Hardest games youve ever played

What's your prefered difficulty

  • Insane: No mercy. Old school Nes style rage inducers

    Votes: 6 14.0%
  • Hard: Frustratingly control breakingly hard

    Votes: 7 16.3%
  • Moderate: Right mix of challenge and frustration. Just right

    Votes: 27 62.8%
  • Easy: Boring casual gamers zone

    Votes: 3 7.0%

  • Total voters
    43

Triggs

Banned
On Normal difficulty settings

Nes: Battle Toads - This game is so frickin frustratingly hard. i dont know how many times i've tried to beat that game. i probably could beat it now with emulators and save states and what not.

Ultima Exodus: Never even knew what to do in this game. Fun game, just very hard and with no direction.

Marble Madness: errrrrrg. the damn game only had like 5 levels and i was so close.

Genesis: Eternal Champions - The most ridiculously hard fighting game ever

Snes: Raiden and Gradius *sigh*

GB/GBA/DS: Do they have ANY hard games? Maybe Fire Emblem

PSX: Legend of Legaia. Maybe MGS.

PS2: Devil May Cry. The Red Star - Both are very tough and frustrating.

WII: So far Mega Man 9 - i've been a huge old school megaman fan since forever. beat 1-8 and a couple of the X series'. 9 is the only one to ever feel unfair/cheap to me.

X360: Rainbow Six Vegas, Ghost Recon - I just suck at those teamwork/tactics/stealth shooters. Im more of a run and gun.


Systems i've never owned dont appear on my list excluding atari, intellivision, etc. I hate to use cheat codes and strategy guides/faqs and its extremely rare for me to use one unless something just seems absolutely impossible and i cannot figure it out - normally after dying a million times. i'll generally just tough it out.
 
I knew what to do in Ultima Exodus, but just couldn't. Not until emulation allowed me to control the very flow of time itself, anyway. It's too slow for all the gold gathering you have to do before going up ANY levels to be bearable. The wacky translation, despite the original computer version being in English, certainly did not help, with regards to finding out how to do anything.
 
Bruce Lee on the Apple ][e, when the game isn't corrupt so you have infinite lives. Hell the game's tough enough with unlimited live, although you can't actual beat it cause it freezes.

Ghosts and Goblins Nes, no need to mention that.

That damn infernal final Canary Mary mini-game in Banjo-Tooie, brake your thumb why don't they.
 
I believe it's important to distinguish between real challenge and impossible, unapproachably obtuse rubbish. Most people who complained about Battletoads (I like to think there have been many) singled out level 3, but in actuality every step of everything after that point is bubbling over with cheap death, and rarely in the context of battle. Additionally, the implementation of "continue" was absolutely moronic in two player mode.
But then, to me, up until maybe 1993, almost every western developed console game in which lives were limited was near-impossible, if not totally. Even Plok, which I liked, I had to acknowledge I'd never be good enough for. At least, unlike an earlier draconian Software Creations game, Solstice, it allowed me to think I had a chance for a while. Imagine how astounded I was when Zophar had the nsm contest for Solstice and more than one person entered.

The NES version of Ghosts nuh Goblins had some bits of atrocious programming which unnaturally contributed to its already unreasonable demands, but at least it could be figured out and worked around. What was going on with "The Immortal?" I couldn't decode what that one wanted at all.
 
I didn't think Devil May Cry was that hard. It was my first ever PS2 game and I beat it fairly comfortably on normal. Devil May Cry 3 on the other hand, that is insane.

I think i just made things harder than they actually should have been with that one. still, was tough 4 me... but those style games are not my forte. as far as 3 goes i did have it but it and like 5 other ps2 games of mine have mysteriously vanished and i have no idea what happened to them. never even opened it.

I believe it's important to distinguish between real challenge and impossible, unapproachably obtuse rubbish. Most people who complained about Battletoads (I like to think there have been many) singled out level 3, but in actuality every step of everything after that point is bubbling over with cheap death, and rarely in the context of battle. Additionally, the implementation of "continue" was absolutely moronic in two player mode.
But then, to me, up until maybe 1993, almost every western developed console game in which lives were limited was near-impossible, if not totally. Even Plok, which I liked, I had to acknowledge I'd never be good enough for. At least, unlike an earlier draconian Software Creations game, Solstice, it allowed me to think I had a chance for a while. Imagine how astounded I was when Zophar had the nsm contest for Solstice and more than one person entered.

The NES version of Ghosts nuh Goblins had some bits of atrocious programming which unnaturally contributed to its already unreasonable demands, but at least it could be figured out and worked around. What was going on with "The Immortal?" I couldn't decode what that one wanted at all.

lol nicely put. yes battletoads was stupid hard. level three was actually pretty easy for me. It was maybe 3 or 4 levels or so after that one where u had to do the same thing in space ships with shifting barricades that always shattered my hopes as well as my toad. i dont really remember but i may have cleared that stage once. personally i dont ever once recall feeling it was cheap tho im sure im in the minority. however - impossible came to mind everytime i ever played that masochistic froggy death trap they deemed a game. but then again they are one n the same i guess. Few nes games could be called fair.
I despise the trend these days to substitute cheap tactics in games for smart AI, and good level design.

Well i forgot about ghost n goblins. i never owned that one but barely remember dying a few times at my uncles. another cheap nes game was Dragon Power. I hated that game but wanted to beat it. yup, im at peace with the fact that ill never ascend to the peak of victory mountain in any of those games.

Oh and as far as Ultima Exodus, i never had instructions or anything. I just remember the king saying go off and kill the darkness or whatever and that was it. i remember i didnt even kno how to heal my people except for wander around forever until they finally regenerated. heaven forbid they get poisoned or catch a cold. I always had a cleric but i dont remember them being too very useful. could never afford to revive anybody. leveling was a pain. my inept constantly missed every attack while the enemies were like elite super ninjas of pixelated hero thwarting doom. yup, those were the good ol' days :rolleyes:
 
yes battletoads was stupid hard.
I like the snake level and that's about it. Everything else becomes an endless groundhog day of savestates.

Oh and as far as Ultima Exodus, i never had instructions or anything.
I didn't have an instruction book either. My cousin(s) owned the game and somehow I ended up with it (plus Ghosts 'n Goblins). You have to earn or steal, without being caught by guards, as much gold as you can carry, and you need to buy keys first for the good stuff. Then you advance to level 5 all at once (you can't go higher without the Mark of Kings) and wander around near the castle, away from any level 5 monsters, until you see a pirate ship to board, and then go into a whirlpool before having any more encounters since it's unlikely you'll survive many. And THEN you need to find the shrines and pay heaps of gold to increase your character statistics to the point where you can actually inflict decent weapon damage and cast useful spells. And you may find that your race selections, which at first seemed to affect nothing, limits your progress prematurely. It's absurd. There are probably other things you can purchase or find along the way which make the whole deal easier, but it's never clear what or where.

Air Fortress, that was nasty. I believe I inherited it from some up-the-street friend of mine, the same one from whom I acquired Solstice. A curious series of acquisitions, certainly.

Another sort of cheap challenge is found in Castlevania, in which if you die at the wrong point in level 5 it's almost impossible to win from where you're made to resume, and so must promptly dump your remaining lives and start the level over to have a chance. I hate that. Legend of the Mystical Goemon is even worse in that respect because of all the armor and restorative items which must be saved for and repurchased. I don't believe I ever even did that. For a single player, once you lose the first life you might as well turn the game off.

I wanna be the guy :)
Based on just what I've typed in here, I'm probably not good enough for that, but pog knows I have to take whatever 2d hopfests I can get these days.
 
Many of the Megaman games were sadistic in how it tortured players for the tiniest mistake. Also, the first Donkey Kong game on Gamboy springs to mind. The complete idiots at Rare made you chase letters all around the stages to be able to save. Theoretically you could go through the entire game without getting the chance to save your game!
 
A minor point: If you speak of Donkey Kong Land, that was not the first Kong for Gameboy.

That initial Megaman must have been the worst of them, in regards to sadism. I would have loved to use the "multiple hits with elec beam against [whatever the yellow blob monster is called]" technique I used to see so much ado made of, but I couldn't even get through the level that fiend was in.

No, no, actually, I may have reached it one time, but was promptly destroyed by the beast's particles, long before I had an opportunity to fire upon them.
 
Based on just what I've typed in here, I'm probably not good enough for that, but pog knows I have to take whatever 2d hopfests I can get these days.[/QUOTE]

When I began playing I was just truly a noob. I died many times in every room. The game is made just to be so hard that you can't finish any room in the game with first try. It may take about 10-50 tries before you make it.
And you maybe need to finish also next room without next save point so that makes the game very difficult.
I think that you can beat the whole game with some practice. Many people can if they don't quit playing.
 
Star Ocean 2 (PSX) with limiter off.

If you play normal (earth mode) it is possible to win this game. But with limiter off it's impossible! And there is still galaxy and universe mode...

I'm an RPG fan who wants to get it all and trains until the last quest is solved and the last secret is found. But this is the one and only RPG where I had to quit. None of my friends made it. And they believed I was the only one they know who might have a chance.
 
Somethingorother
Oh, I didn't realize it was a joke game. That changes everything.
When I began playing I was just truly a noob. I died many times in every room. The game is made just to be so hard that you can't finish any room in the game with first try. It may take about 10-50 tries before you make it.
And you maybe need to finish also next room without next save point so that makes the game very difficult.
I think that you can beat the whole game with some practice. Many people can if they don't quit playing.
But why would they want to?
I didn't get the impression there was anything special to look forward to, other than cramps from reaching for R -why bother offering customizable controls and joystick-gamepad support if everybody has to press the same totally arbitrary key to continue?- and endless repetitions of the most obnoxious "game over" sound I've ever heard. For something which is going to be so constant, it should be more subtle, or totally silent.

Even that awful Super Metroid hack let me think I had a chance before referring me to some masochist's video clip. And those are pleasantly zany, but yikes, where does anybody find the time to memorize all that?
 
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That initial Megaman must have been the worst of them, in regards to sadism.
save for the annoying blob monster which took me maybe 10 tries, megaman was not very difficult in my opinion. friends had been complaining about how hard it was, but i didnt have much trouble with it.

I wanna be the guy :)

yea i saw this game a few weeks ago. it was purposefully made to be a volcanic eruption of cheap deaths and gameover screens. i dont have the patience to deal with, altho it did look pretty fun when you were alive.

coincidental funny excerpt from the IWBTG official faq on the creators site
Q: What is this game made in?

A: It's a rom hack of battle toads.

Q: But battle toads wasn't anything like this!

A: It is toward the end? Have you ever got to the end of battle toads?

Q: No but...

A: Then shut your whore ass mouth and take my word for it. I also used a bit of Multimedia fusion.

Star Ocean 2 (PSX) with limiter off.

If you play normal (earth mode) it is possible to win this game. But with limiter off it's impossible! And there is still galaxy and universe mode...

I'm an RPG fan who wants to get it all and trains until the last quest is solved and the last secret is found. But this is the one and only RPG where I had to quit. None of my friends made it. And they believed I was the only one they know who might have a chance.

yes yes, i never did get around the playing that one on higher difficulty settings because my brother sold it. I did get Till the End of Time and went all through the sphere 211 beating Lenneth and Freya and all. those bosses were so impossibly hard on normal tho i dont really even want to try it on galaxy or universe or whatever. How can you top a 1 hit kill move that covers 95% percent of the field? cap them off with like 300 million hp, new moves and god speed + your parties moronic AI and i just dont see it happening without a gameshark.
 
When I started playing IWBTG I first began medium mode.
My friend told me about this game and he started playing with Hard mode.
I didn't want to be a "wuss" so I also started with hard mode.

My friend was a lot better than me in this game and he beat all the screens in the game expect bosses. So I think that many people can beat normal screens (even with hard mode) but bosses are actually different.

I had more challenge on normal game and going all paths towards bosses took long. But I managed against all bosses !!! (I've got to Guy's 4th form but couldn't beat it yet. Played against Guy now about 4 hours)

P.S Check update on my PC Redesign hack. Version 1.45 available and all way to Ecruteak City is now fully complete.
 
Just remembered the original Super Mario Bros 2(Japan) (or also known as The Lost Levels in the rest of the world). That game was so hard Nintendo didn't even release it outside of Japan.
 
Even so, it isn't as hard as this would make you think. :)

I never did play that one. ill have to go check it out some time. yes the japanese believe that we cant handle some of there games they deem too hard. there are instances where theyve released an easier version of a game in the states than they released over there. im not sure but i think its more geared toward rpgs. my brother was doin research into that subject.
 
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