10 Times Developers Abused Players To Make Better Video Games

6. Ninja Gaiden's Entire First Level

What They Did: Not content with throwing a number of lightning-fast enemies at you as a way to encourage precise dodges and timing, Ninja Gaiden's first level ends with what other games would've saved for a final boss.

Named Murai and brandishing some vicious nunchucks, his catlike animation set sees him adopt a waiting stance - only to lash out and devour half your health bar. Lose and you're back to the beginning.

No checkpoints.

Why You Had To Endure It: Its unabashedly "anti-player" mentality likely wouldn't survive today (just look at how widely beloved Volgarr the Viking isn't), but Ninja Gaiden was all about liking it or lumping it.

Either you got good enough to manage crowds of enemies so you could carry that first health allowance to the final duel... or you didn't even see Murai again.

Credit to Team Ninja - it was a good few hours until the difficulty spikes came a'callin' again. Until that damn airport level...