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Hardest game EVAH!!!!!!

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  • 30-07-2020 11:24am
    #1
    Zero-Cool
    Registered Users Posts: 29,503 ✭✭✭✭


    Retr0gamer wrote: »
    Bangai-O is real contender for toughest game ever.

    Actually a great conversation. What is the most difficult game ever created (one that people have actually heard of :p )


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    #2
    pixelburp
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 35,941 CMod ✭✭✭✭pixelburp


    Zero-Cool wrote: »
    Actually a great conversation. What is the most difficult game ever created (one that people have actually heard of :p )

    Well my first thought is something like the infamous Desert Bus section of that old Penn and Teller game, but is that difficult or just needlessly, intentionally tedious?


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    #3
    Zero-Cool
    Registered Users Posts: 29,503 ✭✭✭✭Zero-Cool


    pixelburp wrote: »
    Well my first thought is something like the infamous Desert Bus section of that old Penn and Teller game, but is that difficult or just needlessly, intentionally tedious?

    If, like me, you though "what the **** is Desert Bus?", I looked up a video and found a 24 hour playthrough (sped up x3 to an 8 hour vid). Oh my God, how & why would anyone do that to themselves.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LtiHla1dNg


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    #4
    Retr0gamer
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Computer Games Moderators Posts: 50,850 CMod ✭✭✭✭Retr0gamer


    I've a few contenders. All are tough but fair, bull**** game design doesn't count.

    Bangai-O Missile Fury would definitely be up there. Fantastic game though but the level of execution required for the post game levels is insane. It's such a shame it's stuck on the XBox 360 Live Arcade and not on another system or backward compatibile.

    Contra Hard Corp is up there as well. The US version in particular as they made it one hit kill as opposed to 3 hits to lose a life in the japanese one. The european version would be up there but runs slower at 50 Hz. Managed to beat the european version back in the day but it's tough going.

    Contra Shattered Soldier is up there with Hard Corp. It has a requirement that you have to get a high rank to unlock the final few levels. And your rank goes down by skipping boss attack phases and losing lives.

    Ninja Gaiden on the NES is insanely tough but I'd almost kick it off this list because of the complete nonsense where you have one life at the final boss or it will kick you back 4 stages.

    Super Meat Boy. It's insanely tough but also tightly designed. I'll never, ever play this game again as it killed me going through those dark worlds.... and then there is the I Wanna Be the Guy (another good shout by the by) levels that near destroyed me. It's so well designed though.

    Shoot'em ups are all usually tough, bullet hells in particular. Two non bullet hells stick out in my mind:

    Gradius 3 (arcade). Home conversions aren't so bad but the arcade version is considered by enthusiasts as the hardest non bullet hell shooter ever. Doesn't help that continues are disabled so you only have 3 lives to beat it.

    Radiant Silvergun. Not insanely hard but more so because it's so long and there's so much variety that it takes forever to learn and get good at.

    As for RPGs my vote goes for Final Fantasy Tactics. It's equally one of the hardest and easiest. If you don't know how to break the game some of the missions are ball bustingly tough and it hits you early with insanely difficult stages. It always starts you on low ground and you have to work your way up a hill while being pelted with projectiles and spells. The end game is a cake walk but getting to that point on your first go before you know how to make broken character classes is nuts.
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    #5
    Retr0gamer
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Computer Games Moderators Posts: 50,850 CMod ✭✭✭✭Retr0gamer


    Zero-Cool wrote: »
    If, like me, you though "what the **** is Desert Bus?", I looked up a video and found a 24 hour playthrough (sped up x3 to an 8 hour vid). Oh my God, how & why would anyone do that to themselves.

    Charity. There's a charity event every year where people play the game and it makes a lot of money.
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    #6
    Zero-Cool
    Registered Users Posts: 29,503 ✭✭✭✭Zero-Cool


    Retr0gamer wrote: »
    Bangai-O is real contender for toughest game ever.

    There is so much going on in this :eek: Lasers all over the shop.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZllCtGuuRaM


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    #7
    Zero-Cool
    Registered Users Posts: 29,503 ✭✭✭✭Zero-Cool


    Retr0gamer wrote: »
    Charity. There's a charity event every year where people play the game and it makes a lot of money.

    Well then I'm actually glad this game has a purpose! Imagine sitting down as a kid thinking "Ah few free hours on a Saturday afternoon, think I'll throw on Desert Bus".


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    #8
    pixelburp
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 35,941 CMod ✭✭✭✭pixelburp


    Zero-Cool wrote: »
    If, like me, you though "what the **** is Desert Bus?", I looked up a video and found a 24 hour playthrough (sped up x3 to an 8 hour vid). Oh my God, how & why would anyone do that to themselves.

    And just in case that video doesn't make it clear, the bus was coded such that it slowly veers to the side of the road, so you HAVE to keep steering or else it's game over. And as Retr0 says it has become a charity mainstay.

    As to the genuine answer, I don't want games to kick my ass, so the hardest I've played recently might be something like Hollow Knight, to the point where I'm hoping Silksong has an easy mode.


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    #9
    Retr0gamer
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Computer Games Moderators Posts: 50,850 CMod ✭✭✭✭Retr0gamer


    Zero-Cool wrote: »
    There is so much going on in this :eek: Lasers all over the shop.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZllCtGuuRaM

    Oh that's just Bangai-O on the Dreamcast. That game is a cake walk in comparison to Missile Fury on the 360.

    And missile fury on the 360 can have 4000+ missiles/lasers on the screen, so much so it can drop the framerate to less around 1 FPS. It's glorious.
    Zero-Cool wrote: »
    Well then I'm actually glad this game has a purpose! Imagine sitting down as a kid thinking "Ah few free hours on a Saturday afternoon, think I'll throw on Desert Bus".

    The game never came out. It was meant to be a spoof game trolling gamers and was near complete but the publisher dropped it due to the mega CD market not being great. It was found and rescued and now has a cult following.
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    #10
    Zero-Cool
    Registered Users Posts: 29,503 ✭✭✭✭Zero-Cool


    Retr0gamer wrote: »

    The game never came out. It was meant to be a spoof game trolling gamers and was near complete but the publisher dropped it due to the mega CD market not being great. It was found and rescued and now has a cult following.

    HA class!


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    #11
    Retr0gamer
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Computer Games Moderators Posts: 50,850 CMod ✭✭✭✭Retr0gamer


    There were other parts to the game as well with Desert Bus just being a minigame that somehow managed to grab people's attention.

    The only other game I can think of that purposefully sets out to piss the player off is Takeshi's Challenge.
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    #12
    Skylinehead
    Registered Users Posts: 11,690 ✭✭✭✭Skylinehead


    We all know QWOP is the hardest game in the world.


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    #13
    CastorTroy
    Registered Users Posts: 28,836 ✭✭✭✭CastorTroy


    Pretty much any of those bullet hell games. Or how has no one mentioned Ghouls 'n Ghosts games?


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    #14
    Retr0gamer
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Computer Games Moderators Posts: 50,850 CMod ✭✭✭✭Retr0gamer


    CastorTroy wrote: »
    Pretty much any of those bullet hell games. Or how has no one mentioned Ghouls 'n Ghosts games?

    It's tough but fair. I've beaten the Arcade and Megadrive versions of GnG with one credit and have beaten Super Ghouls n'Ghosts. Definitely not the hardest games ever made. I think Ghost n'Goblins is tougher and there's way tougher games out there.

    Also to dispel the myth about Contra, the NES and Arcade games are actually very easy for games of their vintage. I beat Contra on the NES in a weekend when I decided to give it a go and see it through to the end.
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    #15
    johnny_ultimate
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Computer Games Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 29,118 CMod ✭✭✭✭johnny_ultimate


    I’ve played a good few bullet hell games (went through a serious Cave phase a few years ago), but honestly some of the more traditional shmups are much harder in many respects. Sure, there are mental later stages / hard modes to some Cave games where the screen fills with pink bullets. Lots have mad, weird high score / screen clearing mechanics too that demand really specific timing - playing them *well* is very difficult. But I’d definitely say the likes of Ikaruga and Radiant Silvergun are more immediately demanding to get to grips with for most players.


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    #16
    pixelburp
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 35,941 CMod ✭✭✭✭pixelburp


    Thing about those schmups is that the difficulty just feels like memorisation rather than me learning and developing a skill. Recently finished guacamelee 2 from my backlog and while occasionally difficult, my failure was because given a set of tools (fighting moves) I hadn't combined things to match the challenge. Those schmups don't feel like there's any of that challenge and learning curve. Just "remember this pattern"


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    #17
    dreamers75
    Registered Users Posts: 20,558 ✭✭✭✭dreamers75


    Mischief Makers on N64, **** that train, seriously **** that guy.


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    #18
    Mark Hamill
    Registered Users Posts: 7,771 ✭✭✭Mark Hamill


    Retr0gamer wrote: »
    Again don't let the difficulty put you off. It's tough but fair and you have instant retries. If a boss annoys you, you can always try another. I'd say most people will have the game polished off in 8 hours.

    I beat the first few bosses, but once I got to the second Island I had to quit it. It would take me an hour of retries to build up enough muscle memory to take down a level or boss and seeing as I only have maybe 90 minutes of game time (and only every 3rd or fourth day), that is not an enjoyable use of my rather limited game time.

    What's worse is that there aren't even any mods to make it a little easier. The only thing I could find was one which put a health meter on the screen for bosses, but it had no effect on the amount of health so it was more psychological than anything.
    pixelburp wrote: »
    As to the genuine answer, I don't want games to kick my ass, so the hardest I've played recently might be something like Hollow Knight, to the point where I'm hoping Silksong has an easy mode.

    Hollow Knight is my limit, in terms of difficulty. I beat all of the regular bosses, including the dream warriors, right up to the end boss (
    I got the second stage of The Radiance and just quit because each death meant having to go through all the time to fight the Hallow Knight again. I'm pretty sure I would have gotten it if I could have just restarted at the first stage
    .)


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    #19
    Azza
    Moderators Posts: 5,554 ✭✭✭Azza


    Super Street Fighter II Turbo was a tough one. On request of arcade operators outside of Japan, Capcom made the game extremely difficulty to get people off the machines quicker so the next person could pay to play.

    To beat the game you had to go through 12 fights, the first fight was okay, but from the second and third fight on-ward's its extremely tough as the A.I has the ability to perfectly react to your button inputs. Doesn't matter if your Daigo Umehara if you tried to play the game normally at all you would get wrecked.

    Only way to beat it is to play a very defensive play style and know how to punish the A.I when it does unsafe moves and a learn a few A.I patterns that could be exploited.

    The game has 8 difficulty mode and the default difficulty is the 2nd lowest. For years people though the difficulty modes where broken as it seemed to make no difference to the difficulty, but the higher difficulty modes were working as intended making the the A.I attacks more damaging. People just couldn't tell because the lowest difficulty was so challenging already.

    The Japanese arcade release didn't have this issue.


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    #20
    Retr0gamer
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Computer Games Moderators Posts: 50,850 CMod ✭✭✭✭Retr0gamer


    It's not about learning the pattern more so execution. Also they will make you think on your feet.

    Actually wouldn't say Ikaruga is that hard. It looks insane but once you get used to it it's no where near as bad as the toughest bullet hells. In fact it barely resembles one once you get used to the black and white mechanic. It's more a puzzle game. I've finished it with 5 credits before when I was good at it. The shmup enthusiasts say it's manageable.
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    #21
    Retr0gamer
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Computer Games Moderators Posts: 50,850 CMod ✭✭✭✭Retr0gamer


    Mark Hamill wrote: »
    I beat the first few bosses, but once I got to the second Island I had to quit it. It would take me an hour of retries to build up enough muscle memory to take down a level or boss and seeing as I only have maybe 90 minutes of game time (and only every 3rd or fourth day), that is not an enjoyable use of my rather limited game time.

    It might not be for everyone but it's one of the best made games in that genre and felt it captured that old school harsh but fair gameplay of old perfectly.
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    #22
    SharpCoder
    Registered Users Posts: 359 ✭✭SharpCoder


    didn't dark souls make it so the more you died, the harder the game got by design, the world system and then the light and dark system.


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    #23
    pixelburp
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Entertainment Moderators Posts: 35,941 CMod ✭✭✭✭pixelburp


    Mark Hamill wrote: »
    I beat the first few bosses, but once I got to the second Island I had to quit it. It would take me an hour of retries to build up enough muscle memory to take down a level or boss and seeing as I only have maybe 90 minutes of game time (and only every 3rd or fourth day), that is not an enjoyable use of my rather limited game time.

    What's worse is that there aren't even any mods to make it a little easier. The only thing I could find was one which put a health meter on the screen for bosses, but it had no effect on the amount of health so it was more psychological than anything.


    Hollow Knight is my limit, in terms of difficulty. I beat all of the regular bosses, including the dream warriors, right up to the end boss (
    I got the second stage of The Radiance and just quit because each death meant having to go through all the time to fight the Hallow Knight again. I'm pretty sure I would have gotten it if I could have just restarted at the first stage
    .)

    Same re. Hollow Knight, it's about as hard as I want games to be - but still wouldn't mind a "story mode" as some will call the easiest difficulty level. It was only happenstance I realised where I ended wasn't the actual end. Which is also another somewhat annoying trend with these challenge oriented games ... the "true ending". I loved HK and it's a world I'm keen to return to, but the manner in which it hid narrative behind almost prohibitively difficult gates could be frustrating.


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    #24
    gizmo
    Registered Users Posts: 8,405 ✭✭✭gizmo


    Younger me would probably say TMNT on the NES and Battletoads on the Gameboy as they were two games I was never able to finish back in the day. Be curious to return to them now and see could I manage it. Later, the Star Wars series of games on the SNES gave me a run for my money but at least I was still able to finish those.

    In terms of modern games, I'd lean towards Ninja Gaiden Black on this one. While the Souls games can eventually be bested with patience, levelling and upgraded equipment, that game and its ilk require you to get better at the core mechanics of the game and improve your reaction time in order to proceed, or succeed if you're also interested in karma.
    Retr0gamer wrote: »
    Super Meat Boy. It's insanely tough but also tightly designed. I'll never, ever play this game again as it killed me going through those dark worlds.... and then there is the I Wanna Be the Guy (another good shout by the by) levels that near destroyed me. It's so well designed though.
    I'm afraid to even load up my X360 save game in case I lose my >100% completion due to a patch. Still though, one of my favourite games ever and yet I'm quite sure had the controls not been so incredibly tight and reload system not been so fast, I would never have finished it to that degree. :o


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    #25
    McFly85
    Registered Users Posts: 2,978 ✭✭✭McFly85


    Young me definitely would have said Rainbow Islands, I remember once getting to Toy island before quickly running out of lives, and I had no idea there were 3 extra islands to get the real ending!

    More recently maybe the newer Ninja gaiden games, they could feel almost unfair at times.


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    #26
    Retr0gamer
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Computer Games Moderators Posts: 50,850 CMod ✭✭✭✭Retr0gamer


    SharpCoder wrote: »
    didn't dark souls make it so the more you died, the harder the game got by design, the world system and then the light and dark system.

    Nope.

    Demons souls had world tendency and while it seemed to get harder you actually did more damage in that state so ended up actually being easier.
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    #27
    CastorTroy
    Registered Users Posts: 28,836 ✭✭✭✭CastorTroy


    It's always a bit crazy looking up playthroughs for the games we found hard as kids and seeing people get through the whole game in about 30 mins.
    Games back then were designed to be hard for longevity and to make more money in arcades.


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    #28
    Zero-Cool
    Registered Users Posts: 29,503 ✭✭✭✭Zero-Cool


    CastorTroy wrote: »
    It's always a bit crazy looking up playthroughs for the games we found hard as kids and seeing people get through the whole game in about 30 mins.
    Games back then were designed to be hard for longevity and to make more money in arcades.

    Yupp, i remember when it was normal to buy a game, be hard as balls and a completely normal thing to never clear it.


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    #29
    CastorTroy
    Registered Users Posts: 28,836 ✭✭✭✭CastorTroy


    I remember watching Go 8-Bit and they had Ghosts 'n' Goblins on. The guy got to the second level and Dara was saying things like "No one has ever seen this before" and "The developers are coding this as he plays"


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    #30
    Zero-Cool
    Registered Users Posts: 29,503 ✭✭✭✭Zero-Cool


    I absolutely loved G&G but i never cleared it and i was perfectly fine with that. I just accepted i wasn't good enough but i enjoyed my time trying to beat it. All these whippersnappers with their fortnite's and Minecrafts wouldn't last 2 minutes on a nes :)


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    #31
    Mr.Saturn
    Registered Users Posts: 3,915 ✭✭✭Mr.Saturn


    Metal Slug 3 is a funny one. A lot of folk cite it as the best of the series, pre and post bankruptcy, but everyone gets a bit quiet when the subject of actually finishing it comes up. The final level that rolls on longer than the entire rest of the game combined. It's understandable that coin-munchers are hard by their very nature and Metal Slug is no stranger to gnawing on your balls but it actually feels at times that Metal Slug 3 was SNK's crack getting credit-fed out of bankruptcy.



    That said, nooooooooooooooooothing in history will come close to grinding out unlocks for The Lost in OG Binding of Isaac: Rebirth. Jesus. My hand still shakes slightly out of the sheer terror of having to run through all of that game's evils without ever taking a damn hit. The character became very cheesable in Afterbirth and Afterbirth+ and that's not always the worst thing.


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