Your 5 hardest games EVER

[Darwock]

To be honest most of my choices would be 20-30 years old, because that was when games were truly difficult. I also don't really wish to include games which have their roots in the arcade because those games were hard for cynical reasons (to get you to put more money in). So no Ikaruga, Ghouls n' Ghosts on my list.

1. Super Monkey Ball
2. Bangai-o
3. F-Zero GX (I know it was an arcade game but racers don't really count)
4. F355 Challenge
5. Lumines (<- I mean the difficulty of achieving the time attack targets in Supernova or unlocking the final skin in the original... the latter took me 7 years on and off)

Not sure about the order as I just wrote them as I thought of them.

[Pikate]

In no particular order:

Banjo Tooie (Defeating Gruntilda is nearly impossible without cheats)
Circus Charlie (This could be a lot of NES games really)
Donkey Kong Country Returns (This may have just been frustrating because it was so mediocre but it's the only game I've ever given up on)
Mega Man 9 (Part of it's charm)
Super Street Fighter IV (Mainly since people have been playing SF for decades so as a n00b it's hard to be competitive)

[speedlolita]

I still don't think I could get the International A license in Gran Turismo 1.

Other than that I can't think of games I've genuinely found difficult.

EDIT: Tell a lie, Daimakaimura on Saturn. Took an hour to beat 1st stage without getting hit.

[EvilBoris]

Ghouls and Ghosts - Couldn't even do the first Level
Viewtiful Joe - Never got past the dinosaur boss
F-Zero GX - Couldn't do the last level on Story Mode V-hard. Damn you black bull!
Battletoads! those jet bikes! HARD AS ****

Can't think of anything else right now

[Blegballe]

Old games:
Gaiares - Mega Drive
Defender - MAME and Arcade
Project-X - Amiga

Newer games:
F-Zero GX - Gamecube
Super Monkey Ball - Gamecube
Devil May Cry 3 - PlayStation 2

[Sketcz]

Alien 3 - NES/Mega Drive
Four minutes to find all the prisoners on each level simply isn't possible through normal exploration. Every level had to be mapped, and you had to die innumerable times while doing, restarting from scratch, just to have a chance.

[Party boy]

Surely there's no harder game than Super Hexagon? Behold the madness.

http://youtu.be/2sz0mI_6tLQ

And you can play regular Hexagon here, which is like a clunkier version of the easiest stage. Anyone who can't think of any difficult games should give it a go! Though I much prefer Super Hexagon.

http://distractionware.com/games/flash/hexagon/

[Party boy]

I don't remember Axelay being that hard, though I haven't played it in ages. I seem to remember being able to get to the last level at least back in the day.

And DKC Returns is a great game! And not that hard, though possibly frustrating at times.

Super Monkey Ball was pretty hard on the hardest difficulty. It's hard to imagine anyone beating that on one life like I did on the two easier difficulty levels.

[Kit]

Good run down.

Liked the look of the 3D Shinobi for the PS2, but to hear your life drains when your weapon is low on power... that is game killing to me. It looks hard enough as it is.

[briareos_kerensky]

That video reminded me...Cobra Triangle, NES.

[buster_broon]

Seems to be NES where the hardcore games are

I remember battle toads being incredible but Nam-75 needs to be in there

The game sit self is alright but Dr Muckley is bloody impossible

And viewpoint I set it to 99 credits and I think I did it in around 60 or something ridiculous

[Kit]

Strange. Checked out the first level of Nam 75 and it looks fairly good. Would you say it's fair or is it a bit like Silver Surfer later on? -copious amounts of **** going off on screen which make it impossible to know where to move.

That video reminded me...Cobra Triangle, NES.

Not a fan of those isometric type racing games. How on earth are you meant to know what's ahead when your going that fast and can't see infront? there's a racer for the neo geo (rally type game) I've seen a few times on the Classic Games Room. Stunning looking game - do like the art - but looks impossible.

[briareos_kerensky]

Not a fan of those isometric type racing games. How on earth are you meant to know what's ahead when your going that fast and can't see infront? there's a racer for the neo geo (rally type game) I've seen a few times on the Classic Games Room. Stunning looking game - do like the art - but looks impossible.

The racing stages were the easiest...boss encounters (dragons, squids, giant enemy crabs), waterfall jumps and swimmers protection were absolute nightmares.

[ExMosquito]

Bah! the ghouls n ghosts games are overratedly hard. They're not. Neither is nes Contra... I'm with dataDave on this one, I'd say arcade vertical shooter are by far the hardest genre of game, that and The new Tomb Raider. Kidding! Most 2D arcade platformers like :metal slug, black tiger etc.. Are pretty much the same every time, so once you've learnt the enemy layout there's not much that can go wrong. Vertical shooters on the other have so many variables and things that can go wrong if you're not positioned in the right place. Knowing the enemy placements is only half the battle. Even if you know where everything is coming from even the most subtle miss-executed input in your strategy can result in death. There are so many options and ways to approach a vert shooter. Are the bullets aimed, static. Bullet herding, Bullet leading. On the surface they seem simplistic but to 1-credit a modern vert shooter takes alot of skill and creative thinking.

Oh, and fighting games

[fuse]

Would agree wholeheartedly on the vert shooters. To those saying Super Hexagon, it doesn't even compare. I use a simple rule of thumb: if I can do it, it can't be that hard.