Did you ever replay a video game that used to be hard for you and it was so easy that you wonder why it was so hard before?

I replayed the game Sonic Triple Trouble and the last few bosses always gave me trouble. There's a fight with Metal Sonic. All you have to do is jump in the air and let him crash into you. Then there's a fight with four phases against Eggman. Okay, the last phase is actually difficult, but the first three are very easy. The attacks are super easy to dodge. However, I remember being dumb in the past and getting defeated all the time. It's so unbelievably easy now, that I can't believe it was so difficult back then.

I suppose that's just how experience works. If you improve at something, the things that seemed difficult before will suddenly be easy. It's neat how that works.

I've had this happen at times, though sometimes it's also because as a youngling I was impulsive and only thought of clearing the game or play until a certain point. Only now that I'm an adult I look into all details and try to learn the game in full (it also has to do with my shift to writing guides, which I'm thankful to this site for).

Not only is it due to personal improvement, it also has to do with exploring other games. You never know when you will learn some trick you can later use in a game you were blocked in because the mechanics are similar. In a sense it's also experience but not on the game itself, rather experience similar tests and successfully beat them due to other games being built differently.

I'm sure it's just a child vs adult thing as has been previously stated, but I can think of several examples...

The entirety of the Metal Gear Solid series in general comes to mind. When I originally played them at like, age 13 at most, I didn't really care much for the stealth element and just run-n-gun'd the entire game. You CAN do this but the game certainly promotes sneaking around. Upon replay, actually engaging with the game mechanics, I found the games to be far easier of course.

I used to never be able to fully complete the Hell route of Cave Story when I was much younger... did it I think a year ago? without THAT much trouble. That final boss actually is legitimately difficult, but I've since learned to hold back, learn enemy attack patterns, and not be so impulsive.

I think Pokemon would be a given for most people... I'm sure everyone (who played Pokemon) had an era where they just spammed attacking moves, without bothering with stat boosting or status effects. Not that the games are difficult in the first place, but they do become even easier when you actually play "properly".

That's probably it for notable examples. I could name other things like Halo but I don't think there's a "reason" for those besides just generally being better at video games compared to when I was young.

Pretty much any game I played more than 5 years ago, but mostly because I am a lot better at games now.