History NintendoHard / Uncategorised

* ''VideoGame/TerminatorSalvation'' the Arcade Game is a very tough LightGunGame compared to ''VideoGame/GhostSquad'' or ''VideoGame/RazingStorm''. Let's see... swarm waves of enemies which can take an entire magazine of your gun to kill a single Terminator. Swarms of DemonicSpider units which will utterly overwhelm you. And there is no way to know how close you are to finishing off an enemy, unlike its cousins, which will put your skills as a resistance soldier to the test.

* ''VideoGame/DeadAheadZombieWatfare'' is this when compared to the first. ''Dead Ahead'' is a simple side-scroller that only concerns you with having to tread as far as possible without crashing, while racking up combo chains. ''Zombie Warfare'', however, is a much slower and more methodical game that requires you to rely on trial-and-error for deck building, and plan your moves several steps ahead, with correct timing playing a huge role.

* ''VideoGame/GettingOverItWithBennettFoddy'' does this via SomeDexterityRequired and NoCheckpoints; it is possible to fall all the way back to the start of the game, and the controls are deliberately awkward, as you have to climb the side of a mountain of trash using nothing but a hammer whose swings are controlled by your mouse - you can't even jump or move outside of that.

* ''VideoGame/GeometryDash'': The first few levels are easy, but the "demons" often take hundreds and thousands of attempts due to awkward timings, fakes and fast speed. The real kicker, though, is the fan-made levels. Feeling yourself a Geometry Dash pro? Try [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuJkgwNJ0UU this]] [[note]]It's ranked ''55th'' on the official "hardest levels" list[[/note]].

''VideoGame/TheLionKing'' has a couple notorious levels, with the most notable being “I Just Can’t Wait To Be King”, the second level. You’re jumping through trees, then riding an ostrich and trying to avoid jumping or ducking at the wrong time.

* ''VideoGame/BaldisBasicsInEducationAndLearning'': Since there's so many enemies you have to juggle, the game is remarkably hard. Not even LetsPlay/HarshlyCritical bothered beating it.

* ''VideoGame/CarnEvil'', an obscure horror-comedy rail shooter, is viciously difficult. It's all in the name of [[BribingYourWayToVictory stealing all your money]]. The game even requires that you pay 50 cents a life, instead of the more standard 25. [[LampshadeHanging Adding to that]], the main villain's name is [[MeaningfulName Baron Von Tokkentakker]]. Well, at least they're honest. Not that that's a comfort when you're playing, say, the [[ThatOneLevel Haunted House]] level, and you're almost immediately eviscerated by some Jason knockoff as soon as you step through the door. For these reasons, the game is best played on Free Play mode, or through an emulator.

* ''VideoGame/FatalFrame'' had Nightmare difficulty, leading to ghosts taking much more health off of the player's health. But even that paled in comparison to the Xbox ports adding ''Fatal'' difficulty. Even the simplest of ghosts were capable of performing a OneHitKill, leaving the player to hope that they had a [[OneUp Mirrorstone]] in their inventory. This was particularly bad in the first game, as there was no sure-fire way to evade or dodge a ghost's attack.
* The excitement and horror of ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' is largely because of just how brutally hard it is. It's very easy to run out of power, and it forces the player to learn the various mechanics of the game extremely quickly - while simultaneously keeping track of five different murderous robots randomly trying to kill you. And once you beat the game, you can change the AI to make it ''even harder''.
** ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys2'' cranks up the difficulty by adding more animatronics to deal with, and taking away the doors that kept them out. Now, you have no choice but to confront the killer machines, with only a Freddy Fazbear head to protect you. In addition to keeping track of the animatronics (who are even more unpredictable now), you must also make sure a music box in one room is kept wound, because if it stops, so too will your life. Also, you can once more tinker with the AI after beating the game. Good luck juggling ten maxed-out animatronics.
** And now ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys4'' upholds the tradition. Like the first game, you have only five animatronics to deal with.... Except now, there are '''no doors or cameras'''. You have to actually listen carefully in order to tell if a robot is about to attack you. The fact that their movements are now entirely random and they can move whenever they want doesn't help. Blind Mode takes this up to eleven by [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin stopping you from seeing anything]], along with Mad Freddy (the Mini-Freddies appear on bed at lightning speeds), and Insta-Foxy (Foxy is in the closet from the start). And yes, [[FromBadToWorse you can actually stack them all together]].
** ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddysSisterLocation'' in 10/20 Mode Custom Night takes the hardest aspects of all the other games, and combines them into potentially the hardest challenge in Five Nights history...
** Which is then immediately dwarfed by ''VideoGame/UltimateCustomNight'', which combines animatronics from all previous games into an impossibly hard ''50/20'' mode. ''That can have up to 58 animatronics.'' In Scott's first run of 50/20 mode, he died [[PressStartToGameOver one second in]].

* The ''VideoGame/HouseOfTheDead'' series. It doesn't help that in the Wii port of ''The House of the Dead 2'', you don't get unlimited continues.
** You would think that, by being given a shotgun in ''3'' and a machine gun in ''4'', along with a supply of grenades, would make those games easier than their predecessors. How wrong you are. ''How very, '''very''' wrong you are...''
** Some players can finish 1, 2, and 4 in one credit and get the best possible endings. 3, on the other hand, would rip your spine out and snap your head off with it. It was really long, it was tough to get shots off quickly with the heavy shotgun, and there were numerous spots where you were guaranteed to take a hit if you didn't have absolutely perfect accuracy and lightning speed. And the bosses, oh, the bosses. Did ''anyone'' beat Fool without taking at least 8 hits? No surprise that this is the least popular Hot[=D=] of all and didn't even last a year in some arcades.
** Hell, just about any Sega-created arcade-style light gun game could fit this trope; there's ''VideoGame/TheOceanHunter'' with its slow-to-reload torpedoes and annoyingly frenetic and hard-to-kill bosses, ''VideoGame/LetsGoJungle'' with its swarms of enemies and irritating minigames to determine how you fare in certain forced scenarios...but the king has to be ''Brave Firefighters'', a ''VideoGame/TimeCrisis''-like firefighting game where ''each and every fire you're supposed to put out, '''including the "boss" fires''''' regenerate their health and spread if you don't take care of them fast enough...before throwing in a "save the hostage" scenario in ''each "boss" fire'' that -- if you allow to get burned -- takes time ''off''. Prepare to have your bank account emptied by this game, and try to avoid the AllDevouringBlackHoleLoanSharks, while you're at it.
** What of Typing of the Dead? The last levels will have you snap your keyboard in half after giving you carpal tunnel three times on each wrist... somehow.

* If you have no idea what you're doing in ''Videogame/LakeviewCabinCollection'', it's very likely you'll die quickly. The game requires a lot of scouting the area out to find the supplies you need and to do so in a timely manner, almost crossing into GuideDangIt territory at times. The enemies are fairly quick, with some taking a lot of punishment, and can kill you in a few strikes depending on the weapon.

* Not only is ''VideoGame/{{Siren}}'' full of terrors, but if you slip up ''just once'', the game '''WILL''' kill you.
** If you want OneHundredPercentCompletion, you ''need'' a guide to complete all of the alternate level goals and get an extra ending in the process. Even then, if you're not thorough enough the first and second times around, you will miss most of the special document items, the last of which unlocks a bonus cutscene [[spoiler: hat appears to be a prequel to the whole game that explains Hanuda Village's curse]]. There are also a couple of boss battles that are exhausting, but that's [[ThatOneBoss another trope]].

* ''VideoGame/StringTyrant'' is a survival horror game where the enemies chase you until you break line of sight, combat is lethal, enemies respawn and healing items are few and far between. The game tells you to start playing on easy for a reason.

* ''{{VideoGame/Unturned}}'' is a WideOpenSandbox SurvivalHorror game set during the ZombieApocalypse. You start a game with nothing, inventory is limited, supplies are scarce, and zombies are legion. You'll become hungry, thirsty, can succumb to sickness, and that's assuming the zombies don't eat you first. There are also no doors to be found so buildings are no shelter until you fortify them yourself.

* The later stages of the ''[[VideoGame/BloonsTowerDefense Bloons TD]]'' games can veer straight into this trope, 5 being arguably the worst game with this, throwing a bunch of [[BossInMookClothing ZOMGs]] (the most powerful enemies in the game) at you ALL AT ONCE in the post-game.
** It gets worse. When you get all the Completion Medals for all Beginner tracks (Yes, including [[spoiler:[[HarderThanHard Impop]][[IdiosyncraticDifficultyLevels pable]]]]) '''AND''' beat '''''EVERY OTHER TRACK IN THE GAME''''' you get... *drumroll* [[spoiler:Mastery Mode.]] This is THE hardest mode in the game. Remember that 1 [=ZOMG=] the game threw at you on Round 85? Well, there are now '''''TEN''''' of the things '''one round earlier!''' They are also faster and stronger. Did I mention that a '''normal''' [=ZOMG=] has a whopping 4000 HP and a RBE level of 16656? [[ThisIsGonnaSuck Have fun!]]
** For a '''REAL''' [[SelfImposedChallenge challenge]], combine [[spoiler:Mastery ''and'' Impoppable.]] You can turn them both on at the same time. [[SarcasmMode Piece of cake.]]

* The ''VideoGame/{{Pikmin}}'' series is known for it's cute plant-animal hybrids, but it's also known for being pretty tough. The main gameplay is RealTimeStrategy-like with you creating the most adorable army in the world to help you collect items scattered throughout the levels. Doesn't sound too bad until you find out the Pikmin are more vulnerable than YOU and can die in one hit from...anything. Then there's the time limit in the games with each day being 16 mins long in real-time, making searching for ship parts, items, or fruit stressful. Speaking of searching for items to collect...

** The second has no deadline but you still have to deal with the 16 mins real-time clock while searching for artifacts and objects.

* The VideoGame/{{Pikmin}} series is known for it's cute plant-animal hybrids, but it's also known for being pretty tough. The main gameplay is RealTimeStrategy-like with you creating the most adorable army in the world to help you collect items scattered throughout the levels. Doesn't sound too bad until you find out the Pikmin are more vulnerable than YOU and can die in one hit from...anything. Then there's the time limit in the games with each day being 16 mins long in real-time, making searching for ship parts, items, or fruit stressful. Speaking of searching for items to collect...

Getting a perfect No Pikmin Death Run will be the biggest challenge to win in this series...

* The VideoGame/{{Pikmin}} series is known for being pretty demanding in terms of how you plan. The main gameplay is RealTimeStrategy-like with you creating the most adorable army in the world to help you collect items scattered throughout the levels. Doesn't sound too bad until you find out the Pikmin are more vulnerable than YOU and can die in one hit from...anything. You're not only a general in control of an army, you're also babysitting one. Then there's the time limit in the games that are only 16 mins long real-time. There's also certain bosses that will show up at certain days and you might miss them if you didn't know when they showed, or if they were there to begin with thus, missing any extra goods you could get from them to boost your Pikmin army. As for the main objective of the games...

** The second has no deadline but you still have to deal with the 16 mins real-time clock.
** The third balances the first two in bringing the time limit back, but it's given to how much fruit you've collected to create juice; the key component to keeping you from getting a game over.

* The VideoGame/Pikmin series is known for being pretty demanding in terms of how you plan. The main gameplay is real-time strategy-like by creating the most adorable army in the world to help you collect items scattered throughout the levels. Doesn't sound too bad until you find out the Pikmin are more vulnerable than YOU and can die in one hit from...anything. As for the main objective of the games...

** The third balances the first two in bringing the time limit back, but it's given to how much fruit you've collected.

* ''VideoGame/AceCombat04ShatteredSkies'' had a level that where the majority of the point items were into craters on the top of plateaus. That ascended 2500 feet in the air. To get them, you had to take your jet to nearly double that height, and nose dive until you came in firing range, which is in the hundreds of feet measurements. Okay, somewhat beatable if you can pull out and zoom away for another run. Now, tack on the bad guy's super weapon, which was capable of shooting down everything above 2000 feet within operational range instantly (operational range being nearly an entire continent the current combat zone just happens to be on) and fires something on the order of once every five minutes, forcing you to abandon precious time trying to make your runs. Then, even if were to get the points necessary to beat the level, you still had to wait for the mission to time out, and endure stuff shooting at you and the superweapon.

* ''Videogame/BaldisBasicsInEducationAndLearning'': Since there's so many enemies you have to juggle, the game is remarkably hard. Not even {{LetsPlay/HarshlyCritical}} bothered beating it.

* The later stages of the [[VideoGame/BloonsTowerDefense Bloons TD games]] can veer straight into this trope, 5 being arguably the worst game with this, throwing a bunch of [[BossInMookClothing ZOMGs]] (the most powerful enemies in the game) at you ALL AT ONCE in the post-game.

* ''VideoGame/CherryTreeHighComedyClub'' is a cutesy {{Moe}}-style Adventure Game with some memorable characters, a decent soundtrack and some funny jokes, but it can get pretty tough at times. You have a limited number of days to recruit at least three members into a school club, and you have to do so by doing various activities with them, figuring out what they like and dislike, with liked activities boosting the RelationshipValues faster; only once you get their affection level high enough can you finally recruit them. And just to rub salt in the wound, there's a NewGamePlus...that can be only accessed if you beat the game; failing by the end of the recruitment period results in a GameOver where at best you can reload from your last save.
* The action/chess hybrid ''VideoGame/{{Through the Looking Glass}}'' was repeatedly made more difficult at the urging of a co-worker who had gotten hooked and mastered it. The published version has been described as "insanely hard" and "impossible to play"... by its own creator.
* ''Videogame/CrashBash''. While most of basic tournaments are doable within few resets, the fact that to progress beyond second warp room you ''need'' to get Gems and Crystals doesn't help. For record, gems expect you to finish everyone off under strict time limit (sometimes like 25 seconds) or score more points than everyone else to win, sometimes both. Crystals impose special conditions on match, mostly some restriction that applies to you only like being constantly bombed by nitro boxes or air dropped mines. And to unlock every arena in multiplayer, you'll also need to get relics. Which expect you to win against optimized team, as in TheComputerIsACheatingBastard way. Twice. ''In a row.'' [[ThisIsGonnaSuck Yeah.]]

* Ecco CD for the Sega CD is so difficult that ''you can die when you have the invincibility god mode on''. Even the cheat codes are hard to use and difficult to implement (there's one that lets you teleport to X Y coordinates, which will usually end up with Ecco crushed in a wall... which will probably kill you). Which is a shame, since the music and [=FMVs=] are quite gorgeous.
** The ''VideoGame/EccoTheDolphin'' series in general (except for [[OddballInTheSeries Ecco Jr.]], of course) is brutally hard. Oh, sure, it stars a cute little dolphin, but he is going to die. A lot. The first game is hard to beat even if you enter the invincibility code and the level select code to begin on the final boss.

* ''VideoGame/TheImmortal''. It's an isometric adventure game rather than a platformer, but just like in ''Another World'', you can and ''will'' die a lot - to the extent that you can die in ''the very first room'' if you stand on one particular spot just a few seconds too long. To put it simply: the title ''[[SecondaryCharacterTitle doesn't refer to you]]''.
** There's something written on that amulet you picked up. Do you want to read it? ''You just blew up.''
** One of the puzzles ''requires'' you to drink poison in order to move further ahead. Better find that antidote in the next level quickly enough...
** Did you miss the Fire Resistance spell? The Magnetic Hands spell? The Stone Form spell? Sorry, if you're missing even a ''single'' one, the dragon at the end cannot be defeated and the game becomes {{Unwinnable}}. Time to restart...
** Creator/ElectronicArts sold a promotional T-shirt at the game's release which read "It's not when, it's how." The rest of the shirt was covered with pictures of human skulls in various states of damage with labels like "Crushed", "Fried", "Impaled", "Squid-bait"...

* ''VideoGame/KatamariDamacy'' has always had frustrating gimmick levels, but Katamari Forever takes it up to eleven with some of the King's Cosmos levels:
** [[ThatOneLevel The Cowbear level]] from We Love Katamari makes its return, but is even more obscenely difficult with the black-and-white filter making it impossible to tell what, exactly, counts as a cow or a bear.

* ''VideoGame/KerbalSpaceProgram'': How hard can designing and launching spacecraft be? [[ThisAintRocketSurgery It's not like its rocket s]]...oh, wait.

* ''VideoGame/RobotOdyssey'' is about as hard as... no, it's ''much harder'' than you would expect a game about ''electrical engineering'' to be like. The first two levels are reasonable enough, but then the game shifts to "brutal" to "soul-crushing" to "virtually impossible" in each subsequent one. Puzzles that will make your brain melt, require inhuman amounts of dedication and endurance, and harrowing punishments for failure are just the tip of the iceberg that awaits.

* ''VideoGame/{{Splatoon 2}}'' has Salmon Run. If you're feeling masochistic, you came to the right place.

* ''VideoGame/StringTyrant'' is a surivial horror game where the enemies chase you until you break line of sight, combat is lethal, enemies respawn and healing items are few and far between. The game tells you to start playing on easy for a reason.

* ''VideoGame/SuperCosplayWarUltra'' has its fair share of {{SNK Boss}}es, but where the Nintendo Hard aspect truely shines is in Battle Royale mode, which pits you and an AI-controlled partner against a series of mook enemies with a boss battle at the end of each stage. Even if it weren't for the fact that your AI partner is [[ArtificialStupidity guilty of doing some pretty dumb things]] (like wasting supers when the enemy's got you in the middle of an attack and renders both of you untouchable) and getting caught in between two enemies can cause you to swap directions randomly, Battle Royale mode would ''still'' be tough as hell, thanks to tougher-than-they-really-should-be mooks (every one has a super move, and the recurring Pac-Helo enemy can electrify himself, hurting the player if he/she doesn't attack him from a distance) and gigantic bosses with lots and lots of HP and attacks that hurl the player across the screen for massive damage (and some of them even render the boss immune to hitstun.) Most notable are stage 3, which gets rid of your AI partner entirely and pits you against 5 enemies all by yourself (and the game doesn't wait for you; if you take too long to defeat an enemy, more will spawn until you're completely overwhelmed.) and stage 5, which pits you against two mooks, two EliteMooks at once (both of which are practically MidBoss material) and the boss from stage 3 (who will spawn anyway if you take too long) and then finally one of the biggest [[SNkBoss SNKBosses]] in the game. All in one sitting. And that's not even getting into [[HarderThanHard Another Battle Royale...]]
* ''VideoGame/SurgeonSimulator2013'' is difficult from hilariously bad controls that were made that way on purpose. You control just one hand for the surgeries and you need to press 5 buttons on the keyboard to grip objects while using the mouse to tilt your hand, which makes grabbing objects a chore and can make doing the actual surgeries difficult. Even if you get used to the controls, the levels ramp up in difficulty; the surgery room isn't hard, but good luck doing surgery in a moving ambulance where the vehicle makes sharp turns and hitting bumps in the road that causes everything inside to go flying while praying that your tools don't go flying out the back door and make the game {{Unwinnable}}. Think the ambulance level was tough? Try doing surgeries in ''outer space'' where there's no gravity to hold your tools in place and one wrong swipe with the arm can make your tools go flying away and out of reach. The secret alien surgery takes it up a notch by not only having the procedure take place in outer space, but the organ required to do the transplant is randomized on each attempt and their names are made up, making it difficult to know what the hell you're supposed to grab. Not only that, touching one specific organ can reverse your controls and another can induce InterfaceScrew.

** YMMV, when you're experience lag, and in a dungeon, or Shadow Mission.

* Many online flash games unintentionally fall under this trope, as they are often created primarily by one person, thus preventing much play testing. As a result, they often start with an insultingly easy tutorial and quickly spiral into insanity, with little in the way of a curve in between.

* ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehogSpinball Sonic Spinball]]'', oddly. The levels are very long (you have to collect several emeralds that are spread out across different areas of the same stage and to do so you have to open secret passageways and successfully pinball Sonic into those areas once they're open) and a lot of the time the objectives and what you need to do are not very clearly spelled out. The challenge in this game originates more from its complexity than the raw difficulty, although the game is still pretty hard anyway (since, being pinball, it doesn't take much to throw Sonic into the drink with some bad flippering). No saves or passwords means you're in for a pretty extensive session to get to the end as well.

* Also, some of the stages in Creator/{{Zachtronics}}' programming puzzler [=SHENZHEN I/O=] (yes, it's [[CapsLock capitalised like that]]) can be pretty hellish sometimes, take for example [[spoiler:the last level]] where you have to track a radar signal using only basic ASM operators and chips that can hold '''14''' lines of code.

* ''VideoGame/BloodlineChampions'': So you start the game, thinking to yourself "I'm a MOBA veteran, let me see what everyone's talking about this one's combat for." Approximately 15 seconds after the start of your first battle you are now thinking "[[FlatWhat What?]]". After giving a woefully inadequate tutorial which only convinces you that you know nothing, the game throws you in with 15 abilities (counting your two items you can take in) to manage cooldowns and such on simultaneously (most of them requiring aiming, even the self-defense ones) and says [[SchmuckBait "go"]]. This game does not have a "steep learning curve", it has a learning '''[[UpToEleven cliff]]''' with everyone at the bottom [[{{Mooks}} dying like flies]] to everyone at the top who walk around racking up kills on the poor souls looking [[MookHorrorShow like an]] ImplacableMan.

* The excitement and horror of ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' is largely because of just how brutally hard it is. It's very easy to run out of power, and it forces the player to learn the various mechanics of the game extremely quickly - while simultaneously keeping track of five different murderous robots randomly trying to kill you. And once you beat the game, you can change the AI to make it ''[[UpToEleven even harder]]''.
** ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys2'' cranks up the difficulty by adding more animatronics to deal with, and taking away the doors that kept them out. Now, you have no choice but to confront the killer machines, with only a Freddy Fazbear head to protect you. In addition to keeping track of the animatronics (who are even more unpredictable now), you must also make sure a music box in one room is kept wound, because if it stops, so too will your life. Also, you can once more tinker with the AI after beating the game. [[UpToEleven Good luck juggling ten maxed-out animatronics]].
** And now ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys4'' upholds the tradition. Like the first game, you have only five animatronics to deal with.... Except now, there are '''no doors or cameras'''. You have to actually listen carefully in order to tell if a robot is about to attack you. The fact that their movements are now entirely random and they can move whenever they want doesn't help. Blind Mode takes this UpToEleven by [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin stopping you from seeing anything]], along with Mad Freddy (the Mini-Freddies appear on bed at lightning speeds), and Insta-Foxy (Foxy is in the closet from the start). And yes, [[FromBadToWorse you can actually stack them all together]].

* ''VideoGame/KatamariDamacy'' has always had frustrating gimmick levels, but Katamari Forever takes it UpToEleven with some of the King's Cosmos levels:

** Peaca Dungeon is worth a mention, but the Arc Lich from Metus turns difficulty UpToEleven.

* The ''VideoGame/TimeCrisis'' series. You'd think that the game giving you the option to TakeCover from enemy fire instead of having to accept damage would make the game easier, right? ''Wrong.'' Enemy shots fire fast enough that unless you've memorized the parts where they'll fire lethal hits, or have really good reflexes, you are all but guaranteed to get hit. And that's just the enemies' basic gunshots, prepare to also deal with [[KnifeNut knife users]] who can strike at melee range without warning or fire off hard-to-see throwing knives, large barrages of attacks from armed vehicles, bosses that make themselves hard to hit, amongst the other usual challenges of arcade games.

* VideoGame/YuGiOhForbiddenMemories'' is even harder than ''Reshef'', mainly due to the one-card-per-turn rule, the BossRush at the end of the game that won't let you save, and the forced grinding needed for the endgame.

** ''VideoGame/TotalWarAttila'' manages to top Shogun 2. In addition to the aforementioned Legendary Mode, the game added a few new features such as immigrants fleeing on coming hordes, the land becoming gradually less inhabitable and the Titular Attila whose armies destroy just about every other faction.

** ''VideoGame/TotalWarShogun2'' is considered to be the most difficult ''Total War'' game to date thanks in part due to improved AI and gameplay. And then there's Legendary Mode, which not only makes AI opponents incredibly aggressive and generally managing your clan a challenge but also ''makes it impossible to save your progress'' outside of the autosave feature.
** ''VideoGame/TotalWarAttila'' presents the Western Roman Empire, possibly the hardest campaign ever put in a ''Total War'' game, with a rating of ''Legendary''. The Huns, the Germans and all other manner of barbarians are beating down the gates. [[BadassDecay The mighty Legions who took on the world are no more than a distant memory now]], weakened and scattered so thinly so any city that comes under attack can likely expect no help. Your technologies will fade and you will be facing internal revolt and economic failure everywhere you look. If you can HoldTheLine and iron out the rot that afflicts Rome, you can pull it back from the brink. Every two-bit king and warlord thinks he can rule the world, but if you can accomplish this feat, you will ''feel like you can''.

* The first ''VideoGame/MedievalTotalWar'' suffers from NintendoHard also. Examples include:
** Campaigns. Again, these makes you fight with units that you either have no experience, and most of the time, you're pitted with enemies that [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard never get tired]].
** Total Victory. If you're about to win, hope that your generals won't mutiny. If they do, you have to attack strong troops you trained. What's worse, Medieval has a year limit, and if the game is going to end, and your generals mutiny, it becomes an [[UnwinnableBydesign Unwinnable game]].
** Sieges. Unlike Shogun, these sieges are deadlier. You will lose many troops, if you're attacking that is.
** Units. So many to pick from. If you don't have the internet (during the game is first released), picking out stronger units becomes a GuideDangIt. Unlike Shogun, again, there's too many units to try.
** The Pope. Sure, he's the Holy Father, but if conquered he comes back. Strong. And if you're his enemy, prepare to be excommunicated and for Crusades on your lands. It's averted if you're not a Catholic religion, or you are the Pope.
** A not so severe case exists with peasentry forces - Players who played Shogun before will think that peasentry (ashigaru in Shogun) will be good on certain fights, right? Nope. You can try to make it fight horses. They die. Fight ranged units. They die. Make them have MAX Rank and Weaponry? Make it 16 units? (1600 men) They still lose, regardless (unless the opponent is also a peasentry force, but weaker). A non-button example of DamnYouMuscleMemory?

* The first ''VideoGame/ShogunTotalWar'''s battles. Let's start listing them.
** Campaigns of Tokugawa Ieyasu and Toyotomi are notoriously hard. Tokugawa's campaign's Mikata Ga Hara makes you fight a losing battle. Toyotomi's campaign's first mission itself is hard.
** Archer tutorial. You have 30 archers, as a unit to fight a 34-35 spear samurais. You start in a hill, but the weather is stormy, which makes archer-ing even worse.
** Uesugi's 1530 scenario. The nearby Hojo will invade. Oh, to add more insult, the rebels, for some odd reason, will swarm you also. If you somehow beat that, then hope your ONLY heir didn't die. Hope you're not playing Expert or Hard...
** Takeda's 1530 scenario. The rebels WILL invade Aki province, one way or another. The Computer seems to lose this province, though.
** Japan vs. Mongols scenario. In the scenario, you are [[BlatantLies promised]] [[SarcasmMode many strong troops]]. To make it worse, the Mongols won't land on that specific spot. They land on the North coasts. Meaning anything that's North have a coastline. To make it worse, you can't train the [[DiscOneNuke warrior monks]]. The only way to win? Cheat for money and [[BribingYourWayToVictory bribe]] the Mongol forces, or wait till you can train no-dachis, which needs multiple victories to obtain.
** The Segoki Jidai Rebel scenario, assessable via cheat, has you controling the GameBreaker no-dachis. You can also build warrior monks, but guess what, when the years goes by, both the no-dachi and warrior monks will fall. Even to the [[LethalJokeCharacter ashigarus]]. This problem seems to be averted towards the Medieval version rebels, though.
** Everything in the 1580 scenario. You have: The Shimazu, who can be invaded by the Mori. The Mori, who can be invaded by Shimazu AND Oda. The Oda, who can be invaded by rebellions and the nearby Takeda/Uesugi. The Tokugawa, who is surrounded by Takeda forces. The Hojo, who can be targeted by the aggresive rebels and Uesugi. The Uesugi, who can be wiped by the Takeda. And finally, the Takeda, which almost can be the winner, can be targeted by the Tokugawa... in which if they build a citadel and the [[GameBreaker geisha]].

* ''[[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehogSpinball Sonic Spinball]]'', oddly. The levels are very long (you have to collect several emeralds that are spread out across different areas of the same stage and to do so you have to open secret passageways and successfully pinball Sonic into those areas once they're open) and a lot of the time the objectives and what you need to do are not very clearly spelled out. The challenge in this game originates more from its complexity than the raw difficulty, although the game is still pretty hard anyway (since, being pinball, it doesn't take much to throw Sonic into the drink with some bad flippering). No saves or passwords means you're in for a pretty extensive session to get to the end as well.

* ''VideoGame/TotalWarAttila'' manages to top Shogun 2. In addition to the aforementioned Legendary Mode, the game added a few new features such as immigrants fleeing on coming hordes, the land becoming gradually less inhabitable and the Titular Attila whose armies destroy just about every other faction.
** There's a reason why "survival strategy" is highly emphasized when playing as the Western Roman Empire. It's the first faction in the series to get the difficulty rating of ''legendary''.
*** Like in the previous game, Rome 2, each set of objectives would resolve when you achieve the linked primary objective, unlocking the next set. In Rome 2, the objectives are things like "Hold 13 territories." For West Rome in Attila, the first FOUR primary objectives are simply "Survive until XXX."
** Playing as the Eastern Roman Empire is relatively easier compared to its Western counterpart, given its better stability, technology and economy. If by relatively, it means defending against both the Sassanid Empire to the east and keeping the various barbarian factions from reaching Constantinople.
* ''VideoGame/TotalWarShogun2'' is considered to be the most difficult ''Total War'' game to date thanks in part due to improved AI and gameplay. And then there's Legendary Mode, which not only makes AI opponents incredibly aggressive and generally managing your clan a challenge but also ''makes it impossible to save your progress'' outside of the autosave feature.

* There's a new generation of Nintendo Hard games, which take play mechanics from NES classics and crank up the difficulty way past eleven, to a number that can't be displayed on a standard pocket calculator. Homebrew game designer Dessgeega has referred to these games as "masocore," or games for hardcore masochistic players. She also created her own game in the genre, ''Mighty Jill Off'', which is a tribute to ''Mighty Bomb Jack''. The difference is that there are no bombs... instead, the player is forced to master the high jumps and gliding that defined the ''VideoGame/BombJack'' series in order to climb to the top of a very high, very dangerous tower.