30 Days of Video Games

[Gregzilla]

Day 13 - Hardest game

Super Meat Boy - Some games make what I call artificial difficulty. While a game may or may not be hard in and of itself, it creates an illusion of challenge by having a lack of checkpoints, life systems, and game overs. Super Meat Boy is difficulty in its purest and most concentrated form. Every level is its own challenge. You have unlimited lives, no game overs, and the levels are usually pretty short. On top of that, you get some of the best and tightest controls in the platforming genre to date. All this convenience allows the developers to put the challenge strictly in the level design. And they did. Hohooo, they DID. Some of this stuff seems humanly impossible (COTTON ALLYYYYYYYYY), but since the controls are so perfect, if you screw up it's ALWAYS your own fault. And that, my friends, is the best kind of challenge.

Runners Up -

Contra III: The Alien Wars - I've only gotten to the last stage once, and I was obliterated by the first boss of that segment, leading to a game over and no continues. This game has some of the most insane challenges ever, i.e. jumping between missiles miles in the air whilst shooting at a giant robot ship. Plus, one shot is all it takes to kill you. As hard as it is, it's one of the best action games ever, and some day I'm gonna beat that Red Falcon bastard. Or not. Probably not. But I'll try.

Castlevania 1 and 3 - Stiff jumping and slow whipping make every action you take in these games a test of strategy and planning. Especially when there's tons of crazy crap flying at ya. I freaking HATE those little flea men. You know, I might as well just place "Every old-school Konami game" as a runner up. When a lot of modern gamers think "hardcore," they think war shooters, but I think Contra and Castlevania and the like.

[Shoot em up Capbusta]

Super Ghouls and Goblins: UH FUCK THIS GAME. Growing up in the SNES era I have experienced a lot of difficult games of my time and had fun while being challenged to the fullest. Never has a game challenge me more that this bullshit. Of course I could name Mega man, castlevania, and etc. but none of them is on the caliber of difficulty like this game. This game is so bullshittngly *not even a word* difficult that I couldn't even get past the first fuckin level, hell I couldn't even get through half of if. The enemies are just brutal by attacking you out of nowhere at time is like they are planning your demise in advance. The think is I have a poor recollection of anything past the n64 era but this game has been stamped into my mind as the most notorious game in terms of difficulty I have ever encountered.

[Tornado]

Super Ghouls and Goblins: UH FUCK THIS GAME. Growing up in the SNES era I have experienced a lot of difficult games of my time and had fun while being challenged to the fullest. Never has a game challenge me more that this bullshit. Of course I could name Mega man, castlevania, and etc. but none of them is on the caliber of difficulty like this game. This game is so bullshittngly *not even a word* difficult that I couldn't even get past the first fuckin level, hell I couldn't even get through half of if. The enemies are just brutal by attacking you out of nowhere at time is like they are planning your demise in advance. The think is I have a poor recollection of anything past the n64 era but this game has been stamped into my mind as the most notorious game in terms of difficulty I have ever encountered.

[Soniman]

Rayman Origins

As I said, I never died in a game as many times as I did here. This game is fucking HARD. And im not just talking about the Land of the Livid Dead, the last half of the game is a fucking nightmare. Especially the last area and those fucking robots who ALWAYS seem to hit you.

And don't even get me started on those Treasure levels, if you ever played them you would know how sadistic they are, you essentially have to do it all perfectly in one go, there is NO room for error, so much rage.

Still love the game though <3

[\Lennox]

Day 13 - WHATS YO HARDEST VIDYA

I guess I'll have to make a toss-up.

Bahamut Lagoon - Squaresoft

Okay, this is not really hard in the sense that once you get a good grasp, this is still unforgiving--by the time you reach the seventh chapter, it actually becomes pretty easy. But then again, the game is pretty long, so I'd call this hard to complete, what with all the sidequests, the immense amount of plot + backstory + cutscenes that are crammed in into twenty-seven chapters. However, there is in fact a New Game Plus called Ex-Play, where like with the usual New Game Pluses, you keep almost everything. But still, everything is long. The good news is, however, starting Chapter 7, you get lots of sidequests which enable you to grind, if anything else.

Fire Emblem: Geneaology of the Holy War - Intelligent Systems/Nintendo

Boy howdy.Like any good game in the Fire Emblem series, this game is ruled by random number generators. It takes a lot of math in order to Xanatize your game into your favor, but then again, it becomes more and more worth it when you're able to manipulate everything. The RNG also determines whether or not your characters will die as well, but there is some scripted strategy to it: on every playthrough, you can still determine where the enemies will move, but whether or not stat boosts will be beneficial and whether or not your characters can stay alive. This game spans generations after all, so be sure to pair up the right units or else you'll die trying.

[Shane]

Super Mario Bros. 2 is the game so hard Shigeru Miyamoto himself is said to dislike it.

Not much has changed since Super Mario Bros. The game is only one player, and Luigi has slight differences in controls. I remember as a child when I first collected the poisonous mushroom at the beginning, it surprised me. Some levels add wind, some expect you to take a certain path through the level, some trap you in warp zones to World 1-1, and so on... The game is plain unfair. I definitely prefer Super Mario USA to this.

Oh, and the last four worlds (worlds A through D) can only be unlocked if you beat the game EIGHT consecutive times. Yes, EIGHT. The All-Stars version doesn't require this, though, and they're progressed to naturally. There's also a World 9 as a reward for not warping.

Generally, I avoid this game but I do play it for nostalgia occasionally. The All-Stars version is much easier, though.

[SuperStingray]

God damn, I miss when this series was relevant.

The reception to Driver:SF seems to show it's on the rebound.

[Sean]

Day 13: Most difficult video game

Yeah, I know I already bitched about this before. There are other reasons contributing to F-Zero GX's difficulty, though. Besides, its story mode is so fucking stupid that I don't consider it a true gauge of genuine challenge, so let's move on from it.

This game's grand prix mode is especially aggressive. In order to stay one step ahead of the race, you need to know how to customize your machine and maneuver the course with precision. The A.I. are still damn bastards, but at least they don't reach the sheer magnitude of cheapness from the story mode missions, so you can defeat them with reasonable amounts of skill. And that's why I love playing this game so much: it's hard as fuck, but it's extremely satisfying to master. It has some pretty damn great controls for a racing game, and speed is an integral part of how the game plays and isn't there for show. But the harder difficulties are just as hard as you'd expect them to be.

[Noir]

Yeah I'm a faggot.

I feel like the game probably isn't really that hard in reality. But I've been spoiled by Mario's floatier jump from all of the games I'd played before I ever went back and touched this. I guess with getting used to it, maybe I'd manage to actually get past the first two levels... but I haven't put in the effort. I've also never played Lost Levels, so as of now this is still the toughest game I've had my hands on. Super Meat Boy is a very close second.

[Lucky]

Day #13 - The Most Difficult Game You've Ever Played

Oh look, it's Ecco again.

I know I've mentioned the first game in this topic and I hate bringing it up yet again, but there was no way I could have picked anything else for this one. I've already rambled on about how nightmarish the first game is (the

in particular), and in the 19 years I've owned it, I've completed it once, maybe twice at the most... because I usually just get so frustrated with it that I figure it's better to quit than chuck my Mega Drive out the window. Amusingly enough, the only reason I got it to begin with was because my older cousin got it for her birthday and eventually got so pissed off at it that she refused to even to play it again and gave it to me.

However... as horrendously difficult as the first game is... from what little I've experienced of the sequels, it actually only gets worse from there...

I've not actually played much of Tides of Time just for the fact it's one of those games I can never quite bring myself to sit down and attempt to finish. I've popped it in a few times over the years and think the furthest I ever got was the 4th stage or so, and judging from up to that point alone it definitely ranks up there with the original... perhaps slightly worse... it's very, very hard. I kind of dread to think what it's equivalent of Welcome to the Machine and The Vortex Queen are.

As for Defender of the Future... I've owned it since launch... and I've still never actually seen much of it... although it wasn't for lack of trying in this case. Only because I got completely and utterly stuck on an early stage (kind of remember being attacked by sharks and then having to solve something or other) and could never figure out quite how to move on... *hangs head in shame* I've not tried it in a long time now, and it kind of saddens me as it's one of the prettiest DC games out there and I'd love to have seen more of it for myself. One of these days I'll have to sit down and have another proper go at it, although I know a lot of people who've played it and gave up on it for the same reason of just not being able to figure out what the hell to do.

I swear that Ecco Jr. is the only game in the series that's really doable...

Runners-Up:

Now... this is my favourite Metal Slug... and it also happens to be the hardest in the series.

The game's quite the challenge right from the start, but it's the last stage that causes the most problems just because of how HUGE it is compared to anything else in the game. And the fact that I owned the Xbox version didn't help...

See, on all the other versions you have unlimited continues and start back from wherever you were if you lose all your lives. On the XB version, your continues are still unlimited... but should you use all your lives and have to fall back on them... you're sent back to the beginning of the stage, no matter where you were when you got killed. This makes things incredibly frustrating if you're in the middle of battling say, the last boss and take a hit. Because as I said, the last stage is massive and quite a difficult one to get through without losing a billion lives. I do feel that the unlimited continues from wherever made things kind of cheap, but with something like that you should at least have a checkpoint or two somewhere along the line.

I tried to find a video that shows how bad it is, but all I got was this guy's insane run of the stage. But it still gives you an idea of how big it is... keep in mind this is just part 1 of 5:

Yeah, it's the most epic level in Metal Slug history, but that doesn't stop it from being the most frustrating either.

^This is where you guys stop paying attention to what I'm saying isn't it?

Both of HorrorSoft's Elvira games were amazing for licensed titles... and also so incredibly brutal.

They're basically Point-and-Click Adventures that have you going around gathering weapons and items, solving puzzles, battling creatures... and dying. A lot. Seriously, the amount of death scenes available for the protagonists in each game is right up there with http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUZsWwLMk9w, and you get to see a lot of them. The combat tends to be simple enough, but it's the mazes and puzzles that can really screw you over. Not to mention the absurd amount of items you have to locate, and if you miss or lose something important and save at the wrong point, it can be a case of starting the game over and navigating your way back through it to (hopefully) fix your mistake.

I'm not sure if I ever finished the first one at some point years ago, but I know for sure that I never made it through the second.

Edited January 29, 2012 by Lucky

[Solly]

Yeah I'm a faggot.

I feel like the game probably isn't really that hard in reality. But I've been spoiled by Mario's floatier jump from all of the games I'd played before I ever went back and touched this. I guess with getting used to it, maybe I'd manage to actually get past the first two levels... but I haven't put in the effort. I've also never played Lost Levels, so as of now this is still the toughest game I've had my hands on. Super Meat Boy is a very close second.

I wouldn't say it's close to being the hardest for me, but I definitely agree about the jumping mechanics. Mario's controls got so much easier to manage with each new game, so even if i can beat Mario 1 I still feel like I'm so far behind everyone who can just kinda blow through the game.

I'm actually really surprised at how many people are saying Mega Man. I've beat most of the classic, 8-bit Mega Man games (+ 9 and 10) and to be honest I didn't think they were THAT bad. Mega Man games have odd difficulty curves, where they're hard in the beginning and get easier once you defeat your first robot master- then they stay easy until you get to the Wily stages at the end.

I made a graph illustrating this curve, and compared it to the difficulty curves of some other classic games I have experience with.

[Arcade Racer CC14]

Most difficult game, eh? Well, I've got a couple, but I'm going to narrow it down to one for my top pick and choose two for runners-up.

Donkey Kong Country Returns

THIS is what you call a hard platformer. Sure, it starts out relatively simple, but it quickly picks up the pace around the Cave section and goes all out ballistic by the time you reach the Cliff, Factory, and Volcano sections. There are so many insta-kill death traps, tricky enemies, and level specific gimmicks that are out to kill you, you'd be VERY lucky to beat a level on the first try. Plus, I'm not even factoring in the Golden Temple levels, which bring all of the game's hardest challenges together to create something that will probably result in more than a few game overs. It's a hard one, but man, oh, man, is it satisfying to beat.

Runner-up #1:

Mario Strikers Charged

Though this game is pretty simple early on, when you get to the later cups, you discover some of THE MOST frustrating AI opponents to EVER be included in a video game. All of them are out to to get you and your goal, and there's not a thing you can do to stop them. You have to become very skilled with the game's controls, strategies, and mechanics in order to have a chance against the later teams, but when you do, you're on top of the freakin' world.

Runner-up #2:

Mario Kart Wii

I already went into detail on why this game is so hard in my Rainbow Road entry, but to summarize: THE ITEM BALANCING IS AWWWWWWWWWWWFUL! Getting through the 150cc and Mirror Mode courses with a star rank is an absolute chore when you're getting nuked by Blue Shells, knocked by Red Shells, zapped by Lightning Bolts, ambushed by Lightning Clouds, slipped up by Bananas, flattened by Mega Mushrooms, and pounded by POW Blocks EVERY lap. Thank KERO that they mostly fixed that problem in Mario Kart 7.

Edited January 29, 2012 by chaoscontrol14

[Guest Taokaka]

Day 13

Knights in the Nightmare.

I think one of the reasons, at least in later stages it is that I never sacrificed any unit to make the others last longer. There is also the limited weapons and their allow number of times they can be used. Or bad luck at getting the right enemies, thus getting new ones every once in a while and letting hurt ones healed. The time limit and the the the chaos/Law system.

Plus I never get that good at avoiding all those energy attacks, really became an issue in boss fights.

Runner up.

Super Robot Taisen OG 2

Here it came down to the bosses Many having over 1000,000 HP took little damage and could destroy weaker units in one hit, then appear the ones that regenerate health many healing most of the damage you did at the end of the turn.

[Lady Soniko]

Day 13 - Hardest Video Gaqme you've ever played.

keep your super meta boys and rayman origins and try this on for size...

Armored Core Series

this game is a game about controlling a giant robot and doing many varying missions with it, from stopping a wall of missiles hitting a base, to infiltrating the enemy base, stopping a high speed armored train to protecting an ice breaker ship from hidden enemy submarines... the missions are hard but once you throw in one on one battles with OTHER AC's (Armored Cores) you'll know what hell is... there is only one way to win this game... willpower. you will die, and die and die and keep on dying until you figure out the right formula for each mission and battle, what the game does though, is throw you into a high octane flury of battles against weak mecha but does not prepare you for your first battle against an AC... the A.I CPU in this game is staggeringly brilliant, no matter the difficulty setting and what they go and do is throw realism into a fantasy styled game, Ammo limits, overheating, weight and delay time, everything is accounted for and is your key to winning, its not simply Drop all armor/weight and be the quickest guy on the field, that may seem like a perfect strategy... but its not, its far from it, the weapons in this game deal a FUCKTON of damage to your character if you do not stay on your toes in battle, even weak mounted cannons can do a fair bit of damage, this is where the realism comes into it, you get blasted with a few high calibur rockets, you're fucked, your weapons get destroyed, your on board computer lags and slows down and even your hydraulics stop working, making you a sitting duck... the game is tailormade to FULL customization of your AC for your missions, giving you a strict budget until you build funds from successful missions...

if you're expecting these battles to be slow and clunky, you are sadly mistaken, take a look at this for an insight to gameplay!

[JezMM]

Oh, that's another one I forgot. Diddy Kong Racing. The original Donkey Kong Country games were really brutal too.

You know for a company that really tailored their aesthetics to kids Rare were absoloute dicks with the difficulty of their games.

I think Banjo-Kazooie was the only really reasonable one, and even that was pretty mean. (Donkey Kong 64 was okay too but ruined by the mandatory Arcade games).

Edited January 29, 2012 by JezMM

[Marcello]

Day #13 - The Most Difficult Game You've Ever Played

As for Defender of the Future... I've owned it since launch... and I've still never actually seen much of it... although it wasn't for lack of trying in this case. Only because I got completely and utterly stuck on an early stage (kind of remember being attacked by sharks and then having to solve something or other) and could never figure out quite how to move on... *hangs head in shame* I've not tried it in a long time now, and it kind of saddens me as it's one of the prettiest DC games out there and I'd love to have seen more of it for myself. One of these days I'll have to sit down and have another proper go at it, although I know a lot of people who've played it and gave up on it for the same reason of just not being able to figure out what the hell to do.

I never owned the game, but I never found out where I had to go after beating the shark boss.

[Diz]

Day 13 - The Most Difficult Game You've Ever Played

Donkey Kong Country

Damn, it is not easy to choose, because I always feel I am forgetting some games. However, I picked up DKC with my SNES emulator some months ago and played through it. It starts off fairly easy, but dear lord, once you get done with the first map or two, shit gets real. I spent ages trying to play through it, and sometimes I was heavily frustrated for always failing a level. They just become harder and harder, much harder than I can recall them to be. Once I reached the second last map, I simply had to cheat and use save states. You know, for the lifts where you have to fuel up all the time? Yeah, I pulled a Homura Akemi on that one, all the way! Even when using save states, I found it sooo hard to finish certain levels, I was so frustrated at my terrible controlling!

Having said that, DKC (although I prefer DKC2) is a really great game for the SNES. It is also very unique in how it uses sprites and animations that represent 3D models for everyone and everything to make the game look much better and more real. This was a nice feature of the game, and it really worked for me. The game also features some of my favourite SNES tracks of all times. Great and unique game, but very challenging.

The game is about Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong living in a cottage on top of a tree thingy-dingy, and then discover that all of their bananas have been stolen by various bosses featured in the game. They then march through levels, through land, caves and water, all of it in order to defeat the bosses and retrieve their banana bounty bit by bit. The two Kongs stick together, and you are controlling one of them at the time. If the one you are controlling is struck once by an enemy, he runs off into the nearest DK-labeled barrel and the second Kong has to find him. Be careful, as if he is struck as well, you lose a life!

I find the game fun and addicting, and it offers a huge variety in levels and design. However, I need to take breaks more often than in other games, as I have a tendency to become frustrated if I die 15+ times at the same spot in a single level! xD

Fear Factory

[PSI Wind]

Hardest Game, huh? Probably Disgaea 1. I have yet to beat it and level-grinding is a PAIN! I'm still on Chapter 6 and it's only gonna get harder.

[Carbo]

Day 14 - Your Favorite Story in a Video Game.

[Jimbo]

I missed quite a few days, so here's a giant wall of the 3 days that I missed :I

Day 11: Hardest Level/Area/Stage

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare- One Shot, One Kill (Veteran)

When I played this game to get 1000 gamerscore, this was the only mission that took multiple, MULTIPLE tries to beat. it doesn't really look that hard at first glance.

Then you get to the ferris wheel.

THE FUCKING FERRIS WHEEL.

That's not even the worst part. If you manage to get past the ferris wheel..just watch the video, you'll know what I mean (8:42 in the video or so). Call of Duty 4 has some really hard missions (on Veteran especially) and this one is easily the hardest of them all.

Day 12 - Video Game You've Spent The Most Time Playing

I don't even like this game. ITS SO ADDICTING THOUGH. I normally play the mode Ultimate Team, which is a mode where you buy/sell/collect cards for players on each of the teams, and play games with them. The mode is so highly addicting that it makes me never want to put the game down, no matter how I'm playing in it. Without Ultimate Team, I would probably not play Madden half as often as I do.

Day #13 - The Most Difficult Game You've Ever Played

Easily one of the most difficult games I've come across. This game is either really easy (at times) or really fucking hard. It never depends on what mode you are in (Beginner, Intermediate, etc.) Levels in each of the sets can prove to be a challenge to anyone who plays them. (Personally, I have more trouble in the later levels of intermediate than I do with some of the levels in Expert.) To this day, I still have never cleared Expert mode to its fullest (and apparently there is another mode after that?)

Edited January 29, 2012 by o T a iIi lL sS

[Cola]

I can't actually decide on ONE single one, but one of my Hardest has to be...

SUPER MARIO BROS. 3

Right, so hear me out on this. Mario 3 is pretty easy. However, shit starts hitting the fan when you get to World 8. If you haven't stockpiled items, or if you run out, you're gonna have a Hell of a time. And that's literally what World 8 is. Hell. Fires and lava everywhere, red hellish skies, hands that grab you and drag you into levels...

And on top of that, you've got Airships and Tanks to blow through. So many.

That image? Only the first part of world 8. You've got 3 MORE.

And then you can fight Bowser.

[Carbo]

Again for O Tails, minute precision so your entry for today counts.

As for leave_nothing, you can't just list a game and call it a day. Your post was removed.

[Double Agent Motobug]

Day 13, Hardest game huh?

Prinny: Can I really be the hero?

It's the hardest game I can think of off the top of my head. It's your typical platformer, you run, you jump, etc, but this one has a really unfair difficulty curve and it's 3 hits, you're dead. 1000 lives, and some of the most tediously painful level design and boss design ever. This one was really made for the hardcores. @_@; Not to mention you can't adjust your movement after you've jumped, which lead to some particularly frustrating deaths...

Also I just noticed I totally missed Day 13's cutoff while I was typing this. Drats. Lemme just edit in Day 14 here then...

Day 14 - Your Favorite Story in a Video Game.

The Legend of Zelda, Majora's Mask. I had a hard time deciding between this, Windwaker, Phantom Hourglass or Spirit Tracks honestly, but I'm just gonna go with the one that I initially thought of when I read the title.

Majora's Mask has (arguably) my favorite storyline because of how odd it was from the norm. I mean in Zelda games you're typically a young boy/man that has to go through several trials to save the princess from some big baddie (usually Ganon), and there isn't much else to it beyond the main quest, and perhaps one or two little side things, but nearly everyone in this game had or has some kind of personal story going on that you can follow over the course of the 3 days. Each one seemed pretty believable, and most of them geniunely made me care about those NPCs. I think this was the first time I actually truely cared about helping out the NPCs and saving them from their destruction.

As a kid, I never really realized just how ... dark most of it was, too. I mean I knew it was pretty scary, and that it was flat out weird, but seriously, the whole plot was very very dark. Some of it was touchingly dark, actually. Remember the huge Anju and Kefei quest? Their moment together at the end of that quest was one of the most tense, yet touching moments to me in any video game... Then the whole Tatl, Tael and Skullkid thing had me going too, since he wasn't really a bad guy, he was just being used by the mask...

So yeah, I'll cut it off here, though I could keep going! (;_; the girl in Ikana Canyon and her father...)

TL;DR: Majora's Mask was dark, but it was touching in some ways and that's what made it so memorable. <3

Edited January 29, 2012 by Aptiva

[Solkia]

Favorite Story? That's an easy one:

Okami easily. The incorporation of Japanese lore into a great plot was awesome. I don't really know what more to say than that other than I love games where they give you a sub-plot at the begining and make it seem like it's the actual plot.

Edited January 29, 2012 by Solkia :U

[Tornado]

Can it be over the course of several games?