Surprisingly Difficult "Children's Games"

[Nz17]

You know the ones: They could be for people of all ages, they could be aimed at kids; but they all look cute and innocent on the outside, yet when you actually sit down to play them, they are much too difficult for your average child to complete... or even to get to the second-to-last world. These are the sorts of games that take a determined, experienced adult or teenaged player to complete, but on average totally kick in the teeth of anyone under the age of ten years old.

A good example of this is "Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg." It's brilliantly rewarding when you actually finish any level beyond the first ones, but super frustrating when you lose all of your lives and have to start a level over again. It's like, "Oh no, I'm not going through that nightmare again!" and it takes you a day or two before you are ready to try that stage again.

[SparTonberry]

There's gotta be tons of crappy shovelware games to fit that.

I'm glad I gave up on Rocky & Bullwinkle for the SNES on like the second level as a kid.
I tried that again in my 20s, using savestates at just the start of the level, and I'd almost call it kaizo-level BS. On the last level, there's not even enough time to react once its safe (ie vanishing platforms). You have to actually anticipate and jump before its safe. That's fair level design in a kids game.
Oh and on another level, there's flame jets you can only avoid by exploiting Bullwinkle's hitbox limitations (his giant nose doesn't count). Also fair design for kids. :P

[Daria]

Fantasia, Genesis. That game was a bitch, and unlike the other Disney games being produced at the time wasn't very good.

[Tanooki]

Depending how uptight the parents were, Simpsons games 8/16bit ere were generally annoyingly hard, not so much by any good reason, just bad design with the controls and stuff.

[PizzaKat]

The Lion King for the SNES I read was a difficult game. Those Simpsons games were really hard as well. But they were also poorly designed, well at least the controls were.

[JSoup]

Billy Hatcher is a lesson in frustrating level design. The game wouldn't be half as difficult if they either calibrated the controls for the small areas you're expected to play in or just make the levels bigger in general.


The Lion King for the SNES I read was a difficult game.

Genesis too. It had a bit of a learning curve.
If we're going for licensed games, Escape from Mars starring Taz was surprisingly difficult. It's one of those games that is really impressive to watch when it's played by someone who knows the game.

Ok, here's one for you: Mickey Mousecapade. This game is surprisingly difficult, even if you know exactly what to do. Requires knowing how, where and when to make difficult, repeating jumps and a lot of guess work. On the plus side, the sprites are adorable and the OST is pretty catchy.

[o.pwuaioc]

Nearly all games are children's games.

[JSoup]

Nearly all games are children's games.

It does seem like an odd distinction, unless we're talking about edutainment titles.
I assumed the idea was "games that don't seem like they should be very hard but are" or "games that would probably reach out to younger audiences before any other and also happen to be difficult".

Going by those criteria, pretty much any movie game released all the way up till just about the PS2 would be on the list. People always go on about how bad they are, but it's really just the difficulty level that bites.

[Emperor Megas]

Fantasia, Genesis. That game was a bitch, and unlike the other Disney games being produced at the time wasn't very good.What a HORRIBLE, buggy, piece of shit game.

[FieryReign]

Bugs Bunny on the Genesis.