Your Top 10 Hardest Old Video Games EVER

[Laice07]

I was at my friends house the other night, and after I hijacked his computer (which I always do, I mean come on, he's so nice it's really easy) I stumbled on some old arcade games on his computer which got me thinking about a bunch of really old hard video games. So instead of reading my Pysch notes, I've created a list of my top 10 hardest old video games ever. Here they are, the reasons most kids our age are so short-tempered and violent ( ):

By the way this is just my top 10! What are yours??

10. Asteroids-Atari:

The saga of old games that cause controller smashing begins. Old games are known to be easy to learn, yet impossible to master. Nowhere is this evident than in the deceptively easy first few levels of asteroid. But beyond that, those dirty dirty identical asteroids gang up on your poor little triangle ship faster than you can say "holy crap those dirty dirty little identical asteroids ganged up on my poor little triangle ship!"

9. Defenders of Oasis-Game Gear:

This is an old RPG that my friend once had for his Game Gear(he should of got a Gameboy). Now I know you're saying, "dude WTF you n00b every1 nos all you gots to do is level up a whole bunch ROFL." But you're wrong, I don't care how many times you level up, the bosses on this game are STILL going to kick your trash until you rip the AC adaptor out of the wall (cuz seriously, game gears go through AA batteries like the forum goes through zingers)

8. Metal Gear-NES:

No, not the one you played on Playstation. The original metal gear series was for the good old Nintendo Entertainment System, the system that brought us several other frustrating titles. Anyway in yesterday's adventure, our hero Snake heads into the mercenaries' base "Outer Heaven" with the objective of destroying Metal Gear and rescuing fellow operative Grey Fox. But don't get spotted. Seriously. Don't get spotted. Oh and if someone has figured out how to kill that @%&%! tank, please let me know.

7. Batman-NES:

Hoooooo yeah. This game starts out pretty easy, and you have a surprisingly robust assortment of weapons and moves (my personal favorite was the boomerang). So you're going along, busting the baddies of Gotham city, thinking "hey, crime fighting is a breeze" when BAM! You hit the little machine room kill batman at all costs boss thingy at the end of stage 3. Even if you do make it out alive, (I threw a party after I pulled it off) chances are good you'll be using a continue in the next stage…and guess what that entails? Yeah, losing all your weapons. Now all you got is Batman's trusty fist. And yeah, the fist kicks some serious butt, but getting close enough to use it this late in the game isn't possible. So you die really fast until you run out of continues. Then you cry. Hats off to anyone who beat this game.

6. Sky Shark-NES:

This game is so tough, it says "nobody ever said it would be easy" right on the cartridge. Need I say more?

5. Ghosts 'N Goblins-NES:

Now you're probably thinking "how could a game where the protagonist is in his skivvies possibly be one of the most difficult games of yesterday? You haven't played it before, have you? You're going up against SATAN, man. Not just somebody under his influence, you're fighting the man himself. And of course he's got a whole bunch of nasty monsters that will turn you into a pile of bones with nothing more than a tap on your shoulder. Not only do you have to brawl with Satan, when you finally do him in, turns out you get to go through the whole game again to REALLY beat it. I guess that first Satan was nothing more than a dirty trick. Gotcha!

4. The Empire Strikes Back-NES:

Anybody who thinks Luke Skywalker acted like a sissy in The Empire Strikes Back needs to play this game. I'll admit I thought that whole "NOOOOOO!" screaming thing and jumping into a bottomless pit did make him sound like quite a pansy, but after playing this game, I realized I would've done the same thing much earlier. That Hoth was quite a nasty planet, indeed.

3. Ninja Gaiden-NES and a host of other systems:

The only way Ninja Gaiden could be more difficult would be to find a group of ninjas and pay them to go find people who bought the game and fight them in between levels. Probably be less painful, too.

2. Contra-NES, SNES

You'd think it would be a bit easier with two people playing together, all you get is bruises by your friend because you couldn't dodge bullets coming behind, in front and above you.

1. R-Type-Game Boy:

Never beat this game, instead I threw it over a lake. What more could I have done?? Lose another 500X in the same godforsaken final level.

Well those are my hardest games ever, some honourable mentions goes to the Super star wars games for SNES, and the Megaman series.

[FLiam]

I can't think of a top ten, but Ninja Gaiden was indeed FUCKING hard.

I found Another World on the mega drive hard too, might have been because I sucked though, not sure.

Also, Bart vs. The Space Mutants on Amiga, I found that hard.

[stokeriño]

Ecco the FUCKING Dolphin.

I swear, I owned that game for years and never got past the second level.

I hate that dolphin SO MUCH.

...Can't think of others at the moment. My memories are populated by the fun and easy games that I liked. >_>

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

Damn what was that Zombie style game for Snes. I forget what it was called. You was some sort of young kid and you just went around at night, it was awesome. Oh and that other fighting game too which had some main Snowman guy, I suck with remembering names but these games were badass. All damn hard games, mainly that Zombie one.

Although back then the hardest for me was Sonic. Fuck it seems when I look back, I was trying to complete that for about three or so years. Heck I still am to this day I reckon.

[oldskool]

I do believe you're speaking of Zombies Ate My Neighbors and one of the Clay Fighter games, JP.

[VerbalPuke]

I'd also be hard pressed to find ten video games from those older systems that I found to be extremely hard. It's not that I didn't play well over 10 hard video games, it's simply that my memory is terrible. However, here are a few games that resulted in thrown controllers on my part.

Blaster Master (NES) - This game used to kick my ass. I could barely get past the first level, and even if I did it was on sheer luck.

The Terminator (Sega Genesis) - The first level isn't so bad if it's on EASY. It's actually a fun game, but once you enter the police station, don't expect to come out alive. Between fighting the police and the Terminator, you're bound to meet your demise sooner rather than later.

Dragon Warrior (NES) - I've always hated RPG's, but this game is definitely at the top of the list. They start you off with shitty weapons and no magic, expecting you to vanquish assorted creatures. Maybe it was just me, but I was terrible at this game and had trouble getting anywhere in it.

American Gladiators (Sega Genesis) - Ugh, where do I start with this one? The controls were terrible in this game, as trying to figure out how to climb the god damn wall or win a joust seemed to be an effort in futility. This could have been fun, but the disgustingly bad control scheme ruined it for me. Nothing like getting smoked by the CPU every single time I played.

Edited April 1, 2005 by VerbalPuke

[Laice07]

If you can't remeber then just put anything you can

One game that was super hard was the Barts Nightmare, I think thats what it was called. Very fun game.....but very hard!!

[Green Demon]

I still own Bart's Nightmare and it is indeed incredably hard. Another game that wasnt exactly hard but took forever to beat for me was Earthbound altough it was a fun game.

[thatshortguy]

In order:

10. River City Ransom

9. Battletoads

8. Super Mario Brothers 3

7. Tecmo Bowl

6. Mike Tyson's Punch-Out (DAMN YOU PISTON HONDA~!)

5. Contra

4. Ninja Gaiden

3. Bionic Commando

2. Mega Man II

1. Castlevania II: Simon's Quest

[Mick]

Pfft....MegaMan II and Contra?

Come on Midge!

J/k.

Okay, Tough Video Games up to the SNES/Genesis Era, in no order.

10) Street Fighter II: The World Warriors (ARCADE) - FUCK YOU CHUN LI, AND YOUR WHIRLWIND KICK TOO!!!!

9) Double Dragon (NES) - A cake walk until you have to fight the two Abobo's by the cave on Mission 3. Then it gets insane.

8) Metriod (NES) - Very tough, seeing how you start off with 30 units of life. That, and I just suck at the game...until I found out about Narpas Sword.....

7) The Ninja Gaiden Trilogy (NES) - This series gave me nightmares in 1st grade. I would have dreams were I'd die, and I'd here that dying music from NG...not cool.

Plus the later levels were impossible.

6) Zelda II: The Adventures of Link (NES) - Could they have made the last part of the game just a bit tougher? No, they did just fine as it was. The game was easy, a cakewalk until you have to go through the lava to get to the Grand Palace, and the Grand Palace was a fucking bitch with infinite loops, and those Hawk warriors that would jump all over the place throwing knives like they consumed 500 cups of LSD-laced Espresso. Throw in the music of the palace and Dark Link, and you have one tough home stretch.

5) WWF WrestleMania (NES) - This game had like 5 wrestlers: Savage, DiBiase, Andre, Hogan, and Bam Bam Bigelow. You didnt' wrestle, you just beat the hell out of your opponent. Usually, the opponent was beating the hell out of me instead.

4) Dragon Warrior II (NES) - Very tough, because monsters were always seemingly stronger than you. Hargon's castle was no picnic with 3 very tough bosses, followed by Hargon, then his boss, Malroth, a nasty creature that attacked twice a round and could cast "HealAll". I only beat him once.

3) Silent Service (NES) - Thank Christ I'm not a submarine captain. This game was a bitch, and I'd prefer just to forget it in general.

2) Rad Racer (NES) - You have a Ferrari. You want to go fast. Ooops. There's a turn. There's the flipping. There's an auto insurance claim. Repeat.

1) Blaster Master (NES) - I love this game, but it is a royal pain in the ass, especially with only 3 lives and no hope of getting more, and no hope of continuing. Anybody that can beat this game without cheating deserves a special medal. I believe the furthest I got (even with a Game Genie, but not on an emulator....), was the part of the game where you use the over to fly up near the start of Level One, so you can get to Level Four. I probably made it to Level Four once.....But, thanks to the Emulators, I beat the game...(It was still a bitch)

Edited April 1, 2005 by TheMick

[oldskool]

Punch-out? Come on The, you know a left to the body when he goes for the Piston Punches is a knockout! Right?

I never had problems up until Popinski; then it was Sandman, Super Macho Man and finally Mike Tyson (No Mr. Dream for me!)

[Robsturgh]

No real order or anything....

Smash TV - One of the greatest Multiplayer games of all time, but so damn difficult to do without cheating massively.

Contra - Holy shit, how hard was this game? I remember reading a magazine several years ago that rated it as the hardest game ever, and I wouldn't be suprised if the rankings havent changed.

Krusty's Fun house - Ah, a novel little game, but puzzling and frustrating to all hell.

Golden Axe Warrior - Don't get me wrong here, this game gave birth to me love everything computer game. This is probably why it was so hard, I played this game endlessly, and I mean endlessly, and I never ever managed to complete it, not till this day.

Shinobi (Mega Drive version) - What the hell? I didnt know what to do, I was confused and dying a lot, and never played it again.

Gran Turismo 3 - Many people find this game easy, I however, am absolutely shit at driving games, thus found this one hard, yet enjoyable experiance.

Double Dragon - Oh the times with this game. I think you had infinite lives until the end level, in which it got BITCH hard. This game owned/owns.

Warzone 2100 - This game owned my soul for so long. This is one fucking grand strategy game. About 40 Missions I believe. And it got hard from mission 6. SO many things to worry about at any one time. Constant attacks from any direction, the enemy producing technology faster than you, lack of cash, etc etc. So fun. You havent played it? Die.

EDIT: How could I forget Ghouls and ghosts?

Edited April 1, 2005 by Robster

[FLiam]

How could I forget Ecco?

I think I used to just spend all my time jumping out the water and over all the rocks. It was fun.

Oh yeh, and Aryton Senna's Super Monaco GP II. The qualifying for the career mode was fucking impossible, I never got higher than 15th. Out of 16.

Edited April 1, 2005 by efiL4renooG

[Guest Mr McFarlane]

Smash TV was groin-grabbingly hard, But one stormy night I played it for 9 hours with my buddy and we kicked that motherfuckers ass.

[VerbalPuke]

10. River City Ransom

9. Battletoads

8. Super Mario Brothers 3

7. Tecmo Bowl

6. Mike Tyson's Punch-Out (DAMN YOU PISTON HONDA~!)

5. Contra

4. Ninja Gaiden

3. Bionic Commando

2. Mega Man II

1. Castlevania II: Simon's Quest

Bolded for emphasis, these games were both very tough.

I liked the concept behind River City Ransom though, going through cities and buying assorted goods (food, shoes, books, etc). It's just unfortunate that the villians were even more bad ass than the main character. They liked to surround you and punch the hell out of you, giving you little chance to go on the offensive.

As for Battletoads, I could never get past the second level. I had so much trouble getting beyond the portion where you ride these gliding vehicles. I seemed to always crash and burn as the speed picked up.

Edited April 1, 2005 by VerbalPuke

[syck]

For 13 god damned years...I still can't beat Battletoads! A couple of weeks ago, I finally beat Contra and I was so happy I damn near shat myself.

[Karizma]

Double Dragon was easy, or atleast, for me.Most fighting games were, I used to trash fighting games to death.

is Bart's Nightmare that game and you get homework grades?If so, that was fucking hard, I hate that game.I fluked it half the time and ended up with a couple lucky C's and D's.

And Krusty's Funhouse was cool, I loved that game.

[Stevie B]

The Simpsons Bart's Nightmare, done my fucking head in! I was so determind to beat that game, until i woke up and realised it truly was a pile of bollocks. UGH!

[Enter Blue Guy]

Mario Bros 3 drove me nuts just for that one level with all the pipes. The one where you started at the bottom and had to work your way up.. you know. Even today it's a bitch for me to beat. It doesn't even seem that difficult, but it is. Once you make through the whole thing you're like "wow, did I really waste 3 whole days on the level, it looks so easy".

Earthbound was a bitch sometimes. For the most part it's more tricky than hard, but there are a few parts in which I wanted to throw the controller at the TV. There was one enemy which you had beat after you go through some factory and it takes little damage with even your strongest attacks. After it kicking all of my characters asses time after time, I finally found out that you needed a jar of fly honey or something to distract it while you attack, that way it doesn't attack back.

There was also a game a had for Game Boy, Krusty's Fun House (Krusty the Clown from the Simpsons fool). I thought it would be easy, but no. The first few levels were easy to complete, back after that it's hard as fuck.

I know this isn't old school, but the water temple from Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was a fucking bitch and a half. I thought the fucking temple was going to give me gray hair. It's not old school like I mentioned, but felt I needed to mention it. Goddamn, I'm going to go play Ocarina of Time to see if it really is as hard as I remember.

Edited April 2, 2005 by Enter Blue Guy

[The Sultan of Swank]

If it counts. Riven. Or Myst.