10 Video Games That Punish You For Playing Well
5. The Nemesis Gun Loses Power If You Level It Up - Cave Story
The Nemesis is one of the last weapons you can unlock in Cave Story, and it's an absolute belter - a gun capable of dealing high levels of damage while also coming complete with unlimited ammo.
That is, if you don't bother to level the weapon up.
Unlike every other weapon in Cave Story, the Nemesis actually becomes less-powerful the more you level it up, and at Level 3 will only fire rubber ducks which deal a pathetic amount of damage.
Given that you only need 1 EXP to level up the Nemesis, the developers were clearly having a little fun with players here, encouraging them to inadvertently nerf one of the game's best weapons in the pursuit of what they assumed to be progress.