Games aimed at children that are too hard for most children to beat

[shopkins]

I use "most children" as a disclaimer because I'm sure there were some of us that were beating Ghouls 'N Ghosts when we were six. But watching my cousins fumble around with games, I think it's weird that so many games lead children in with a cute and cuddly character they love and then provide a challenge that could only stump them and turn them away. I'm sure some kids toughen up and practice until they can beat it and then grow up to post on Digital Press forums, but I bet more just put the game down and go on to something else.

I posted this here because it seems to show up more often in classic games, but the game that made me think of this was Scooby Doo: Night of 1001 Frights, which I decided at random to pull from my PS2 collection and play last night. With infinite lives and generous checkpoints it's not exactly Ninja Gaiden Black, mind you, but I still managed to get a little frustrated with some of the jumps and really lost because of the game's vague clues about where to go next. That's not exactly what I expected to be provided for the audience that would want a game about a cartoon dog who likes to eat.

A good classic example might be the first Ninja Turtles game for NES. I just find it hard to believe the skill levels of eight-year-old Ninja Turtles fans were really taken into account when designing that dam level.

A lot of of times this comes down to poor programing. Bart Vs. The Space Mutants is ridiculous in its difficulty for all the wrong reasons. And there was a Rocky and Bullwinkle game for SNES that's so frustrating and clunky it's stupefying, I remember getting stuck on the first level because the collision on the platforms was so dodgy I would always walk to the wrong place and fall through them.

So what games can you think of feature both children's characters and surprisingly high difficulty?

[BetaWolf47]

The Simpsons = children characters???

I'm going to say The Lion King for Genesis and SNES. As a kid, I never got past "Can't Wait to Be King." Way too many cheap deaths on the ostrich part. Just about any other vehicle part in a sidescrolling game was easier. Shame too, because as a kid, I was dying to play as adult Simba, where you could actually attack.

[peachstapler]

I just remember Athena for NES being impossible to get through, mostly because it was constructed in such a wonky fashion.

[Parodius Duh!]

The Majority of Super Hero games (that are not strictly fighting games), Captain America and the avengers is a real pisser....the arcade game was made so depending on how many quarters you pumped in, thats how much life you get....when they ported the game they must have assumed SNES and Genesis had a quarter slot somewhere....

[Red Warrior]

The Simpsons = children characters???

I'm going to say The Lion King for Genesis and SNES. As a kid, I never got past "Can't Wait to Be King." Way too many cheap deaths on the ostrich part. Just about any other vehicle part in a sidescrolling game was easier. Shame too, because as a kid, I was dying to play as adult Simba, where you could actually attack.

I was gonna say the same thing. The game itself is relatively easy, but the "Can't Wait to Be King" level is harder than all the other levels put together. I just remember thinking, "This is only level TWO for cryin out loud... on a KIDS' game no less!". Definitely annoying. It took me two days to beat the game when I rented it years ago... one day to finish the "Can't Wait to Be King" level, and one day to finish the other 8 levels. Unbalanced difficulty at its finest.

[Famidrive-16]

rocky and bullwinkle for the NES, even as an adult i can't get past the first couple levels

nthing the "can't wait to be king" level, fuck that level

[The 1 2 P]

I think you could probably throw half of the Nes's library on this list. The whole system was marketed to kids as a toy/video game system. While it was definitely a fun machine there were tons of games that clearly weren't made for the purpose of having kids beat them.

Although the already mentioned TMNT for Nes was rather tough, this then-11-year-old still managed to beat it. Also, Duck Tales wasn't the easiest Nes game in the world either.

[ryborg]

Also, Duck Tales wasn't the easiest Nes game in the world either.

What? The Capcom Disney games were some of the easiest on the system.

[Eyedunno]

I'm with others, most games up to about the end of the 16-bit area fall into this category. I'm not going to go so far as to say they're impossible for kids to beat, because with enough time spent, any non-broken game is eventually doable, but it's still somehow amazing that these games were marketed at kids.

[BetaWolf47]

Hmm, I'm not sure if I even got very far in any 2D games as a kid other than the Mario games.

[Rickstilwell1]

Tiny Toon Adventures for NES sure had some hard spots. Especially the last level.

[fairyland]

Platformers are usually the games that has these mascots and stuff geared towards kids. They frustrated the hell out of me as they usually had cheap deaths or something rather unfair. I always had to use game enhancers on them as I never really enjoyed playing them without the extra help to make the game easier. Recently I'm playing the New Super Mario Bros. Wii and I am tearing my hair out over some of it as there is no game enhancer for the Wii. I don't see how any kid could seriously play most Mario games as many of them just challenged me too much.

I'm trying to think of platformers that were NOT too hard for me from the 8 and 16 bit classic era and I'm having a hard time. I went with all the popular titles and most of them required me to use a game genie and a Nintendo Power to beat.

Before that era, I remember annoying kid bait stuff like Commodore 64's Transformers and Colecovision Smurfs that are still impossible for me to beat today. Yet I somehow I was able to understand and beat E.T. many times as a child of 10. How very strange.

[Leo_A]

There is a Spongebob platformer for the Wii with some tricky sections. My family often is babysitting for a 4 year old that loves videogames, so we're always playing games when he's here. He has this game that he loves but can't really play well at that age so he has me play while he tells me what direction to go in and such.

But there's one section on a large gear wheel pretty early on that is pretty tricky and I died an embaressing number of times on it before getting by. And I'm someone that has no trouble playing through most any platformer in 2d or 3d.

[jordandavid]

by the 'can't wait to be king level' are we talking about roaring at those monkeys to get them to throw you in the right sequence and jumping on those wildabeast tails or whatever they were?

the teenage mutant ninja turtles game with that water level where you had to avoid getting shocked

and A Boy and His Blob. what kid has any idea what to do in that game???

[MachineGex]

Toy Story for the SNES was very difficult. It looked great, but was very frustrating.

[TheGam3r]

The Harry Potter games especially Chamber of secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban, my brother had to return prisoner of azkaban because it was so hard for him but we kept chamber of secrets.

[ReTrO-pLaYeR]

Recently I'm playing the New Super Mario Bros. Wii and I am tearing my hair out over some of it as there is no game enhancer for the Wii. I don't see how any kid could seriously play most Mario games as many of them just challenged me too much.


Really? I finished Super Mario World as a kid in third grade, and probably got through the secret world (after Star Road) with a lot of practice. I find practically every platformer to be easy enough, aside from Ghosts 'N' Goblins. I recently played Super Alfred Chicken for SNES, and although it's considered difficult I never had too much trouble. By the time I cleared it (granted I got the bad ending) I have around 50 extra men remaining.

As a 14 year old.I fiund NSMB Wii to be pathetically easy. I finished the damn thing (without all the star coins) 3 days after I got it, with maybe 97 lives stockpiled and not even coming close to activating Super Guide. A week later, I got all the star coins and extra routes. I know you don't believe me, but I ALWAYS played games for hours on end as a kid- and most of them being platformers I know all of the tricks they can throw at you.

When I was in sixth grade I got that TMNT game for NES. The water level got me stumped for maybe a day but then I got all the way to the interior of the Technodrome (still haven't beat that part) by a week. That's probably because I found a map of the water level on Gamefaqs and of course all you had back then was a friend to tell you or Nintendo Power.

When I first started playing Mario as a seven year old (beginning with SMB3), I was PWNED by every enemy when I would boot it up. Nowdays, I can beat any of them very easily.

[jb143]

by the 'can't wait to be king level' are we talking about roaring at those monkeys to get them to throw you in the right sequence and jumping on those wildabeast tails or whatever they were?


Yup, that's the part. My wife was actually playing it last week and got stuck there so I pulled out my nomad to see if I could catch up and pass her up. We ended up both playing and replaying the same level at the same time over and over again to no avail. It was pretty funny and frustrating at the same time.

[UnpluggedClone]

google 4 gaga

[CDiablo]

What? The Capcom Disney games were some of the easiest on the system.

Cant speak on all of them, but I did beat Duck Tales with the giant pile of gold coins ending many, many times. I had a bitch of a time with Rescue Rangers though, still do to this day.

OT: To this day I still find Adventure Island to be a massive pain in the ass. I beat it using a emulator and like a 1000 quicksaves. Caveman kid with skateboard=definite kid aimed game.

[jordandavid]

As a 14 year old.I fiund NSMB Wii to be pathetically easy. I finished the damn thing (without all the star coins) 3 days after I got it, with maybe 97 lives stockpiled and not even coming close to activating Super Guide. A week later, I got all the star coins and extra routes.

When I was in sixth grade I got that TMNT game for NES. The water level got me stumped for maybe a day but then I got all the way to the interior of the Technodrome (still haven't beat that part) by a week.

Super Mario Bros. Wii (including collecting all of the star coins) is really pretty easy, but nonetheless still a great solid addition to the smb platformers. When playing it I couldn't get over how similar the graphics were to super mario world for snes.

I'm talking about playing that TMNT when I was probably 4 or 5 years old and I haven't played it since. I know it's a common game, but it hasn't really showed up in any lots of NES games and I haven't felt like buying it individually. I'm sure now I could figure it out after a few tries.

[ryborg]

I had a bitch of a time with Rescue Rangers though, still do to this day.

For real? I'm absolutely not a video game master by any definition, but I remember CRUSHING that game as a kid. I can still beat it without dying in a pinch. I honestly think the first Chip N Dale game is one of the easiest I've ever played (not counting games in which you can't die, like Tigger's Honey Hunt).

[UnpluggedClone]

google 4 gaga

[j_factor]

and A Boy and His Blob. what kid has any idea what to do in that game???

I think it's the opposite actually. Most adults (who haven't played the game before) would either rush to GameFAQs or quickly give up on that game. The only way any of us ever figured that game out was by being a little kid with a lot of free time, and playing the game over and over where you just mess around until you figure things out. At least, that's what I did. If was playing that game for the first time today, I'd probably give up on it after about 10 minutes.

I think that goes for difficulty too. As a kid, I had a huge amount of patience for ridiculously difficult games. I would just keep trying for hours. Nowadays, I still enjoy hard games, but it had better have damn perfect controls and clear objectives. If something came out today that was like Castlevania 1, with its poor jump controls, slow response on switching directions, and inability to jump off stairs -- and many deaths resulting from these -- I wouldn't give it the time of day. But as a child I mastered that game.

[kupomogli]

Also, Duck Tales wasn't the easiest Nes game in the world either.


Cant speak on all of them, but I did beat Duck Tales with the giant pile of gold coins ending many, many times. I had a bitch of a time with Rescue Rangers though, still do to this day.

OT: To this day I still find Adventure Island to be a massive pain in the ass. I beat it using a emulator and like a 1000 quicksaves. Caveman kid with skateboard=definite kid aimed game.

Like ryborg I had absolutely no problem with these games. Infact as a kid I know for sure that I could beat Duck Tales in a single life. That's one of my favorite games on the NES. Rescue Rangers was easier than Duck Tales.

But Adventure Island. Even though I like the games. I've still never beaten any of them. I really haven't put too much time into them and eventually stop playing after dying once or twice. If they have passwords I don't remember, but never write passwords down anyways. Adventure Island 2 is my favorite. I actually beat the first boss.

[Berserker]

For real? I'm absolutely not a video game master by any definition, but I remember CRUSHING that game as a kid. I can still beat it without dying in a pinch. I honestly think the first Chip N Dale game is one of the easiest I've ever played (not counting games in which you can't die, like Tigger's Honey Hunt).

When I was younger, I had a pretty sweet deal worked out with my dad - if I "conquered" a game, he would buy me a new one. Keeping in mind that I was pretty young at the time (6-7), and the games I played tended to be fairly difficult, this averaged out to about a new game every month.

One weekend morning, I woke up to find that my dad had bought a new game for me: Rescue Rangers. I sat down in front of the TV and started into it. I liked the cartoon, and the game was pretty fun, so I kept playing it pretty much all day. Just around when it was time to go to bed, that same day, I beat it.

The deal was pretty much over after that.

[YoshiM]

When people are thinking "children", is the general thought "younger than 8"? A lot of those games that were mentioned as being hard I think are geared to those 8 and up. Can't say for sure (haven't looked at a package for kids games) but from what I've seen and experienced, that seems to be the case.

As someone mentioned: as a kid you can have a LOT of free time to play games. I used to get my butt handed to me in Spider Fighter when I was 7 years old or so. With practice, I got better. One's patience level was general higher as a kid because of that free time, so even if a game was hard you didn't feel the need to rush.

[c2000]

All the recent Sonic games, especially unleashed.

[jcalder8]

I'd say most games that are aimed at children can't be beaten by them. The reason for this, in my opinion, is that they are poorly made so there are aspects about them that make it too hard: poor hit detection, poor controls, unclear level design... you name it kid's games suffer from it. That's because 95% of them are rushed through development, what's new with kids changes so rapidly that they have to rush the games out the door or no one will buy them.

[shopkins]

Finally beat that damn Scooby Doo game. It got even more frustrating towards the end. I'm going to go cool off with something more relaxing and easygoing, like Demon's Souls

jcalder8 is definitely right in this case. The Scooby Doo game could have been made much easier with a little more playtesting and tweaking. The biggest difficulty is just getting Scooby Doo to correctly land in some of the more ridiculous jumps you do. Because the game has locked camera angles sometimes you're looking at 3D platforms from angles where you can barely see the top of them, so it's easy to just jump to either side and to your doom. The locked down angle also makes a door near the end that you need to go in to win so hard to see it might as well be invisible.

[PentiumMMX]

I'd have to mention Bomberman Hero, on the N64.

While not aimed toward kids in the same sense as Spongebob or The Lion King, it caught my attention as a kid because it looked cool. I played it, and loved every minute...up to the first fight against Nitros; a reoccurring boss in the game. I simply couldn't beat him; he'd effortlessly dodge any of my attacks while pounding away at me. It was so bad, that I literally had nightmares over not being able to beat him.

It wasn't until 2008 (Nearly 10 years after it came out), when I decided to give it a try again. I finally figured out his weakness (He's left vulnerable when he's charging his attacks), and proceeded to rip him a new one; so satisfying, getting back at that one boss after all those years...

[kedawa]

I'm not sure if I would consider it a kid's game, but Fantasia for Genesis is absurd, especially when compared to the other Mickey Mouse games for the system.

[allyourblood]

I think it's the opposite actually. Most adults (who haven't played the game before) would either rush to GameFAQs or quickly give up on that game. The only way any of us ever figured that game out was by being a little kid with a lot of free time, and playing the game over and over where you just mess around until you figure things out. At least, that's what I did. If was playing that game for the first time today, I'd probably give up on it after about 10 minutes.

I think that goes for difficulty too. As a kid, I had a huge amount of patience for ridiculously difficult games. I would just keep trying for hours. Nowadays, I still enjoy hard games, but it had better have damn perfect controls and clear objectives. If something came out today that was like Castlevania 1, with its poor jump controls, slow response on switching directions, and inability to jump off stairs -- and many deaths resulting from these -- I wouldn't give it the time of day. But as a child I mastered that game.

Exactly this.

I beat several games as a kid (8-11 years old or so) that I haven't had the patience to beat since. I used to be great at Fester's Quest, RoboCop, TMNT, Rygar, Ninja Gaiden I & II and completed all of them in my youth (and dozens more). Hand me any of those today, and while I remember all the patterns and tricks, my timing and execution is absolutely not what it used to be.

My nephew is 9 years old, and he's really good at pretty much any game he plays. His brain seems to be firing on a completely different level than mine today. Sitting quietly and watching him play for an hour or so, I find that when he does get to a part that he can't pass quickly, he will try again, and again, and again, and again!, until he finds the correct timing and solution to succeed. I confess that I don't have that kind of patience today, but you can bet I did when I was 9.

As for giving up, no way. When I was a kid, my mom couldn't afford to buy me games very often, so they only came home on birthdays and Christmas. Anything else I had to save up for. Saving up $50-$60 for one game when you're 9 or 10 years old (back in the late eighties) in a low income family was a brutal exercise. Once it came home, it didn't matter how hard it was; I never gave up and completed every game I owned, period. When game rentals became popular, I applied that same mentality and spent hours on hours making sure I finished a game before returning it a few days later (not always successful on this one, but the majority of the time).

Now I've got less time and too many games, so I often have to force myself to complete stuff; even the newer titles that aren't nearly as difficult as the older games.

[Baloo]

I'm not sure if I would consider it a kid's game, but Fantasia for Genesis is absurd, especially when compared to the other Mickey Mouse games for the system.

This is though, that game is HORRIBLY made. One of the worst Genesis games, hands down. Total POS.

That's like saying Silver Surfer, or Who Framed Roger Rabbit, or X-men on NES are too hard for children to beat. Well yeah, because they're shitty games.

I think that really is the problem as someone mentioned above. A lot of Children's games just suck hard. Capcom did some excellent ones on the NES though, as did Sega. Disney licensed games are almost always good. Fantastia and Lion King are really the only exceptions here.

[kupomogli]

How about Battletoads. Definitely aimed for kids.

http://spacelordsrants.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/battletoads.jpg

The GI Joe games are fairly difficult. Also Batman, though the time it came out it really wasn't aimed at kids.

[j_factor]

This is though, that game is HORRIBLY made. One of the worst Genesis games, hands down. Total POS.

That's like saying Silver Surfer, or Who Framed Roger Rabbit, or X-men on NES are too hard for children to beat. Well yeah, because they're shitty games.

I think that really is the problem as someone mentioned above. A lot of Children's games just suck hard. Capcom did some excellent ones on the NES though, as did Sega. Disney licensed games are almost always good. Fantastia and Lion King are really the only exceptions here.

Adventures in the Magic Kingdom (NES) is pretty shitty and way too hard.

[megasdkirby]

Rayman, IMO.

The game is great, but WAY to hard for a little kid.