Difficulty Spike: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:img.png|link=Touhou Nekokayou|frame|[[Four Is Death|Stage 4]]: Putting the "Hell" in [[Bullet Hell]]]]

 

[[Nintendo Hard]] games tend to do this a lot. You can get through five worlds unharmed...but then you lose all 99 extra lives to [[That One Boss]] in 6-4. This is often made worse by the fact that it is usually more of a challenge to master a difficult section of a game if there is no intermediate difficulty with which the player can "work their way up" to being able to manage that particular section. In games where the spike occurs earlier than the very end of the game, it may result in the oddity that the section at the beginning of the spike gives the most trouble to players, while the final boss (even though it may be objectively more difficult) is taken out in a relatively short time, because by then the players have adjusted to the new difficulty.

 

 

[[That One Boss]] is a specific instance of this trope incarnated in human (or often [[One-Winged Angel|non-human]]) form.

 

{{examples}}

* In ''[[Cave Story]]'', Depending on what you've gathered, it's either the hidden Last Cave or boss battles, either way there will be no recharging stations onward. In Last Cave, all your weapons are dropped to level 1 as you enter a [[Nintendo Hard]] maze of enemies and traps. You'll never get this harder version of Last Cave without having Booster v2.0, and you won't make it through the level without using it proficiently. Then there's a [[Sequential Boss]] consisting of 3 boss fights, second which [[Turns Red]] and third which is a triple boss. That's all followed by escape. Fail escape and you have to do three bosses all over again.

* ''[[Castlevania]]'''s Stage 7 (the third area) is where the difficulty starts to skyrocket. Enemies start dealing more damage, more [[Goddamned Bats]] start assaulting you, and more deadly jumps over [[Bottomless Pits]] await.

** Stages 5–6 can be the first real difficulty spike in the original Castlevania. Stage 7 is a pretty modest spike after dealing with the [[Demonic Spiders|Medusa Head]] + [[Bottomless Pit]] combo.

** ''[[Castlevania II: Belmont's Revenge|Belmont's Revenge]]'' is also noteworthy for the sudden spike in difficulty for the final two bosses.

*** Right after that, you must face not two, not three, but FOUR bosses in a row, with little health boosts along the way. And one of those bosses is Death itself, in all his inglorious difficulty. however, if you game over by running out of lives here, you start right back at the same boss, and each of them have their own passwords.

* ''[[Castlevania (Nintendo 64)]]'' is an example of this; the game progresses pretty normally, until you have to get the "Magical Nitro" part of the game. In order to progress, you need to carry a bomb from the top of the castle to the bottom without getting hit once or even JUMPING. Yes, you heard that right, you are not allowed to JUMP.

* Even on the harder difficulty levels, ''[[Uncharted]] 2'' is challenging, but not frustratingly so. That is, until you get to Shambhala, where even one of the natives is capable of utterly slaughtering you in the blink of an eye.

** Uncharted 3 took several spikes of difficulty once you reach the ship graveyard. You now have to deal heavily armored mooks as well as snipers, brutes, and loads of mooks spamming grenades every five seconds all at the same time.

 

* ''[[Devil May Cry]]'' is pretty simple for the first two stages...and then Phantom shows up at the end of the third stage and mauls you. If you can get past him, there's the Shadow waiting for you in the next level.

** ''[[Devil May Cry]] 3'' is infamously [[Nintendo Hard]], but it doesn't get ''truly'' painful until the fifth level's bosses, Agni and Rudra. ''Many'' a run of the game, especially the US version with the oddly localized difficulty, has ended there.

* ''[[Ninja Gaiden]] 1'' (NES) is already difficult to begin with, but in Act 6 the difficulty skyrockets to near [[Platform Hell]] levels.

* The last two stages of ''Super [[Contra]]'' (arcade) are a [[Classic Video Game "Screw You"s|big middle finger]] from Konami. [[Demonic Spiders]], [[Luck-Based Mission|cheap deaths]], [[That One Boss]], [[Unstable Equilibrium]].

* ''[[Journey to Silius]]'': First two levels=easy-medium, Level 3=hard, Level 4=SUPER HARD, Level 5=ULTRA FUCKING NIGH-IMPOSSIBLE.

 

* The most infamous among the NES generation is probably ''[[Battletoads]]''. The first level was pretty reasonable. The second level was harder, but no more than you would expect. The third level was OMG! [[Nintendo Hard|And it only gets harder.]]

** Maybe [[Schizophrenic Difficulty|not all of the later levels are harder]], but a good chunk of them sure are.

*** There's one where you must outrun a [[Mook]] to stop him from setting off a bomb that kills you instantly, and the fucking rat not only glides effortlessly through every obstacle, he also moves and falls faster than you do.

* The very first ''[[Streets of Rage]]''. The first 7 levels are very manageable, but dear god, by level 8, the [[Mooks]] come at you in swarms and the kicking ninja-like [[Mooks]] will kick you multiple times, jump back, rush and multi kick you again, then repeat as their allies do the same to you on the other side, making this pretty much ninja rape. If the bosses here don't kill you, the [[Mooks]] will. Granted this is toned down on an easier difficulty setting, but the spike is very noticeable on at least Normal.

** Practically repeated in the 2nd game where levels 6 through 8 suddenly upped the amount of [[Mooks]] that appear to almost small armies.

 

* In ''[[Diddy Kong Racing]]'', once you got to the first boss, [["Wake-Up Call" Boss|Tricky the Triceratops]], you learned how tough the races in this game could be. The second boss [[Breather Boss|Bluey the Walrus]] is a nice break, but the third boss [[That One Boss|Bubbler The Octopus]] is an absolute nightmare, especially the second time around, and the fourth boss [[Goddamned Boss|Smokey the Dragon]] practically ''forces'' you to memorize the course and the placement of his fireball attacks to win the race.

** also, expect the [[Hard Mode Filler|Silver Coin Challenge]] for any given race to be much harder than the original race.

* Once you reach the last part in most ''[[Need for Speed]]'' games after ''Underground'', it's not uncommon to see people switching the difficulty from Hard (or Normal) to Easy. Be very careful in ''Most Wanted'' once you reach the Rockport borough!

* While you can beat ''[[Driver]]'' by avoiding being noticed by the cops by driving legally while in their zone, but in the last level the cops are actively trying to demolish you from the beginning to the end. It sounds easier than it is, even while using an invincible cheat it's easy to get a game over by having the car knocked upside down.

* ''[[Wipeout]] 2097/XL'' had easy, medium, hard and very hard tracks. The difference was the default ''speed class''. But during a championship all tracks are raced at the fastest available speed class. Let's just say the tracks that are ''actually'' hard are the second, third and fourth tracks out of eight; the easiest track in the whole game is track number six. Once you get through the first half of the championship you pretty much have the win in the pocket unless you hit the respawn trigger at Vostok Island's [[Reentry Scare|bugged]] drop section.

* ''[[Forza Motorsport]] 3'' was criticized for its unbalanced difficulty settings, with the gap between Medium and Hard being too large. ''FM 4'' balanced this out by lowering the Hard difficulty somewhat and adding [[Harder Than Hard|Expert]] mode for the truly hardcore.

 

* In general terms, when a Difficulty Spike presents in this genre of games, it's often overlapping with [[SNK Boss]].

* ''[[Tekken]]'''s AI bounces all over the place, from imbecile, hardly moving AI to ones that keep interrupting your combo with punches and love to juggle...The exact time of difficulty spike in the fifth game is the [[Sub Boss]]. You have three easy fights and then the game hands you your head.

** Classic Mode on ''Brawl'' also has a Difficulty Spike in the free-for-all right before Master Hand, the result of the AI deciding to [[Gang Up on the Human]].

** The original ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]'' had the AI ramped up a little on Fox, then the Kirby team.

* M. Bison is the boss for every character in ''[[Street Fighter]] Alpha 3'' except himself, naturally. While the fights get progressively more difficult as the player gets nearer to him, Bison himself is pure torture, with super-fast cheap moves and a super strong super move that eats up half of your total health if you don't block in time (and "only" 1/4th if you do). Oh well, at least I got a full pocket of quarters so I guess I can try agai...wait, a [[Nonstandard Game Over]]? No Continue? I HAVE TO START ALL OVER AGAIN?!?!?! [[Big No|AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!]]

** To Capcom's credit, the "bad ending" (actually M.Bison's normal ending with your character in place of Ryu) is arcade-only, since they quickly realized what a monumentally stupid idea it was and took it out of the console ports. You'll still see it if you don't continue, however.

* Though this trope may apply to a large number of fighting games, few have given this editor more frustration than the final boss of ''[[Dead or Alive]] 4'', who could essentially counter at will any move you might care to toss in her direction while dishing out highly damaging, unreasonably fast, ''unblockable'' attacks from across the screen. This fight was invariably won by way of pure dumb luck. Unless you're a creepy shut-in who does nothing all day but play ''[[Dead or Alive]]'', of course.

** Anyone unlucky enough to face Jann Lee in the regular story mode is in for an [[No-Holds-Barred Beatdown|unbelievably nasty surprise]].

** ''The King of Fighters '96'': So you beat every other team in the game? Meet the Boss Team - [[Fatal Fury|Geese Howard, Wolfgang Krauser]], and [[Art of Fighting|Mr. Big]]! You may collect your teeth at the door.

** ''The King of Fighters XI'': Three teams in, the [[Sub Boss]] arrives. There are five, four of which require certain actions on your part to reach. (The fifth one is Adel Bernstein.) It doesn't matter which one shows up, you're in trouble. They fight alone, but their defense is three times normal, and their AI is much better than the usual.

* ''[[Dissidia]]: Final Fantasy'''s story modes do this somewhat. The first, the Destiny Odyssey set, has you fight low level opponents. The next, Shade Impulse, the enemies you fight are all at much higher levels, so you'll have to do some level grinding before going into it. Chaos, the final boss, is extremely cheap, and many new players give up on the game because of how tough he is. Next up, Distant Glory, has enemies take a jump in difficulty. The last, Inward Chaos, all of the opponents are maxed out.

** [[Up to Eleven|Beyond maxed out]]: the enemies you face in Inward Chaos start at level 91 and end up at level 110! To make matters worse, they're all set to the highest AI competency level, which means they'll block, dodge, and counter all of your attacks. And every single one of them has very high stats and some of the best equipment in the game (only the [[Infinity+1 Sword|exclusive level 100 weapons]] are better), so unless you have comparable equipment, you won't hit hard enough, and you'll get devastated by a single combo.

* ''[[Guilty Gear|Guilty Gear XX]]'' Story Mode goes from "you can practically win these matches by accident" to "RAPE VIA VIDEO GAME PROGRAMMING" in record time. And in order to get all the endings, you have to 1) conclude matches via bizarre and/or very difficult stunts and 2) win [[Nintendo Hard|nigh-impossible]] matches that you can't replay, [[Guide Dang It|all of which the game doesn't tell you about]]. It's a good thing the game gives you the [[100% Completion]] characters if you play it for long enough (which is a ''very'' long time, as in "there's a possibility of actually completing ''Guilty Gear XX'' story mode" long time).

 

* ''[[Doom]] II'' officially gets serious with you on the "Dead Simple" level right after the first intermission. Prior to this point, you've been fighting mostly humanoid enemies and low-level [[mook]]s, with the occasional mid-grade monster. "Dead Simple" immediately throws you into a melee with newly introduced high-powered enemies and [[Giant Mook]]s in very close quarters.

* [[BioShock (series)]] 2 Siren Alley is known to fans as a Difficultly Spike, where all of the gun using enemies now use shotguns, and the easier melee weapons no longer appear for the rest of the game.

** Malcolm is a pretty similar deal in ''[[Unreal Tournament 2004]]'', given that the final stage takes place in a revamped version of Xan's original stage (Hyperspace). The new map is hideously large, and Malcolm has uncanny aim and survivability regardless of the difficulty level. Over half your time is spent searching the huge level for your nemesis, and the rest is getting shot by him in short order. Oddly enough, the end boss (Malcolm again) in ''2003'' was an absolute walkover, given that the arena for that battle was small and had ample flanking opportunities. I guess he learned.

*** If you read the game scripts in the editor, you will discover that Xan and Malcolm are guilty of [[Rubber Band AI]], unlike any other opponent in the game.

** Akasha in ''[[Unreal Tournament 3|Unreal Tournament III]]'' as well. Her rubberband code may actually exponentially break the normal limits of bot skill factors, leaving you with a bot rated [[Up to Eleven|15 out of 10]] on "easy". Oh, and she favors the shock rifle, which caters equally to impossible AI aiming and impossible AI prediction skills.

* The first ''[[Descent]]'' had a massive, permanent difficulty spike after the first seven "shareware" levels. Levels 6 and 7 depict homing-missile hulks and Class 1 Drillers as deadly [[Demonic Spiders]] that appear only now and then and are much stronger than normal enemies. Levels 11 and 12, four maps later, are ''almost entirely populated by them'' and they're not one iota easier to kill than they were at first.

** The difficulty spikes further around levels 18 and 19, with the even deadlier [[Demonic Spiders]] that are Class 2 Missile Platforms and Heavy Drillers greatly increasing in number.

** The second game's difficulty also ramps up significantly after the first eight levels, and again at level 21, which introduces several new [[Demonic Spiders]] to rival anything in the first ''Descent''. And the fourth boss's difficulty spike after the first three makes it [[That One Boss]].

* ''[[Left 4 Dead]]'' has this to some degree. The first level of every campaign never has any Witches or Tanks, but by the second level onward (depending on the director's mood), you could easily get stuck because a Tank keeps spawning in one area.

** The sequel makes this worse. The Barns in Dark Carnival has a crescendo event that will make you tear your hair out. This is 4th of 5 maps and and the first 3 maps are relatively manageable. You open a gate to the stadium and fend off the horde. The gate opens and you rush to the safe room against a MOB of zombies that will NOT stop spawning while special infected blend into the crowd and pounce you. If you didn't bring a Bile Bomb or Chainsaw to make this event easier, you will have a hell of a time getting to the safe room.

* ''[[Modern Warfare|Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2]]'', the Favela missions. Impossible to tell where you're going, enemies that have numerous hiding places while you get little more than the occasional doorway, low ammo. Oh, and dogs. Yeah.

* ''[[Medal of Honor]]: Allied Assault'' has a (mostly) permanent difficulty spike starting with Mission 3-3, The Nebelwerfer Hunt on the normal difficulty, then again at The Command Post (psychic guards setting off alarms that summon [[Respawning Enemies]]). On Hard, the spike starts with Cover Blown. Let's not talk about Sniper's Last Stand.

* ''[[Metroid Prime]]'' has a fairly linearly increasing difficulty curve most of the time. That is, until you reach Phazon Mines. The next segment requires you to do half of the area, beating 2 minibosses, one of which is INVISIBLE, navigating morph ball puzzles, introducing you to new space pirate types and spamming them, and getting the Power Bombs. After that, it feels like a relief it's over as it's not as bad after that. Dark Aether in Prime 2 early on throws you a nasty spike as well as you learn to deal with its atmosphere. After you get the Dark Suit, it's much less nerve-wracking.

* ''[[Red Faction]]'' gets a ''lot'' harder around the one-third mark and just keeps getting worse from there. Why? Because the enemies (and you) get better weapons, but you never get more HP, and even refills become harder to find.

* The first/shareware episode in ''[[Quake]]'' is a walk in the park compared to the rest of the game. After completing the [[Breather Level|preparation "slipgate" level]] (featured at the beginning of each episode), be prepared for your brain (and likely your mouth) to drop a series of [[Atomic F-Bomb]]s once you're inside the castle.

 

* ''[[Diablo II]]'' has a dramatic change as you go from Nightmare to Hell difficulty. The effectiveness of just about everything is reduced to a quarter, your resistances plummet to a base of -100, and almost every single monster is not only resistant, but entirely ''immune'' to a particular element (often when the monster had zero resistance to anything in either of the previous difficulties) while gaining additional resistances to one or nearly all attributes. The immunities are a particular problem, as it's very possible for your character's skills to be focused on only one form of damage if you didn't know about the problem beforehand.

** It deserves special mention that some monsters possess immunity to physical damage. I.E, melee attacks don't work. Speaking of bosses, there are three randomly generated per normal level in hell difficulty as opposed to one in normal plus their flock of minions is deadlier too.

** Less dramatic is Act IV of the game, when you invade Hell, featuring a jump in monster difficulty - suddenly homing, [[Mana]] draining missiles, etc. Then of course there's [[Final Boss|Diablo]] [[That One Boss|himself]].

* The first five realms in ''[[Gauntlet (1985 video game)]]: Dark Legacy'' are swarming with [[Goddamn Bats]] (it's kind of the point of Gauntlet), but world 6, the Desert Realm, suddenly throws in [[Demonic Spiders]] in the form of the Desert Generals, whose psychotic fervor has the potential to arouse in the player the same real-life fight-or-flight panic mechanism as many a [[Left 4 Dead]] player has felt facing down a Tank - among stronger and more durable [[Goddamn Bats]], and more chances to be attacked from all sides. A player who breezed through the last five realms may find themselves losing thousands of HP in this realm - fast.

 

** It's not so bad nowadays, Blizzard re-tuned the post-20-to-outlands game in the last year so it's not as painful to get through.

** Leveling's not really an example anymore. If you want a difficulty spike in the present game, do Icecrown Citadel's first 11 bosses. Then fight the Lich King. Hello, difficulty spike. Multiply x10 or so if going from Heroic bosses to the LK.

* ''[[EverQuest]]'' had particularly infamous difficulty spikes called "Hell Levels." These usually came along at already naturally awkward levels(30, 35, 40, etc.; where you're growing out of your current leveling zone), and amplified them by increasing the amount of experience needed to level by insane amounts; so much so that the next level will actually REQUIRE LESS experience than the hell level did. Also, 50-60 were considered a bit of a "hell bracket" since the needed experience jumped up to relatively high amounts because 60 was the original level cap(and thus had a LOT of xp "padding" that was never reduced when 60 ceased to be the cap).

 

* ''[[Psychonauts]]'' turns absolutely sadistic when you get to the timed Escort Mission in the last level.

** Which was a walk in the park compared to the [[Rise to the Challenge]] platforming section soon after that.

* Areas 5 and 6 in ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (video game)|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]''. Both are full of [[Demonic Spiders]] that take tons of punishment to kill, and the former's boss is in a [[Luck-Based Mission|random location]]. And the [[Final Boss]] can kill you in one hit, not to mention the hallway full of [[Demonic Spiders|Laser Troopers]] leading to him.

* ''[[Jed]]'''s tends to border on [[Schizophrenic Difficulty]], with whether or not the player is attempting to collect all five of the stage's babies being a key determinate. Assuming you're only attempting to get through the level, the slope is simpler.

* Up to the second world of ''[[Donkey Kong Country (video game)|Donkey Kong Country]]'', everything's a breeze. Then you get [[Minecart Madness|Mine Cart]] [[That One Level|Carnage]]. Don't expect it to get any easier from there.

* The first two chapters of ''[[Gish]]'' are relatively easy. The third chapter is a test to anyone who hasn't mastered the controls of the game as lava pools and more difficult jumps start to appear.

* [[Kid Chameleon]] has a few examples: the first boss is quite difficult compared to the game up to that point, and the game after the third boss in general becomes significantly harder, with many levels containing routes through them that will kill you, levels which don't have conventional exits (or do but they're extremely difficult to get to), level loops that can make you play through the same levels over and over again until you go the right way, and many more of the hardest enemies. However, the worst of the lot is Bloody Swamp, a level so difficult most people who have beaten the game did so by taking an alternate path that allows you to avoid the level, and it is only midway through the third section of the game - though you also have to play through it if you take the route that skips you from halfway through the second world to halfway through the third. The levels after Bloody Swamp are far easier.

 

* ''[[Lemmings|Oh No More Lemmings]]'' has five difficulty grades for its puzzles: Tame, Crazy, Wild, Wicked and Havoc. The Tame levels are all pretty much walks in the park: 20 of each skill, four minutes, save 25 of 50 Lemmings and most times it's easy to save all 50. The other four grades, however, are total nightmares with little to distinguish each grade in terms of difficulty.

* ''[[Puyo Puyo|Puyo Pop Fever]]'' takes a huge spike in difficulty on stage 3 of the [[Harder Than Hard|HaraHara]] course and ANOTHER spike on stage 7 of that course.

* Levels 8, 9 and 10 of ''[[Repton]]'' are tediously easy (once you know how to do the Repton shuffle, but that's more [[Guide Dang It]] than difficulty as such) and make you wonder whether the rest of the game will be like this. The next level is [[That One Level|"Giant clam"]].

 

* ''[[Command & Conquer]] Red Alert 2'''s penultimate Soviet mission. You needed to defeat Yuri's forces for good, but this was the only mission where you had to constantly hold out against enemy forces. It was also very difficult to break the base defenses without resorting to exploration or [[Guide Dang It]] behavior. At least you could build a nuke silo to hit the objective directly.

** But if you build a nuke silo, Yuri would build one of his own, and it would always [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|be more effective against you]] than yours would be against him. Plus, it takes two nukes to finally destroy the {{spoiler|Kremlin}}.

* The seventh Chinese mission, '''Operation: Nuclear Winter''', in ''[[Command & Conquer: Generals|Generals]]'' also deserves its place here: the GLA throws everything but the kitchen sink at you very early on, while you are short of supplies and has barely built your base. [[Fake Difficulty|Add to that the fact that]] [[Guide Dang It|they have a SCUD launcher platform that will fire and annihilate your forces/base if you have 5000 money or more]], and you get players having one hell of a surprise. After that, the game returns to its normal curve.

* ''[[StarCraft]]'' had a few levels that tested people's patience. Protoss mission 7 had the player fighting against an army of Protoss that was further up the tech tree. This lead to some frustration, as the presence of Arbiters and Carriers made it difficult for anyone to reasonably counter the enemy. Most players won by massing troops or Photon Cannons instead of using any real strategy. In Brood War, Terran mission 8 got rather ridiculous when the Zerg sent in a much harder to kill Ultralisk every few minutes to harass your troops. The worst offender had to be Zerg mission 8 and 10 (in Brood War), with the former having a deadly Zerg/Terran air force, and the latter had two powerful Terran and a Protoss attacking players at once.

 

* Definitely the case in the ''[[Guitar Hero]]'' games...you'll be progressing along fine, then suddenly you'll hit a song that has an insanely-hard passage that you'll have to practice for a day just to pass.

** "Raining Blood" from the third game is infamous for being [[That One Boss|That One Song]].

* ''[[Elite Beat Agents]]'' and ''[[Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan]] 2'' had three of these each, one on the "final" song, one on the actually final song, and one on the third bonus song.

** "Canned Heat" from EBA also counts, as it's the only song which has its taps on the offbeat. If you're not ready for it, you'll lose quickly.

** Many players avoid this by setting doing the "Hard" route for the life bar. In this, as long as the life doesn't reach 0%, you pass.

* Many [[Rhythm Game]]s have this on a select few of the hardest songs.

** Also from Bemani, the difficulty progression in ''pop'n music'' stays relatively constant up until you reach Level 28, which is where the notecharts start throwing more advanced techniques (scales and jackhammers in particular) at you. Spikes also occur at Levels 32, 35, 38, and each level thereafter.

*** Then, as with ''[[Beatmania IIDX]]'', there are a ton of songs that will devolve into total [[Oh Crap|notejam]] in the last ten seconds or so. Playing with the Extra Stage lifebar cuts out the 80% requirement, but [[Guide Dang It|you need to get specific combined level scores to access it]]-and from the 16th mix onward, the criteria were raised enough to make it nigh-impossible without using [[Self-Imposed Challenge|ojamas]].

** Hatsune Mikue's Project Diva has a fairly reasonable difficulty progression with every song being completable with enough practice. Then you get to The Dissapearence of Hatsune Miku and your head explodes.

 

* ''[[Pokémon Mystery Dungeon]]: Explorers of Time and Darkness'' has a nice progression...until you hit Hidden Land. In the previous dungeon, you would face Seel, Staryu and Kingler, with the occasional Dragonair appearing every now and then. Suddenly, Dragonite, Garchomp, Magmortar and Rampardos start to raid your team with no mercy, coupled with a boss battle that can easily be [[That One Boss]] for the unprepared.

** The post game follows quite nicely until you hit Miracle Sea. Enemies that return the damage dealt automatically and Octillery by dozens pelting you with [[Game Breaker]] moves from the other side of the room.

** In the first games, Sky Tower is markedly harder than anything you've previously done, featuring ghosts that can move through walls, changing weather, enemies with attacks that hit the entire room, and potential Monster Houses that can be extremely dangerous.

 

* ''[[EarthBound]]'' has the Peaceful Rest Valley. Up until that point, the only challenging part was the Giant Step dungeon, and even that's not too bad if you're well-equipped. Peaceful Rest Valley teems with [[Demonic Spiders]], especially the dreaded [[Action Bomb|Territorial Oaks]]. It doesn't help that it takes forever to get out.

** The mine is another major difficulty spike. It's a long maze level swarming with poisonous enemies, requiring you to find and defeat five giant moles. The first time playing, you ''will'' get lost and spend a long time aimlessly wandering. And it doesn't get any better afterwards; almost immediately you get forced through the [[That One Level|Fourside Department Store]] and [[Dark World|Moonside]], both of which are even more difficult.

* All of ''[[Dark Souls]]'' is hard, but Blighttown, with its maze-like layout, powerful, toxin-inducing foes, difficult to see toxin-inducing snipers, is where things really start getting tough. Another difficulty spike is [[That One Level|Sen's Fortress]], which comes immediately after Blighttown. The area is a convention center for booby traps and considerably strong mooks than previously encountered.

 

* Old-time gamers would reference the arcade game ''[[Sinistar]]''. If you were on the ball, the first level was a snap. The second was absolutely brutal, and it just got worse.

* The first three and a half stages of ''[[Don Pachi|DoDonPachi]]'' are designed to break you in. The rest of the game is designed to break you.

* All of the ''[[Raiden]]'' games do this around Stage 3, but ''Raiden IV'' takes the cake, increasing its bullet density to near ''[[Do Don Pachi]]'' levels. Not to mention the second loop and [[True Final Boss]].

** ''Raiden II'' has an especially large spike in the second and third levels on the higher two difficulty settings. Sniper tanks, sniper tanks, everywhere.

 

* ''[[Black and White]] 2'''s levels are pretty easy with the AI throwing a couple of battalions of troops at your villages every so often, easy to defend against provided you have wall, a troop of warriors yourself and if that fails you can send out your creature to fight while you causally build up resources. In the last level you face full on assault by multiple cities at the start, you've got restricted resources and then your whole village is destroyed by a volcano and while rebuilding you'll be constantly attacked.

* ''[[Sim Copter]]'', as bizarre as that sounds. Start up a custom map, and try to adjust the sliders that control the chance of a mission spawning. The result is not for the faint of heart.

* ''[[Harvest Moon]]: Frantic Farming'': Most of the characters' story modes are fairly straightforward. Most have a gradual increase in difficulty, and the boss battles with the Witch Princess are basically Survival Mode battles in disguise. And then there's Vaughn's final stage. You have to score 100,000 points in five minutes. You haven't been required to do more than 75,000 before (and won't be required to for any of the other characters). Vaughn's special skill (Instantly harvesting any big vegetables on the field) is totally at the mercy of the game board and your two AI partners are near useless. Beating Vaughn's last stage is practically a [[Luck-Based Mission]].

 

* ''[[Punch-Out!!]]'' certainly counts with the final fight against [[Final Boss|Mike Tyson (Mr. Dream in the post-scandal version)]], which takes [[Nintendo Hard]] to ridiculous extremes. The difference in difficulty between him and all the fights before him is so extreme that it's rather like comparing the size of an average swimming pool and the Atlantic Ocean.

** The Major Circuit as a whole (save the opening [[Hard Mode Filler|Piston Honda rematch]] is a [[Just for Pun|sucker-punch in the face]] after the relatively manageable fights that came before. In addition to having to face [[That One Boss|Bald Bull]] ''again'', you get the nice little [[Accidental Pun|one-two punch]] of Mr. Sandman and Super Macho Man. These two fighters, along with Soda Popinksi from earlier in the Circuit, make the rest of the game look much like how Tyson makes ''them'' look.

* ''[[Punch-Out!!|Punch Out Wii]]'' has Bear Hugger, who's ''much'' trickier than his predecessors (every fighter before him had a method to knock them down with one hit; the only way to do so with Bear-Hugger is with a three-star punch). He also marks where Title Defense gets painful. He is Canadian [[Writer on Board|like the developers]], and even hails from the same hometown.

 

* The original ''[[Thief]]: The Dark Project'' suffers a huge difficulty spike going from Mission 4, 'Assassins' to Mission 5, 'The Sword'. The ''Gold'' version adds a new mission, 'The Downwind Thieves' Guild', between the two specifically to smooth the bump a little.

* The original ''[[Tenchu]]'' has a bit of an erratic difficulty curve: the first 3 stages are the learning steps, with the third being a bit more challenging but still manageable. Stages 4 and 5 (which, coincidentally, [[Regional Bonus|weren't part of the original japanese release]]) are longer, more complex and [[Mook]]-filled than before. Stages 6 and 7 are quite more toned down (specially the Manji temple, where the player can cut to the chase and go directly to the boss). And then comes Stage 8, set on a [[Death Mountain|mountain top]] where there's a lack of hiding spots and an overabundance of [[Bottomless Pit]]s, plus [[The Archer|archer]] [[mook]]s who can snipe at you from the other end of the chasm. The last two stages are ''slightly'' easier by virtue of lacking any [[Bottomless Pit]] (though the last one is ''three times'' as large as any previous one).

** The second game isn't as bad, as long as you're not going for the [[Rank Inflation|Grandmaster ranking]] since, unlike every other game in the series, the requirements for the rank change from level to level. So, some levels let you a bit of leeway in terms of Stealth Kills/being seen, while others force you to ''Stealth Kill every [[Mook]] in the entire stage'' while ''not being seen''. Even still, Ayame's Story Mode is a more straight example, throwing in a "Not Be Seen or [[Game Over]]" requirement in ''Stage 3'', and the tricky Stage 8 and its respective [[That One Boss|boss]], [[Panthera Awesome|Kotaro the Tiger]], which if it gets you on your back, can pretty much [[Curb Stomp Battle|end the battle unscathed]].

 

* Playing ''[[Max Payne (series)|Max Payne]]'' on the level "New York Minute" is like shooting yourself in the head. You get a minute per section, and you can only get about 4 seconds per kill.

* While ''[[Oni]]'' isn't exactly an easy game, the difficulty of level 11 comes out of nowhere with three tough bosses in a row, broken up by fights against some of the toughest [[Mooks]] in the game, along with very meager supplies; most of which is gotten off the bodies of your enemies, then the game goes back to the normal overall difficulty curve for the rest of the game.

** The absurdly difficult final section of level 3 tops that easily. Good lord, the death count nearly reached the triple digits. At least the next level went easy on the player after that onslaught. An honorable mention goes to level 12. Dodging five sets of trip lasers (which are armed with near-fatal Mercury Bow rifles) at the start makes for some frustrating gameplay. It's not quite as sadistic, but agonizing, nonetheless.

 

* ''Chessmater 3000'' added a feature to make it easier for less experienced players - a slider that controlled the percentage of moves it considers. Because of how AI systems work, this led to a difficulty spike where some players can always defeat it at 99% difficulty but always lose at 100%. ''Chessmaster 4000'' corrected this by using move strength rather than hiding random moves from the AI.

* ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' somewhat bizarrely has its difficulty spike midway through the game. The Riovannes castle is absolute murder, first with an Annoying [[Duel Boss]] (Weigraf) then [[That One Boss]] (Velius) then finishing with the [[Escort Mission]] From Hell (lemming-Rafa). Nothing that comes after that point is anywhere near as brutal as Riovannes.

* The original ''[[Panzer General]]'' has a nasty spike on the third mission—the invasion of Norway—but only if you have received major victories on both of the first two missions. Your "rewards" for doing so well on the first two missions: your first naval battle, which is easily lost yet critical to the mission; your first real air battle; the first time the weather turns against you, introducing low visibility, uncrossable rivers, and making your air forces useless; and a nasty journey through rough terrain between the final two target cities, meaning even if you make it that far you are likely to run out of time traveling through the wilderness.

 

* ''[[Twisted Metal]] 2'' had a very strange difficulty curve. The eight levels went something like this: very easy > hard > very easy > average > very easy > hard > OMFG COMPLETELY IMPOSSIBLE > average.

** The difficulty of a level was inversely proportional to the amount of cover you could find, with the easy levels having places where the AI wouldn't even go. The second level was fairly easy, but only if you managed to pick up the full health before either an opponent grabbed it or the ramp leading to it got blown up taking all of the cover and the [[Weaponized Landmark|lightning generator]] with it, in which case it just got a lot harder. Then suddenly that seventh level had ''nine'' opponents in a small square field with no cover other than two windmills that explode after ten seconds of enemy fire. Good luck.

* ''[[Twisted Metal]] 3'' has two notable spikes up: the first in the ''second'' stage, which is pretty much Holland ''minus hiding spots'' and a [["Wake-Up Call" Boss|not so easy]] [[Mini Boss]]. All following stages are more or less not that hard afterwards, and then one reaches the 7th stage, Egypt. It's also sorta like Holland, except the hiding spots don't break down and the general terrain has ''thousands of bumps'', making handling and avoiding enemy fire ''very'' tricky. The final stage wouldn't probably be as hard if it wasn't for the 5 pannels the player must destroy so the enemies stop respawning after death.

 

* ''[[Saints Row]] 2'' difficulty rises pretty evenly, as long you're following all story threads at about the same rate, collecting sidequest rewards as you go. The game likely expects the rest of the game to be completed before starting the Epilogue chapter...and it's highly recommended, as the difficulty leaps in each mission are tough to scale even for completionists.

 

* A non-video game example is ''[[The Amazing Race]]''. The first few legs are typically very straightforward, but generally around leg 3 or 4 (though this is not a concrete rule, as some seasons never have a Difficulty Spike, while Season 10 had its spike in the first leg) the handholding stops and the difficulty ramps up. This leads to some teams being a part of the lead pack for the first few legs, but ultimately dropping off and finishing in the middle of the pack. The most obvious example would be from leg 3 of Season 6, the infamous hay bale Roadblock, considered by many to be the hardest task in race history (it reduced one racer to tears).

* Sure, the first few levels of NBC's [[Minute to Win It]] are easy, but when there's big money at stake it's bound to be tough.

* The last two seasons of ''[[America's Next Top Model]]'' have added a challenge where the contestants must participate in a music video. ''A music video''. Where they have to '''''sing'''''. Yes, that's right, the chance of being a successful Top Model lies in the hands of whether or not you can do something ''completely irrelevant to your profession and entirely separate from what you have practiced your'' '''''entire fucking life'''''. Needless to say, the two models it killed off also happened to be considered the ones most adept at, you know, '''''modeling'''''.

 

* Being based on JRPG, ''[[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]]'' mention this trope in the background setting. Heroines starting their quests have a much easier time of it than heroes, since most monsters in the mortal realm have no interest in women. Things change for the worse in Demon Realm, where most monsters now have a distinctly [[Anything That Moves]] attitude and [[Naughty Tentacles|Tentacle Forests]] will violate any human girls that wander too close. The worst part is, since female humans draw spirit energy from their environment, they will slowly absorb the demonic energy of Demon Realm instead and will become succubi should they stay in the Demon Realm for too long. Heroes will have much less steep difficulty spike: every monster will be trying to get into their pants from the start, but they will gain spirit energy by eating and resting, and so far, there is no word that tentacles '''necessarily''' have any interest in males, so there may not be any new challenges in Demon Realm as long as they can repel monsters and have supply of clean food (save for more powerful monsters).

 

* The people in charge of the Scripps National Spelling Bee used to call Round Three "the Lawnmower Round". On at least one occasion, it took out two-thirds of the competitors. The word-selection committee eventually readjusted their entire method of ranking words simply to get around that.