I’ve started to hate the term “Hardest”.
Give me two months in Unity, and I can make a game that’s “harder” than every game on any one of these lists. It would also be unplayable trash, that would prompt hundreds of “How the fuck are you supposed to XXX” responses due to obscurity. Part of what makes those listed games enjoyable is having a decent difficulty curve, compelling progression of skill demonstration, and a good feeling of reward. They’re getting difficulty right.
Impossiblest? Difficulter? Most hard?
Some of those old games from the NES or even into the SNES era were just outright impossible. IIRC there was a Dennis The Menace game didn’t have the final boss ready for the publishing deadline so they just put an impossible jump just before it so players couldn’t get that far.
Battletoads would like a word
Elden Ring isn’t even the most difficult soulsborne game, by a longshot
Some of you have never Wanna be the Guy and it shows.
I remember wanting to play IWBtG so badly in its heyday but not being able to figure out how to on a mac. I finally watched a playthrough recently and… turns out I dodged a bullet of frustration.
Did you really dodge a bullet though? Or did the bullet stop midair and changed direction to move toward what was up until now the most logical location to dodge to?
[NES] Sector Z, Goonies, and others would like a word [Atari] E.T. has entered the chat
Was ET actually difficult or just unclear how to progress? I swear I finished it when I was a kid but the amount of games I’ve finished in my life is extremely tiny, if things get too hard I just go play something else for awhile (looking at every stealth mission shoehorned into non stealth game). So maybe I just misremembered finishing it but I sure played it a lot before I got an NES.
If you managed to finish ET that’d put you in a club of one person I have met in person or online who has done it.
After reading a walkthrough I’m confident I beat at least one round of the game, heh, maybe I misinterpreted that for the game ending screen (he gets on the spaceship at the end of the round for those that don’t know)… If there’re no pits in the first round I believe I made it further than that at because I remember them well.
Though with my memory these days I’m happy when I leave work with everything I intended to so not saying it’s completely accurate I mostly just remember ET getting on a ship.
Idk if I’m finally getting old or the real nerds are hiding. Nobody in here knows about Nethack? At least someone said Dwarf Fortress.
One time I died on turn zero failing to mount my horse and hitting my head on the stone stairs.
Yasd material right there.
Dang. I can’t tag you “slime mold” because that’s apparently a paid feature on my app. jdawson, is this what finally makes me switch apps?
Money that app person!
NetHack makes most mortals cry. My bones files taunt me.
I played Nethack. I was overwhelmed by my anxiety and depression. I realised I was not good at video games. So I quit playing Nethack and swore to get good at video games before returning. Been, what, at least 15 years? I’ve gotten better I guess. Should I return? Soon, maybe.
(Seriously, though, roguelikes are still a genre I struggle with, so I do need practice!)
Have you tried pixel dungeon? It’s kinda the same thing but dramatically easier and I’ve still never ascended. 🤣
Kinda the thing about it though is that what makes Nethack so good is how the devs thought of everything.
I hate hard games nowadays, but when I was a kid I had a high tolerance for them because that’s pretty much all there was. I have a fondness for the Ghosts 'n Goblins series because it was part of my childhood, but I wouldn’t give it the time of day if they came out now.
Imagine souls games giving you only three lives before sending you back to the very beginning of the game.
Did anyone ever play Pursuit Force on the PSP?
That game was brutally difficult.
Silver Surfer for the NES is way harder than TMNT. It’s possible, though I’ve never done it, to beat TMNT. AFAIK , Silver Surfer is actually possible to beat, but basically no one has done it.
Sorry about the PTSD, but…
I watch a streamer who mastered speed running dozens of NES games. He says Battletoads was the hardest game to learn. Just getting through the game, not even pushing for a fast time, was extremely challenging. Much harder than TMNT 1 or Ninja Gaiden.
Yeah, for all the difficulty I had with the dam on NES TMNT as a kid, I saw a streamer do it last year I think (I believe on first attempt?) not realizing it was supposed to be difficult. Blew my mind.
I have never met anyone that could beat this level. It’s like it was made to sell the Game Genie.
My brother and I played the game so much we were able to beat that stage co-op. It gets much worse later. I learned not that long ago that the reason we were never able to beat it co-op is there’s a bug that prevents the 11th stage from being beatable with two players.
You have to memorize the level and jump a bit before that one tricky one comes on screen.
Child me could beat it after hours of repeated attempts and running out of continues.
Adult me went back after a decade. The muscle memory was still there and I beat it on the first try. I probably got about an 80% success rate on first attempts now. But level 4 and beyond I’m terrible.
I only got it by state save scumming in zsnes, and even then it was tough not to save yourself into a corner.
Aww yeah. I’m gonna call Gold and Silver Pawn and see if they have this classic in stock.
Fun fact: that’s one of the easiest levels in the game. It barely cracks the top 10 hardest levels in a game with 12 levels, and only because the first 2 are trivial to lull you into a false sense of security.
I need to find an emulated version of this. Mine was faulty and always glitches as soon as you finished this stage so I never got to see neyond it for more than a few seconds. I’ve always wondered what was there!
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Cuphead is easy. Ever tried Hotline Miami?
The young’uns nowadays don’t know what a difficult game is. Not to mention the “impossible” ones.
Nice to know Ninja Gaiden is considered difficult. I remember it kicking my butt.
Glad to see Castlevania on that list, that game was brutal on little me as a little kid.
But let’s get real, there is a long tradition of brutally hard games, and people be bullshitting if they say they beat some of these games without save states 🤣
Let’s also talk about arcade games that are brutal even with unlimited coins - R-Type, Pulstar, ghouls and ghosts, just to name a few. But these are all beatable.
A NES game that I thought was exceptionally hard without save states (looking at you doungen with no lights and hard enemies) is NES Zelda romhack Outlands
Forgot all about Sub-Terrania. Loved that game as a kid.
I can proudly say I’ve beaten 4 of those on the original hardware, but it was probably around 2010 or so as an adult.
(Contra, Ninja Gaiden, Castlevania, Mega Man 1)
Same here, though I also beat Ghosts n Goblins. Honestly once you can reliably beat the first couple of stages, you can probably get through the whole game.
That one is super hard, although I definitely haven’t truly committed to an attempt yet.
Have you tried the remake?
I have, but I am old and sucky at “Nintendo hard” games now so it went about as I expected.
That geekyinc article is the most 100% written by ChatGPT wall of text that I’ve ever encountered in the wild.
First ddg result, wth. This one better?
Contra is considered a difficult one? O.o
We beat that in co-op with my brother when we were like 6 and 8.
Konami games were hard, but not crazy hard. I don’t think it should be on any “hardest game” list either.
They probably mean without the cheat code. I think you started with 3 lives originally.
The internet really wasn’t a thing, we didn’t speak English, and we we’re 6 and 8.
We didn’t know about any cheat codes, my man.
I mean, I get most of your points. I was also young with my older brother playing it. I just assumed everyone knew about the old Konami code, but I got it from my older brother so idk.
I just know 3 hits and game over is a hard for Contra. We always used the code to get 30 lives. Much props to you for beating the game without it.
Idk, I have a vivid memory of playing the game, I remember all the weapons and stages, but I don’t remember having ever input the Konami code, although I do know of it nowadays obviously.
Perhaps my older brother knew it? I don’t know. 30 lives seems like it would just never end, basically.
My main point was rather that the article said it was harder as a co-op? I think it was easier, maybe.
I don’t know man, it’s been more than a quarter of a century. All I remember is having had fun. I think that’s the main point.
Thanks
Right? I agree. My little 7 year old brain was so interested in the story going on with each level. It slowly progresses from find a secret military base behind a waterfall, to by the way aliens are everywhere and controlling everything. Actually, you have to go in one and shoot it from the inside.
Great game.
Could use some alien squishes and a bit of 8-bit machine gun in there, but yeah.
Nice links! Ive played a good deal on the impossible list, i even 100% beat jet force gemini. Iirc the “true” ending pissed me off. Don’t remember why but i felt let down for all the work i did to get it
I completed TMNT as a kid… on Commodore 64. That version is admittedly a little bit easier than the NES version (some mechanics were missing, and an entire level is gone, as I recall). Still, I have no idea why people complain about the second level (river), it’s actually pretty fun. Compared to what’s to come later in the game.
To me, the definitive “hard” game is Metroid Prime 2: Echoes on GameCube. Dark Souls just makes me say “eeeeeehhhh this is probably doable, I’ll play this after I’m done with MP2E.”
(When I first played MP2E, I only got through the second to last boss. Then my MadCatz memory card died. Played through the game again, with the fury of million suns. 99% complete. Because I missed one optional scan. …One of these days I replay this bastard.)
I played a lot of metroid prime 1 & 2 as a kid but I dont remember thinking they were very hard. Maybe it’s time I revisited them
