History NintendoHard / ShootEmUps

** Wanna shoot down that atomic bomber? Let's put them with those [[GiantMook big annoying tough-armored plasma exploding blimps]]!

* ''VideoGame/{{Heavy Weapon}}'': The first four levels are just a warm-up. Then you start to face regular mooks that annoy you or kill you in one hit. Later levels have enemy formations that are out to screw you badly. Here are some examples:

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Gunbird}} Gunbird 2]]'' is considered to be one of the hardest 2D-shooters ever made and is easily the hardest one released in Europe and one of the harder ones released in North America. It is in many ways a step up of the original ''Gunbird:Mobile Light Force'', replacing the upgrade system with a leveling system, having updated graphics and more sprites. The thing though is that the leveling system, while being able to upgrade by shooting enemies and picking the power-ups, is extremely slow and you will be unable to be maximally powered up (which is at level 3) until the second level at the very least and the meter returns to level one after you lose a life. There are way more bullets than in the original and the enemy AI has become stronger, which means that bullets are harder to dodge and that the dodge requires more precision. The bosses are, just as the bosses in ''Gunbird: Mobile Light Force'', strategy based (to give an example, one boss in ''Gunbird: Mobile Light Force'' shoots lots of slow bullets, the best strategy is to visualize where all the bullets will go and dodge them) and have multiple forms, but they have made the strategies UpToEleven, so that the right strategy is needed and that it still would be even hard to do the stuff correctly. Memorizing the levels is also practically useless, since like the original ''Gunbird: Mobile Light Force'', the level types are randomly generated with only the increasing difficulty intact. The only thing saving you is bombs, which are rare, but clear the screen of all bullets and obstacles. It is especially in the later levels that it gets ridiculous, with tons of bullets literally flashing through the screen. If anything it proves that importing is not necessary to get some of the most hardcore shoot-em-up action ever put on a CD ([[NoExportForYou unless you are in Australia of course]]).

* ''VideoGame/SunsetRiders'' is essentially ''Contra'' [[RecycledInSpace in the old West]], and for good reason. Multiplayer made the game easier, there were powerups for your gun, but you still had to master aiming and effectively making use of cover; not to mention the stampedes and one-hit kills. Then there's [[ThatOneBoss The Smith Bros]]...

* In ''VideoGame/HotlineMiami'', a single knife stab, a baseball bat strike, or (usually) a single bullet to anywhere will kill Jacket instantly. Not only that, but most of the time, you are frequently tasked with taking out multiple opponents at once, most of whom are very alert and can swing/shoot faster than Jacket. [[spoiler: Then, after Jacket's storyline is properly concluded, you can play as the Biker, who cannot pick up any ranged weapons, instead using only three throwing knives]]. In either case, you must either play through the chapters very carefully (which nets you less points at the end, as recklessness is rewarded), [[LuckBasedMission or simply grab a melee weapon and charge everyone in the room, hoping that the bullets don't take you down]].

*** And then ''Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu'' came along, and then Black Label came after that and introduced the elusive Zatsuza. Why elusive? Because for over a year, the only evidence of its existence was a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY9LTWjcvq0 track on the OST marked "Secret"]], because ''nobody was awesome enough at the game to even see it'', to the point that most people just started thinking it was just a CutSong. And for the record, Zatsuza has also managed to one-up Spiritual Larsa.

*** The ''VideoGame/{{Espgaluda}}'' games, however, are probably the easiest shmups ever created by Cave due to the inclusion of the "[[BulletTime Kakusei Mode]]" that allows the player to slow down the bullets onscreen. Then ''Espgaluda II'' kicks the difficulty back up, even ''with'' Kakusei once again available, and introduces an extremely difficult scoring system.
** The Death Label in ''Dodonpachi Dai-Ou-Jou'' is the hardest game ever, period. Back when it was released it was deemed to be impossible to beat if you had human reaction times. It was beaten though, '''SEVEN AND A HALF YEARS AFTER ITS ORIGINAL RELEASE'''. ''Touhou'' fans, eat your heart out. In fact, to date, only '''''3''''' people have beaten it.
** ''[=SaiDaiOuJou=]'''s TrueFinalBoss, Inbachi, remains undefeated, even in Normal Mode as of 2020, 8 years after its original release.

* ''VideoGame/{{Abadox}}'' looks like [[VideoGame/{{Gradius}} Life Force or Salamander]] - and it is a damned good shooter - but there's one little problem. When you die - and you WILL die - [[UnstableEquilibrium you lose all your powerups]]. Standard shooter fare, right? Did we mention that if you don't have speed powerups, you control like molasses in January? This in a game full of tight turns, fast-moving landscapes and (especially in the later levels) enemies as fast as you are ''with'' speed powerups. It fits with all the old shmup tropes - huge sprites, OneHitPointWonder and the like - but quite simply, this game is a psychotically hard example. Beating it without using the all-powerful code or savestates is an incredible achievement, on par with one-life-running ''Battletoads.''

** To elaborate: the player ship has a large hitbox and is a OneHitPointWonder - in a game that would be murderously difficult even if there ''were'' some kind of shielding. The enemies are ''many'', they [[BulletHell shoot a lot]], and ''they'' do have a health level. The levels are all impossibly difficult to navigate, because of both MalevolentArchitecture and plenty of dynamic obstacles around. The game occasionally likes to throw in your path threats that cannot be foreseen - like walls you can't go past (there's a split before you reach the wall, but you aren't told which is the safe path and which leads to unavoidable death) or enemies flying at you very quickly from beyond the screen. And to top it all off, when you die the game makes you replay the part of the level where you died from the beginning - with no powerups. Finishing this game without cheating might well be impossible; it would require superhuman reflexes to navigate the levels while dodging the obstacles and also trying to take care of the enemies.

* For all it manages to avoid TheProblemWithLicensedGames, ''VideoGame/AstroBoyOmegaFactor'' is a bastard in later levels. The first playthrough is all right, but once you enter the second one, every enemy doubles the amount of damage they can do. By the time you reach the last level, forget your health bar - you can take maybe three hits. Did I mention some enemies randomly don't go into hit-stun, meaning they can freely attack you while you hit them? And that many of the flying stages are BulletHell? (This ''is'' a Creator/{{Treasure}} game.) Oh, and the entire second half of the game is a massive GuideDangIt. Still surprisingly fun.

* ''SubTerrania'', for UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis, is an unusual shoot 'em up that has the player pilot a small sub/fighter craft around sandbox caves and gun down aliens and robots while trying to rescue survivors and retrieve sub modules (in the first half of the game) and simply clear obstacles (in the second half). The difficulty stems from several factors: 1) your fuel runs dry pretty quickly and there are only a handful of fuel stations (which can each only be used once) throughout the levels, usually far away when you need it; 2) your shields also drop quickly, and shield recharge stations (also one use) are very rare--some levels don't have any; 3) the controls, while not clunky or unwieldy, are ''extremely'' touchy, requiring very delicate applications of thrusters and turns, or you'll smash into a wall and explode. Also, you can't float in place if you need to shoot sideways, so you constantly have to adjust your orientation and give a light thruster boost before turning again and continuing to shoot (giving enemies plenty of time to smack you around).

* ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' is particularly well-known for drawing in new players with its cast of cute girls, [[SurpriseDifficulty before they realize just how bullet-happy these cute girls can be]]. Even on Easy Mode, players not used to shoot-em-ups will find themselves wondering "how the heck do I dodge that?!" And on the harder difficulty levels, the game really starts showing its teeth--just search for a video of the game on Lunatic or its [[BrutalBonusLevel Extra stage]]. To make matters worse, although you can continue if you lose all your lives, continuing means [[MultipleEndings not getting to see a good ending]]. The real kicker, though, is that, when it comes to BulletHell, ''Touhou'' is considered one of the ''easier'' games.

** Adding to the hardness, some danmaku games, especially ''Franchise/{{Touhou}}'', actually ''reward'' you for getting as close to the bullets as possible. Being able to "graze" bullets by having them pass through your sprite but not your hitbox earns you extra points for your score, but ups your chances of dying immensely. Thankfully, these games have mechanics to keep the grazing from getting ''too'' worthy of a keyboard/controller/arcade machine toss--such as offering plenty of lives, or the "death bomb" mechanic found in Touhou (which allows the player to use up a bomb rather than a life right after getting hit).

* Most of Creator/{{Cave}}'s shmups became notorious for their elaborate scoring mechanics, and their difficulty; their most successful titles have earned the attention of non-competitive shmup players and score-competitive ones alike, and are often [[http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=26325 ranked high]] in terms of player preference. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to say that Cave has defined its own standards of difficulty, where Nintendo Hard isn't enough to express it. For example, the VideoGame/{{Touhou}} community has created a hacked version of its 6th game that's inspired by ''VideoGame/MushihimeSama'''s Ultra Mode. Now, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EQOc4cWcYw for your viewing pleasure]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' is particularly well-known for drawing in new players with its cast of cute girls, [[SurpriseDifficulty before they realize just how bullet-happy these cute girls can be]]. Even on Easy Mode, players not used to shoot-em-ups will find themselves wondering "how the heck do I dodge that?!" And on the harder difficulty levels, the game really starts showing its teeth--just search for a video of the game on Lunatic or its [[BrutalBonusLevel Extra stage]]. To make matters worse, although you can continue if you lose all your lives, continuing means [[MultipleEndings not getting to see a good ending]]. The real kicker, though, is that, when it comes to BulletHell, ''Touhou'' is considered one of the ''easier'' games.
** Even among the ''Touhou'' games, ''Touhou 11: Subterranean Animism'' stands out for being notoriously hard. You know how most ''Touhou''s have a DifficultySpike around the stage 4 boss or so? Yeah, ''Subterranean Animism'''s spike comes in the form of Parsee Mizuhashi, the stage 2 boss, who shows up with homing attacks and a DopplegangerAttack that spews giant bullets all over the screen if you hit the doppleganger. Also, you can't stockpile bombs; bombs run off your weapon energy, and every bomb you use downgrades your shots. Combine that with somewhat mediocre weapons, a stage 4 boss that changes her abilities based on your shot type, and [[ThatOneBoss Orin]], and you have a brutally hard ''Touhou''.
** Seven years later we got ''Touhou 15: Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom'' which gained almost instant notoriety for being ''absurdly'' hard. About how hard is it? Let's put it this way: SaveScumming is made a central gameplay mechanic in the game and clearing with a death-count of between 100 to 200 on one's first run is considered an outright good performance. Almost half of those deaths are likely going to be inflicted by the [[ThatOneBoss stage 5 boss]].

*** The ''VideoGame/{{Espgaluda}}'' games, however, are probably the easiest shmups ever created by Cave due to the inclusion of the "[[BulletTime Kakusei Mode]]" that allows the player to slow down the bullets onscreen.

** The Death Label in ''Dodonpachi Dai-Ou-Jou'' is the hardest game ever, period. Back when it was released it was deemed to be impossible to beat if you had human reaction times. It was beaten though, '''SEVEN AND A HALF YEARS AFTER ITS ORIGINAL RELEASE'''. ''Touhou'' fans, eat your heart out.

** Adding to the hardness, some danmaku games, especially ''Franchise/Touhou'', actually ''reward'' you for getting as close to the bullets as possible. Being able to "graze" bullets by having them pass through your sprite but not your hitbox earns you extra points for your score, but ups your chances of dying immensely. Thankfully, these games have mechanics to keep the grazing from getting ''too'' worthy of a keyboard/controller/arcade machine toss--such as offering plenty of lives, or the "death bomb" mechanic found in Touhou (which allows the player to use up a bomb rather than a life right after getting hit).

* ''VideoGame/RaptorCallOfTheShadows'' isn't as infernally difficult when compared to other shoot 'em ups (especially since the game ditches the [[ScoringPoints scoring system]] in favor of a [[MoneySpider monetary]] [[RewardingVandalism rewards]] system as well as having your ship averting the OneHitPointWonder trope that so many others employ) but the [[DeathCourse entire Outer Regions episode]] (the third and final episode) may qualify for having a plethora of DemonicSpiders and malevolent ground defenses ready to rip your titular aircraft apart if you aren't well prepared. Specifically, there's an amalgamation of Mooks, both airborne and grounded, that fire a dizzying array of flak balls, missiles, plasma balls, and lasers towards unsuspecting players. Even on the easiest difficulty setting, you will still find yourself losing a lot of your shields, thanks to the unpredictable appearances of the Mooks. What's more, there's a ''lot'' of [[LawOfChromaticSuperiority red-coloured Mooks]] in this episode compared to the previous two (the first one has none of these coloured Mooks whatsoever while the second has only red-coloured helicopters with predictable patterns that first appear in the fourth wave and then making some recurring appearances up until the seventh wave), On [[HarderThanHard Elite difficulty]], the whole episode might as well fit this trope very aptly as it throws a ''ton'' of these Mooks at your face. Thus, it is highly not recommended to begin this episode until you are fully stacked on Phase Shields and Megabombs and have access to the most useful and powerful weapons your revenue can get; namely the Laser Turret, Pulse Cannon, Auto-Tracking Minigun, and especially the [[InfinityPlusOneSword Twin Laser]]. The latter two are going to prove very useful for the [[CoresAndTurretsBoss Cores And Turrets Bosses]], including the very FinalBoss in the last wave, and especially since the [[ThatOneLevel very last wave in this episode is ridiculously merciless at any difficulty level]] (even on Rookie). Oh, by the way, if your health reaches zero, your game is over as there are no extra lives or continues in order to make up for the aversion of the OneHitPointWonder trope, unlike other contemporaries in its genre.
** Outer Regions seems so merciless regardless of difficulty level because the difficulty level increases when you complete an episode, so if you play all three in sequence, you ''must'' start Outer Regions on Elite. And the huge amount of health the enemies in this episode have means you will have to complete at least one of the previous two episodes to afford the equipment necessary to survive.
* The Run-And-Gun shooter ''VideoGame/MoonPatrol'' actually starts out nice and easy, especially for an early '80s arcade title...and then it throws the Champion course at you, which quickly escalates from fairly challenging into downright Nintendo Hard. The Champion course is just ''littered'' with areas with multiple rocks on both sides of a pit, jumping sequences where your timing has to be ''just'' right, and sometimes a couple ''dozen'' airborne enemies on screen...sometimes ''in combination.''
* Arcade cabinet horizontal spaceship {{Shoot Em Up}}s à la ''VideoGame/ZeroWing'' are a famous example of this trope. An JustForFun/{{egregious}} one is ''Zed Blade'', also known as ''Operation Ragnarok''. After a deceptively easy start, the player has to fight ever-increasing number of enemies, most of which are pretty strong and require a lot of pummeling to go down. This would not be particularly deserving of note, if it wasn't that the player is required to avoid a veritable storm of bullets directed at him, most of which can't be shot down. This impressive amount of firepower is often shot by the enemies in such a pattern that there's no way to avoid being hit by at least one bullet. Since the ship has no shields and even one hit will result in a life loss, this makes the game practically unplayable... unless one uses an emulator and a cheat file to make the player ship invulnerable. Of particular notice is the last level, in which along with the usual hailstorm of enemies and bullets, there is a background boss that ''cannot be destroyed''. It'll stay there until the end of the level, spewing even more bolts in the player's direction. This writer doubts anyone ever saw the end of ''Zed Blade'' before emulation came along.

* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' is particularly well-known for drawing in new players with its cast of cute girls, [[SurpriseDifficulty before they realize just how bullet-happy these cute girls can be]]. Even on Easy Mode, players not used to shoot-em-ups will find themselves wondering "how the heck do I dodge that?!" And on the harder difficulty levels, the game really starts showing its teeth--just search for a video of the game on Lunatic or its [[BrutalBonusLevel Extra stage]]. To make matters worse, although you can continue if you lose all your lives, continuing means [[MultipleEndings not getting to see a good ending]]. The real kicker, though, is that, when it comes to BulletHell, ''Touhou'' is considered one of the ''easier'' games.
** Even among the ''Touhou'' games, ''Touhou 11: Subterranean Animism'' stands out for being notoriously hard. You know how most ''Touhou''s have a DifficultySpike around the stage 4 boss or so? Yeah, ''Subterranean Animism'''s spike comes in the form of Parsee Mizuhashi, the stage 2 boss, who shows up with homing attacks and a DopplegangerAttack that spews giant bullets all over the screen if you hit the doppleganger. Also, you can't stockpile bombs; bombs run off your weapon energy, and every bomb you use downgrades your shots. Combine that with somewhat mediocre weapons, a stage 4 boss that changes her abilities based on your shot type, and [[ThatOneBoss Orin]], and you have a brutally hard ''Touhou''.
** Seven years later we got ''Touhou 15: Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom'' which gained almost instant notoriety for being ''absurdly'' hard. About how hard is it? Let's put it this way: SaveScumming is made a central gameplay mechanic in the game and clearing with a death-count of between 100 to 200 on one's first run is considered an outright good performance. Almost half of those deaths are likely going to be inflicted by the [[ThatOneBoss stage 5 boss]].
* The ''VideoGame/ShikigamiNoShiro'' series, which is to be expected, being BulletHell games. The games also have a "Tension Bonus System" that ups score and attack power when near enemies and bullets, of which there is ''plenty'', especially in Extreme Mode.

* The ''VideoGame/SilverSurfer'' video game might very well be one of the hardest games ever. The Silver Surfer himself has a very large hitbox that includes the surfboard itself and he is a OneHitPointWonder that not only dies by touching enemies and their projectiles, but by also touching his surroundings. That includes the walls, the ceiling, the floors, and even parts of the scenery. The levels that have a top-down perspective are even harder as the graphics can make it very easy to confuse the projectiles with the scenery and the bullet hell that sometimes comes up doesn't even have a distinct pattern. And to top it off is the fact that holding down the A button doesn't shoot a constant stream of bullets.
* A variant of the ''danmaku'', ''VideoGame/{{Ikaruga}}'' is often cited as one of the hardest games ever made. And that's not even regarding going for the evasive "S++" rankings. Part of this is due to the fact that, [[VideoGame/BangaiO once again]], Treasure found a way to make a shooter that encourages the player to fly ''into'' enemy fire.
** It's also one of the few shmups that you can beat without firing a single shot (you get the special "Dot Eater" rank for doing this.)
* ''VideoGame/SinAndPunishment'' is easy on easy mode. And then normal mode makes your shots do less damage, you take more damage, and heal less. Took you forever to beat Normal mode? Happy joy, you just unlocked Hard. Good luck making it to the final boss, much less beating it. Beat ''that''? [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0qDMaJ6Ydg Go for Turbo/double-frame mode]].
** [[VideoGame/SinAndPunishmentStarSuccessor The second game]] doesn't seem to have lowered the difficulty any, either, and perhaps might even have ''raised'' it. Good thing the point controls make aiming so precise, because ''you're going to need every edge you can get''.
** Another part of the first game's difficulty is how utterly ''strange'' the game's controls are[[note]]The default control scheme on any controller is to use the left side only, with the triggers, analog stick, and D-pad being the method of control. The normal buttons are completely ignored.[[/note]], which take quite a bit of getting used to. Fortunately, the Wii controls in the second game pretty much fix this problem.

* And the less said about infamous titles like ''VideoGame/{{Pulstar}}'', ''Viewpoint'', or ''VideoGame/BlazingStar'', the better...
* Most of Creator/{{Cave}}'s shmups became notorious for their elaborate scoring mechanics, and their difficulty; their most successful titles have earned the attention of non-competitive shmup players and score-competitive ones alike, and are often [[http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=26325 ranked high]] in terms of player preference. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to say that Cave has defined its own standards of difficulty, where Nintendo Hard isn't enough to express it. For example, the VideoGame/{{Touhou}} community has created a hacked version of its 6th game that's inspired by ''VideoGame/MushihimeSama'''s Ultra Mode. Now, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EQOc4cWcYw for your viewing pleasure]]
** No matter what the ''Touhou'' fandom will tell you, Cave have made some of the hardest shoot-em-ups ever, and some of the hardest games ever, period. One of their games, ''[[VideoGame/DonPachi Dodonpachi Dai-ou-jou]]'', was out for a year and literally only ''5 people in the entire world had beaten it''. And these were all "professional" Japanese shoot-em-up players. [[SincerityMode No kidding]]. That's how horrifically difficult this game gets: you have to be a '''GOD''' in playing this game and/or any of Cave's other games, let alone 1cc-ing them all, which is pretty much the ultimate SelfImposedChallenge in playing a Cave game. Ultra mode in ''Mushihime-sama Futari'' is pretty much legendary in terms of difficulty - you're lucky if you survive more than 30 seconds, and beating it in a single credit requires getting through Ultra Mode's TLB form of Larsa where she's floating by herself. She has a bomb-shield for the entire time, and two lifebars (in addition to the lifebar she had while on the dragon)!
*** The "Black Label" limited edition version has God mode, which features a BonusBoss with extremely difficult requirements to encounter her. To get Spiritual Larsa you have to beat God Mode without dying at all. Spiritual Larsa herself actually is relatively easy though, especially compared to Ultra's TLB form, not counting all the resources you'd have left over if you're good enough get to her. Only her last attack is actually dangerous, and it's the only attack that has a bomb-shield, and even then, there are safespots that can be used to never get hit.
*** And then ''Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu'' came along, and then Black Label came after that and introduced the elusive Zatsuza. Why elusive? Because for over a year, the only evidence of its existence was a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY9LTWjcvq0 track on the OST marked "Secret"]], because ''nobody was awesome enough at the game to even see it'', to the point that most people just started thinking it was just a CutSong. And for the record, Zatsuza has also managed to one-up Spiritual Larsa.
*** The ending of ''[=DoDonPachi=] Maximum'' has CAVE programmer Tsuneki Ikeda's AuthorAvatar basically saying "We've created many challenging arcade ''danmaku'' games with fierce bosses. Why don't you try these other games for yourself?"
*** The ''VideoGame/{{Espgaluda}}'' games, however, are probably the easiest shmups ever created by Cave due to the inclusion of the "[[BulletTime Kakusei Mode]]" that allows the player to slow down the bullets onscreen.
** The Death Label in ''Dodonpachi Dai-Ou-Jou'' is the hardest game ever, period. Back when it was released it was deemed to be impossible to beat if you had human reaction times. It was beaten though, '''SEVEN AND A HALF YEARS AFTER ITS ORIGINAL RELEASE'''. ''Touhou'' fans, eat your heart out.
* The ''VideoGame/{{Darius}}'' series of shmups, particularly ''Darius II'' and ''Darius Gaiden''. In ''Darius II'', the player's ship is huge relative to the enemies, and ''Darius Gaiden'' attempts to piss players off with nigh-unavoidable enemy attacks and cheap bosses, several of which fire the dreaded, hard-to-dodge homing lasers, and a rather annoying DynamicDifficulty system where powering up for the first time raises the difficulty, with the new difficulty depending on what tier of stages...what's that? Did you just die twice on the final stage and get reduced to the weaker laser shots? Too bad, Taito doesn't care.
* ''VideoGame/LegendaryWings'', particularly the arcade version.

* ''Armed Police Unit Gallop'', aka ''Cosmic Cop'', a GaidenGame to ''R-Type'', is even more Nintendo-hard than its brethren.
** To elaborate: the player ship has a large hitbox and is a OneHitPointWonder - in a game that would be murderously difficult even if there ''were'' some kind of shielding. The enemies are ''many'', they [[BulletHell shoot a lot]], and ''they'' do have a health level. The levels are all impossibly difficult to navigate, because of both MalevolentArchitecture and plenty of dynamic obstacles around. The game occasionally likes to throw in your path threats that cannot be foreseen - like walls you can't go past (there's a split before you reach the wall, but you aren't told which is the safe path and which leads to unavoidable death) or enemies flying at you very quickly from beyond the screen. And to top it all off, when you die the game makes you replay the part of the level where you died from the beginning - with no powerups. Finishing this game without cheating might well be impossible; it would require superhuman reflexes to navigate the levels while dodging the obstacles and also trying to take care of the enemies.
* Much of the ''VideoGame/{{Gradius}}'' series is a test of patience and being able to recover out of a death that strips you of all of the powerups that keep the game easy. The arcade version of ''Gradius III'' (not Arcade difficulty of the SNES version, but the original arcade version), in particular is a notorious example; the first stage alone will make you '''CRY.'''
** And if you manage to make it past the dreaded 3D segment and Moai stage, you'll start raging at the end of the ice stage, with flying ice cubes that seem to be magnetically attracted to Vic Viper. Plus you have to face the boss too. And have fun during the final level's "escape sequence" after you kill the final boss.
** Gradius Rebirth. Take 5 of the most frustrating level types from the Gradius series, add in some more stuff that kills you, ''and make you go through them repeatedly, each time changing the set up and making things shoot faster to the point where you can't even move without being killed.'' Oh and the reset points? ''Typically have the powerup enemies just about to exit the screen, making it hard to also grab them for a chance of survival.''
*** And you can't practice all of that later stuff unless you're on the [=PS2=] version (thanks to stage select), because this version offers no continues. And the escape sequence? Dear God, when I got to that, I ''gave up.''
*** The ending you get on Easy Mode isn't the actual ending; in order to see THAT, you have to beat the game on a harder setting since Easy Mode only has one Loop, while all other difficulties have several.
** Gradius is so hard that ''one of the creators made the KonamiCode because he couldn't beat it.''
** For many players that had played the infinitely easier SNES version, trying the original ''[[VideoGame/{{Gradius}} Gradius III]]'' arcade version tends to be a ''complete bitchslap to the face''. Yeah, so we're going to shift the enemies around, speed them up, make them much more dogged in their pursuit of you--oh, and while we're at it, you might want to know some of the more useful weapon configurations didn't exist here and the bosses are more resilient. Finally, if you lose all your lives, you don't even get to continue. Have fun!
*** The Asian and World arcade versions were somewhat easier than the aforementioned Japanese version, which was the basis for the [=PS2=] port.
* ''VideoGame/{{Abadox}}'' looks like [[VideoGame/{{Gradius}} Life Force or Salamander]] - and it is a damned good shooter - but there's one little problem. When you die - and you WILL die - [[UnstableEquilibrium you lose all your powerups]]. Standard shooter fare, right? Did we mention that if you don't have speed powerups, you control like molasses in January? This in a game full of tight turns, fast-moving landscapes and (especially in the later levels) enemies as fast as you are ''with'' speed powerups. It fits with all the old shmup tropes - huge sprites, OneHitPointWonder and the like - but quite simply, this game is a psychotically hard example. Beating it without using the all-powerful code or savestates is an incredible achievement, on par with one-life-running ''Battletoads.''
** And if you ''do'' manage to beat the game, you're rewarded with the opportunity to replay the game while invincible. Yup, once again you can only get the GameBreaker by proving you don't need it.
* While otherwise a great game, Apogee's side-scrolling shooter ''VideoGame/{{Stargunner}}'' is incredibly difficult. Even on the easiest difficulty, the guardian bosses every three levels, and especially at the end of an episode, will eat through your available lives like popcorn, and you only have a maximum of nine. The rapid loss of lives when facing the bosses tends to either come from them having incredibly powerful weapons and being really good shots or just simply being extremely maneuverable and colliding with your ship.
** The fact that you can save and load your exact gameplay position makes the game a good deal easier. But the fact that no other shmup known to man gives you this option makes realizing the said ability infinitely more difficult than it should be.
* The ''VideoGame/ThunderForce'' series of {{Shoot Em Up}}s has all sorts of unexpected death traps designed to make life miserable. It doesn't help that players who are very good at these games will [[StopHavingFunGuys hate you if you can't one-credit-clear a Thunder Force game within days of starting to play it]].
* ''VideoGame/BattleGaregga''. If you can handle the [[RealIsBrown realistically-colored bullets]], prepare for a different dimension of hurt: the DynamicDifficulty ("rank") system. To elaborate, the game increases the rank over time and when you perform certain actions like firing especially with higher shot power and collecting items, meaning you can't just hold down the fire button all day and you have to pace your collection of shot powerup items. The only way to reduce rank is to [[MercyMode die]], i.e. [[ViolationOfCommonSense you have to strategically use up lives so you don't burn them all up in a high-rank situation later]]; this means that to keep earning lives to sacrifice for rank control, you need to get very good at scoring points ([[EveryTenThousandPoints the main method of earning extra lives]]) in this game, which involves collecting medals without letting them escape in order to maximize their point values, a task that is ''far'' easier said than done. Mistakes in rank management won't be readily apparent until you reach the later parts of the game and see enemies popping off unusually dense attacks, potentially rendering the game UnwinnableByDesign.

* ''VideoGame/BigBangMini'' is a tribute to old-school shoot em ups.
* ''VideoGame/BangaiO Spirits'' for the DS is hard and knows it. The game actually tells you how to do the Invincibility and Infinite LimitBreak cheats ''in the Tutorial'', because they know many people will ''need'' them just to beat some stages.
* The obscure ''[[VideoGame/JimPower Jim Power: The Arcade Game]]'' has not only the usual [[EverythingTryingToKillYou "all manner of obstacles" business]] as well as Jim himself [[OneHitPointWonder phasing out in seconds]] after touching any hazard or enemy, but there is also the SHMUP sections where the ship you are flying is pretty slow (read: annoyingly slow) and there are enemies that toss tons of bullets at you. And, of course, there are the Zig-zag segments in which the autoscrolling randomly speeds up and slows down. Watch Youtube [=LPer=] LetsPlay/{{Kikoskia}}'s LP of the game and you'll see how frustrating this game gets... even the '''very first level''' is insane.
* For all it manages to avoid TheProblemWithLicensedGames, ''VideoGame/AstroBoyOmegaFactor'' is a bastard in later levels. The first playthrough is all right, but once you enter the second one, every enemy doubles the amount of damage they can do. By the time you reach the last level, forget your health bar - you can take maybe three hits. Did I mention some enemies randomly don't go into hit-stun, meaning they can freely attack you while you hit them? And that many of the flying stages are BulletHell? (This ''is'' a Creator/{{Treasure}} game.) Oh, and the entire second half of the game is a massive GuideDangIt. Still surprisingly fun.
** It's true the first playthrough is doable... unless you're playing on Hard Mode, which truly lives up to its name. Have fun trying to get past the second boss. You'll have a hard enough time just ''getting'' to him.
** [[ThatOneBoss One boss]] late in the second playthrough is about five times bigger than Astro. Super attacks only do about 10% damage. And the worst part? It can kill you in only. One. Hit.
*** Said boss has laughably simple pattern though; those that remember they can dash through enemies usually beat it on the first try.
* Konami's forgotten vertical shmup ''Lightning Fighters'' came out the same year as ''Raiden'', but is considerably harder. Has moments of FakeDifficulty in the later levels, as well as suffering from [[ContinuingIsPainful "Gradius Syndrome"]].
* Creator/{{Capcom}}'s [[VideoGame/{{Nineteen Forty Two}} 19XX]] series which has you fighting through storms of projectiles and enemies and plenty of bosses which take the form of [[ImpossiblyCoolWeapon Huge]] [[AwesomeButImpractical Expensive]] [[MilitaryMashUpMachine Superweapons]]. Not helped by ''1942'', ''1943'', and ''1944'' being [[MarathonLevel exceptionally long]] by arcade standards.
* ''VideoGame/AdventuresOfDinoRiki'': In this game, Dino Riki is armed with throwing rocks and must contend with hordes of fast-moving enemies, quicksand pits, bottomless chasms, and river crossings where he must be extremely careful with his jumps or else he will end up [[SuperDrowningSkills in the drink]].

* Don't let the playful graphics in ''VideoGame/AquaRhapsody'' fool you. Fast and precise mouse movements are a MUST to make any decent progress in the game.
* ''[[VideoGame/{{Rayxanber}} Rayxanber II]]'' for the UsefulNotes/PCEngine not only forces ''R-Type''-like memorization, but has weapons that are underpowered for defeating the fast-moving enemies, some of which ''will'' completely encircle the ship.

* ''VideoGame/{{Recca}}'' is the UrExample of BulletHell. Except, unlike most bullet hells, it's EXTREMELY fast paced and frantic. You get no continues, you lose all powerups when you die, [[note]]although considering how many enemies are on screen at once, that's not as big a issue as you'd think[[/note]] the bombs need to be charged [[note]]although you do get a unlimited amount of them, it's difficult to find time to charge them.[[/note]] The game has little slowdown for the most part [[note]]Impressive considering it's a NES game with a ton of things going on at once[[/note]] and in general it doesn't fuck around. The credits even state that ''Recca'' is a "Super Hard Shooting Game" Then there's hard mode, which changes the entire game around to make it even harder, and Zankai Attack, which puts the "Bullet" in BulletHell. This makes it the vertical scrolling equivalent of ''Gradius''.
* ''VideoGame/ArmyMoves'' was largely responsible for giving Spanish company Creator/{{Dinamic}} its reputation for making games with wonderful graphics but ludicrous difficulty. The first two stages of the GameplayRoulette feature player vehicles that go down in one hit from any of the constant swarms of enemies from all sides. Collision detection only aggravates this.
* ''VideoGame/{{Hellsinker}}'' is relentless, [[GuideDangIt confusing]], and even the first two bosses on the Behind (default) path are pretty difficult. If you don't know how to use your character's weapons effectively (which isn't easy), every boss will feel like a DamageSpongeBoss.

* ''VideoGame/{{Raiden}}'' derives its difficulty from fast enemy bullets and "sniper" tanks/gunboats that pop out and immediately fire a fast shot at you. [[DynamicDifficulty To elaborate, if you consistently perform well (i.e. constantly smashing through Mooks without even dying once), the game gets downright vicious by throwing these things at you frequently to ensure that you won't try to 1cc a single playthrough]]. In addition, dying reduces your firepower back to minimal, forcing you to pick up powerups again unless you picked up one of the rare fairies that generously drop powerups for you upon your death. Have fun trying to finish the final stage with only a weak 3-way spread and missiles that do practically nonexistent damage because you died once.
* ''Burning Force'' is a brutally difficult ''VideoGame/SpaceHarrier'' clone (but with most of the game being played on a hoverbike that can only move left and right.) By the midway point of the game, there's a constant barrage of things flying at you, and the 3D perspective can make it hard to tell how close projectiles are to you in some instances. Hoverbike bosses can also be frustrating, because unless you have homing missiles you can only hit them if they're low to the ground, so obviously a lot of them like to just fly up frequently so you can't hit them. Not only that, but even in the arcade version, getting a game over kicks the player back to the beginning of the stage, preventing them from just [[BribingYourWayToVictory Bribing Their Way To Victory]], and getting a game over in the final stage (when the FinalBoss is a massive MarathonBoss) ends the game right then and there without a chance to continue.

* ''VideoGame/CrimzonClover'' has a unique take on this trope: the game is brutally difficult not just because it is a [[BulletHell danmaku game]], but if you die before reaching the FinalBoss, using ''even a single continue'' bars you from getting to face the FinalBoss, [[NonstandardGameOver and instead ends the game with no credit roll]] after you defeat the final stage's second boss. That's right, [[NoFinalBossForYou the game actually mocks you for not 1cc-ing the game]] because you weren't using your godlike reflexes to even make it through all the levels. So 1cc-ing is pretty much '''mandatory''' if you want to play this game.
* ''VideoGame/AfterBurner'' and its sequel allows you to add additional lives on top of your starting three at the start of the game and during the game, by inserting credits. Why? Because the missiles the enemies shoot out are damn near unavoidable without seizure levels of juking your aircraft, and it doesn't help that your fighter's sprite can obscure the view of the oncoming missiles. An average player will have exhausted their starting three lives by the end of stage 3, or even stage 2; mind you, this game has 18 stages. On top of that, the game has a fairly unnecessary barrel mechanic, ostensibly to help you dodge missiles, but all it does is prevent you from taking any other movement-related action until the roll ends or you get hit by a missile. ''After Burner Climax'' alleviates this somewhat by giving you a LifeMeter and a better view of what's in front of your ship, but a missile still takes away 70% of your health.
* ''[[VideoGame/{{Gunbird}} Gunbird 2]]'' is considered to be one of the hardest 2D-shooters ever made and is easily the hardest one released in Europe and one of the harder ones released in North America. It is in many ways a step up of the original ''Gunbird:Mobile Light Force'', replacing the upgrade system with a leveling system, having updated graphics and more sprites. The thing though is that the leveling system, while being able to upgrade by shooting enemies and picking the power-ups, is extremely slow and you will be unable to be maximally powered up (which is at level 3) until the second level at the very least and the meter returns to level one after you lose a life. There are way more bullets than in the original and the enemy AI has become stronger, which means that bullets are harder to dodge and that the dodge requires more precision. The bosses are, just as the bosses in ''Gunbird: Mobile Light Force'', strategy based (to give an example, one boss in ''Gunbird: Mobile Light Force'' shoots lots of slow bullets, the best strategy is to visualize where all the bullets will go and dodge them) and have multiple forms, but they have made the strategies UpToEleven, so that the right strategy is needed and that it still would be even hard to do the stuff correctly. Memorizing the levels is also practically useless, since like the original ''Gunbird: Mobile Light Force'', the level types are randomly generated with only the increasing difficulty intact. The only thing saving you is bombs, which are rare, but clear the screen of all bullets and obstacles. It is especially in the later levels that it gets ridiculous, with tons of bullets literally flashing through the screen. If anything it proves that importing is not necessary to get some of the most hardcore shoot-em-up action ever put on a CD ([[NoExportForYou unless you are in Australia of course]]).
* Namco's ''VideoGame/DragonSpirit'' is a vertical-scrolling one where the player plays as a dragon who must avoid both aerial threats and attacks from the ground. The normal fire blasts would only strike the aerial forces. While one could gain power-ups to strike ground forces, it left the player unable to fire at aerial threats. Gaining other power-ups, such as doubling or tripling the total number of heads of the player, and thus increasing total volleys shot and rate of fire, is mitigated by typically increasing the size of the dragon, and any hit on part of the dragon counts for a lose of life.
* ''VideoGame/DownWell'' is a short game, but will require multiple attempts to even see the boss, let alone defeat it.
* ''VideoGame/ToTheEarth'' is a wickedly difficult NES shoot-em-up featuring enemies that swoop down at you in waves, fire quickly, and pull away before you can so much as get a shot off, meaning they're barely on screen for a fraction of a second. How is this any different or harder than a traditional shoot-em-up? You have to ''use the Zapper'' for this game. Yes, a high speed space shooting game where you actually have rely on your own gun-handling reflexes. Oh, and if you shoot and don't hit a target, you lose some of your lifebar, so you can't just fill the air with shots either. This contributes to a ruthlessly hard game that ended up being quite polarizing among reviewers at the time.
* ''VideoGame/MarsMatrix'' features brutal patterns as early as stage 3 (of 6) and a difficult item-chaining system that you are required to master to defend against and [[AttackReflector counter]] enemy attacks, earn enough EXP to level your ship up, and get extra lives. Its only major mercy is averting CollisionDamage; anything that's not a bullet, such as enemy ships and asteroids, are safe to fly over.
* ''VideoGame/AirBuster'', especially on hardest difficulty on home consoles.
* ''VideoGame/P47Aces'', the forgotten "sequel" to P-47: The Phantom Fighter, has it's nasty moments here and there. Not the mention the dynamic difficulty that makes things worse, why?, because you can get only ONE extra life.

* The Run-And-Gun shooter ''Moon Patrol'' actually starts out nice and easy, especially for an early '80s arcade title...and then it throws the Champion course at you, which quickly escalates from fairly challenging into downright Nintendo Hard. The Champion course is just ''littered'' with areas with multiple rocks on both sides of a pit, jumping sequences where your timing has to be ''just'' right, and sometimes a couple ''dozen'' airborne enemies on screen...sometimes ''in combination.''

** Adding to the hardness, some danmaku games, especially Touhou, actually ''reward'' you for getting as close to the bullets as possible. Being able to "graze" bullets by having them pass through your sprite but not your hitbox earns you extra points for your score, but ups your chances of dying immensely. Thankfully, these games have mechanics to keep the grazing from getting ''too'' worthy of a keyboard/controller/arcade machine toss--such as offering plenty of lives, or the "death bomb" mechanic found in Touhou (which allows the player to use up a bomb rather than a life right after getting hit).

* ''Project X'' gives you five lives to complete five levels, each one capped with a boss you'd be lucky to beat with ten. One of them even ''laughs at you when you die''.

* Speaking of ''Battle Garegga'', theres ''another'' game like that, it's called VideoGame/CyvernTheDragonWeapons.

* ''[[VideoGame/Rayxanber Rayxanber II]]'' for the UsefulNotes/PCEngine not only forces ''R-Type''-like memorization, but has weapons that are underpowered for defeating the fast-moving enemies, some of which ''will'' completely encircle the ship.

* ''VideoGame/ArmyMoves'' was largely responsible for giving Spanish company Dinamic its reputation for making games with wonderful graphics but ludicrous difficulty. The first two stages of the GameplayRoulette feature player vehicles that go down in one hit from any of the constant swarms of enemies from all sides. Collision detection only aggravates this.

* To give you an idea of how difficult ''Truxton'' is, its Japanese title is ''Tatsujin'', which translates to "[[MeaningfulName Expert]]". Its sequel, ''Truxton II'' / ''Tatsujin Ou'' ("Expert King") is a tad more fair, in the sense of giving you autofire and powerful weaponry, but provides even more challenging enemies.

* ''VideoGame/BattleGaregga''. If you can handle the [[RealIsBrown realistically-colored bullets]], prepare for a different dimension of hurt: the DynamicDifficulty ("rank") system. To elaborate, the game increases the rank over time and when you perform certain actions like firing especially with higher shot power and collecting items, meaning you can't just hold down the fire button all day and you have to pace your collection of shot powerup items. The only way to reduce rank is to [[MercyMode die]], i.e. [[ViolationOfCommonSense you have to strategically use up lives so you don't burn them all up in a high-rank situation later]]; this means that to keep earning lives to sacrifice for rank control, you need to get very good at scoring points ([[EveryTenThousandPoints the main method of earning extra lives]]) in this game, which involves collecting medals without leting them escape in order to maximize their point values, a task that is ''far'' easier said than done. Mistakes in rank management won't be readily apparent until you reach the later parts of the game and see enemies popping off unusually dense attacks, potentially rendering the game UnwinnableByDesign.

* The obscure ''Jim Power: The Arcade Game'' has not only the usual [[EverythingTryingToKillYou "all manner of obstacles" business]] as well as Jim himself [[OneHitPointWonder phasing out in seconds]] after touching any hazard or enemy, but there is also the SHMUP sections where the ship you are flying is pretty slow (read: annoyingly slow) and there are enemies that toss tons of bullets at you. And, of course, there are the Zig-zag segments in which the autoscrolling randomly speeds up and slows down. Watch Youtube [=LPer=] LetsPlay/{{Kikoskia}}'s LP of the game and you'll see how frustrating this game gets... even the '''very first level''' is insane.

* ''Rayxanber II'' for the UsefulNotes/PCEngine not only forces ''R-Type''-like memorization, but has weapons that are underpowered for defeating the fast-moving enemies, some of which ''will'' completely encircle the ship.
* Syder Arcade on Pure difficulty. It's a good thing that powerups carry over from previous stages, because you need EVERY edge you can get.

* ''Army Moves'' was largely responsible for giving Spanish company Dinamic its reputation for making games with wonderful graphics but ludicrous difficulty. The first two stages of the GameplayRoulette feature player vehicles that go down in one hit from any of the constant swarms of enemies from all sides. Collision detection only aggravates this.

* ''Gunbird 2'' is considered to be one of the hardest 2D-shooters ever made and is easily the hardest one released in Europe and one of the harder ones released in North America. It is in many ways a step up of the original ''Gunbird/Mobile Light Force'', replacing the upgrade system with a leveling system, having updated graphics and more sprites. The thing though is that the leveling system, while being able to upgrade by shooting enemies and picking the power-ups, is extremely slow and you will be unable to be maximally powered up (which is at level 3) until the second level at the very least and the meter returns to level one after you lose a life. There are way more bullets than in the original and the enemy AI has become stronger, which means that bullets are harder to dodge and that the dodge requires more precision. The bosses are, just as the bosses in ''Gunbird/Mobile Light Force'', strategy based (to give an example, one boss in ''Gunbird/Mobile Light Force'' shoots lots of slow bullets, the best strategy is to visualize where all the bullets will go and dodge them) and have multiple forms, but they have made the strategies UpToEleven, so that the right strategy is needed and that it still would be even hard to do the stuff correctly. Memorizing the levels is also practically useless, since like the original ''Gunbird/Mobile Light Force'', the level types are randomly generated with only the increasing difficulty intact. The only thing saving you is bombs, which are rare, but clear the screen of all bullets and obstacles. It is especially in the later levels that it gets ridiculous, with tons of bullets literally flashing through the screen. If anything it proves that importing is not necessary to get some of the most hardcore shoot-em-up action ever put on a CD ([[NoExportForYou unless you are in Australia of course]]).
* Namco's ''Dragon Spirit'' is a vertical-scrolling one where the player plays as a dragon who must avoid both aerial threats and attacks from the ground. The normal fire blasts would only strike the aerial forces. While one could gain power-ups to strike ground forces, it left the player unable to fire at aerial threats. Gaining other power-ups, such as doubling or tripling the total number of heads of the player, and thus increasing total volleys shot and rate of fire, is mitigated by typically increasing the size of the dragon, and any hit on part of the dragon counts for a lose of life.
* ''VideoGame/{{DownWell}}'' is a short game, but will require multiple attempts to even see the boss, let alone defeat it.
* ''To The Earth'' is a wickedly difficult NES shoot-em-up featuring enemies that swoop down at you in waves, fire quickly, and pull away before you can so much as get a shot off, meaning they're barely on screen for a fraction of a second. How is this any different or harder than a traditional shoot-em-up? You have to ''use the Zapper'' for this game. Yes, a high speed space shooting game where you actually have rely on your own gun-handling reflexes. Oh, and if you shoot and don't hit a target, you lose some of your lifebar, so you can't just fill the air with shots either. This contributes to a ruthlessly hard game that ended up being quite polarizing among reviewers at the time.

* ''Air Buster'', especially on hardest difficulty on home consoles.

*** The "Black Label" limited edition version has God mode, which features a BonusBoss with extremely difficult requirements to encounter her. To get Spiritual Larsa you have to beat God Mode without dying at all. Spiritual Larsa herself actually is relatively easy though, especially compared to Ultra's TLB form, not counting all the resources you'd have left over if you're good enough get to her. Only her last attack is actually dangerous, and it's the only attack that has a bomb-shield.

* Though the first four stages aren't all that rough for veteran shmuppers, psuedo-''danmaku'' arcade/Dreamcast ShootEmUp ''VideoGame/{{Gigawing}}'' goes stupid-hard on the final level (with [[SequentialBoss three majorly hard bosses one right after the other]]) by lobbing screen-clogging waves of kamikazes and danmaku cloud-spewers. The [[MultipleEndings hidden (good) endings]] require you to beat the game on [[NoDamageRun a single credit]], so losing here means you need to start aaall the way back at the beginning and go through the snoozer levels once again. Nice story too. On an unrelated note [[http://gh.ffshrine.org/soundtracks/2638 the second game has much better music]].

Note also that in the shoot-em-up community (as well as those for some other formats of arcade and arcade-style games), "properly" beating the game mandates beating the game without continues, a feat known as a one-credit clear or a 1CC. The rationale is that arcade games often allow the player to [[BribingYourWayToVictory buy their way to the end of the game by spending money on continues]], and in console games/ports that grant unlimited continues, being able to just replenish your life stock when it runs out by pressing a button allows the player to effortlessly beat the game (assuming the game doesn't send them back to a CheckPoint with each death or give out a NonStandardGameOver for [[PointOfNoContinues losing all lives past a certain point]]). As such, games that offer limited chances to die or take damage per credit but have unlimited credits can qualify for this trope, if trying to beat the game on that one credit is very difficult (which, for arcade games, it will always be since arcade games are designed to eat up money).

Note also that in the shoot-em-up community (as well as those for some other formats of arcade and arcade-style games), "properly" beating the game mandates beating the game without continues, a feat known as a one-credit clear or a 1CC. The rationale is that arcade games often allow the player to [[BribingYourWayToVictory buy their way to the end of the game by spending money on continues]], and in console games/ports that grant unlimited continues, being able to just replenish your life stock when it runs out by pressing a button allows the player to effortlessly beat the game (assuming the game doesn't send them back to a CheckPoint with each death or give out a NonStandardGameOver for [[PointOfNoContinues losing all lives past a certain point]]). As such, games that offer limited chances to die or take damage per credit but have unlimited credits can qualify for this trope, if trying to beat the game on that one credit is very difficult.

* ''VideoGame/BattleGaregga''. If you can handle the [[RealIsBrown realistically-colored bullets]], prepare for a different dimension of hurt: the DynamicDifficulty ("rank") system. To elaborate, the game increases the rank over time and when you perform certain actions like firing especially with higher shot power and collecting items, meaning you can't just hold down the fire button all day and you have to pace your collection of shot powerup items. The only way to reduce rank is to [[MercyMode die]], i.e. you have to strategically use up lives so you don't burn them all up in a high-rank situation later; this means that to keep earning lives to sacrifice for rank control, you need to get very good at scoring points in this game, which involves collecting medals without leting them escape in order to maximize their point values, a task that is ''far'' easier said than done. Mistakes in rank management won't be readily apparent until you reach the later parts of the game and see enemies popping off unusually dense attacks, potentially rendering the game UnwinnableByDesign.

* ''VideoGame/BattleGaregga''. If you can handle the [[RealIsBrown realistically-colored bullets]], prepare for a different dimension of hurt: the DynamicDifficulty ("rank") system. To elaborate, the game increases the rank over time and when you perform certain actions like firing (so you can't just hold down the shot button all day) and collecting items (meaning you have to be careful leveling your main shot up and avoid collecting excess powerups). The only way to reduce rank is to [[MercyMode die]], i.e. you have to strategically use up lives so you don't burn them all up in a high-rank situation later; this means that to keep earning lives to sacrifice for rank control, you need to get very good at scoring points in this game, which involves collecting medals without leting them escape in order to maximize their point values, a task that is ''far'' easier said than done. Mistakes in rank management won't be readily apparent until you reach the later parts of the game and see enemies popping off unusually dense attacks, potentially rendering the game UnwinnableByDesign.