"Fun" Hard and "Stupid" Hard

[AyrSuppli]

Stupid Hard: Trying to complete LoZ: Ocarina of Time 100% on Dungeon Master difficulty was just stupid hard. Seriously? Backflip onto the platform in the Temple of Time? What the FUCK!

Fun Hard: The 1000 Heartless Battle in Kingdom Hearts II, and also a lot of the stuff in Prototype. Because that game is just so damn fun.

Middle: I Wanna Be The Guy crosses the line between stupid hard and fun hard about every other minute.

 

[Raziel_Likes_Souls]

Stupid Hard: Mothership Zeta, Jasper Batt Jr's second form. I will not let that fucking go. It makes me want to hit Suda 51 so hard, that he makes a comprehensible game with a good final boss. Also, most hardest difficulty FPS games.

Fun Hard: Bullet hells. I cannot say anymore, due to the fact no games I own have a hard, but fun boss to the end. Oblivion didn't even have a fucking final boss, and neither did Fallout 3.

 

[|Ookami]

and any RPG with a weapon-breaking mechanic (Seriously, who thought that was a good idea?)

The Dark Cloud games implemented this quite well, actually, in my opinion.

OT:
Fun hard: Bayonetta, Sin and Punishment, most challenging platformers, strategy games like Fire Emblem

Stupid hard: The water-based dungeons in OOT and

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

This.
That fight took me so many tries. It was absolutely ridiculous. In the end I won more by luck than by my attempts at extra level grinding.

 

[Klopy]

Fun hard? Demon's Souls. Its a game that makes you think about all of your actions. People complain that it has cheap deaths so they don't play it. After world one, my mindset changed to expect every cheap thing possible from around every corner and ceiling. I didn't die very much from cheap deaths, just from silly mistakes. This makes it Fun Hard.
Same reasoning for IWBTG...

Stupid hard is something like Ghosts and Goblins. Don't get me wrong; I love the game... The first time through. However, being required to play through everything again once you 'beat' it is just beating a dead horse. I died enough on those sections, now i have to prove that i am good enough to get past them again?
Another stupid hard would have to be Legend of Zelda the original for NES. So many secrets and things that would be impossible to find without a friend or magazine to tell you. Back then, without internet, it was all word of mouth. It was like saying 'None of your friends know the answer? Sorry, try Ghosts n Goblins instead! '

 

[TheTim]

halo 3 legendary is super fun hard,

and call of duty (any) is extremly frustrating unfun hard. or fighting Lu bu or Guan yu on hard difficulty in dynasty warriors 4.

 

[Vuljatar]

Fun Hard: Ninja Gaiden/Ninja Gaiden 2 on Easy or Normal.

Stupid Hard: Ninja Gaiden/Ninja Gaiden 2 on any higher difficulty.

 

[Valkyrie101]

Call of Duty 4 on Veteran. Infinite respawning enemies, grenade spam, and enemies that can kill you in a handful of shots, and hit you from fifty metres away firing from the hip on full auto whilst running. That's before we start on the missions that have virtually no cover, and the lack of a cover system means that if you want to shoot, you have to expose yourself (no, not like that...) - no sliding your gun round the corner and firing.

 

[Beartrucci]

Fun Hard: Demon's Souls and I Wanna Be The Guy.

Stupid Hard: I Wanna Be The Guy, Modern Warfare 2.

I Wanna Be The Guy can be a lot of fun and I laugh at how brutally cheap it is, but after three weeks I finally gave up.

 

[The DSM]

Fun hard.

Watching someone try it to get wiped out by a bullshit attack is hilarious.

Stupid hard.

Touhou and any of its bullet hell ilk, thats if you dont get a seizure from all the flashing bullets...

 

[gamer_parent]

fun hard: difficulty that can be overcome through some intelligent stragetic decision making, careful observation, and skill. (Skill in this case, being the ability to combine skills that the game have introduced to you into play, not so much the "you must hit this within a single frame/pixel of precision)

stupid hard: difficulty that is derived primarily through ridiculously high numbers, or putting on ridiculously high dexterity performance barriers, requiring that you either spend a lot more time grinding away at the game, or that you end up spending more time playing the game practicing and perfecting this one dexterity test.


to be fair, sometimes you CAN achieve the desired effect of increased difficulty without pushing it into stupid hard territory by just upping the numerical values or tightening the dexterity input requirements. But there is a limit that this can do. And there's a fine line that can easily be crossed.

 

[ShotgunSmoke]

Fun hard : Dragon Age. If you get your ass kicked, it's not because you lack reflexes or luck, it's because you executed the wrong strategy. You need to rethink your tactics and try something new. Not to mention it's extremely rewarding.

Stupid hard : Call of Duty veteran. I refuse to believe that every enemy has 10 grenades at his disposal.

 

[onewheeled]

Fun hard: Rock Band 2 drumming and singing "Down With the Sickness" at the same time on Expert, being against a genuinely good team in Team Fortress 2

Stupid hard: Rock Band 2 drumming "Visions" on Expert, Takedown on MW2 Veteran campaign, Lost Planet

 

[Sephychu]

Fun Hard: Every hard difficulty I've ever played.

Stupid Hard: Impossible games.

I'm a game masochist, so I love games with a mad challenge. (see: All the Metal Gear Solid games on European Extreme or equivalent, and Mushihimesama Futari)

 

[The Geek Lord]

Fun Hard: Lunastra in Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, and running blind through any reasonably difficult game.

Stupid hard: Goemon's Great Adventure. It's made by Konami, so at heart, it's a fucking Castlevania game. And not the pussy RPG Metroid things we get today. GGA on the N64 was stuffed with unreasonably difficult platforming, you only had three hit points, and you had to pay to get more, and even if you got through the platforming, you were immediately handed your ass on a shiny plate made of your face by the Giant Robot boss fights. That game is part of the reason I'm an atheist; I know a guy who could waltz up, finish the game in a week, and hand it back to me saying, "Dunno what the big deal is." When I grew up with the damn game, and I still can't beat the very first Impact fight.

 

[David_G]

Fun Hard: Half Life 1, IWBTG
Stupid Hard: Far Cry 1

 

[ZephrC]

Fun hard: Well designed challenging games. For instance I Wanna Be the Guy.

Stupid hard: Huge health bars. I fucking hate games that think 'hard' means you should die in two hits while all the enemies are magic bullet sponges. Hard mode in most games does this, thus I despise hard mode in most games. It's not fun, just tedious.

 

[gamer_parent]

Stupid hard: Huge health bars. I fucking hate games that think 'hard' means you should die in two hits while all the enemies are magic bullet sponges. Hard mode in most games does this, thus I despise hard mode in most games. It's not fun, just tedious.

for a case study of this, see every single dynasty warriors game

 

[Scobie]

DELETED

 

[veloper]

fun hard: anything that isn't stupid hard.

example of stupid hard: ninja gaiden, because of stage 6-2.

 

[Yarpie]

Fun hard: Lightsaber duels in Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast, the final boss in particular. You feel like you really have to play well in order to win, and once you do, it's extremely satisfying.

Stupid hard: Anytime the game is just cheap. Like dropping you into a fire fight with no cover, having you walk into a room with several snipers ready to shoot the minute you enter or simply have enemies that can blindside you. Oh, and more or less nay escort/protect mission of any game on a hard difficulty!