Previously in GameFAQs's Top 10 lists, I've posted "The Top 10 Ways to Make Games Piece of Cake", whit the top 10 features which makes games easy; now we're about to explore the opposite: the top 10 ways to make a game difficult, 'cause for every easy feature, there should be a difficult one. If you're craving for challenge, go seek these cues:

As I've said in The Top 10 Ways to Make Games Piece of Cake, powerleveling in RPGs is such a way, but it has a solution: powerleveled foes or boss fights in which you can only stand a chance by powerleveling like no tomorrow and having the most powerful magicks and abilities. Almost all of the Final Fantasy games (and some other RPGs) have some secret boss fights which are way harder than the final boss (which is supossed to be the strongest foe you'll have to fight if you follow the storyline), and in some cases (like in Final Fantasy X), they're just insanely hard (anyone who can hit everyone for more than 30000 damage with a simple move is just sick). That's what makes RPGs last for more than 100 hours if you're willing to get all secrets.

This one is just exclusive for Guitar Hero or some rhythm games: throngs of shapes, buttons or whatever you have to follow and you shouldn't dare to miss (unless you're not planning to pass the song, of course). The key is simple: the more and the weirder the combos are, the harder the track; and Guitar Hero III is the pinacle of what it means; specially the secret Dragonforce song - without a doubt, the hardest song ever in Guitar Hero story. If you want a farewell to your fingers, go try it in Expert; you'll end with your fingers as stiff as a streetlamp (it's said that Herman Li, performer of the band and an expert player of Guitar Hero, couldn't reach 10% of the song in Expert).

In RTS games, Korean Powergaming is about using keyboard shortcuts to give orders and do all the tasks, relying lightly on the mouse. Specialists can give up to 400 commands per minute this way (and the most known specialists are the Korean Powergamers of Starcraft). Such a skill would make these games damnatedly easy, but since it's unlikely that anyone here can reach 400 orders per minute (or 200, or even 100), the most likely outcome could be to play against a Korean Powergamer (be it Korean or from elsewhere), and man, that's just too difficult: I've seen an amateur level Korean Powergamer crush up to three nonpowergamers in his first raid!

Most games featuring enemies have them for you to kill 'n' destroy (be it for exp, for cash or for just fun), and in most games enemies tend to be (most of them), rather easy to kill (you'll hardly ever die because of regular enemies); but that's not the case of stealth games in general and this series in particular: enemies aren't pussovers here, and they're smart enough to call reinforcements if you wreak havok or leave corpses around, and they also pack considerable firepower. Since your main character is by no means invincible, if you have the chance, try to hide instead of facing a bunch of army men (they'll kill you in no time), and if you ever have to kill, do it silent and clean. Leave no trace.

In most games, enemies tend to have repetitive, predictable patterns of attack, and they tend to be mere cannon-fodder (expect for some late-stage foes, which are sturdier and harder); just a way to earn exp or cash (in this game, both are one and the same). So how could you make a game more difficult? Giving enemies a movement repertory as complete as a Street Fighter! In this series, all enemies (save for some crappy critters) have fancy combos and moves you've got to counter with your own combos (otherwise you'll get crippled in no time). In games like these, fighting surely is a great challenge, and damn cool!

In every game which feature fights or enemies, the main character has a measure of how healthy he/she is or how much puishment he/she can withstand before falling. In most past games it was measured with Lifes; in most modern games it's measured with HP (in some games it's measured with both). Since most HP-measuring games don't have extra-lifes, a great way to raise the challenge is to make some enemies able to kill you with a single blow. If you get hit, say goodbye since there's no such thing like resurrection (well, this game HAS resurrection, but most games with this kind of enemies don't). You'll find them in the last hours of the game, and you'll learn soon enough who are the one-blowers. It's imperative to KEEP THE DISTANCE.

Remember the old platform arcade games of yore? The ones in which you play a main character who can jump and crush myriads of enemies with ease, while avoiding being hit, falling to endless pits or being crushed? Metal Slug series was one of those games, and man they're damn difficult! You may spend a dozen quarters continuing whenever you get killed, and still never see the end! And apart from myriads of enemies, increasing difficulty and thousands of ways to get killed, the main feature which makes this game so difficult is the total absence of 1-Ups or HP healers! That's it: you start with 3 lifes, but when you lose one (and since you haven't HP whatsoever, a single hit means kill), it's lost for good. Enjoy yourselves.

Once again: remember the platform games of yore? The ones in which you had to go jumping from platform to platform in order to crush foes and reach the exit, and eventually kick some boss's ass? In such games, there's no way to get a difficult game like the underwater way: since your character is unable to breathe underwater (in most games), and he/she moves slowly (specially in Sonic series, whichse main character is damn fast!), you'd better hurry, since time is short before your character is out of breath and drowns, losing a life in the process (and no ring loss this time: you lose the life, period).

Wanna lose your nerves? Then try one of these: enemies will appear in crowds in just a second, will shoot at you like no tomorrow, and while dodging and jumping, you'll have to crush all of them in just another second, since your mission is CARGÁRTELOS A TODOS!!! Such fast paced action makes a game sickening difficult, so don't get so frustrated if you cannot get so far: that's really beyond us normal people. If you, on the other hand, really want some fast action, go seek these games (Contra series, Gunstar Heroes, Strider...)

Just the mother of all unbalanced gameplay: enemies way too stronger than your main character/s, and main character/s way too lame to stand a chance against them. Since not all such games are stealth games, hiding is not an option: you have to kill them. But how do you kill an army of über-enemies without losing all your platoon? Well that's yer problem. In this game series, you MUSTN'T let the foes have the first shot NO MATTER WHAT: if they start shooting, your characters will die, panick around and you'll lose way too many points. Your main characters can barely stand a shot, and are likely to go nuts 'cause of fear. Silly humans... If you want a challenge, this is the game of choice.

These are the main ways to make games hard. With this list, and the Top 10 Ways of making games easy, you'll know all the points you have to seek in order to get the most balanced gameplay: Metal Gear series feature "You're Spoted = You're Killed", but also "Infinite Continue (easy)"; Final Fantasy series feature "Power leveling (easy)", but also "Optional Bosses"; Fatal Frame II has "Excesive Curatives (easy)", but also "One Hit Kills"... There are lots of combinations you may get; remember nonetheless that not every "easy" game is that easy, nor every "hard" game is that hard.

List by pejg