Favourite games too hard for their own good

[Drixxel]

Everyone likes a good challenge, but some games push the boundaries of sanity. What are some titles you love in spite of (or because of) their extreme difficulty? These need not be games seen as universally impossible, just to you. Hell, if you just can't get your thumbs around a hadouken, vent away!

The first that springs to mind for me is..

Spider-Man/X-Men: Arcade's Revenge, SNES

Good god, this game has bested me for years. I would keep coming back to Arcade's Revenge throughout my childhood in hopes of beating it, gradually working out strategies for each character's stages, but doing the whole thing start-to-finish on a console stands as a feat practically unimaginable.

[Hardcore]

Ninjer Gaiden III.

[thom_m]

I always have a hard time around Captain Comic, for the NES - a game that a happen to like a lot. And Battletoads, obviously.

[sidnotcrazy]

Great Thread. There are so many games that I have labored to get to the end, to only be frustrated half way through the adventure.

Super Ghouls & Ghosts
Gradius 3

I will list some more later.

[Scream And Fly]

NES Ghosts N' Goblins. I can't win it, yet somehow the game beckons me for more torture at least once each year. 20 years later, and I still enjoy the sweet pain of defeat. I'll beat it someday.

[namzep]

NES Ghosts N' Goblins. I can't win it, yet somehow the game beckons me for more torture at least once each year. 20 years later, and I still enjoy the sweet pain of defeat. I'll beat it someday.

I'll have to agree with this. I could clear a couple of levels but could never get close to beating the damn thing. I'm half tempted to use cheats to get to the end of it.

I'll add the NES Mega Man games (especially 2, I think). I think I finally beat one of them a few years back and was so happy.

[Iron Draggon]

Iron Man & XO Manowar in Heavy Metal for the Saturn... I've never gotten past the first stage in this game, because I'm still stuck on the part where you fall down a shaft and fight a few enemies at the bottom... presumably there's supposed to be a way out after you kill all the enemies, but I've never figured out what it is... and you have to fall down that shaft, as far as I know... I've never felt so shafted by any other game before... I remember my excitement bubble getting popped the day I got this game when it was first released, after paying full price for it, just to get stuck on the very first level!

[StakeRaiser]

Battletoads

[Pezcore343]

Ghouls 'n' Ghosts. Definitely my favorite of that series but I don't I've personally ever gotten past the second level. Also Bangai-O, althought the one I've played is Bangai-O Spirits for DS. I felt so accomplished just getting through the tutorial on that game.

[skaar]

Double Dragon III - we'd rent it every few weekends to try again. Son of a bitch never got finished though.

Bionic Commando was my friend's nemesis, but I'd mastered the thing

Those skills didn't carry over too well to the new one yet... sadly. I need to go back to it.

[bo0naka]

The first that springs to mind for me is..

Spider-Man/X-Men: Arcade's Revenge, SNES

Oh God, I remember playing this with my brother over and over again. We each took turns on characters levels, trying to learn them and do them as best as possible. Finally, one day, we make it to Arcade. The moment the level loaded and we were about to fight him...the game FROZE.

We never played the game again.

[Lady Jaye]

Gradius III+IV on the PS2, Final Fantasy III DS (not FFIII SNES)...

FFIII DS has got to be the toughest RPG I've ever played. No wonder they didn't release it back in the day on the NES!

[skaar]

Gauntlet NES too - never got through that one either.

[Pantechnicon]

Gravitar. I've never gotten past the first world in the arcade version but I still play the hell out of it on MAME.

[shopkins]

Battletoads could easily be the best beat-em-up on the NES, IMO, but the psychotic difficulty of the hoverbike and similar stages ruins it for me. They knew they were making it too tough, right? Or did they have super-skilled playtesters?

I agree with Arcade's Revenge, too. Sure I could beat some of the individual stages, but doing them all together in one go was just a ridiculous task. I remember thinking I had done well to get to the end of the second Spider-Man level, although I got killed there. It was so disappointing to me when I was a kid because I was such a big comic book fan.

Speaking of which, the Silver Surfer NES game is also way too hard. I beat it but I had to use a level skip code, and maybe some others. I know I used an infinite continues code to get through the main levels. And the Punisher game is unreasonable, too.

I always thought Bayou Billy was too hard for me. I didn't have too much trouble with the driving and shooting, but the last beat-em-up level just overwhelmed me. Some kid brought a Game Genie to my friend's house and I played it with that and it was still difficult to get through it for me.

I think, however, that the difficulty is the main reason Ghost N' Goblins is well-remembered. Make it significantly easier and what you've got left doesn't seem that special to me. Also, I've played and practiced it until I can get to the second part of the third level, and I'll say that it seems to me like it's a game that's hard for the wrong reasons. Screwy jumps and enemies, the red demons, whose patterns are so random that it at least seems that sometimes there's no way to avoid a hit. Super Ghouls and Ghosts on the SNES was prettier and, I think, played better. I beat the first quest in that one, but it was still hard and there was no way in hell I was going through it a second time.

Gauntlet also is probably a little too hard, but it was one of the few NES games I owned growing up so I had to beat it. Bionic Commando's last boss made me as frustrated as just about any game had made me, but I loved the game so much I kept playing until I beat it.

In the modern era I really liked playing the PS2 Shinobi and the Xbox Ninja Gaiden Black, but it got to a point where I just had to admit that both were beyond my skill level.

[Coleman]

Well...

In response to the Hardest RPG Ever - Ultima Exous on the NES - Could never get past those damn gremlins stealing my food in the cave where you cant see.

Might and Magic got pretty nasty at the end as well what with the invisable Dungeon and all... And if you like your RPG's with puzzles go play Alundra for the PSX with no cheats!

And who can forget Contra?

The Mega Man X series was pretty insane for the NES...

But for me it was always Smash TV - Has ANYONE reached the end of this insanity?

[pseudonym]

-Solomon's Key for the NES.
-Ecco The Dolphin for the Genesis. The sequel Tides of Time is pretty hard too.
-Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts for the SNES. The most annoying part is the second quest where you have to find and keep that bracelet to get to the real final boss. It doesn't help that the bracelet sucks and makes the game 10x harder while you're using it.

[Xander]

I always thought Final Fantasy II on the famicom was the hardest rpg on the market.

Battletoads is GAH. I'm on my fourth partner for this game. They keep quitting on me -.-, but we finally got past the first racing level!

I think tons of NES games are too hard for their own good.

[NoahsMyBro]

Word for word :

Gravitar. I've never gotten past the first world in the arcade version but I still play the hell out of it on MAME.

[aclbandit]

FFIII DS has got to be the toughest RPG I've ever played. No wonder they didn't release it back in the day on the NES!

Really? I didn't think so.

My pick here would be Dragon Warrior/Quest II on the NES/Famicom. Because wtf dragons? In a low-level dungeon? REALLY?
Needless to say, this one took me a while.