History Main / EasyModeMockery

* [[LooneyToons Sylvester and Tweety in Cagey Capers]] took the "fewer levels on easy mode" idea UpToEleven--it had a difficulty ''slider'', and the lower it was set, the fewer levels you could play, down to just the first level at anything below 11%. If you want the whole game, you'd have to set it to at least 81%.

[[caption-width-right:225:[[http://iojacket.hp.infoseek.co.jp/IOSYS_tohotsukitoro.swf IIJI MOODO??? KIMOOOOOI!]]]]

* ''MagicTheGathering'' ''Portal'' has some easy mode mockery.
** Only one instant exists in the game: Counterspell. It's still considered a sorcery, but with game text identical to an instant.
** Reminder text for ''everything''.
** Basic lands (and now all lands are basic) typically had "Tap: Add one mana of this color to your mana pool." on them. Now they just had the mana symbol.
** Fireball was nerfed to Blaze; now its main use would be the Channel combo, if Channel existed, which it does not.
** On the other hand, Mons's Goblin Raiders was replaced with the strictly better Raging Goblin, which ascended to the base set and became a FanFavorite.
* You can only get the best ending in ''Superman 64'' by beating it on the hardest difficulty.
* JazzJackrabbit 2 indulges in this a bit; once you've chosen your character, you choose the difficulty mode, with a corresponding picture of Jazz, Spaz, or Lori, making implications about who that difficulty mode is intended for. Normal mode is your chosen rabbit, no bells and whistles; hard mode gets a hulked-out, 'roided-up version; and easy mode gets a cute little melonheaded baby version.
* In JurassicPark2TheChaosContinues for the SNES, you can only unlock the last 2 levels (which give you the true ending) if you play through the game on Hard.

** Mountain of Faith gives you the [[MultipleEndings Bad Ending]] if you beat [[FinalBoss Kanako]] on Easy mode.

In all fairness, most of these "mocking" endings are worth seeing at least once, and in a few cases (most notably Guitar Hero 2 and Rocks The 80's), you actually get rewards from the easiest difficulty you can't get any other way. On the other hand, when there is no extra content and the player really is being locked out of a game's full experience simply because they cannot progress on the harder modes, it turns into a real kick in the teeth, especially with people who can't just "practice and get better", like some disabled persons.

** The Japan-only [[TurbografxSixteen PC Engine]] version of ''Double Dragon II'' actually allows the player to fight the final boss on each difficulty level, only to get a different ending. The Easy mode ending is the bad ending where the final boss escapes during the final fight, while the Normal and Hard mode endings are a SegmentedEnding. The Normal ending shows the final boss giving his dying speech, while the Hard ending shows [[spoiler:Marian returning to life.]]

** The Japan-only [[TurbografxSixteen PC Engine]] version of ''Double Dragon II'' actually allows the player to fight the final boss on each difficulty level, only to get a different ending: on the Easy setting, the final boss disappears during the final battle and mocks Billy and Jimmy; while finishing the game on Normal plays a segmented version of the GoldenEnding which leaves out the part where [[spoiler:Marian comes back to life]].

* RealLife example: Some ice cream and frozen yogurt places label their smallest size a "kids" size, which can come off as an insult to those who don't want to or cannot eat ice cream or froyo in larger quantities.

* In ''{{Pokemon}} PuzzleLeague'' for N64, the story mode ended at different points on each level. Easy Mode stops you after Giovanni, Medium stops you after Bruno, Hard stops you after the second Gary. You get a cup at the end of Hard, but the ''true'' ending isn't seen until you beat the game on Very Hard or Super Hard.
** The same applies for the SNES game ''Tetris Attack'', which [[DolledUpInstallment Pokemon Puzzle League was basically a straight port of with a Pocket Monsters theme and extra features.]] Easy mode ends after the second boss, Medium ends after the third, and only Hard and higher allow you to actually face Bowser himself. The original Japan-only Panel De Pon (which Tetris Attack and all the later PuzzleLeague games are based upon) had an identical system.

* Clearing [[PanelDePon Tetris Attack]]'s VS mode on Easy would reward you with a simple [[AWinnerIsYou "Congratulations!"]] message, accompanied by Yoshi wishing you good luck on the next difficulty level. Idling at this screen would cause Yoshi to inform you that you won't be getting any special reward for finishing Easy mode, and you should just press Reset (which wasn't actually necessary-- the localization lets you just push A to exit the ending screens). Further idling causes him to yell at you.
-->'''Yoshi''': HEY! I'M NOT KIDDING! That's all, there isn't anymore. Press RESET!

* The ''{{Touhou}}'' games do not like those who play on Easy mode. It's tradition for early Touhou games to prevent you from even fighting the final boss if you're playing on Easy, or [[ContinuingIsPainful if you continued after losing all your lives]].
** In Embodiment of Scarlet Devil, if you beat Sakuya on Easy mode, she turns around and ''literally'' mocks you(r character) for using Easy mode. Your character then gets embarrassed and ''leaves.'' Bad End. [[EarnYourFun No final boss for you]].

** While not an ingame element, the Touhou fan created song [[http://iojacket.hp.infoseek.co.jp/IOSYS_tohotsukitoro.swf "Stops at the Affected Area and Immediately Dissolves"]] (a remix of Reisen's boss theme), nicknamed "Overdrive" by English-speaking fans, mocks Easy mode players (see picture above), which is reflective of the prevailing attitude among the Touhou fanbase.

* In ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh}}: Stairway to the Destined Duel'', if you lose 5 times in a row, you unlock Mokuba as a duelist, and he's laughably easy. Note that your starter deck is usually pretty bad, so unless you buy the real life cards and enter the codes, you will lose. A lot.

* In ''Yu-Gi-Oh: Stairway to the Destined Duel'', if you lose 5 times in a row, you unlock Mokuba as a duelist, and he's laughably easy. Note that your starter deck is usually pretty bad, so unless you buy the real life cards and enter the codes, you will lose. A lot.

* Inverted in ''MegaMan 9''. You cannot earn Achievements in the harder difficulty modes, or when playing as Proto Man.
** This is actually justified: The harder difficulty modes (and Proto Man) are bonus extras aimed primarily at the Megaman veterans who might consider the game [[NintendoHard too easy]]. As such, they are separate downloads and not part of the "core" game by itself.
** A minor example in ''MegaMan Powered Up''; the final battle with Dr. Wily ends after the first phase on Easy Mode, wherein Wily escapes cackling "[[{{SequelHook}} Maybe next time!]]". It still gives you the normal credits sequence, though.

->''"Playing Contra on Easy is like [[BrotherSisterIncest kissing your sister, you just don't do it]]!"''

* ''[[{{Touhou}} Embodiment of Scarlet Devil]]'' gives you the [[MultipleEndings Bad Ending]] after the fifth stage if you play through on Easy. So far, this is the only Windows game to do this, although ''Mountain of Faith'' gives you the Bad Ending if you beat the FinalBoss on easy. The community also participates in no small share of this; see photo up top.
** It's tradition for early ''Touhou'' games to prevent you from even fighting the normal final boss if you're playing on the Easy difficulty, or [[ContinuingIsPainful if you Continued]].
*** Case in point: ''Embodiment Of Scarlet Devil'', the first of the Windows games. If you're on Easy mode, then when you beat the 5th stage boss, she turns around and ''literally'' mocks you(r character) for using Easy Mode. Your character then gets embarassed and ''leaves''. Bad End. [[EarnYourFun No final boss for you.]]

** While not an ingame element, the Touhou fan created song [[http://iojacket.hp.infoseek.co.jp/IOSYS_tohotsukitoro.swf "Stops at the Affected Area and Immediately Dissolves"]] (a remix of Reisen's boss theme), nicknamed "Overdrive" by English-speaking fans, mocks Easy mode players (see picture above).

[[{{Touhou}} http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cit_touhou_-_iosys_overdrive_-_easy_modo.png]]

->--'''[[{{Retsupurae}} Slowbeef]]''', ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_TysWmz-dw Let's play Contra 3 using 1950's recording technology]]''

** While not an ingame element, the Touhou fan created song "Stops at the Affected Area and Immediately Dissolves" (a remix of Reisen's boss theme), nicknamed "Overdrive" by English-speaking fans, mocks Easy mode players (see picture above).
*** The word ''kimoi'' here, given the intonation, most closely translates to "EWWWWW" (in a mocking way). It is but a prominent example of a Japanese ImageBoard [[MemeticMutation meme]] stemming from a [[{{Hentai}} pornographic]] [[{{Doujinshi}} comic]] where two girls [[SexAsRiteOfPassage mock a boy's virginity]]. If [[TooMuchInformation you didn't want to know]], we apologize....

In all fairness, most of these "mocking" endings are worth seeing at least once, and in a few cases (most notably Guitar Hero 2 and Rocks The 80's), you actually get rewards from the easiest difficulty you can't get any other way.

[[http://iojacket.hp.infoseek.co.jp/IOSYS_tohotsukitoro.swf http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cit_touhou_-_iosys_overdrive_-_easy_modo.png]]
[[caption-width:225:[[MemeticMutation IIJI MOODO???]] [[{{Touhou}} KIMOOOOOI!]]]]