StarTropics/YMMV


 * Breather Level: Chapter 4 in the original, unless you were playing before the Internet exploded in popularity and were completely stumped with the final puzzle. Coming after the massive difficulty spike of Chapter 3, it is impossible to die in this part, there are no dungeons, and the bulk of the level is solving a maze. The snag is that this is the level where you need to dip a physical, real life letter in water, but nowadays, you can easily find the solution online or, in Virtual Console releases, in the digital manual.
 * Contested Sequel: StarTropics II was about time travel rather than messing around in the tropics, and some fans of the first game didn't like the change.
 * Crowning Music of Awesome: The dungeon theme from the first game.
 * Demonic Spiders: Those freaking gas mask robot raygun alien things in the last two levels of the first game. Durable, damaging, long range attack... argh.
 * Ethnic Scrappy: Baboo. The developers refrained from giving him a goofy accent, but appearance wise he's practically a caricature of a native islander. Fat, wild hair, grass skirt...
 * First Installment Wins: The first game is more well-loved than the second among fans. Not only did the second game change enough to be a Contested Sequel, but prior to the Virtual Console release of both games, there were some fans of the first game who didn't realize it even had a sequel.
 * Goddamned Bats: A lot, especially in the sequel which has numerous flying enemies, enemies invulnerable to frontal attacks, and especially the damn slimes that jump diagonally.
 * Needs More Love: Although the game actually gets quite a bit of love for an NES Cult Classic, Nintendo seems to pretend it doesn't exist (thanks in no small part to it not being released in Japan). For example, it's the only first-party Nintendo series not to get any representation in Super Smash Bros. (except for a mention in the Chronicle).
 * They did see fit to release both games on the Virtual Console, however, indicating they are at least aware of its fanbase.
 * Scrappy Mechanic: The first game rather infamously has a point that you cannot pass until you enter a 3-digit code- a code that is only given to you in a letter that was attached to the game's instruction manual. There is no other hint in the game to tell you the code. These days you can just look up a walkthrough, but in the game's heyday, your only options for getting further without the letter were to own the exact copy of Nintendo Power where it was given or to try every single one of the 1000 possible combinations until one works.
 * Respawning with only 3 hearts and having your weapon get weaker when you're low on health is not a good combination.
 * That One Attack: Zoda-Y isn't particular difficult until he turns into his owl form, where his feather attack becomes an absolute nightmare to dodge (it doesn't help that it's also pushing you backwards into a nearby row of spikes at the same time and there might be bats to contend with if you haven't killed them all.) Needless to say, you'll probably be burning through most of your health potions in the Boss Rush on this segment alone.
 * That One Boss:
 * at the end of the sequel's 4th chapter. You fight him on a floor that's solid conveyor belts sliding you everywhere and his primary attack is to completely circle you in four pillars of flame that deal massive damage due to the sequel's lack of Mercy Invincibility.
 * The Knight Rider, the boss of the first dungeon in Chapter 8 of the sequel, is a major pain to fight. He moves quickly back and forth across the room while you're on a rapidly moving conveyor belt trying to shoot at him with limited range weapons.
 * The Dragon, which you have to jump to hit, can fly around blanketing the room in flames, and has to be fought under a time limit.
 * That One Level: Chapter Three runs you through a series of five consecutive dungeons with few healing items. The longest and most difficult of these is the Ghost Village, which also includes several false exits to further vex the player.
 * They Changed It, Now It Sucks: The Happy Video Game Nerd makes the argument that the changes in the control scheme from StarTropics to Zoda's Revenge is one of the reasons the game is horrible (at least, in his opinion; he acknowledges in his Zoda's Revenge review that just as many people disagree with his opinion as agree with him).