Kiddie-looking games that kick your ass

[Megamixer]

I thought about this the other day when I remembered playing the first Croc on Playstation. It's a bright, cartooney platformer that looks like it'll be easy but man are some of the later levels a nightmare! I don't think I ever completed it once I reached the last world and some of the levels with timers, revolving blocks etc. If you want to collect everything 100% then it's even tougher.

What other games look like innocent kiddie games but are deceptively hard?

[ToxieDogg]

Yoshi's Island DS is one that springs to mind, there's a massive difficulty spike in the last couple of worlds.

Blinx: The Time Sweeper (also developed by Artoon) was bloody hard.

A lot of people have been recently crying about the difficulty on Sonic Lost World on Wii U as well (although I don't personally think it's too tough )

[DPrinny]

Syobon action
Looks like a Mario reskin, it is infact a game that will really annoy anyone that plays Mario

[Sel Feena]

Nice idea for a thread. I do think some people equate a more colourful/kiddie aesthetic with a lack of challenge. Some from the top of my head:

Parodius. I found these games to be pretty tough shmups.
Miracle Girls. This one might just be me, but I found some of the platforming later on to be quite tricky with annoying placement of enemies
Obligatory Umihara Kawase mention - Jesus, those games are tough, but very fun. They really do demand a high level of skill (and patience) in later stages.

[pratty]

Zack and Wiki.

[Liamh1982]

New Zealand Story Revolution (DS) - the original at least has the common courtesy to ease you in before ramping it up, this is surprisingly brutal almost from the get-go.

[davyK]

Diddy Kong Racing. Those silver gun challenges.....and that bloody octopus race.

[Negative Creep]

Bart vs The Space Mutants - I never got beyond the second level

[Shinobi]

Nice idea for a thread. I do think some people equate a more colourful/kiddie aesthetic with a lack of challenge. Some from the top of my head:

Parodius. I found these games to be pretty tough shmups.
Miracle Girls. This one might just be me, but I found some of the platforming later on to be quite tricky with annoying placement of enemies
Obligatory Umihara Kawase mention - Jesus, those games are tough, but very fun. They really do demand a high level of skill (and patience) in later stages.

Agree on Miracle Girls got to that level in the clouds but never passed it.. Mind that first level was hard enough, that cloud level was evil!

Frantic Flee not quite sure how to play this, or what to do on it, I remember Ghost of Kitaro on the Snes being hard as well

[Gibberish Driftwood]

Super Mario Sunshine is surprisingly hard. It took me a month to complete the damn thing.

[DPrinny]

Mystical Ninja Goemon 2 (N64)

Seriously this game is harder than explaining Minecraft in French to a Russian

[Liamh1982]

Bart vs The Space Mutants - I never got beyond the second level

One level better than me I have to admit but judging by its reputation I'm not missing much.

[shiftytigger]

Bart vs The Space Mutants - I never got beyond the second level

One level better than me I have to admit but judging by its reputation I'm not missing much.

Theres a second level ?

[LAIS]

The SImpsons: Treehouse of Horror on the Gameboy. The game was terrible, and that in part lead to it being tough to get far in, but yeah...I couldn't get past the first level.

I'm going to throw in Sonic 1&2 in the mix here. I could complete the game no problem but getting the chaos emeralds was tough. Unfairly hard - especially in Sonic 2. The Special Stages were a game spoiler for me. And in Sonic 1 all it takes is a bad button press and you miss the giant ring to even get to the damn special stage in the first place.

On the other hand, I really enjoy the special stages in 3& Knuckles.

[Negative Creep]

Bart vs The Space Mutants - I never got beyond the second level

One level better than me I have to admit but judging by its reputation I'm not missing much.

Theres a second level ?

A friend had it for the PC and we tried countless times, probably beating the first stage by sheer chance. All the early Simpsons games (when the show was still seen as something for kids) seemed to have been ball bustingly difficult