Megaman 2
Back before every player was using Dark Souls as a replacement for “hard”, the Megaman series stood as one of the classic examples of “NES Hard”. While Robot Master Weapons were helpful, the trick fell into recognizing patterns and reacting to them, meaning that no situation was truly out of the player’s hands. At least until the late game when it feels like Capcom played a little fast and loose with the difficulty. Wily Castle introduces several sections just before the end game that place players in situations where they either need to have perfect accuracy, or in the case of first time players, clairvoyance. How should you have known you needed to save your entire stock of Crash Bomber to beat the turret boss instead of getting that extra life? According to Megaman 2, that’s a you problem.
