The most difficult games ..

[JohnMcL7]

Any puzzlers mentioned yet? Those really make me tear my hair out, most recent one that comes to mind would be Panel de pon which on the second secret difficulty level (I seem to remember there was two) was just daft.

It's funny going back to C64 games with a trainer so you have unlimited lives/energy etc. - the games had to be insanely hard as there really wasn't much content!

John

[phorenzik]

Sonic Shuffle was unbelievably hard. the CPU tended to cheat every single time. They would always magically roll the EXACT number required to land on your square, thus, stealing your emerald.

[Charlie]

F-Zero GX Story mode immediately springs to mind. Hate to think how many hours I spent trying to complete it and vividly remember puching the air and screaming like a madman when I finally did it.

[Riskbreaker]

contra shattered soldier that was annoying

if i remember you could practice the first 4 levels but you couldnt practice the later levels until you had beat them......that seem contradictory to me

I didn't really enjoy any of the 8/16 bit Contra games, but learning Contra SS was one of my all time favourite game experiences.

Can't remember what kicked it off, I think I was reading some peeps bang on about it on here so I picked up a copy on cheap. Got to a point where I could S rank the first 4/5 stages before it got resigned to the shelf when the next game came along. Have meant to go back to it for a long, long time.

Even if I try to play the earlier Contra's I still don't get the same feeling I had playing SS.

Nightshade (PS2) is a frustrating game, there is a stage near the end that requires stupidly accurate jumps to pin you to small surfaces in order to traverse the level. I've never finished it thanks to that.

[eastyy]

contra ss was hard but it never felt unfair

i did get to the stage of completing the first 4 levels and not losing a life...but just kindoff lost interest

i didnt find baten kaitos that hard but i really hated the random cards idea it just made things frustrating

[charlesr]

Alien Hominid is double ultra hard. Didn't break it though fortunately.

I found P.N.03 hard the first time through but when I played it through on hard afterwards, I blasted through it in a few hours. If you listen to the sound cues, it's pretty easy.

Ibara is hard. No question. I almost gave up, until it finally twigged.

[Geoff D]

Radiant Silvergun is my Everest of difficult games. It's blatantly do-able, but absolutely nails. I will conquer it though.

[BeyondJumpFish]

Its gotta be Cyber Akuma on Capcom Vs Marvel. He can't be beaten...
Wo-tang-chan: Taste the Pain wasn't possable either...A boss with 5 energy bars 4 godsake??

[briareos_kerensky]

Leynos 2 on Saturn. Never been able to get past the first boss. Really.

[babs]

Power Strike on PAL master system was a tough game at the time, but I loved it.

Also Hellfire on Megadrive, it was fine as long as you didn't die, playing those later levels with no powerups was a nightmare!

Ah yeah, Airwolf on spectrum! I made it through that first wall a number of times you could count on one hand!

edit: I just went back and tried Airwolf on worldofspectrum - I still cant do it

[jimmbob]

I have trouble with most 2d fighters.
I went through a (Dreamcast) stage of trying to get good. I bought the stick and everything. I'd seen videos of people waaaay cooler than the likes of me, pulling off all sorts of crazy, cartoony manoeuvres, explosions, fireballs, 65 hit combos, the lot.
I would wiggle the stick like a man possessed, contorting my digits, callused hands aching, sweating insanely.
What would my on screen avatar do?
Wiggle a bit, light punch twice, jump, fall over, get pwned for 15 seconds and perfected every time.

Never again.

[Swallow]

"finish?"

"Viewtiful Joe?"

This is impossible, and has been proved with science.

[eastyy]

king of fighters bossess are pretty rage inducing

kof xi was the exception though i had very little trouble with that one

[fallenangle]

I've always found the original Devil May Cry a harder game than I like playing. It put me off the series and similar fast combat centred hack/slash/shoot games like Ninja Gaiden and Otogi completely.

Hardest I've played and still enjoyed that I can think of off the top of my head; under-rated XBox Darkwatch on Shootist. PS2 Panzer Front Ausf.B on Ace - 75% of the time it was a one hit kill regime. I also recently played PSOne Exhumed which at times was definitely tough.

[SharkSkin-Man]

Gaiares and Tatsujin are soul-destroyingly hard.