Gamasutra looks at 20 difficult games

by Scott Jon Siegel { Aug 31st 2007 at 4:15PM }

Believe it or not, building difficulty into games isn't just about making them more impossible. John Harris over at Gamasutra takes the long route to prove this in an extended look into difficulty in game design. The majority of the feature is spent looking at specific cases of legitimately difficult games, dissecting their design and coming away with lessons learned from each.

Harris concedes that most intelligently difficult games are much older, and typically don't have a "lose" condition. The list includes hair-pulling classics like Defender, Sinistar, and Lode Runner, as well as a few more recent titles like Super Monkey Ball. It's a good read for anyone interested in game design.

John Harris also writes the excellent @Play column for GameSetWatch, which focuses on a long history of games classified as "roguelikes."

Tags: defender, gamasutra, gamedesign, johnharris, loderunner, sinistar, supermonkeyball

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Shagittarius @ Aug 31st 2007 4:23PM

I love hard games.

Theres nothing wrong with a hard game as long as you are given the tools to be able to win with enough skill.

Its old arcade games like Xmen, or TMNT that no matter how good you are, are designed to take a set amount of continues to beat, that truely are bad games.

If I'm good enough at a game I should be able to beat it without ever dieing.

samfish @ Aug 31st 2007 5:11PM

I disagree. It's your skill that gets your through those games. You just have to build it up through practice. Those kinds of games give you all the tools you need, you just have to learn how to use them.
It IS possible to beat those games on one quarter...you just have to be damn good.

Are you really going to try and tell me, for example, that Ikaruga is a bad game?

Shagittarius @ Aug 31st 2007 7:19PM

I would like to tell you that just to see you go off but I haven't played Ikaruga so I can't. I guess I could but I'd be saying it just to set you off...

HineyWipe @ Aug 31st 2007 9:15PM

May I take a policy outon you when you decide to play Berserk?

BTW, most games are pattern, time, or pattern+ time based solutions. Goodluck, human.

Fernando Rocker @ Aug 31st 2007 4:23PM

Super Monkey Ball is amazing. I have the collection, Three on the gamecube, one on GBA, one on the DS and one on the Wii.

Very good games, excellent dificult. Anyone can play the game, but, if you are going to beat Expert Mode, you need to really be an expert player. its good dificulty, not the frustating one.

Jerk Face @ Aug 31st 2007 4:25PM

That picture is really fucking with me.

Sean @ Aug 31st 2007 5:09PM

Bug-gin' out! Bug-gin' out!

ThornedVenom @ Aug 31st 2007 10:58PM

Try 3D glasses on it: that's when the picture REALLY gets fucked up.

mr nimblewick @ Aug 31st 2007 4:27PM

I don't like difficult games, though when I think about it, it's mostly just having to redo everything after I die multiple times that I hate.

I remember I got to a stage in Fire Emblem where it became clear I hadn't leveled up my party correctly and everyone was going to die, but I couldn't back up and spend some time leveling. Faced with having to start all over, I put it down and never picked it up again.

vidGuy @ Aug 31st 2007 4:29PM

I've only played a few of the games in that list :(

I guess what I've found going back to the NES games is: no wonder I died so much! I must have been a better twitch gamer when I was a kid to make it as far as I did in some of these games.

Going back, some games are just unplayable now. For example, I never played Kid Icarus when I was young. Downloaded on the VC and I'm having a hell of a time. One small misjump and you die. Not fair!

Mr Khan @ Sep 2nd 2007 12:59PM

Ice Climber is worse

a lot of fun, but really a twitch gamer's nightmare

Neon Jebus @ Aug 31st 2007 4:30PM

When I think about difficult The Lion King on Genesis comes to mind.

Fernando Rocker @ Aug 31st 2007 4:33PM

I finished Lion King when I was a kid that game on the Sega a lot of times... the level with the giraffes and monkeys (the second one, I think) was a little confusing but not difficult.

Ah, nostalgia... my record for bug catching was near to 500 =)

J-Guy @ Aug 31st 2007 7:21PM

Pssh. I beat Lion King on GEN with my eyes closed.

Matt B @ Aug 31st 2007 4:33PM

Raiders of the Lost Ark on the Atari 2600 gave me gray hairs when I was young. F'n Tse-Tse flies!!!!!!

JL @ Aug 31st 2007 4:47PM

Castlequest for the NES should be on that list. An game that starts you out with 50 lives and a massive foldout map of the entire game is going to be tough. I never even got through 25 percent of it.

Fernando Rocker @ Aug 31st 2007 4:51PM

Oh shit... I never tought that someone remember that game... it was one on my first games on the Nes and one of the last to beat... very difficulty

I think I have a few tears for remember all those games.

bender @ Aug 31st 2007 4:50PM

I think that Zelda 2 was way harder than the second quest of the first one. I also saw Blast Corps. on that list and I thought back at the time I got all the gold medals feeling a huge sense of accomplishment. Then it told me to get all the platinum medals and only got half of them and gave up on that game completely. It just wasn't worth it.

samfish @ Aug 31st 2007 5:08PM

It's always good to see some Mischief Makers lovin', if you ask me.

I love hard games, though. There was a period of a few years where I just completely stopped playing games entirely because they were becoming far to easy. Some of them were fantastically, amazingly great, but the over all trend of simplicity was a huge turn off for me and I become disinterested.
Then I played Viewtiful Joe at Wal-Mart and got my ass kicked around like in the old days...and I went out and bought a Gamecube a few days later just for that game.
Yes, it was a dark day for ol' samfish when he learned Clover was shut down. If I had to make a top 5 favorite games ever, all 3 of Clover's games (I count VJ 1 and 2 as one) would make it on the list.

But most games are still laughably easy, which is why I tend to be so selective about what I play. It's either got to be friggin' fantastic or good, but hard.

Sean @ Aug 31st 2007 5:11PM

shakeshake!

Brad Lee @ Sep 1st 2007 3:20PM

VJ was hardcore. I remember having such a helluva time beating the game on "Adults" rating that I had no intention of playing the game anymore...

Then I played some more and beat it... on ALL the difficulties.

After beating it on the highest level, you know what conclusion I've come to? Skulls are for SISSIES! Beating the Inferno Lord without any warning other than the sound of his roar was messed up.

Of course, VJ is nothing to F-Zero GX, of which I STILL haven't completely beaten yet. I think I gave up on the hardest difficulty in the story chapters...

People can say what they want about the purple box, but it was the most hardcore last gen system in my opinion.

Steamtank @ Aug 31st 2007 5:09PM

They forgot to include the hardest game of all time:

Battletoads for the NES.

Sean @ Aug 31st 2007 5:12PM

Mario Bros. Lost Levels is ridiculously difficult. And then you beat it and it keeps going. Talk about a kick in the testies.

Rubang B @ Aug 31st 2007 5:25PM

Battletoads is so fucking hard. I've gotten to the last level... once. It's that underwater level where you're trying to outrun those giant gears that usually finishes me off. But seriously, why isn't everybody here talking about roguelikes? Roguelikes own your soul. They were the predecessors to Diablo and other hack'n'slashers. I played Hack when I was 5. No idea why. Never beat it. Now I've been playing Ancient Domains of Mystery (ADoM) for over 10 years and I've never beaten it. Damn those games are impossible but amazing. And I beat Kid Icarus when I was maybe 8, but now I can't get anywhere. They don't make games like they used to. Ghosts 'n' Goblins anyone?

Tom @ Aug 31st 2007 6:13PM

I don't mind a game being overly difficult as long as it's open-ended. Take Oblivion, for example. It would be very difficult to just go through the main quest with just a daggar and a Mythic Dawn robe, but do enough sidequests and level up your chracter and the main quest is a piece of cake.

Poisoned Al @ Aug 31st 2007 6:41PM

Yeah I'm %100 with you there. I love a game where you can more or less choose how hard it's going to be, and if it gets too hard, you can do something else for a bit. I ignored the main quest in Oblivion for ages until my thief charter could more or less walk around Oblivion closing gates without being seen. Almost made it too easy.

blooh @ Aug 31st 2007 6:43PM

yeah, you can make some games harder for yourself, like doing a SCC for FFTactics (i hear the mediator one is the hardest)

But truly hard games are always hard, for almost everyone. Like any of the NES marios. I've never gotten past about 10 levels in any of them, but I still love those levels I have played :) great music

Xfan @ Aug 31st 2007 5:49PM

The original Apple II version of Prince of Persia was extremely difficult, yet wildly popular anyway, spawned many sequels, and then a XBLA revisit.

The arcade version of Choplifter was notoriously hard, yet based on a computer game that was ridiculously easy. How'd that happen?

moetownslick @ Aug 31st 2007 5:51PM

they forgot the hardest game of all: Bishop Of Battle.

you don't believe me, ask Emilio Estevez.

Shagittarius @ Aug 31st 2007 5:56PM

Dude there is no thirteenth level in Bishop of Battle, quit tryin.

I'm going home, don't play too long.

daniel @ Aug 31st 2007 6:06PM

is battletoads in battlemaniacs just a graphical upgrade of the original, when i got my uncles old snes in 1994 that and super ghouls and ghosts were some of the games i got, they got left aside for quite a while while i played mario after i realised how hard they were, but when i really got into gaming a few years ago i tried them again i managed to get further but i dont think ill be able to complete them

Rubang B @ Aug 31st 2007 8:48PM

The first few levels make it seem like a remake, since it's a fighting level, a repelling level, and a racing level, but the levels are new and the game is completely original. It has those new weird bonus levels with the bowling pins on the chessboards too. It is STILL impossible though.

Poisoned Al @ Aug 31st 2007 6:34PM

Jet Set Willy wasn't on the list. INSTANT FAIL!

ElektroDragon @ Aug 31st 2007 6:38PM

I would like to brag that I played and FINISHED one of their 20 hardest games, Bards Tale II, on the Amiga! Woot!!

jeffx @ Aug 31st 2007 10:06PM

VERY good article! One of my top 5 games, Druaga, is in there!!!

32_Footsteps @ Aug 31st 2007 11:11PM

First off, how can you only mention the original Ninja Gaiden in passing, but not put it on the list? I have never met anyone who could credibly say they beat Ninja Gaiden (or the NES sequels) without aid of a Game Genie.

Of the games I played on this list... sweet mercy, was Cobra Triangle hard. I own that game, and I keep hoping for a VC or Xbox Live Arcade rerelease because I want people to understand how hard that game was. Even with all the little cheats I knew, I could only get to level 22 (out of 25) at my very best. And most veterans of Cobra Triangle will tell you that's an amazing accomplishment.

Mischief Makers... For the most part, I didn't have much problems with that one. But that frigging race level - I still swear to this day that said level is impossible, and won't believe otherwise until someone shows me how to beat it.

Also, Battletoads was not one of the hardest games ever. Only the tenth level, The Rat Race, made the game a contender, and even that wasn't a problem once you learned how to deal with it. If you're caught on the race levels, you just never figured out the simple trick to getting past the final part, most likely.