Lenin as a boss

“Nintendo Hard” refers to the extreme difficulty of several video games developed and released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in the 1980s and 1990s. 

The term is still used to describe a certain kind of difficulty in modern video games.

In many minigames with perspective flip, Lenin is among the bosses encountered by the player character.

In contrast to the albino Komodo dragon, the player character has a reduced amount of Hit Points, not to mention the vulnerability to one-hit kills. Not surprisingly, the player character is made one-hit-point wonder by many monsters (not only the bosses); whereas the generic monsters tend to deal massive amounts of damage, bosses in mook clothing tend to one-hit kill the player character (often in a gruesome manner), and even more murderous are the bosses.

As a human combatant, the player character wears a powered armor (Combat Suit) intended to augment his physical capabilities. However, the powered armor doesn’t withstand much damage from the monsters' attacks; furthermore (as explained), even the ‘weakest’ ones pose as a constant danger.

The only way to ‘defeat’ the monsters is by ‘deactivating’ them, and the player character has certain weapons intended to do so (nonetheless with limited ammunition). 

What about the bosses?

As with Tenchu: Shadow Assassins (above), the player character must fight them with a melee weapon (typically a machete, ninjatō or uchigatana), and the only way to ‘defeat’ them is by inflicting a certain amount of damage (instead of killing them).

Lenin's enemies often fight him with machetes

Ninja swords are used likewise

Unlike the minions from D&D 4th edition, which have each one a single Hit Point, Lenin’s victims are (mostly) taken out by massive damage or one-hit kills. 

Their massive damage threshold is equal to 20% of their overall Hit Points. 

Whenever the damage from a single hit equals or exceeds the threshold, they are one-hit killed accordingly.  

Thankfully for the player character, there’s a (relatively) small number of generic monsters per level, and the player is rewarded with points by ‘defeating’ them.

One of the inspirations came from Friday the 13th (NES).

 

That's the truth: Lenin puts the whole Hard on Nintendo Hard!

Such minigames are all contextualized, being actually unlockable by completing the main game.

The minigames were intended to be separate games, but the projects were eventually merged with the respective episodes.

Apart from the actual bosses (not to mention the bosses in mook clothing), the player character must fight Reptilian Troopers and other generic monsters (demonic spiders on their own), and they are often more dangerous than Lenin himself.

As such, they move in manners impossible for the player character (often with greater speed), have a larger melee attack radius than the player character, inflict massive damage (or one-hit kills), etc., often exploding the crap out of many redshirts.

Much like Dr. Salvador, certain monsters always one-hit kill their victims (at close range), however with large-bladed weapons (predominantly swords) instead of chainsaws. 

Battle axes are often used by certain monsters (akin to Smash Mooks), and they are made even more fearsome due to the game mechanics.

Nile monitors are among the bosses in mook clothing, being even more dangerous than their boss counterparts.

Basically, they are all modelled after actual Nile monitors, and their melee weapons are primarily samurai swords (shirasaya models included).

Curiously or not, the other lizards’ swords are all ‘clones’ of the Drachenschwert, including the shirasaya. 

Apart from the bosses and minibosses, certain Nintendo Hard mini games have bonus bosses such as (but not limited to) Mega-Lenin.

As with Cuttroat Island (1995), the level design is intended to be explore another aspect of the game mechanics: fall damage.

If the human heroes fall from unsafe heights, they suffer massive damage as a result, while the giant lizards get themselves 'deactivated' (instead of getting killed).

Certain scenes are expected to be comical, having been inspired by Bushido Blade 2 (below) and  many other games from early to late 90's.

As opposed to any dinosaurs seen in Dino Crisis (above), the generic monsters are actually unkillable, being defeated only by 'deactivation' (instead of having their Hit Points depleated).

Apart from being demonic spiders as intended to be, such monsters are fully favored by the mechanics, even triggering sort of Drop-In Nemesis if messed with.

As with Luis Sera in Resident Evil 4 (above), they severely punish the player character for commiting certain mistakes,  for breaking the rules, etc.

Drop-In Nemesis triggered, they give the player character an inescapable death scene, almost always a gruesome one.