"Nintendo Hard"? I tended to find most NES games (That were playable at least) to be fairly easy compared to Atari Hard games for the 2600. Those things were brutal, usually with the end result being your ultimate defeat at the hands of the overwhelming enemy hordes.

Sometimes an Atari game was merciful and gave you more than 1 bonus life. I think a few were rather radical in their thinking when they gave you a "hp bar".