What is the hardest game you ever played?

[D-ray]

I recently started talking about Nes games (like the original TMNT game) in the forum, usually deemed to be freaking hard. Sometimes though, games that people found extremely hard or "unfair", I never had any problem with them.
So I asked to myself: WHAT could be an objective way to describe a hard game?

That's why I made this thread.
Quote a game (every kind of game platform) you found extremely hard, you never finished or just think it's unfair, and explain why you think so!

[oldmanwinters]

A game that has given me the most fits (as an adult) might be the original NES Battletoads. The core gameplay mechanic changes almost every other level, so it's hard to get into rhythm, and much of the game is dependent upon knowing precisely what's coming at you in the next second. The two-player mode, though fun, is one of the most busted I've ever seen, since both players' progress get screwed over when one player gets a Game Over.

[frank_one]

Probably the original japanese Super mario Bros. 2 (Super Mario Bros: the lost levels outside Japan) and Zelda 2.

[CyberCubed]

Besides the obvious Dark Souls and Bloodborne, etc...obviously many NES games are cheap with difficulty and are not meant to be beaten without cheats or codes.

[Sumac]

Terminator on NES.
Game was utter garbage and I didn't get through it.

American Gladiators on NES.
Pretty bad game overall, but this one I was able to beat.

I am not going into listing shmups as they are supposed to be difficult.

[Prowler]

Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2 for older games.

As for more modern games... none I've played has been as hard as some of the toughest NES games, I'd say. But F-Zero GX is the hardest racing game I've ever played.

[Icebot]

For me I think the hardest games I played were Mario Bros. 2 The Lost Levels, TMNT 1 NES, Zelda 2, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Top Gun. I beat the game for Zelda 2 and The Lost Levels.

I don’t know if these games count as hard games as the hard part is basically just the final super challenging level but I have done and successfully completed the following:

The Perfect Run Super Mario Galaxy 2
Special 8 Crown Super Mario 3D Land
Darker Side of the Moon Super Mario Odyssey
Champion’s Road Super Mario 3D World

[Prowler]

For me I think the hardest games I played were Mario Bros. 2 The Lost Levels, TMNT 1 NES, Zelda 2, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Top Gun. I beat the game for Zelda 2 and The Lost Levels.

I don’t know if these games count as hard games as the hard part is basically just the final super challenging level but I have done and successfully completed the following:

The Perfect Run Super Mario Galaxy 2
Special 8 Crown Super Mario 3D Land
Darker Side of the Moon Super Mario Odyssey
Champion’s Road Super Mario 3D World

I have Top Gun II for the NES. I've never been able to survive more than a couple of minutes in that game. The bombs always got to me.

[Icebot]

I have Top Gun II for the NES. I've never been able to survive more than a couple of minutes in that game. The bombs always got to me.

I pretty much struggled the same way in Top Gun 1. I never played the second one but I knew they were supposed to be hard from AVGN.

[frank_one]

Two more super hard games I've played in the past:
Mickey's Dangerous Chase for Game Boy: a very good game but the final levels are almost impossible.
Gremlins 2 for Game Boy: I guess I've never been able to pass the third level

[Wildcat]

For me probably Earthworm Jim 3D. It’s not the hardest game but certain things make it way more frustrating than necessary.

You need to collect every marble in the game. Which is fine but if you exit the level without all them they don’t count towards the overall game so you eventually need to backtrack...but to make it worse they respawn when you go back so you don’t know which ones you’ve missed.

Fatty Roswell, the second boss, is just programmed to be unfair whether it was on purpose or not. You need to master your movements and also be kind of lucky. He rarely misses you and can collect more marbles at once. You have to develop a 6th sense about it.

The final boss Earthworm Kim is very similar but a little more fair. It didn’t take me as long to beat her. I was very happy when I finally finished it. I had left it for some years and came back to it.

I’ve seen complaints about the camera and controls but those didn’t bother me. There’s moments they can be off but it’s still very playable once you get past Fatty Roswell. He should have been the final boss.

[Prowler]

I pretty much struggled the same way in Top Gun 1. I never played the second one but I knew they were supposed to be hard from AVGN.

Top Gun 2 is just WAY too fast paced. You get slaughtered before figuring out what to do.

[D-ray]

Probably the original japanese Super mario Bros. 2 (Super Mario Bros: the lost levels outside Japan) and Zelda 2.

I haven't played the Lost Levels yet, but I remember the original Mario stupidly frustrating due to the slippery controls.
It might be the same for the Lost Levels, but do you know why you found it so hard?
I mean, too many enemies, hard platforming etc...

A game that has given me the most fits (as an adult) might be the original NES Battletoads. The core gameplay mechanic changes almost every other level, so it's hard to get into rhythm, and much of the game is dependent upon knowing precisely what's coming at you in the next second. The two-player mode, though fun, is one of the most busted I've ever seen, since both players' progress get screwed over when one player gets a Game Over.

I heard that it was a very hard NES game, but I never tried it.
I need to explore better what you mean for "the core gameplay mechanic changes almost every other level" because it sounds "bad" but I need to know how bad could it turn out.

For me probably Earthworm Jim 3D. It’s not the hardest game but certain things make it way more frustrating than necessary.

You need to collect every marble in the game. Which is fine but if you exit the level without all them they don’t count towards the overall game so you eventually need to backtrack...but to make it worse they respawn when you go back so you don’t know which ones you’ve missed.

Forced backtrack with few hints on how to improve can be pretty frustrating. It reminds me of the Pepper coins of Starfox 2 (even tho that game was never finished so I guess it's not entirely the devs fault) or the various collectables of Yoshi's Island.
But the "marble collection" is MANDATORY or is just the typical "completist" challenge? Like, it's optional?

For me I think the hardest games I played were Mario Bros. 2 The Lost Levels, TMNT 1 NES, Zelda 2, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Top Gun. I beat the game for Zelda 2 and The Lost Levels.

Literally never heard of Top Gun. A quick search on Google did gave me an hint on what kind of game it is, but I don't know for which platform you mean.
Also, why is it hard? Controls? Missions? What do you remember that made it hard?

[Icebot]

Literally never heard of Top Gun. A quick search on Google did gave me an hint on what kind of game it is, but I don't know for which platform you mean.
Also, why is it hard? Controls? Missions? What do you remember that made it hard?

Top Gun is a game for the original NES, about flying an airplane. I didn’t really play the game much, I think I remember not being able to add the fuel to my plane, figuring out how to use the controls. I considered this game and some of the others the hardest because the Angry Video Game Nerd reviewed them and he has a Top Gun one, you can find more details in that review.

[Andrew NDB]

Friday the 13th on NES, probably. Impossible. I think I even tried it on emulation where I could save/load anywhere, anytime and it was still like pulling needles out of my fingernails.

[Wildcat]

D-Ray,

You need them to unlock sections. Actually at the moment I don’t remember if you can leave some behind. I don’t think you can because the problem is they need to be collected in 1 visit. If you leave or run out of lives they respawn. You can’t just go looking for the ones you missed.

Other than this and the horrible second boss it’s an underrated game imo. Plenty of different missions with a good sense of humor. It should get an HD remake. New graphics, fixed marbles system, balanced second boss. I know there’s a new EWJ being made for that Amico console.

[IMJ]

My first, knee-jerk response is the God of War rising platform sub-game that you needed to complete to get the platinum on the PS3.

Once I completed it I swore off the God of War series forever. It wasn't even gratifying to nab that platinum by that point. I literally took the trophy and turned off the game. Done.

[GoldMutant]

Y'all remember Ghosts n' Goblins? Nuff said.

I really want to get around to beating it at some point.

[frank_one]

I haven't played the Lost Levels yet, but I remember the original Mario stupidly frustrating due to the slippery controls.
It might be the same for the Lost Levels, but do you know why you found it so hard?
I mean, too many enemies, hard platforming etc...I have no problems with the original Super Mario Bros., I've beaten it many times. I consider it challenging but doable. The japanese sequel was meant to be played by people who had already mastered the first game, so it was more of the same but harder. The levels have lot of hard platforming and in some of them you need to find the right path to the end. Imagine the hardest levels of the first game and you will have an idea of what you can expect.

[DarkFell]

Clay Fighter and the Tiger hand held Terminator game were hard games to beat. I beat C.F. a few times, and nearly beat the other game but managed to get sniped within the final battle.

For the curious and the held held game collectors in here, have a link. https://www.amazon.com/Terminator-LCD-Handheld-Video-Game/dp/B0050RS6N6/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=tiger+handheld+terminator+game&qid=1615401348&sr=8-1

Primal Rage was also a hard game. The animations were cool, the music was catchy, but man did the CPU-controlled fighter(s) cheat like a b**ch..

[IMJ]

Y'all remember Ghosts n' Goblins? Nuff said.

I really want to get around to beating it at some point.

Oh man THAT game. Hardest platformer ever. I think I used a code once just to see the last level with the boss fight.

[Prowler]

I have no problems with the original Super Mario Bros., I've beaten it many times. I consider it challenging but doable. The japanese sequel was meant to be played by people who had already mastered the first game, so it was more of the same but harder. The levels have lot of hard platforming and in some of them you need to find the right path to the end. Imagine the hardest levels of the first game and you will have an idea of what you can expect.

The final level of SMB can be tricky because it's basically a puzzle and it takes some trial and error to get the sequence right. But it's doable.

Some of the latter levels in the game are also rather challenging and you need some practice in order to beat them without losing a single life.

[Leo656]

Off the top of my head, maybe IronSword. You're just CONSTANTLY getting hit, getting killed, and being kicked back to the Password screen. You can push through it, but it stops being any fun long before then. It's barely even a "game", it's like "Take two steps, die, Password, two more steps forward, die again, repeat." Terrible. Last Boss fight is a f*cking joke. I beat it, but by the time I did it took everything I had not to chuck the cartridge through the window.

Lot of good ideas and I really like the art style, but that game is practically unplayable.

Super Mario Bros. isn't hard until 8-3. Even 8-4 is pretty easy once you know the maze. But that one stage with all the Hammer Bros. and no power-ups right before the final stage, yeah, that one always gets on my nerves.

[Prowler]

Off the top of my head, maybe IronSword. You're just CONSTANTLY getting hit, getting killed, and being kicked back to the Password screen. You can push through it, but it stops being any fun long before then. It's barely even a "game", it's like "Take two steps, die, Password, two more steps forward, die again, repeat." Terrible. Last Boss fight is a f*cking joke. I beat it, but by the time I did it took everything I had not to chuck the cartridge through the window.

Lot of good ideas and I really like the art style, but that game is practically unplayable.

Super Mario Bros. isn't hard until 8-3. Even 8-4 is pretty easy once you know the maze. But that one stage with all the Hammer Bros. and no power-ups right before the final stage, yeah, that one always gets on my nerves.
Yes. That's the level I was thinking of.

Anyway, SMB was one of the first games a lot of us played in our lives. It's not that hard of a game, but when you're a little kid it's definitely a tough game in some parts. Bullet bills and hammer Bros. were nightmares for me when I was a kid.

[Leo656]

Oh, for sure. I remember the first time I actually made it to the end of 8-4 by myself, I was like 5 or 6 and I was so psyched out that I froze and couldn't actually do it. :lol: I just stood there staring at Bowser all paralyzed with fear like "What if I f*ck up?!" and eventually I broke down and made my older sister do it, since she'd beaten it a hundred times by then. She was pretty pissed off since she was doing something else at the time. I felt bad about it so I went ahead and did it on my own the day after that. But that first time was rough.

After that it became one of those "Eh, I got a half hour to kill, might as well beat Super Mario Bros." kinda games. Those early Mario games were like a master class in game design, "teaching" you how to play them in real-time without any need for a tutorial or even the manual. Such a revelation, especially in those days. Like, go back and try to play just about any Atari-era game without a manual besides like, Frogger, Donkey Kong and Space Invaders. Pretty much impossible; those games always had some pretty funky control schemes to make up for the one-button interface, but they were pretty decent otherwise assuming you HAD the manual, otherwise you were f*cked. But then a game like SMB comes along and it's so natural and intuitive you can play it blindfolded after a while.

Pretty much a great example of "difficulty" being related to challenging level design and not "Let's just try and f*ck the player", like most Sonic games ended up being. On the surface the two series are similar, but Sonic games are full of tons of what I call "F*ck-You Gameplay" and the Mario games have none of that sort of thing.

[Prowler]

I first played the Atari 2600 version of Frogger when I was around 21 years old and I got the hang of it quickly. The game was basically crossing the street without getting ran over. Didn't need any instructions.

But yes, the best Mario games have some of the most responsive controls in videogames history. Especially those jumping controls. Sonic's jumping controls always felt a bit off in comparison. Mario is definitely the king platformer.

You know, since Nintendo games came in card boxes for a long time, that meant a lot of people out there no longer have the instruction manuals of a lot of their NES, SNES and Game Boy games.

None of my older brother's NES games have their boxes or instructions anymore. And that was the case already when I first started playing those games around 1995. Maybe that's why some of those games such as Top Gun II and Zelda were so hard for me to figure out. I had no way of knowing what to do before the games started. Mega Man 2 was also confusing at first and I couldn't beat any stage back then. But the Super Mario Bros were always much more intuitive for the reasons you mention.

[D-ray]

My first, knee-jerk response is the God of War rising platform sub-game that you needed to complete to get the platinum on the PS3.

Once I completed it I swore off the God of War series forever. It wasn't even gratifying to nab that platinum by that point. I literally took the trophy and turned off the game. Done.
Ah yes, my Serious Sam experience.
Take the trophy, and throw the game out of the window.

[D-ray]

D-Ray,

You need them to unlock sections. Actually at the moment I don’t remember if you can leave some behind. I don’t think you can because the problem is they need to be collected in 1 visit. If you leave or run out of lives they respawn. You can’t just go looking for the ones you missed.

Other than this and the horrible second boss it’s an underrated game imo. Plenty of different missions with a good sense of humor. It should get an HD remake. New graphics, fixed marbles system, balanced second boss. I know there’s a new EWJ being made for that Amico console.
I still need to play the original one. But I'm afraid of buying the Steam version.

[shredder orokusaki]

Ghostrunner. A game made for true ninja masters like me. You lose with only one hit so you must run and kill quick without taking a hit. No medkits no regenerate health or anything like that ! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNHgUst0Zs8&t=9s

A must play for all ninjas and evryone who wants a very hard action game!

[D-ray]

Ghostrunner. A game made for true ninja masters like me. You lose with only one hit so you must run and kill quick without taking a hit. No medkits no regenerate health or anything like that ! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNHgUst0Zs8&t=9s

A must play for all ninjas and evryone who wants a very hard action game!
That looks fun!

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

A game that has given me the most fits (as an adult) might be the original NES Battletoads.

I never made it past level 3 (Turbo Tunnel).

[turtle1237]

Never did beat Battle Toads.

[Iroh]

Ninja Gaiden 3 for the NES was the hardest I have played! This game was the glitchiest too!:(

[D-ray]

Ninja Gaiden 3 for the NES was the hardest I have played! This game was the glitchiest too!:(
I hated the first Ninja Gaiden for the NES.
I mean, it had pretty good mechanics, but it was stupidly frustrating because of the "one way" to finish a level.

Enemies spam attacks in ridiculous quantities; there is a horrible amount of illogical game choices; like 2 frames of invincibility, usually leading to a loop of damage; unfair bosses.

Is the only classic NES game I literally refused to finish, even worst than Serious Sam.
I don't know about the others, but I hope that they are better than that one.

[Andrew NDB]

Oh, all of the Tomb Raider games. The ones that I played, anyway... the earliest. Controlling Lara has all the joy of trying to drive and steer a semi-truck around a cave. It's like the Austin Powers skit in the hallway, except not funny. I imagine the newer Tomb Raiders got better about it but I'll never know.

Ninja Gaiden 3 for the NES was the hardest I have played! This game was the glitchiest too!:(

I hated the first Ninja Gaiden for the NES.
I mean, it had pretty good mechanics, but it was stupidly frustrating because of the "one way" to finish a level.

Enemies spam attacks in ridiculous quantities; there is a horrible amount of illogical game choices; like 2 frames of invincibility, usually leading to a loop of damage; unfair bosses.

Is the only classic NES game I literally refused to finish, even worst than Serious Sam.
I don't know about the others, but I hope that they are better than that one.

I seem to remember beating Ninja Gaiden 1-3 ages ago relatively OK.

[Leo656]

I imagine the newer Tomb Raiders got better about it but I'll never know.


I never played any of the originals, but the reboot from a few years ago is one of the smoothest games I've ever played in my life. Really enjoyed that game.

[Andrew NDB]

I never played any of the originals, but the reboot from a few years ago is one of the smoothest games I've ever played in my life. Really enjoyed that game.

I take it back. I did play one maybe 7 years ago where the first thing you have to do is control Lara through some alleys around buildings and up some fire escapes/ladders... and it felt like exactly what I remembered. Didn't like it.

[Leo656]

I don't think that was the reboot.

[IMJ]

I hated the first Ninja Gaiden for the NES.

I remember how I could never beat the Bloody Malth. It was impossible. And then one day I was playing it with a buddy and all he did was run up to him and spam attack. LMAO that was it. Malth would hit you and you just hold forward and spam attack. And then I was surprised that there was more game after that fight.

After finding that out, I beat Ninja Gaiden once. Love the game, but I don't pick it up again. I love Ninja Gaiden Arcade though.

[frank_one]

Oh, all of the Tomb Raider games. The ones that I played, anyway... the earliest. Controlling Lara has all the joy of trying to drive and steer a semi-truck around a cave. It's like the Austin Powers skit in the hallway, except not funny. I imagine the newer Tomb Raiders got better about it but I'll never know.You should try Tomb Raider: Anniversary (2007). Same feeling of the first game, 200% better controls.

[D-ray]

Oh, all of the Tomb Raider games. The ones that I played, anyway... the earliest. Controlling Lara has all the joy of trying to drive and steer a semi-truck around a cave. It's like the Austin Powers skit in the hallway, except not funny. I imagine the newer Tomb Raiders got better about it but I'll never know.





I seem to remember beating Ninja Gaiden 1-3 ages ago relatively OK.
I never said it was impossible comrade, is just not fun.
But now that you said that, I feel the urge to play it again...
It's a phantom in my gamer's past.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

Off the top of my head, Tenchu Shadow Warrior is one. Also Ninja Gaiden Black. And I know this is blasphemy, but the original TMNT for NES, because I never could find the exit on the maze level in the van! I must have gone through it a hundred times, and could never find the missiles to blast the last road block!

[turtle1237]

Going to add Crash 4 or at least trying to 100 percent this insane game lol.

[The Deadman]

The Crash re-masters are insanely difficult, lol. I never remembered them being that hard. Also Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is punishing as well.