History Sandbox / FakeDifficultyWickCheck

[[folder: Correct -- Difficulty from technical aspects (8/75)]]

[[folder: Correct -- Outcome beyond player control (9/75)]]

[[folder: Correct -- Denial of critical information (5/75)]]

[[folder: Correct -- Punishes decisions made long ago (1/75)]]

[[folder: Correct -- Require counter-intuitive behaviors or skills (0/75)]]

[[folder: Correct -- Multiple Categories (5/75)]]

[[folder: Incorrect (6/75)]]

[[folder: Zero-Context Example/Not Enough Context (9/75)]]

[[folder: Potholes/Fake Difficulty mentioned without going into detail (27/75)]]

[[folder: Unknown (5/75)]]

'''Why?''': FakeDifficulty has a long history, with its page being created back in 2007. Since then, it has garnered many interpretations on what this trope means. Overall, it was determined that FakeDifficulty means that a game is difficult in an unintended or blatantly unfair way.

The problem is that difficulty is subjective. An aspect of a game that seems unfair to one player may be viewed as a challenge to another player. What might seem fair play to one player might also be viewed as unfair to another player.
It all depends on how skilled the player is and how much knowledge they have on a game.

Initially, this wick check was made to check to see if there's a problem regarding its usage. However, this wick check instead reveals a new problem: this trope has been potholed a lot, or it was mentioned without further elaboration.

# VideoGame.DevilSurvivor: The first battle with Naoya has you up against demons that would be reasonably easy to beat at that point in the game. However, Naoya makes you beat all six demons in three turns... and they don't move...and they're really spread out. Granted, it's not required to beat all six; failing to do so will just result in a very unentertained Naoya leaving and telling you the info he was going to tell you via e-mail later on, and the battle is mediated by the fact that it only counts the protagonist's turns; the other characters can move as much as they want and it won't count towards the three. '''I...don't even know why this is even an example in the first place.'''
# VideoGame.RollerCoasterTycoon: The sequel prevents you from charging for both park and ride entry, which can result in many guests not paying a cent when they leave, or never leaving the park after paying the entrance fee, leaving many potential profits unfulfilled. '''The example that kicked off this wick check. This example contains numerous inaccuracies: it was Loopy Landscapes that first prevented you from charging for both the park entrance and the rides, the Cash Machine didn't exist in [=RCT1=] so guests are limited by how much money they initially carry with them, and the game doesn't care about your financial situation; it only cares if your park meets the objectives, which is usually having enough guests in the park by the deadline.'''

# VideoGame.TombRaiderIII: CheckpointStarvation: Thanks to which the game is [[FakeDifficulty considerably harder]] to beat on the [=PS1,=] as the only way to save during a level is via the save crystals.

[[folder: Correct -- Difficulty from technical aspects]]

[[folder: Correct -- Outcome beyond player control]]

[[folder: Correct -- Denial of critical information]]
# VideoGame.SonicTheHedgehog28Bit: The Emerald in Sky High Zone requires you to bounce off clouds that look exactly the same as normal clouds. Rings placed above them clue you in to their function, but not to the fact that you're expected to travel a great horizontal distance using them too. Much of the first boss's extreme difficulty in the Game Gear version comes from the system's small resolution, as the cannonballs you have to dodge bounce so high that they go offscreen very frequently. Antlion is significantly easier on the Master System.

[[folder: Correct -- Punishes decisions made long ago]]

[[folder: Correct -- Require counter-intuitive behaviors or skills]]

[[folder: Correct -- Multiple Categories]]

[[folder: Incorrect]]

# VideoGame.CrashBandicoot1996: Of the LeapOfFaith variety when dealing with Gems. "Road to Nowhere" and "The High Road" both involve making jumps onto invisible platforms that only appear when you touch them to get some out of the way boxes. Due to how Crash's shadow doesn't vanish when jumping over a bottomless pit (as you would expect), there's no way to tell where the platforms are. More invisible platforms appear elsewhere (of the iron box and falling varieties) that at least have the decency to be marked by some Wumpa Fruit, and there's at least one instance where a box is stashed away behind the background, where by all means it seems you should die by trying to go there. '''While this could be considered as falling under the category of "Denial of crucial information", gems in Crash Bandicoot are typically optional collectables. They aren't required to finish the story, but they are required for 100% completion. Not knowing where the platforms are for optional collectables could be considered unfair, though.'''

[[folder: Zero-Context Example/Not Enough Context]]

[[folder: Potholes/Fake Difficulty mentioned without going into detail]]

[[folder: Unknown]]

# VideoGame.AbmneshiTheProphecy: Invoked. One of Mr. D's attacks is very easy, except the bullets are pitch black and the most dangerous ones are hidden behind them so they tend to sneak up on you; these a lighter shade of black on easier difficulties, but other than that nothing's changed.
# VideoGame.DeusExHumanRevolution: The Missing Link DLC is only as difficult as it is because it arbitrarily removes all the augmentations that you've unlocked by that point, forcing you to level-up and unlock them all over again. It's especially noticeable in the "Director's Cut" edition, where - just as arbitrarily - you get enough Praxis Kits at the end to bring you back up to the level you were before the Missing Link mission.

!!Wick Check input
# VideoGame.AceCombatInfinity: The Satellite Interception Special Raid. Although it's (subjectively) easier than Moby Dick Pursuit or Stonehenge Returns (the lasers and unexpected pieces of shrapnel still keep you on your toes), most of the difficulty with finishing it in time comes from the fact that it progresses with Heavy Cloud's communications... The guy is about as charismatic as a brick on the radio, and he just [[MotorMouth won't shut up]]! The worst thing is, despite all the frequency-hogging, he is NOT that good at his job, and whatever enemy he is trying to warn you of tends to already be right on top of you halfway during his transmission!
# VideoGame.SniperElite: A handful of sections spawn in alerted soldiers who instantly know where you are and rush you regardless of where you actually are. Enemies will also sometimes have absurd accuracy with their guns, easily shooting you at far sniper range with submachine guns. (Which is more likely on higher difficulties) Although thankfully, these hits barely cause damage to you if they're still far away and will only be lethal to you if you're in close range with them.
# VideoGame.SonicTheHedgehog2: Like the last game, you lose all your rings whenever you start a new level, same when you leave a Special Stage. This makes the final level a nightmare for many players since it has no rings. The game has a lot of spots where badniks will get a cheap hit in unless you know what's coming. In particular, Mystic Cave Zone and Metropolis Zone are notorious for this, the former for its numerous traps and the infamous unescapable spike pit, and the latter for its Kani Punch/Shellcraker and Kamakiller/Slicer enemies.
# XenobladeChroniclesX.TropesAToJ: It is entirely possible for high level enemies and tyrants to wander into your area and start attacking while you'reach focused on battling a group of enemies. Be mindful of the fast speed and wide travelling range of Barnabas, the Despot in Oblivia while you're hunting low level mephits for a quest.
# VideoGame.OmegaQuintet: Once you get to chapter 6, enemies start gaining moves that can hit the entire party multiple times and inflict every single ailment (including instant death) in one attack. The rest of their attacks are just as pitifully weak as they were before, but they love to spam their new, incredibly powerful move, to the point where boss battles amount to hoping the boss/mooks don't use that attack enough times to wipe your party [=(2-3=] uses, for those wondering) and don't order break before you're able to heal.
# VideoGame.SaintsRow1: The Player Character can't figure out how to stick his RPG launcher over a ledge when he's aiming downward, so you end up blowing yourself up. The frequency of missions where you're expected to drive competently at high speeds and do damage to an enemy car with a weapon instead of your car near the endgame goes way up. Strangely, this is helped in the sequel by two changes - cruise control and remapping of the driving controls (allowing you to steer/shoot with your left hand and accelerate/aim with your right hand, rather than having accelerate/aim/shoot all done with the right hand as in this game).
# VideoGame.The7thSaga: The game (or at least the American version) practically is this, since the difficulty largely comes from insufficient stat boosts when you level up. Also, if you chose Esuna or Lux as your main character, you'll have to take a ferry to the northern continent. You get dropped in an area with monsters 7-8 levels above where you're supposed to be. Hope you can outrun them.
# VideoGame.DeadRising2OffTheRecord: Case [=7-4:=] Breach. Short version, you have to grab some items while Survivors are fighting zombies. Whereas the parallel case in the original game gives them all bloated health that makes them basically indestructible, there is no such luxury here, so completing the case without anyone dying is a complete crapshoot, especially since zombies will just show up out of nowhere instead of only coming from the gate.
# VideoGame.ResidentEvilTheDarksideChronicles: The creatures, particularly in "Operation Javier", keep having their health boosted as the chapters go by. A maximum damage handgun will take out a Hunter Gamma with one shot in the first chapter, but half a maximized clip is needed in the fourth chapter. Couple this with the increasing amount of helmeted zombies who need two shots to remove their helmets and the fact that they seem to get even tougher in the special Krauser missions.
# VideoGame.WorldOfWarcraft: Back in Vanilla and TBC, it was exceptionally difficult to try to get gear for entry-level dungeons after new tiers were released, due to the playerbase having a tendency to flat out declare themselves "done" with the old dungeons from that point on. This led to the Can't Catch Up phenomenon, where players who still needed gear from these dungeons and quests were stuck waiting for a group to form since the players focusing on all of the new stuff wouldn't lift a finger to help unless it was for the new things. It's quite frustrating on both ends, to have to run a dungeon for the umpteenth time because people still haven't learned how to play, but also frustrating when you want to raid but can't because nobody seems interested in what you need to do. Thankfully, this has been fixed as of ''Wrath'' and ''Cataclysm'', with each new tier usually coming alongside new 5-men dungeons and badge/Justice Point gear that give easy access to gear equivalent to that of the previous tier, enabling easy access to the new raids.

[[folder: Not Counted]]
# SoYouWantTo.WriteASurvivalHorrorGame: First-person or third-person perspective?: The former allows for the player to be snuck up on by enemies much more easily, since most of the screen is no longer visible, but it can also frustrate players when they can't tell where the enemy is. Also, it can cause eyestrain, at least where dark areas are concerned. The latter avoids this, but can remove some of the fear and add [[FakeDifficulty Fake Difficulty]] if there's poor camera control.
# LetsPlay.ProtonJon: He mentions in several videos that he really can't stand Slippy-Slidey Ice World levels, becoming palpably dismayed every time he has to play through one. He explains that he regards the slippery controls as a form of [[FakeDifficulty Fake Difficulty]] that erodes the player's sense of control over their own gameplay. The "slippery shoes" mechanic being omnipresent in New Super Luigi U is stated (frequently) as being part of the reason he spends most of the LP in a fit of rage.
# LetsPlay.GamingGarbage: A given, really, since the developers' disregard for programming effort is more than likely to carry over to mechanics and difficulty balance.
# Awesome.WheelOfFortune: October 5, [=1992:=] _A_ (WAX), a great example of thwarting the Bonus Round's [[FakeDifficulty Fake Difficulty]]. '''This just describes a moment from the show.'''
# Creator.AliceSoft: MutuallyExclusivePartyMembers: A preferred tactic of theirs to create more Fake Difficulty and replayability. Generally it is impossible to recruit every single possible playable character in a single run through of a game.
# AuthorsSavingThrow.TheBindingOfIsaac: As stated in Broken Base, Afterbirth+ as a whole was initially released to mixed reactions, particularly due to the difficulty spikes that bordered on just plain unfair at times. However, Edmund listened very closely to fan feedback over the next two months and tweaked the game accordingly, removing much of the [[FakeDifficulty Fake Difficulty]], nerfing bosses considered to be unfair, and buffing underwhelming items. These tweaks have been very well-received by the community, and now Afterbirth+ is largely considered a good follow-up to Afterbirth.
# RealLife.TropesTToZ: {{Unwinnable}}: Go ahead. Just try it. Since all achievements are open to interpretation, winning is possible by some definitions and impossible by others. Since [[FakeDifficulty you only get one life and no saves,]] you may only acquire one ending out of x, x being the amount of living creatures that did, do, and will exist in Real Life. As for in-game examples, the grand prize of any lottery, and doing anything politically that is both beneficial to the public and doesn't involve lining someone's pockets. YMMV, but Charlie Sheen seems to be the only one winning. Notable minigame known only as 'The Game', which you just lost. Some claim that the game as a whole is Unwinnable by Design.
# YMMV.EpicNameBro: Discussed. He posits that simply offering an easy, normal, and hard mode, and simply upping the numbers on hp and damage is a lazy and uninteresting way of raising difficulty (which is also the reason why he doesn't like the Calamity Ring from Dark Souls 1). He also feels that increased difficulty should also entail increased rewards for players, like better item drops, more money, etc.
# BrokenBase.VideoGames: VideoGameLives: Video-Game Lives. Are they a good way to add an extra degree of challenge and give the player more incentive to improve and actually do better in order to avoid losing them, or are they an outdated and archaic example of Fake Difficulty that has no place in video games today?
# Characters.TronLegacy: TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: Actually, Clu is, but his tactics during the fight with Sam mirrors video game [[FakeDifficulty Fake Difficulty]] (changing the rules to Rinzler's advantage).
[[/folder]]

# VideoGame.CrashBandicoot1996: Of the LeapOfFaith variety when dealing with Gems. "Road to Nowhere" and "The High Road" both involve making jumps onto invisible platforms that only appear when you touch them to get some out of the way boxes. Due to how Crash's shadow doesn't vanish when jumping over a bottomless pit (as you would expect), there's no way to tell where the platforms are. More invisible platforms appear elsewhere (of the iron box and falling varieties) that at least have the decency to be marked by some Wumpa Fruit, and there's at least one instance where a box is stashed away behind the background, where by all means it seems you should die by trying to go there.

# VideoGame.{{Onimusha}}: Bosses in Dawn of Dreams don't usually end up in the "Fake" category of difficulty. Rather it is some of the late game enemies you will face that will test your patience, especially if you want to conquer the Dark Realm. For example there are flying enemies that can dodge attacks and send a guard breaking, high-damaging laser beam. The main cast (save Ohatsu) has no effective way of dealing with flying enemies, much less ones that dodge. Hope you practiced your counter and deflecting skills because the only time they come down is to attack you. And when you hit them with a combo, no they don't fall to the ground, they go back up.

# VideoGame.Bomberman64: Orion is responsible for a KaizoTrap, and White Glacier 1 on Hard Mode has an aggressively strict time limit, compounded by winds that are capable of blowing you off a ledge. If that happens, you can pretty much kiss that Gold Card for the target time goodbye. You can also get roasted with no warning in Red Mountain 1 thanks to there being no tell when a fireball is going to shoot up through a bridge or the fact that the shadows of the fireballs which fall from above don't cast shadows on bridges.

# VideoGame.WildArms2: You can't buy healing items (though as with later games, this is justified as Filgaia is mostly a barren wasteland). You also can't take back Personal Skill points once you've used them to buy skills. Did you buy a useless skill? Sorry! Put everything into Up HP first and don't ever get the status resistances, with the possible exception of Ability Block. However, see the Game-Breaker entry on healing items.

# VideoGame.BanjoKazooie: In the Autumn section of Click Clock Wood, you're supposed to use the [[InvincibilityPowerUp Wonderwing]] to get a few musical notes from a Snarebear trap. Thing is, unless you use Cheato's "Goldfeathers" cheat, you're stuck with a meager 10 the whole game, and gold feathers are far more scarce in all of the game's levels than red feathers, meaning that if you're careless with using them, it can become extremely tedious or near impossible to get those notes--approaching the snares as is isn't an option since they can whittle down Banjo's health very fast and knock him away. Factor in that you ''have'' to collect all 100 notes for each world in one go in the games original release, and it makes completing an [[MarathonLevel already arduous level]] an even more exasperating challenge, though the HD port at least makes it so you don't have to collect every single note all over again.
# VideoGame.Castlevania1986: In stage 16, you must cross a bridge and get past four of the [[DegradedBoss giant bats]] you fought as the boss of stage 1, with them all having the same same amount of health as before, which means the best course of action is to just ignore and run past them. However their movement, when they spit a fireball, and when they charge at you is [[RandomNumberGod all random]]. With how large they are and fast they lunge, they can randomly act in a way that makes avoiding not getting hit impossible, including possibly being hit into one of the bottomless pits across the bridge for an instant death, overall turning this section into essentially a LuckBasedMission where you run under or jump over the bats and pray the RNG makes them play nice. There is a Stop Watch halfway through the bridge to at least freeze the last two if needed, but this will drain your precious hearts that you don't have much of, and you will really want enough for two more uses to use shortly later in the level in the section with the harpies and flea men.

# VideoGame.WildArms: Wild [=ARMs=] 2, 3, and Alter Code F don't allow you to buy healing items in shops. This is justified in that healing items are fruits or berries, and you're living in a wasteland. There are sidequest that allows you to grow your own fruits and berries, but they do not usually come in until about halfway through the game.

# VideoGame.{{Avarice}}: The bosses are sometimes a lot harder than they should be because they usually unleash a Bullet Hell, which makes the game lag heavily on most computers. The subpar engine of the RPG Maker VX does not help. Especially jarring with the Final Boss fight. Both of them have one extremely powerful move (the rocket launcher for Lexi and the shotgun iceshards for Vandeli), that also covers a large area and can be hard to avoid. Sometimes it even hits the player without actually connecting (when hitting the pillar in the middle), often resulting in a frustrating death.
# Characters.TouhouPC98: While usually regarded as one of the harder Extra Stage bosses, Touhou 2 dosen't have Focus. This means any attempt at Evil Eye Sigma is effectively a No-Focus run. In terms of actual patterns; Evil Eye Sigma is easily the simplest Extra Stage boss.

# VideoGame.AceOnline: The game is notoriously laggy. For some although most don't experience lag of any kind while others get network or system lag from having below required specs. This issue is mainly confined to the North American version at present. Apparently their server is missing some important hardware. It doesn't help that many of the players are connecting from Turkey.

# VideoGame.{{Daikatana}}: The game was claimed to be an "expert FPS", more difficult than what shooter players were familiar with up to that point, but the simple fact is that a lot of the difficulty comes from unfair sources: the game is riddled with bugs and minor errors, the AI sidekicks are a chore even at the best of times, there are several points where you need to make use of {{speedrun}}ning techniques to avoid damage from unfairly-placed enemies (and that's ignoring other points where you're simply forced to drop from high places and take damage to proceed), and even those who can get past any of that have to deal with the game front-loading terrible guns with obnoxious mechanics that waste time and ammo (the automatic shotgun with a sticky trigger, the melee upgrade that takes several seconds to switch between while it's active) or damage you at least as much as your target (the ion blaster with shots that always seem to home in on you after two bounces, two different explosive weapons with huge blast radii and terrible hit detection to make them detonate in your face).

# VideoGame.{{Bubsy}}: WebVideo/SomeCallMeJohnny [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKaPVMJ8Yck also]] delved into other problems: Level design not built around Bubsy's abilities, platforming sections that are hard due to Bubsy's obscene speed not matching the platforming, frailty combined with the above problems leading to the multiple deaths, sprite sizes being too huge causing said accidents to happen, and inconsistent ideals about how to play the game. It's hard to be slow and methodical with a character as fast as Sonic. Likewise, he couldn't (and he tried) play it safe with level design created with the intent of murdering the bobcat.
# VideoGame.RedDeadRevolver: Absolutely full of it. It's not hard to find players of this game who agree that levels like The Traitor and Siege are entirely dependent on luck rather than skill. The game throws an absurd amount of enemies at you and somehow expects you to deal with them with little problem. And then you have the final duel with the Governor, which comes out of nowhere and the player is expected to have absurd reflexes to defend themselves right away. Also, make one mistake and you replay the level again.

# WebVideo.YogscastMinecraftSeries: When a map calls for the player to switch to peaceful mid-adventure, Simon and Lewis tend to not do it because switching difficulty on multiplayer is a pain to do, thus they'll wind up fighting monsters in inopportune places, getting ambushed by creepers while riding minecarts, and in some situations, having damage done the the map that makes it Unintentionally Unwinnable. '''The maps that call for the player to switch to peaceful were not designed with mobs spawning in the map in mind.'''

# YMMV.KanColle: The Fall 2014 event, which consists of again three main maps plus an "extra operations" map. Much like the Arpeggio event, this came in the wake of the [[FakeDifficulty Fake Difficulty]]-filled Summer 2014 event, and is much easier by comparison, again allowing for chip damage and no Boss HP regeneration.

# YMMV.GhostsNGoblins: ItsHardSoItSucks: The first game especially falls under this. There is a fine line between "Difficult" and "Unfair" and the game tends to skirt with its mean level design to hordes of enemies. The NES version though goes far, far beyond unfair due to its changes, making enemies spawn faster and changing the physics. Even the first level is an absolute nightmare, with [[FakeDifficulty zombies spawning right on top of you,]] and Red Arremers. You're more likely to beat Contra without the Konami Code than you are likely to even see the third level of this game, even with the infinite lives the game gives you.

# VideoGame.SonicTheHedgehog2006: ContinuingIsPainful: Similarly to Sonic Adventure 2, losing a life during an action stage or a boss battle also means losing your score and having it reset back to 0. Losing a life mid-way through the game's stages can end up punishing the player's overall score and rank, which can be a problem for a game that is prone [[FakeDifficulty to work against the player]].

# VideoGame.{{Daikatana}}: The game was claimed to be an "expert FPS", more difficult than what shooter players were familiar with up to that point, but the simple fact is that a lot of the difficulty comes from unfair sources: the game is riddled with bugs and minor errors, the AI sidekicks are a chore even at the best of times, there are several points where you need to make use of {{speedrun}}ning techniques to avoid damage from unfairly-placed enemies (and that's ignoring other points where you're simply forced to drop from high places and take damage to proceed), and even those who can get past any of that have to deal with the game front-loading [[invoked]][[ScrappyWeapon terrible guns with obnoxious mechanics]] that waste time and ammo (the automatic shotgun with a sticky trigger, the melee upgrade that takes several seconds to switch between while it's active) or damage you at least as much as your target (the ion blaster with shots that always seem to home in on you after two bounces, two different explosive weapons with huge blast radii and [[HitboxDissonance terrible hit detection]] to make them detonate in your face).

# VideoGame.DeusExHumanRevolution: The Missing Link DLC is only as difficult as it is because it arbitrarily removes all the augmentations that you've unlocked by that point, forcing you to level-up and unlock them all over again. It's especially noticeable in the "Director's Cut" edition, where - just as arbitrarily - you get enough Praxis Kits at the end to bring you back up to the level you were before the Missing Link mission.

# VideoGame.{{Naissancee}}: The turbine sections present the player with spinning fans, which, while they should only cut you if you walk into them, have a chance of randomly flinging you into the air, killing you.

# VideoGame.RollerCoasterTycoon: The sequel prevents you from charging for both park and ride entry, which can result in many guests not paying a cent when they leave, or never leaving the park after paying the entrance fee, leaving many potential profits unfulfilled.

# VideoGame.BionicCommando: Not being able to jump and no [[JumpPhysics air control]] introduces a certain amount of this, but the original arcade game was teeth-gnashingly difficult due to sluggish response to the controls and not allowing you to use your bionic arm in the air.

# VideoGame.PokemonSnakewood: You are still penalized for losing the first fight against Wattson, even though it's a Hopeless Boss Fight. You can't even shut off his Pokemons' power source until after this battle.

# VideoGame.FiveNightsAtFuckboys: Getting the lost tokens in the girl's bathroom's sewers, thanks to Toy Freddy still having grid-based movement.

# VideoGame.Bomberman64: Orion is responsible for a KaizoTrap, and White Glacier 1 on Hard Mode has an aggressively strict time limit, compounded by winds that are capable of blowing you off a ledge. If that happens, you can pretty much kiss that Gold Card for the target time goodbye. You can also get roasted with no warning in Red Mountain 1 thanks to there being no tell when a fireball is going to shoot up through a bridge or the fact that the shadows of the fireballs which fall from above don't cast shadows on bridges.

# VideoGame.AbmneshiTheProphecy: Invoked. One of Mr. D's attacks is very easy, except the bullets are pitch black and the most dangerous ones are hidden behind them so they tend to sneak up on you; these a lighter shade of black on easier difficulties, but other than that nothing's changed.
# VideoGame.PortalTheFlashVersion: The character has a tendency to keep running, even though your finger isn't on the button anymore. It doesn't help that this usually happens at the worst possible times, too.
# VideoGame.AceOnline: The game is notoriously laggy. For some although most don't experience lag of any kind while others get network or system lag from having below required specs. This issue is mainly confined to the North American version at present. Apparently their server is missing some important hardware. It doesn't help that many of the players are connecting from Turkey.

# VideoGame.NeedForSpeedUnbound: Unbound's difficulty can be quite broken, whether on Relaxed difficulty, there is Rubber-Band A. I., or whether on Intense difficulty, there is Artificial Stupidity, and vice versa.
# Recap.Payday2: The last section of the heist, where the Point of No Return activates, the game throws a large amount of officers your way, to the point that getting caught in any one section can doom the run. Even worse is that the enemy's body-block certain points due to the confined walkways and rooms, meaning brute force is the only way through.

# Characters.ARKSurvivalEvolved: Mostly due to how their stats work. Nothing a player can tame is capable of fighting a wild giga, not even a much higher level giga. The only reliable ways to kill them is luring them into the sea where they can easily be drowned or using flying mounts capable of ranged combat against them. Can be overcome with powerful bred dinosaurs, but they're still a risky fight solo. High level bred Giga's can consistently kill wild ones due to having much higher DPS and damage reductions.

# VideoGame.NoOneCanStopMrDomino: A significant portion of the game's difficulty is that the stages are designed to screw you over at every turn. To name just one example, one of the triggers in "Fun Park Massive" has its landing point after an unavoidable Speed-Up panel, meaning you have to time your button press perfectly to resume the chain or else restart the entire stage.

# LetsPlay.RadicalBromance: Shantae's emulation induced input lag. Later, Super Mario World and Sonic the Hedgehog. Walker notices this, but Alex apparently doesn't. Or he does, but claims to compensate for it. Later confirmed in Contra: Hard Corps, when the shot toggle keeps switching. '''Difficulty from input lag would be a valid example of Fake Difficulty, except that this example describes input lag from an emulation.'''

[[folder: Zero-Context Example]]

# VideoGame.GodHand: Most glaringly, the special techniques won as prizes in the casino; IF you are lucky enough to win a prize ticket, there is a chance you will get a 'joke' box with nothing. You're not allowed to leave the casino with tickets in hand to save, either. Additionally, the random factor involved from enemy drops and demon appearances is noted to polarize those who love and those who hate the game.

# VideoGame.MilonsSecretCastle: Infinitely Respawning Enemies, no Mercy Invincibility, and completely unintuitive roadblocks.

# VideoGame.ViewtifulJoe: LaserHallway: An incredible source of [[FakeDifficulty Fake Difficulty]] in the first game, since they move in 3D while you're limited to 2D, with terrible depth perception; also, they're hard to see while in Slow-mo, since the screen darkens.
# VideoGame.SonicTheHedgehog2006: ContinuingIsPainful: Similarly to Sonic Adventure 2, losing a life during an action stage or a boss battle also means losing your score and having it reset back to 0. Losing a life mid-way through the game's stages can end up punishing the player's overall score and rank, which can be a problem for a game that is prone [[FakeDifficulty to work against the player]].
# YMMV.MonsterHunterWorld: The revamped Alatreon is either a fair but challenging boss fight, with the race to nullify its Escaton Judgement via elemental damage being a rewarding mechanic; or it's [[FakeDifficulty Fake Difficulty]] incarnate, with the aforementioned gimmick on top of Alatreon's relentless attacks making it nothing more than a crock of shit; or it's a fight that averts the usual Scrappy Mechanic components of previous high-end fights (most notably tremors and wind pressure) while providing many clean hitboxes... and then ruins all earned goodwill with an unfair DPS check that was not asked for nor needed.

# VideoGame.AceOnline: The game is notoriously laggy. For some although most don't experience lag of any kind while others get network or system lag from having below required [=specsThis=] issue is mainly confined to the North American version at present. Apparently their server is missing some important hardware. It doesn't help that many of the players are connecting from Turkey.

# YMMV.StarshotSpaceCircusFever: SoOkayItsAverage: The game has an interesting setting and genuinely fun levels, but the broken camera and [[FakeDifficulty Fake Difficulty]] elements can quickly get on one's nerves. Even the general controls and character collision can be unreliable for precise platforming at various times.

# VideoGame.{{Mappy}}: Not that the game doesn't try to give the player a fair challenge, but depending on what the cats' AI feels like doing, it is very easy to get cornered into an inescapable loss by the cats.
# YMMV.GuitarHero: DifficultySpike: Tier 7 in III is a rather nasty spike in and of itself: Before I Forget and Stricken in particular are notorious for being overcharted to the point of [[FakeDifficulty Fake Difficulty]] (As is 3's and 7's, though it's not nearly as difficult as everything else in the tier) and Knights of Cydonia, while not nearly as egregious in this regard, is full of long strings of tremolo picking that are sure to tire any player out, and to top it all off, you have to deal with Cult of Personality's minute-long sweeping solo as an encore.
# YMMV.ThePhantomMenace: TheProblemWithLicensedGames: In contrast to the very well-received Star Wars Episode I: Racer (which came out the same day), this game screams of being a rushed cash-in, with its glitchy physics, stiff controls, sloppy level design, and downright brutal and unfair [[FakeDifficulty Fake Difficulty]]. Many of the design problems were caused by the developers not having enough of the source material to work off of - they had to hastily rework levels and characters right before release because the final movie was considerably different than the barebones script they had received.

# VideoGame.DevilSurvivor: The first battle with Naoya has you up against demons that would be reasonably easy to beat at that point in the game. However, Naoya makes you beat all six demons in three turns... and they don't move...and they're really spread out. Granted, it's not required to beat all six; failing to do so will just result in a very unentertained Naoya leaving and telling you the info he was going to tell you via e-mail later on, and the battle is mediated by the fact that it only counts the protagonist's turns; the other characters can move as much as they want and it won't count towards the three.
# YMMV.NeedForSpeedUnbound: DemonicSpiders: Harlow of all the racers of The Lake, especially her appearance in Week 2. Majority or players would have a hard time beating her in a race due to the fact that her C8 Corvette is too OP, as well as the [[FakeDifficulty Fake Difficulty]]. Harlow's driving skills make her look like she's playing a video game set in easy mode. Lyric during Week 3 is also difficult to beat for many of the same reasons that Harlow is.

# Characters.TronLegacy: TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: Actually, Clu is, but his tactics during the fight with Sam mirrors video game [[FakeDifficulty Fake Difficulty]] (changing the rules to Rinzler's advantage).

# VideoGame.DissidiaFinalFantasy2015: In the Hard Mode of the boss gauntlet, the boss will always target you unless you're incapacitated, and your two AI allies have their max Bravery capped at [=2000.=] The targeting focus means you're going to be under additional pressure to avoid getting KO'd while building up Bravery, but the cap to your allies also causes fights to drag out longer since they can't deal as much HP damage as you can and the boss takes longer to kill.

# YMMV.AeroFighters: The Fortress is extremely resilient, and protected by a ton of Anti-Air emplacements, making a head-on attack suicidal. It also has enemy aircraft around, like always. Even if/when you take everything out but the boss, remember the Fortress itself is target-less once its adjacent SAM sites are gone. In other words, [[FakeDifficulty you have to manually aim your weapons at it, and at a specific area to boot]]. This makes your missiles (the best and usually your main way to kill enemies) virtually useless..

# VideoGame.AloneInTheDark: All over the place in the 2008 game, thanks to how badly designed a lot of the mechanics are. One-shot deaths, switching between multiple control schemes, not being able to figure out how injured you are, bugs, and more than one UnexpectedGameplayChange will kill Carnby a lot more than any of the game's enemies.

# YMMV.GhostsNGoblins: ItsHardSoItSucks: The first game especially falls under this. There is a fine line between "Difficult" and "Unfair" and the game tends to skirt with its mean level design to hordes of enemies. The NES version though goes far, far beyond unfair due to its changes, making enemies spawn faster and changing the physics. Even the first level is an absolute nightmare, with [[FakeDifficulty zombies spawning right on top of you,]] and Red Arremers. You're more likely to beat Contra without the Konami Code than you are likely to even see the third level of this game, even with the infinite lives the game gives you.
# VideoGame.GrabbedByTheGhoulies: Your health is scrambled at the start of each room, sometimes giving you a ridiculously low level of health to start off a particularly hard boss fight that could be done easily with just a bit more health to start. Heck, some rooms give you ONE hit point to start with, then send an endless barrage of enemies your way.
# VideoGame.DanceDanceRevolution: ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Healing Vision ～Angelic mix～ Expert, [=PARANOiA=] Survivor MAX Challenge, CHAOS Expert, Fascination MAXX Challenge, and Healing D-Vision Challenge. [[FakeDifficulty Enjoy the gimmick stops]] and extreme crossing.

# YMMV.CarnEvil: SpecialEffectsFailure: The first few inmates you fight in the "Breakfast Bowl" segment of the "Freak Show" level have a unique death animation where they fall off the conveyor belts, but due to the camera angle they end up falling through them instead. In the same level, Rodz sometimes has Tort's voice. In the "Haunted House" level, the zombie arms coming out of the hallway aren't properly synched up with the prerendered background, with one of them being so misaligned it's blocked by the wall entirely. The annoying thing is that [[FakeDifficulty it can still hit you]].

# Recap.TotalDramaTheBigSleep: Discussed when Chris announces the Awake-a-thon as the second part of the episode's challenge.

# ThatOneLevel.ActionAdventure: While not as interminable as the Clockwork Tower in Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, the Balcony from the previous chapter of that game merits mention. What's more fun than fighting waves of Demonic Spiders and Goddamned Bats with only sparse checkpoints? How about doing so in a series of enclosed spaces with camera angles [[FakeDifficulty designed to screw the player by making it difficult for them to even see what's going on]]?

# VideoGame.SpyChameleonRGBAgent: AcceptableBreaksFromReality: Cameras do not spot you immediately, you have two seconds to get out of range, or change to the color of a coloured surface to evade suspicion. The whole point of the game is getting to the object, not getting out the way you came in. The mission ends when you obtain that missions' item. There are only four colors used to get past spotters like cameras and robots: Red, Green, Yellow and Blue, which are precisely the ones you can disguise as. Doing otherwise wouldn't be fun, and could be considered [[FakeDifficulty Fake Difficulty]]. You are able to freely move around in sight cones while disguised as the specific color of the environment.

# VideoGame.MarioKartArcadeGP: TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: While also present in the main games, the Rubber-Band A. I. is utterly merciless in these games, particularly GP and GP 2, where any time when they're not in your view, will reach impossible speeds (in games that lack Mushrooms) to stay right behind you. The [[FakeDifficulty Fake Difficulty]] is likely due to the games being Arcade-only, thus making it harder to win to make players retry.

# YMMV.RaymanOrigins: ThatOneLevel: Mecha No Mistake is too damn hard. Unlike the rest of the game, which is rather fairly designed, every way you can die in this level just SCREAMS [[FakeDifficulty Fake Difficulty]], especially in the sections with the crushers and the light-up platforms. And the Time Trial is near impossible. Some people consider it even harder than the Land of the Livid Dead itself!In terms of getting lum completion, Don't Shoot the DJ has a very strict lum count that basically requires you to memorize every spawn point, because lums and lums and enemies will come fast and at odd angles.

# MonsterHunter.TropesHToM: Demos are generally major offenders. The Elder Dragon featured in demos usually has massively inflated health in online multiplayer (even moreso than in the full game), the time limit is far stricter than your average hunt, and you're more often than not kitted out with [[FakeDifficulty really crappy gear]]. The demo versions of Gore Magala, Nergigante, and Valstrax are known for being nearly impossible to kill in online.
# VideoGame.WildArms2: You can't buy healing items (though as with later games, this is justified as Filgaia is mostly a barren wasteland). You also can't take back Personal Skill points once you've used them to buy skills. Did you buy a useless skill? Sorry! Put everything into Up HP first and don't ever get the status resistances, with the possible exception of Ability Block. However, see the Game-Breaker entry on healing items.

# VideoGame.Ronin2015: Admitted. "The arc lies." Just because the white line showing your jump arc appears to be free of bullet trajectories or land on a ledge doesn't mean it actually is. Sometimes you can land right next to a mook on a ledge and gut him while a bullet whizzes just past your head. Sometimes you'll catch a bullet between your eyes. Sometimes you'll miss and hit power lines. Sometimes your headshotted body will hit the power lines. Breathe deep and try again. Or don't.

# VideoGame.{{Bubsy}}: WebVideo/SomeCallMeJohnny [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKaPVMJ8Yck also]] delved into other problems: Level design not built around Bubsy's abilities, platforming sections that are hard due to Bubsy's obscene speed not matching the platforming, frailty combined with the above problems leading to the multiple deaths, sprite sizes being too huge causing said accidents to happen, and inconsistent ideals about how to play the game. It's hard to be slow and methodical with a character as fast as Sonic. Likewise, he couldn't (and he tried) play it safe with level design created with the intent of murdering the bobcat.

# YMMV.KanColle: The Fall 2014 event, which consists of again three main maps plus an "extra operations" map. Much like the Arpeggio event, this came in the wake of the [[FakeDifficulty Fake Difficulty]]-filled Summer 2014 event, and is much easier by comparison, again allowing for chip damage and no Boss HP regeneration.
# VideoGame.HotlineMiami2WrongNumber: A common complaint in reviews is that the more wide-open levels combined with the same unpredictable AI from the first game lead to quite a few cheap deaths, such as offscreen bullets and dogs that come out of nowhere at full speed before the player can even react. Also, the console version of the game has an awful auto-aim system that sometimes, instead of targeting the enemy right in front of you, targets an enemy all the way on the other side of the level. And you depend on this aiming system since aiming with the analog sticks isn't good either.

# LevelGrinding.RolePlayingGames: The Answer in Persona 3: FES is pretty much a forced level grinding session to get yourself back into the [=70s,=] due to bosses that have high chances of evading their weaknesses and very hard hitting attacks, and the [[FakeDifficulty lack of a persona compendium]] that makes covering and exploiting weaknesses much harder.

# VideoGame.ComplexDoom: ArtificialStupidity: All enemies retain issues proper of how Doom's monster AI works, and at times [[FakeDifficulty this must be exploited to kill the stronger ones]].

# YMMV.FireEmblemRadiantDawn: ContestedSequel: Mechanically, its fans like the uncompromising challenge of the gameplay and shake-ups to the series formula at work. Its critics consider it to be overloaded with [[FakeDifficulty Fake Difficulty]], opaque or badly-designed mechanics, bizarre balance decisions, and uselessly-weak characters.

# YMMV.KillingFloor: ScrappyMechanic: Higher difficulties on public servers. There is no way to prevent lvl 0s and 1s from joining them; they will inevitably join in the buy period of a late round, fail to reach the trader, cause the round to spawn [=20%=] more zeds because of the increased party size, and die in 30 seconds. You can vote to kick them, but the round usually begins before this is achieved and the damage is done already. Higher difficulties in general for the cheap method of [[FakeDifficulty simply increasing the hitpoints of all enemies]], turning them into bullet sponges.

# VideoGame.SteelSaviour: NintendoHard: Even on Easy Mode, this game can give the player really [[FakeDifficulty cheap]] deaths, partly due to your overly large collision box. Made worse by the fact that you have zero continues for this game, so once your lives are gone, Game Over! Calling this game hard is an understatement.

# VideoGame.RedDeadRevolver: Absolutely full of it. It's not hard to find players of this game who agree that levels like The Traitor and Siege are entirely dependent on luck rather than skill. The game throws an absurd amount of enemies at you and somehow expects you to deal with them with little problem. And then you have the final duel with the Governor, which comes out of nowhere and the player is expected to have absurd reflexes to defend themselves right away. Also, make one mistake and you replay the level again.

# Literature.NESGodzillaCreepypasta: NintendoHard: The original game was hard enough, but Red's alterations? Bullet Hell, Goddamn Bats up to eleven, cheating bosses, [[FakeDifficulty random glitches designed to kill the PC, zero warning one-hit kills, no instructions for entirely new game mechanics]], and then finally the game actually made the room warm and made Zach dehydrated. Zach still beat it in one sitting, with only one game-over that was itself actually just Red cheating.
# VideoGame.PanzerBandit: You only have a limited amount of continues in Story Mode (3 by default, up to a max of 5) and there's no way to gain any more during gameplay.

# YMMV.AeroFighters: The Fortress is extremely resilient, and protected by a ton of Anti-Air emplacements, making a head-on attack suicidal. It also has enemy aircraft around, like always. Even if/when you take everything out but the boss, remember the Fortress itself is target-less once its adjacent SAM sites are gone. In other words, [[FakeDifficulty you have to manually aim your weapons at it, and at a specific area to boot]]. This makes your missiles (the best and usually your main way to kill enemies) virtually useless..

# VideoGame.FearAndHunger: Openly and unashamedly; it's a huge part of the intended experience. The game will cheerfully stomp you to death at even the slightest excuse, often for reasons that are absolutely in no way your fault (most frequently bad RNG, given the number of factors controlled by the Coin of Judgement).

# Awesome.WheelOfFortune: October 5, [=1992:=] _A_ (WAX), a great example of thwarting the Bonus Round's [[FakeDifficulty Fake Difficulty]]. '''This just describes a moment from the show.'''

# LetsPlay.RadicalBromance: Shantae's emulation induced input lag. Later, Super Mario World and Sonic the Hedgehog. Walker notices this, but Alex apparently doesn't. Or he does, but claims to compensate for it. Later confirmed in Contra: Hard Corps, when the shot toggle keeps switching.

# VideoGame.BrokenInTheBalance: Although the game is considered "Balanced", most of the characters have relentless skills and tactics that can remind most gamers of Quarter Munchers back in older arcade games.

# VideoGame.FiveNightsAtFuckboys: Getting the lost tokens in the girl's bathroom's sewers, thanks to Toy Freddy still having grid-based movement.

# BrokenBase.VideoGames: VideoGameLives: Video-Game Lives. Are they a good way to add an extra degree of challenge and give the player more incentive to improve and actually do better in order to avoid losing them, or are they an outdated and archaic example of Fake Difficulty that has no place in video games today?

# VideoGame.GianaSistersTwistedDreams: Although not often, there are traps and certain segments full of enemies that will kill an unwarned player at least once. The game doesn't do the best job of differentiating background and foreground stage elements, resulting in several "false" platforms that are actually parts of the background.

# AuthorsSavingThrow.TheBindingOfIsaac: As stated in Broken Base, Afterbirth+ as a whole was initially released to mixed reactions, particularly due to the difficulty spikes that bordered on just plain unfair at times. However, Edmund listened very closely to fan feedback over the next two months and tweaked the game accordingly, removing much of the [[FakeDifficulty Fake Difficulty]], nerfing bosses considered to be unfair, and buffing underwhelming items. These tweaks have been very well-received by the community, and now Afterbirth+ is largely considered a good follow-up to Afterbirth.

# YMMV.EpicNameBro: Discussed. He posits that simply offering an easy, normal, and hard mode, and simply upping the numbers on hp and damage is a lazy and uninteresting way of raising difficulty (which is also the reason why he doesn't like the Calamity Ring from Dark Souls 1). He also feels that increased difficulty should also entail increased rewards for players, like better item drops, more money, etc.

# SoYouWantTo.WriteASurvivalHorrorGame: First-person or third-person perspective?: The former allows for the player to be snuck up on by enemies much more easily, since most of the screen is no longer visible, but it can also frustrate players when they can't tell where the enemy is. Also, it can cause eyestrain, at least where dark areas are concerned. The latter avoids this, but can remove some of the fear and add [[FakeDifficulty Fake Difficulty]] if there's poor camera control.
# LetsPlay.ProtonJon: He mentions in several videos that he really can't stand Slippy-Slidey Ice World levels, becoming palpably dismayed every time he has to play through one. He explains that he regards the slippery controls as a form of [[FakeDifficulty Fake Difficulty]] that erodes the player's sense of control over their own gameplay. The "slippery shoes" mechanic being omnipresent in New Super Luigi U is stated (frequently) as being part of the reason he spends most of the LP in a fit of rage.

# RealLife.TropesTToZ: {{Unwinnable}}: Go ahead. Just try it. Since all achievements are open to interpretation, winning is possible by some definitions and impossible by others. Since [[FakeDifficulty you only get one life and no saves,]] you may only acquire one ending out of x, x being the amount of living creatures that did, do, and will exist in Real Life. As for in-game examples, the grand prize of any lottery, and doing anything politically that is both beneficial to the public and doesn't involve lining someone's pockets. YMMV, but Charlie Sheen seems to be the only one winning. Notable minigame known only as 'The Game', which you just lost. Some claim that the game as a whole is Unwinnable by Design.
# VideoGame.PokemonSnakewood: You are still penalized for losing the first fight against Wattson, even though it's a Hopeless Boss Fight. You can't even shut off his Pokemons' power source until after this battle.

# LetsPlay.GamingGarbage: A given, really, since the developers' disregard for programming effort is more than likely to carry over to mechanics and difficulty balance.

# ThatOneBoss.RhythmGame: Screw getting TO the fills in Everlong (on drums), the hard part is staying alive long enough for your bandmates to use overdrive to recover during the Run To The Hills-like hi-hat run that takes up about... [=50%=] of the song. And it's on Red, [[FakeDifficulty which makes it count more towards your performance guage dropping like a rock]]

# Creator.AliceSoft: MutuallyExclusivePartyMembers: A preferred tactic of theirs to create more Fake Difficulty and replayability. Generally it is impossible to recruit every single possible playable character in a single run through of a game.

# VideoGame.TombRaiderIII: CheckpointStarvation: Thanks to which the game is [[FakeDifficulty considerably harder]] to beat on the [=PS1,=] as the only way to save during a level is via the save crystals.

[[folder: Pothole]]

# Series.TheAmazingRace: The toy chariot racing in Rome. It was easy when teams were alone, but got harder when more and more teams shows up.

# VideoGame.TheOutfoxies: On later stages, the opponent's attacks do more damage than yours.

# VideoGame.NinjabreadMan: The overall difficulty comes from the game's poor controls, bad camera and borderline useless weapons.

# VideoGame.SuperSmashBrosBrawl: Tripping, which randomly happened when a character changed directions while running or inputting a Smash attack using the control stick. There's nothing quite like randomly falling over right when you try to deal a KO attack.

# SeasonalRot.LiveActionTV: Others point to Season [=26,=] which had an increase in contrived puzzles (particularly in the form of too-specific Prize Puzzles and [[FakeDifficulty Fake Difficulty]] in the Bonus Round), less energy in the studio, a general decline in contestant quality, sloppier production, and the addition of a [=$1,000,000=] cash prize in the Bonus Round.

# WebVideo.GamesRepainted: Everyone who's had to play a repainted game will tell you that it makes the game much harder to navigate.

# VideoGame.SonicTheHedgehog28Bit: The Emerald in Sky High Zone requires you to bounce off clouds that look exactly the same as normal clouds. Rings placed above them clue you in to their function, but not to the fact that you're expected to travel a great horizontal distance using them too. Much of the first boss's extreme difficulty in the Game Gear version comes from the system's small resolution, as the cannonballs you have to dodge bounce so high that they go offscreen very frequently. Antlion is significantly easier on the Master System.

# WebVideo.YogscastMinecraftSeries: When a map calls for the player to switch to peaceful mid-adventure, Simon and Lewis tend to not do it because switching difficulty on multiplayer is a pain to do, thus they'll wind up fighting monsters in inopportune places, getting ambushed by creepers while riding minecarts, and in some situations, having damage done the the map that makes it Unintentionally Unwinnable.

# VideoGame.Action52: In any of the single-screen {{Platform Game}}s, the enemies spawn in random locations, meaning there's nothing stopping them from spawning right next to the player character and leaving the player no time to prepare for them.

[[folder: Incorrect]]

[[folder: Zero-Context Example]]

[[folder: Pothole -- Mentions Fake Difficulty without describing how it is unfair]]
# WheelOfFortune.TropesAToD: DynamicDifficulty: Many fans have noticed that the difficulty of puzzles sometimes gets jacked up after weeks with several wins. This often manifests itself in shorter maingame puzzles with few consonants, and especially in [[FakeDifficulty Fake Difficulty]] in the Bonus Round. Each [=$1,000,000=] win has also had an impact on gameplay. Most notably, the second Bankrupt wedge was put on the Wheel in all rounds in Season 27 after the first one happened the year before.
# Awesome.WheelOfFortune: October 5, [=1992:=] _A_ (WAX), a great example of thwarting the Bonus Round's [[FakeDifficulty Fake Difficulty]].

# YMMV.FrankoTheCrazyRevenge: It also seemingly disables gaining extra lives with each [=35th=] kill making it even harder, as well as makes the jump kick worse animated. Note The jump kick in the Amiga game has a slight arc and has a landing animation, on the MS-DOS version the kick just goes on a straight line.

# YMMV.RaymanLegends: BestLevelEver: The musical levels are generally considered a great idea, despite not being especially hard for most of them (opinions are a tad more mixed on [[FakeDifficulty the 8-bit versions of said levels...]]) Spoiled Rotten, a very fun and uniquely designed level with a surprisingly nice example of Scenery Gorn that also gives relief from the otherwise very Murfy-heavy World 3.

# YMMV.EdEddNEddy: TheProblemWithLicensedGames: Aside from Ed, Edd n Eddy: The Mis-Edventures (which is regarded as being pretty good by fans), some of the other licensed games the show got were not received well. Ed, Edd n Eddy: Jawbreakers! for the GBA was viewed to have lots of [[FakeDifficulty Fake Difficulty]] by most reviewers while Ed, Edd n Eddy: Scam of The Century received a [=4.0/10=] on IGN.

[[folder: Unknown -- Will not be counted]]

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# VideoGame.Action52: In any of the single-screen {{Platform Game}}s, the enemies spawn in random locations, meaning there's nothing stopping them from spawning right next to the player character and leaving the player no time to prepare for them.

# VideoGame.BionicCommando: Not being able to jump and no [[JumpPhysics air control]] introduces a certain amount of this, but the original arcade game was teeth-gnashingly difficult due to sluggish response to the controls and not allowing you to use your bionic arm in the air.

# WheelOfFortune.TropesAToD: DynamicDifficulty: Many fans have noticed that the difficulty of puzzles sometimes gets jacked up after weeks with several wins. This often manifests itself in shorter maingame puzzles with few consonants, and especially in [[FakeDifficulty Fake Difficulty]] in the Bonus Round. Each [=$1,000,000=] win has also had an impact on gameplay. Most notably, the second Bankrupt wedge was put on the Wheel in all rounds in Season 27 after the first one happened the year before.

# Awesome.WheelOfFortune: October 5, [=1992:=] _A_ (WAX), a great example of thwarting the Bonus Round's [[FakeDifficulty Fake Difficulty]].

# YMMV.FrankoTheCrazyRevenge: It also seemingly disables gaining extra lives with each [=35th=] kill making it even harder, as well as makes the jump kick worse animated. Note The jump kick in the Amiga game has a slight arc and has a landing animation, on the MS-DOS version the kick just goes on a straight line.

# VideoGame.MiltonsSecretCastle: Infinitely Respawning Enemies, no Mercy Invincibility, and completely unintuitive roadblocks.

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# AmericansHateTingle.VideoGames: Milon's Secret Castle was a really popular game in Japan, but when it came to the USA, Americans found the game frustratingly difficult due to lack of mercy invincibility and quickly respawning enemies, lack of direction and secretive gameplay that practically necessitated a walkthrough, Checkpoint Starvation (unless you knew a cheat code), and an underwhelming protagonist who appeared to wear pajamas and shot bubbles at foes.

# YMMV.GuitarHero: Tier 7 in III is a rather nasty spike in and of itself: Before I Forget and Stricken in particular are notorious for being overcharted to the point of [[FakeDifficulty Fake Difficulty]] (As is 3's and 7's, though it's not nearly as difficult as everything else in the tier) and Knights of Cydonia, while not nearly as egregious in this regard, is full of long strings of tremolo picking that are sure to tire any player out, and to top it all off, you have to deal with Cult of Personality's minute-long sweeping solo as an encore.

# VideoGame.Action52:
** ''Star-Evil'' begins with an obstacle directly in front of your ship immediately after the game starts.
** In any of the single-screen {{Platform Game}}s, the enemies spawn in random locations, meaning there's nothing stopping them from spawning right next to the player character and leaving the player no time to prepare for them.
** In certain games like ''Underground'' and ''Evil Empire'', enemies can spawn in large quantities on certain small platforms in such a way that it's impossible to reach the platform and shoot the enemies without dying.

# VideoGame.{{Bubsy}}:
** Discussed in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTAlr5raV2U this]] WebVideo/JonTron. For those who don't feel like watching, in the first two games, your field of vision is very limited, making it hard to tell where you should go and what's just offscreen trying to kill you. [=JonTron=] also notes the inconsistency of Bubsy playing like Sonic but the level design being more akin to Mario games, with an emphasis on precision platforming despite Bubsy's very loose controls.
** WebVideo/SomeCallMeJohnny [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKaPVMJ8Yck also]] delved into other problems: Level design not built around Bubsy's abilities, platforming sections that are hard due to Bubsy's obscene speed not matching the platforming, frailty combined with the above problems leading to the multiple deaths, sprite sizes being too huge causing said accidents to happen, and inconsistent ideals about how to play the game. It's hard to be slow and methodical with a character as fast as Sonic. Likewise, he couldn't (and he tried) play it safe with level design created with the intent of murdering the bobcat.

# GrowingTheBeard.VideoGames: In [=2008,=] Korean game developer Pentavision took their DJMAX series of Rhythm Games to the arcade environment under the name DJMAX Technika. Drastically different in gameplay from its predecessors, the game was already well received, although hints of [[FakeDifficulty Fake Difficulty]], Obvious Beta and general needless complications were present. Come [=2010,=] the sequel, DJMAX Technika 2 improves on the previous game by being more streamlined in every way, adding new songs (half of which are revivals of classic songs in the franchise) and new modes such as the ever popular Crew Race.
# YMMV.GhostsNGoblins: The first game especially falls under this. There is a fine line between "Difficult" and "Unfair" and the game tends to skirt with its mean level design to hordes of enemies. The NES version though goes far, far beyond unfair due to its changes, making enemies spawn faster and changing the physics. Even the first level is an absolute nightmare, with [[FakeDifficulty zombies spawning right on top of you,]] and Red Arremers. You're more likely to beat Contra without the Konami Code than you are likely to even see the third level of this game, even with the infinite lives the game gives you.

# YMMV.FireEmblemRadiantDawn: Mechanically, its fans like the uncompromising challenge of the gameplay and shake-ups to the series formula at work. Its critics consider it to be overloaded with [[FakeDifficulty Fake Difficulty]], opaque or badly-designed mechanics, bizarre balance decisions, and uselessly-weak characters.

# Characters.ShangriLaFrontier: BileFascination: In-universe, Rakurou loves invoked poorly made but still enjoyable video games and Obvious Betas, especially the kind you can only beat through exploiting glitches and FakeDifficulty

# YMMV.KillingFloor: Higher difficulties on public servers. There is no way to prevent lvl 0s and 1s from joining them; they will inevitably join in the buy period of a late round, fail to reach the trader, cause the round to spawn [=20%=] more zeds because of the increased party size, and die in 30 seconds. You can vote to kick them, but the round usually begins before this is achieved and the damage is done already. Higher difficulties in general for the cheap method of [[FakeDifficulty simply increasing the hitpoints of all enemies]], turning them into bullet sponges.

# DualWielding.VideoGames: Called verbatim in Cry of Fear as an inventory option, allowing Simon to hold two small items (typically the knife, the Glock and a light source such as Simon's phone) at the same time. There's a caveat when dual-wielding the Glock with anything, however: Simon can't aim down the sights for some reason.

!!Wick Check input (Needs 50 wicks)

# VideoGame.BionicCommando: Not being able to jump and no air control introduces a certain amount of this, but the original arcade game was teeth-gnashingly difficult due to sluggish response to the controls and not allowing you to use your bionic arm in the air.

# VideoGame.{{Daikatana}}: The game was claimed to be an "expert FPS", more difficult than what shooter players were familiar with up to that point, but the simple fact is that a lot of the difficulty comes from unfair sources: the game is riddled with bugs and minor errors, the AI sidekicks are a chore even at the best of times, there are several points where you need to make use of {{speedrun}}ning techniques to avoid damage from unfairly-placed enemies (and that's ignoring other points where you're simply forced to drop from high places and take damage to proceed), and even those who can get past any of that have to deal with the game front-loading [[invoked]][[ScrappyWeapon terrible guns with obnoxious mechanics]] that waste time and ammo (the automatic shotgun with a sticky trigger, the melee upgrade that takes several seconds to switch between while it's active) or damage you at least as much as your target (the ion blaster with shots that always seem to home in on you after two bounces, two different explosive weapons with huge blast radii and [[HitboxDissonance terrible hit detection]] to make them detonate in your face).