What is the hardest game ever?

[Barbarianoutkast85]

My vote goes for any of the following;
Ghosts and Goblins
Xmen 2: Clone Wars
Warlock
I dont know, those are just some games off the top of my head that drive me insane.

[Kamisama]

Mushihimesama!

[Chris]

I think Actraiser 2 is one of the hardest games, as is the arcade version of Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo.
There was also this Ren & Stimpy title that couldn't be finished cause of a bug.

[Sparkster]

Actraiser 2 was definitely a difficult game, but once you got the hang of things, it can be done.

P.S. make good use out of your magic (the one where you hold up).

[bangtango]

funny note about bayou billy, konami decided to "tweak" the dificulty for the us version, nearly making it unplayable. the original japanese version is much more fair and thusly far more enjoyable to play,

plus it has two differnt endings

I beleive it was called mad city for anyone interested.

I never beat Bayou Billy until I bought a Game Genie. Infinite lives and energy, or some code like that, finally did the trick. One of the fighting stages was particularly tough, one of the shooting stages was quite tough and all of the driving stages were a pain.

[KingCobra]

I-K-A-R-U-G-A !!!

This game kicks 90% of the gamers to the curb, if you don't play it enough to open the free credits that shits traded up, and Super MonkeyBall games. There were stacks of that game traded up within a week of it's release

[Shrooin]

Troddlers for the Super Nintendo. Does anyone know how to play it? It seems that you only get 1 or 2 seconds to finish the level and in that time all I can do is fall off a platform, lol!

[50TBRD]

I have to think that the true classics are the toughest to beat. They weren't meant be beaten like most newer games. Either they get so fast that it's almost impossible to keep up or they just never end. Centiped, Millipede, Missile Command, Asteroids, Galaga, Galaxian, etc. The games on the Vectrex are the same way. Minestorm, Fortress of Narzod, WEB WARS, Scramble, Star Trek, Cosmic Chasm, Berzerk, Armor Attack. Every last one of them just gets faster and faster until you can't physically keep up.

[rbudrick]

Ninja Gaiden only took me a week to beat, though I got to the last level in a day, lol. I used to be able to beat it on one life. Same with Mega Man.

Bayou Billy has an extremely difficult first level, but after that it's pretty smooth sailing, if you know the trick to beating the last bosses and ace the driving and shooting stages. It's really not that hard...only took me a couple of days, iirc.

Ghosts n Goblins is damn hard, but it's got nothing on Holy Diver. Holy Diver will make you KILL somebody, but it's such a good game. You will never beat Holy Diver. That game is almost impossible with save states.

Hydlide is also very easy. It's a very short RPG if you know what to do. It's like a shitty Ys with really bad graphics, but I like the game.

Takeshi's Challenge (Famicom). 'Nuff said.

Holy crap! Is there a translation for this?
-Rob

[bangtango]

Ninja Gaiden only took me a week to beat, though I got to the last level in a day, lol. I used to be able to beat it on one life.
-Rob

This may seem weird but Ninja Gaiden was a lot easier when I was just a kid growing up. I got to the point where I could breeze through the game, when I was gaming all day long during school vacations.

It never got harder until I went back to it after I got older. These days, I always read on message boards about how hard stage 6-2 is. I've been reading it so long that this "tidbit" is now in my head. Now when I play through Ninja Gaiden, I always feel this tremendous pressure when I start stage 6-2. Instead of being a little more laidback and not thinking so much, like I did in the past, I feel like I am about to fail (die) at any given moment.

Same with Mike Tyson in his version of Punch Out. I never had any trouble with him but all of my friends did growing up and they still do. I doubt I know a single person locally who ever beat him, to this day. At least among my friends and acquaintances. I hear about how hard Mike Tyson is so often from my friends who still own an NES that now I struggle to beat him sometimes when I used to paste him regularly.

Anyone else suffer from this type of thing? Where excessive word of mouth starts to put doubt in your mind and affect your performance in a game?

[rbudrick]

Hmmm, I'm not one to fall for the hype, Bangtango, especially when I already know the truth of something. By the way, I've got this bridge if you wanna buy it, lol.

Maybe it's just harder because reflexes wane as you age. I dunno. Being older sucks sometimes. I often wonder where all the time I used to have for games went. I think that's the crappiest thing about aging...everyone's got a piece of your time, leaving you little time for games, hah!

-Rob

[Porksta]

One of IGN's recent Top 10 lists was the hardest games of all time, I am just too lazy to link to it, but it is easy to find.

Wasn't there some helicopter game that just kept running on a loop?

[bangtango]

Hmmm, I'm not one to fall for the hype, Bangtango, especially when I already know the truth of something. By the way, I've got this bridge if you wanna buy it, lol.

Maybe it's just harder because reflexes wane as you age. I dunno. Being older sucks sometimes. I often wonder where all the time I used to have for games went. I think that's the crappiest thing about aging...everyone's got a piece of your time, leaving you little time for games, hah!

-Rob

That could be it. I don't have the free time or reflexes that I once did.

I can still beat all of the same games I did when I was younger but I wouldn't put videos of some of these performances on YouTube. Do they have a category for "Washed Up 8-Bit Gamer" or "Washed Up 80's Gamer"? Maybe I'll post the video of me needing all three lives to struggle through the fourth palace in Zelda II this afternoon.

[j_factor]

Wasn't there some helicopter game that just kept running on a loop?

I think Super Cobra loops? I don't know, it's ridiculously hard as it is.

[Clownzilla]

The hardest game I have EVER played was an NES game by the name of
"Hardy McHard in Hardville".

[bangtango]

Wasn't there some helicopter game that just kept running on a loop?

Tiger Heli?

[Nesboy43]

Rescue the Embassy Mission for NES

[calthaer]

I'm going to throw out there: "Super Hunchback" for the original Game Boy.

It was a platformer whose rather obtuse physics required extremely precise control all the time...and it had no saves or reloading or anything. I'm sure very few people here have ever played it...and I'd encourage the rest of you not to go out of your way to do so.

[-dustburn-]

Gaires for the Genesis. Hot damn.

[Ro-J]

Any of the Swordquest games for the 2600. I've owned Fireworld and Earthworld for at least two decades and have never won either one.