Anyone who played any beloved third-party NES game:
Oh, that's cute! 😏
Edit: Just so we're clear, I'm poking fun here, I like Demon/Dark Souls just fine.
but waay too many games get compared to them as though they're the first game with ball-retracting difficulty, lmao.
It's kinda sad that it's been more than a decade since Demon's Souls and the Souls games are still considered the most difficult. Something should have come along that is also universally considered tough, but mostly fair once you understand the game mechanics.
As the OP pointed out, on the NES alone, you have Ninja Gaiden, Battletoads, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Gauntlet, Ikari Warriors, Ghosts and Goblins, The Immortal, Mega Man, Fester's Quest, Silver Surfer, Castlevania III, and umm ... there's likely more. This is just off the cuff.
Oh, honorable mention to Blaster Master and Paperboy. While not exactly difficult, some of the timing and dodge/avoidance while still doing the paper delivery can be tough. And some of the bosses in Blaster Master can be frustrating to learn the patterns to.
World Cup Soccer by temco. got it on a double cart with super spike vball with our nes (had the infrared four-player adapter all bundled in). I'm pretty sure the same company also released a beat em up game that utilyzed a lot of the same sprites, though I couldn't tell you which came first.
Not really a soccer fan, but it was definitely an entertaining, if hard as balls, game, with a level of comical violence that made it novel. i tried to describe it, but honestly, it's just easier to show you, lmao.
That's some Tecmo charm alright. Probably part of the kunio game set that got broken up into a million pieces over here with different names.
For instance, there was also Super Dodge Ball that was hilariously violent and could be really tough. The computer, at least two of the teams, knew frame timing so well and had the ability to not only decimate your team, but could get the ball to return to them and just go ham on you until you were eliminated if you messed up even once.
I think it was adapted from an old arcade soccer game they made under their former company name, tekhan.