10 Most Frustratingly Difficult Video Game Levels Of All-Time

[ConcernedCitizen]

battletoads #1 most difficult game of all time!

---------- Post added 2013-01-18 at 04:11 AM ----------

That was the best 9:12 of my life lol

omg that was epic.

[Deleted]

Can't remember the exact name of the cave, but that huge cave in the first generation of Pokemon games before you get the flash spell - If that is even what the spell was called.

Not really a level, but annoying all the same.

[Deleted]

Since I do think "video game" means and has always meant console game, I don't mind the fact that the list is console only and most of the games are so new, although even as a console game list it's not very comprehensive. It needs more computer games though, and older games. Most games during this millennium, with a few exceptions, haven't really been hard at all.

[Duronos]

Rusty Fucking Bucket Bay on Banjo Kazooie (has to be N64 version not XBLA).

That room... That god damn fan room was so annoying, "hey you're about to get all the notes on this level but we're going to be jerks and make something rotate at the wrong time and fuck you over"... <---- Story of my life in that game.

Super Meat Boy, I didn't consider I'd beaten a level until I A+ it etc... So even if I could get to bandage girl, I wouldn't if I'd ran out of time because I'm a completionist for that kind of game. One thing I found super hard on that game wasn't the last area but the area (Xbox only) that is called, "Teh Internetz". I just was like screw it once I tried the first level like 100+ times.

[OrcsRLame]

That list doesn't seem that objective. There's a serious lack of IWBTG and Ninja Gaiden 2. Really though, a lot of those old platformers don't hold up to extreme scrutiny and theorycrafting that well. Take Battletoads for example. I've seen many people call it the hardest game ever, and surprise surprise it's on the list. But let's see what happens when the fine folks at SDA decide it's time to beat that game like a red headed step child. http://speeddemosarchive.com/Battletoads.html

If you want to get an idea of how hard a game really is, watch some speed runs of it and read the various discussions on strategy. There's a reason there's no speed runs of Ninja Gaiden 2. No one wants to even give it a serious try. Last I checked, there was one guy thinking about trying to speed run it on the lowest difficulty, on the Sigma version, which is heavily nerfed compared to the original.

[mvaliz]

no Ghosts N' Goblins? hahahahahahahahahaha...

This cannot be stated more than QFT.

Gouls n' Ghosts, JJ and Jeff, and SOOO many others were 200x harder than the OP's list.

---------- Post added 2013-01-18 at 06:41 PM ----------

battletoads #1 most difficult game of all time!

Oooh! Forgot about Battletoads! Hell yeah that was insane!

Actually, a LOT of the hardest games came from England in the 80's-90's. Their philosophy is seemingly that if you don't do it EXACTLY perfect, you're dead!

[Deleted]

After watching Awesome Games Done Quick this year ive lost respect for almost all difficult games from my childhood

---------- Post added 2013-01-18 at 09:09 PM ----------

i remember begging my older sister to beat it for me and i would almost cry when she wouldnt...


and contra is hard as shit.

Watch MRK or Hurlbat play it on stream, contra gets beaten like the little bitch it is.

---------- Post added 2013-01-18 at 09:19 PM ----------

That list doesn't seem that objective. There's a serious lack of IWBTG and Ninja Gaiden 2. Really though, a lot of those old platformers don't hold up to extreme scrutiny and theorycrafting that well. Take Battletoads for example. I've seen many people call it the hardest game ever, and surprise surprise it's on the list. But let's see what happens when the fine folks at SDA decide it's time to beat that game like a red headed step child. http://speeddemosarchive.com/Battletoads.html

If you want to get an idea of how hard a game really is, watch some speed runs of it and read the various discussions on strategy. There's a reason there's no speed runs of Ninja Gaiden 2. No one wants to even give it a serious try. Last I checked, there was one guy thinking about trying to speed run it on the lowest difficulty, on the Sigma version, which is heavily nerfed compared to the original.

To be fair, every single game looks super easy when playing by someone at SDA.
IWTG isn't played because its a glitchy mess, otherwise it would be a speedrunners heaven due to being pure memorization ^^

Dont know about Ninja Gaiden though ^^

Hardest actual game: Metalmorph Hard mode, dont believe me ? try it .. once !

[Pendulous]

That list doesn't seem that objective. There's a serious lack of IWBTG and Ninja Gaiden 2. Really though, a lot of those old platformers don't hold up to extreme scrutiny and theorycrafting that well. Take Battletoads for example. I've seen many people call it the hardest game ever, and surprise surprise it's on the list. But let's see what happens when the fine folks at SDA decide it's time to beat that game like a red headed step child. http://speeddemosarchive.com/Battletoads.html

You really can't compare difficulty because "some guy did a speed run of it". That's like...saying that WoW hardmode raids are easy because X professional guild can do it in x amount of time. Hell, the guy himself said he had to reset a lot.

[Digglett]

I thought the Great Bay Temple and the side quests before it were way worse than Water Temple.

[Deleted]

I thought the Great Bay Temple and the side quests before it were way worse than Water Temple.

Well in my case i was 11 when i played the water temple and much older during majoras mask, so i guess that defines the difficulty alot

[Eorayn]

In Pokémon Ruby/Sapphire, if you choose Torchic, the fire starter (pun intended), you have to face your rival, who has chosen the water starter. So on the way to the 3rd Gym leader, Watson (or something), he surprises you in the middle of fucking nowhere with a fucking Marshtomp with some mud beam attack. This battle is the hardest battle in Pokémon history. I never chose Torchic again.

Others will surely recognize my pain, I hope.

[Sorensen]

Animal Crossing, I could never even figure out how to get to the last boss.

[OrcsRLame]

You really can't compare difficulty because "some guy did a speed run of it". That's like...saying that WoW hardmode raids are easy because X professional guild can do it in x amount of time. Hell, the guy himself said he had to reset a lot.

Well, I don't think that's a fair comparison. Raiding in wow isn't about personal skill. Yes, personal skill is a component, but it's a comparatively small component. And by my standards, hardmode raiding is easy. I'm not saying I've done every hardmode ever when it was current content, but there was never a mechanic in wow that challenged me as a player. For me raiding was always about trying to mitigate the mistakes of other players while not falling asleep at my keyboard.

Being good at games, and therefore game difficulty, can basically be broken down into the following components.

Useful Actions Per Minute: This is how fast you can input commands without screwing up. Games that are difficult in this area are RTS, fighting games, and certain hack and slash games.

Reaction Time: I don't really need to explain this one. And this is probably the area where wow fails the hardest. I can't think of a mechanic in wow that gives you less than a second to react to it, and most give you at least 3.

Processing Information: Also self explanatory. This is stuff like keeping track of adds and timers in wow, watching the minimap in SC2, or seeing the telegraph for a boss's attack in Devil May Cry.

Memorization: Once again, an explanation isn't really needed. Obviously this is just shit like memorizing patterns, and it's often closely related to processing information.

Relevant Knowledge: This is often information gained outside the game, such as boss strategies in wow, or knowing what an enemy is weak to in an RPG. It's often lack of relevant knowledge that makes games harder than they need to be, such as cheesing Tubular with a Blue Yoshi. And this is why I cited SDA as a good judge of real difficulty in games. The runners learn everything that is relevant to making their run go as smoothly as possible. I used to think that this little shit, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPHIM-q4qCY was the hardest boss ever when playing on Titan mode. That was before I learned that you can shave off 80% of phase 3 with proper use of Rage of the Titans, because rage increases the damage of bow attacks. If there is an easy way to do something, a speedrunner will find it. I'm not trying to say that a speedrun is the be all end all judge of difficulty. It's just a useful thing to examine because it shows what is possible for someone with all relevant knowledge.

And fyi, resetting a lot is part of any speedrun. Thousands of attempts go into these world record runs. And the shorter the run the less mistakes can be tolerated. For a short game like Battletoads, I doubt dying was the most common cause of a reset. Missing a jump and wasting 1.2 seconds = reset.

In my opinion, there's also such a thing as artificial difficulty. A great example of this is Dark Souls, which is mainly hard due to the game designers attempting to deny relevant information to players. Impossible mode of IWBTG is another example of this. Ramping up the penalty for dying is an artificial increase in difficulty.

@Castiell. IWBTG is ran by SDA. The record for very hard mode is ~30 minutes.

[Borfl]

And by my standards, hardmode raiding is easy. I'm not saying I've done every hardmode ever when it was current content

And there's goes all your credibility.
ta;dr

[OrcsRLame]

And there's goes all your credibility.
ta;dr

I think you don't get what I'm saying. My standard of difficulty is how a game challenges personal skill. Failure in raiding does not typically result from a lack of personal skill from 1 player, it results from a lack of teamwork and coordination from 10/25 players, or a lack of personal skill from multiple players. The metric by which I judge difficulty is barely applicable to wow, because I can wipe on a fight and think, "Huh, the hardest part about that was running away from raiderx when he decided to go Al Qaeda on my ass by running at me with some explodey debuff of doom".

It can be easy for one person while the group fails as a whole. That's why I said wow isn't even really a fair comparison for what I'm talking about. I'm not sure why you're acting hostile to me.

[Seiklis]

It's Boshy Time!!!

[holyevil44]

last boss in ea cd of legend of dragon +last boss of ff3

[Pendulous]

I think you don't get what I'm saying. My standard of difficulty is how a game challenges personal skill. Failure in raiding does not typically result from a lack of personal skill from 1 player, it results from a lack of teamwork and coordination from 10/25 players, or a lack of personal skill from multiple players. The metric by which I judge difficulty is barely applicable to wow, because I can wipe on a fight and think, "Huh, the hardest part about that was running away from raiderx when he decided to go Al Qaeda on my ass by running at me with some explodey debuff of doom".

It can be easy for one person while the group fails as a whole. That's why I said wow isn't even really a fair comparison for what I'm talking about. I'm not sure why you're acting hostile to me.

And you justified all this by linking a site that specializes in world-breaking speed runs, to say that something isn't hard...

[OrcsRLame]

And you justified all this by linking a site that specializes in world-breaking speed runs, to say that something isn't hard...

Well... Yeah. My standard for hard is pretty damn strict. Though as I said before, the SDA thing was more of just an example of what someone can do with all relevant knowledge available to them.

I may come off as arrogant, but games that most people think are hard, I think are painfully easy. And I have the most fun in games when I'm doing something that actually challenges me, so I gotta be kind of choosy when it comes to my games. And SDA can help with that. But like I said, that's not the only thing that I judge difficulty by.

[Sorensen]

last boss in ea cd of legend of dragon +last boss of ff3

Last boss of FF3 is the only reason I haven't beat that game.