History Main / ItsHardSoItSucks

* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter 4 Ultimate'' gets this from series veterans who feel that the [[SuperMode Apex]] monsters add more frustration than fun to an already challenging game series.

* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' gets this a lot from people who are used to traditional FPS games where everyone's capabilities are more or less the same, and your skills tend to transfer from one game to the next. Due to the class-based nature of [=TF2=] however, any player that charges in expecting it to be like a normal FPS will die swiftly and often. Combined with a number of strategic and mechanical nuances and less-than-intuitive mechanics such as RocketJumping and stickbomb-jumping, this has the effect of turning off many players before they've had the time to learn how to play properly and realize that almost every class is DifficultButAwesome. In particular, the community has observed that ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' players seem to fare worst at [=TF2=], to the point where a [=CoD=] player playing [=TF2=] for the first time is considered highly entertaining. This has lessened some overtime with the rise of other class based team shooters, however [=TF2=] still gets large amounts of criticism for having a steep learning slope. With this flaw veteran players are more inclined to agree, finding the game tends to be unclear with its mechanics and having a downright useless tutorial. As a result, there was a rise of videos and threads to help newer players figure out how to best play [=TF2=].

* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' gets this a lot from people who are used to traditional FPS games where everyone's capabilities are more or less the same, and your skills tend to transfer from one game to the next. Due to the class-based nature of [=TF2=] however, any player that charges in expecting it to be like a normal FPS will die swiftly and often. Combined with a number of strategic and mechanical nuances and less-than-intuitive mechanics such as RocketJumping and stickbomb-jumping, this has the effect of turning off many players before they've had the time to learn how to play properly and realize that almost every class is DifficultButAwesome.
** In particular, the community has observed that ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' players seem to fare worst at [=TF2=], to the point where a [=CoD=] player playing [=TF2=] for the first time is considered highly entertaining.
** This has lessened some overtime with the rise of other class based team shooters, however [=TF2=] still gets large amounts of criticism for having a steep learning slope. With this flaw veteran players are more inclined to agree, finding the game tends to be unclear with its mechanics and having a downright useless tutorial. As a result, there was a rise of videos and threads to help newer players figure out how to best play [=TF2=].

* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' gets this a lot from people who are used to traditional FPS games where everyone's capabilities are more or less the same, and your skills tend to transfer from one game to the next. Due to the class-based nature of [=TF2=] however, any player that charges in expecting it to be like a normal FPS will die swiftly and often. Combined with a number of strategic and mechanical nuances and less-than-intuitive mechanics such as RocketJumping and stickbomb-jumping, this has the effect of turning off many players before they've had the time to learn how to play properly and realize that almost every class is DifficultButAwesome. In particular, the community has observed that ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' players seem to fare worst at [=TF2=], to the point where a [=CoD=] player playing [=TF2=] for the first time is considered highly entertaining.

* Creator/{{Toaplan}} shmups, [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny as innovative as they were for their time]], are derided by players newer to the shmup genre for having a lot of elements perceived as outdated and FakeDifficulty, such as {{Checkpoint}}s mixed in with [[ContinuingIsPainful losing all shot powerups when dying and respawning]], coupled with brutal enemy patterns and "sniper" enemies tnat mandate memorizing the entire game. Some go as far as to call Toaplan games outright ''kusoge'' (lit. "shit game").

* LetsPlay/TheKingOfHate is similar in this respect, not only with hard games, but also with games that don't necessarily fall under the NintendoHard spectrum. Of course, it doesn't help that he doesn't ReadTheFreakingManual.

** ''VideoGame/MegaManZero'' sometimes gets this from some people. To the point where the DS UpdatedRerelease of the entire series includes an "Easy Scenario". The game's English-language version promotes this on the box as being "so anyone can jump right in!" In practice, the Easy Scenario simply starts the game with most non-plot powerups (maximum life, all Cyber Elves, etc.) without actually changing the difficulty. You can ([[NintendoHard and probably will]]) still die even on Easy Scenario.
** ''VideoGame/MegaManAndBass'' is often dismissed by longtime fans for its extremely high difficulty level invoked by its very tough Robot Master fights, MarathonLevel fortress stages, lack of {{Emergency Energy Tank}}s, and unforgiving level design that seems to heavily favor Bass and his [[DoubleJump superior]] [[VideoGameDashing mobility]] over Mega Man. This is heavily amplified by the fact that the first time it was made available outside of Japan was via the Game Boy Advance port, which falls victim to ScreenCrunch and rougher controls.

** ''VideoGame/MegaManAndBass'' is often dismissed by longtime fans for its unfairly high difficulty level, which is made even worse in its GBA port due to the cramped screen and rougher controls.

* Many PlatformHell games such as ''VideoGame/KaizoMarioWorld'' and ''VideoGame/IWannaBeTheGuy''. [[BetterAsALetsPlay They tend to be more interesting]] [[LetsPlay watched than played.]] Many platform hells tend to be viewed as sucky mainly because of their FakeDifficulty. TrialAndErrorGameplay is pretty common in these types of games, especially in IWBTG and ROM hacks of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'' trying to be like Kaizo.

** ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBrosTheLostLevels'', the original sequel to ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1'', was famously not originally exported, with this reaction being part of the reason why. The other is that [[ItsTheSameNowItSucks players dismissed it as a mere]] MissionPackSequel. It was not too warmly received amongst Westerners when it was RemadeForTheExport, seeing it as too close to PlatformHell territory for comfort.

* ''VideoGame/MetalSlug 3''. You [[ContestedSequel either]] love it because it's [[SequelEscalation one of the most epic games in the series]], or you hate it because your first few full runs took 40-60 continues each. And the western Xbox port suffers from PortingDisaster by giving you limited continues which ''kick you back to the start of the stage'', meaning that if you weren't at a set skill level and couldn't really improve, you'd permanently miss out on a certain portion of the game.

* The classic ''VideoGame/XCOMUFODefense'' originally had a bug that meant the game was permanently stuck on the easiest difficulty. It was and is an awesome game, but the main complaint was that it was too easy. Developers (who hadn't yet discovered the bug) listened to the feedback, and ''VideoGame/XComTerrorFromTheDeep'' was much harder. As in, insanely hard: the game's easiest setting was as hard as the original's hardest setting. It should be noted that the reason the bug took so long to discover was that the original ''X-COM'' was ''already'' insanely hard.
* The much higher difficulty of ''VideoGame/XComTerrorFromTheDeep'' led to the myth that the game was locking players onto the hardest difficulty setting. It wasn't, but that didn't stop the myth from propagating.

*** A lot of players who drifted away during the classic era tend to hold current boss charts this way, as in their eyes the difficulty ceiling of the series has gotten too high and none of the charts resemble dancing at all anymore. And don't get them started on some of the insane custom songs that have been made for ''VideoGame/InTheGroove''.

* A lot of players who drifted away from ''VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution'' during the classic era tend to hold current boss charts this way, as in their eyes the difficulty ceiling of the series has gotten too high and none of the charts resemble dancing at all anymore. And don't get them started on some of the insane custom songs that have been made for ''VideoGame/InTheGroove''.

* ''VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution'', for all its reputation as the face of rhythm games in the West, has a surprisingly [[NintendoHard steep learning curve]l, as evidenced by the countless players who pop in a credit, make [[NoobBridge common newcomer mistakes]] like returning their feet to the center after every step, have to take time to associate each of the four lanes with each of the four cardinal-direction arrows under their feet, and then swear off the game after failing a song or two, often due to embarrassment. In fact, by modern rhythm game standards, it's not quite friendly to new rhythm game players for these reasons, especially compared to games that are operated with the player's hands or which have a stronger association between on-screen objects and the player's inputs.

* ''VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution'', for all its reputation as the face of rhythm games in the West, has a surprisingly [[NintendoHard steep learning curve]l, as evidenced by the countless players who pop in a credit, make common newcomver mistakes like returning their feet to the center after every step, have to take time to associate each of the four lanes with each of the four cardinal-direction arrows under their feet, and then swear off the game after failing a song or two, often due to embarrassment. In fact, by modern rhythm game standards, it's not quite friendly to new rhythm game players for these reasons, especially compared to games that are operated with the player's hands or which have a stronger association between on-screen objects and the player's inputs.

* A good chunk of ''VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink'''s divisiveness comes from how brutally difficult it is compared to all other ''Zelda'' titles. First off, there's no map. This is a major problem due to the large and sometimes confusing layout of both the overworld and dungeons. Secondly, enemies appear in greater numbers, most of them have ranged attacks, and are quite aggressive. Again, a major problem since the combat in this game is more clunky due to the short range of Link's sword and the side-scrolling view. The icing on the cake is what happens when you get a GameOver; not only will you automatically be sent back to the palace where Princess Zelda sleeps, meaning you'll have to transverse through the overworld all over again if you happened to have died somewhere far away, but your experience points drop back down to zero and you permanently lose any extra lives or experience pick-ups.

* ''VideoGame/TheEvilWithin'' got so many complaints about its high difficulty even on the Casual setting that Bethesda introduced a patch to tone it down, and the sequel adds in multiple AntiFrustrationFeatures to make it a more balanced and fair challenge.

* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep'' now has people complaining that Vanitas's Lingering Spirit and Mysterious Figure are "too hard", as well as some other required bosses like Master Eraqus, Braig (with Aqua), and the Mad Treant are too hard. This is from the same fanbase that complained about how Easy Sephiroth was in the first two games. Someone responded to this rather creatively:

* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn'' got a low review from Gamespot for being too hard and being too similar to the previous games. Although the same review flacks the game for [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking lacking]] [[MinorInjuryOverreaction Mii]] [[UnpleasableFanbase support]], most do agree that Radiant Dawn is much harder than it needs to be; even the first chapter, typically a "get into the flow of things" segment of Fire Emblem games, is hard to surpass. It doesn't help that all the difficulty settings for the American release are one-notch higher than in Japan, making Normal to Hard, etc.
* The [[HarderThanHard Lunatic+]] difficulty of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'' is often criticized for being punishingly difficult and not at all fun. The early game forces you to rely on [[CrutchCharacter Frederick]] to survive (and even he isn't invincible) long enough to reach the DLC maps that allow you to level grind.
* The Conquest path of VideoGame/FireEmblemFates received a noticeably lower score than Birthright or Revelation from, yet again, Gamespot because it's too hard and doesn't let you grind.

* ''VideoGame/GuildWars'''s second campaign, ''Factions'', was criticised for having a much more unforgiving difficulty curve compared to the base campaign, ''Prophecies''. While Prophecies had its own share of [[ThatOneLevel difficult missions]] (Most notably the Doppelganger who remained ThatOneBoss all the way into maintenance mode), ''Factions'' made it much easier to hit the level cap of 20, but had largely designed and tested ''Factions'''s missions around people having been much more familiar with game mechanics that had been largely fed slowly to players over the course of ''Prophecies''. Unfortunately, ''Factions'' had a bit of a NewbieBoom combined with a resurgence of returning players since the game was largely considered to have [[GrowingTheBeard worked out of its growing pains by then]] - meaning these players were hit with a rather difficult WakeUpCallBoss of Zen Daijun and Vizunah Square, which were considered to be roughly as difficult as late-game ''Prophecies'' missions and a ''HUGE'' DifficultySpike from the game at that point. [[AuthorsSavingThrow Vizunah Square was later nerfed]], but players were often advised to familiarise themselves with mechanics (And acquire elite skills) from ''Prophecies'' or later on even play ''Nightfall'' first.

* ''VideoGame/LaMulana'' spits in the face of gamers of this mentality, saying in the manual that it's only for those hardcore players who feel the same way.

* ''VideoGame/Shinobi2002'' wasn't just a hard game, it was a NintendoHard game. Regular enemies were fairly easy enough, but there were [[CheckpointStarvation no checkpoints in levels]] unless you reached a boss, limited continues so you could reset the stage if the boss killed you too many times anyway, the dreaded BottomlessPit that instantly killed you all over the place and precarious platforming ''and enemies'' over them, and some downright merciless boss fights to boot. And if that weren't enough, from the second stage onwards your cursed sword will feed on your health bar if you don't kill fast enough, turning the rest of the game into a TimedMission. Reviewers thought the gameplay was cool and had potential, but were quick to critically pan the utterly brutal challenge the game throws out. ''VideoGame/NightshadeKunoichi'' directly alleviated a number of these issues for a much more fair game while still having challenge -- and then bombed because of InvisibleAdvertising.

* ''VideoGame/MetroidDread'', while highly praised by critics and fans alike, drew some negative attention from people that cited that the game was simply too hard to enjoy thanks to the very high damage both regular enemies and bosses could inflict. One critic gained infamy when he trashed the game for getting stuck and blaming the the game for having bad level design, despite how the game outright tells players to shoot every block to find a way forward. The game would eventually get an easy mode where damage recieved is lessened.

* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' gets this a lot from people who are used to traditional FPS games where everyone's capabilities are more or less the same, and your skills tend to transfer from one game to the next. Due to the class-based nature of [=TF2=] however, any player that charges in expecting it to be like a normal FPS will die swiftly and often. Combined with a number of strategic and mechanical nuances and less-than-intuitive mechanics such as RocketJumping and stickbomb-jumping, this has the effect of turning off many players before they've had the time to learn how to play properly and realize that almost every class is DifficultButAwesome. In particular, the community has observed that ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' fanboys seem to fare worst at [=TF2=], to the point where a [=CoD=] player playing [=TF2=] for the first time is considered highly entertaining.

Not quite. There's nothing inherently ''wrong'' with a "hard" game. While a large number of gamers find easier games to be more enjoyable than ones that may make them RageQuit, [[ChallengeGamer some gamers]] like having a challenge in their games. People play games for different reasons; some play to chill out and escape the trials and tribulations of daily life, while others seek such trials within video games.

Even to those who seek games that are monstrously hard though, [[EveryoneHasStandards there is a point where things can get too much and a game asks too much of the player.]] This is where this trope comes in, when a games difficulty is so high it actively makes it less fun to play for most gamers.

[[Administrivia/TropesAreTools Difficulty can be a legitimate complaint]], depending on what kind of difficulty. Some games are legitimately hard and can provide a great and potentially fun challenge. Or maybe the difficulty is a tad too inconsistent and throws too much at the player at once and there's a ''huge'' difficulty spike. Or perhaps the game has harsh penalties for when the player fails too much. In older games especially such punishments can be incredibly rough, in particular being forced back to the beginning a level, a set of levels, or even being forced to ''restart the entire game''.