Easy Mode Mockery/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic trope: The game makes fun of you for playing easy mode in some way.

  • Straight: After playing "Alice saves the day" Alice says "That was boring, it was too easy"
  • Exaggerated:
    • After playing "Alice saves the day" Alice says "PLAY A HARDER MODE OR I'LL KILL YOU!"
    • The game of different difficulties are different games altogether. Easy mode is a cute little side scroller taking place entirely in Green Hill Zone and Level Ate. Hard mode is a shooter/slasher game that takes place in hell. Impossible mode is a stealth game where every enemy's got infrared goggles and one-hit kill guns with unerring accuracy.
    • At the end of Easy Mode, Emperor Evulz murders Alice's little sister Chinatsu by savaging her into chunks of bloody mess and then throws her soul screaming into hell, after which he says "HAHA! YOU HAVE NEITHER THE SKILL NOR THE POWER TO DEFEAT ME!". Cue Bad End.
  • Downplayed: After playing "Alice saves the day" Alice says "Don't you think that I could have done better?"
  • Justified: The game makers want to encourage the player to play the harder modes.
  • Inverted:
    • The game makes fun of anyone who plays in hard mode, telling them that they are freaks with no lives who don't know how to have fun.
    • Alternatively, in hard mode, your player character is replaced by a badass version of him/her.
    • Alternatively, Hard Mode Perks
  • Subverted: The game tells you to play on easy if you are new, encouraging it if it does not see any saves.
  • Double Subverted: On the other hand, it does keep you from the final boss this way, telling you "Now that you're experienced, play a harder mode!"
  • Parodied: "Easy Mode" is just a 10 second mini game that is impossible to lose. On completion you are told to stop messing around and play on a proper difficulty.
  • Deconstructed: The player gets insulted and returns the game, giving a negative review. This turns into a huge flame war.
  • Reconstructed: But then buys the game again after the hype and realizes that since the game is so difficult, the only way to make it through will be to accept the easy mode mockery.
  • Zig Zagged: The game allows players to skip harder levels should they choose or play easy versions of the levels, but at the end of the game if you took any shortcuts, the ending is different. After you've killed the Big Bad, when trying to grab his BFG, he gets back up and shoots you in the face, saying "This gun's is for veteran players! Come back with some real skills!" There is no indication this would happen, it's a surprise for anyone who decides to play easy to win the game.
  • Averted: Lowering the difficulty has no effect beyond making the game easier.
  • Enforced: "We need the players to play hard mode, so make the characters make fun of the players."
  • Lampshaded: "Who would make the game like that?"
  • Invoked: "Anyone lame enough to pick easy mode has earned their easy mode mockery!"
  • Defied: The game does not mock players on easy, it instead gives them a gentle tutorial and friendly advice.
  • Discussed: ???
  • Conversed: ???

Go back to Easy Mode Mockery, of course if you were any kind of real troper you would just type in the page URL rather than needing a link.