The Hardest Games

[Isegrim]

Well, I 1 cced Ghosts and Goblins on the NES and my version isn't the NES one, it's the Famicom version with no native continue feature. I had to win it legit on my actual Famicom. I only discovered it did have a continue code but only after I did my legit run.

There's also Ghouls and Ghosts and Super Ghouls and Ghosts on the Genesis and Super NES but I found those easier to 1 cc compared to the original GNG.

I also did my Shadow of the Beast run on an actual Amiga and I had to wait for 5 minutes between games. I don't know if it was my Amiga or copy or if it really runs that way but it was a pain playing it over and over again.

Crazy Climber on the Famicom was another insanely difficult game. It plays differently from the arcade game but you still need two d-pads to climb just like the arcade one uses two joysticks. The normal levels aren't the hard ones, it's when you unlock the special buildings that the difficulty goes ballistic. It's one of those games where some dependence on luck is needed due to the randomly super fast windows that close. Normally, you could out climb those windows but there are portions where you need to climb backwards which is slow and you have to shuffle your hands one at a time, then do a simulataneous stick shift that can get wonky to shift down. All the while praying a window won't close on your hands while doing this. I did my 1 cc run on this game as well on my Famicom and I think it was one of the most difficult games I played.

Yes, all of the harder games I mastered were mostly old games. My reflexes were faster then.

The only "difficult" game I play nowadays is the Monster Hunter series with Monster Hunter Wilds as my current regular. Difficult is in quotation marks since too much of it is beginner friendly for most of the vets but Capcom has been adding some challenging content lately with more to come.

 

[JustLooking123]

I had Taz-Mania on real console and had beaten it there when i was a kid!
Yeah... took years to do so!

About hardest games i have played... i think the most unfair and broken game would be Dragon Lair (nes)...
I couldn't beat it even with save states!

Another is Touhou 1 - Highly Responsive to Prayers (PC98)
I still haven't beaten it...

Another is Pitfall - The Mayan Adventure (md)
I have beaten it with the help of save states... but it was brutal!

Also, you might want to test The Addams Family (md) too!

 

[depes]

It has to be Lobotomy Corporation!

It's a real time management simulator where you have to manage SCP-like monsters in exchange for energy. The catch is that every single one has it's own quirks, likes certain types of work done on them, and can escape if not managed properly (some are on a countdown, some escape if your agents get killed, some do it just because). The game lasts 50 days, and every day you have to choose a new abnormality to manage (without knowing anything about it) from a choice of three. Each little square is a different creature with it's own rules, so you can imagine the kind of brain power you need for the last few days in the game.

If your characters die, you lose them permanently, and they have levels they can raise in order to be able to work on more dangerous abnos. Sometimes you'll finish a day near perfectly only for one of your favorite agents to die, and have to choose between restarting that day or bite the bullet. The last few days are hellish, but playing this game all the way through is worth it, the absurd difficulty is intended and it integrates it amazingly in the story. It's that kind of game that you'll either love or hate, honestly. The story is also really, really good. Give it a try someday!

 

[Bakuma1997]

People tend to call FF II (The famicom one) a hard game, the truth is, compared to the OG NES release of 1, that game is hell way easier, FF1 on the NES was experimental, and it shows in some parts:

Healing with potions is a chore, let alone buying them, you are limited to NINE spell uses per tier (The system isn't bad perse, FF III fixes it by letting you have lots of uses per tier) and equipping stuff is a guess game where you will go check the menu EVERYTIME you equip a weapon, also Weapons and Armor don't share space with the items, so you only have room for 16 items per category, better bring a Black Belt, even without that, some mechanics are broken in a "Not work" way, such as INT not actually improving magic and some spells being bugged in detrimental ways

Fortunately the remakes put the game in line with the future games

 

[stealthRUSH stealthRUSH]

 

[legsrjust4show]

For me, I've never beaten Altered Beast or Taz-Mania for Sega Genesis. Pretty shameful as well considering Altered Beast only has 5 levels! I know there're harder games out there than those though...

You gotta hop back on Altered Beast. It's definitely a game that throws everything at you nonstop, but it's not really hard with a buddy. I've played through it many times and the ridiculous nature of the entire game is so funny.

 

[Kamako]

...Yes, all of the harder games I mastered were mostly old games. My reflexes were faster then...

That's some seriously tough vg accolades you just threw out there! I absolutely agree that the original G'n'G is harder than the MD one. I haven't played the SNES one yet but it's on the list.

Never played Crazy Climbers, but any games that requires simultaneously using two controllers is pretty brutal.

Never played a Monster Hunter game, but good to hear the series still offers a challenge.

...About hardest games i have played... i think the most unfair and broken game would be Dragon Lair (nes)...

Dragon's Lair the arcade game looks like a really fun film but a terrible game...I'm gonna play it and enjoy the suffering lol.

Never played Touhou, but bullet hell games look nigh-impossible to beat as an outsider. No doubt it's hard as granite.

Can't say I've heard of Pitfall, but Addams Family may be amongst the first games I ever emu'd! I enjoyed the openness of the mansion, but never got very far. May have to return to it.

Post automatically merged: Jul 13, 2025

It has to be Lobotomy Corporation!...

Ahhh business management sims. Always a tough sell for me, as are rogue-like elements, but! I take your word on the difficulty, and I'm sure if I played it, I'd get hooked. Did you ever play that SCP game where you had to descend down a staircase for like 500 floors, avoiding instant death traps? That looked like a tough game to beat also!

...FF1 on the NES was experimental, and it shows in some parts...

I love the Final Fantasy series. I'd like to say I've beaten every mainline title one day. I often hear of 2's legndary difficulty and final dungeon crawl, but I never knew about the spell limitation in FF1...hmmm. I have heard that some spell effects simply do not work as intended, and one of the faster ways to level up is actually to attack your own party under certain conditions. I'll try and play it straight first and then lean on tricks like that if the grind becomes unbearable xD

Post automatically merged: Jul 13, 2025

I like that the author says playing Ninja Gaiden is akin to a dance. Some of my favourite games ever feel that way. Where perfect play has a consistent rhythm or tempo that can be mastered.

You gotta hop back on Altered Beast...

It's a game that I've been meaning to beat my whole life, so it's probably gonna be one of the next games I play. :) Will let you know how I get on.