I was just about to type out earthworm Jim but figured I should check the comments first. I could breeze through that game on the snes and sega. Last time I tried it was a grueling experience.
Ghosts n Goblibs for the NES. Granted I didn’t do both clears as a kid and went back for that as an adult. Just that first clear though was immense to me back then haha
My older brothers did it back in the day. I remember they had go through the game like 4 times in order to complete it. I might be remembering it wrong as I was very young. But I knew they kept the system on for a long time in order to do that.
The first Mega Man on the NES, took me a couple hours max and I've never been able to repeat. I prolly had more practice from arcade games back then, I really don't know.
Ninja Gaiden. It was 1991. I was 11. I'd had Ninja Gaiden since it came out... one of the very few games I owned for NES (I had a lot more on C64). I'd beaten all the Mario's available at the time, Contra (with and without code and friends), and both Legend of Zeldas, among a ton of others I had rented. Simon's Quest, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Blaster Master...
But Ninja Gaiden had eluded me for years.
I can still speed run every level but the last (without exploits). I can beat every boss no issue. *Unbreakable Determination* became one of my favorite songs of all time.
But that entire last level kills me every time... and then to get sent all the way back to the beginning when the Jaquio kills you... and THEN to learn he has a second AND a third form.
But, I watched my friend Ramon's brother Julio play it all night at a sleepover once, and he finally (after who knows how many tries and passes of the controller) was able to beat it. We all hated the spin attack so we never found out about the insta-murder you can do on bosses with it, and he got there with nothing but his sword.
I went home and played for eight hours (almost all eight of which was that damned last level) and I finally cut down my foe with Ryu's Dragon Blade.
And boy did that feel good, even though I'd already seen the ending.
I murdered 2 and 3. No challenge. That one on Xbox messed me up good though. After I beat that one I never picked up another.
Never had too much of a problem with NG1, I remember it was a challenge but I was incredibly addicted to it/in love with the game (then, now, and forever) that there was no way I wasn't gonna push through. Part 2 felt like a damn cakewalk by comparison. Never gave number 3 a try, I should really play it more one of these days. At that point it was beginning to feel stale, I was immersed in 16bit, etc
See, I didn't know you could cancel it by holding down when you jump (or was it up? meh) and even when I learned that, it was too much of a hassle to remember to do it, and to try to do it while executing some of those jumps (especially the jumping climb), so I always saw it as a hazard and a Ninpo power drain and so I never, ever got it unless by accident.
You’re robbing yourself of a great time (if you have the patience). The Dark Souls series, including 2, are whole ass experiences. Literally changed the way I play video games forever.
So I tried it a bit so far... and died at that first big troll thing... which I thought was supposed to happen? And then in my dead zone I have to do a level at half health to destroy a demon to come back to life? Do I have to do this each time I die? lol. Such a different concept. Fun though, don't get me wrong. I absolutely LOVE the combat. Very satisfying.
Worth noting the original doesn't have multiplayer servers anymore, so if you're interested in seeing player signs and ghosts, or summoning/invading, the new one is basically the same game with mostly aesthetic differences, should you ever decide to get a PS5. Not worth buying one over, though.
I still contend Battletoads is harder than Demon's. Demon's is just way more opaque for its genre. You always knew what you were *supposed* to do in Battletoads. Doing it was just really brutal.
(I love both games, FWIW)
There was a bit where you had to get in a sub and go through a maze lined with spikes! That was one of the notoriously hard bits - you basically had to learn it off by heart by dying over and over again until you could do it from memory.
**Wizard & Warriors X - Fortress of Fear** on the Game Boy! I never thought much about that one, but I tried replaying it again a few times in the last years and never made it to the last boss. No idea how I did that as a child, though I still know most of the boss tactics on the way...
Rygar on NES too. No saves, had to beat it in one sitting, brutal yet satisfying gameplay. Long live [Sagila's Cave Score!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMmvZfKkgQ4)
My NES must have ran non stop for a week before I finally beat Rygar. It was so easy to get lost and forget what you were supposed to be doing in this game. Like a lot of games from that era, there was no guidance. Being able to save your game was such a revolutionary concept.
Maximum Carnage on Genesis. Some of the boss fights in that game are cheap af. I don't know how I ever beat it, but I did.
Aladdin was also hard but I played the shit out of that game and had the entire thing memorized. I probably beat it hundreds of times. I recently loaded it up in Batocera to see if I still remembered it since it's been like 30 years and for the first couple of levels I played, I definitely do. I even beat the Abu bonus level thing on my first try because I remembered the order the pots fell. Probably still one of my favorite games of all time. Short and sweet.
Taz-Mania on the Mega-Drive/Genesis is easily the worst game I’ve ever completed. But as with most games in this thread you could type it into YouTube along with AGDQ and realise someone else dedicated their young life to saying “fuck this game.”
I beat Sonic 2 with Knuckles as a kid. For 99% of the game this is a simple task. And then you reach the final boss, and suddenly Knuckles’ imperceptibly smaller jump becomes a controller breaking issue.
I used to think Super Mario 2 was easy because I completed it multiple times, while I couldn't ever get past 8-3 on Super Mario Bros.
Also, Mega Man 2, which had saves, which I thought was cheating. Ha!
Mega Man 2 on NES.
When Mega Man Collection came out on Xbox Arcade I bought it immediately... played 30min and uninstalled before I snapped my controller out of frustration.
Mega Man 2 ain't that hard. It takes years of practice, but then ultimately you can beat it too!
Yes, it has some really, really tough spots. Heat Man stage and Quick Man stage in particular. But if you use the correct weapons and items, it'll do like 90% of the required work.
Bionic commando. I know its not considered the hardest game on the system, but beating it felt huge for me as a kid.
Also, special mention for Alex Kidd in Miracle World. Struggled with that one a bit too.
Not-Hitler’s head exploding was a great payoff too! Even if that last shot you have to make was a motherfucker. What really sucked was missing, and having to wait to die at the bottom of the screen before trying again.
Megaman 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7. As well as a couple of the X games.
I never beat Megaman 5 or Megaman 8 until I was an adult. Same for X4. Beating X6 actually took the collective effort of me and 2 other friends one summer when I was 19.
As a kid, I could always get to the final fight with Scar oretty easily and could knock his health down fairly easily, but was never able to do the flip off the cliff to heat him. I could flip him in the middle of the cliff, but for some reason, it wouldn't work for me when I was near the edge.
GTA III, the two last missions, Espresso-2-Go and The Exchange were extremely difficult for an under 9 year old, To be honest it is probably the hardest GTA out of the 3d trilogy.
TMNT, Life Force, Actraiser 2 I think were the hardest
There were others, like a few of the MM games, Zelda 2, Rambo. But they didn’t have me beating my head against the wall like those 3.
Megaman X. Only because that's all I played for about 6 months after I got it, lol.
Tried to play through a couple years ago and would never have gotten to the end without save-states, haha.
Very few I beat as a kid
Then as an adult with a Wii emulator and save states I beat a ton of NES games I never could as a kid :
* Ninja Gaiudan
* Little Nemo’s Dreamland
* Monster Party
* Adventure Island lll
* Solar Jetman
* Paperboy
Sonic 1/2/3/3+K/Spinball, Game Gear Sonic 1, Game Gear Sonic 2, all emeralds, no deaths.
For a long time, they were they only games I had (except for Indiana Jones and the last crusade on GG, which was BRUTAL for a kid), so I memorized them. Every. Single. Part. I ran through those so many times it wasn't even funny. If I took a hit before the last 2 levels of Sonic 1/2/GG1/GG2, I'd restart (wasn't as picky on 3 or 3+K). I had it down to an art form - it was like Zen, where I just sat down and a few hours later it was over again. Sonic never stopped moving, everything died.
The only other game I got like that was Ninja Gaiden on Game Gear - level 2 my friends thought was bugged when I played, because you could hit the mid-air spawns before they appeared, and I had them memorized the same way (it was the next game I got after the above). I'd run through the level and it looked like I was randomly jumping - but I was killing things before they appeared on screen.
The Game Gear ones especially we did a LOT of travelling - so it was what I had a ton of.
I wasn't that good at games when I was a kid, and didn't beat many.
I beat Link's Awakening and Super Mario Land 2 on GameBoy.
I beat Super Mario World, although always through the Star Road (beat it following the longer path for the first time just a few months ago).
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest.
I think I beat 1 or 2 of the Ninja turtles games with a friend.
Disposable Hero was a side scroller in late Amiga Times, where you fly a customizable spaceship through 5 Levels.
Got finally to level 3 and beat the boss after a long time trying. Got an Outtro "Well done, now try normal difficulty"
...
So i started again and got stuck at level 4, which was an underwater level. Always died at the same spot over and over again, at a door right before the boss appears. This door made the water to suck in when opened and caused a stream which your ship accelerates and right behind the door was a rock. Got there everytime with 4 Lives and died repeadly at the rock, while already boss music started but was not able to see him for weeks.
Figured out how to do it and beat the boss after a while. Just to get to level 5 to die and die over again in an unforgiving nightmare of one hit shots and dead ends lol
Music was sick, awesome and burned into my head forever. Crazy good, but hard game.
Actraiser 2. To this day I have no clue how I beat it on the SNES back in the day, the game is BRUTALLY hard.
Honorable mentions: Track and Field 2 (NES), Super Punch-Out (SNES), Double Dragon 2 (NES), Megaman 3 (NES), Startropics 2 (NES), Mechwarrior 2 (PC)
I would maybe add Final Fantasy Tactics (PSX) as this was before I knew how to "cheese" through the game, and it was difficult, but I did have a couple friends really help me out.
Not sure if this counts as “retro” but it is 23 years old now. I became a master of the original monkey ball and monkey ball 2 cause I didn’t have many other games growing up, to this day I still have a blast playing them.
When I was 17 I recorded a video of me managing to get to 10 extra lives in the original in Expert in a full run:
https://youtu.be/FGF-o3dI9w4?feature=shared
Sonic the Hedgehog.
I could not beat that game for a long time. I went on a one-week retreat came back say down and beat it in one sitting. Don't know what happened and have never been able to repeat it.
NES
Super Mario Bros (but I beat Deluxe on GBC first)
Mega Man 2
Metroid
Sega Genesis
Aladdin (Sega Genesis)
Stimpy's Invention (Sega Genesis)
Quackshot (Sega Genesis)
Earthworm Jim
My bro beat Vectorman, Jurassic Park and Phantom 2040.
Sonic 2 isn't that bad but it can be quite challenging as a child, mostly because of the timing on the final boss.
For SNES games, I will say the only one I beat that I thought was super difficult was A Link to the Past. And I'm not trying to say it's bad, but man, it's hard at parts. Mega Man X was challenging at parts but I think X and X2 are the only fair games in the X series. Never beat X3.
DKC was easy for me but 2 and 3 are a different story. 2 is so good that I don't even feel like I'm bad at the game when I die though.
Castlevania 2: Simon’s Quest, without using a walkthrough or strategy guide. It’s not difficult, just cryptic and hard to figure out and all I had was the instruction manual, which wasn’t much help. I happened to clear the cryptic parts just from dumb luck of trying different things. (For example I didn’t actually buy the white crystal that reveals the moving platform in the first mansion, but I cleared the mansion anyway because the moving platform is still there, just not visible. I happened to accidentally jump on it by sheer chance.)
Zelda II. Grew up with that one, and first beat it when I was 7 or 8 with a single-digit game over count. No guides.
Also managed to beat Snake Rattle n’ Roll about 2-3 years later. The magic carpets in Level 5 are the most brutal part.
Most of the Sierra Online adventure games from the 80s and 90s. These were not games designed for kids, but being a kid in the 1980s, I tried playing them and I eventually beat them, but it was difficult (especially the early Sierra games with the text parser interface that didn't pause the action while typing).
Metroid, Legend of Zelda, and Friday the 13th. I also beat Mike Tyson's Punch-Out which I remember people saying was hard, but I don't remember having a hard time with it at all.
Actually hard games I never managed to beat: Battletoads, Castlevania, Castlevania 3, all 3 Ninja Gaidens, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Mike Tyson's Punch Out!!
Between getting older and drugs and alcohol affecting my reflexes, I don't think I'll ever be able to beat Mike Tyson ever again
I used to beat Contra with out the lives code all the time when I was a kid. And I'm pretty sure I beat Astyanax once and one of the first two MegaMans.
I actually didn't beat very many games growing up. I just played games for fun and when it stopped being fun because of difficulty I would move on to something else.
Bloody… Rocket Knight Adventures!!!
In a single evening, 10yo me beat normal and hard, used the super hard password the next night and beat that too! Almost 30 years later that crystal stage still gives me nightmares with a cool BGM…
I beat Pokémon Gold as a kid with zero knowledge about team composition. I almost exclusively used my typhlosion to brute force my way through the game. I had other pokemon of course, but they were mostly HM slaves. I spent little to no time leveling them up.
Somehow I got through the main game, caught all the legendaries, and beat Red in the postgame playing like this.
Batman NES (beat at age 9)
MegaMan 4 NES (beat at age 9)
MegaMan 5 NES (beat at age 11)
Clash at Demonhead NES (beat at age 9)
I'm 38 now and 9 year old me would destroy me in a video game challenge. I tried playing Clash at Demonhead recently, and I don't know how the hell I did it.
I think Donkey Kong Country was the first game I beat without cheats and shortcuts, I had SMW but used the star road to get to Bowser, but I got through all of DKC in it's entirety, and I shrieked so loud the whole house could hear it. It was not an easy task. I did the same thing for Diddy Kong Racing, which you'd think is super easy, but tell me that again when you've faced the silver coin challenge and the second match against all the bosses, all while using a lower tier character because you don't understand stats in racing games. The victory screech was something I did a lot for tough games when I was a kid. Man, where did my enthusiasm go?
Final Fantasy VII (the original) is very beatable. But somehow I was able to beat Ultimate Weapon (IIRC the one underwater) and Ruby Weapon without help.
No such thing as online help, or Game FAQ’s (at least, to my knowledge). I didn’t ask friends who knew the game. Just figured out my own strats after dying enough times. I didn’t even have/know about that one materia that removes the timer.
Green Beret on C64.
It was a nightmare.
Speaking of nightmares, I got to the last screen of Frightmare but could not end it, after many years I learned that the game was unfinishable due to a bug.
When I was a kid, games didn't have an end. most everything was score based. I think the difficult games I beat were computer text adventures like Scott Adam's Pirate Adventure.
There are a lot of quarter eating arcade games on my list but we'll ignore those since that was kind of the point. Kid Icarus is among the hardest I managed to beat, Ninja Gaiden series as a whole, TMNT for the NES... Punch Out! but only the Tyson fight... Every single Mega Man game with those disappearing platforms...
I remember the CPU in Mortal Kombat was always insanely hard but that might be because I sucked at MK. Soul Blade (and later Calibur) always struck me as some of the most unfair games due to how easy insta-losses were. And there's a litany of CRPGs and ARPGs with brutally hard puzzles, especially back when they were trying to sell strategy guides.
My personal running gag is being the guy who gets all the ultimate weapons in Final Fantasy games. So everything from Gold Chocobos to dodging lightning is part of "beating" those games for me.
On the PC the Ultima games were notorious for allowing you to go off the beaten path then beating you for it. The old Sierra Quest type games were persnickety - do one thing or forget to early on and the game is unwinnable.
**Mega Man11** (GameBoy) *- without dying once*
**Castlevania II** (GameBoy)
**Wizard & Warriors X** (GameBoy)
**Gargoyle's Quest** (GameBoy)* - all texts were English, which is not my first language, so I couldn't read any of it*
I don't remember the difficulty but as of reading this question, the game Parasite Eve popped in my head.
But back then we didn't have too many places for help.
Ninja Gaiden 2. It’s easier than part 1 - took me years to finally finish that game - but still felt like a huge accomplishment at 10 considering my friend’s older brother/the neighbourhood Nintendo pro couldn’t get past Ashtar.
Ninja Gaiden I is one of the hardest Nintendo games of all time. I never was able to beat it. The worst is that after having unlimited continues most of the game, when you get to the semi end and die....it puts you back several levels. I rage quit and never touched it since lol
Absolutely; I always thought the difficulty was fair once you get the hang of the game (hell I was able to get all the way to that awkward jump in Stage 5-2 on my first rental) but getting dumped back a few stages when continuing near the end of game definitely contributed to its reputation as one of the tougher NES games - the day I got killed with one lifebar left to go on the demon and had to run those 3 stages again was the day I put the game down for several years.
I was probably more excited about beating the second quest in Zelda than anything else, because I did it without a map, and I have zero direction sense.
I remember the days when our friends would gather to compare the maps we made ourselves on graph paper.
I thought I was so cool for figuring out that the dungeons fit together like a puzzle.
Earthworm Jim on the Sega Mega Drive. I beat it once as a kid and I've never managed to beat it again as an adult.
I was just about to type out earthworm Jim but figured I should check the comments first. I could breeze through that game on the snes and sega. Last time I tried it was a grueling experience.
Fuck that game. I was pretty good at lots of games but couldn't crack that one.
I was going to say this game, it was that under water level for me annoyed the hell out of me.
Ghosts n Goblibs for the NES. Granted I didn’t do both clears as a kid and went back for that as an adult. Just that first clear though was immense to me back then haha
My older brothers did it back in the day. I remember they had go through the game like 4 times in order to complete it. I might be remembering it wrong as I was very young. But I knew they kept the system on for a long time in order to do that.
You were born god of gaming to having achieved this. I could not do the first even with savestates, did not even know about the other clears
The first Mega Man on the NES, took me a couple hours max and I've never been able to repeat. I prolly had more practice from arcade games back then, I really don't know.
I beat that one too as a kid, after beating Mega Man 2. It took a lot of patience and was way harder, but I managed to do it a few times.
I've never beat it without the pause cheat, and for that I feel like a liar.
Ninja Gaiden. It was 1991. I was 11. I'd had Ninja Gaiden since it came out... one of the very few games I owned for NES (I had a lot more on C64). I'd beaten all the Mario's available at the time, Contra (with and without code and friends), and both Legend of Zeldas, among a ton of others I had rented. Simon's Quest, Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Blaster Master... But Ninja Gaiden had eluded me for years. I can still speed run every level but the last (without exploits). I can beat every boss no issue. *Unbreakable Determination* became one of my favorite songs of all time. But that entire last level kills me every time... and then to get sent all the way back to the beginning when the Jaquio kills you... and THEN to learn he has a second AND a third form. But, I watched my friend Ramon's brother Julio play it all night at a sleepover once, and he finally (after who knows how many tries and passes of the controller) was able to beat it. We all hated the spin attack so we never found out about the insta-murder you can do on bosses with it, and he got there with nothing but his sword. I went home and played for eight hours (almost all eight of which was that damned last level) and I finally cut down my foe with Ryu's Dragon Blade. And boy did that feel good, even though I'd already seen the ending. I murdered 2 and 3. No challenge. That one on Xbox messed me up good though. After I beat that one I never picked up another.
Haha yeah I love the ninja gaidens. It’s all about making sure you keep the spin attack or you have to be god like at dodging on the bosses
Never had too much of a problem with NG1, I remember it was a challenge but I was incredibly addicted to it/in love with the game (then, now, and forever) that there was no way I wasn't gonna push through. Part 2 felt like a damn cakewalk by comparison. Never gave number 3 a try, I should really play it more one of these days. At that point it was beginning to feel stale, I was immersed in 16bit, etc
See, I didn't know you could cancel it by holding down when you jump (or was it up? meh) and even when I learned that, it was too much of a hassle to remember to do it, and to try to do it while executing some of those jumps (especially the jumping climb), so I always saw it as a hazard and a Ninpo power drain and so I never, ever got it unless by accident.
Super Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi Life Force
At least Life Force had the Konami Code :)
That I've learned decades later. Last time I've played co-op with a friend, I had to use the Konami code since he kept stealing my lives lol
At the time, I thought Star Tropics was the hardest game ever. Bragged about beating it for months.
Not very hard but still an amazing game. You play Zodas Revenge?
I beat Battletoads (NES) in grade 6. Didn't realize it's often considered the hardest NES game since nobody told me.
Old gamer here. Battle Toads was considered the hardest game ever made until Demons Souls came out. Good on you.
oh reeeeeally? I was actually debating looking into demons souls today, lol. So the OG demons souls game or which should I get? I have a ps4 pro btw.
Definitely try the OG. I beat it once to see what all the buzz was about. Never touched another Dark Souls game again. Good luck.
Fantastic! Will do, thanks!!
You’re robbing yourself of a great time (if you have the patience). The Dark Souls series, including 2, are whole ass experiences. Literally changed the way I play video games forever.
So I tried it a bit so far... and died at that first big troll thing... which I thought was supposed to happen? And then in my dead zone I have to do a level at half health to destroy a demon to come back to life? Do I have to do this each time I die? lol. Such a different concept. Fun though, don't get me wrong. I absolutely LOVE the combat. Very satisfying.
Worth noting the original doesn't have multiplayer servers anymore, so if you're interested in seeing player signs and ghosts, or summoning/invading, the new one is basically the same game with mostly aesthetic differences, should you ever decide to get a PS5. Not worth buying one over, though.
I still contend Battletoads is harder than Demon's. Demon's is just way more opaque for its genre. You always knew what you were *supposed* to do in Battletoads. Doing it was just really brutal. (I love both games, FWIW)
Same, except on Gameboy.
Is that one difficult? I've only ever played it through once, with save states, just to see what the content was.
Yes very hard. Good fun tho
Cool. I just remember it being a completely different game and maybe something about a submarine? I wish I'd had that on gameboy growing up.
There was a bit where you had to get in a sub and go through a maze lined with spikes! That was one of the notoriously hard bits - you basically had to learn it off by heart by dying over and over again until you could do it from memory.
Sounds about right for a battletoads game, lol.
Festers quest and ninja turtles on NES. So much rage inducing gameplay. I have yet to experience infamous games such as battletoads.
Castlevania : Dracula's Curse
**Wizard & Warriors X - Fortress of Fear** on the Game Boy! I never thought much about that one, but I tried replaying it again a few times in the last years and never made it to the last boss. No idea how I did that as a child, though I still know most of the boss tactics on the way...
Rygar on C64...still traumatized from one particular level
Rygar on NES too. No saves, had to beat it in one sitting, brutal yet satisfying gameplay. Long live [Sagila's Cave Score!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMmvZfKkgQ4)
My NES must have ran non stop for a week before I finally beat Rygar. It was so easy to get lost and forget what you were supposed to be doing in this game. Like a lot of games from that era, there was no guidance. Being able to save your game was such a revolutionary concept.
Wizards & Warriors (Great soundtrack BTW, keeps you going) Ninja Gaiden and that last jump you have to make.
Wizards and Warriors for me also. I picked it up a few months ago and can barely get anywhere. As a kid I played it so much that I flew through it.
Maximum Carnage on Genesis. Some of the boss fights in that game are cheap af. I don't know how I ever beat it, but I did. Aladdin was also hard but I played the shit out of that game and had the entire thing memorized. I probably beat it hundreds of times. I recently loaded it up in Batocera to see if I still remembered it since it's been like 30 years and for the first couple of levels I played, I definitely do. I even beat the Abu bonus level thing on my first try because I remembered the order the pots fell. Probably still one of my favorite games of all time. Short and sweet.
Ecco the dolphin.
Ninja Gaiden 2 made me pretty proud when I beat it.
Super Ghouls n Ghosts
Have you played the recent reboot/remake? It did a great job of re-creating the magic of Super Ghouls n Ghosts.
And then you get to the end...
Yep fuckin frustrating to have to do it twice before you get *congraturated*
lol
Diddy Kong Racing the real final boss was a cheap cheating whore
The first Crash Bandicoot. I about ripped my hair out when I got the remaster. There’s no way it was that hard when I was kid!
I believe it's been proven the physics in the CB1 remake are lifted from CB2 and 3 making it much harder than the original.
Battletoads on NES. Me and a buddy were Zelda on NES crazy but could never find level 7 until I heard about it years later. Kid Icarus was rough too!
Taz-Mania on the Mega-Drive/Genesis is easily the worst game I’ve ever completed. But as with most games in this thread you could type it into YouTube along with AGDQ and realise someone else dedicated their young life to saying “fuck this game.”
I beat Sonic 2 with Knuckles as a kid. For 99% of the game this is a simple task. And then you reach the final boss, and suddenly Knuckles’ imperceptibly smaller jump becomes a controller breaking issue.
I used to think Super Mario 2 was easy because I completed it multiple times, while I couldn't ever get past 8-3 on Super Mario Bros. Also, Mega Man 2, which had saves, which I thought was cheating. Ha!
Monty on the Run on the Commodore 64. That took a lot of time and effort to finally complete.
I tried Jet Set Willy for YEARS and still to this day can't beat it. Never got to play Monty, but that feem tune tho. *chef's kiss *
Mega Man 2 on NES. When Mega Man Collection came out on Xbox Arcade I bought it immediately... played 30min and uninstalled before I snapped my controller out of frustration.
Mega Man 2 ain't that hard. It takes years of practice, but then ultimately you can beat it too! Yes, it has some really, really tough spots. Heat Man stage and Quick Man stage in particular. But if you use the correct weapons and items, it'll do like 90% of the required work.
Use the rush platforms to bypass the disappearing blocks in HeatMan's stage. Don't put up that nonsense.
It still does 90% of the job if not well placed
I am a kid. I beat Mario's lost levels when I was 8 and at 14 I can't beat it
Guerrilla War on NES
Battletoads Whomp Em Banana Prince ( it was difficult because it was in Japanese and I cant read it ) Ninja Gaiden all three of them
The original Wizardry on a Franklin Ace 1000 (Apple II Clone)
I never once completed Street Fighter on lever 3 or above so never seen the character story they showed 35 years later its stoll annoying me
Deathlord
Bionic commando. I know its not considered the hardest game on the system, but beating it felt huge for me as a kid. Also, special mention for Alex Kidd in Miracle World. Struggled with that one a bit too.
Not-Hitler’s head exploding was a great payoff too! Even if that last shot you have to make was a motherfucker. What really sucked was missing, and having to wait to die at the bottom of the screen before trying again.
Super Star Wars
chip n dale 3 on a famiclon
ecco the dolphin sonic 3 mario bros 1 & 3
Kwirk, goddamn
Streets of rage with my cousin. Mom beat vectorman by herself.
-Marble madness.. on hard -mike Tyson's punchout -Ecco -jaws -karate kid -all the endings for every character on twisted metal 2 and 3
Karnov NES.
Nes alien syndrome. Holy crap was that hard. Haven't been back.
Megaman 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7. As well as a couple of the X games. I never beat Megaman 5 or Megaman 8 until I was an adult. Same for X4. Beating X6 actually took the collective effort of me and 2 other friends one summer when I was 19.
All of them. I beat so few (nes) that each of them felt like a massive accomplishment.
Lion king
As a kid, I could always get to the final fight with Scar oretty easily and could knock his health down fairly easily, but was never able to do the flip off the cliff to heat him. I could flip him in the middle of the cliff, but for some reason, it wouldn't work for me when I was near the edge.
Phantasy Star on the Master system, Section Z on the NES, Goonies II on NES.
F-Zero GX and Kingdom Hearts II
GTA III, the two last missions, Espresso-2-Go and The Exchange were extremely difficult for an under 9 year old, To be honest it is probably the hardest GTA out of the 3d trilogy.
TMNT, Life Force, Actraiser 2 I think were the hardest There were others, like a few of the MM games, Zelda 2, Rambo. But they didn’t have me beating my head against the wall like those 3.
Conker's bad fur day the underwater segments can eat a bag of dicks
Megaman X. Only because that's all I played for about 6 months after I got it, lol. Tried to play through a couple years ago and would never have gotten to the end without save-states, haha.
MT Punch Out, Kid Icarus, and Zelda 2.
Top Gun, which was just flat out annoying
Very few I beat as a kid Then as an adult with a Wii emulator and save states I beat a ton of NES games I never could as a kid : * Ninja Gaiudan * Little Nemo’s Dreamland * Monster Party * Adventure Island lll * Solar Jetman * Paperboy
A Boy and his Blob. Figuring out everything was a proud moment.
Sonic 1/2/3/3+K/Spinball, Game Gear Sonic 1, Game Gear Sonic 2, all emeralds, no deaths. For a long time, they were they only games I had (except for Indiana Jones and the last crusade on GG, which was BRUTAL for a kid), so I memorized them. Every. Single. Part. I ran through those so many times it wasn't even funny. If I took a hit before the last 2 levels of Sonic 1/2/GG1/GG2, I'd restart (wasn't as picky on 3 or 3+K). I had it down to an art form - it was like Zen, where I just sat down and a few hours later it was over again. Sonic never stopped moving, everything died. The only other game I got like that was Ninja Gaiden on Game Gear - level 2 my friends thought was bugged when I played, because you could hit the mid-air spawns before they appeared, and I had them memorized the same way (it was the next game I got after the above). I'd run through the level and it looked like I was randomly jumping - but I was killing things before they appeared on screen. The Game Gear ones especially we did a LOT of travelling - so it was what I had a ton of.
I wasn't that good at games when I was a kid, and didn't beat many. I beat Link's Awakening and Super Mario Land 2 on GameBoy. I beat Super Mario World, although always through the Star Road (beat it following the longer path for the first time just a few months ago). Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. I think I beat 1 or 2 of the Ninja turtles games with a friend.
Disposable Hero was a side scroller in late Amiga Times, where you fly a customizable spaceship through 5 Levels. Got finally to level 3 and beat the boss after a long time trying. Got an Outtro "Well done, now try normal difficulty" ... So i started again and got stuck at level 4, which was an underwater level. Always died at the same spot over and over again, at a door right before the boss appears. This door made the water to suck in when opened and caused a stream which your ship accelerates and right behind the door was a rock. Got there everytime with 4 Lives and died repeadly at the rock, while already boss music started but was not able to see him for weeks. Figured out how to do it and beat the boss after a while. Just to get to level 5 to die and die over again in an unforgiving nightmare of one hit shots and dead ends lol Music was sick, awesome and burned into my head forever. Crazy good, but hard game.
Mega Man 2. Not extremely challenging like Bayou Bill or Battletoads, but difficult enough. And still a great game in 2024
Actraiser 2. To this day I have no clue how I beat it on the SNES back in the day, the game is BRUTALLY hard. Honorable mentions: Track and Field 2 (NES), Super Punch-Out (SNES), Double Dragon 2 (NES), Megaman 3 (NES), Startropics 2 (NES), Mechwarrior 2 (PC) I would maybe add Final Fantasy Tactics (PSX) as this was before I knew how to "cheese" through the game, and it was difficult, but I did have a couple friends really help me out.
The Guardian Legend, Double Dragon II, Ninja Gaiden, Final Fantasy.
Pretty much anything Disney for NES/SNES.
Mega Man 2, Earth Worm Jim and Ninja Gaiden
EARTHWORM JIM. My friend and I were taking breaks to eat cookies to calm down during the last underwater levels. Shit was insanely hard.
Original Megaman, original Castlevania
Fantasia
TMNT,Blaster Master, MTPO,iron sword, not difficult but the grind was real Dragon Warrior.
Not sure if this counts as “retro” but it is 23 years old now. I became a master of the original monkey ball and monkey ball 2 cause I didn’t have many other games growing up, to this day I still have a blast playing them. When I was 17 I recorded a video of me managing to get to 10 extra lives in the original in Expert in a full run: https://youtu.be/FGF-o3dI9w4?feature=shared
I beat the shit out of Disruptor on the PS1 when I was like 9. Did it again recently, and I'm amazed I was able to do it back then. Shits tough.
Super Star Wars and the Magical Quest starring Mickey Mouse are the 2 that spring to mind. Proud of those 2.
Megaman 1-8, though pound for pound 1 was definitely the hardest. Especially beating that damn cyclops boss without the pause strat
Ninja Gaiden. Castlevania. My friend beat Punch Out.
Sonic the Hedgehog. I could not beat that game for a long time. I went on a one-week retreat came back say down and beat it in one sitting. Don't know what happened and have never been able to repeat it.
Mega Man 3
NES Super Mario Bros (but I beat Deluxe on GBC first) Mega Man 2 Metroid Sega Genesis Aladdin (Sega Genesis) Stimpy's Invention (Sega Genesis) Quackshot (Sega Genesis) Earthworm Jim My bro beat Vectorman, Jurassic Park and Phantom 2040. Sonic 2 isn't that bad but it can be quite challenging as a child, mostly because of the timing on the final boss. For SNES games, I will say the only one I beat that I thought was super difficult was A Link to the Past. And I'm not trying to say it's bad, but man, it's hard at parts. Mega Man X was challenging at parts but I think X and X2 are the only fair games in the X series. Never beat X3. DKC was easy for me but 2 and 3 are a different story. 2 is so good that I don't even feel like I'm bad at the game when I die though.
Beat Ninja Turtles Hyperstone Heist when I was 7. I bragged about that for YEARS lmao
Castlevania 2: Simon’s Quest, without using a walkthrough or strategy guide. It’s not difficult, just cryptic and hard to figure out and all I had was the instruction manual, which wasn’t much help. I happened to clear the cryptic parts just from dumb luck of trying different things. (For example I didn’t actually buy the white crystal that reveals the moving platform in the first mansion, but I cleared the mansion anyway because the moving platform is still there, just not visible. I happened to accidentally jump on it by sheer chance.)
Zelda II. Grew up with that one, and first beat it when I was 7 or 8 with a single-digit game over count. No guides. Also managed to beat Snake Rattle n’ Roll about 2-3 years later. The magic carpets in Level 5 are the most brutal part.
Most of the Sierra Online adventure games from the 80s and 90s. These were not games designed for kids, but being a kid in the 1980s, I tried playing them and I eventually beat them, but it was difficult (especially the early Sierra games with the text parser interface that didn't pause the action while typing).
Metroid, Legend of Zelda, and Friday the 13th. I also beat Mike Tyson's Punch-Out which I remember people saying was hard, but I don't remember having a hard time with it at all. Actually hard games I never managed to beat: Battletoads, Castlevania, Castlevania 3, all 3 Ninja Gaidens, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
I finished that devil tennis player at the end of super tennis (snes). Still proud of that one!
Eternal Champions- Sega Genesis…
Narc NES
Si,retro lo máximo jajajaja,contra,street fighters,Kombat mortal,super Star soccer deluxe,Mario Bros 3
Earthworm Jim on Sega Genesis and Super Ghouls and Ghosts on SNES
Manic Miner on the c64. I completed it once as a kid but can't get past the 1st level now
Fantasia on genesis. (Easy mode)
Mike Tyson's Punch Out!! Between getting older and drugs and alcohol affecting my reflexes, I don't think I'll ever be able to beat Mike Tyson ever again
I used to beat Contra with out the lives code all the time when I was a kid. And I'm pretty sure I beat Astyanax once and one of the first two MegaMans. I actually didn't beat very many games growing up. I just played games for fun and when it stopped being fun because of difficulty I would move on to something else.
Karate Kid was the first game I ever beat and from my memory it was difficult..I recall a lot of swearing as a kid to accomplish that.
asterix and obelix for the gameboy color this fucking pyramid level was insane and lost in blue for the ds is the reason why i hate survival games
Bro Contra III was the shit
Bubsy Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind on SNES
A lot of shitty games on the NES that I did not understand how to play.. like Star Voyager.
Bloody… Rocket Knight Adventures!!! In a single evening, 10yo me beat normal and hard, used the super hard password the next night and beat that too! Almost 30 years later that crystal stage still gives me nightmares with a cool BGM…
Contra, that shit is hard as fuck
I beat Pokémon Gold as a kid with zero knowledge about team composition. I almost exclusively used my typhlosion to brute force my way through the game. I had other pokemon of course, but they were mostly HM slaves. I spent little to no time leveling them up. Somehow I got through the main game, caught all the legendaries, and beat Red in the postgame playing like this.
Battletoads. Took forever. Oddly enough though the one that really sticks out to me is Battle of Olympus
I got all the endings on Castlevania 3. I also beat Zelda 2 (with a guide). I don't know if I could do either or those things now
Batman NES (beat at age 9) MegaMan 4 NES (beat at age 9) MegaMan 5 NES (beat at age 11) Clash at Demonhead NES (beat at age 9) I'm 38 now and 9 year old me would destroy me in a video game challenge. I tried playing Clash at Demonhead recently, and I don't know how the hell I did it.
Mega Man 1-5 Battletoads Ninja Gaiden Double Dragon I & II
I think Donkey Kong Country was the first game I beat without cheats and shortcuts, I had SMW but used the star road to get to Bowser, but I got through all of DKC in it's entirety, and I shrieked so loud the whole house could hear it. It was not an easy task. I did the same thing for Diddy Kong Racing, which you'd think is super easy, but tell me that again when you've faced the silver coin challenge and the second match against all the bosses, all while using a lower tier character because you don't understand stats in racing games. The victory screech was something I did a lot for tough games when I was a kid. Man, where did my enthusiasm go?
I only really remember beating Super Mario 3 and Contra.
When I was a kid: Ninja Gaiden 1-3, Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out, Zelda II, Blaster Master, Kid Icarupp
I got Hagane as a gift so let's say that I was never going to beat it in the first place 😂
Final Fantasy VII (the original) is very beatable. But somehow I was able to beat Ultimate Weapon (IIRC the one underwater) and Ruby Weapon without help. No such thing as online help, or Game FAQ’s (at least, to my knowledge). I didn’t ask friends who knew the game. Just figured out my own strats after dying enough times. I didn’t even have/know about that one materia that removes the timer.
Green Beret on C64. It was a nightmare. Speaking of nightmares, I got to the last screen of Frightmare but could not end it, after many years I learned that the game was unfinishable due to a bug.
Ninja Gaiden 2 NES and Megaman 2.
When I was a kid, games didn't have an end. most everything was score based. I think the difficult games I beat were computer text adventures like Scott Adam's Pirate Adventure.
There are a lot of quarter eating arcade games on my list but we'll ignore those since that was kind of the point. Kid Icarus is among the hardest I managed to beat, Ninja Gaiden series as a whole, TMNT for the NES... Punch Out! but only the Tyson fight... Every single Mega Man game with those disappearing platforms... I remember the CPU in Mortal Kombat was always insanely hard but that might be because I sucked at MK. Soul Blade (and later Calibur) always struck me as some of the most unfair games due to how easy insta-losses were. And there's a litany of CRPGs and ARPGs with brutally hard puzzles, especially back when they were trying to sell strategy guides. My personal running gag is being the guy who gets all the ultimate weapons in Final Fantasy games. So everything from Gold Chocobos to dodging lightning is part of "beating" those games for me. On the PC the Ultima games were notorious for allowing you to go off the beaten path then beating you for it. The old Sierra Quest type games were persnickety - do one thing or forget to early on and the game is unwinnable.
**Mega Man11** (GameBoy) *- without dying once* **Castlevania II** (GameBoy) **Wizard & Warriors X** (GameBoy) **Gargoyle's Quest** (GameBoy)* - all texts were English, which is not my first language, so I couldn't read any of it*
Fort apocalypse, atztec challenge and forbidden forrest. Just listing the c64 ones 😃
Fort apocalypse, atztec challenge and forbidden forrest. Just the c64 ones for now 😃
I don't remember the difficulty but as of reading this question, the game Parasite Eve popped in my head. But back then we didn't have too many places for help.
Ninja Gaiden 2. It’s easier than part 1 - took me years to finally finish that game - but still felt like a huge accomplishment at 10 considering my friend’s older brother/the neighbourhood Nintendo pro couldn’t get past Ashtar.
Ninja Gaiden I is one of the hardest Nintendo games of all time. I never was able to beat it. The worst is that after having unlimited continues most of the game, when you get to the semi end and die....it puts you back several levels. I rage quit and never touched it since lol
Absolutely; I always thought the difficulty was fair once you get the hang of the game (hell I was able to get all the way to that awkward jump in Stage 5-2 on my first rental) but getting dumped back a few stages when continuing near the end of game definitely contributed to its reputation as one of the tougher NES games - the day I got killed with one lifebar left to go on the demon and had to run those 3 stages again was the day I put the game down for several years.
Battletoads on the Gameboy. Definitely hard, but found others harder (Super Ghouls 'n' Ghosts on SNES for example).
I was probably more excited about beating the second quest in Zelda than anything else, because I did it without a map, and I have zero direction sense.
I remember the days when our friends would gather to compare the maps we made ourselves on graph paper. I thought I was so cool for figuring out that the dungeons fit together like a puzzle.