What is Classic Video Game "Screw You"s?

While browsing Tropes Needing TRS, I came across this entry for something called Classic Video Game "Screw You"s:

• Classic Video Game "Screw You"s: The whole page is written as if an exercise in how sarcastic one can be.

This entry noted that the trope is filled with complaining. Upon looking at the page, I discovered that it was an even bigger mess than the entry implied.

First off, the snarky and poorly-written description is very vague as to what it actually is. I think it's about certain elements in games that are very hard, but fair. The page quote, for example, cites Air Man from Mega Man 2, a very difficult boss. Or at least "can be", per the description. I don't know. This definition seems to overlap with multiple other tropes, including Scrappy Mechanic, That One Boss, That One Level, Nintendo Hard, and other, better-defined tropes that appear to cover the basic concepts this trope is trying to.

Second, it is very complain-y and sarcastic. It was launched in 2009, a time when TV Tropes was a lot more lax about quality standards for tropes, and it clearly shows, with an entire "Classic Fun Units" section complaining about certain mechanics in games that whoever wrote these didn't like. The on-page examples are little better, with most of them being filled with either complaining, natter, indentation problems, some Bold Inflation, or some combination of those four.

I want to do a wick check, but I decided to bring this to Trope Talk first because I wanted to make sure I wasn't alone in my concerns. Is there anything I'm missing before I start a wick check?

Edited by themayorofsimpleton on Oct 25th 2022 at 3:51:32 PM

It even includes quotes from reviewers!

In fact, I think this might actually be an inferior and stylistically-deprecated version of the index on Fake Difficulty.

good lord, i remember this page. i remember reading it way back when i first joined.

it doesn't look any different now than it did then. i don't think there's anything of value here.

It reads like a list of things that are commonly Scrappy Mechanics, but "list of things" is definitely too broad to be a trope, and things that are scrappy mechanics should go under YMMV, which since we already have that, it would be.

In some cases, it's just "cheap thing", which is even worse.

Seems I'm not alone in my concerns.

Once my midterms are over I'll do a wick check for this—and if the problems are as bad as I/we suspect, I'm thinking either Complaining, Unclear Description, or probably just Needs Help since there are multiple issues here.

Locking as requested.