5 Games That Mock Gamers for Playing on Easy Mode

Video games are meant to be fun, but they’re also meant to pose a challenge. Initially, this was so you’d keep feeding quarters into arcade cabinets, but over time, the challenge was toned down so folks could enjoy themselves. Developers created various difficulty settings to offer different challenges to players, and every gamer has their preferred way to play. You shouldn’t feel bad about playing on easy mode because games are meant to be fun. That said, some games actually make fun of gamers who choose easy mode. We’ve identified five of the funniest examples and listed them in no particular order.

1) Demolition Man

The Demolition Man video game arrived during the 16-bit era on various consoles, and all versions had the same fun way of poking fun at players who opted to reduce the challenge by selecting the easiest mode. If you deigned to do the worst thing imaginable and choose “Easy” from the difficulty selection screen, a brief clip of Sylvester Stallone from the movie plays on your screen. This was a pretty cool achievement for the time, but it’s a short clip, and all he says is, “You suck” as plainly as possible, so the consoles could handle it. Players, on the other hand, likely thought hard about disappointing their hero by choosing to play the game on Easy.

2) Wolfenstein 3D

One of the earliest games to troll players for selecting an easy path is id Software’s Wolfenstein 3D. When you choose how you want to play, you’re given the following options: Level 4: “I am Death incarnate!”, Level 3: “Bring ‘em on!”, Level 2: “Don’t hurt me”, and Level 1: “Can I play, Daddy?” Not only does it demean the player with the title of the settings, but the B.J. Blazkowicz icon shows him wearing a bonnet while sucking on a pacifier. This option didn’t go away with that one game either, as entries in many of id Software’s titles continued the trend for years, punishing gamers’ dignity for choosing the easy way to play.

3) Contra 4

If you fire up Contra 4 on easy mode, that’s no problem! You can enjoy the game and make your way through the levels, tearing your way through enemies as you fight. Unfortunately, just when you think you’re doing well, you’ll hit a wall because Contra 4 slams the brakes on your progress at stage seven. You’re then told that if you want to progress, you’ll have to increase the difficulty, or you’ll never see the final two stages of the game. The game is a lot like the original Contra, which was one of the hardest games on the NES and required the Konami Code to score 30 lives to make it through for most players, so trolling gamers for playing on easy mode seems like a callback.

4) Shaq-Fu: A Legend Reborn

Back in 1994, a horrible game called Shaq Fu capitalized on the popularity of Shaquille O’Neal, devastating gamers with an objectively awful game. Fast-forward to 2018, and Big Deez Productions decided it was high time that a sequel was made. It’s as bad as the original game, which isn’t surprising, but what was a bit of a shocker was how it made fun of players for choosing to play on easy mode. If you play on hard mode, the description reads, “May induce labor,” while Normal mode reads, “Not quite hard.” Finally, selecting Easy tells the player, “Dude, have some self-respect,” which you probably don’t, or you wouldn’t be playing Shaq-Fu: A Legend Reborn in the first place.

5) Twisted Metal 2

Contra 4 wasn’t the only game to mess with players halfway through, as there were several that did something similar. Twisted Metal 2 was one such game, and if players chose to fire up the game on easy mode, they likely enjoyed playing for quite some time. That is, until they reached Stage 4. Once there, they’re confronted with a stop sign that says, “No losers allowed beyond this point. You must switch to Medium or Hard to continue.” It then kicks you back to the start of the game, requiring you to restart from the beginning in normal or hard mode to proceed beyond the third stage.

Have you run afoul of a dev’s trolling on easy mode? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!

Stardew Valley Players Divided by New Update’s “Easy Mode” Bug