Classic Video Game "Screw You"s: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''It just occurred to me''<br />

''That I've been through this place again and again''<br />

''And in the same spot, every time, I repeatedly die.''<br />

''I never will give up, as I attempt to cross the disappearing tiles on the wall''<br />

''But again, I'm falling off of them.''|''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v{{=}}pjLouGft9kY I Can't Defeat Air Man]'' (unofficial English version)}}

This is a list of a few classic methods of making a game [[Nintendo Hard]]. We'll call them Classic Video Game "Screw YousYou"s, or, to avoid unnecessary swearing, "Fun Units", hereafter [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|FUs]].

* The [[Auto -Scrolling Level]] can easily be made into part of an FU, especially when mixed with Instant Death Areas, vanishing or moving platforms, [[Inconveniently-Placed Conveyor Belt|Inconveniently Placed Conveyor Belts]], and/or [[Goddamned Bats]]. (Forcing you to choose between two paths, one of which is a dead end, is more [[Fake Difficulty]] than a true FU.)

** Deliberate use of [[Ratchet Scrolling]] that limits you from going back, causing you to miss pickups and giving less room to avoid attacks. Worse yet is Ratchet, [[Rise to the Challenge|Auto,]] or [[Flip Screen Scrolling|Flip Screen]] scrolling on a climbing vertical level, which each have their own way of illogically killing you with bottomless pits. <ref>Fixed vertical scrolling can be explained by [[Nothing Is Scarier]], but the other two make no sense at all and are just there for the challenge</ref>

* [[Wall Master|Wall Masters]]s don't typically fall into this, since there will usually be some recognizable form of portal that shows where these things tend to leap out at you... except for that one place where there ''isn't''.

* [[Timed Mission|Timed Missions]]s can easily be used to make an FU.

* [[Escort Mission|Escort Missions]]s, especially when the person you're escorting has [[Artificial Stupidity]].

* [[Poison Mushroom|Power]]s, Upspower-ups that can kill you/harm you/cancel out good Power Ups if accidentally collected, in conjunction with looking like normal power ups or being in the same container as the normal power ups.]]

** [[Power-Up|Power ups]] that, while normally useful, [[Power-Up Letdown|can be counterproductive]], at least in specific situations (for example, a powerup that removes your ability to fly in exchange for faster running speed, in an area [[Bottomless Pits|without a floor]]). Obviously, the FUs are the situations where [[Power-Up Letdown]] is in effect.

*** Power ups that are useful, even in the given situation, but are placed so that getting them only serves to get the player hurt or killed (such as over [[Spikes of Doom]]).

* In some old [[Platform Game|Platform Games]]s, the player lacks a useful [[Goomba Stomp]] or other kind of downward attack, but enemies can fall or be pushed into small nooks in the floor, and then trying to climb into the nook would obviously be suicide by [[Collision Damage]] or unblockable melee attack.

* ''[[Mega Man and Bass]]'' is notable for having nearly every one of the listed above. [[Unstable Equilibrium|Ammo does not regenerate on death]], enemies have massive amounts of [[Mercy Invincibility|Recovery Time]], two consecutive [[Marathon Level|Marathon Levels]]s with bosses who are willing to use nigh-unavoidable attacks at the drop of a hat... oh yeah. This is not a game for pansies.

** And that's nothing compared to ''[[I Wanna Be the Fangame]]''. ''More'' spikes, ''more'' [[Invisible Block|Invisible Blocks]]s, [[Tele Frag]] portals, a [[Auto -Scrolling Level]], [[Pac-Man]] and the ghosts making ''common cause against you'', and a room where you have to navigate ''several cascades of [[Goddamned Bats]]''.

** ''[[Might and Magic]]: World of Xeen'' similarly allowed you to accidentally teleport off the edge of the world -- potentiallyworld—potentially before you realized the world ''had'' an edge.

*** Level 9 has a [[Monster Closet]] right at the start of the level that opens after you proceed forward a ways. Also bad are [[Teleporting Keycard Squad]] ambushes from multiple directions, spawning [[Demonic Spiders]] such as the aformentioned Drillers and Super Hulks. One level in ''Descent Maximum'' for the [[Play StationPlayStation]] has the yellow key placed between two Diamond Claw-generating [[Mook Maker|Mook Makers]]s.

{{quote| "Remember, the difference between a Lemming going splat and a Lemming walking away from a fall can be a single pixel!"<br />

** Yes and no. TIE Fighter was a pretty challenging game in places and indeed flying regular [[TI Es]]TIEs was pretty crappy at times, but I don't think it ever went into the realms of unfair. It was also a LOT more forgiving than its predecessor ''X-Wing''. Sure you had shields and stuff, but it made your mission completions pointlessly hard, repetitive and very long training courses before you could earn any medals (you could play the missions, but not earn medals *facepalm*) and a lot of the time if you got shot down, you either were captured or killed and your character was locked FOREVER. The missions were exceptionally hard in places too either putting you against vast numbers or against capital ships you couldn't hope to kill (X-Wing had no interest in locational damage or heavy missiles/bombs). Basically it was crazy tough. TIE Fighter was tough, but fair but comparison.

[[Category:Classic Video Game &#34;Screw YousYou&#34;s]]