What's the hardest game you've ever played?

[Anonymous No.1573214]

Legitimately challenging games only.
None of those shitty games that are hard because the controls don't work or poor coding renders them impossible.[/code]

[Anonymous No.1573221]

>>1573214
>"no games that suck due to poor coding"
>errant [code] tag
>mfw

[Anonymous No.1573301]

>>1573214
Ghosts 'n' Goblins

[Anonymous No.1573609]

Chakan
I got pretty far, maybe 2/3 of the game...

[Anonymous No.1573713]

>>1573221
>completely missing the joke

[Anonymous No.1573726]

First game that comes to mind is shinobi for the nes.

It was difficult straight from the start, but about halfway through you get to a boss... which is a fucking helicopter. A helicopter that spawns ninjas.

What's worse is it takes up half the screen and you have no hit immunity so if either the helicopter or ninjas hit you once you just get gang raped until you die.

I got to the point where i could get through all 3 or 4 levels leading up to that point without being hit once (including bosses) only to lose all my lives in a matter of seconds against that fucking helicopter bastard.

If i remember correctly there's a snes version which is the same but you get hit immunity, making everything much, much easier.

[Anonymous No.1573812]

Image Fight

[Anonymous No.1573836]

>>1573301
I'm with this anon. It's the first game that comes to mind.

Even with some memorization, it still has some random elements to it (those damn birds and the ogres by the ladders seem to have a mind of their own).

It still seems like a rather fair game to me, however. Infinite continues (at least in the American version, Japan had to input a code) and almost every level had a hidden set of armor.

[Anonymous No.1573898]

I have been playing Rogue on and off for over a decade and have never once won. Though some may say it's only hard because of "RNG bullshit" and such.

Sometimes it does feel like my life depends on finding a scroll of protect armor, so I don't have to worry about Aquators. And a handful of my runs are cut short because of Rattlesnakes draining my strength early on. I'd avoid them, but most of the rooms are dark so by the time I see them, they are adjacent to me.

[Anonymous No.1573953]

I want to love this game, but damn does it get frustratingly hard by about mission 8 or 9.

I think this would get recognized more as a really difficult game if it were more popular.

[Anonymous No.1573993]

Tower of Druaga
Wizardry 4

[Anonymous No.1574018]

>>1573214
Glover.

Fuck glover

[Anonymous No.1574114]

Hardest I've ever 100% was F-zero GX, but that's not /vr/

Castlevania 3. I must have gotten 20 game overs on the final level using HELP ME

[Anonymous No.1574119]

I have never been able to beat this game without cheating.

I've never met anyone who claimed to be able to beat this game without cheating.


I hang around with a bunch of people who play RTSes obssesively.

[Anonymous No.1574145]

>>1573609
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDiOtr5X81Q

[Anonymous No.1574160]

Off the top of my head, these are considered some of the hardest games per platform:

>SNES
ActRaiser 2
Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts
Contra III: The Alien Wars (particularly on Hard mode)

>Genesis
Contra: Hard Corps
Ghouls 'n Ghosts
Fatal Labyrinth

>NES
Ghosts 'n Goblins
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link
Ninja Gaiden series
Castlevania series
Wizards & Warriors series
Gimmick (import)
Zombie Hunter (import)

>PS1
Vagrant Story

>Other mentions
Ultima series, which has been ported from computer to numerous consoles
Gradius series (mainly III)
SaGa series (e.g. Romancing SaGa, Final Fantasy Legend)

I'm sure I'm leaving out quite a few. Anyone care to fill in the blanks?

[Anonymous No.1574167]

>>1574160

Maybe I'm biased because I used to be a dragon and played pretty obsessively, but I never thought any of the Ultimas were that hard. Hell, half of them you can't die if you try to. Any particular reason you put the series on the list?

[Anonymous No.1574169]

>>1574160

Also came to mind:

Hydlide series (the NES game may be the only one you can)
Deadly Towers
King's Field series

Hydlide is arguably hard due to its weird mechanics, but I wouldn't say it's buggy. The developers probably intended for combat to work the way it does, despite how random the damage formula may seem.

[Anonymous No.1574172]

>>1574167
>Any particular reason you put the series on the list?

It wasn't based on the level of skill required to beat them, but rather the impossibility of finding quest items without a guide. Ultima IV is probably the best example of this. I don't think it's physically possible to beat that game based only on the hints provided by NPCs. Quest items are hidden in very specific and otherwise inconspicuous spots. Numerous times you have to find a quest item literally in the middle of a patch of grass in the middle of nowhere, or in the middle of the vast ocean itself. Even if you did stumble across these items, you probably wouldn't know what to do with them.

[cAb No.1574184]

I don't agree with any Gradius being hard.
I always said Shadow of the Beast for Genesis but I've heard it was poor coding before. Either way I've been trying to beat that game since I was like 8 and still haven't gotten past space without the infinite life code... also.. dat music

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paFfw1FHJ8o

[Anonymous No.1574191]

>>1574172
>>1574172


I hate to get all /v/ on you, but the only time I cracked open a guide before beating any of the Ultimas was UW2, because I could not find where the damn Listener was.

It's just not that hard to find the Runes or the Stones, and you should pretty quickly pick up the pattern that the towns are linked to a virtue (and thus you can find out the mantra and the Rune location from somewhere in town, and that the rune is usually within the town itself), and that the principle items are found out about in the keep corresponding to that principle.

[Anonymous No.1574203]

goddamn earthworm jim.

[Anonymous No.1574217]

>>1574191
>It's just not that hard to find the Runes or the Stones, and you should pretty quickly pick up the pattern that the towns are linked to a virtue

It's definitely not that simple. There's absolutely nothing hinting at the locations of items that are literally in the middle of the ocean or in patches of grass. There's nothing pointing to them, nothing suspicious about the spots where they're located - nothing inconspicuous at all. The only way to find this stuff on your own is by searching every square tile of every map and hoping you eventually stumble upon it. Let's also not forget this:

>Ultima IV omitted dialog entirely from a key character. The talking Horse in Iolo's barn was supposed to give you the answer to The Riddle. Instead, when you talked with it, it said "A". If you asked about "A", then it replied with "A" and asked you "A? (y/n)" If you replied yes, then it answered "A". Oops, default dialog! Unfortunately, this was the answer to the very last question you had to type and hit RETURN to win the game - the Codex's final question, of what Truth, Love, and Courage are made of. (Hint: it isn't literally "A.")

This led many players to get stuck and unable to complete the game.

[Anonymous No.1574220]

I still can't get through any of the fucking stages past the first Spider-Man intro stage.

[Anonymous No.1574221]

>>1574217

The only items that are "in the middle of the ocean" are the plans for the HMS cape and the Skull of Mondain, neither of which are necessary to win the game.

I don't remember anything being in a bare patch of grass, the White stone is in the only patch of landable mountains in serpent spine, you get nightshade at that one tile of swamp in the middle of nowhere, etc. They're almost always in an out of place terrain tile in the region you're told to go.


>Smith the Horse.

What did they think the letters appearing at the shrines when you meditated were for then?

[Anonymous No.1574228]

I beat it. via the PS1 Namco Museum.
I still need to beat the other two towers in it

[Anonymous No.1574230]

>>1574160
> Fatal Labyrinth
My nigga, i loved playing this game when i was younger but god damn, is it hard...

[Anonymous No.1574232]

>>1574228
I'm still working through the TG16 version.

[Anonymous No.1574257]

>>1574018
Word, but sometimes you can blame the camera and controls on that one.

I remember when I was a kid, I got stuck on the frankenstein boss for literally months.

[Anonymous No.1574259]

>>1574119
I can't beat either of the games because lol crash

[Anonymous No.1574267]

>>1574259


I use Oracle VM for both games; War wind 1 is still buggy, crashes, and the graphics look weird after you save (loading usually fixes it though) but I was able to play all 4 campaigns to completion.


War wind 2 is very stable unless I use the scenario editor. Can't beat the damn thing, but at least it works....

[Anonymous No.1574386]

>>1574257
I just was bad at the game I think, but I can't remember a more miserable time playing a game when I was younger. I sucked at the carnival level or whatever.

[Anonymous No.1574460]

>>1573214
Ecco the Dolphin: Tides of Time, the game is plenty hard enough on normal difficulty, I don't even want to try hard...

[Anonymous No.1574470]

>people think Zelda 2 is one of the hardest games of all time

[Anonymous No.1574513]

>>1574386
Ugh those fucking elephants...

[Anonymous No.1574570]

>>1574470
No, but it's probably the toughest Zelda game.

[Anonymous No.1574607]

>>1574184
The Genesis (NTSC) Shadow of the Beast is like 15% faster than the Megadrive (PAL) version, because the coders didn't adapt the timer... OTOH, I found it easier than playing the Amiga NTSC version (which had proper timings) if only because the gamepad buttons work, whereas on the Amiga you have to hit "Up" on the joystick to jump and only one fire button is ever used. This was actually pretty common with many old Amiga platformers unfortunately, which made the Genesis versions a bit more playable (for example, try playing Gods on both platoforms). Towards the end of the Amiga life, some games finally started supporting more than one button. My favorite of those is Lionheart. It's just too bad that earlier Amiga games didn't fully support gamepads. That was just a bad decision on the part of the software houses...

As for "hard" Genesis games, I think Chakan is more difficult than Ghouls 'n Ghosts. I beat the later several times, but never finished Chakan. I also beat Ghosts 'n Goblins many times on my Amstrad CPC, along with Gryzor (aka Contra) and other favorites.

[Anonymous No.1574796]

NINJA
FUCKING
GAIDEN.

>inb4 "ehh, it's not THAT hard lol"
Fuck you, yes it is.

[Anonymous No.1574827]

>>1574796
I found TMNT harder, maybe it's just because the game wasn't that great.

[Anonymous No.1574928]

>>1574796
Ninja Gaiden is a game that depends on you memorizing the layout of the levels and enemy spawns
and then there's the final boss that sends you back a level upon game over so you get into a vicious cycle of memorizing the level then the boss then re-memorizing the level then re-memorizing the boss and so on

[Anonymous No.1574948]

The first game I ever played was Contra, and didn't have no damn code.
It was brutal.

One of my all time favorites, though.

[Anonymous No.1574960]

>>1574220
Me, too.

I don't think it's a hard game -I think it's just a bad one.

[Anonymous No.1574969]

>>1574160
>Zelda 2
>Vagrant Story

Those are almost certainly not anywhere near the upper echelons of difficulty. I mean, yeah, if you're stupid you'll never beat them, but still.

[Anonymous No.1574990]

>>1574018
still having nightmares about this game

[Anonymous No.1576374]

BAYOU BILLY AMA.

[Anonymous No.1576380]

Wai Wai World 1 is sort of a bitch.

[Anonymous No.1576386]

Few years ago when I completely lost interest in modern games I started playing those old NES games I never could beat as a kid and ended up beating games like Batman, Battletoads, Blaster Master, Ghosts 'N Goblins, TMNT, Mike Tyson's PunchOut!! and the Ninja Gaiden trilogy.

However I still can't get past the first boss in Bayou Billy so that's my pick.

[Anonymous No.1576403]

>>1574928
>and then there's the final boss that sends you back a level upon game over so you get into a vicious cycle of memorizing the level then the boss then re-memorizing the level then re-memorizing the boss and so on

Don't all bosses do that?

[Anonymous No.1576407]

Probably Ghosts n Goblins or Super Ghouls n Ghosts.

I did play Wizardry IV for a while, but fuck that game holy shit.

[Anonymous No.1576409]

>>1576403
Unless you suck, not if they're well designed or easy.

[Anonymous No.1576424]

>>1573214
Rocket Knight Adventures and Super Castlevania 4.

[Anonymous No.1576425]

>>1576403
I think he's talking about how most of the game reload you from a checkpoint upon continue but the final boss is the only one that sends you all the way back to the beginning of the level.

[Anonymous No.1576430]

>>1574160
what about Mario - Lost Levels?

[Anonymous No.1576432]

I found this game hard as balls

[Anonymous No.1576436]

>>1574969

The last stretch of Zelda II is hard as shit. Pretty hard for a first part Nintendo game.

>>1574969

This game is damn tough sometimes. Depends of the drops you get though.

[Anonymous No.1576441]

>>1574184

Atomic Robo Kid is hella easy until you get to like the level 11(?) boss and you literally unable to dodge anything. I need to watch a playthrough on how to get around that.

[Anonymous No.1576445]

>>1576441
>atomic robo kid
Oh man, the memories, the main theme song fro that game was based of a famous glam rock song from 80s, can't recall which.
Also, have you ever played its pseudo sequel, Mr Heli??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVodyAdPbGk

[Anonymous No.1576470]

>>1576445
>Also, have you ever played its pseudo sequel, Mr Heli??

Mr Heli and Atomic Robo Kid are made by 2 different devs and the arcade version of Mr.Heli precedes the arcade version of Robo Kid by a year.

[Anonymous No.1576475]

>>1576470
Damn, you're right, I just looked it up on progetto emma. You should still take a look, I find the gameplay to be surprisingly similar.

[Anonymous No.1576479]

>>1574172
Surely you jest?

>>1574217
OMG! You're serious!

[Anonymous No.1576704]

Dragon Warrior II on the nes was a fucking nightmare. I beat Super Ghouls 'n Ghost and Contra 3 on hard, but DQII was just sadistic. Once you get the boat, it all goes to hell and that final boss with the full heal spell was the devil.

[Anonymous No.1578454]

>>1576386
i remember making it really far in this game (i think i reached the boss of the game) as a child but when i try and play it now i can barely make it halfway through the first level.

was a curious multi-genre game though since it has those auto-scrolling zapper levels and those bronco driving levels.

[Anonymous No.1580397]

>>1573214
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPN76k5eN6Q

[Anonymous No.1580432]

>>1574160
>vagrant story
>not shadow tower

[Anonymous No.1580509]

>>1576704
>Dragon Warrior II
Back when I was a kid I got into RPGs, and I saw the Nintendo Power issue that featured Dragon Warrior 2 and 3. I asked my parents for DW3 for christmas. Guess what I got?

Thankfully I had the nintendo power issues that gave all the required info for finding all the key items and whatnot, as well as the maps for the caves of Rhone. Still took me forever and a day to beat the bastard.

Came back years later, having forgotten how brutal it was. I had everyone at maximum level with the best equipment in the game. Took three tries to reach the final boss. I barely survived the fight.

Some days I think Dragon Warrior 3 was an apology to the fans for 2.

[Anonymous No.1580702]

It's probably Ghosts 'n' Goblins.

[Anonymous No.1580715]

Retro: Metal Gear
New Age: Ninja Gaiden

[Anonymous No.1580737]

>>1574220
my aunt had this game at her house when I was a kid played through that first spiderman level countless times, only ever managed to beat the wolverine level once after.

[Anonymous No.1580773]

>>1580702
>mfw i "beat" the game for the first time

[Anonymous No.1580784]

>>1574513
Yeah a bad time my friend
>>1574990
Me too anon

[Anonymous No.1580789]

>>1576704

I just recently picked up on Dragon Warrior II. I didn't get a chance to play it as a kid. It was indeed challenging, but mostly because of the pacing and grinding. It took me maybe 5 - 8 hours to complete the major quests and get to Rhone. Once I was in Rhone, everything came to a stand still. I had to spend 8 - 10 more hours just grinding my party to the max level so I could survive the final dungeon. That's not very fun considering half the enemies in that area spam Sacrifice and Defeat relentlessly. You have to save after every battle just in case your party is annihilated by instant death spells.

[Anonymous No.1581195]

>ctrl+f Double Dragon III
>phrase not found

Easily the hardest game I've ever played.

[Anonymous No.1581203]

Pic related and The Mask for snes.

[Anonymous No.1581220]

>>1580773
Contra 3 did it worse, I think.
>get to the final stage on normal
>sorry, you need to play on hard to see the final boss
>beat the last boss on hard
>sorry, you need to play VERY hard to see the true ending
>do it
>receive a scrolling screen and a wall of text

[Anonymous No.1581228]

>>1581220
wat

Contra III only goes up to Hard mode. You only see three loops if you play on Easy mode.

[Anonymous No.1581242]

>>1581228
Start on Easy, I mean.

[Anonymous No.1581247]

>>1581242
You're right, I fucked up.

[Anonymous No.1581484]

>>1576386

I only made it as far as the second shooting level if I recall correctly. It's been a couple of decades since I rented that.

[Anonymous No.1582121]

>>1574018
could never beat the clown