The Hardest Games

[Lee__Kanker]

Ok, maybe not completely unrivalled...I see your Sam cheeks, and I raise thee
View attachment 51308

My turn now

 

[Kamako]

My turn now

Time to bring out the big guns

 

[Lee__Kanker]

Time to bring out the big guns
View attachment 51310

 

[Big Finger Jim]

Time to bring out the big guns
View attachment 51310

WOAH that bulge

 

[Kamako]

WOAH that bulge

That Snake is Solid

 

[solnK!]

Guys, I know butts are great and all but this is not the thread´s purpose

 

[Kamako]

Guys, I know butts are great and all but this is not the thread´s purpose

Don't worry, I've gotten the booty out of my system...for now.

Back to hard games, I'm gonna sound like a broken record, but Taz-Mania for Sega Genesis, upon reaching the mines stages, gets so brutal that it actually hurts to try and play it.

This isn't even the hardest level.

The thing is as well, it's not just thoughtless level design - It's been meticulously crafted to be beatable, but totally unforgiving. Thank the lawd you can farm lives and continues near the beginning of the game.

 

[solnK!]

Don't worry, I've gotten the booty out of my system...for now.

Back to hard games, I'm gonna sound like a broken record, but Taz-Mania for Sega Genesis, upon reaching the mines stages, gets so brutal that it actually hurts to try and play it.

This isn't even the hardest level.

The thing is as well, it's not just thoughtless level design - It's been meticulously crafted to be beatable, but totally unforgiving. Thank the lawd you can farm lives and continues near the beginning of the game.

A lot of old Sega plattformers were hard as hell

 

[Kamako]

A lot of old Sega plattformers were hard as hell

Funnily enough, I did a little bit of research and discovered that the lead programmers for Taz-Mania went on to program Chakan, which has also been name-dropped on this thread for its unforgiving difficulty.

 

[TamagotchiTamaHero24's icon TamagotchiTamaHero24 TamagotchiTamaHero24]

Some of you are gonna call me pvssy but I still find DMC 3 kinda challenging.

But of course, Megaman X6, the worst designed game I´ve ever played.

X6 is pretty tough, yeah. I don’t disagree.

For me, I actually would say most rhythm games are very hard for me! Games that demand perfection out of me are usually the ones I find the hardest. It’s especially demoralizing to know that you’re just pressing a single button, but you’re still sucking at it. -_-

Pop’n Music and Space Channel 5 are rough but I get by.
I absolutely CANNOT PLAY Parappa though! I don’t know what it is! It’s genuinely too tight of a timing window for me. I think my brain gets overwhelmed by the visuals and I forget that the golden rule of rhythm games is to feel, not think.


Oh, and any dance game is incompatible with me. Love watching people play them well though. There is an ART to being good at that genre.

 

[LaserMoose]

There is an ART to being good at that genre.

I think of rhythm games the same way I think of fighting games.

For fighters, many struggle to get over the hurdles of the controls, special inputs, and combos. What makes players of the genre good is that players of a specific fighter focus on their areas of improvement by recognizing what they are doing right or wrong in a match. Losing is all apart of that learning process, and you are unable to change the difficulty setting of a multi-player game.

For rhythm games, every song can feel wildly different, like its own sort of boss fight. Similar to fighters, rhythm game players focus their efforts on difficult sections, doing so by replaying those sections of a song until they can do the entire song without failing.

Of course, other genres have this method to their madness to a degree as well, but I find these two in particular to have a greater focus on a player's individual growth.

I believe that this focus on player growth is the same reason why I enjoy Ghouls N' Ghosts so much, as well.

 

[solnK!]

Funnily enough, I did a little bit of research and discovered that the lead programmers for Taz-Mania went on to program Chakan, which has also been name-dropped on this thread for its unforgiving difficulty.

Post automatically merged: Mar 31, 2025

X6 is pretty tough, yeah. I don’t disagree.

For me, I actually would say most rhythm games are very hard for me! Games that demand perfection out of me are usually the ones I find the hardest. It’s especially demoralizing to know that you’re just pressing a single button, but you’re still sucking at it. -_-

Pop’n Music and Space Channel 5 are rough but I get by.
I absolutely CANNOT PLAY Parappa though! I don’t know what it is! It’s genuinely too tight of a timing window for me. I think my brain gets overwhelmed by the visuals and I forget that the golden rule of rhythm games is to feel, not think.


Oh, and any dance game is incompatible with me. Love watching people play them well though. There is an ART to being good at that genre.

Don´t worry, the last stages of parappa are pretty challenging

Post automatically merged: Mar 31, 2025

I think of rhythm games the same way I think of fighting games.

For fighters, many struggle to get over the hurdles of the controls, special inputs, and combos. What makes players of the genre good is that players of a specific fighter focus on their areas of improvement by recognizing what they are doing right or wrong in a match. Losing is all apart of that learning process, and you are unable to change the difficulty setting of a multi-player game.

For rhythm games, every song can feel wildly different, like its own sort of boss fight. Similar to fighters, rhythm game players focus their efforts on difficult sections, doing so by replaying those sections of a song until they can do the entire song without failing.

Of course, other genres have this method to their madness to a degree as well, but I find these two in particular to have a greater focus on a player's individual growth.

I believe that this focus on player growth is the same reason why I enjoy Ghouls N' Ghosts so much, as well.

Wise words

 

[Kamako]

I just beat Taz-Mania on Hard with no save states. Only took me 25 years

 

[solnK!]

I just beat Taz-Mania on Hard with no save states. Only took me 25 years

Better late than never

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

What if....




A game being harder doesn't mean it's necessarily better?

That's just a simple question.

 

[Kamako]

What if....A game being harder doesn't mean it's necessarily better?

I agree. Hard games aren't better or worse games by default imo. I just find them interesting for the challenge they pose.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

I agree. Hard games aren't better or worse games by default imo. I just find them interesting for the challenge they pose.

Hard games that are great just are well designed and them being hard was merely coincidental (and following the trend of its era). They just compensated their shortness with difficulty and try & die game design.

I mean even back in the 90's with 16-bits games they started getting steadily easier (Mario World is bigger but still easier than SMB3).

 

[Kamako]

Hard games that are great just are well designed

Yes, that too. And contrarily, games with artificial difficulty due to cheap enemy AI, poor controls or un-balanced damage multipliers are poorly designed. But those games fascinate me as well.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

Yes, that too. And contrarily, games with artificial difficulty due to cheap enemy AI, poor controls or un-balanced damage multipliers are poorly designed. But those games fascinate me as well.

I understand that.

But I want to pass a good time not hurting myself lol.

 

[Kamako]

I understand that.

But I want to pass a good time not hurting myself lol.

I think I'm just a bit of a masochist xD
Plus I still get a feeling of accomplishment when I beat a particularly hard game.

 

[solnK!]

Megaman X6 is almost unplayabale because how hard it is

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

I think I'm just a bit of a masochist xD
Plus I still get a feeling of accomplishment when I beat a particularly hard game.

Weirdly enough after I beat a hard game I get more of that "hollow victory" feel.

 

[Kamako]

Weirdly enough after I beat a hard game I get more of that "hollow victory" feel.

I've certainly felt that way before, but usually because the game had gone on for too long, or had a sub-par finale. Or if I beat the challenge by sheer fluke instead of mechanical mastery.

 

[Kamako]

So, as an update to this thread, I beat Chakan: The Forever Man

Thanks to @King Koopa & @Nidoking for the recommendation!

Not only was the game tough as hell, but stunningly gorgeous as well! Everything from the backgrounds, enemy sprites, and Chakan himself were all clearly made with such attention to detail. The time limit for each stage was a concern going in, but I found them to be quite reasonable in all but a few rare cases. The combat was fluid and varied and all in all I had a great time playing this game. I even managed to get all the achievements on RA! Pleased with that one.

I also (finally) finished another game that has plagued me for most of my life. Shadow of the Beast for Genesis/MD! Specifically, the ridiculously sped up US port.

(this is the only GIF I could find of the game)
​

Now, I can't in good conscience say that this port is a "good" game. The collision detection is atrocious, and the music is high-pitched and disorientating. You are given very little instruction on what to do or how to progress, and most modern gamers would (justifiably) put it down within 5 minutes of picking it up. But I stuck with it damnit, and I'm actually really pleased that I did.

I've always loved Shadow of the Beast for its incredible atmosphere and enemy designs. This is a very short game, taking no more than ~45 mins to beat from start to finish. But I estimate it has around 100 unique enemy designs. Both the visuals and the music are mesmerising. So entrenched is my stockholm syndrome for this game, that the original score now sounds unnaturally slow and mopey to me.

Unlike Chakan, which gives you unlimited lives, Shadow of the Beast gives you 12HP and a vague sense that it might possibly be beatable. Thanks to some re-spawning health potions, victory can indeed be achieved, but boy oh boy, you are going to have to work for it.

And work for it I did. And now, it is done. When the credits rolled I felt a slow wave of accomplishment. I'm likely one of less than 1000 people who have ever beaten this version of the game, and it brings me some measure of sincere joy to be able to say that I finally did it.

I still recommend anyone who reads this plays it. You'll hate it and put it down if you've got a lick of sense, but if you persevere, You too may find a game you recall fondly, whilst wincing.

 

[thanonyx thanonyx]

So, as an update to this thread, I beat Chakan: The Forever Man
View attachment 80178
Thanks to @King Koopa & @Nidoking for the recommendation!

Not only was the game tough as hell, but stunningly gorgeous as well! Everything from the backgrounds, enemy sprites, and Chakan himself were all clearly made with such attention to detail. The time limit for each stage was a concern going in, but I found them to be quite reasonable in all but a few rare cases. The combat was fluid and varied and all in all I had a great time playing this game. I even managed to get all the achievements on RA! Pleased with that one.

I also (finally) finished another game that has plagued me for most of my life. Shadow of the Beast for Genesis/MD! Specifically, the ridiculously sped up US port.

View attachment 80179

(this is the only GIF I could find of the game)
​

Now, I can't in good conscience say that this port is a "good" game. The collision detection is atrocious, and the music is high-pitched and disorientating. You are given very little instruction on what to do or how to progress, and most modern gamers would (justifiably) put it down within 5 minutes of picking it up. But I stuck with it damnit, and I'm actually really pleased that I did.

I've always loved Shadow of the Beast for its incredible atmosphere and enemy designs. This is a very short game, taking no more than ~45 mins to beat from start to finish. But I estimate it has around 100 unique enemy designs. Both the visuals and the music are mesmerising. So entrenched is my stockholm syndrome for this game, that the original score now sounds unnaturally slow and mopey to me.

Unlike Chakan, which gives you unlimited lives, Shadow of the Beast gives you 12HP and a vague sense that it might possibly be beatable. Thanks to some re-spawning health potions, victory can indeed be achieved, but boy oh boy, you are going to have to work for it.

And work for it I did. And now, it is done. When the credits rolled I felt a slow wave of accomplishment. I'm likely one of less than 1000 people who have ever beaten this version of the game, and it brings me some measure of sincere joy to be able to say that I finally did it.

I still recommend anyone who reads this plays it. You'll hate it and put it down if you've got a lick of sense, but if you persevere, You too may find a game you recall fondly, whilst wincing.

Did you know that Shadow of the Beast got 2 sequels and a 2016 remake on the PS4?