Imagine this: You walk into a big room with a bridge running down the center. About 30 feet below the bridge is a gigantic floor covered in darkness. You can see the floor, but you can’t really see what’s down there. Your natural reaction is to go forward, but hovering over the bridge is a set of staggering pendulums daring you to enter. You decide to go for it and you make it to the end of the bridge only to meet up with an enemy that is hungry for your flesh. You attempt to kill it, only to be flung off the bridge, falling to your doom. Or so you thought. You lost half your health from fall damage, but you’re still alive. At least you were still alive, because in that exact second, you realized that there were 2 ginormous titanite demons, each 10x bigger than you, ready to feast on your dead carcass. It is at this moment that you see the words “You Died” in big, bold, bloody letters, only for you to spawn back at the beginning of that area to try again.
This is the video game, Dark Souls. Acclaimed to be one of the most difficult games ever created, Dark Souls truly tests your skills, your reaction time and most importantly, your patience. You will die. Repeatedly. With no mercy. With that said, most people find it hard to believe that there is a niche in the video game community for difficult games. Some call these people masochists. We call them hardcore gamers. With Dark Souls 3 just releasing in March of 2016, it’s fair to say that difficult video games are here to stay. Looking back at video game history, here are 10 games that have tested our patience, aggravated our progress, and broke our controllers, one too many times.
10 Contra
Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A. Unless you’re a Konami specialist, you’re probably wondering what this random set of directions go to. No, it’s not directions to your local pizza place. In 1986, the infamous Konami Code began its legacy as the ultimate cheat code when it first appeared in the NES title, Gradius. A year later, Bill Rizer and Lance Bean, Elite Marine Commanders of the Contra Force, were sent on a deadly mission in the NES game Contra.
The Gameplay seems like your everyday run-and-gun platformer, but once you start playing, you quickly realize just how difficult this game is. For starters, you start off with 3 lives. Every time an enemy attacks you, you can say good bye to that life. If you lose all 3 lives, you can continue forward an additional 3 times before it’s complete game over. With only 8 stages, this game asks you to be quick as you kill everything on the screen before it kills you.
If you pick up Contra and decide that you don’t want to deal with the pain and the anguish, the developers allowed a 2 player Co-op experience, where you and a friend could attempt to save the world as Bill and Lance.
Unlike other games on this list, the player is able to input the previously mentioned Konami Code before the title screen, in which the player is awarded an extra 30 lives. This does make the game exceptionally easier, meaning that only those gamers that can work past trial and error are able to see it through the end without using this cheat.
9 Battletoads
The 90’s were an enigma that is ignored by some and praised by others, but what can’t be ignored was the fact that talking (and sometimes fighting) animals was a high selling point for the media. Of course this isn’t changing anytime soon with the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie releasing in June of 2016. Released in 1991, Rare’s Battletoads, for the NES, caused many a broken controller and surely some migraines.
Playing as either Rash or Zitz (such lovely names), you are given the option to play the game solo or have a buddy to co-op with. If you choose solo, you are thrown onto the surface of Planet Ragnarok (also known in Norse mythology as the apocalyptic events that will end the world) into a never ending battle with Dragons, Psycho-Pigs and difficult platforming. Most players can get to at least level 3 before hitting a huge road block, but from that point on, the game’s difficulty continues to spike with no promise of getting any easier.
Even with the 2 player experience, this game was not easy. In fact, strapped into cooperation makes the game even more difficult because of its ‘friendly fire’ game mechanic. If each player didn’t keep in mind of their surroundings, they may accidentally attack the other, causing the player to lose part of their life. Additionally, if one player died, both are sent back to the beginning of the level to try again.
8 I Wanna Be the Guy
In 2007, indie developer Kayin, released I Wanna Be The Guy (IWBTG), a free 8-bit style platformer that parodied many 8-bit games such as Mega Man, Punch Out!, and even Contra. What Kayin didn’t realize, was that his creation would change the face of indie games forever. At this point in the indie game community, developers started to realize that they could create difficult games and people would still play them. In fact, many of the gamers playing these indie games were looking for experiences that were full of nostalgia and IWBTG offered a tough as nails, nostalgic rollercoaster for anyone who was willing to ride.
Scan any video game forum and you’ll constantly come across IWBTG said to be the hardest game ever made. While that title can be said for any game on this list, it’s easy to see why this game is so difficult. It takes precision and timing to get through every single enemy and obstacle. Like many of the games on this list, IWBTG has no mercy and will kill you repeatedly whether it’s a cheap shot or not.
7 The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
With such games as the classic The Legend of Zelda, the ‘dungeon crawler’ genre is nothing new in the land of video games. Even the concept of a game being ‘roguelike’ with procedurally generated dungeons, enemies, or items can be seen as early as 1980 in the game Rogue. If this is the case, then why is Edmund McMillen’s 2011 game, The Binding of Isaac, held so highly in the indie video game world. When you first start playing the game, you’ll realize that on the outside, it looks easy. In fact, it only takes about 30 minutes to “complete” the game… well at least one variation of the game. Dig deeper into the game and you’ll start to realize that this game is so much more than what it is on the surface.
Due to this game being procedurally generated, gamers have spent 100’s of hours playing The Binding of Isaac. Take a look at YouTuber Northernlion, among others, who has recorded over 2500 videos on just this game and its DLC. The game storyline is taken from the Biblical story of Abraham and Isaac. In the game, Isaac’s mother takes Abraham’s place, when she is asked to sacrifice Isaac as proof of her faith. The game then takes place in the basement of their home, where Isaac uses his tears as his weapon to defeat such horrors as The Seven Deadly Sins and The Harbingers. Filled with Biblical references, this game starts the player with 3 hearts (much like The Legend of Zelda) and forces the player to find items that will boost his health and upgrade his weapons. If you die, you have to start over with new items in a brand new map. This roguelike experience gives each playthrough a unique spin.
What makes this game even more difficult, is the fact that it is a completionist’s nightmare. With 276 achievements in the original game and even more to be found in the DLC, gamers are sure to break a controller or two when playing this game.
6 Silver Surfer
There’s a certain stigma when it comes to NES games. Many were difficult, very few were fair, and some were just a complete pain. When it comes to the 1990 NES game, Silver Surfer, based on the Marvel Comic’s character, there’s very few games that can be considered more unfair. When you boot up the game, you’re given 5 options. Each option is a different stage that you may play in any order. You can think of Silver Surfer as being a lot like a road racing type game. In other words, make sure you don’t hit any obstacles as your character continuously moves.
This game becomes unfair right from the beginning. Like Contra, there are 1 hit kills. Like other titles, if you die you start back at the beginning. Silver Surfer does both: 1 hit, you’re dead and you have to restart the level at the beginning. On top of this, you are not allowed to touch anything on the screen. The walls, the ceiling, the floors, everything you touch is instant death making this game extremely difficult.
5 Ninja Gaiden Sigma
This is a game that’s neither indie nor is it an NES title. While you can consider the original Ninja Gaiden as a difficult game, there’s something about the PlayStation 3, 2007, sequel that ended up far more difficult than the original. Ninja Gaiden Sigma is all about learning its combat system and figuring out a proper strategy for every enemy.
The combat system thrives on combos, the more hits you make consecutively, the better you’ll be and the more fun you’ll have. It’s also good to know that the higher the combos, the higher amount of in game currency you can get. Without combos, the game gets more difficult. Equally difficult is the game’s platforming sequences. There are times where running on walls is important, while other times you have to be able to jump around corners. If you don’t break your controller purely out of rage, you might just break it by attempting to perform some of the combos.
4 Super Mario Maker – Ross’s levels
In 2015, Nintendo released Super Mario Maker, the Super Mario Bros. developing kit that enabled anyone and everyone to create and upload their very own Mario level. Before Mario Maker, there were many developers that would hack the original Super Mario Bros. so that they could create their own, more difficult levels. As soon as Mario Maker was released, Ross O’Donovan became one of the highest played level designers in the communities for one specific reason. He made difficult Mario levels – very difficult Mario levels.
Known as RubberRoss in the Miiverse, it was Ross’s mission to create some of the hardest Mario levels to ever be played. Each level takes immense patience, timing and more importantly – the ability to repress your anger and not break your controller.
3 Ghosts ‘n Goblins
Capcom has created many incredible games, most notably Mega Man. It was in 1985 that Capcom released the NES title Ghosts ‘n Goblins. The premise is simple: You play as a knight named Arthur who must rescue his princess with various medieval weapons. With 3 lives, you fight your way through random placed zombies, difficult bosses and platforming that takes tons of practice. If you get hit once, your armor is removed. Get hit twice and you’re dead.
With only 6 stages, this game sounds similar to other NES games mentioned before. In a sense, it’s very similar, except for one very evil twist. Once you finish the 6th stage, you are forced to play through the entire game all over again. That’s right, 6 more stages of horror await you before you can officially say that you have beaten this game. This time they’re all more difficult than the first time. Take it from the official IGN review, “playing Ghosts ‘n Goblins still makes [him] want to break something.”
2 Super Meat Boy
There’s something about indie games and their masochistic nostalgia towards NES level gameplay. Developed by Team Meat and released in 2010, Super Meat Boy is about a cube of meat named “Meat Boy” on his search to save his girlfriend “Bandage Girl” from the bad guy “Dr. Fetus.” Honestly, it’s about as ridiculous as it sounds, but what the game lacks in story, it makes up in gameplay.
Just like other platformers on this list, this particular platformer takes a lot of trial and error as you move your way through saw blades, hills of broken needles and even Hell itself. There’s not much to say about this game, except for the fact this it is painstakingly difficult and will have you rummaging through a pile of controllers just to figure out how to beat that next level.
1 Dark Souls
Ending the list where we started, we come back to Dark Souls. Known as the spiritual successor, to Fromsoftware’s Demon Souls, Dark Souls was the modern equivalent to all those difficult NES games previously mentioned. Released in 2011 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, this dungeon exploring, fear arising, counter of death, soon had a popular cult following.
With an ambiguous story, you are thrown into a world with undead enemies, massive bosses and an environment that has no mercy. As an undead human yourself, you must venture into this world and make sure that you too, have no mercy. Every enemy is there to kill you. Every platforming escapade is difficult. And every time you die, you must try again. The game does have a co-op feature, like other games on this list, though Dark Souls co-op is unique. You are given the ability in game to summon another player to help you beat a certain boss or conquer a certain area in the game through “jolly cooperation”. This ability works in your favor and should be taken advantage. On the other end of the spectrum, the game’s PVP (Player Versus Player) mechanic allows a player, under certain conditions, to invade another player’s game. This of course allows the player to act as an enemy in another player’s world, thus adding another level of difficulty to the overall gameplay.
This Action RPG took a lot of game mechanics from the classic NES titles to ensure that difficulty was not only present, but also fair. It’s not uncommon for a player to run through a certain area in the game 10 times and suddenly realizing that they have memorized that portion of the map. In fact, Dark Souls rewards players for using these specific skills. Spatial memory enables the player to know exactly where to go, strategic thinking helps the player defeat certain enemies and bosses, and recognizing patterns shows the player what they may need to level up next. While the NES title Silver Surfer, is considered completely unfair, Dark Souls makes it known that when you fail, you can either break your controller or try again and get good.
