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[Myriadis]

Difficutly spike means that a certain spot in a game, which can be just a part of a level or a boss, an entire level or multiple levels after another, is much harder than most stuff before or after it.
It's actually possible that one's difficulty spike could actually cause no problem to another player.
Few examples from me:

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Donkey Kong Country - Snow Barrel Blast

That levels starts pretty normal, up to the half point where you suddenly have to shoot the apes through a bunch of barrels, which is much, much harder than anything before and after that. Yes, there is a way to skip all these, but a first-time player without prior knowledge, like me, can just find it by complete accident.

Wario Land 1 - Course 25
I played though this game for the first time today and I lost most lives on this level. Sure, The level after the checkpoint is already quite hard, but then you have to fight a boss, Big Head.

That one right here. I'm sure he's the hardest boss in the whole game, even harder than the final boss. After a short while, he starts to destroy the platforms underneath you and you have to defeat him before he destroys the last one. I lost so many times on him, and I won while there were just two tiny spots left.

Now, your turn.
P.S: Yes, I got that name from TVTropes. You should name your own examples.

 

[futnownarcade]

The meat circus in Psychonauts. It was such a fun game to play up to that point, then it became a platforming nightmare.

 

[revolverjgw]

This game is a balls-out awesome 3D Contra until this one level where it tries to be Mario 64. Good fucking luck getting past that level without save states.

 

[Jarmel]

Straight up the ass.

 

[Anteater]

The Lu Bu guy in Dynasty Warriors games

 

[SJRB]

Prototype's bossfights. Especially the Elisabeth and final bossfight are just insane.

 

[zephervack]

Dark souls, the game starts normal enough, just walking through Ruins a la uncharted, then you are dropped in front a huge monster with no weapons.

My first time playing I didnt know there was

Spoiler

a door you could escape through

, I almost gave up on the game.

Its like turning the volume from 1 to 11 in a second.

 

[buddha0991]

 

[thekonamicode]

F-Zero GX Story Mode level 3

 

[zruben]

it was just me, or this fucker was harder than the rest of the bosses?

 

[iLLmaticV3]

Some sections of Uncharted 3 got a little ridiculous, difficulty wise. For example, the sandstorm section after the horse chase.

 

[ElectricBlanketFire]

 

[Deitus]

I was wondering how long before this got posted. 8th post, not bad.

 

[SJRB]

Some sections of Uncharted 3 got a little ridiculous, difficulty wise. For example, the sandstorm section after the horse chase.

Ballroom in the cruise ship as well.

 

[Celegus]

Act 2 Inferno of Diablo 3 before all the patches. Kill the boss of Act 1 without taking a scratch, get to Act 2 and get rocked by little bugs.

 

[Santiako]

Lava surf in Conker, it's difficult and annoying.

 

[The_Hitcher89]

FFX

Spoiler

Seymour Flux & final Sin battle

Bullshit

 

[Kacho]

F-Zero GX Story Mode level 3

The one in the canyon?


The one I always think back to is that fight towards the end of the game in Final Fantasy Tactics. Wiegraf I believe it was. Pure torture and left me with a dead save since I could never beat him.

 

[GimMick]

Arthropod level in Super Monkey Ball 2. Probably took me the most of tries even though it is in the first half of the game.

I had to use the strategy in this video instead of the intented way.

Can't think of more examples right now.

F-Zero GX Story Mode level 3

You sure ? It's one of the easiest chapters and I cleared it on Very Hard in a few tries only. Chapter 7 on the other hand...

Edit : The screen you posted is from Chapter 2. Good answer. Hated the boulders, definitely much harder than the "practice" chapter 1.

 

[The Albatross]

Uncharted 3 is a balls easy game except for like 3 parts, and the difficult factor isn't harder, it's just more annoying, because more 1-shot-kill guys spawn behind you for non-sensical reasons.

Goddam that game was such a chore.

The 2nd to last mission on the main story in Skyrim. The game is ultra easy as you boss through every bad guy on earth, and then out of no where when you have to go to that Dragon's secret mountain hideout, and you have to find like 15 unearthly draugr death lord ultimate dumbo elephants at once. I had to use every cheap Oblivion-engine trick to get through that, manipulating the environment and maxing out with my dumb paralysis blade. Even RIGHT after this when you kill the dragon priest ultimate bad guy in this section, that's wicked easy, it's just those 20 draugr death lords that you face at once... jesus. I save stated my way through the whole thing.

A few levels in Trials evo that are so hard to gold/plat early in the game. Like, the 2nd set of levels, level #4 it's like at twighlight in a wooded/mill type level. Jesus. I had golded almost everything else before being able to gold that one.

 

[boybrushdRED]

The meat circus in Psychonauts. It was such a fun game to play up to that point, then it became a platforming nightmare.

I remember this one. The game was all cute and charming until that level. I threw my controller out of frustration and the not-so-good camera control.

 

[thekonamicode]

Also Volkmire's Inferno in Battletoads

 

[old manatee]

Legend of Grimrock was maybe my favorite game of the year, but the final boss was so stupidly hard that I ended up just quitting and watching it on youtube.

 

[Trevelyon]

I'm getting the shakes just looking at this.

 

[Anteater]

God Hand

I always cheese him with wall juggling...

 

[Rekubot]

Star Fox Adventures - towards the end of the game you had to destroy some spires while flying a Cloudrunner. Such bullshit. Took me forever to complete as a kid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfgELXFQB_w&feature=player_detailpage#t=160s

 

[Deitus]

Also Volkmire's Inferno in Battletoads

It doesn't count as a spike if the entire game is impossibly hard after the first two levels. That's just a difficulty wall.

 

[Shining Sunshine]

 

[Bearded Dudebro]

I counter you with this. Man F this guy.

 

[maxxpower]

Dragon Quest V, I cruised through the majority of the game, but when you get to the final boss tower I got fucking destroyed. I still can't beat it.

 

[ultron87]

The most recent one I remember is in God of War 3, near the end of the game you jump back down the Great Chain thingamajig. At the bottom there is a fight with a Cerberus that spits out exploding dogs. After you knock a head off a Satyr (one of the more annoying enemies in the game) joins the fight. After you knock the second off two more Satyrs spawn.

This probably took me two or three weeks of trying off an on Titan mode. I think that is the difficulty. It is whichever the hardest difficulty that is accessible when you first start the game is.

Nothing after that really came close.

 

[buddha0991]

I'm getting the shakes just looking at this.

The game made sure to make you feel that you are about to get your ass kicked, with the already omenous normal boss theme is changed to this for the first time:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?nomobile=1&v=sqah6JOTnkI

 

[Sothpaw]

I counter you with this. Man F this guy.

Super Macho Man is the hardest fight in Punch Out. Even harder than Tyson.

 

[Celegus]

The one I always think back to is that fight towards the end of the game in Final Fantasy Tactics. Wiegraf I believe it was. Pure torture and left me with a dead save since I could never beat him.

Aw man that's a good one. I got so lucky that I was barely able to beat him finally and salvage my only savegame. I feel like Tactics Ogre had a similar situation if I remember correctly.

 

[King of the Potato People]

Bad Girl in No More Heroes, I barely survived it.

 

[Bumhead]

Uncharted 3's spikes in cheap bullshit sections make it the only game in the series I've not finished, and one of the most tedious and frustrating games of the generation for me.

 

[Ezalc]

The Lu Bu guy in Dynasty Warriors games

I always loved watching that cutscene where people are freaking out about him in DW4. Many laughs from that game hahahaha. Good times.

 

[Lindbergh]

Trauma Center New Blood. Patient chains, ungh.

 

[Muramasa]

Flamelurker (Demons Souls)

Ornstein and Smough (Dark Souls)

 

[Supermanisdead]

it was just me, or this fucker was harder than the rest of the bosses?

No there was a miniboss on the sandship and then again in the final dungeon who was just crazy hard. He broke 2 of my fully upgraded purple shields!

 

[Nocturnowl]

Valkyria Chronicles Chapter 7 rockets to mind.

This monstrosity turns up leading to a mission where you must slowly take it down while also avoiding its firepower and ability to flat out crush you, how well you succeed partly depends on if your Lancer units are feeling accurate or not and at this early point in the game expect a lot of buggering up from their inaccurate abilities.

Still you'll slowly get there, yep, maybe it's not so bad after all....

And then Selvaria makes her in battle debut, oh gee whiz! just what this mission needed, an invincible superwoman!

 

[KittenMaster]

This game is a balls-out awesome 3D Contra until this one level where it tries to be Mario 64. Good fucking luck getting past that level without save states.

Thank you for reminding me both of this game and that exact level you speak of. For a game that got a lot of marketing back in the day it's sure obscure.

Funny thing is I don't even think cheat codes helped on that level other than letting you go straight to it since there were no enemies and falling off platforms killed you anyway.

 

[Nibel]

Mafia 1 race

Destroyed the game for me and many of my friends. When I beat it, I almost cried.

 

[Übermatik]

F-Zero GX Story Mode level 3

F-ZERO is just plain solid anyway. It took me forever to get past the first level.

 

[TheChaos]

Baten Kaitos Origins. FUCKING HOLOHOLO BIRD ARGH.

 

[Ultratech]

Let's see...

Super Mario Bros. 2 (aka The Lost Levels) - The entire game is a difficulty spike.
Streets of Rage 2 - Basically towards the very last levels. The last one in particular. It sends wave after never-ending waves of enemies. On the hardest difficulties, it's absolutely ridiculous.
Diablo 2 Hell Mode - Before the patches that nerfed stuff mostly. Enemies in Hell could be nasty bastards, with the game sometimes spawning near-invincible monsters of death and destruction. (A somewhat intended difficulty spike... -_-)
Old WoW Raids - These had difficulty spikes in spades. For example, the first couple of bosses could be manageable, then the boss right after could completely decimate the entire raid. (Or if you want a true example, Heroic 25-man Lich King; far and above one of the hardest fights in the game when it was released.)
Kid Chameleon - The game's decently hard as it is, but I think it really starts to pick up once you get to the 2nd set of levels (there's like 4 sets). Levels start twisting and turning all over the place, with multiple exits (some of which can loop back to previous levels!!!), and very tricky obstacles.

----
Donkey Kong Country - Snow Barrel Blast

That levels starts pretty normal, up to the half point where you suddenly have to shoot the apes through a bunch of barrels, which is much, much harder than anything before and after that. Yes, there is a way to skip all these, but a first-time player without prior knowledge, like me, can just find it by complete accident.

You forgot to mention the part where the snowstorm creeps in, so by the time you get to the hard part, you can't hardly see shit. Took me forever to get past that stage as well.

Super Macho Man is the hardest fight in Punch Out. Even harder than Tyson.

Debatable, since Tyson had OHKO cheapness on his side. (I never really could beat him.)

But yeah, Super Macho Man sucked hard.

 

[kurahador]

Force to fight alone...fml.

 

[MushroomSamba]

Some sections of Uncharted 3 got a little ridiculous, difficulty wise. For example, the sandstorm section after the horse chase.

Ballroom in the cruise ship as well.

...and maybe it was just me, but that part where you're on a tiny platform with large cargo boxes sliding back and forth from the waves, and this giant asshole with the minigun mows down your ass since you really have nowhere to go. That was kinda annoying.

 

[.GqueB.]

This game is a balls-out awesome 3D Contra until this one level where it tries to be Mario 64. Good fucking luck getting past that level without save states.

Holy shit I remember that game. The only level I remember is the one where a helicopter is chasing you. I remember that game being amazing.

What level are you talking about though? Have a video? I remember beating that game legit.

 

[zinder]

Uncharted 3's spikes in cheap bullshit sections make it the only game in the series I've not finished, and one of the most tedious and frustrating games of the generation for me.

Haha, I am playing through it right now and I agree. The one thing I HATE about Uncharted 2 and 3 is the extreme amount of enemies they throw at you from every single direction. It's stupid and not fun at all.