History NintendoHard / GameMod

* [[https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/70032 Skyrim Rogue-like Encounters]] add [[DemonicSpider enemies that hit hard and need a lot of hits to bring it down]] in every single groups of hostile NPC, including bandits. All of them are uniquely modeled, so they're easy to distinguish.
* [[https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/53745/ SkyDie - Prepare to Cry Edition]] turns Skyrim into a far more challenging experience. Fast travel and health regeneration are disabled, running depletes your stamina, potions have been nerfed and their prices have been increased.
* [[https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/19281 Requiem: The Role-Playing Overhaul]] is very tough. The mod removes LevelScaling, so you will meet a lot of [[BeefGate Beef Gates]] making it [[EarlyGameHell very hellish at low levels.]] Bows and crossbows can be destroyed by melee attacks, you start out with less carry weight, enemies tend to stick together when fighting you, running drains your stamina and you move slower if you have low stamina or health. Stronger enemies can potentially kill you in a few hits if you are not prepared.

* [[https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/53745/ SkyDie - Prepare to Cry Edition]] turns Skyrim into a far more challenging experience. Fast travel and health regeneration is disabled, running depletes your stamina, potions have been nerfed and their prices have been increased.

* ''VideoGame/HideousDestructor'' is a weapon/gameplay mod for ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' that makes it play like a tactical shooter. A tactical shooter with Doom-like numbers of enemies who are at least as fast and tough as you are. If you get damaged you can bleed to death over time if you don't have the right items, you move at a realistic speed that is agonizingly slow compared to the [[SonicTheHedgehog Sonic-like]] speed of the original player character, and all enemies do tremendous amounts of damage. It's a truly harrowing experience and there is ''no'' room for mistakes.

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* The ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'' series called ''[[https://neverwintervault.org/project/nwn1/module/swordflight-chapter-one Swordflight]]''. Everything is meant to undermine you in the most unfair and cruelest way imaginable. Monsters always scale to your level, so even [[TheGoomba lowly monsters]] should never be underestimated. Regular monsters have beefed-up stats and abilities not found in the vanilla game, such as concealment for Battle Horrors or [[SummoningRitual unlimited Gates]] for Pit Fiends. Rust Monsters and Bebiliths can destroy your equipment. EliteMooks and BossInMookClothes are everywhere (have fun fighting eight Mariliths, not counting their little friends). RespawningEnemies and RandomEncounters are scripted and always show up when you pass the same room over and over (and ''you will''). Monsters have a chance to ambush you if you rest in hostile territories. Boss fights are always a nightmare because of [[FlunkyBoss minions]], devices that constantly heal the boss and death traps that damage you. Liches and Vampires always respawn if you fail to destroy their SoulJar or stake them on time. Not helping matter is [[RequiredPartyMember a forced party member]] who's [[ArtificialStupidity idiocy reaches monumental levels]]. To top it off, the designer recommends playing the mod ''with D&D hardcore rules''.

* The ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'' series called ''[[https://neverwintervault.org/project/nwn1/module/swordflight-chapter-one Swordflight]]''. Everything is meant to undermine you in the most unfair and cruelest way imaginable. Monsters always scale to your level, so even [[TheGoomba lowly monsters]] should never be underestimated. Regular monsters have beefed up stats and abilities not found in the vanilla game. Rust Monsters and Bebiliths can destroy your equipment. EliteMooks and BossInMookClothes are everywhere (have fun fighting eight Mariliths, not counting their little friends). RespawningEnemies and RandomEncounters are scripted and always show up when you pass the same room over and over (and ''you will''). Monsters have a chance to ambush you if you rest in hostile territories. Boss fights are always a nightmare because of [[FlunkyBoss minions]], devices that constantly heal the boss and death traps that damage you. Liches and Vampires always respawn if you fail to destroy their SoulJar or stake them on time. Not helping matter is [[RequiredPartyMember a forced party member]] who's [[ArtificialStupidity idiocy reaches monumental levels]]. To top it off, the designer recommends playing the mod ''with D&D hardcode rules''.

* The ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'' series called ''[[https://neverwintervault.org/project/nwn1/module/swordflight-chapter-one Swordflight]]''. Everything is meant to undermine you in the most unfair and cruelest way imaginable. Monsters always scale to your level, so even [[TheGoomba lowly monsters]] should never be underestimated. Regular monsters have beefed up stats and abilities not found in the vanilla game. EliteMooks and BossInMookClothes are everywhere (have fun fighting eight Mariliths, not counting their little friends). RespawningEnemies and RandomEncounters are scripted and always show up when you pass the same room over and over (and ''you will''). Monsters have a chance to ambush you if you rest in hostile territories. Boss fights are always a nightmare because of [[FlunkyBoss minions]], devices that constantly heal the boss and death traps that damage you. Liches and Vampires always respawn if you fail to destroy their SoulJar or stake them on time. Not helping matter is [[RequiredPartyMember a forced party member]] who's [[ArtificialStupidity idiocy reaches monumental levels]]. To top it off, the designer recommends playing the mod ''with D&D hardcode rules''.

* The ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'' series called ''[[https://neverwintervault.org/project/nwn1/module/swordflight-chapter-one Swordflight]]''. Everything is meant to undermine you in the most unfair and cruelest way imaginable. Monsters always scale to your level, so even [[TheGoomba lowly monsters]] should never be underestimated. Regular monsters have beefed up stats and abilities not found in the vanilla game. EliteMooks and BossInMookClothes are everywhere (have fun fighting eight Mariliths, not counting their little friends). RespawningEnemies and RandomEncounters are scripted and always show up when you pass the same room over and over (and ''you will''). Monsters have a chance to ambush you if you rest in hostile territories. Boss fights are always a nightmare because of [[FlunkyBoss minions]], devices that constantly heal the boss and death traps that damage you. Liches always respawn if you fail to destroy their SoulJar on time. Not helping matter is [[RequiredPartyMember a forced party member]] who's [[ArtificialStupidity idiocy reaches monumental levels]]. To top it off, the designer recommends playing the mod ''with D&D hardcode rules''.

* The ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'' series called ''[[https://neverwintervault.org/project/nwn1/module/swordflight-chapter-one Swordflight]]''. Everything is meant to undermine you in the most unfair and cruelest way imaginable. Monsters always scale to your level, so even [[TheGoomba lowly monsters]] should never be underestimated. Regular monsters have beefed up stats and abilities not found in the vanilla game. RespawningEnemies and RandomEncounters are scripted and always show up when you pass the same room over and over (and ''you will''). Monsters have a chance to ambush you if you rest in hostile territories. Boss fights are always a nightmare because of [[FlunkyBoss minions]], devices that constantly heal the boss and death traps that damage you. Liches always respawn if you fail to destroy their SoulJar on time. Not helping matter is [[RequiredPartyMember a forced party member]] who's [[ArtificialStupidity idiocy reaches monumental levels]]. To top it off, the designer recommends playing the mod ''with D&D hardcode rules''.

* The ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights'' series called ''[[https://neverwintervault.org/project/nwn1/module/swordflight-chapter-one Swordflight]]''. Everything is meant to undermine you in the most unfair and cruelest way imaginable. Monsters always scale to your level, so even [[TheGoomba lowly monsters]] should never be underestimated. RespawningEnemies and RandomEncounters are scripted and always show up pass the same room over and over (and you will). Monsters have a chance to ambush you if you rest in hostile territories. Boss fights are always a nightmare because of [[FlunkyBoss minions]], devices that constantly heal the boss and death traps that damage you. Liches always respawn if you fail to destroy their SoulJar on time. Not helping matter is [[RequiredPartyMember a forced party member]] who's [[ArtificialStupidity idiocy reaches monumental levels]]. To top it off, the designer recommends playing the mod with D&D hardcode rules.

* ''VideoGame/PokemonBlueKaizo'' is possibly the hardest hack for Generation 1. Every Pokémon in the game has their movesets altered to be as lethal as possible, including those that can specialize in OHKO moves, Explosion moves, Status moves, and wrapping moves. You can expect to fight nearly every trainer in the game, and the dungeons also bumped up in difficulty, with far more lethal encounters than usual, in a maze-like area for a high punishment factor if you black out, and the dungeons are usually populated by trainers. The bosses have full teams of six, and many have wildcards, and they generally get much stronger as the game goes on, especially near the end. The AI can use healing items, and sometimes even switch. Unlike the games, Team Rocket becomes significantly more threatening, with powerful Pokémon, and switching and healing capabilities. You rival will always have a [[spoiler:''Mew'']] as his main, which will get stronger as the game goes on. The only thing the AI can't do is use revives, but you can't use revives during battle either. Though catching all 151 pokemon is actually simple enough, since you will face all 151 Pokémon.

* ''Populous: Age of Chaos'' was an unofficial expansion for ''PopulousTheBeginning'' which introduced a brand-new, 25-level, single-player campaign that was far, ''FAR'' more difficult than both the original campaign and the one from the official expansion, ''Undiscovered Worlds'', for veteran players who had beaten those two campaigns.

** And just when you thought things couldn't get any worse, now the mod also makes stalkers completely unpredictable in their behavior. Oh, you just stumbled upon what appears to be a group of regular Loners? Cue the sudden cruel twist of fate when you quickly find out to your horror that these are actually bandits and/or mercenaries in disguise and they will immediately turn their guns on you. Oh, and the mod also removes the compass-map that you were so used to in the vanilla version, as well as other mods for this game; now you have to resort to opening up your PDA to check your map to find out where you actually are. The series was already notorious enough to be considered the ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' of the FirstPersonShooter genre. [[ThisIsGonnaSuck Yeah]].

* ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZe7q6Ki42g& Binary City]]'', a ''BattleCity'' hack except you control 2 tanks at the same time. Now a 4-directional action shooter has been turned into a puzzle game which requires a lot of thinking power, a lot of muscle coordination and a quick reflexes to win.

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Vega'', a Japanese hack of ''[[VideoGame/PokemonFireRedAndLeafGreen Pokémon Fire Red]]'', makes grinding a painfully time consuming affair by lowering the levels of all trainers and wild Pokémon down to as low as 10 or 15 fewer than the [[BossBattle gym leader and evil team administrators']] teams. It's necessary, though, since the major trainers come out swinging from the get go and never let up. By the third gym you'll have run into a [[LightningBruiser Starmie]] with near flawless type coverage, a Golduck with typically late game moves like Surf and Aura Sphere, and a [[DishingOutDirt Ground-type]] gym leader sending out a [[GoodOldFisticuffs Hitmonchan]] as his clutch, all likely 5 or six levels higher than your strongest 'mon, unless you went out of your way to grind enough for them.

* ''Brotherhood of Shadow'' for ''VideoGame/StarWarsKnightsOfTheOldRepublic''. Beautiful storyline, excellent characters, and holy Yoda, what an epic scope. But the difficulty level is ''brutal.'' [[spoiler: Especially the one-on-one duel with Mandalore the Indomitable where you are armed with an unmodified lightsaber and robes and he's armed with a pair of battleaxes! He's also got a Force resistance of "yes."]] The Tomb of Jesset Dal'Kest is ''worse.'' Specialized armor and weapons on everything you fight, no party member backup, and boss-level characters attacking in a ZergRush. Even the mod's authors admit that it's world-class brutal.

* ''[[http://modsbylaz.hugelaser.com Median XL]]'', a ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}} II'' mod which gives you a wide selection of new skills and powers for your character and has several "uberquests" that contain monsters which can instantly pwn your player character, even at max level with good gear. Also veteran monsters in the normal game are instant pwn. Some areas have witches which cannot be killed or targeted by your character, but if you get within their awareness radius, they will instantly kill your character (guaranteed, cannot be resisted and damage is infinite).
* ''Brotherhood of Shadow'' for ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic''. Beautiful storyline, excellent characters, and holy Yoda, what an epic scope. But the difficulty level is ''brutal.'' [[spoiler: Especially the one-on-one duel with Mandalore the Indomitable where you are armed with an unmodified lightsaber and robes and he's armed with a pair of battleaxes! He's also got a Force resistance of "yes."]]
** The Tomb of Jesset Dal'Kest is ''worse.'' Specialized armor and weapons on everything you fight, no party member backup, and boss-level characters attacking in a ZergRush. Even the mod's authors admit that it's world-class brutal.

* Similar to the ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'' example above, ROM hacks of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'' are often ridiculously difficult to the point of parody.
** The most famous example being ''VideoGame/KaizoMarioWorld'', though that one can be better described as PlatformHell.

** Ascension, which beefs up all of the major boss fights in Throne of Bhaal (including Demogorgon,) and turns the final boss fight into a massive BossRush against every major villain from both the main game and ToB (including fighting every member of the Five at the same time.) The only consolation is that you can recruit one of the Five to fight alongside you.

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Vega'', a Japanese hack of ''[[VideoGame/PokemonFireRedAndLeafGreen Pokémon Fire Red]]'', makes grinding a painfully time consuming affair by lowering the levels of all trainers and wild Pokémon down to as low as 10 or 15 fewer than the [[BossBattle gym leader and evil team administrators']] teams. It's necessary, though, since the major trainers come out swinging from the get go and never let up. By the third gym you'll have run into a [[LightningBruiser Starmie]] with near flawless type coverage, a Golduck with typically late game moves like Surf and Aura Sphere, and a [[DishingOutDirt ground type]] gym leader sending out a [[GoodOldFisticuffs Hitmonchan]] as his clutch, all likely 5 or six levels higher than your strongest 'mon, unless you went out of your way to grind enough for them.

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Blaze Black 2 & Volt White 2'', a hack for Pokémon Black 2 & White 2. If played in the "Challenge Mode" (which you can acesses in the beginning of the game), the difficulty will become absolutely brutal. ALL gym learders have six pokémon, most (if not all) holding items (some which you can only get by half of the game onwards), likely three or five levels higher than your team, not to mention the great type coverage and strategies they possess. So you want to use fire attacks against the bug type gym leader? First thing he will do is use Rain Dance (which will make fire attacks 50% weaker) combined with Damp Rock item (extending the Rain Dance duration to eight turns instead of five). Good luck with that!
** All of Drayano's hacks: Fire Red Omega, Sacred Gold / Storm Silver, and the first Blaze Black / Volt White follow that trope as their intent. They do give the player a fighting chance, buffing various ComMons to a decent level, as you're no longer expected to find the strongest mon of the advantageous type and plow through the respective gym.

* ''VideoGame/PokemonBlueKaizo'' is possibly the hardest hack for Generation 1. Every pokemon in the game has their movesets altered to be as lethal as possible, including those that can specialize in OHKO moves, Explosion moves, Status moves, and wrapping moves. You can expect to fight nearly every trainer in the game, and the dungeons also bumped up in difficulty, with far more lethal encounters than usual, in a mazelike area for a high punishment factor if you black out, and the dungeons are usually populated by trainers. The bosses have full teams of six, and many have wildcards, and they generally get much stronger as the game goes on, especially near the end. The AI can use healing items, and sometimes even switch. Unlike the games, Team Rocket becomes significantly more threatening, with powerful pokemon, and switching and healing capabilities. You rival will always have a [[spoiler: ''Mew'']] as his main, which will get stronger as the game goes on. The only thing the AI can't do is use revives, but you can't use revives during battle either. Though catching all 151 pokemon is actually simple enough, since you will face all 151 pokemon.

** Also for ''Empire At War'', ''Thrawn's Revenge'' [[{{Nerf}} nerfs]] space stations into [[TheLoad nigh-defenseless shipyards]], Tech Level advancement is [[ScrappyMechanic based on "Eras"]], and if a Hero unit is killed, ''[[AllDeathsFinal they're]] [[KilledOffForReal dead]]''.

* ''VideoGame/MegaMan8BitDeathmatch''[='=]s single player campaign is composed of a series of pre-determined matches against computer controlled bots. However, each level '''requires''' you to reach the frag limit to finish in first place, and the bots are very aggressive, and while it's possible to lower their difficulty, it's hard to access and not avaliable in the main single player menu[[note]]So you know, you can lower their difficulty by doing it in the offline skirmish menu[[/note]]. Worse yet, they get infinite ammo for any weapon they pickup, allowing them to fire off weapons all day that would normally only have 7 shots at the most. And then some of the single player exclusive bosses battles are brutal, such as the [[ThatOneBoss Metool Daddy]], and as the player cannot respawn during these fights, you have to start the fight over if you die at any point.

* The SugarWiki/SoCoolItsAwesome ''VideoGame/EmpireAtWar'' mod ''Republic at War'' tweaks the enemy [=AI=] to be [[PerfectPlayAI absurdly intelligent and ruthlessly aggressive]].

*** Add to both examples the fact that the enemy faction [[MyRulesAreNotYourRules has practically limitless resources]] and [[DiskOneNuke immediate access to Super Star Destroyers (or equivalent)]]. Yeah, you're in for one hell of a ride.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda: Parallel Worlds'' may be SoCoolItsAwesome, but it is also one of ''the'' hardest games you will ever play. After beating the game you'll probably think all of the quotes on this trope's quote page are referring to this game specifically. One needs only look at level 3, Farore's Isle, for an example: After a couple of non-challenging rooms (literally a couple!), you're faced with an unavoidable Firebar that you'll absolutely have to take a hit off of to get by. And you'll probably want at least three hearts, because the room after that has more Firebars and red Hardhat Beetles that deal two hearts of CollisionDamage at a time. ''And'' the next floor down has ''more'' red Hardhat Beetles and the Crystal Switch you have to activate to continue further on. '''And''' you'll need at least two hearts left over after going through all of that, because on the way back you'll be forced to hit a Firebar again! '''''And''''' you can't use the book of Mudora to go back to the start of the dungeon, because that resets the crystal switch! And hey, guess how much the remodel (specifically designed to make the game ''easier'') changed about this series of rooms? Besides brightening them up a bit, ''absolutely nothing!!''

* The SugarWiki/SoCoolItsAwesome ''EmpireAtWar'' mod ''Republic at War'' tweaks the enemy [=AI=] to be [[PerfectPlayAI absurdly intelligent and ruthlessly aggressive]].
** Also for ''EmpireAtWar'', ''Thrawn's Revenge'' [[{{Nerf}} nerfs]] space stations into [[TheLoad nigh-defenseless shipyards]], Tech Level advancement is [[ScrappyMechanic based on "Eras"]], and if a Hero unit is killed, ''[[AllDeathsFinal they're]] [[KilledOffForReal dead]]''.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' wasn't the hardest game out there, despite a few truly grueling battles... So some people gathered together and created Final Fantasy Tactics 1.3, which removed many exploits, rebalanced classes and gave enemies ridiculously powerful items and classes ''way'' before you can attain such things (unless you steal and use Mediators, of course)

* FinalFantasyTactics wasn't the hardest game out there, despite a few truly grueling battles... So some people gathered together and created Final Fantasy Tactics 1.3, which removed many exploits, rebalanced classes and gave enemies ridiculously powerful items and classes ''way'' before you can attain such things (unless you steal and use Mediators, of course)

* The [[http://www.miserymod.com/ Misery mod]] for ''S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat'' is so ridiculously [[NintendoHard Nintendo Hard]] that it practically [[UpToEleven redefines the trope]]. Everything, ''everything'' that could have been exploited for an advantage has been ruthlessly suppressed. Relied on artifacts to stave off radiation? Tough luck. Now they ''all'' are hotter than a rod of depleted reactor fuel, weigh a ''ton'', and unless you brought lead-lined containers you'll be glowing in minutes. On top of the anomalies being [[EldritchLocation little pockets of hell on earth]], the usual share of competing stalkers and always hungry mutants will make that an ordeal even for the [[CrazyPrepared crazy prepared]]. If fleshes and boars were pests your Protecta or SPAS shotgun could easily deal with, now they'll need anything between four shots and a full magazine/drum each. ''Even a single cat can ruin your day''. Just imagine how deadly the rest of the monster cast is. The whole Zone is such a [[DeathWorld cruel and pitiless place]] now that you shouldn't expect to make money hunting for artifacts anymore - your main source of income will be other stalkers you hunt down and kill for their gear.
** And just when you thought things couldn't get any worse, now the mod even makes stalkers completely unpredictable in their behavior. Oh, you just stumbled upon what appears to be a group of regular Loners? Cue the sudden cruel twist of fate when you quickly find out to your horror that these are actually bandits and/or mercenaries in disguise and they will immediately turn their guns on you. Oh, and the mod also removes the compass-map that you were so used to in the vanilla version, as well as other mods for this game; now you have to resort to opening up your PDA to check your map to find out where you actually are. The series was already notorious enough to be considered the ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'' of the FirstPersonShooter genre. [[ThisIsGonnaSuck Yeah]].

* The [[http://www.miserymod.com/ Misery mod]] for ''S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat'' is so ridiculously [[NintendoHard Nintendo Hard]] that it practically [[UpToEleven redefines the trope]]. Everything, ''everything'' that could have been exploited for an advantage has been ruthlessly suppressed. Relied on artifacts to stave off radiation? Tough luck. Now they ''all'' are hotter than a rod of depleted reactor fuel, weigh a ''ton'', and unless you brought lead-lined containers you'll be glowing in minutes. Considering you even survive the treasure hunt, that is. If you once could, say, wade into an anomaly with your trusty detector and bolts and leave with your treasure slightly worse for the wear, now venturing without the proper gear will kill you in seconds. And even if you have the proper gear don't expect to last long. On top of the anomalies being [[EldritchLocation little pockets of hell on earth]], the usual share of competing stalkers and always hungry mutants will make that an ordeal even for the [[CrazyPrepared crazy prepared]]. If fleshes and boars were pests your Protecta or SPAS shotgun could easily deal with, now they'll need anything between four shots and a full magazine/drum each. ''Even a single cat can ruin your day''. Just imagine how deadly the rest of the monster cast is. The whole Zone is such a [[DeathWorld cruel and pitiless place]] now that you shouldn't expect to make money hunting for artifacts anymore - your main source of income will be other stalkers you hunt down and kill for their gear.