHell all bets are off]]. |
| 109 | * Okay, even if ''VideoGame/IWannaBeTheGuy'' is '''never''' considered to be a game for kids, it still fits this trope at least because the difficulty may get really ''surprising'' at times, thanks to the fact that EverythingIsTryingToKillYou. Even the things that are not obvious killers. ''Yet.'' ''IWBTG'' deserves some sort of prize in that, despite over-the-top ridiculous difficulty being the one thing the game is known for, it ''still'' manages to be surprisingly harder than whatever you were expecting when you started. |
| 110 | * ''VideoGame/JakAndDaxter'': |
| 111 | ** ''VideoGame/JakIIRenegade'': The [[VideoGame/JakAndDaxterThePrecursorLegacy previous game]] was quite easy few irritating locations notwithstanding, even on HundredPercentCompletion. While this game had higher age rating and much darker atmosphere from the beginning, replacing fairy-tale-like setting in favor of a dystopian future, it still might not be enough of a warning of how hard this game is - PlatformHell sequences (usually while you're being shot at) that are a norm rather than an exception, MarathonLevel races where one mistake costs you a win, missions that have to be done without dying because the counter of everything you need to take down gets reset upon death, numerous infinitely respawning enemies and the fact that most enemies kill you in 4 hits and you ''can't'' upgrade your health greatly contribute to it. And let's not speak of optional missions... |
| 112 | ** ''VideoGame/Jak3Wastelander'' also qualifies. after the easy platforming course that opens the game, you then have to complete a shotgun arena challenge against enemies with quick jump attacks that exceed your weapon's range. Oh, and the arena fills with lava, and you start with the base health amount, and your ammo doesn't refill when you die. Unless you ''just'' came off playing ''Jak II: Renegade'', it'll kick the pants off of even seasoned Jak players. |
| 113 | * ''[[VideoGame/CommanderKeen Keen Dreams]]'' - compared to the other games it's less violent and has a less urgent plot. Your raygun is replaced by flower-power, seeds that temporary turn enemies into flowers. It is one the hardest one of the Commander Keen series. The fact that you cannot kill your enemies permanently forces you to be very careful with your ammunition and play as fast as possible to avoid the enemies regenerating. You must effectivly do a SpeedRun and PacifistRun at once. (Only Commander Keen 5 is harder dispite your weapon beeing lethal, but the tougher enemies are simply invulnerable.) |
| 114 | * ''VideoGame/{{Kirby}}'': Generally, the games were made to be accessible to anyone, including kids and newcomers to gaming. So they're usually rather easy if attempting a casual playthrough. Trying to go for OneHundredPercentCompletion, [[NintendoHard on the other hand]]... |
| 115 | ** On standard difficulty, ''VideoGame/KirbysDreamLand'', the very first Kirby game, is very easy. However, if you enter the code to access the harder difficulty level, the game stops pulling punches. |
| 116 | ** ''VideoGame/KirbySuperStar'' has shorter stages and more bosses. The [[UpdatedRerelease DS version]] adds even ''more'' bosses and more [[BossRush boss rushes.]] |
| 117 | ** ''Nightmare in Dream Land'' lives up to its name, especially with how cheap the enemy respawns could be. And ''Nightmare in Dream Land'' is actually ''easier'' than ''VideoGame/KirbysAdventure'', of which it is a remake. |
| 118 | ** ''VideoGame/KirbysEpicYarn'' deserves a special mention because you ''literally cannot die'' in the game, you only lose beads. The difficulty lies in collecting all the beads needed to get a gold medal or even progress to the next levels. Also, the challenge levels can get fiendishly difficult. |
| 119 | ** ''VideoGame/KirbyAndTheAmazingMirror'' is one of the few cases where just beating the main game is harder than the extra stuff, mainly due to starting out with a low amount of health, enemies being placed in extremely dickish locations, and losing your copy ability after one hit from ''anything''. |
| 120 | ** Many ''Kirby'' games have a BossRush in them which can be horrible if you are not good with dodging the bosses' attacks, but that is nothing compared to the horror that is The True Arena, appearing in games following ''[[VideoGame/KirbySuperStar Kirby Super Star Ultra]]''. This is an even harder version of the first BossRush where the enemies have different, more powerful and harder-to-dodge attacks and finishes off with at least one {{Superboss}} which likely comes up after you are completely drained. |
| 121 | ** While the base game of ''VideoGame/KirbyStarAllies'' is considered fairly easy by ''Kirby'' standards (even when you're going for OneHundredPercentCompletion), the Wave 3 update introduced Heroes in Another Dimension and the Soul Melter EX difficulty of [[BossRush The Ultimate Choice]], which took it to the other extreme and are among the most ''difficult'' modes ever introduced in a ''Kirby'' game. |
| 122 | * The ''VideoGame/{{Klonoa}}'' games, even the GBA puzzle/platformers, start out incredibly easy and have a slow, gentle curve...until you reach the last couple of levels in each of them, at which point they become vicious one-way tickets to PlatformHell. And let's not even get to those [[BonusDungeon crazy secret hidden levels...]] |
| 123 | * ''VideoGame/TheLionKing'' is based on a Disney movie; this'll be easy, right? Well, remember the "Just Can't Wait To Be King" scene from the movie, with Simba jumping from animal to animal? Yep, that's a level in the game. It's as hard as you'd imagine. And it's ''level 2''. They get much worse from there. The following level contains 15-20 enemies that in many games would be mini-boss fights. And you can't save. |
| 124 | ** A viral case of someone discovering the game was hard, but for the wrong reasons [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIy1BwQJq6w is a YouTuber who played the PS5 re-release]] and failed because she showed a clearly unfamiliarity with both platformers and the intuitive design of the 90s - i.e. expecting a tutorial instead of the game's InstructiveLevelDesign. |
| 125 | * ''VideoGame/LittleBigPlanet'': Awww, it's a cute little sackboy! Aww, look at him running around with his tongue out! Aww...wait, impact explosives? With jetpacks? And falling stalactites? This isn't cute, this is cruel! You want me to fight bosses now? There weren't any bosses before! And what's this about [[ThatOneLevel a Bunker]]? |
| 126 | * The NES game ''VideoGame/LittleNemoTheDreamMaster''. Superficially, it looks like a children's game, but this was made by Capcom in the same era as ''VideoGame/MegaMan2'', and it shows. |
| 127 | * ''VideoGame/LocoRoco'''s cute and whimsical art direction masks its diabolically evil gameplay in the ''Midnight Carnival'' spinoff. |
| 128 | * ''VideoGame/MickeyMania''. As the name suggests, it's a Mickey Mouse game. It's also ridiculously difficult even on its easiest difficulty level. |
| 129 | * ''Mickey's Ultimate Challenge'': |
| 130 | ** Goofy's level where you have to guess which tools are in his toolbox à la ''Mastermind''. In Cake, any tools you guess in the proper position are highlighted green with any in the box but in the wrong place given a red "mouse" icon. Beginning with the second part of Medium and throughout Challenging, you are only given the number of tools in (marked by green "mouse" icons) and out of position. |
| 131 | ** Daisy's level also qualifies, particularly on Challenging. You are tasked to match portraits of Disney characters before the castle's torches burn out. As the castle gets darker, it gets harder to see the portraits. It's the only TimedMission in the game. |
| 132 | * ''VideoGame/{{Nefarious}}'' may be a game whose gimmick is that you're playing as the bad guy in the big machines fighting diminutive scrappy heroes, but that doesn't mean it will hold your hand. In a sense, this is [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in that you're going up against characters who regularly foil villains like Crow, so they shouldn't be pushovers. |
| 133 | * ''VideoGame/TheNewZealandStory'' is another cutesy Taito arcade platform game in the vein of ''Bubble Bobble'' or ''The Fairyland Story'' and starts off innocently enough... but then the levels become fiendish mazes full of SpikesOfDoom, water areas that give you a very strict time before [[SuperDrowningSkills drowning]] and enemies that countinuously pour out of portals that can appear anywhere. The Mega Drive version, based on an earlier ROM build, is even harder. |
| 134 | * ''[[VideoGame/NicktoonsUnite Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots]]'', though not as extreme as the other examples here, is another example of a kid-friendly game which might be too much for its intended target demographic, being pretty much a platformer DeathCourse. Thankfully, DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist there. Here, just look at the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCd-sfRQnQo penultimate]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG2cIWmTrLo stage]] (And look at the comments of the second part for a complaint about this trope). |
| 135 | * You are a blue alien out to save your race from being turned into meat snacks by the [[CorruptCorporateExecutive greedy corporate overlords]] that have taken over your planet. This is the general premise of ''[[VideoGame/{{Oddworld}} Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee]]'', and it sounds innocuous enough. However, once you realize that you are a OneHitPointWonder in a CrapsackWorld where [[EverythingTryingToKillYou just about everything wants you dead]], you'll quickly come to appreciate your unlimited supply of lives. It's hard enough just to play through the game normally. Trying to [[OneHundredPercentCompletion save all of the Mudokons]], though? Be prepared to be subjected to some of the most [[BrutalBonusLevel tortuously difficult secret areas imaginable]], most of which are [[GuideDangIt hidden in the most unintuitive places imaginable]]. Its sequel, ''Abe's Exoddus'', makes things ''slightly'' easier thanks to your ability to work with more than one Mudokon at a time, but it makes up for it by introducing dozens of new and fun ways to get eaten, chopped into pieces, blown to bits, and oh-so-many other creative ways of enacting your demise. |
| 136 | * ''VideoGame/{{Plok}}''. You play as a sentient pile of clothing who could RocketPunch, and the graphics were really cutesy. The title character took very few hits to die, the ''enemies'' had MercyInvincibility, and many of them were {{Kung Fu Proof Mook}}s. The bosses weren't exactly a walk in the park either (the first, a DualBoss, was already quite tough). There were also quite a lot of traps and spikes in the game that were hard to traverse... And then you get to the last world...which is ''[[FakeDifficulty wall-to-wall]] InterfaceScrew''. |
| 137 | * The end of ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}''. The very last section of the game has the difficulty curve surge upwards like crazy. |
| 138 | ** Here, have a rising lava level, jumping between awkward platforms with this game's finicky and awkward controls; a level style which had previously been avoided in the game. Surprise! |
| 139 | * ''Videogame/RabiRibi'' may have a cast of {{Little Bit Beastl|y}}ies, including a bunny girl and her fairy companion as the {{Player Character}}s, but don't let that fool you. The bosses are more than happy to subject you to elaborate BulletHell patterns that will cause you to see the GameOver screen many times. In a PlatformGame, so you also have to factor in gravity. Oh, and the game can be [[NewGamePlus looped]] and/or played on unlockable HarderThanHard difficulties if you want even more danger and more thrills! |
| 140 | * The first few levels of ''VideoGame/{{Rayman}}'' are pretty easy. Then you reach Band Land and your whole world goes straight to hell. Suddenly the levels require dead-on precision and reflexes just to survive, [[LeapOfFaith Leaps of Faith]] to find [[MacGuffin MacGuffens]] required to advance the game, and those frigging ''[[DemonicSpiders grasshoppers]]''. Even if you have 99 lives through cheats or some other method, expect to be down at least 25 by the time you finish. |
| 141 | ** An even better example comes in the little-known edutainment spinoff ''Rayman Brain Games''. As an edutainment game, you'd think it would be laughably easy, as is par for the genre. That's the kind of thinking that gets you killed, as this game intended for young children somehow, in some freakish way, manages to be ''even harder than the already [[NintendoHard notoriously difficult]] original'', at times bordering on PlatformHell. Sadly, this is mainly due to copious amounts of FakeDifficulty rather than genuine challenge, like being expected to react to hazards suddenly blinking in out of nowhere with inhuman reflexes. Still, it makes you wonder what the hell they were smoking when [[WhatDoYouMeanItsForKids they thought this was appropriate for young grade-school children]]. |
| 142 | * ''VideoGame/RocketKnightAdventures'' and its sequel ''Sparkster'' were surprisingly tricky for their level of cutesiness as well. |
| 143 | * ''VideoGame/RugratsRoyalRansom'' will smack you upside the head with how much of a deceptively difficult game it is for a game based on such a kid-friendly series as ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}''. The game's a cakewalk on the easiest difficulty and fairly challenging but still doable on the medium difficulty. The hardest difficulty, fittingly called "Reptar Tough"? You'll want to take the advice of Tommy Pickles himself and hold on to your diapie, baby, because you're in for several floors of ''pure, unadulterated PlatformHell''. |
| 144 | * ''VideoGame/ShantaeHalfGenieHero'': The normal game follows fairly standard difficulty progression, but the Beach Mode DLC drastically ups the difficulty thanks to the inclusion of the sunburn timer. The second boss becomes a WakeUpCallBoss that will shred you and need many, many retries to beat. Not helped by having to put up with [[LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading *two* loading screens every time you get killed]] (one to load "Game Over", one to load the boss stage again). |
| 145 | * ''VideoGame/TheSimpsonsBartVsTheSpaceMutants'' for NES. Maybe nowadays you're not surprised it's NintendoHard since it's a primitive NES platformer, but back then you really expected at least some leniency out of a game based on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''. Nope, it's one of the hardest games on a platform famous for hard games. |
| 146 | * ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed'', especially the final zone, Eggmanland, seems to fall into this trope. Players tend to look at the ESRB rating (E10+) and assume, then are surprised when the game rips them a new one. Bear in mind that ''Sonic Unleashed'' has a WorldTour theme, with every stage bearing a close resemblance to real-life locations, with the exception of Eggmanland. Sonic may be running across landscapes resembling Rome or Brooklyn pretty enough for postcards, but the platforming is still jarringly unforgiving. This is even more so with the Adventure Pack DLC stages, [[BrutalBonusLevel which raise the difficulty to the highest the series has ever seen]]...while still looking incredibly scenic. |
| 147 | ** ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog4: Part 1'' is bizarrely difficult. The first level is not hard at all, but the remaining three are. Specifically there is a part of the [[CasinoPark Casino Street Zone]] (Casinos are usually {{Breather Level}}s in ''Sonic'' games) where you have to jump across a set of moving cards that stay flat for a second then go vertical, so you fall to your death. The problem with this is that there are far too many of these and you'd have to have sheer luck in order to jump them all. |
| 148 | ** ''VideoGame/SonicLostWorld'' stands alongside ''Unleashed'' as one of the more surprisingly difficult games in the series. Compounded with a completely new physics and control system that [[DamnYouMuscleMemory will mess up those who have played any of the previous game]], and you've got an exercise in frustration in the making. The very cartoonish and colorful art style compared to the previous games doesn't help. |
| 149 | ** ''VideoGame/SonicMania'' has difficulty on par with the classic 16-bit games it was based on, which can be jarring for those who didn't grow up playing them. In particular, most of the game's stage design punishes anyone who tries to blindly rush forward. Even for those who did grow up with these games, ''Sonic Mania'' will still put up a fight and never let up. |
| 150 | * ''Franchise/SpyroTheDragon'': While the second installment of these series is comparatively easy (unless you go for Skill Points), the first and the third parts aren't actually to be beaten to 100% and higher status by children under 10. The starting moments may be easy (although some players may be gameovered in the first worlds), but sidequests and hidden walls/areas may become a pain in the ass (unless you know them all thoroughly). Several enemies may also become these, and again, their attacks are easy to avoid if you've played this game a lot before. But no matter how experienced may you be on these, there are also ''flights'' to be beaten... |
| 151 | * The little-known Dreamcast game ''Super Magnetic Neo''. It involves playing with a cutesy robot with magnetic powers having platforming adventures and taking on a bunch of cartoony villains led by a baby. Sounds simple enough, right? However, since it's [[FollowTheLeader inspired by]] the ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot'' games (the Naughty Dog games, mind you)...you better prepare to suffer. |
| 152 | * ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' series: |
| 153 | ** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBrosTheLostLevels''. The series isn't known for easy games, but one theory has this game not released internationally outside of Japan at first because of its difficulty, more than it being a MissionPackSequel. Please note that this is an NES game, so that difficulty is in comparison to the ''original'' NintendoHard games! At the beginning of the game there's [[InfiniteOneUps an easy method to get over 100 lives]]. ''You will need them all.'' |
| 154 | ** Don't let the bright and colorful graphics, along with characters appealing to kids, fool you in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'', ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2'' and ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine''. They have lots of surprise challenges/obstacles that throw off even the most hardened platform gamers. The most famous ones are the challenges presented by the green lumas in ''Galaxy'' and a few of the sub-levels in Delfino Plaza in ''Sunshine'' and of course the FakeDifficulty that is the Green Star hunt in ''Galaxy 2''. |
| 155 | ** Nobody who hasn't played the game would suspect that [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvZWxiUfrNo this]] vocal-only version of the original SMB track is the one used on the most fiendishly evil levels of ''Sunshine''. Even worse is that, unlike in most levels of the 3D ''Mario'' games, they're mandatory! Oh, and you have to do them twice each for 100%. |
| 156 | *** At least during the return attempts, you have FLUDD back. Part of the challenge comes from your first attempt being without that hovering ability you've probably been taking for granted up until now. |
| 157 | *** And you will need FLUDD's help for those return attempts, for the additional challenge is a collect-the-coin challenge, [[TimedMission timed]]. And the timer isn't [[OverlyGenerousTimeLimit generous]]. |
| 158 | ** There's also the classic 2D Mario games, which usually started off easy enough but got insanely difficult as you went along, even though some people underestimate them (and the series as a whole) for being "kiddy". |
| 159 | *** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'' gets downright ''heinous'' in [[NintendoHard the last few worlds]], largely due to much trickier platforming that absolutely will send you plummeting to your death unless your jumps are timed perfectly. And that's not even getting into enemy placement and platforms that are spaced farther and farther apart, requring wider jumps and/or a feather cape. |
| 160 | ** Getting through the final world of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros3'' is a true test of [[TheDeterminator will]] and [[RageQuit patience]]. |
| 161 | *** That is provided [[PipeMaze World 7]] doesn't destroy you first. Nine stages. Nine DIFFICULT stages, and two of the most devilishly evil fortresses in the game. World 7 has no [[BreatherLevel breathers]], it starts off tricky and only escalates from there. |
| 162 | ** Most players just can't make it through world 8 of the original ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1''. The later worlds in general are filled with a larger number of enemies, wider pits that demand ''pitch'' perfect jumps not to fall into, and sound-based puzzles requiring guesswork and memorization to solve and progress through some levels. |
| 163 | ** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey'' starts out fairly easy and lackadaisy, but after you beat the final boss, things change as the new Moons are now much more fiendish to acquire. In particular, the final level of the game, Darker Side, is a marathon gauntlet that lasts over ten minutes, challenges you on almost all of the Captures in the game, and has no checkpoints. |
| 164 | * ''Super VideoGame/MeatBoy'': The aesthetic is cute, but it's UglyCute, and the game will make you ''feel'' like a piece of meat that's been put through the grinder. |
| 165 | * For games based on a children's cartoon series, ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'' had tons of games that, while averting TheProblemWithLicensedGames, are still notorious for their difficulties. |
| 166 | ** The 1991 [[Platform/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]]. |
| 167 | ** The sequel, ''Trouble in Wackyland'' is comparatively easier for the most part. It helps that that game has a three-heart health bar. However, while Plucky, Hamton, and Furrball's levels are fairly easy to get through, Babs' level, which involves an out-of-control roller coaster, requires a great amount of memorization of when to jump, duck, and flip the car to get through. |
| 168 | ** ''[[VideoGame/TinyToonAdventuresBustersHiddenTreasure Buster's Hidden Treasure]]'' for the Platform/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]]. |
| 169 | ** The first Platform/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. |
| 170 | ** ''[[VideoGame/TinyToonAdventuresBusterBustsLoose Buster Busts Loose]]'' for the [[Platform/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]]... |
| 171 | ** ''[[VideoGame/TinyToonAdventuresBustersBadDream Scary Dreams/Buster's Bad Dream]]'' for the Platform/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. |
| 172 | * ''Videogame/{{Tomba}}!/Tombi!'' for the [=PS1=]. You play as a pink haired dwarf who lives in a colorful world filled with psychotic pigs and carnivorous venus fly traps. Typically Japanese right? Well, it is in other aspects too - it often relies on timing to get somewhere without being killed, you need certain items (which you equip like an RPG), your life goes down very easily, and there are many occasions where the 2.5D of the game makes it look as if you can go somewhere you can't from that angle, leading to frustration. |
| 173 | * ''VideoGame/ToyStory'': You'd expect something not too hard for a game based on a children's film. But the game takes NintendoHard to entirely new levels. Even with savestates, it's hard. (It wasn't that easy on the Gameboy either.) |
| 174 | * ''VideoGame/UmiharaKawase'' is a loveable platformer that was based on a surprisingly good physics engine (before Havok was even a concept) involving a rubber fishing line that functions like a GrapplingHookPistol. Up through Field 5, it's pretty straightforward. Field 6 ramps up the difficulty a bit. Pretty much any field thereafter skyrockets into ''completely bonkers'' levels of NintendoHard: A level where you have to grapple across a ceiling to get to the exit...interspersed with patches of ceiling ''that your hook won't stick to''. A boss fight in which you have to grapple your way ''under the stage'' to dodge him, then get back up before his tadpoles nibble you to death...''five times'' (before he self-destructs, you can't hurt him). Levels loaded with (sometimes ''unkillable'') GoddamnBats. Levels with ''[[BottomlessPits no floor]]'' beneath you as you frantically grapple your way to the end. All of this ''[[TimedMission on a timer]]''. This is probably the only game in history to give the player 10 lives to ''start'' with and have it considered ''stingy''. And the ironic thing is that after you get past the learning curve, you realise that all those bits are the ''easy'' parts. Seriously. They're fun. It gets harder. |
| 175 | * ''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 Shake 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. |
| 176 | * ''VideoGame/TheWizardOfOz'' for [[Platform/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem SNES]]. [[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.]] |
| 177 | * ''VideoGame/YoshisIsland DS''. It's a sequel to one of the best loved platform games of all time...and brings back one of the nastier elements: its insane secret level difficulty. Worlds 1 to 3 are fairly easy. World 4 amplifies it. World 5 is a difficulty brick wall, with more spikes in the last two castles than probably the rest of the game proceeding it. Then you get the secret and extra levels. World 4's is doable. World 1 and 2's trap you and force Yoshi to die for every minor mistake, and have [[CheckpointStarvation nigh-on zero checkpoints]]. Worlds 3 and 5's...are PlatformHell incarnate, and you'll need the huge lives stockpile you've collected after a few choice sections cost you fifty or so lives in quick succession. |
| 178 | ** The game that started it on the SNES isn't any different either. The game starts off very simple and the crayon-styled graphics may lure players into thinking it's a game meant for babies, but around halfway through the game, the difficulty shoots up greatly as you have to deal with tricky gap crossing using a power up or Yoshi's floaty jump or trying to avoid nothing but spikes, which is [[SpikesOfDoom instant death]]. Going for OneHundredPercentCompletion? The extra levels in each world will make you hurl your controller and swear at a game that just looks too damn cute to be swearing at. |
| 179 | [[/folder]] |
| 180 | |
| 181 | [[folder:Puzzle]] |
| 182 | * ''VideoGame/AngryBirds'' is a game where you fling cute birds into structures to topple them over and squash cute pigs inside. Good luck getting a three-star ranking, you'll need it. |
| 183 | * ''VideoGame/{{Audiosurf}}'' is an interesting case. While you may be able to guess that some tracks will be hard when loaded up in the game, sometimes you get a nasty surprise thrown your way and what you thought would be an easy run turns out to be much harder than you thought it would be. |
| 184 | ** One weird example of something harder than expected is loading up a file of just white or pink noise. The game procedurally generates the level based on the rhythm of the music, but because white noise has little information to distinguish the 'easy' from the 'hard' parts of the song, the algorithm makes ''everything'' difficult. |
| 185 | * The obscure Playstation title ''The Bombing Islands''. Most people would start laughing at the ridiculously cheesy theme song (not to mention that the player character is a freaking ''clown''). Then about 10 levels into the game, watch and be amazed as that same laughter transforms into [[NintendoHard tears of agony]]. |
| 186 | * ''VideoGame/CandyCrushSaga'': A colorful little game about matching candies that starts off as so easy a kid can play it...and then progresses to more and more infuriating puzzles that seem to have been devised by Satan himself. Double-layered jelly and chocolate squares? The. Devil's. Work. This is because it's an AllegedlyFreeGame and the developers want you to [[BribingYourWayToVictory spend money to advance]]. |
| 187 | ** This carries over to other games made by the same developers. For example, ''Farm Heroes Saga'', a game with cute fruits and farm animals, also have way too many {{Luck Based Mission}}s or levels with sadistically unreasonable goals that are nigh impossible to fulfill . |
| 188 | * ''VideoGame/ChipsChallenge'': You'd think a game that looks like it was created in 10 minutes with MS Paint wouldn't be all that hard. Then you get past the tutorial levels, and just like that the game turns into the puzzle equivalent of PlatformHell. Fan-generated level packs are even worse, as they pulling off stunts that are usually considered ''illegal'' (like hiding traps and objects ''underneath floor tiles''). |
| 189 | * The GBA puzzle game ''Denki Blocks!'' has very cute graphics, cute music, cute player characters and cute opponents. However, it's [[NintendoHard incredibly hard]]. As soon as you get past the third of eight opponents, you '''will''' fail. A lot. |
| 190 | * The ''VideoGame/DrBrain'' series is obviously full of challenging puzzles. Where this trope comes into play is when you change the difficulty level. A puzzle which was fairly straightforward on easy might become a bit harder but still a reasonable challenge when you turn the difficulty up to medium, or it might have you tearing your hair out in frustration. |
| 191 | ** For a specific example, the algebra microscope in ''The Island of Dr Brain'' is a piece of cake on easy, but is ThatOnePuzzle on anything harder. |
| 192 | * ''VideoGame/{{Dweep}}'' is a colorful, cute, non-violent game about an adorable furball. It also requires some ''seriously'' heavy-duty thinking -- especially in the expansion pack levels. |
| 193 | * Look at the cute little jelly in ''VideoGame/{{Jelly No Puzzle}}''! It's small and cubic and smiley and adorable! And it will constantly be marooned off from its friends on your quest to make it join up with all other jellies of the same colour. This time, the undo button only undoes a few moves before disappearing. |
| 194 | * ''VideoGame/KulaWorld''. Roll a beachball to the end of a 2.5D level, jumping, avoiding enemies and collecting keys along the way. Seems simple enough. There are MANY levels (154) and they get harder as they go along. The fact you can only save every 5 levels doesn't help. |
| 195 | * ''VideoGame/{{Lemmings}}''. By the middle of the Taxing section your brain will ache. Mayhem will have you punching walls. |
| 196 | ** The sequel ''Oh No More Lemmings!'' is more of the same, even harder, and with a much sharper difficult curve (the levels suddenly jump from stupidly easy to stupidly hard and don't let up). |
| 197 | ** ''Lemmings 2''. We have given you a hopper, two canoeists and a pole-vaulter. The exit is on the other side of a solid wall. Good luck. |
| 198 | * ''VideoGame/LogicalJourneyOfTheZoombinis'' is an educational game for kids, but the puzzles on harder difficulty levels can leave even grown-ups frustrated, especially the Very, Very Hard versions of [[ThatOneLevel Hotel Dimensia and Lion's Lair]]. |
| 199 | * ''VideoGame/NancyDrew: The Curse of Blackmoor Manor''. Oh, it's a licensed game marketed to tweens, it must be pathetic...Wait, what's that noise? Did the walls just ''move''? And why are there [[DoorRoulette six doors out of the room]]? ''(takes another step)'' Oh, God, it's moving again! ''(looks back)'' Wait, that's not the door I entered through! Where the f*k am I supposed to go?! |
| 200 | ** The Nancy Drew games in general tend to invoke this trope. Other infamous game puzzles include a ''massive'' [[GridPuzzle nonogram]] puzzle in ''Shadow at the Water's Edge'' and a deceptively frustrating game called Fox and Geese in ''White Wolf of Icicle Creek.'' |
| 201 | * What's this ''Nyet III''? ...oh, it looks like a harmless little ''VideoGame/{{Tetris}}'' clone with pre-made puzzles. I've done this kind of thing a hundred times, so this should be... wait, why are the blocks stopping in mid-air? Why do blocks keep popping in out of nowhere? Why are lines suddenly moving around on the screen? ''Why does it cost eighty in-game dollars just to freaking SAVE?!'' And this, my friends, is only the ''tip'' of this iceberg of madness, which is about the closest thing to PlatformHell that you'll ever find in a ''Tetris'' game. Just ask [[WebVideo/RosssGameDungeon Ross Scott]], who reviewed the game [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG0ANGRwSl8 here]]. The version he was using also had an extra layer of difficulty in that ''it quit to desktop automatically every time he failed a puzzle''. |
| 202 | * ''VideoGame/PanelDePon'', ''[[VideoGame/PanelDePon Tetris Attack]]'', and ''[[VideoGame/PanelDePon Pokémon Puzzle League]]''. Cute characters, relaxing music, a simple enough concept...and then Hard mode throws you for a loop. Even that's nothing compared to the hidden HarderThanHard difficulty. It's also known for one of the highest skill floors in all of puzzle games, demanding that you not only know how to chain but also to actively extend your chain while it is still popping off. |
| 203 | * The fan-created ''VideoGame/PortalPrelude''. ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' was fun and funny, and lots of people downloaded it out of love for the original game. What the developers didn't bother to mention was that it should have been named ''Portal: Makes NintendoHard Look Like A Cakewalk''. There was so much [[http://www.portalprelude.com/2008/10/about-difficulty.php outrage]] that the developer begrudgingly released a patch that makes the mod slightly easier. Despite continued requests to make the mod easier for everyone, he has said he will not reduce the difficulty anymore. |
| 204 | * ''VideoGame/{{Pushmo}}'': Push blocks in and out to get to the top. It sounds simple but some puzzles are deviously hard. |
| 205 | * The cute characters and vibrant settings in ''VideoGame/PuyoPuyo'' look like they came right out of a cartoon aimed at little kids, especially once Creator/{{SEGA}} took over. Make no mistake, however--not only is the single-player usually of a pretty high difficulty[[note]]A particular Puyo-themed boss in ''VideoGame/SonicMania'' had the AI's competence turned way down, and it is still infamous for its difficulty[[/note]], the series has gained quite a competitive scene, and there is a serious push for its presence in ''[=eSports=]''. Many players will go online, expect a fun time, only to realize that, relative to the opponent who's about to initiate a 12-chain, ''they have no idea what the hell they are doing''. And that such opponents are ''the usual fare'' in ranked modes. |
| 206 | * ''VideoGame/Shivers1995 II: Harvest of Souls'' fits this trope more than NintendoHard, unlike its predecessor. Puzzles range from the dead simple "fit tiles into shape" puzzle, to the notorious "fixed moves you can make to match all colored marbles in their correct spots" puzzle in the Warehouse. There are more easier puzzles than harder ones, but I guarantee the "Solve Puzzle" feature will be used more than once on a first play. |
| 207 | * Aww, look at the cute little snakebird in ''VideoGame/{{Snakebird}}''! It's flat cel-shaded and adorable and eats fruit! And it will die, die, die, get stuck, die, die, get stuck, kill its companion, die, die, get stuck, die, be unable to reach a fruit, die, get stuck, die, die, and [[OverlyLongGag die]] on your quest to make it eat all the fruit and get to the exit. Thank goodness for the undo button. |
| 208 | * Aww, look at the adorable little guy called Stephen with the giant fork and sausages in ''VideoGame/StephensSausageRoll''! It's small and low-poly and holding a giant fork and adorable! And the sausages will get burnt, get burnt, get lost, get stuck, burnt, lost, stuck, stuck, burnt, stuck, and [[OverlyLongGag lost]] on your quest to grill all the sausages and get back to the level's start. Thank goodness for the undo button. |
| 209 | * ''VideoGame/SuperMonkeyBall'' features cute monkeys in hamster balls. It's also NintendoHard on Expert mode, especially the first game with its stages that force you to maneuver the ball across curved paths that's half as wide as the diameter of the ball. And on a timer that's never longer than 60 seconds per floor (level). And to get HundredPercentCompletion and unlock Master, you need to complete all of Expert (50 floors) and Expert Extra (10 more floors) [[ContinuingIsPainful without using a continue]]. In the first game, you also only get 3 lives (plus one for [[LawOfOneHundred every 100 bananas]] you collect) before you have to continue. |
| 210 | * ''VideoGame/TrashPanic'' is a cartoonish game where you smash garbage off of other garbage to break it up so the bin doesn't fill up. Simple right? The game's own demo has a time limit that obscures how tough the game is by ending the run early. However, actually finishing the levels of the full version is brutally hard; the garbage just keeps coming. You can burn garbage (bad for your Eco score), but if you burn or otherwise destroy valuable trash, your bin will overflow with penalty garbage. Not to mention the boss garbage, but even the Sweets (beginner) course which doesn't feature it is still pretty hard, even though the game has no limit on continues. |
| 211 | * ''VideoGame/TheUnfinishedSwan'' has the forest, which is suddenly [[BlackoutBasement very dark]] and has spiders that will kill you if you [[DarknessEqualsDeath aren't near any light]]. Aside from drowning or falling into a pit, this is the only other way you can die. |
| 212 | * ''VideoGame/ZackAndWiki'' looks like a kid-friendly adventure game that stars a young pirate and his pet monkey. It's actually an insanely tough puzzle game. Rues the parent who purchased this one for their six-year-old. |
| 213 | [[/folder]] |
| 214 | |
| 215 | [[folder:Racing]] |
| 216 | * ''Videogame/CrashTeamRacing'' is even more difficult than ''VideoGame/MarioKart'' due to its complex boost mechanics[[labelnote:*]]Where in Mario Kart all you have to do is drift for a while to boost, in CTR you have to hit the opposite button with the correct timing in order to gain a boost, up to three times per drift. Wait too long and you won't boost at all, but you need to get as close to the end as possible for the largest boost. And if you drift too long without boosting, you'll spin out entirely. So, that adds some challenge, but isn't too bad right? Well, there are also "reserves". As you boost, you'll fill reserves that allow you to maintain your speed until you run out. Including the speed from turbo pads and super turbo pads that are faster than a drift boost. So, to perform optimally, you need to keep your reserves full ''all the time'', which means you basically need to always be drifting and chaining together perfectly timed boosts, while avoiding hazards and power-ups.[[/labelnote]], though fortunately the AI isn't too fast, and they can't use some of the more powerful items like the Warp Orb or Clock. The bosses, however, are a different story. Pinstripe and Oxide in particular are very fast and are constantly spamming power-ups, making it very difficult to catch back up if they get ahead of you. Oxide even [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard jumps the gun]] at the beginning of the race, preventing you from getting an early lead! And you ''will'' need to master the game to beat the time trial ghosts[[labelnote:*]] Recordings of highly skilled developer runs through the time trials on each track with no power-ups to help you. [[/labelnote]] and earn platinum relics[[labelnote:*]] A mode similar to time trial with crates placed all around the track you need to hit to freeze the timer. Sapphire and gold relics aren't too hard, but platinum usually requires you to miss no crates while maintaining speed at all times. [[/labelnote]]. [[VideoGame/CrashTeamRacingNitroFueled The remake]] adds even more challenge, adding a hard AI that can keep up with highly skilled players, and introducing online play where you'll often find yourself up against masters of the game, not to mention that there are now extra DLC tracks that are often challenging in their own right.[[labelnote:*]]Even Gingerbread Joyride, a festive, jolly food-made track, is tough since it has tight turns, two shortcuts that require boosting to pull off, and [[DemonicSpider two sumo jellies]] that get in the way.[[/labelnote]] |
| 217 | * ''VideoGame/DiddyKongRacing'', period. It's meant for kids, but getting HundredPercentCompletion in that game is something no kid could possibly hope to do, or even come close. |
| 218 | ** It was harder on the N64. They toned it down a lot in the DS remake. |
| 219 | * ''VideoGame/GranTurismo'' has license tests. National B and A can be challenging but the International C (Only on 2 and 5), B and A will give you a hard time. Super License will make you destroy your controller because it's not just a small part of the track, ''it's a full time trial''. And God help you on 4... |
| 220 | ** And if just finishing the test isn't enough for you, try collecting all gold. [[DiscOneNuke It pays off though...]] |
| 221 | * ''VideoGame/MarioKart'' in general falls under this trope. A racing game with bright and colorful graphics and a wacky cast of characters will lull players in a false sense of "This is so damn easy and childish" until they encounter the AI pulling the best items out of their ass time and time again to screw the player over or playing with people who are actually really good at the game and know how to use items effectively against others. The fact that much of it is FakeDifficulty due to RubberBandAI doesn't help. |
| 222 | * ''Mickey's Racing Adventure'' for the GBC. To fight a boss, you had to solve a sliding block puzzle with AT LEAST over one hundred moves required and a time limit. Add on rubberbanding and other cheating, the mixing of everybody's most hated game styles from the "flip around the track tiles while the train is on the track so it doesn't crash" to "dig up blade of grass to find coins" to Pac-Man converted into super mega hard mode with the possibility of crushing to attempting 3D tracks in 2D, endless {{MacGuffin}}s, glitches, unavoidable obstacles, not even to mention some of the worst graphics and writing in any game. And this is supposed to be a kid's game. |
| 223 | |
| 224 | [[/folder]] |
| 225 | |
| 226 | [[folder:Real-Time Strategy]] |
| 227 | * RealTimeStrategy games in general have a very common bit of Surprise Difficulty when players used to multiplayer jump into a game against AI bots. Not even counting [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard explicitly coded "enhancements"]], game-controlled AI is able to multitask and micromanage in ways that no human could match. So, maybe the computer isn't coded to explicitly know the most efficient build to ramp up to the top-tier units and instead ends up spamming mid-tier units that are typically skipped because they're AwesomeButImpractical; then all of a sudden these things that are skipped because they need such fine-tuning that they distract you from other priorities perfectly synch up abilities and you end up with an entire army/team locked down, out of power or outright dead, and those impractical units go on to crush your base before you can rebuild. |
| 228 | ---- |
| 229 | * ''VideoGame/DefenseOfTheAncients'': Oh that ranged carry (often Drow Ranger) looks ''so'' easy. All they have to do is just right click and boom. Then you get surprised as you're subsequently trashed with them. Compared to ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'', carries in ''Defense of the Ancients'' and ''VideoGame/HeroesOfNewerth'' are ''MORE'' item-dependent. |
| 230 | ** Drow Ranger gets more damage if no enemy heroes are 400 units near of her. Considering there are alot of items to initiate and alot of heroes than can close the distance, this can be very hard to keep the distance. You can prevent that with a Shadow Blade of Blink Dagger, but dusts and sentries will spot you and Blink Dagger is immediately on cooldown for 3 seconds everytime an enemy hero hits you. |
| 231 | * The bots in ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends''. It's not uncommon to see people assume that since it's a bot game, they'll just dink around or that the other players wouldn't mind someone sabotaging the game. Except that only a few people seem to realize that bots are much better farmers than players are, it's impossible to stop them from farming, and that they receive items on a ''timer'' rather than having to actually ''buy'' them. So if you're stuck on a team full of players who prefer to just run laps around the map or play around thinking "Free win!", they'll wind up surprised when they're facing champions with thousands of HP and tons of armor on top of godlike reflexes, focus-firing skills, and crowd control. |
| 232 | ** Not to mention, if one doesn't entirely know what they're in for, they might be surprised on playing a champion to find that they're harder than they look. |
| 233 | ** Two words: Annie Bot. Here's a bot controlling a character whose entire playstyle is based on stunning you and offloading 3 high damage spells as fast as possible, with instant reflexes and impossible aim, and it gains free items that are always one step ahead of the player. Magic resist defeats this, but for the many players that don't want to sacrifice their damage to buy some defense, she is their worst nightmare. |
| 234 | ** Trundle Bot also manages to place that stupid environmental hazard ''in the worst possible spots''. |
| 235 | ** Some players see a champion, either an ally who beats enemies up or are pummeled into oblivion by a champion (Usually a carry or assassin) and think they're easy. Then they realize that it's not that easy. |
| 236 | *** Note that this is usually because the champion seen has a very hard early and/or late phase (in exchange for an easy late and/or early phase), requires very specific items, requires lots of farm and/or enemy kills to get enough gold for their expensive items, requires very good map awareness and/or guesswork of enemy locations, requires very deep understanding of their skills and abilities or any combination of the above. It is quite easy to find first time users of such champions failing very, very hard. |
| 237 | * ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies2ItsAboutTime'' is a rather hilarious/cartoony casual tower defence game just like [[VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies its predecessor]]. Unlike the first game, PVZ 2's difficulty is ''far'' greater. Several Zombies can easily destroy or disable even the toughest defensive plants, or have very irritating and dangerous abilities. Then there's worlds like [[ThatOneLevel Big Wave Beach, Jurassic Marsh, and Modern Day]] with world-specific mechanics that will make you tear your hair out. And then there's the extra levels for each world, which pretty much ''require'' leveled-up plants if you even want some semblance of moderate difficulty with them. |
| 238 | [[/folder]] |
| 239 | |
| 240 | [[folder:Rhythm]] |
| 241 | * ''VideoGame/{{Aikatsu}}'' is easier than most examples above, but the game itself is not a cakewalk despite the cute characters and lighthearted premise, especially for fans who watched the anime adaptation first. The just-as-strict timing judgements and quick timing events will make careless players fail. It gets worse with ''VideoGame/AikatsuPhotoOnStage'', its mobile game adaptation with gameplay and difficulty on par with ''VideoGame/{{Jubeat}}''. |
| 242 | * ''VideoGame/CoolCoolToon'' has a very childish premise of a child following a pink rabbit into a cartoon world where all problems are solved by dancing, and the first few levels are appropriately easy, but there's a DifficultySpike at chapter 4, while chapters 5 and 6 are absolutely brutal, with tricky patterns that require you to move back and forth between many parts of the Flitz Ring, which is nearly impossible to do without perfectly memorizing everything. Any actual child who attempts these later levels is likely to be very frustrated. |
| 243 | * ''VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution''. |
| 244 | ** Hottest Party still caught a few gamers off guard who thought they knew the series and didn't read the instructions. And even the instructions don't tell you exactly how you're supposed to swing the Wii Mote and trying to figure out what do do with your hands easily messes up your steps. Added gimmick steps didn't help either. |
| 245 | ** Songs by jun as of recent. Yes, Silver Dream may be a pretty happy song, until you realize that it's a level ten boss song on expert. |
| 246 | ** Disney DDR. Should be a cakewalk, right? Admittedly, the songs aren't ''that'' terrible, but some of them ("Nobody's Perfect" by Miley Cyrus comes to mind) seem to be a lot harder than you'd expect from a Disney-themed DDR game. |
| 247 | ** Some first-time players have a perception that, since [=DDR=] doesn't punish you for hitting an arrow when not prompted, that must mean you can get a "good enough" score by [[PacManFever randomly stomping around not paying attention to the screen]] and are surprised when it doesn't work. The technical explanation for this is there is a large "Almost" timing window that triggers if you hit an arrow with poor timing; even if the arrow is hit again, the poorly-timed hit (which drains health) has already applied. |
| 248 | * ''VideoGame/EliteBeatAgents'' and ''VideoGame/OsuTatakaeOuendan''. Who would have guessed a QuirkyWork about dancing secret agents and male cheerleaders with AnimeHair could be so ''difficult?'' (Curse you, Canned Heat!) |
| 249 | ** Difficult doesn't cut it. The final level on easy is difficult, requiring ''at least'' three tries to do even somewhat well. The final level on hard difficulty will make your hand blur, your vision go fuzzy, and your loved ones begin thinking about staging an intervention. And Hard is about halfway up the difficulty levels. |
| 250 | ** And if the official games didn't make you cry enough, then ''[[http://osu.ppy.sh/ osu!]]'' '''will'''. |
| 251 | * Ooh, ''VideoGame/GitarooMan''! It has all the things we've come to expect from an [=iNiS=] game: an odd premise, some awesome music...and hand-crushing difficulty. This game ''will'' give you thumb cramps on the harder levels. |
| 252 | * ''VideoGame/GuitarHero''. Not all the really hard songs have titles like "Raining Blood" or "Hangar 18". Some of the nastiest songs are innocent sounding names like "[[Music/TheAllmanBrothersBand Jessica]]" or "[[WebAnimation/HomeStarRunner Trogdor]]". Be especially wary when there is no bassline, only two guitars. |
| 253 | * ''[[Videogame/HarmoKnight HarmoKnight]]'' is meant to be a fun, happy game for the Platform/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]]]]!) |
| 254 | * ''VideoGame/HatsuneMikuProjectDIVA'' stars Music/{{Vocaloid}} Hatsune Miku, one of the best-known {{moe}} icons, and her friends. Despite the cute characters, however, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VabLZHZPgvc This]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rto9SKdrE04 game]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUVyFSOb2WA is]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKeXb5hYrQk HARD]]. Of course, the difficulty [[FridgeBrilliance makes sense]] when you consider that as {{Synthetic Voice Actor}}s, Vocaloids are not bound by physical constraints and can effortlessly sing songs that would be impossible for humans. |
| 255 | * ''VideoGame/JustDance'' may count as well for the harder routines. People think the games are easy as all you have to do is to copy the dancer's moves. The harder routines feature very strenous and fast-paced dance moves ordinary people can't pull off easily. |
| 256 | * ''VideoGame/KaraokeRevolution'': many people mistake this for nothing more than a karaoke sim. What many of them don't realize is that the game ''will'' penalize you for "getting creative" with how you sing, and it's even possible to fail miserably on easy mode while playing a song ''you know'' if you don't have a feel for how much you need to match the pitch. |
| 257 | * ''VideoGame/{{maimai}}'', also known as "that washing machine game", has cutesy visuals and mascots, especially in entries made from 2018 onwards with the cafe mascots, but it is also known for its very high skill ceiling that can take a few years to reach. |
| 258 | * Both ''VideoGame/ParappaTheRapper'' games. The characters and settings seem to be ripped straight out of a cartoon, along with the cheesy dialogue and aesops, but by the time you get past the halfway mark, just trying to stay with the rhythm of the buttons is hell. |
| 259 | * ''VideoGame/PopNMusic''. A colorful, cute-looking game on the outside. It's not for kids, though not for the usual reason: it's a NintendoHard RhythmGame with its share of [[ThatOneBoss Those One Bosses]] on the inside. |
| 260 | ** The difficulty of 9-key and 5-key have crept up over the years, but they're far from murderous, especially compared to IIDX's equivalents. EX, however, was made to kick butt and take names. Attempt it without lots of dedicated practice, and you get exactly what you deserve. |
| 261 | ** The "Toy Contemporary" [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbiONkRQK28 boss song]] is quite [[SoundtrackDissonance un-boss-like]], as well. It's basically a circus charge with kitten meowing thrown in. |
| 262 | * ''VideoGame/RhythmHeaven''. Think ''VideoGame/WarioWare'', only all the (mini)games are rhythm songs. Seems easy, huh? Wrong. Some of the games will prove to be pretty hard, and some requirements are INSANE. On some stages, getting as few as two misses results in a fail for the stage. Not a D grade, not some mild ridicule, absolute, abject failure. Oh, and the visuals never match the rhythm closely enough, so you MUST rely on the music or you will fail. Luckily, you can skip them all if you want after three tries, and you'll pass most games after some practice. |
| 263 | * ''VideoGame/RhythmThiefAndTheEmperorsTreasure'' is made by the same people as ''Project DIVA'' but a lot more story-based. Its gameplay is similar to the (also very tough) Rhythm Heaven series, only you are not penalized for being slightly off. Yet, it is still ridiculously difficult, as the designers love putting in tempo changes, random gameplay switches mid-stage, visual cues that you barely have time to react to, and rather lengthy memorization sequences that you then have to do to the music's rhythm. |
| 264 | * ''VideoGame/RockBand''. |
| 265 | ** For guitar, you expect songs like [[Music/JudasPriest ''Painkiller'']] to be difficult, but you probably won't be expecting to get your ass kicked by songs like [[Music/MileyCyrus "Can't Be Tamed"]] or [[Music/{{Orianthi}} "According to You"]], which, despite being radio-friendly pop songs, have blazing guitar solos that rival the harder HeavyMetal tracks. |
| 266 | ** For vocals, many pop songs in Nightmare Tier get this sort of reaction. "[[Music/TheBeachBoys Good Vibrations]]" is a feel good surf rock song that makes you sing in a three octave range within a strange key amid bizarre lilting staccato-legato rhythm and almost no accompaniment. Then it slows down, makes you speak for a few measures, speeds up to a different speed and changes keys. Have fun! |
| 267 | ** ''VideoGame/LegoRockBand''. Just because it's family friendly doesn't mean it isn't difficult; while they tried to cherry-pick easier songs to an extent and lowered the thresholds of the difficulty tiers to compensate, the charting standards are no different from the original game, so the solos to, for example, "The Final Countdown" and "In Too Deep" don't hold anything back on the Expert difficulty. To take the point further, one achievement asks the player to get 100% on the former's guitar solo on Expert, which is many times harder than any of the achievements in ''Rock Band 2''. |
| 268 | * A song-specfic example: ''VideoGame/SoundVoltex'' gives us "[[Music/{{Vocaloid}} Nyan Cat]]". In ''Sound Voltex II'', it gets an [[HarderThanHard Infinite]] chart. The chart is rated a '''15''', the highest difficulty rating in the game at the time of the chart's release[[note]]the maximum level has increased to 20 since[[/note]]. |
| 269 | * ''VideoGame/TaikoNoTatsujin'' is another prime contender for this trope. ''Everything'' in the game is ridiculously cute. Not to mention the simple drum scheme where you only have to hit one at a time. But then we have songs like [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1lG-K0CD8o this]]. To say nothing of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c86XWDwV498 Joubutsu2000]]. [[HarderThanHard Oni Mode]] indeed! |
| 270 | * ''VideoGame/VibRibbon''. Take Parappa's gameplay, and add in the "choose your own tunes" aspect of ''VideoGame/{{Audiosurf}}''. Therein lies the potential for some ''truly'' nightmarish levels. Did we mention that obstacles in ''Vib Ribbon'' tend to overlap when they scroll down the highway? |
| 271 | * ''VideoGame/WeCheer'' as well. People won't expect a motion-controlled dancing game to be difficult. Don't forget to calibrate the controls (some have), but even then, the game only goes easy on the first few songs. |
| 272 | [[/folder]] |
| 273 | |
| 274 | [[folder:RPG]] |
| 275 | * ''VideoGame/AgarestSenki'': Not helped by [[NeverTrustATrailer a trailer]] heavily advertising it as an eroge dating sim first and a turn-based strategy game second. The game itself can be insanely hard with several difficult bosses, and even normal enemies can be tough, the game require wit to be well played, specially if you want to get the True Ending, which requires to end the game with less than 500 battles fought (giving little space to grind or hunt items) and keep your karma meter on Neutral. |
| 276 | * Most games in the ''VideoGame/AtelierSeries'' are hit with this (except for those on [=PS2=], which are more traditional [=JRPGs=] and look the part). The series has a {{Moe}} aesthetic and tends towards SliceOfLife stories instead of epic, fate-of-the-world quests, but those expecting to have a relaxing time are in for a shock. If you don't master the complex ItemCrafting mechanics that the series revolves around, enemies will quickly become much more powerful than you can handle. And in many of these games, you also have a [[TimedMission time limit]] that prevents you from experimenting and messing around too much, or [[AntiGrinding relying on level grinding to make up for your equipment]]. The protagonists are all {{Item Cadd|y}}ies who deal most of their damage by throwing limited-supply bombs, which in most games are replenished by crafting (consuming more of your limited time). Once you found the right balance between crafting and exploring, the {{Superboss}}es are there to ruin your day, posing a NintendoHard challenge that will annihilate any player that doesn't have the best possible equipment. |
| 277 | ** Even by the standards of ''Atelier'', the SpinOff title ''VideoGame/NelkeAndTheLegendaryAlchemistsAteliersOfTheNewWorld'' took many players by surprise with its complexity and challenge. The game's marketing led many to expect a Facebook-style CasualGame driven more by FanService than actual gameplay. In truth, it's a deep and complex town-building simulator where the goals you have to meet are sometimes brutally difficult (especially the eighth and ninth missions, which have sent many new players towards the bad ending). And while the most recent ''Atelier'' games before its release had removed the TimedMission aspect, it's back in full force here. |
| 278 | * ''VideoGame/BugFables'' is a cutesy for the most part, all-ages game with a ''VideoGame/PaperMario''-inspired storybook look to it. It also asks quite a bit from the player, such as action commands generally being faster than the ones from its inspiration, basic enemy encounters being able to beat the unprepared, strategy with managing the trio's strengths and weaknesses, and difficult side-content, [[ManEatingPlant the Devourer]] especially being considered one of the hardest bosses in the game. This is all ''without'' equipping the Hard Mode Medal. Much of the equipment also comes with some sort of tradeoff, so carelessly dumping all stats in to Medal Points and bulking up on them with no strategy is not an option to breeze through the game. |
| 279 | * The ''VideoGame/DragonQuest'' series of [=RPGs=] have artwork by Akira Toriyama and a general ''Pokémon''-style look to the settings, but the games are regarded as some of the hardest J[=RPGs=], though ''VideoGame/DragonQuestV'' tends to be one of the easier installments (it's followed by the harder ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVI'', however). [[VideoGameRemake Remakes]] tend to tone down the difficulty a bit, though the games still stay challenging (just less so than the original versions). |
| 280 | ** ''VideoGame/DragonQuestXI'' plays a bit of a dirty trick here. After the credits roll, a lot of the enemies in the game suddenly grow very powerful, despite this being one of those rare games where the defeat of the final boss sticks post credits. In particular, the bird you zapped in the game's tutorial is back, and it is very, VERY angry. It does not care that you are strong enough to defeat the final boss, it is out for BLOOD! |
| 281 | * ''VideoGame/EtrianOdyssey'' may have cute character designs, beautiful dungeons, and a pretty game interface full of relaxing blues and greens. Looks much easier on the eyes than Atlus's other big RPG franchise ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' so it can't be that hard, right? Haha, '''[[SceneryDissonance wrong.]]''' Beneath that surface lies a device-tossingly challenging RPG series filled with difficult {{Random Encounter}}s, even harder PreExistingEncounters called "[=FOEs=]" that ''will'' instantly destroy any party unlucky or stupid enough to run into one, a SkillScoresAndPerks system that's easy for those without critical thinking skills to mess up leaving them with poorly-built characters, and a brutal in-game economy that basically says "Oh, you're back from dungeon exploring? [[TraumaInn Inn healing]], one piece of new equipment, consumable supplies: Pick one." To put it this way: It is not uncommon for series beginners to go into the first floor of any given game ''and get party-wiped by a random encounter there''. This series will test the patience and determination of many gamers, from kids who think the game is suited for them to adults expecting the game to be a pushover. It is rather telling that it took ''four'' games for the developers to finally add an easy mode for those who like the concept of the game but don't want to put in the arduous amount of blood, sweat, and tears needed to complete the game at the series' traditional level of difficulty, ''especially'' its PostEndGameContent. Some even consider it to be harder than ''Shin Megami Tensei,'' which is saying a ''lot.'' |
| 282 | * ''Franchise/FinalFantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales''. Really hard minigames (at least some of them) and TheComputerIsACheatingBastard during the card battle segments (specifically, it can see your hand, while you can only see the colors of its cards). To put it in more perspective, most of the non-plot-essential minigames (and a decent chunk of the plot-essential ones, too!) are {{Luck Based Mission}}s, The CPU in the card battles doesn't just know what cards you have, but what card you're ''going to play'', and those minigames that ''aren't'' [[LuckBasedMission entirely up to chance]] require [[NintendoHard Jedi-like reflexes to get a decent score on]]. Keep in mind that this game ''was'' marketed as LighterAndSofter than the mainstream ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' games. |
| 283 | * ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'', particularly to those who played the first hour or two of the game and thought "[[ItsEasySoItSucks The battles fight themselves? Where's the challenge in this?!]]" (or are going by word-of-mouth of someone who criticized the game for that reason). Then a few hours later you have added paradigms for each character that you will be required to switch to defeat enemies efficiently, followed by many encounters that will [[CurbstompBattle completely slaughter you]] if you don't know how to utilize said paradigms well. |
| 284 | * ''Videogame/FiveNightsAtFuckboys''. You wouldn't expect a crude, foul mouthed and raunchy parody of ''Videogame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' to be difficult, but the Mooks can hit pretty hard, there's an AbsurdlyLowLevelCap, the bosses can be hard even at maximum level and are frequently [[DamageSpongeBoss meaty ones as well]], and this isn't even factoring in different difficulty levels. |
| 285 | * The obscure game ''VideoGame/IzunaLegendOfTheUnemployedNinja'' for the Nintendo DS has bright, cartoonish graphics, a light-hearted comedy storyline, and simple controls...but it's also a {{Roguelike}}, and therefore completely merciless. Older gamers will take note of the fact that it's published by [[{{ThatOneBoss/Atlus}} Atlus]], who are pretty notorious for NintendoHard games. To show how far it goes; in most rpgs, you can LevelGrind to beat anything. In Izuna, even at level 99 the final dungeon can be a nightmare. Compared to many other Roguelikes, this is pretty easy as the heroine maintains her levels even after being defeated. It does have a dungeon which drops your level to 1 and requires you to bring no items at the start of it for that old school feeling. |
| 286 | * ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'': |
| 287 | ** In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'', you can get creamed on ''easy'' if you're not prepared for some bosses or are just hitting the attack button (specially in the case of [[{{Superboss}} Sephiroth]] in the first game, who is probably the hardest boss, but is available way before it can be reasonably expected to beat him). This is especially true in the early game where you can only stock like three potions and don't know Cure, so healing is limited. This continues in all the later games too. |
| 288 | ** Zexion in ''[[VideogameRemake Re]]: Chain of Memories'' can be this. In the original game and even in his character entry in ''II'' he was implied to be a coward and not a particularly good fighter, and infamously ended up being a CutsceneBoss. The remake gives him a boss battle that's way harder than any player would anticipate, with a deck stocked exclusively with high-level cards that steal cards from Riku and track him acros the arena, making card breaks the only way to save your cards, and a sleight that summons a tornado in the center of the arena that pulls Riku towards it and steals three cards everytime Riku gets near. And when he's stolen enough cards he proceeds to creates three copies of himself and relentlessly attack you with a barrage of devastating sleights or bum-rushing you using his newly acquired LightningBruiser abilities. And even if you manage to dispel the clones he'll place fake cards in your decks that will stun you when you try to use them. To put things in perspective, this is the only fight in the entire campaign where Riku has unlimited access to his Dark Mode, and Zexion still manages to be a challenge. |
| 289 | ** ''II'' is considered to be easier than ''I''. Even [[{{Superboss}} Sephiroth]] is debatably easier here than in ''KHI''. That is until you play the ''Final Mix'' version of the game, which offers a fourth difficulty setting that makes it possible to beat the entire game ''at level one''. Even if you manage to beat the (even harder) [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories Absent Silhouettes]] and the Data Organization XIII superboss battles in the BonusDungeon and you think there's nothing else that could possibly top that, there's still the Lingering Will. Get this: At level 99, endgame MinMaxing, the [[InfinityMinusOneSword Decisive Pumpking]] or the [[InfinityPlusOneSword Ultima Weapon]], Normal/Easy mode and [[HPToOne Second]] [[HeroicSecondWind Chance]]; he ''will'' kill you if you don't know how to approach him. Not even Sephiroth was this extreme. |
| 290 | ** ''358/2 Days'' will offer to take pity on you by lowering the difficulty level if you continuely fail on a certain boss. Leechgrave in Halloween Town often requires such pity. |
| 291 | ** As some of the Headscratchers for ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' show, don't walk into that game expecting something light. |
| 292 | ** Even veteran players were surprised by the difficulty of ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance''. It features several boss rushes, your abilities are tied to your Dream Eaters ([[GuideDangIt so your more useful abilities like Second Chance, Once More, and Leaf Bracer require a bit of know-how to get]]), and normal enemies can kill you very quickly if you're not careful. Many consider it to be the most difficult ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' game yet. |
| 293 | ** ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts02BirthBySleepAFragmentaryPassage'' puts all of the previous ''KH'' games to shame with its Critical Mode. Critical Mode has the same AI difficulty as Proud Mode, and comes with your usual Halved HP nerf. But to make up for the same Difficulty from enemies in Proud Mode, Critical has new restrictions that make up the real challenge for the difficulty setting, these being: Only 3 items can be used in a Boss Fight and they are greyed out afterwards, HP/MP/Focus Orbs are no longer dropped by anything in the game, and Combo Master, Leaf Bracer, and Second Chance are no longer equipped. This means all you really have at your disposal besides your current offensive abilities are few items, Once More and your own skill to defend you, and because you have Once More equipped but not Second Chance, usually the harder bosses can one shot you if the hits they give you aren't one of a combo. Definitely the most difficult Critical Mode in a ''KH'' game to date. |
| 294 | ** At this point, one has to wonder a little why people would still be fooled enough by the Disney logo to go into the game thinking it'd be easy. |
| 295 | * ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky The Legend Of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC]]'' has a bright and colourful artstyle with chibi sprites. And its prequel, and sequels, aren't that difficult, so it can't be that bad, right? ''Wrong''. The game is tough even on Normal, but Hard multiplies enemy stats to such an extent that most people only recommend it for NewGamePlus runs. It's common for players to spend dozens of attempts before beating it, and on Nightmare the Prologue's boss is generally considered {{Unwinnable}} if you don't use your resources in a very specific way. Many bosses [[PuzzleBoss use specific tactics that are designed to screw with you]], abuse of the Turn Order Bonuses is required to outlast many chest monsters/sidequest bosses, and [[BossInMookClothing just about everything on the Liber Ark wants you dead]]. |
| 296 | * ''Monster Girl Quest!'' might be a series of H-games, but the gameplay is genuinely challenging, especially on higher difficulties. The original trilogy has relatively simple combat (it's more of a visual novel/RPG hybrid), but many of the battles require the player to conserve their SP, know when to heal and which [[StatusBuff spirits]] to use. ''Monster Girl Quest! Paradox RPG'' takes this further, with a much more complex combat system[[note]]To give a brief overview, there's now a system of jobs and a separate system of races, an enormous range of equipment, a wide variety of elements, several dozen status effects, and multiple types of instant death. There's lots of interactions among these things, like each race having its own set of elemental and status resistances.[[/note]], more difficulty levels and even an entire BonusDungeon, the Labyrinth of Chaos, for those players looking for extra challenge. At higher difficulties and/or in the Labyrinth of Chaos, enemies can one-shot unwary players while being quite tough to kill themselves. |
| 297 | * The ''VideoGame/{{MOTHER}}'' trilogy looks simple and cartoony, but all three games have some serious difficulty. ''VideoGame/EarthBoundBeginnings'' consistently goes up in difficulty, although there's a couple of major spikes at Duncan's Factory (due mostly to its size) and Mt. Itoi (the enemies being way harder than anywhere else in the game). ''VideoGame/{{EarthBound|1994}}'', despite being much better than its predecessor, had random {{Difficulty Spike}}s throughout the game. ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'' finally settled for a consistent difficulty, and while the regular enemies aren't too bad, the bosses will mash you. |
| 298 | * The ''{{Website/Neopets}}'' RPG, ''VideoGame/NeoQuest''. You really wouldn't expect an [=RPG=] based on cute animals to be so difficult, especially since the first dungeon is so disarmingly easy. |
| 299 | ** ''[=NeoQuest=] II''[='s=] difficulty takes a turn for the nasty as you get closer and closer to Meridell Castle and Ramtor's Tower. And Meridell is the ''first world'' (of 5). |
| 300 | * ''VideoGame/NocturneRebirth'' qualifies less for its graphics (though no enemy has a horrifying appearance by JRPG standards and some are quite cute) and more for the outward appearance of its battle system. At first glance, the battle system makes the game look like a typical ATB experience that won't be too different from early ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' games or "cookie-cutter" UsefulNotes/RPGMaker games. This turns out not to be the case due to how the game adds several unusual mechanics and reinvents some of the traditional RPG mechanics, forcing experienced RPG players to adapt and learn. Additionally, the protagonist is considered a powerful vampire in the story, but the party will still struggle against bosses due to how healing is balanced so that slow HP regeneration is easy while instant HP recovery is difficult, making it hard to stay alive in long battles. |
| 301 | * ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' definitely qualifies for this trope, despite everything looking like a cardboard cutout. While the first ''Paper Mario'' wasn't too difficult, provided you pay attention and learn the game mechanics, this game ramps up the difficulty quite a bit. Bosses having tons of HP and having at least one attack that can do massive damage to the party, being forced at one point to go alone when [[spoiler: Doopliss steals Mario's body and his allies]], and enemies inflicting nasty status ailments such as Freeze, Sleep, and Stop, which can end your game if you're not careful. |
| 302 | ** Similarily, the ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigi'' [=RPGs=] (except ''Superstar Saga'') were pretty deceptive about their difficulty. They have bright, ''Mario''-typical graphics, but the enemies and bosses can get ''very'' deadly if you don't master the battle-mechanics of dodging and countering attacks. |
| 303 | ** ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam'' takes this up even further. You thought this was going to be about the same difficulty as the last games? Think again. This one is much harder still (although you can go easy mode if you lose a fight). For example, some attacks need to be dodged with the circle pad now and attacks can hit ''much'' harder. And the giant bosses? Not basically glorified cutscenes this time around, with the second or third giant boss of ''Dream Team'' being on par with the last two from ''Bowser's Inside Story.'' |
| 304 | *** For extra fun, try Hard Mode. No retrying fights, cap of ten on every item, shorter windows for action commands, and yes, the Giant Battles get harder too, to the point that the rematches in the late-game Battle Arena demand absolute perfection just to clear them. |
| 305 | ** ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPaperJam'' drops the difficulty a little bit when compared to the previous game but it is still difficult. This is mostly due to the addition of a third character who, unlike the two from [[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPartnersInTime the second game]], is completely independent of the two Mario Bros. and makes dodging attacks much harder, especially attacks that hit multiple characters. |
| 306 | * ''VideoGame/PokemonYellow'' is ''significantly'' harder than the ''[[VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue Red and Blue]]'' versions. All the Gym Leaders and rival battles have new, more powerful teams, and since you start out with Pikachu, the game takes a jump into the wilderness of NintendoHard when you find out that the first Gym Leader you have to face is Brock. |
| 307 | ** Brock was actually made weaker than in the originals. They also made several Pokémon that could easily roundhouse his team (such as Mankey) available early. There are also the male and female Nidoran. In this game, they earn Double Kick very early, so you can beat Brock with a Nidoran very easily. And they're found in the same place as Mankey. Then you come up to Misty (who as a water type leader should be weak to Pikachu) and find she is terrifyingly strong even with Pikachu. |
| 308 | ** Speaking of ''Pokémon'', older players should remember ''VideoGame/PokemonStadium'' and its sequel, which were focused on battling hordes of AI trainers under some pretty fiendish conditions (such as using only baby Pokémon, randomly selected Pokémon, level limits, etc.). Round 1 in both games tended to be difficult as the player progressed and would require legitimate skill to beat, but most of it wasn't too bad. Round 2 bordered on NintendoHard, suffering from [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard frustrating AI]] and the general feeling that it was pretty much made for the StopHavingFunGuy sector of the fanbase. |
| 309 | *** The ''Stadium'' games were even worse if you didn't have a Transfer Pak to bring your Pokémon over from the Game Boy games and thus had to rely on the crappy rental Pokémon. |
| 310 | ** ''[[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 "[[{{Pun}} hot]]" but...) make them impossible to sweep with a single move like the past 3 generations. |
| 311 | *** Thankfully, much of this was fixed in ''Platinum''. Extra mons were added to the Sinnoh dex, allowing the Gym leaders and Elite Four members to have teams consisting entirely of their type, in addition to allowing more variety in the player's team. |
| 312 | *** Not to mention, the updated movesets caught a lot of people off guard because they wouldn't expect almost ''every'' Pokémon available to have a move to use when fighting its weakness. Ah, using a Luxray on me? Well Torterra, I think it's time to use Earthqua-ICE FANG?! How'd you get that?! |
| 313 | ** Likewise, ''[=HeartGold=]'' and ''[=SoulSilver=]'', with the added bonus of being {{Video Game Remake}}s and therefore most fans ''thinking'' they have a pretty good idea of the difficulty level to expect. ''They'd be wrong''. The Gym Leaders actually employ advanced tactics (while not as bad as actual Sporepunch, Hypnosispunch still hurts), now have abilities that they put to good effect (you can no longer avoid Miltank's Stomp by using a Ghost-type as its ability lets it ignore Ghost's immunity to Normal-type moves), have teams with perfect [=IVs=] (Kanto even had its non-Gym trainers' levels raised because the whole region was otherwise a curb stomp), and the final boss now has even higher levels. |
| 314 | *** The simple matter of Houndoom getting one new move ([[StatusBuff Nasty Plot]]) in the generation shift made Elite Four Karen ''much'', '''much''' harder than she was before, which often comes as a shock to players of the originals. |
| 315 | ** ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' actually surprised a few, but after Gen IV's SequelDifficultySpike we knew what to expect so the updated movesets didn't catch people off guard. Instead, it's the improved AI that uses more instances of ArtificialBrilliance outside of important trainers. Even Pokémon Rangers (default trainer classes) use techniques such as baiting and switching. |
| 316 | ** ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' would also qualify for some who think [[ItsEasySoItSucks the ease in overlevelling is a bit over the top]]. After being overlevelled for a while, you'll probably forget that [[ArtificialBrilliance important trainers are still no slouch when it comes to making educated guesses about type relations and strategic move combinations]], and if you don't use any of the ways you can get overleveled, you will find that the game is still as difficult as the past two generations. Specific examples would be Viola and Grant, the first two gym leaders, because most Bug/Rock gym leaders in previous games suffered from PoorPredictableRock, and these two don't, or at least not to the same extent. (More specifically, Viola has the Bug/Water Surkit to annoy anyone bringing in a Fire-Type, while Grant's Rock/Ice and Rock/Dragon types counter or resist a couple of Rock's common weaknesses.) And if you [[SelfImposedChallenge forego the Exp Share entirely]], ''X and Y'' become some of the hardest games in the series; particularly in the late game, trainers' Pokémon are high-leveled enough to easily punish anyone who hasn't been using it. |
| 317 | ** ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'' ups the difficulty by removing some of the ways you could become overpowered in ''X And Y'' and nerfing the ones it keeps. The addition of the new SOS system means wild Pokémon battles can become two on one battles at any time. The game also removes gyms and replaces the leaders with Totem Pokémon; they have a StatusBuff added at the start of the battle which generally increase whatever their most prominent stat is, or all of them. They can also use the SOS system and the Pokémon they summon allow them to use double battle strategies against you [[ArtificialBrilliance and they are not afraid to use them.]] And unlike Mega Evolution in ''X and Y'', which only 2 bosses in the game used against you, there are many opponents who use Z-Moves, some of them being regular trainers. |
| 318 | ** ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet'': |
| 319 | *** 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 Pokémon, though it's not a Revaroom so much as a giant Pokémon-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. |
| 320 | *** The Indigo Disk DLC, meanwhile, cranks things up even further: Blueberry Academy is where young prodigies at Pokémon battling congregate, and this is reflected in the gameplay in that even the regular trainers found there will have high-leveled Pokémon teams with complex, synergistic strategies that competitive human players use, with optimized stats and moves you can't obtain just by leveling up. Some of them also use strategies that didn't exist until this DLC but have become commonplace in tournaments and ranked play--that is, those competitive staples were first executed by Blueberry Academy [=NPCs=]. Many players who actually found ''Scarlet and Violet'' easy came in expecting the same level of heat as the base game and the Teal Mask DLC, only to find their Level 100 Pokémon team crushed by [=NPCs=] with teams up to 30 levels lower than theirs. |
| 321 | * ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon'' is similar - nice, kid-friendly license plus roguelike gameplay = at least it's merciful when you die, to the point of allowing for other players to rescue you like in most of the games labeled Mystery Dungeon. |
| 322 | ** Correction: They can rescue you if they (or you) have a copy of that same generation (i.e Red and Blue Rescue Team) and the password given to you when you call for help (or whatever the games after Rescue Team used). If they (or you) don't, then you're gonna have to give up and return to base. Which makes you [[ContinuingIsPainful lose half of the items (which are randomly selected, by the way) and any money you had on you. Along with having to do the whole dungeon over again.]] |
| 323 | * ''VideoGame/TokyoMirageSessionsFE'', mechanically a crossover between ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' and ''Franchise/FireEmblem'', also has bright cartoonish graphics and a plot about [[IdolSinger Idol Singers]]... but don't let that fool you, the gameplay is as NintendoHard as you'd expect from its two parent franchises. |
| 324 | * ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' may look cutesy and the tagline is "The Friendly RPG Where Nobody has to Die", but don't let those elements fool you. Battles use bullet hell segments when you are attacked and the gimmicks ramp up in difficulty as you face off against the bosses. And if you attempt to utilize VideoGameCrueltyPotential to the fullest, the game will make you pay, ''[[ThatOneBoss badly]].'' |
| 325 | * Website/GaiaOnline's ''[=zOMG=]'' is meant to be a casual MMO, and so it's fairly easy for the first few zones. But by the time you enter the Zen Gardens zone the difficulty starts ramping up. Charge Orbs (EXP) and Rings (Skills) both [[RandomlyDrops randomly drop]], [[EverythingTryingToKillYou only a few of the enemies in the game don't attack you on sight]], and the game is designed in such a way that if you don't form a crew, you probably aren't going to last very long. (Admittedly, the game is still in the testing phases, so this is subject to change). Not to mention some of the instanced levels such as The Hive World, The Gauntlet, and The Shallow Sea scale based on your CL, so that an enemy will always be the same relative level to you. This includes the final boss. [=zOMG=] is a very fun game featuring a vibrant colorful world, high levels of character customization, and a fun story, and it's easy to pick up. But do not mistake this for an easy game you can breeze right through. If you want that ScarfOfAsskicking, you've got to work for it!\ |
| 326 | \ |
| 327 | It gets worse; the way the final boss used to work, [[strike:if]] when your team of 6 got their asses handed to them, one could stay behind and keep the boss at its current health while the other five went back and restored their health and stamina. Then they were faced by the 107 missiles that the boss spawned while you were going through the run '''again'''. It wasn't really that good, since after three hours, people kind of had to leave to take a break from the last ten hours spent on the "casual" MMO. It wasn't really that effective, unless you were ''really'' fast, since the boss tended to restore health anyway, but at least you didn't have to start ''all'' the way over from the beginning of the boss fight...but wait, the new update changed it that if all six crew members are dazed, you're escorted out of the room! And this is all if your computer can handle Shallow Seas without lagging and dying, anyway. Given that you more than likely have to beat the first chapter to make it to the second chapter...people are going to be ''pissed''. |
| 328 | [[/folder]] |
| 329 | |
| 330 | [[folder:Shoot 'em Up]] |
| 331 | * Play modern BulletHell games for long enough and you'll be in for a shock when you play older, "classical" ShootEmUp games. Fans who are used to BulletHell may attempt older shmups, expecting the difficulty to be cakewalk due to the lower bullet count, only to get sniped in the [[HitboxDissonance ship-sized]] [[AvertedTrope hitbox]] by fast bullets into a quick GameOver; ''VideoGame/{{Raiden}}'' is notorious for "sniper" enemies that can kill the player with almost no advance warning. Labyrinthine level designs with DeadlyWalls, like those in ''VideoGame/RType'' can also be very difficult for players accustomed to the open, wall-less stages of most bullet hell games. Last but not least, many older shmups have {{Check Point}}s rather than respawning in place, as well as depriving you of most or all of your powerups upon death; while dying in ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' or other BulletHell games typically only results in a slight drop (if any) in power alongside the life loss and scoring enhancements (if you're playing for score), dying even once in ''VideoGame/{{Gradius}}'', for example, means losing all of your remaining lives in the 30 seconds if you do not have the skill to pull through wherever you just died in spite of your [[ContinuingIsPainful total loss of powerups]]. Even the BulletHell entries from long-running "classical" shooter series tend to carryover those fast bullet velocities, depriving many players at the hardest settings possible. |
| 332 | ---- |
| 333 | * ''VideoGame/BeatHazard'' can generate some surprisingly difficult sessions from certain audio files. |
| 334 | * The "CuteEmUp" sub-genre, a variation of the {{Shoot em Up}}s and BulletHell genres, with everything replaced with cute cartoon creatures, like bunnies, penguins, and kitties. Rarely localized outside of Japan, and then usually just in PAL regions, those unfamiliar with these games may think these games would be easy or even "kiddie". ''Don't do that!'' |
| 335 | ** ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}} Project'' might very well be the most well known example. Fans know what to expect. Those who aren't go in for the loads of cute little girls in frilly dresses living in a cheerful fairy land, only to find out at about level 2 or 3 that these little girls ''love'' shooting enough ordnance to carpet bomb the entire United States. And ''Touhou'' is actually ''not particularly hard'' compared to other games that would fit this entry. |
| 336 | ** The ''VideoGame/KikiKaiKai'' series, a game where the eponymous characters are a {{Chibi}} {{Miko}} and a raccoon dog, is one of the few to be localized in North America under the MarketBasedTitle of ''Pocky & Rocky''. |
| 337 | ** The ''VideoGame/{{Parodius}}'' is a light-hearted, colorful take on Konami's other shoot-em-up mainstay ''Gradius'' - and is just as NintendoHard. |
| 338 | ** And ''VideoGame/{{Otomedius}}''. First stage, easy. Second stage, not ''too'' painful. Third and fourth stages, painful. The remaining stages will tear your lungs out. |
| 339 | * ''VideoGame/EverydayShooter'' is a cool-looking little indie game. Despite its simple graphics, the game is ''much'' harder than it looks. |
| 340 | * Similar to ''VideoGame/{{Audiosurf}}'', ''VideoGame/SpaceInvaders Infinity Gene'' can generate different stages based on whatever song you selected for your [=iPhone=], leading to stages that are easier or harder than they look. That, being a smartphone game, the cramped screens makes it even harder. |
| 341 | [[/folder]] |
| 342 | |
| 343 | |
| 344 | [[folder:Turn-Based Strategy]] |
| 345 | * ''VideoGame/AdvanceWars'' gives us a lovable IdiotHero as a main character, with the sisterly Nell teaching him how to battle a bumbling bearded villain named Olaf in a cutesy cartoonish setting that treats the battles as if they're a good natured game of chess. Shit gets very real VERY fast as soon as the other enemy [=COs=] roll up to the party, and assuming you survive those battles, don't even think of breathing a sigh of relief when you see [[BewareTheSillyOnes Olaf is your opponent again...]] |
| 346 | * ''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 -- up to and including your ''basic attack.'') that can make some fights very difficulty. ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsA2'' retains the same colorful style and harder fights. |
| 347 | * In the ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' franchise, the seriousness of the game's plot or overall tone has very little relevance to the game's difficulty. ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar'' is considered by many to be the darkest game of the franchise, with a tragically [[{{Deconstruction}} deconstructive]] story, but its gameplay sacrifices difficulty for atmosphere. Meanwhile, ''VideoGame/FireEmblemEngage'' is bright, goofy, cheery, and full of {{fanservice}} for long-time fans of the series... which is why, like most of the older games, its higher difficulties are [[NintendoHard no joke.]] |
| 348 | [[/folder]] |
| 349 | |
| 350 | [[folder:Other]] |
| 351 | * ''Amazon Trail'' is an EdutainmentGame. It should not be this hard to get [[HundredPercentCompletion 100 percent completion]]!! |
| 352 | ** What makes this one (and its sequels, which are no easier) so difficult is that there's certain things that can ''only'' be gotten at certain points in the game. For example, in ''Amazon Trail II'', if you don't happen to pick up the basket or mask at certain stops along the way, you're straight out of luck, as they are the ''only'' places they can be traded for. |
| 353 | * In a non-children's version of this trope, the maker of the ''VideoGame/{{Avernum}}'' games got sick of people complaining that [[HarderThanHard Torment]] mode was too easy. Well, BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor--as of the fifth game, on Torment a mere oversized wolf can have an HP of 4,000, with you lucky to deal 100 damage per hit. |
| 354 | * ''VideoGame/AvatarTheLastAirbenderIntoTheInferno'' is meant to be played by two players controlling two characters. If you play it solo, the battles are quite difficult as it's easy to be overwhelmed by enemies. |
| 355 | * The art-style for ''VideoGame/TheBattleCats'' is cartoony, you control an army of cute cats and characters who fight other enemies with said cartoony art-style and the Google Play Store even lists this game in the "Casual" genre. How hard can it be? To keep it brief, if you don't use the correct cats and don't create a solid strategy, then you will be overrun by the many, '''many''' stages that use and, in some of them, spam DemonicSpiders, most of which are [[DegradedBoss Degraded Bosses]] who usually avert VillainForgotToLevelGrind, like no tomorrow. |
| 356 | * ''VideoGame/ClubPenguin'': |
| 357 | ** The ''Bean Counters'' minigame. All you do is catch bags of coffee beans and place them on the other side. Easy, right? ''Wrong.'' By the time you reach levels [[FourIsDeath 4]] and 5, the game takes a '''huge''' DifficultySpike as [[AnvilOnHead anvils,]] flowerpots, and ''fish'' rain heavily upon you as you attempt to unload the coffee truck. |
| 358 | ** The hidden candy mode has extra [[HarderThanHard Expert and Extreme modes]], and also reveals that Hard is the ''[[NintendoHard easiest difficulty]]'' in the game. |
| 359 | * ''VideoGame/CookingMama'' appears as a very cutesy easy game... that is until you try to get gold medals in every recipe. Midway through the game it becomes almost impossible, since you have to be PERFECT in every step and even missing the most insignificant part of a minigame results into a silver medal. There's also a good share of ''FakeDifficulty'': play it too much and you'll get hungry! |
| 360 | * ''VideoGame/DKKingOfSwing'' wasn't too hard, so you'd expect ''VideoGame/DKJungleClimber'' not to be to hard either; but the game had some surprises. |
| 361 | * ''[[VideoGame/KatamariDamacy Katamari Forever]]'' is a brightly colored, cartoonish game that revolves around trying to roll up objects into giant balls, with an appropriately catchy J-Pop soundtrack to match. But there are some levels that will humiliate you ''repeatedly'', such as the stage in which you have to achieve a certain temperature. To add insult to injury, the game characters themselves will snark on your poor performance! |
| 362 | ** The Katamari games tend to have a lot of ThatOneLevel. This goes back to the original ''Katamari Damacy'' with the Prince rolling up one bear and one cow. And a milk carton is a cow. A MILK CARTON! |
| 363 | * The cartoony appearance of ''VideoGame/KerbalSpaceProgram'', and the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54fDJKgjUrs zany hijinks]] in many of the advertisements, can leave new players unprepared for the game's complicated controls and counterintuitive physics. Just getting into orbit around your home planet, a trivial task in most space games, is surprisingly difficult--an actual astronaut and engineer [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHjaqeeoAKk tried to do it]] with help from an experienced player, and ''still'' failed the first couple of times. Exploring the whole solar system is, needless to say, quite challenging. |
| 364 | * Anyone jumping into ''VideoGame/LittleWitchNobeta'' expecting a cute little adventure with cute little girls will be in for a rude awakening when this [[SoulsLikeRPG Souls-like]] ThirdPersonShooter hybrid proceeds to beat this cute little witch up like a ragdoll. And while the common {{Mook}}'s are bad enough, the bosses are downright sadistic with their challenge that require a precise understanding of the games systems to beat, and that's before taking [[ThatOneBoss Monica]] into account. |
| 365 | * ''VideoGame/LovelyPlanet'' may look cheerful and has visuals often compared to ''VideoGame/KatamariDamacy'', but it's also a challenging First-Person Shooter that requires good aim, reflexes, first-person platforming skills, and planning in order to clear levels. |
| 366 | * [[Creator/WayForwardTechnologies WayForward's]] ''[[VideoGame/MightyFlipChamps Mighty]]'' [[VideoGame/MightyMilkyWay ser]][[VideoGame/MightySwitchForce ies]]. All PuzzlePlatformer games. All starring a cute girl (each providing their own brand of [[MsFanservice fanservice]]). All hell in their own way. |
| 367 | ** ''VideoGame/MightyFlipChamps'' is simple enough in theory. Rescue all of the animals while traversing dimensions (flipping) that can be seen on both DS screens. Despite the only enemies being spikes and your own hand, it's still VERY easy to die continuously. And that's not even getting into getting S ranks. |
| 368 | ** ''VideoGame/MightyMilkyWay'' involves jumping/destroying and creating planets while trying your best to get from the start of a stage, to the exit portal. DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist... for good reason. Starting in the middle of World ''2'', the "puzzle" part of the game shows its colors, and you'd better be prepared for precise placement and timing, lest you fail, die, and have to restart the stage... |
| 369 | ** ''VideoGame/MightySwitchForce'' involves catching prison escapees while switching between what platforms can and can't be used for standing, shooting, etc. Sounds and looks simple enough, but SurpriseDifficulty kicks in once you start getting levels with [[CheckpointStarvation fewer checkpoints]], forced switching, less legroom to avoid enemies, cannon maze levels, or any combination of the four. |
| 370 | * ''VideoGame/NintendoLand''. If you thought it would be easy because it's a CasualVideoGame, DON'T. The first one or two levels on any given solo or team attraction are usually a cakewalk. After that, good luck. These games will hand your ass to you several times over. And ''then'' there are the {{Brutal Bonus Level}}s... To give you an example of how bad they get, in the [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Legend Of Zelda: Battle Quest]] attraction, [[spoiler:Ganon is a DegradedBoss]]. |
| 371 | * ''VideoGame/{{Overcooked}}'' may have a cute and cartoony art style and easy to pick-up controls, but easy is it not. You're constantly trying to send out orders as quickly as possible. Between prep work, cooking, sending out dishes, and then cleaning the dirty plates (not to mention stage gimmicks!), this turns a simple time-management cooking game into a chaotic co-op experience that is ''demanding'' with coordination between you and your friends. |
| 372 | * The ''Anime/PrettyCure'' games for the GBA are, well, ''Pretty Cure'' games, presumably expected to be played by little girls. The first one's a platforming TeamworkPuzzleGame, starting out mind-numbingly easy and getting more complex as a fairly reasonable rate...and it continues doing so ''way'' further than you might expect. And then, when you beat the game, you unlock another full set of levels as a "hard mode" of sorts, where the rise in difficulty continues almost-uninterrupted (level 51 is easy, as there's really no way they could have made level 1 hard). Somewhere in the seventies, you ''will'' begin to cry. |
| 373 | * ''VideoGame/PuttPutt Goes to the Moon'' features a minigame inside it known as Bear Stormin', which features you piloting a plane through an AutoScrollingLevel. You have to keep your fuel up as high as you can by hitting balloons to regain some, while avoiding obstacles that take away some and objects that kill you in one hit. If you run out of fuel, you won't die instantly, but you won't be able to fly anymore. The first ten or so levels (of 47) aren't too terrible and are even the level of easiness you would expect in a kids' game, but the difficulty goes through the roof after that. Objects eventually start to fly in all directions, some fly the other direction, others change direction mid-flight, and some will just suddenly fly at you for no reason at all. Oh yeah, you only get three lives to make it through this too, which is painful because the later levels are ''long''. Thankfully it is possible to save anywhere you want to, but if you really don't feel challenged enough, you can also try the recycled version in ''VideoGame/PuttPutt & VideoGame/FattyBear's Activity Pack'', which ups the ante even ''more''. There are now 75 levels instead of 47, and ''no ability to save!'' You can skip by 16-level increments depending on which of the four difficulties you pick, but no continues otherwise. Seriously, when did they expect kids to make it through this? |
| 374 | * ''VideoGame/RobotUnicornAttack''. It's [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin just what you'd expect]] in terms of theme, but if your reflexes are a quarter second too late you're [[OneHitPointWonder done for]]. |
| 375 | * ''VideoGame/RugratsRoyalRansom'' on Reptar Tough difficulty is ''insanely'' hard at many points, to the point where it'd be hard to expect an ''adult'' to beat it easily, much less a small child. |
| 376 | * ''VideoGame/TheSecretIslandOfDrQuandary'' is an EdutainmentGame aimed at grade school kids. The "Tax Factor" minigame requires enough algebra to stump adults regularly, unless you play as B. Ginner and invite EasyModeMockery. |
| 377 | * ''VideoGame/TheSimpsonsHitAndRun'' can be surprisingly nasty, with tight timelimits, difficult objectives, and a tendency for the game to force you to use the worst possible vehicle for the job. The DifficultySpike in the final few missions is near legendary. |
| 378 | * ''VideoGame/SuperMarioParty'': Sound Stage looks fun to play, but then there is the Remix difficulty. You think you are going to have 6 rhythm games in one right? Well, after just about 3 rhythm games you played, you're wrong, as the screen goes to black and has the message saying "Faster!". Now that is when things start to get really tough. |
| 379 | * Visual novels are not the kind of game one would expect to have much difficulty with, but ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'', the second game in the ''VisualNovel/ZeroEscape'' series, has some of the most mind-bogglingly difficult puzzles and challenges ever created in a video game. As if simply getting through the escape rooms normally isn't challenging enough, good luck trying to get those Golden Files ([[spoiler:and by extension, the secret bonus ending]]) without a guide. Thankfully, each level features an easy mode where the party offers hints for the player if they are having trouble. |
| 380 | * Go away and try and get the achievements in the bowling practice games in ''VideoGame/WiiSports''. We'll be here when you get back... in a few months' time of non-stop attempts. |
| 381 | * ''VideoGame/WinnieThePoohsHomeRunDerby''. It's Winnie the Pooh batting against his woodland friends... who throw incredibly fast, erratic, hard-to-hit balls. After the first few rounds the pitches start explicitly breaking the laws of physics. It's hailed as one of the toughest sports games ever. |
| 382 | [[/folder]] |
| 383 | |
| 384 | [[folder:Non-Video Games]] |
| 385 | !! Literature |
| 386 | * Some people might be surprised that, in spite of the target audience of the ''Literature/ISpy'' books being children, the riddles can be shockingly difficult and even stump many of the parents who were trying to solve the riddles with their kids, particularly the ones involving homonyms, as noted by WebVideo/{{Brutalmoose}}. |
| 387 | * A RunningGag in the Literature/SherlockHolmes stories is Holmes making snide comments about the various creative liberties that Dr. Watson takes with his records of their cases, with Holmes feeling that they should be dry academic studies of his exploits in deductive logic rather than the mysteries, thrillers and adventures that Watson turns them into. "The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier" is one of the few tales narrated from Holmes's first-person perspective, apparently after Watson got a bit fed up with this and challenged Holmes to LetsSeeYouDoBetter, and it opens with Holmes conceding that taking one of his investigations and turning it into a narrative people are actually interested to read is actually harder than he gave Watson credit for. |
| 388 | |
| 389 | !! TV Shows and animation |
| 390 | * Pretty much any Quiz and Stunt Game Show. Most think it can be a walk in the park to easily beat something you can trounce through easily with your skill and knowledge. It isn't, especially if they give out big money, especially in front of millions of viewers, and especially if those millions of viewers could put you in an EpicFail montage if you fail horribly. Naturally, these kinds of shows are made to be as difficult as possible so that the show doesn't have to constantly pay out the nose for prizes won every single day. |
| 391 | * Teams on ''Series/TheAmazingRace'', even those who have been fans of the series for years, have finished the first leg in shock of how difficult the Race actually is. This could be in part that, while very little of the travel portions are shown on TV, teams can sometimes spend hours looking for flights to their next destination, and all the sitting around and waiting doesn't help either. |
| 392 | * Another kids' GameShow; ''Series/{{Eliminator}}''. The Easy questions were your typical kids' TV fare. Your Normal questions were hard for a kids' gameshow, but not too bad since the kids got to choose what difficulty level of question to answer based on the category... the hard questions, on the other hand, would be considered at the very least tricky on an adult gameshow. Arguably justified by the fact the top prize was a Safari, and kids could quit before answering hard pointers (which became almost a requirement to stay in the game), but to the point that adult gameshow fans have stated that they would only go for hard in categories they're extremely strong (...And, at that, reluctantly) in unless they absolutely have to - assuming they were on an adult adaptation of the show that kept the same (non-relative) question difficulty? |
| 393 | * Fast Money in ''Series/{{Family Feud}}''. Sure you can't help but laugh or facepalm when someone says a stupid answer to a question with an obvious number one answer. But when you actually play for yourself, you realize you only get ''four seconds'' per question. The tight time constraint can really make it hard to focus and come up with logical answers. |
| 394 | * The kids GameShow ''Series/{{Knightmare}}'' qualifies, especially in earlier years, having 8 winners across 8 seasons, and no winners in seasons 1 and 3. To be fair, it was based on a desire to be a televised version of a mid-80s fantasy RPG, and as such a bit of NintendoHard is to be expected...but to the point that there are still debates, by fans of the show who are now adults, as to what the correct solution to some of the challenges was? And riddles that required surprisingly in-depth knowledge of Arthurian legend? |
| 395 | ** One set of winners was even invited onto ''Series/BluePeter'', the [[LongRunner long-running]] MagazineShow that aired on the competing [=BBC1=]. ''That'' is how much of an event it was. |
| 396 | * ''Series/LegendsOfTheHiddenTemple''. The final temple run didn't ''look'' that hard, as long as the kid was in decent shape. It was a maze of 12 rooms, each of which had some minor task to do, which ranged from laughably easy (The Throne of the Pretender was ''sit on the throne'',) to kind of difficult (The Shrine of the Silver Monkey was a three-piece puzzle, which seems to stump everyone.) However, the show had a less than 25% success rate. Why? Temple Guardians, that's why. 3 were placed in random rooms and there was no indication as to where or when they would pop up. Usually, they were unavoidable, regardless of what path you took. Sometimes you would even be caught by one in the unskippable first room. Basically, if you didn't earn all those [[OneUp Pendants of Life]] in the challenges, [[LuckBasedMission and the path you chose just happened to go past 2 or 3 guardians]], [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption failure would be the only possible outcome for your team.]] |
| 397 | ** Another one was the Jester's Court - that wasn't a very fair task, because you could see people having an easy time with it, but that was because they had to hit all the buttons at once; and that wasn't easy if you were short. |
| 398 | * Many viewers of ''Series/TheMaskedSinger'' have claimed that the show looks extremely easy. All you have to is dress up and keep yourself hidden from the judges, right? Well, the costumes are known to be extremely hot and heavy (and many singers often ''dance'' as well) to the point where several singers have reported breathing issues. In addition, many of the costumes are also extremely hard to see out of as well. |
| 399 | * ''Series/{{Password}}'' as well as its variants (''Plus'', ''Super'' and ''Million Dollar''). As lampshaded by Ludden, it's harder than it looks. Because you see the word written ''right in front of you'', many people accidentally read the word by mistake. This is very similar to the Stroop effect. |
| 400 | * ''Series/ThePriceIsRight'' catches many people off guard when they become contestants on the show. People tend to think the show is easy (probably because they can easily look up prices of products through Google as the show is playing on TV) and how they would never make the same stupid mistakes people on the show do. It isn't until you get to actually play the games on the show that you are under the pressure of guessing the general price range of a car with a limited amount of chances or trying to correctly guess the prices of four prizes in a strict time limit while running around on stage with the price tags in your hands. The more focused contestants tend to do better than the ones who let their excitement take control. |
| 401 | * In-universe example in the ''WesternAnimation/SonicBoom'' episode, "[[Recap/SonicBoomS1E47FuzzyPuppyBuddies Fuzzy Puppy Buddies]]"; The Fuzzy Puppies board game is implied to be a lot more sophisticated and difficult to learn than the name and theme suggest. The playing pieces are adorable puppy figures that each have their own unique ability, they can be equipped with cute hats that also bestow different abilities, you need to have a balance of enforcers, decoys, and support puppies on your team to play it well, the playing board is a hex-grid, and a 20-sided die is involved. |
| 402 | * When you watch ''Series/{{Survivor}}'' on TV, it looks somewhat easy for what they're doing. I mean, a kid can do this, right? Well, when you watch it on the TV, you're well fed, well rested, see what's going on in the other camp, etc. |
| 403 | * This was the entire point of the show ''Trapped''. In each challenge, the contestants (known as Unfortunates) would attempt to complete a simple challenge, such as assembling a wall or filling a goblet with snow. However, in each round, a saboteur was chosen from among the remaining Unfortunates in secret with their goal being to mess with the challenge in some way, such as knocking down the tower when a blackout strikes or purposefully stepping on the ground to tip the goblet over. It's no surprise that some challenges were never beaten during the run of the show, especially in the two examples mentioned as they didn't end when the task was completed (instead, they had to be complete when the timer ran out). |
| 404 | ** However, being a saboteur wasn't as easy as it sounds; they had to make sure the challenge was failed without the team realising who the saboteur was. If the team beat a challenge or if the saboteur was spotted, they were eliminated from the game (the same would happen to another Unfortunate if the saboteur succeeded at both of these). |
| 405 | * The final round ("Let's go to the map!") on ''Series/WhereInTheWorldIsCarmenSandiego'' actually had its difficulty ramped up as the show ran on, because too many kids were winning and Creator/{{PBS}} couldn't afford to keep paying for trips. Seven countries in 45 seconds, not too bad. Eight cities or bodies of water in 45 seconds? Considerably worse. Not to mention that the map tended to be someplace unfamiliar to American audiences like Africa, and it was ''upside-down'' from the contestant's perspective. |
| 406 | ** Don't forget that the contestant had to wait until the host completed reading his question before running over to the proper location. Often, these were long questions, and even if he read them fast they took upwards of 5 seconds to finish. Thus, there were many instances in which a contestant was very fast and perfect about each location, but still lost because the host took too long in his part. Often, the bonus round was humanly impossible to complete. |
| 407 | ** Although they took the long readings out after a season or two. Eventually he would just say "Carmen went to Zaire". |
| 408 | *** The final round of the spinoff, ''Series/WhereInTimeIsCarmenSandiego'', was ''even worse''. The final mission was "The Trail of Time." Roughly, the kids had to run from one gate to the next, answering questions or performing a small but time-consuming task (turn a wheel, pull a rope.) The questions were long (albeit rather simple, usually a two-choice multiple choice.) But the tasks were time-consuming and, probably the worst offender, the gates were not in order, rather just jumbled around. Even with the Engine Crew waving with airport flashlights, kids kept going to the wrong gates. |
| 409 | * ''Series/{{Wipeout 2008}}'' and ''Series/TakeshisCastle''. It looks ''really'' fun... but damn are they hard! These obstacle courses take a lot more stamina and luck than one thinks. |
| 410 | |
| 411 | !! Tabletop Games |
| 412 | * ''TabletopGame/DungeonPetz''. While its light, breezy theme and XtremeKoolLetterz title suggest that it would be a simple, kid-friendly game, it's actually a fairly heavy EuroGame. |
| 413 | * Katamino and its derivatives. Look at those colorful pentominos. Now try to form a 5x9 rectangle with them. |
| 414 | |
| 415 | !! Webcomics |
| 416 | * Hilariously used in one ''Webcomic/{{Xkcd}}'' [[http://xkcd.com/70/ strip]]: |
| 417 | -->''When I'm in a rock band, I'm gonna do a cool, mellow song. Then in the middle I'll stop, announce "this part is just to be an [[{{Troll}} asshole]] to people playing ''VideoGame/GuitarHero''," and then flail wildly on the strings [[ThatOneAttack for 30 seconds]].'' |
| 418 | |
| 419 | !! Real Life |
| 420 | * National spelling bees. They're spelling bees. For kids. The contestants are all middle-schoolers. Wait, is... is that word even English? Is it even a ''word?'' Holy shit, ''did that thirteen-year-old kid actually get it right?!'' |
| 421 | ** The movie ''Spellbound'' and the book ''American Bee'' both establish just how much training it takes to get far in those things. Essentially, you have to develop monomania for words. |
| 422 | * Eating competitions. It sounds easy because all you have to do is eat, which is what many people can do effortlessly. However, the catch is that you have to eat the most food in a short amount of time. If you've eaten fast or so much food before, you know it's not comfortable to shove up food and swallow it quickly, with so much food in your stomach already. |
| 423 | * Creator/DaveBarry once said that synchronized swimming is the easiest sport in the world. After being invited to a swim meet with them, he said that it was the hardest sport in the world. |
| 424 | * Open-book tests can be ''merciless'' if you're not prepared. Some are designed so there isn't enough time to skim notes and books for all the answers, while some compensate for the available notes by being so advanced or in-depth that even with them it's hard. Also, go ahead and ask a trademan how easy tests involving the National Building or Electrical Code can be, where finding some of the obscure or oddly worded code references can be downright ''brutal''. |
| 425 | * Flat stages of major road bicycle races like the UsefulNotes/TourDeFrance can sometimes be this. Generally they are considered the easier stages to finish decently in, and also come down to a bunch sprint at the finish line. However, strong crosswinds on the route have the capability of splitting the peleton into two or more groups of riders, leaving general classification contenders or sprinters caught behind the split suddenly in trouble. Also, generally flat stages with a tricky finish (tight turns, significant slopes, or other difficulties) can throw off pure sprinters before the finish line, leaving more technical riders (who can deal with the difficulties) to vie for the finish. |
| 426 | [[/folder]] |
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