History Main / NintendoHard

When Nintendo Hard is taken to its most sadistic extremes by deliberately adding cheap deaths and TrialAndErrorGameplay, you get {{Masocore}} or PlatformHell.

* NintendoHard/{{Turn-based Strategy Games}}

The trope is not discredited, but rather cyclic. The 6th generation introduced a lot of games that rival the difficulty of your average NES game. It would sound suprising that it came to life after the 5th generation of video games, when games were so easy that even your grandpa could beat most of them on his first try.

Contrary to the claims of some derisors, modern Nintendo games can still be Nintendo Hard - they just tend to save it for the {{Brutal Bonus Level}}s (or HarderThanHard difficulty settings) rather than spreading it out throughout the entire game.

* NintendoHard/FightingGame

When only one or few levels or areas of the game are Nintendo Hard, you're probably dealing with ThatOneLevel, or SNKBoss if it's the end. If the game reaches an obscene difficulty at a certain point and never looks back, look for DifficultySpike. Examples of NintendoHard head-to-head fighters generally go under TheComputerIsACheatingBastard, since crazy-hard opponent AI is nigh-universally the culprit. EarnYourFun is a common argument for those who like such abusingly difficult games.

The [[http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/rankings?platform=0&genre=0&list_type=diff&view_type=0&dlc=0&min_votes=1 difficulty rankings]] section of [=GameFAQs=] is a good measure of a game's difficulty as long as it has a sufficiently large number (50+) of difficulty votes. The minimum threshold for NintendoHard is approximately 3.50, and those that average over 4.00 are among the hardest games in existence. (Note: it is effectively a [[FourPointScale 2.5-4.0 scale]])

** The inability to attack anywhere but left or right while GoddamnedBats swarmed you from up and down of your position. Most games with this setup even denied you crouching to take out the enemies that crawled under your shots.

The [[http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/rankings?platform=0&genre=0&list_type=diff&view_type=0&dlc=0&min_votes=1 difficulty rankings]] section of [=GameFAQs=] is a good measure of a game's difficulty as long as it has a sufficiently large number (50+) of difficulty votes. The minimum threshold for NintendoHard is approximately 3.50, and those that average over 4.00 are among the hardest games in existence. (Note: it is effectively a [[FourPointScale 2.5-4.5 scale]])

The [[http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/rankings?platform=0&genre=0&list_type=diff&view_type=0&dlc=0&min_votes=1 difficulty rankings]] section of [=GameFAQs=] is a good measure of a game's difficulty as long as it has a sufficiently large number (50+) of difficulty votes. The minimum threshold for NintendoHard is approximately 3.50, and those that average over 4.00 are among the hardest games in existence. (Note: this is effectively a [[FourPointScale 2.5-4.5 scale]])

The [[http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/rankings?platform=0&genre=0&list_type=diff&view_type=0&dlc=0&min_votes=1 difficulty rankings]] section of [=GameFAQs=] is a good measure of a game's difficulty as long as it has a sufficiently large number (50+) of difficulty votes. The minimum threshold for NintendoHard is approximately 3.50, and those that average over 4.00 are among the hardest games in existence.

The game mechanics that make a game "Nintendo Hard" were often transported from arcade games that required the player to [[AttractMode spend more money]] to keep playing after his character was killed. Except that when they got ported over to the console, there was no coin slot, leaving you stuck with a fixed number of lives and highly limited or non-existent continues.

The concept has recently been satirized on the Internet, most famously by WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd, who pointed out that via SturgeonsLaw, most examples of Nintendo Hard games are often a result of sloppy or bad design.

A lot of these are simply rookie mistakes. For a company, establishing an identity and building the fanbase takes priority over finding the proper challenge level. Often the designers will go for something highly distinctive, take a lot of time designing and making it look right, and not spend enough time on the actual gameplay and level mechanics, then realize too late that they've (completely unintentionally) made a monster. ''GhostsNGoblins'' is a good example of this.

* NintendoHard/FirstPersonShooters

The game mechanics that make a game "Nintendo Hard" were often transported from arcade games that required the player to [[AttractMode spend more money]] to keep playing after his character was killed. Except that when they got ported over to the console, there was no coin slot, [[PortingDisaster leaving you stuck with a fixed number of lives and highly limited or non-existent continues]].

'''When you add examples, please be sure to read these statements:'''
* If you feel inclined to add the words "for This Troper" or "could be considered" and cannot make a strong statement on the universal difficulty of the game in question, '''[[SquarePegRoundTrope then it is not an example]].'''
* For an example to qualify, the entire game ''overall'' has to be of such difficulty. If only a few particular parts are hard, then please take examples to one of the ThatOneIndex pages.

'''When you add examples, please be sure to read this sentence:''' If you feel inclined to add the words "for This Troper" or "could be considered" and cannot make a strong statement on the universal difficulty of the game in question, '''[[SquarePegRoundTrope then it is not an example]].'''

When only one or few levels or areas of the game are Nintendo Hard, you're probably dealing with ThatOneLevel. If the game reaches an obscene difficulty at a certain point and never looks back, look for DifficultySpike. Examples of NintendoHard head-to-head fighters generally go under TheComputerIsACheatingBastard, since crazy-hard opponent AI is nigh-universally the culprit. EarnYourFun is a common argument for those who like such abusingly difficult games.

'''For FightingGame examples, see SNKBoss.'''

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* NintendoHard/NonVideoGameExamples
* NintendoHard/{{Pinball}}

* NintendoHard/{{Uncategorised}}

Back in the '80s, video games didn't have the advanced storylines of today; {{Excuse Plot}}s were the norm. So much of the feeling of accomplishment one could derive was from overcoming the insane difficulty that the games provided, if only so one could {{brag|gingRightsReward}} to one's friends. [[GoddamnedBats A plethora of enemies]] and impossible jumps were not just the name of the game, they ''were'' the game. These games weren't just hard; they were Nintendo Hard!

The game mechanics that make a game "Nintendo Hard" were often transported from arcade games that required the player to [[AttractMode spend more money]] to keep playing after his character was killed. Except that when they got ported over to the console, there was no coin slot, [[WhatAnIdiot leaving you stuck with a fixed number of lives and highly limited or non-existent continues]].

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->''"Why do they make it so that you can't fucking win, why am I even playing?" [drops the PS2 controller]''
-->-- '''Evan''', ''{{Superbad}}''

A lot of these are simply rookie mistakes. For a company, establishing an identity and building the fanbase takes priority over finding the proper challenge level. Often the designers will go for something highly distinctive, take a lot of time designing and making it look right, and not spend enough time on the actual gameplay and level mechanics, then realize too late that they've (completely unintentionally) made a monster. Ghosts 'n Goblins is a good example of this.

When only one or few levels or areas of the game are Nintendo Hard, you're probably dealing with ThatOneLevel. If the game reaches an obscene difficulty at a certain point and never looks back, look for DifficultySpike. Examples of NintendoHard head-to-head fighters generally go under TheComputerIsACheatingBastard, since crazy-hard opponent AI is nigh-universally the culprit.