"Fun" Hard and "Stupid" Hard

[slipknot4]

Fun hard
Left 4 Dead 2 Vs Mode. I mean, Sure you'll get pissed off at time but, you get to do the same thing to the enemies... and you get to play as the fucking hunter!

Stupid hard
Call of Duty 4 Veteran. What's up with all of the "Invisible ghosts that are shooting trough walls" type of enemies not to mention the never ending waves of spawning enemies.

 

[Robert632]

Fun hard: Pretty much any hard platforming game.

Stupid hard: Fuck the Boost guardian. That shit is like trying to break thorugh a peice of steel with your face.

 

[Korten12]

Stupid hard: Fire Leo of Viewtiful Joe. The lion himself is hard enough if you know what you're doing; I'm talking screaming-and-throwing-your-controller-at-the-screen hard. But that's not the worst of it. Fire Leo is invulnerable until you perform the right sequence of actions to damage him. Working out what you can do to damage him is a puzzle. Thing is, you have to solve it while you're being mauled by a giant fucking flaming lion and the puzzle makes no sense. On top of that, you have to fight your way through souped-up versions of the bosses of all the previous stages in order to get to him, and each of them was pretty damn hard in their original form. If you lose all your lives you have to start the whole thing again and there are no save points.

I soloed Allant on NG+, I didnt even know you could co-op.

 

[Thunderhorse31]

Fun hard: Mass Effect 1+2 on Insanity. I know a lot of people had trouble with these, but using the right strategy and preparation they're actually a lot of fun. The battles are more drawn out and intense because you're that much more likely to die with one wrong move, but there was never an encounter that I thought "This is impossible!"

Stupid hard: As was mentioned already, World at War's lousy campaign. I've beaten the game a few times already, but there are a few levels that do NOT qualify as enjoyable on ANY level whatsoever, just because of the ridiculous heat-seeking infinite-enemy grenade-spam that continues constantly. Though when you finally beat Heart of the Reich it does feel godly.

 

[SageRuffin]

Fun hard: Any game that gets difficult or challenging and rewards you for being good or better then it should without pulling bullshit.

Stupid hard: Fake difficulty, period. Games that defy their own rules and punish you for being good.

Basically this. Ninja Gaiden 1 + 2 are the perfect examples for both though, with the first being fun hard, where someone had a playthrough of no damage on the hardest difficulty. The second game however, is stupid hard, with many cheap unblockable attacks, meaning you'll have to depend on luck and spamming cheap attacks.

I disagree somewhat. NGB (Ninja Gaiden Black, for the original Xbox) had a very nice balance of difficulty... once you figured out exactly how to fight the various enemies and unlocked the Izuna Drop (or until you maxed the Unlabored Flawlessness, then the game was easy on any difficulty). There was a genuine feeling of satisfaction if you managed to slaughter a group of brigands in swift fashion without suffering any damage yourself. Cheap deaths were few and far between, as the enemies had varying degrees of intelligence depending on the enemy itself and the difficulty (black basts, for example... what a nightmare) and their attacks were manageable so long as you knew how to recognize them.

Ninja Gaiden 2, however, I can't say the same for. As one who's played the game constantly and even made scores of videos about (including 2 action-packed music videos featuring rap music [gasp0rz]!), I can honestly say that the more I play this game, the more I find new things wrong with the combat engine. Hayabusa's defensive capabilities are sorely lacking (the new dash move has nowhere near as much usefulness as the roll from Black), enemies are impervious to hit-stun during their throw animations unless the next attack outright kills them, bosses are increasingly inconsistent with the difficulty (play on Master Ninja in NG2, and you'll find that bosses develop an uncanny ability to reverse even your most powerful attacks), and the game constantly breaks it own rules "for the sake of hardness", forcing you, the player, to spam attacks that either kill enemies the fastest, or give you most invincibility frames because you are going to get hit by something from somewhere.

Really, I could write a small book on all the things wrong with NG2, and how those inconsistencies thus produce a "fake" difficulty that's barely justified. But I know most people don't quite have the attention span I do, so I won't go any further.

Edit: Whoops, I misread your remark about NGB. My bad.

 

[SageRuffin]

Oh, my own experiences...

Fun Hard: God Hand. The controls took some getting used, but once you figured those out and figured out how the enemies worked... let's just say a lot of people owed Gene money, and the Godhand made sure he was strong.

Stupid hard: Ninja Gaiden 2, as I've stated above. Every time I play the game I say the word "fuck" in some way, shape, or form, at least 50 times.

Though a lot of people tell me that I'm an absolute beast on with the tonfas. That makes me a little proud of myself.

 

[Phlakes]

Almost every puzzle game is fun hard.

In other types of games, being fun or stupid usually depends on if losing felt like it was your fault or not. If you mis-time an attack in a fighting game leading to your epic rapeage, that's okay, but if the opponent has un-counterable absurdly cheap moves, then it's just stupid.

 

[Arisato-kun]

Fun Hard: Demon's Souls. The sense of accomplishment outweighs anything.

Record of Agarest War: Sure on Hard mode almost every encounter has at least two boss level enemies by Gen 2 but it's still possible.

Final Fantasy Tactics; The game's just too good to stop playing for any reason. Plus, once you get Orlandu it pretty much breaks the game.

Stupid Hard: Seymour on Mt. Gagazet: The most un-fun part of Final Fantasy X. Some of the things he does are just uncalled for.

 

[enzilewulf]

Fun hard: Crack down 2 with friends

stupid hard: The water-guitar guy from Kingdom hearts two. that guys a asshole and Donald stop healing me when your dieing I HAVE ENOUGH POTIONS

 

[Racthoh]

Fun Hard: Self-induced challenges. I'm more fond of games where perhaps there isn't much in the way of difficulty but there are certainly more than enough ways to produce your own kind of challenge. Like Sephiroth in Kingdom Hearts; was level 100 before I could finally kill him, then as I got better with the encounter I eventually find myself able to take him out at level 58 on Hard Mode. An adrenaline rush that *hour* was.

Stupid Hard: MMO group content and formulas. By group content I mean how only one person in the group is capable of taking a hit because everyone else would just be one shot. Formulas, ugh. I'm level 20, the enemy is level 25. Despite the fact that I *should* be able to kill the thing, majority of my attacks will miss, damage is scaled against me, all because of the level difference. The enemy is arbitrarily given a boost in power for no reason whatsoever.

 

[SilkySkyKitten]

Fun Hard: Bayonnetta and Mega Man 1-10. They all kick my ass without remorse, yet I keep coming back for more.

Stupid Hard: The entire second half of the original Halo: CE, especially the first level you encounter the flood in (the "Library", was it called? I can't recall...). It's impossible to count how many times I've nearly broken my keyboard/controller after being killed by a Flood carrying a rocket launcher, and the fact that even the ones that don't have rocket launchers are far too hard to kill makes it even worse.

 

[Jark212]

Fun Hard:
Playing a really hard game with your friends.
Stupid Hard:
Playing a really hard game by yourself.

 

[Cody211282]

Fun Hard: Dragon Age on hard(at least for me because I suck at the combat)

Stupid Hard: Angels Gate in DOW2, I don't even want to say how many times I died because of something stupid.

 

[Zayren]

Fun hard: Multiplayer games except Call of Duty.

Stupid hard: This stupid ass enemy in FFXIII. It's a retard box thing with like, accordions or something, for arms. It's retarded look apparently gives it super strength. It does big wide sweeps with attacks, hitting most of your team, and does at least 1/4 of your health. It also comes with two little dumbass robot things that are no threat on their own, but you can't kill them first and then focus on the Retard Box. If you kill the robot things then RB will just summon four more of them. Also, RB uses an ability to give the robot things better defense and damage, so that's just awesome. The RB also has a stupid high stagger point that you won't be able to reach, so that basically guarantees it takes months to finally kill, and you'll never be preventing it from buffing his allies, summoning more, or just punching your team in the face.

Also, WaW Veteran. Took me at least four hours to beat Burn'em Out, so I just said fuck it to beating that game on Vet.

Also, the challenges like Least Steps and Least Portals in Portal. Took me two solid days of playing to get HALF the challenges done, and I did the easier ones. Also, my progress reset. Gave up on trying for that.

 

[Sronpop]

Having a lot of fun playing Mass Effect 2 on Hardcore at the moment, sure its not Insane mode, but its still a blast and is at just the right difficulty to be both hard and easy to play as well. Sure I get stuck, but I only die a couple times and eventually pass it. Its not stuck there for an hour trying to beat one guy hard, just fun hard, I am sure my opinion will change with an Insane playthough(I am determined to get all them achievement points) because from what I have heard it is NOT an easy task.

Stupid hard is definitely WAW on veteran, it was just balls. All it was was, come out of cover, kill a guy or 2, get crazy wounded and have to dodge a grenade, take cover to heal, 2 more grenades to dodge, while in cover. And eve nif you manage to dodge all of that, no doubt some dude has just flanked you and kill you before your health had a chance to recover. Bullshit. Thanks a lot squad A.I. I thought we were a team. My Mass Effect 2 team always has my back, and there is only 2 of them at a time, not infinite like you.

 

[2fish]

Fun Hard: Ninja Gaiden Black Master Ninja Mode

Stupid Hard: Any game where a glitch gets you killed or the enemies primary attack is a dick move. Far too many games to list. I did feel Ninja gaiden 2 fell into this catagory.

 

[AwesomeFerret]

Fun Hard- This has to without a doubt be the whole of the Monster Hunter Series. Yes some monsters can one hit you. Yes a single wrong move can spell the end. But its so damn fun!

Stupid Hard- Call of Duty games when online. Its not realistic just damn unfair. Realistically, a single pistol bullet to the leg would not kill me from 100 meters.