Platform Hell: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

 

 

 

The first item block? [[Malevolent Architecture|Falls and crushes you when you hit it!]] The pit spikes? Shoot [[Frickin' Laser Beams|freaking lasers]] when you jump over them! The safe platform at the other end? [[Fake Platform|Suddenly tilts sideways]] for no reason at all! The harmless bush you just walked past? [[Suddenly Harmful Harmless Object|Grows teeth and bites your head off]]! The tiny white cloud that you ''thought'' was part of the background? Just [[Shock and Awe|blasted you with lightning]]! The secret [[Warp Zone]] you found? Sends you [[Trial and Error Gameplay|back to the first level]] of the game!

 

 

 

This isn't [[Nintendo Hard]]; it's murder. Every platform has [[Spikes of Doom|booby-trapped spikes]]. Every empty hallway has a wall of cannons waiting just offscreen. Most of the [[Power-Up|power-ups]] will [[Poison Mushroom|kill you]], but every power-up that doesn't is absolutely necessary for survival. And when you think you've figured out the twisted mind of the game designer, [[From Bad to Worse|something incomparably worse gets thrown at you]]. The entire experience is a humongous, hilariously sadistic Kafkaesque [[The Parody|Parody]] of a [[Nintendo Hard]] video game.

 

'''As a rule of thumb, a Platform Hell game should meet several of the following criteria:'''

* Twisted familiarity: The game levels generally [[Video Game Settings|fit the classic settings of the game they're based on]], and theme their deathtraps and challenges appropriately. This also saves time in level editing. Even original games such as [[I Wanna Be the Guy|IWBTG]] are generally one big [[Nostalgia Level]] [[That One Level|From Hell]].

 

* Traps at the end of the stage which result in your death unless you've prepared something from the ''beginning'' of the stage, such as the famous "[[Kaizo Trap]]" in Super Mario World romhacks: if you don't turn the coins into blocks, the auto-scroll as part of the victory fanfare will cause Mario to die.

* Traps at the beginning of the stage that will kill you a couple of seconds after entering unless you act immediately.

 

They will also usually [[Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels|go by names]] that outright suggest the cruel difficulty and trickery contained within, usually with names based on [[Harder Than Hard|'hard', 'impossible', 'difficult' and 'unfair']].

 

 

 

 

* ''[[I Wanna Be the Guy]]: The Movie: The Game'' - confirmed to be directly inspired by the above. In this game, everything [[Everything Trying to Kill You|really]] ''[[Everything Trying to Kill You|is]]'' [[Everything Trying to Kill You|Trying To Kill You]]. Even ''apples''. And at one point? The ''moon'' gets dropped on you. Several times. At another, a ''save point'' [[Chest Monster|tries to eat you]]. Find it in all its horrible, hair-tearing glory [http://kayin.pyoko.org/iwbtg/index.php here.]

** One of the traps in the game occurs during a pre-boss cutscene with Dracula. Near the end of the cutscene, in the middle of a line, he throws his wineglass at you and unless you move while Dracula is still talking to you, you will die. Incidentally, you also cannot move ''until he throws the glass''.

** The official list on the forums has only 509 unique people to clear it, including the creator (who is not anywhere near first on the list). [[I Wanna Be the Fangame|The best-known impossible-clearer created a separate fangame and game engine.]]

** The sequel, ''I Wanna Save The Kids'', is an ''[[Escort Mission]]'' from hell. As if that wasn't redundant enough.

 

** [[Kaizo Mario World]] 2 goes one step further into Platform Hell within the first few seconds of the game by attempting to kill you in the ''opening cutscene''.

** Whatever you do, '''[[Minus World|DO NOT PRESS "0" at the title screen]]'''.

* ''[http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=mx1fSJrIxFM&feature=PlayList&p=07D13F6ABF7F1853&index=12 Super Kusottare World]'' - That's just a video of the very end of one level, and a hack that's seemingly so badly designed it took said video maker about 5 hours to get past one jump. It's all but unplayable even with save-states. The maker gave the game to someone to review on [[YouTube]]. The reviewer became so incensed at the game that he abandoned the project halfway through and told the maker never to contact him again unless the hack was edited.

* The "gimmick" used by the above is also applied, with hair-rending results, to Super Mario World in ''[http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=kzcKU6L-88s&feature=channel_page Present Mario]''.

* ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xQUrRHXaOY&playnext=1&list=PL64E3C28B7240FCD4 Super Tabarnak World]'' - A hack that actually requires you to get a Yoshi in the ''bonus game'' to progress and whose [http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=AdAp_NmJW3A&feature=related last castle] is basically 10 rooms of Kaizo traps on permanent super sped up mode. With more Kaizo traps in the middle. And tons of ghosts in the Bowser battle. Pretty much defines cruelty.

* [http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=G7zs2O_4f7Y Pit of Despair]. That's a Tool Assisted Speedrun of the level which has to utilize pretty much every glitch in the original game. It's also only one of three (Moltov Mario World and Lawler Mario World being the others) that the video creator has made based purely on being the hardest games ever.

** And the sequel, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAzxnJKCEdU&feature=channel_page Pit of Death]. Apparently, it took over 5000 reloads using TAS to beat that level for the creator.

*** And, of course, the infamous [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjqE9q8rfUQ&feature=related Item Abuse] and it's even more insane sequel, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzKnYwFS1U8&feature=related Item Abuse 2], inspired by the above hacks. Some of the glitches have to be seen to be believed.

* [http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5GKNJQA5cu0&feature=channel_page Springboard and Shells Hack]. Yes, just that name, but freaking hard as hell. That video is a tool assisted speedrun the hack creator made of the last level, which makes you dodge almost endless halls of spikes while bounce on enemies, entering doors in mid air by bouncing off keys and blocks and having between only 50 and THREE seconds to beat each room. Then there's the boss...

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqD8hyL-kN4 Mario's Evil Level] is a really sadistic version. This level is tough as nut even with save states. In addition, it has multiple paths, some of them which take you to dead end and some of them which make you think they've taken you to the dead end. To add insult, almost every 3-up moon and often seemingly safe surfaces or air kills you without any indication before.

* ''Yoshi's Island DS'' has [[Nintendo Hard]] secret levels...with the exception of the last one, Yoshi's Island Easter Eggs. That contains several incredibly frustrating and hard challenges, and doesn't even try to play fair (Ride an Arrow Ball through a room of spikes! Jump on platforms controlled by an enemy! Light switches last for 3 seconds!)

* A hack of Super Mario World, "The Second Reality Project," has various Nintendo Hard levels, especially in the last few worlds. However, the very last level is a very hard level. It goes like this, you go to {{spoiler|Bowser's Airship}} and once you're there, you are forced to shrink into Small Mario and go through about 16 of the hardest rooms (Including spinjumping on top of spike balls, floating with the balloon in a room full of spikes, going through a tower-like room with a bunch of Football Kicking Charging Chucks, swimming in a room full of Torpedo Teds, dodging giant spikes, and more) without getting hit once. The level is very tough and there is no checkpoint. In a newer version of the hack, "The Second Reality Project Reloaded," the level is remodified to where there is a powerup in every room and a checkpoint is offered after going through most of those rooms.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDNQ-P5XijE This little gem] entitled Living on the Edge. Makes Pit of Despair look like a walk in the park. The best part is probably where you have to juggle two keys.

* Possibly the single most ridiculous hack in existence is one called [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8_NEUclVBg Glitch Abuse], which is exactly what it sounds like. It requires using nearly every known glitch in the SMW engine for a successful playthrough, most of which require frame-precise timing.

* Along the same lines as Hard Relay Mario is [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vh2ig6GDatE Falling Mario]. At the end of each world Mario falls off into a pit and utters "Oh god! Wonder how many times I have fallen!" and the ending isn't any more uplifting. Even the music has been changed to a minor key, to make the atmosphere of the hack even more depressing.

* Going forward two platform generations is Kaizo Mario 64. There's an LP of the game [http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL81B11E2623B59F31&feature=plcp here]. Kaizo Mario 64 is different from the original Kaizo in that all of these levels are very clearly based on original SM64 levels, only made about a billion times more difficult.

* A game based in Syobon Action is [http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/535225 The Hell Evolution]. It has invisible coin blocks, kaizo traps, and evil blocks that look like the good ones and will disable them, blocking your way and forcing you to suicide.

** This level. The gimmick is that the very second you try to go left or spin jump, Mario dies on the spot. The whole level has an icy floor causing you to slide, trial and error jumps and traps come at you fast, on/off switches must be pressed with perfect timing and homing Bullet Bills get fired at you in the later part of the level. See it [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1dtBJ9J3EA&feature=channel_video_title here]

** The final level has random wind physics. As in, it pushes you left and right every half a second or so at random. The level itself wouldn't be so bad normally, but with random, uncontrollable movement along with trial and error gameplay? Awful. See the level [http://www.youtube.com/user/Azentiger?feature=g-all-c#p/u/23/OzGSeE9EQnI here]

* "Master Quest", which is a fan-made level of ''[[Super Mario Galaxy 2]]'', which is based on the hardest level in the game, "The Perfect Run", which is a harder version of the already-hard to beat Grandmaster Galaxy. The star is located above the house you see Rosalina inside at the end of the level, and it's very hard to reach without a Cloud Flower.

** Speaking of "The Perfect Run", there's also ''[[Super Mario 3D Land]]'''s version if it.

 

** Especially in [[Scrappy Level|Level 18]]. {{spoiler|At least, until you realize that it is impossible, and the creator didn't add a level 19 or 20.<ref>This hasn't stopped at least [[That One Player|one person]] from finally beating it.</ref>}}

* The ''[[Dirty Harry]]'' NES game is somewhere between this and [[Nintendo Hard]]. While a lot of the difficulty is standard, it also sports a number of cruel glitches, as well as things more in this category. Such as the "Ha Ha Ha" room. An area, impossible to tell from the outside, that once entered, requires you to reset the game, and a one-way maze leading back to the start of the game.

* ''[http://armorgames.com/play/11444/checkpoint Checkpoint]'' is not as difficult as some examples, but it's filled with unfair traps and levels that literally cannot be cleared without dying one or more times, plus the game ''mocks you'' every time you die.

* ''[[Ms. 'Splosion Man]]''. ''[[Splosion Man]]'' was hard enough, but from World 1-2 on, the sequel takes it [[Up to Eleven]].

* ''[[wikipedia:Takeshi no Chousenjou|Takeshi's Challenge]]'', a video game inspired by the impossibly difficult game show "Takeshi's Castle", includes several unfair segments (including a [[Shoot'Em Up]] section in which the player can't move upward) and [[Guide Dang It]] puzzles.

 

** And as a shining example of [[Tropes Are Not Bad]], this is also by far and away the franchise's most well-known module.

** And just to show the difference between this trope and [[Nintendo Hard]], the 3.5E counterpart Red Hand of Doom is an insanely difficult (very generously, one early quest gives access to giant owls that allow it to be beaten by weaker characters) [[Timed Mission]] module which requires players to punch way above their weight class. In a lot of ways, Red Hand of Doom is more difficult since it uses harder (though still weak compared to an optimized party) combat encounters rather than [[Trial and Error Gameplay]]. But aside from that the adventure doesn't pull any unusually cruel tricks. Well, [[Killer Game Master|for the kind of game it is]].

* ''[[The Impossible Quiz]]'' - a non-platformer example, only by virtue of the completely ridiculous and hilarious "solutions" that the game expects of the player.

* The PC game based on ''The [[Hitch Hikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'' is notorious for being very close to Adventure Game Hell. Many puzzles are ridiculous and insane, and the room descriptions contain outright lies. Not mistakes, '''lies'''. Many other [[Infocom]] [[Interactive Fiction]] games have even harder puzzles, but this is the only one that uses its difficulty in the same ironic manner as other Platform Hell games.

** In addition, it's ''extremely'' easy to make this game [[Unwinnable]]. Didn't pick up {{spoiler|the junk mail}} at the start of the game? Didn't {{spoiler|buy the sandwich}} in the pub? The game won't mind, it won't even hint that those things have any effect when you do them - but if you don't, woe betide you later on. Also, near the end of the game, you will find yourself in need of a certain item. The item is chosen from a list of twelve possibilities, and unless you have all of them, the game will always ask for one you don't have. So, if you're not using a walkthrough, you'll start over and make a point of finding the item you missed, only to get to the end and find that you need a different one. ''Repeatedly''.

* ''Wizardry IV: The Return of [[Sdrawkcab Name|Werdna]]'' is RPG Dungeon Crawler Hell. You know how weak the average monster in a [[Random Encounter]] is compared to RPG heroes? Well, in this game, you're on the side of the monsters. Not only that, but the puzzles take [[Guide Dang It]] to an extreme; most players won't even make it out of the first room without outside assistance.

** The same can be said about Samuel Stoddard (of RinkWorks fame)'s dungeon crawler ''[http://www.rinkworks.com/vault/ Murkon's Vengeance]'', which is basically a homage to ''Wizardry IV'' in every way. ''Including'' the difficulty. Watch as your 10-hitpoint-1-damage-dealing character barely scratches the enemies less than half of the time and spends the rest "too scared to act". Thankfully, it gets easier once you find the summoning squares.

** And then you get to drive back. And forth. And back. And forth. To play the game to completion takes either copious cheating or ''over one month of constant play'', where "completion" means until the score counter stops incrementing at 99 because the game [[Endless Game|will go forever]] and where "play" means something not involving fun.

* ''[http://fph.altervista.org/prog/bastet.html Bastet]'', or Bastard Tetris, is a Tetris clone with a key difference. Whereas Tetris will select the next brick random(ish)ly, Bastet [[Murphy's Law|deliberately gives you the least useful brick]].

* Non-video game example: ''[[Ninja Warrior]]''. Hopping around obstacles of varying difficulty within a time limit is harder than it looks, especially since only ''three people'' beat the obstacle course. (And none of them have repeated their victories as of yet.)

** To be specific, there has been 25 Ninja Warrior tournaments held, each with 100 contestants. So 3 out of 2,500 people have passed it...a whopping 0.12% success rate.

* The [[Roguelike]] equivalent is ''[[Iter Vehemens Ad Necem]]'', which means "A Violent Road To Death". It is not kidding. The fact that some people can beat the game is generally considered a bug.

* Deadly Danger Dungeon is a board game example, which was created by none other than [[James Rolfe]] when he was a kid. He showed it on one episode of ''[[Board James]]'' which demonstrated ''just how frikkin' hard it is''. The rest of review was him humiliating Mike Matei with it.

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Video Game Difficulty Tropes]]