History NintendoHard / BeatEmUps

* ''VideoGame/BatmanReturns'' for the Platform/{{SNES}}. A lot of attacks do absurd amounts of damage, and since Batman has no MercyInvincibility when he gets up, enemies can and will camp out around his prone body, waiting for him to get up so they can get in a free hit, or even just smack him back down again. The bosses are 'especially'' brutal, able to completely destroy your health in a matter of seconds (Catwoman's dash attack, in particular, can easily wipe you out in only two hits, and is extremely hard to dodge.)

* ''VideoGame/BatmanReturns'' for the UsefulNotes/{{SNES}}. A lot of attacks do absurd amounts of damage, and since Batman has no MercyInvincibility when he gets up, enemies can and will camp out around his prone body, waiting for him to get up so they can get in a free hit, or even just smack him back down again. The bosses are 'especially'' brutal, able to completely destroy your health in a matter of seconds (Catwoman's dash attack, in particular, can easily wipe you out in only two hits, and is extremely hard to dodge.)

* ''VideoGame/DoubleDragon'' on the UsefulNotes/{{NES}}. Three lives, no 1-Ups, no continues and no way to recharge your energy during a stage. The best code the Game Genie gave this game was upping the lives to nine. The last stage starts with blocks poking out of the wall and causing major damage. (A Nintendo Power cheat said you can walk by unscathed by waiting for one particular block to punch out twice in a row, but you'll drain the timer doing that!) In the final battle, you must battle two of every foe you faced previously before taking on the TWO {{Big Bad}}s. Get killed by any of them and you have to face all of them again.

** ''Double Dragon III'' for UsefulNotes/{{NES}}. Take everything mentioned above, add much tougher enemy AI, and cut the lives per character down to ONE. Yeah, it's ''hard''.

* ''Anime/MazingerZ'': A game based on that HumongousMecha {{Anime}} series was released for the UsefulNotes/{{SNES}}. Long stages. One single life. Very sparse recovery items. No 1-Ups. No continues. No password system. No save system. If you die, you have to start again from the beginning. Get fun.

* ''VideoGame/StreetsOfRage''

In fairness, while the whole game is [[SequelDifficultySpike harder than its predecessor]], mission 2 involves fighting a [[WakeUpCallBoss full-strength multi-phase boss]]. This is before you have access to the tag mechanics that make up a lot of your escape options, making this a particularly nasty case of EarlyGameHell.

* ''Ninja Combat'' is hard for all the wrong reasons. Hit detection on projectiles is wonky, but on the other hand trying to actually engage in melee combat is an exercise in assisted suicide, because most melee enemies will annihilate you in one or two hits. It's not uncommon to burn through 2-3 credits in less than a minute from the sheer numbers of melee enemies flooding the screen and dogpiling you to death. You get other characters you can play as as you progress through the game, but all of them pale in comparison to the pair of identical ninjas you start out with (and the last one you get, who only gets short-range projectiles but excels in melee combat, is the worst in the game.)

* ''VideoGame/TheAdventuresOfBayouBilly'' was mentioned on ''WesternAnimation/CaptainNTheGameMaster'' as the only [[UsefulNotes/{{NES}} game that Kevin was never able to beat. And boy, does it ever live up to that reputation, as [[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment The Spoony One]] [[http://www.spoonyexperiment.com/2007/01/24/adventures-of-bayou-billy-nes-review/ will attest]].

** ''Double Dragon III'' for NES. Take everything mentioned above, add much tougher enemy AI, and cut the lives per character down to ONE. Yeah, it's ''hard''.

* ''VideoGame/TheAdventuresOfBayouBilly'' was mentioned on ''WesternAnimation/CaptainNTheGameMaster'' as the only NES game that Kevin was never able to beat. And boy, does it ever live up to that reputation, as [[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment The Spoony One]] [[http://www.spoonyexperiment.com/2007/01/24/adventures-of-bayou-billy-nes-review/ will attest]].

* ''VideoGame/BatmanReturns'' for the SNES. A lot of attacks do absurd amounts of damage, and since Batman has no MercyInvincibility when he gets up, enemies can and will camp out around his prone body, waiting for him to get up so they can get in a free hit, or even just smack him back down again. The bosses are 'especially'' brutal, able to completely destroy your health in a matter of seconds (Catwoman's dash attack, in particular, can easily wipe you out in only two hits, and is extremely hard to dodge.)
* ''VideoGame/DoubleDragon'' on the original NES. Three lives, no 1-Ups, no continues and no way to recharge your energy during a stage. The best code the Game Genie gave this game was upping the lives to nine. The last stage starts with blocks poking out of the wall and causing major damage. (A Nintendo Power cheat said you can walk by unscathed by waiting for one particular block to punch out twice in a row, but you'll drain the timer doing that!) In the final battle, you must battle two of every foe you faced previously before taking on the TWO {{Big Bad}}s. Get killed by any of them and you have to face all of them again.

* ''Anime/MazingerZ'': A game based on that HumongousMecha {{Anime}} series was released for the SNES. Long stages. One single life. Very sparse recovery items. No 1-Ups. No continues. No password system. No save system. If you die, you have to start again from the beginning. Get fun.

** The American release of ''Streets of Rage 3'' is merciless, with enemies doing insane damage. You can easily get killed by the weakest mooks if you're not paying much attention, and the bosses have millions of health bars (well not really, but like 7). American mode Normal is Japanese's version of Hard as well, so American Hard is Japanese's Very Hard, which has loads of enemies (easy in Japanese version due to aforementioned weak hits). Anyway, you WILL be spamming those special moves whether it cuts health or not, as if you don't, You're screwed.
** ''Streets of Rage 2'' has the secret "Mania" difficulty level, where every single boss has five full bars of health, even basic mooks will out-priority your attacks '''and''' have 3/4 of a full life bar, with rarer enemies sometimes having 2 1/2 - 3 bars of health. While the attack damages remain the same, they have ridiculously fast speed and can overwhelm you in seconds. You '''will''' need to set your lives to nine (also unlocked by the same code) or you probably won't even make it past the first stage unless you're a Beat-Em-Up god, or doing a Tool-Assisted Speedrun.

* ''VideoGame/DJBoy'' and it's sequel, ''B.Rap Boys''. DJ Boy has somewhat floaty controls that makes it harder with only having 5 "lives". B.Rap Boys, on the other hand, has enemies that takes too long to defeat, and can drain you're health bar in an instant.

** Double Dragon 3 for NES. Take everything mentioned above, add much tougher enemy AI, and cut the lives per character down to ONE. Yeah, it's ''hard''.
** Double Dragon Advance. Too little continues for the [[SchizophrenicDifficulty spiked up]] challenge ahead, enemies that can easily hit stun the player every time usually leading into a combo, [[ThatOneLevel Mission]] [[TrainTopBattle 4]], and being considered so difficult that the later released Japanese version is much easier than the American version.
* ''[[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries The Adventures of Batman & Robin]]'' had many ports with subtle differences between them, mainly involving the boss fights. The actual beat-em-up segments are endless, swarming with enemies, and stingy with power-ups. Punishing on two players, impossible in single-player.

* ''VideoGame/AstroBoyOmegaFactor'' has three difficulty levels: Easy, Normal, and Hard. Hard mode truly lives up to its name, and if for some reason that's not enough, there's Rebirth Mode, which is ridiculous on ''any'' difficulty.

* ''VideoGame/StreetsOfRage 3''. The American release is merciless, with enemies doing insane damage. You can easily get killed by the weakest mooks if you're not paying much attention, and the bosses have millions of health bars (well not really, but like 7). American mode Normal is Japanese's version of Hard as well, so American Hard is Japanese's Very Hard, which has loads of enemies (easy in Japanese version due to aforementioned weak hits). Anyway, you WILL be spamming those special moves whether it cuts health or not, as if you don't, You're screwed.
** Streets of Rage 2 has the secret "Mania" difficulty level, where every single boss has five full bars of health, even basic mooks will out-priority your attacks '''and''' have 3/4 of a full life bar, with rarer enemies sometimes having 2 1/2 - 3 bars of health. While the attack damages remain the same, they have ridiculously fast speed and can overwhelm you in seconds. You '''will''' need to set your lives to nine (also unlocked by the same code) or you probably won't even make it past the first stage unless you're a Beat-Em-Up god, or doing a Tool-Assisted Speedrun.
* ''VideoGame/XenophageAlienBloodsport''. Egad! If you're used to beating the computer nine games out of ten on the hardest difficulty in ''VideoGame/OneMustFall'', you're in for a nasty surprise when you try ''Xenophage''. Everything about the computer's behaviour makes it difficult, the special moves are practically useless and the final boss has two forms which you have to beat in one round. On the up side, you do have interesting-looking characters to fight and fight with. Still, don't say you weren't warned when the computer hands you your arse.

* ''VideoGame/MortalKombatMythologiesSubZero'': Earth God and Prison Warden/Giant. These guys guard, most likely impossible to defeat due to the awkward control style, especially if you played ''Mortal Kombat Trilogy'' first before moving to this game. Even though the key to win them is the Move slide, but the awkward controls makes the two bosses impossible. Playing on Medium or above doesn't even help the condition...
* ''VideoGame/AsurasWrath''. On easy, you pretty much can never die. On normal, it's a bit easy still, but there are some challenges. Hard mode is even harder, but it's still possible - just challenging- to get A ranks and S ranks. What really sends the game into this territory is equipping the Mortal Gauge. Good, God. Even on easy, the bosses are capable of killing you in one hit, and it only gets harder the higher your difficulty is, capable of making every boss in the game ThatOneBoss.
* ''VideoGame/{{Executioners}}'': The game is this trope for a number of reasons. First, you have GoddamnedBats with most of the enemies, and the big, muscular {{Elite Mook}}s can qualify as DemonicSpiders. Second, there is a certain degree of TrialAndErrorGameplay, especially when you have to position yourself so you don't get hit by the boss's DynamicEntry at the end of some levels. Third, you have 6 lives, and a limited number of continues, like maybe 10. There is no way to adjust the difficulty. Finally, the game has stiff, clunky, and perhaps somewhat unresponsive controls. But then, this was the first game to be sold by two high-school students named Ethan Petty and Icer Addis, so NintendoHard is probably to be expected!
* ''VideoGame/TheAdventuresOfBayouBilly'' was mentioned on ''WesternAnimation/CaptainNTheGameMaster'' as the only NES game that Kevin was never able to beat. And boy, does it ever live up to that reputation, as [[WebVideo/TheSpoonyExperiment The Spoony One]] [[http://www.spoonyexperiment.com/2007/01/24/adventures-of-bayou-billy-nes-review/ will attest]].
** There are two huge stumbling blocks: 1. Being too aggressive in the driving stages and losing all your lives (if you lose one life to time in each, that's ''fantastic'') and 2. Dying in stage 7, thus losing your whip and bulletproof vest; stage 8 is nearly impossible to win without them. Strangely enough, if you do retain them, that stage is pretty easy, and the last stage is more tedious than anything. You CAN beat the final bosses without taking any damage if you have a whip (although it'll take forever).

* ''[[VideoGame/GuardianHeroes Advance Guardian Heroes]]'' on [[HarderThanHard Super Hard mode]], to the point where it borders on FakeDifficulty.
* ''VideoGame/BatmanReturns'' for the SNES. A lot of attacks do absurd amounts of damage, and since Batman has no MercyInvincibility when he gets up, enemies can and will camp out around his prone body, waiting for him to get up so they can get in a free hit, or even just smack him back down again. The bosses are 'especially'' brutal, able to completely destroy your health in a matter of seconds (Catwoman's dash attack, in particular, can easily wipe you out in only two hits, and is extremely hard to dodge.)
* ''Ninja Combat'' is hard for all the wrong reasons. Hit detection on projectiles is wonky, but on the other hand trying to actually engage in melee combat is an exercise in assisted suicide, because most melee enemies will annihilate you in one or two hits. It's not uncommon to burn through 2-3 credits in less than a minute from the sheer numbers of melee enemies flooding the screen and dogpiling you to death. You get other characters you can play as as you progress through the game, but all of them pale in comparison to the pair of identical ninjas you start out with (and the last one you get, who only gets short-range projectiles but excels in melee combat, is the worst in the game.)
* ''VideoGame/DJBoy'' and it's sequel, ''B.Rap Boys''. DJ Boy has somewhat floaty controls that makes it harder with only having 5 "lives". B.Rap Boys, on the other hand, has enemies that takes too long to defeat, and can drain you're health bar in an instant.

* ''VideoGame/{{Executioners}}'': The game is this trope for a number of reasons. First, you have GoddamnedBats with most of the enemies, and the big, muscular {{Elite Mook}}s can qualify as DemonicSpiders. Second, there is a certain degree of TrialAndErrorGameplay, especially when you have to position yourself so you don't get hit by the boss's DynamicEntry at the end of some levels. Third, you have 6 lives, and a limited number of continues, like maybe 10. There is no way to adjust the difficulty. Finally, the game has stiff, clunky, and perhaps somewhat unresponsive controls. But then, this was the first game to be sold by two high-school students named EthanPetty and IcerAddis, so NintendoHard is probably to be expected!

** Double Dragon 3 for NES. Take everything mentioned above, add much tougher enemy AI, and cut the lives down to ONE. Yeah, it's ''hard''.

* ''Tiny Toon Adventures: Scary Dreams''/''Buster's Bad Dream''. You can't recover health, large groups of enemies with lots of health and hard to avoid attacks, long levels AND you have to start the levels all over again from the beginning if you die... there is a reason why you have unlimited continues. Don't even get me started on hard mode (Easy is already hard enough as it is!)...

* ''VideoGame/XenophageAlienBloodsport''. Egad! If you're used to beating the computer nine games out of ten on the hardest difficulty in ''OneMustFall'', you're in for a nasty surprise when you try ''Xenophage''. Everything about the computer's behaviour makes it difficult, the special moves are practically useless and the final boss has two forms which you have to beat in one round. On the up side, you do have interesting-looking characters to fight and fight with. Still, don't say you weren't warned when the computer hands you your arse.

* Most games in the ''VideoGame/SenranKagura'' series keep themselves fairly easy with a few spikes in difficulty to add flavor. ''Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson'', on the other hand, will often have you begging for mercy as soon as the '''second mission'''. This has caused a split between fans who like the challenge, and those who feel it's too hard.

* ''VideoGame/GodHand''. A modern heir to the title of Nintendo Hard. Yes, you have unlimited continues, but this is because you ''will'' need them. Starting with the very first stage, the enemies will hand you your own ass--repeatedly. At least it will hand you your ass ''honestly''--''VideoGame/GodHand'' avoids resorting to cheap FakeDifficulty tactics.

* ''VideoGame/StreetsOfRage 3''. The American release is merciless, with enemies doing insane damage, like you can get killed by the pussiest mooks if you're not paying much attention, and the bosses have millions of health bars (well not really, but like 7). American mode Normal is Japanese's version of Hard as well, so American Hard is Japanese's Very Hard, which has loads of enemies (easy in Japanese version due to aforementioned weak hits). Anyway, you WILL be spamming those special moves whether it cuts health or not, as if you don't, You're screwed.
** It wasn't as hard as you think, though. Harder, but not impossible. If you want impossible, play its prequel, using the secret "Mania" difficulty level, where every single boss has five full bars of health, even basic mooks will out-priority your attacks '''and''' have 3/4 of a full life bar, with rarer enemies sometimes having 2 1/2 - 3 bars of health. You '''will''' need to set your lives to nine (also unlocked by the same code) or you probably won't even make it past the first stage unless you're a Beat-Em-Up god, or doing a Tool-Assisted Speedrun.
*** Nah. SOR 3 has bosses with insane amounts of health on hard. The last boss has 9 on two player. Even the weakest guys can nail you for 70% of a bar. They have insane priority and aggression, the Mania mode never changed the damage. Literally 2 mistakes and you're dead. There's a reason so many people avoided it. ''ItsHardSoItSucks''

* ''VideoGame/TheAdventuresOfBayouBilly'' was mentioned on ''WesternAnimation/CaptainNTheGameMaster'' as the only NES game that Kevin was never able to beat. And boy, does it ever live up to that reputation, as [[TheSpoonyExperiment The Spoony One]] [[http://www.spoonyexperiment.com/2007/01/24/adventures-of-bayou-billy-nes-review/ will attest]].

* ''Anime/MazingerZ'': A game based on that HumongousMecha {{Anime}} series was released for the SNES. Long stages. One single life. Very sparse recovery items. No 1-Ups. No continues. No password system. No save system. If you die, you have to start again from the beginning. Get fun.

* ''StreetsOfRage 3''. The American release is merciless, with enemies doing insane damage, like you can get killed by the pussiest mooks if you're not paying much attention, and the bosses have millions of health bars (well not really, but like 7). American mode Normal is Japanese's version of Hard as well, so American Hard is Japanese's Very Hard, which has loads of enemies (easy in Japanese version due to aforementioned weak hits). Anyway, you WILL be spamming those special moves whether it cuts health or not, as if you don't, You're screwed.

* ''MortalKombat Mythologies Sub-zero'': Earth God and Prison Warden/Giant. These guys guard, most likely impossible to defeat due to the awkward control style, especially if you played ''Mortal Kombat Trilogy'' first before moving to this game. Even though the key to win them is the Move slide, but the awkward controls makes the two bosses impossible. Playing on Medium or above doesn't even help the condition...

* ''{{Executioners}}'': The game is this trope for a number of reasons. First, you have GoddamnedBats with most of the enemies, and the big, muscular {{Elite Mook}}s can qualify as DemonicSpiders. Second, there is a certain degree of TrialAndErrorGameplay, especially when you have to position yourself so you don't get hit by the boss's DynamicEntry at the end of some levels. Third, you have 6 lives, and a limited number of continues, like maybe 10. There is no way to adjust the difficulty. Finally, the game has stiff, clunky, and perhaps somewhat unresponsive controls. But then, this was the first game to be sold by two high-school students named EthanPetty and IcerAddis, so NintendoHard is probably to be expected!

* ''GodHand''. A modern heir to the title of Nintendo Hard. Yes, you have unlimited continues, but this is because you ''will'' need them. Starting with the very first stage, the enemies will hand you your own ass--repeatedly. At least it will hand you your ass ''honestly''--''GodHand'' avoids resorting to cheap FakeDifficulty tactics.

* ''{{The Adventures of Bayou Billy}}'' was mentioned on ''WesternAnimation/CaptainNTheGameMaster'' as the only NES game that Kevin was never able to beat. And boy, does it ever live up to that reputation, as [[TheSpoonyExperiment The Spoony One]] [[http://www.spoonyexperiment.com/2007/01/24/adventures-of-bayou-billy-nes-review/ will attest]].

* ''{{Weaponlord}}'' has a few issues that make it very hard. The most problematic of these is the fact that the controls [[SomeDexterityRequired the controls are incredibly unintuitive at times]] and very hard to pull off reliably in others. The second major stumbling block is the very overbearing AI in the SNES version (The Genesis version tones this down quite a bit), which is made worse with the already problematic controls. However, to the game's credit, the AI isn't nearly as cheap as it could be in other fighting games, making some of the beatings a bit more enjoyable.
* ''[[GuardianHeroes Advance Guardian Heroes]]'' on [[HarderThanHard Super Hard mode]], to the point where it borders on FakeDifficulty.
* ''Batman Returns'' for the SNES. A lot of attacks do absurd amounts of damage, and since Batman has no MercyInvincibility when he gets up, enemies can and will camp out around his prone body, waiting for him to get up so they can get in a free hit, or even just smack him back down again. The bosses are 'especially'' brutal, able to completely destroy your health in a matter of seconds (Catwoman's dash attack, in particular, can easily wipe you out in only two hits, and is extremely hard to dodge.)

** The arcade version of the second game. The Elbow Punch has been {{nerf}}ed so you can't elbow-spam your way through the game like the first. And the enemies are bigger, badder, and attack in greater numbers. And there are no 1-ups this time.

** If you have the patience to exploit the level-up feature long enough, you can get all your techniques in the first level, making the game noticeably easier. Until you get to the [[LuckBasedMission sliding blocks]].

* ''Batman Returns'' for the SNES, ''especially'' the bosses, who can completely destroy your health in a matter of seconds (Catwoman's dash attack, in particular, can take off 9/10's of your health meter and knock you down so she can walk up and kick you in the face for the last 1/10th. And she's only the third boss.)