The 5 most difficult NES games

by Blake Snow { Jun 16th 2006 at 6:05PM }

I think it's safe to say that video games have gotten easier over the years. Whether because easy games tend to sell better to non-gamers, the advent of the internet, or a plethora of in-game save points, it is difficult to comprehend the potential causes. Regardless, the NES had some doozies. Smackdown GT (via site mirror) writes: "The NES is home to some of the most difficult videogames ever made... Sure, you have your occasional Nintendo God who will beat any thing you put in front of him within two hours then present you with a nicely organized text file on how he did it, but what about the rest of us?"

The site has compiled the five most difficult NES games as follows:

5) Ninja Gaiden
4) Back to the Future
3) The Adventures of Bayou Billy
2) Battletoads
1) Silver Surfer

How would your list differ?

[via Digg]

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)

dvdguy @ Jun 16th 2006 6:10PM

Star Force. That's one damn hard NES shooter.

Charlie @ Jun 16th 2006 6:10PM

I've beaten Ninja Gaiden. None of the others, though.

ejflex @ Jun 16th 2006 6:11PM

Somebody has to throw Street Fighter 2010 into the mix. That game was HARD especially towards the end.. but way ahead of it's time. If anyone has not played it.. I suggest you do. It's a wierd wierd game. (ALso.. has nothing to do with the Street Fighter series. It's not a fighter)

sev4 pri1 @ Jun 16th 2006 6:13PM

Mega Man 1. No save points ever!

Austin @ Jun 16th 2006 6:14PM

maybe the most difficult/playable games.

there were a lot of games for nes that are impossible.

Ryan @ Jun 16th 2006 6:14PM

Friday the 13th. That was the most difficult game for the NES. It made Ninja Gaiden look like Bubble Bobble.

Cage @ Jun 16th 2006 6:14PM

Contra...without the extra men.

striderhayasa @ Jun 16th 2006 6:15PM

BatMan2 : Return of the Joker. Ninja Gaiden was hard but Ninja Gaiden 3 was so hard that game genie didn't help me through it.

CaptNink @ Jun 16th 2006 6:17PM

Goonies II (without using the cheat book with all the maps!)

thebiggameover @ Jun 16th 2006 6:18PM

i would add jaws, gng, and ultra's tmnt....

MikeSkiX @ Jun 16th 2006 6:20PM

Deadly tower was the hardest game i played on the NES.

Kai @ Jun 16th 2006 6:21PM

It looks a lot like this article

NES Games I never beat:
http://www.thefeast.tv/archive.php?uid=29

Nick @ Jun 16th 2006 6:22PM

-Batman: never made it past the gargoyle level, and getting there was a fluke.
-Rocket Ranger: what the hell was with this game? all i could do was punch some guy, attack planes, and transfer fuel between 3 different sized tanks!

ManekiNeko @ Jun 16th 2006 6:22PM

Seems like a pretty solid list... Silver Surfer was a real ball-breaker! I would have replaced one of the games (probably Back to the Future) with Solstice, however.

JR

soco @ Jun 16th 2006 6:23PM

goonies II?! you've gotta be joking. i did love that game though.

Ghosts & Goblins was tougher than several of those games there. especially ninja gaiden and battletoads.

i'd also agree with Deadly Towers as well.

Stu @ Jun 16th 2006 6:25PM

Mission Impossible, I owned that game and seriously never got past the first level.

the godfather @ Jun 16th 2006 6:29PM

little nemo (the end boss took me 30 minutes WITH game genie...) and ghosts and goblins are missing

Paul @ Jun 16th 2006 6:30PM

Any list like this that doesn't include Rygar has no credibility.

3 lives no continues? Thats ridiculous.

and yeah Mission Impossible was IMPOSSIBLE. Also never beat level 1.

SuicideNinja @ Jun 16th 2006 6:32PM

Um, Ninja Gaiden III is the most difficult of the NES series. The first game is next inline, while the second game was easy as pie.

Um, I think Ghosts and Goblins DESTROYS all those games in difficulty. That game is nigh impossible...I swear...

Dave Silva @ Jun 16th 2006 6:35PM

Wait, what? Back to the Future HARD? That game's a cakewalk in comparison to other LJN/Acclaim games of the era!

I'd say that... X-Men is harder. Much, much harder.

Dirk Dorkelson @ Jun 16th 2006 6:39PM

I've finished Battletoads and Ninja Gaiden. I finished Ninja Gaiden in about a week spending afternoons over at a friends house. Still haven't finished the Xbox one, though.

The hardest NES game for me was Solomon's Key. Fifty levels and no continues after Level 41.

Laxcat @ Jun 16th 2006 6:42PM

A friend of mine had Abadox (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abadox), and I recall never being able to get past even the first level.

logikil @ Jun 16th 2006 6:42PM

What about Blaster Master?

kelekod @ Jun 16th 2006 6:42PM

I'm surprised that TMNT 1 didn't make the list, I've heard more people complain how hard it is then hearing people say that they beat it.

My personal list would include:
TMNT - probably the hardest NES game I've beaten I'd say
Ninja Gaiden 1 (still haven't beaten)
Adventures of Lolo 3 (final 3 castles, still haven't finished the game)
Legacy of the Wizard (could never figure that game out)
Lemmings got pretty hard at the 2nd difficulty level
Punch out (still can't beat Tyson, and I just beat Sandman for the first time very recently) (Macho man is pretty easy)
Nobunaga's Ambition on difficulty 3 or higher is hard, even using Hongongi (fief 4 in 17) is near impossible on level 1

To the person that said Contra..

that's about the easiest game for the NES.. even without the code. I've beaten the game without the code many times, and just recently beat the game without losing a single life using the spread gun all the way through..

if you want the hardest games to beat i'd like to see someone beat:
Joust
RC Pro AM
burger time
pac man

those games are some of probably many that never end..

DG @ Jun 16th 2006 6:45PM

The hardest game I ever played was Time Lord, if only because it couldn't be beat (or my copy was defective). At the end of the second level, you had to jump an touch an orb to leave. However, everytime you jumped, the orb would go higher and then come back down. There were no boxes and your character couldn't lift them anyways. The only attack was shooting, and you couldn't shoot skyward.

I just jumped at that damn orb for hours on end. I could never beat it. What a stupid game.

logikil @ Jun 16th 2006 6:45PM

Oh and Golgo 13. No one ever said it had to be a good game, just a hard one, and that game was hard.

Laxcat @ Jun 16th 2006 6:46PM

Blaster Master wasn't so much hard as it was long, and with no save points. You pretty much had to dedicate an entire day to it. I remember it getting a little tricky at the end, but I also remember beating it several times.

xerus @ Jun 16th 2006 6:47PM

Silver Surfer is definitely up there. You have no idea what can and cannot kill you in that game until its too late.

Andy @ Jun 16th 2006 6:49PM

What about mike tisons punch out, also silver surfer wasn't hard

Ross Jernigan @ Jun 16th 2006 6:52PM

http://www.gamespot.com/nes/action/abadox/video_player.html?id=dXxikzKo5bIKug

Abadox, anyone? (That's not me)

AoE @ Jun 16th 2006 6:53PM

I thought it was common knowledge that Fester's Quest was one of the hardest games in the history of mankind? At least, around these parts when you ask "hardest nes game?" everyone I've met will tell you Fester's Quest without having to think about it...

Laxcat @ Jun 16th 2006 6:55PM

@24. Heh. It's not me either but I discovered that same video after I posted Abadox earlier in this thread. Its funny to see I wasn't the only one who couldn't pass the first level.

Your Right @ Jun 16th 2006 6:59PM

Ive beaten Ninja gaiden and Silver surfer. Never played any of the other games before.

alps @ Jun 16th 2006 6:59PM

RoboWarior!!!! I could never and still can't get past the second board. so, i would call that hard, yeah, like, viagra hard.

soco @ Jun 16th 2006 6:59PM

mike tyson's punch out was also pretty easy. you just had to take the time to notice and remember all of the patterns.

Milon's Secret Castle should probably be in there, though i'm not sure it was truly _that_ difficult, just frustrating and annoying :)

Dark @ Jun 16th 2006 7:03PM

OMG I remember Solstice!!! God I hated that game yet was drawn to playing it. You should add Faxanadu and Milon's Secret Castle. Or maybe someone should make a list of the Worst video game endings ever. My vote is for Rampage and Milon's Secret Castle.

ncxcstud @ Jun 16th 2006 7:05PM

TMNT was incredibly hard...surprised that's not on the list...

I'd add Who Framed Roger Rabbit to the list as well...

That game was ridiculous...

nleco @ Jun 16th 2006 7:06PM

does anyone remember a game called RoboWarrior? i bought it as a kid only because Robocop wasnt in stock, and i wanted a robot game. i played it for 20 mins and never got past the upper left starting point, mainly because i had NO clue what to do. I tried it with GameGenie, still was lost.

does that count as "hard"? figuring out what the object of a game was.