Hard Mode

Hard Mode is a difficulty level featured in Metroid Prime, the Japanese version of Metroid Fusion, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Metroid: Zero Mission, and Metroid: Other M. Hard Mode is much more difficult than Veteran Mode and, hence, Normal mode. In it, enemies have twice the usual health and their attacks do 1.5x their normal amount of damage.[1] This mode is acquired after completing Normal Mode within the exception of Other M which requires 100% item completion prior to the post-credits sequence. Essentially it is the "Hyper Mode" difficulty level found on Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. In the Metroid Prime Trilogy, Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2: Echoes do not have a "Hard Mode", but have "Hyper Mode" instead, which backs up the fact that "Hard Mode" and "Hyper Mode" are the same.

"Hard Mode" in Metroid: Other M is unlike the "Hard Mode" seen in the previous games. It is a no-expansions run, but still has the same difficulty in terms of enemy stamina. Due to the enemies' increased damage and the lack of Energy Tanks, many opponents can easily incapacitate Samus in one to three hits, regardless of the Varia and/or Gravity features enabled. It is also the first instance in which Hard Mode is unlocked by collecting all pickups.
The final scene where Samus returns to the Bottle Ship to retrieve Adam's helmet cannot be played on Hard Mode as the game ends after the MB battle.

Trivia

• Metroid: Other M is currently the only Metroid game with a Hard Mode difficulty that does not increase enemy health.
• The only exception to the increased damage from this difficulty is the Queen Metroid's stomach Energy drain attack in Metroid: Other M, which ironically, has its damage significantly lowered compared to Normal Mode. This is most likely due to balancing purposes, as the energy drain in Normal Mode can wipe out more than a full Energy Tank before Samus can retaliate.