What was the hardest game you ever played and why was it the hardest?

[Elmdor Rizer]

I agree with Ghosts 'n' Goblins, mainly from a "clunky control" aspect. Batman was hard when I was a kid, but approaching it as an adult gamer made it a lot easier. Contra is... right in the middle. I haven't put much time into Contra, so I'll leave that alone.

Batman is actually really, really easy once you figure it out. You don't have to go by muscle memory like other hard games (Battletoads, Silver Surfer), you just have to observe your surroundings and know the best ways to defeat each boss, and if you find you're getting low on health, farm one of those things that drop the little claw guys until you're back at full health.

I'm going to stop nitpicking now.

I routinely beat Contra, finishing the game with more lives than I start with. Still haven't done it without dying at all though.

Front Mission 3 (Really frustrating AND time consuming)
any arcade fighting game, especially The King of Fighters (Try beat the last boss with lots of arcade addicts challenging you all the time)

You did something wrong methinks. Like, didn't upgrade weapons/parts enough, or something.

[MrFlamingo]

I would say any of the old sega console Sonic games but emulators made them much easier. The Record of Agarest War series is pretty damn tough even by tactical games standards. Not sure which one was tougher, probs the prequel.

[Graeystone]

Frustration,emo rage with Battletoads and the F#%&ing Silver Surfer ,both for NES,those things were impossible, never finished them,not even now that we have the "advantage"of cheating using "save states" with the emulators,.. so /pass. lol

Angry Video Game Nerd is that you?!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMBotGmiNv0 Silver Surfer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UD7k4mTThLYBattletoads

Hard game? Frickin' Tonelico 2. Damn guard system is a pain in the ass early on and farming/buying/creating enough heal items to cope takes forever. Came close to snapping my controller after the major boss fight that comes after choosing the girl bit.

[JohnnyTehBasterd]

You did something wrong methinks. Like, didn't upgrade weapons/parts enough, or something.

I did upgrade most of the weapons and parts most of the time, but I still couldn't beat the game.

[Izuna]

Angry Video Game Nerd is that you?!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMBotGmiNv0 Silver Surfer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UD7k4mTThLYBattletoads

No,not me,.. i mentioned these games cose i owned them and i really tried to finish them back then and never could. And i must add "low G Man" and "Abadox" for the NES,and "Equinox" for the Snes.

[shin kai]

I routinely beat Contra, finishing the game with more lives than I start with. Still haven't done it without dying at all though.

We have here a member that beats Contra before breakfast without breaking a sweat. Props to you. One day I shall achieve that level!

[FlavaFlave]

I would say any of the old sega console Sonic games but emulators made them much easier. The Record of Agarest War series is pretty damn tough even by tactical games standards. Not sure which one was tougher, probs the prequel.

I'll agree with you on this one. I picked up Zero and after 30 hours of play I somehow managed to back myself into a corner and couldn't get any further. I call bullshit on some of the battles in that game, and I'm generally pretty good at tactical RPGs. One day I'll restart the game with the knowledge I've gained, but I was really put off by the situation and have no plans to revisit it anytime soon.

[MaslowK]

We have here a member that beats Contra before breakfast without breaking a sweat. Props to you. One day I shall achieve that level!

On that note I tried playing the original Contra last night (in an emulator, no save states used though). Even with the konami code I barely managed to get past the second base level; think I lost like 24 lives trying to get through that :/

[Tacoguy123]

The hardest game I've played was Ninja Gaiden II for NES. I remember how hard the game was because of the enemy spawns, damage knock-backs, and the annoying time limit. It was still a good game though and I was finally able to beat it.

[JB-BMW1989]

My Personal one Was Ninja Gaiden Black.
So Much RAGE.
But it's kewl.
and I would say if you're too dumb to grasp the game mechanics, Resonance of Fate can kick ass.

Same with you, now I'm stuck after the journey in the aqueduct, so I'm still figuring it out on the walkthrough.

[Elmdor Rizer]

We have here a member that beats Contra before breakfast without breaking a sweat. Props to you. One day I shall achieve that level!

On that note I tried playing the original Contra last night (in an emulator, no save states used though). Even with the konami code I barely managed to get past the second base level; think I lost like 24 lives trying to get through that :/

Finally someone striving to be more like me! ^_____________^ I can die happy now etc.

[Gilfareth]

On that note I tried playing the original Contra last night (in an emulator, no save states used though). Even with the konami code I barely managed to get past the second base level; think I lost like 24 lives trying to get through that :/

Oh geez, I played Contra on an emulator a while back and spent maybe three or four hours on the first level before just getting frustrated and quitting*.

Personally, I've played lots of games I'd consider difficult, but there seems to be different kinds of difficulty. I tend to file a game's difficulty under four different categories (and I'll also list the games that for me best represent each kind of difficulty):

1. Pressure - The amount of tension the game puts the player under at the most important moments. Usually made more difficult with time limits, but visual and audio cues (AHHH MONSTER RUN RUN RUN) are also ways to jack up this kind of difficulty. Some people just don't perform well under pressure. The former kind of pressure is seen in literally every genre, from driving games to RPGs to FPSs to Harvest Moon; the latter is more often a result of games with high environmental tension, mostly Survival Horror games. Which leads to my personal choice to represent the height of this kind of difficulty:

Most difficult: Amnesia: The Dark Descent (on account of giving rise to an entire wardrobe of brown undergarments)

2. Reflexes - This is pretty self-explanatory; how forgiving a game is in tests of reflex. The different ways this can be more or less difficult include the amount of warning a player is given before a reflex test and the time window one has to succeed in said test. You see this kind of difficulty most often in both old-style arcade/early console games as well as any game nowadays that either emulates those or includes 'Press X To Not Die' scenarios, i.e. quick-time events.

Most difficult: Battletoads. Most definitely Battletoads.

3. Resource Management - What resources are crucial to survival? How readily available are they? How much can you have at once? Are they permanent, or consumable (most JRPG equipment vs., say, Dead Rising weaponry)? This is a kind of difficulty that is at it's most variable (and often hardest) in RPGs of any kind (strategy, turn-based, you name it) as well as RTSs. However, any game with a finite resource can count for this.

Most difficult: A tie between Yggdra Union and Wild Arms 3. The former for the consumable equips that were incredibly useful (and scarce), and the latter because healing items were, for a very long stretch of the game, an nonrenewable resource (couldn't buy them in shops).

4. Stat & Ability Disparity - This is both the difference between your stats and the opponents, as well as the difference in available abilities (multi-hit (non-)elemental magic, full-party status effect attacks, 100% counter rate, etc.). Bosses (whether in an RPG or an FPS) tend to have outrageous HP compared to what you are (reasonably) capable of at that point**, and often times their offensive or defensive stats are much higher than you can expect to have as well.

Often times, the difficulty of a boss/boss-type encounter in an RPG is determined by how much the player knows about it beforehand, and how well prepared they are (which can go back to resource management); an enemy that kills off your party in one hit if you dare to use ice magic may seem cheap if you don't realize it's the ice magic causing that Total Party Kill, but once you realize this, the boss may simply become trivial.

Most difficult: Shin Megami Tensei. Yes, all of them***. With a bit of variability, each one is pretty much equally manhood-shriveling, eye-burstingly difficult without prior knowledge of each boss's traits and strategy.****

Those are the four ways I categorize video game difficulty. Does anyone else have their own categories? I'd love to find out.

*The music was cool, though.
**Hero did 252 damage to Dragon Lord! (out of 5,000) -- Dragon Lord did 200 average damage to party! (out of average 300)
***Excepting perhaps DemiKids; I've never played those ones.
****I'm not kidding. With these games, it's either A) tackle each boss with trial and error and record all the results, or B) look up the freaking guide after realizing you've just spent a little less than four hours on option A.


Gilfareth says: Tl;dr, games can be difficult in different ways. Also, I type way too much for my own poor, soon-to-be arthritic hands' good.

[SnazzyPaperBear]

Castlevania 2....worst title in the entire series....

[Drag]

That was Star Ocean 3 "Till the end of time" the 4th difficulty are very hard to beat and to archive all the battle trophys are nearly impossible...

[Izuna]

Pulstar for the Neo Geo,awesome game,if i have to describe it with only one word it would be "impossible",at least to me. The intro reminds me the main character from "Iria Zeiram the Animation".