Gamasutra looks at 20 difficult games

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.

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.

That picture is really fucking with me.

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.

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!

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

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

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.

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.

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.

They forgot to include the hardest game of all time:

Battletoads for the NES.

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

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?

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.

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?

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

you don't believe me, ask Emilio Estevez.

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

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

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

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

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.

Mushihime-Sama is the hardest game ever. Period.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=g-JLyxifS4E

Stuntman's missing, christ that games frustrating (the PS2 one, not the new one), although it feels great when you do get things right!

Zelda 1 is hard? lol

I admit that the lack of "Hand Holding" might seem hard to newer gamers, but back in the old days it was the norm.

What about Ultima: Quest of the Avatar (NES), Might & Magic (NES or Genesis), Athena, Legacy of the Wizard?