The 15 Most Difficult NES Games

[dlevere]

Nintendo Hard games aren’t made that way by flipping a difficulty switch, they’re born from the disturbed psyche of developers who grew up lacking positive role models. They’re created by sociopaths who don’t understand the concept of rage, or psychopaths who have no problem making children cry.

The 15 Most Difficult NES Games (That Are Not Battletoads)

[xirtamehtsitahw]

I don't really think the first Nintendo-hard games were designed as such on purpose. For example, Donkey Kong, which came out in 1981, wasn't really that hard, but required decent timing skills (and hammers). The growing trend of such games throughout the 1980s (remember Ninja Turtles and its seaweed level?) is harder to explain.

Maybe it was the programmers' attempt to add "replay value" to the game (make it harder/take longer to complete). This was possibly to hide just how short the games were. If you had the right collection of Game Genie codes, you could complete many of them in under 3 hours.

Some of the "Nintendo hardness" was just plain trolling, though (long before that was even a word): take Ghosts 'n Goblins, for example. The game was a brutal mess, with enemies flying at you at bizarre angles, making them nearly impossible to kill. Even worse: some took more than one hit to kill, and you could only get hit once (the second hit would kill you). And that was just the FIRST time around. That's right--you have to beat the game TWICE in order to truly win. And the second trip through is EVEN HARDER.

That's what spawned the whole "TVTropes.org" thing--they have literally hundreds of tropes based on how hard/unfair video games can be.

[ReyVGM]

Yeah, there's "this game is hard because of bad controls/design", like Dirty Harry or Trojan.

And "this game is deliberately hard, but properly designed" like Castlevania 3 or even Battletoads.

[xirtamehtsitahw]

Then there are those games which the developers don't just make super-hard for the challenge. They actually WANT the player to "get mad". They see obscene levels of frustration as part of the game playing experience. I've only got ONE word that describes how I feel about it, and I'm gonna spell it out for ya: S! T! U! P! I! D! *Crowd shouts "STUPID!"* (Shout-out to Big Cass, a new WWE superstar).

[dlevere]

8 of the Hardest Games of All Time

[dlevere]

Here's 8 of the worst games in history.

8 of the Worst Games of All Time

[Helder]

8 of the Hardest Games of All Time

Why does everyone think NES Battle Toads is super hard? Play the God damn SNES version and tell me if that's hard compared to the NES version. This version on SNES is ridiculously difficult after the 3rd stage and to be honest I only ever won was by cheating (which didn't help get past the rat bike level) and using save states with someone saving and loading while I played.

[xirtamehtsitahw]

If you REALLY want something beyond hard (also known as "Harder than Hard"--see TVTropes.org), play SNES Jeopardy! on max difficulty and just TRY to input ANY responses before the AI and you'll see it's impossible--the AI inputs its responses on the VERY FIRST FRAME that input is even possible. It's said that it's impossible to win this game on max difficulty.

[dlevere]

The 15 Most Difficult Genesis Games (That Are Not Battletoads)