Every gamer has that one single game which has plagued them for years. It is the game that they could never beat. Often it is because of a difficult puzzle, a boss that’s too strong, or – even more often- poor and frustrating game design. So what games top the list of the hardest? (In no particular order)
- The Legend of Zelda (NES)- It’s dangerous to go alone, Take this. With these words we are sent out into the world to fight evil. Hey, wait a minute. What evil? Where am I supposed to go? Why am I going out there alone? Where is this old man sending me? Why are these pig monsters shooting stuff at me? Honestly, did anyone understand what was going on when they tossed in the first Zelda game. After a few hours of running around aimlessly we stumbled across the 4th temple only to realize that we needed to be halfway across the map at the 1st. If you do happen to get past the first few temples you are then stuck in a never-ending forest that you can only escape if you just happen to guess the combination. Hours of fun (fun being similar to smashing your head on a wall for 3 hours).
- Myst: Riven (PC)- The Myst series in general is designed with the sole purpose of challenging the player with the hardest possible puzzles. Riven is by far the hardest game in the series. I think just being the hardest game of one of the hardest franchises gives Riven a place on this list
- Dance Dance Revolution (Any of them) (Various)- Any game that requires you to be in good shape, agile, and have rhythm to play scares me to the core of my being. Those who are champions at DDR are the kings of the arcade. They confront the DDR machine like they are approaching the throne of their mighty kingdom. For everyone else, the DDR machine is more like a giant beast that feeds on our dignity and pride. If you are good, the game cheers you on as your adoring public watches you with awe and respect. If you are bad, the game gives you 30 seconds of flailing before taking your $2 and mocking you as you walk away in shame to the snickers of 16-year-old high school students.
- Wizardry (NES)- After an hour in town creating a party, gearing everyone up, getting items, and making the final preparations you are finally ready to enter the labyrinth. As you walk through the tunnels you encounter your first boss and realize that the spells you have are named things like Kilra and Jiuligia but have absolutely no indication of what they do. You also realize that the creatures you are fighting can kill you in one round of combat. Once you inevitably die, you are sent back to town where you must spend another hour creating a new party to try again. Rinse, repeat.
- Contra (NES)- Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B,A, Start. That is how you beat Contra. Otherwise, good luck getting past the first level. In modern games, we have things called hit points or armor. In Contra, if you got hit by one of the 50 bullets heading in your direction at any given time, you died.
Did you beat these games with no problem? Were there others that stick out as impossible? Post away!
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES) – Growing up I always thought TMNT was pretty difficult. One mission that comes to mind was the water level where you had to defuse the bombs before the timer ran out.
oof, frustrating.
As a child, I got so frustrated trying to beat Mike Tyson in Punch-Out that I got a terrible headache and had to lie down for the rest of the afternoon.
This may say more about me than it does about the game.
You thought Zelda was hard?! Its not like the pig guys had amazing AI or anything.
Myst you could beat without ever leaving the first island, the hardest puzzle in that game was typing in “How to beat Myst” into google.
And me? Well, I was good at Wizardy at the tender age of 6…granted all I did was copy my brothers but hey monkey see monkey do?
My most difficult game was Castle Wolfenstein on the Apple II and all the Intellivision games because the stupid disc controller was impossibly inaccurate – even after I added the aftermarket, glue-on joysticks. I wonder if anyone has figured out what point in time marked the evolution of gaming UI/input devices eliminated “usability” as a key challenge to succeeding at a game itself?
I’m just happy to see Contra up there – I could never beat that game without the code. I think I had a better chance of beating communism than beating that game when I was a kid
World of Warcraft. I can’t beat the last ramparts boss no matter what I do or who I go with!
Anon–
I think the hardest part would have been typing “How to beat Myst” into Google–in 1993.
Why, when I was a kid, if you needed help, you had to send away for maps and books, or call 900 numbers, or invite that kid over who you didn’t really like and who kind of smelled like Beanie Weenies and always wiped his snot on his shirt sleeve, but who knew how to beat the game. Then you had to keep him from beating it FOR you, and keep him from trying to stay for dinner.
This is Anon again!
You sir are correct as google wasn’t around. However the numerous bulletin boards one could visit held this information!
I blame my use of the word google on being part of a google generation where anything and everything I want is just a mouse click and few keystrokes away.
Bards Tale (Apple IIc baby!). Crystal Golem. ’nuff said.
For the uniformed there was a point about 80% of the way throught he game that you encountered a crystal golem. There was no way to advance in the game without defeating it. There was also no turning back either as you were trapped. Ergo if you hadn’t opened every single door in the prior castle slaughterfest and killed a lame hydra and received a “crystal sword” you were done for.
I beat Riven in 17 hours the first time. You did have to go to other islands, but to beat the game you theoretically only needed 3 out of the 4 discs (something that I discovered after I played the game repeatedly). I loved every single moment of it, and I absolutely refused outside help. Walk-throughs, maps, phone numbers, whatever – all poor form. The game was probably 50x more satisfying knowing you accomplished it by yourself. I still have 20 pages of notes I made from playing – having to learn Riven script numbers by heart, that was insane.
Anyway, it seems silly to me to buy a game just to follow directions from some other source in order to beat it. If you need help or are stuck, sure, but the whole damn game? I guess if you’re a fan of spoilers, and wasting your money and time, go for it.
Also, Myst I (1993) was easy. Riven, as Kris mentioned in the original post, is Myst II (1997), and out of the entire series of Myst games (I-V) Riven was by far the hardest in terms of difficulty.
What no Ninja Gaiden. That game was brutal.
The first Otogi on the xbox took me a whole month to beat, most of that time was spent trying to kill that flying centipede boss thing.
Another rightful candidate, Breakdown, had me planning to beat up the lot at namco responsible for the game..
Contra is the only challenging game on that list, but there’s much harder. Try Ninja Gaiden on NES with the actual cartridge, no save states. You’ll kill yourself before you see the final credits due to being warped back several levels after dying to the one of the last boss’ forms.
How can you not include Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins??
Most pointlessly difficult game ever.
I think the most difficult game ever in NES was The Legend Of ZELDA II “The adventure of Link”, HOW THE HELL YOU BEAT THE HORSE HEAD GUY! I never could…:P
I think the most difficult game ever in NES was The Legend Of ZELDA II “The adventure of Link”, HOW THE HELL YOU BEAT THE HORSE HEAD GUY! I never could…:P
ehat about Double Dragon 1 and 3 for the NES
and what about Battle Toads and Double Dragon
ehat about Double Dragon 1 and 3 for the NES
and what about Battle Toads and Double Dragon
I never got Myst..guess it’s over my head. I remember Taz for the Sega Genesis being nearly impossible after a few levels. Some of those older games were brutal especially since you couldn’t save your progress. Always a drag to have to start from the beginning.
point and click adventures gave me the serious red ass, always. I dabbled for a few hours on the first myst than never so much as considered touching anything remotely similar at that point. Even 15 years later. It isn’t ADD-friendly at all.
MMOGs do the same, but I always keep coming back for reasons Ill never get.
Zelda 2 and commando are the only others that came as close to giving me a new stomach ulcer. And it’s only cuz I liked them so much at the beginning.
Wow, Contra hard? You’ve never played Silver Surfer or Ghosts n Goblins. Heck, have you played the Ninja Gaiden games?
Contra isn’t really that hard. The only difficult level in that game is Level 6, and that’s only because of the flames. Try Super C. You’ll break your TV after 30 minutes of trying to beat the first level.
As mentioned above, LoZ II is hard as well, much more difficult than the first LoZ. Should give it a try.
No way, LoZ II is probably one of the easiest in the series. There is a point in that game where, with a bit of time commitment one can power level their skills up to 9 without leaving the same spot. Yes, Ghost n Goblins is a hard game, and I may redo this article at a later date and include it. HOWEVER, Silver Surfer is just a terrible game. That’s like saying ET is the hardest game ever because it’s unbeatable. Well, no, it’s not difficult.. it’s just bad.
I never had too much trouble with Ninja Gaiden, I guess my experience is a bit different than most.
Contra, or Probotector as it was named for PAL, is a good hard title but certainly beatable without any code. Had done so several times before finding out years later about it!
Same deal with #2, which I believe myself was an easier version.
Super Probotector/Contra is the one that bites the bullet – can only do that with help from another player! That’s a tough title to get through.
I’d put Zelda II up there myself. Rainbow Island too. Anyone remember that one? I only ever got up to the final world once.
Lol u think zelda hard!!!!!!!!!hahahahahahahahahahahha!ttat is the easiest zelda game!a real hard game is zelda 2. that is a really hard game and so is TMNT 1.that defusing bomb level underwater used to get me all the time.hmmmm… my NES is still upstairs i might play it.
battle toads was one of the hardest games i played. took me forever to finish the game
I personally think Super Ghouls n’ Ghost is the hardest. I got the game when I was 7, and it took me the better part of a month of gaming to beat the 1st level.
Heh heh… zelda 2… my favorite in the series. My usual tactic is to go into every castle, get the item and move on the to the next castle, get the item, etc… once I get the items from all six castles I go back and kill the bosses one at a time. By the time you get the from the sixth castle, you can one shot horse head.
If your main problem with the game is the difficulty of the Iron Knuckles, I can sympathize until I found their weakness… jump at them, when your jump reaches its peak, crouch and attack. Your sword will rake down through their shield, hit them, and knock them back out of range of you. Master that attack and nothing is hard in that game… ever.
Ever tried Silver Surfer? It’s just insane. The hardest game ever. Period. One hit and you’re dead, and you can’t touch ANYTHING. If you die you lose ALL your power-ups (which are needed to get anywhere near completing the game). Let’s try and imagine you’re fighting the last boss – you make a little mistake, get hit, die and lose ALL you’re power-ups, so when you reappear, you just have the basic shitty gun. HOW ON EARTH ARE YOU SUPPOSED BEAT HIM?!!!! It’s just stupid and unfair. I dare you to play it. It IS the hardest game ever.
I just played myst yesterday for the first time and it was surprisingly easy. I beat it today and it couldn’t have been more than a few hours.
The hardest game i’ve played, witch it was like 10 year’s ago was TUBULAR . A game with spaceships. I think it was made in 96′. Anyway , the game is really hard because a level lasts like 30 min and u have 3 lives. So every ship that hit’s u , u lose a life. And belive me , there are thousands in one level. So u loseu;r 3 lifes and u have to restart the level , wasteing 30 min again. I remember it took me 5 day’s to finish it.
fester’s quest is a pretty fucking hard game, it was about uncle fester from the addamms family and he fights aliens with a laser gun, you can upgrade the lasers and health and shit but later in the game you are host to impossible boss fights, dangerous, alluring upgrades that destroy all upgrades you got for the gun, and then the boss fights are unreal because they are super agile while you move at the speed of a 45 year old man with weight problems, they breath fire and plain and simple just dont die, pick that game up if you wanna play something different for nes.
pretty weak list imo. My personal list would probably be
1.ghost n goblins
2.ghost n ghouls (arcade only) and trying to beat it on one credit
3.strikers 1942(arcade) which I did beat on one credit once yay
4.contra shattered soldier seemed pretty hard the short time I played it
5.tmnt 1
honorable mentions: legend of zelda 3 romhack and smbw romhack. If you want to see hard zelda go for that lol.