Many games nowadays pull players in a multitude of directions. Where gameplay is still one of the most important aspects of the medium for sure, the way that developers are now able to tell stories, create characters that you care about, and evoke emotions from players are what have driven the industry forward. Games like Uncharted or Final Fantasy give players a reason to keep coming back for more adventures, while Call Of Duty, Destiny, and Grand Theft Auto V retain players incredibly well with constant updꦡates to t♕heir multiplayer content.
If people were to go back and play the games of the 80s and 90s however, they'd be in for quite the treat. When hardcore fans came out in waves for the release of Crash Bandicoot: The N.Sane Trilogy, and quickly learned how much video games have changed since that time. As someone who can personal vouch for the majority, Crash Bandicoot 1 is absurdly difficult to the point where I'm still nowhere close to😼 finishing the game's 23 levels (from p🐎laying on and off the past month and a half). This reviving of the series brought back the memories of both joy and pain of gaming in the 1990s.
Go even farther back to the NES, and the newly established home console market was treating players with games that were testing the limits and patience of their fans. Taking into account the simplified controller schemes of the NES controller, being able to complete a majority of games on the NES required hours upon hours of practice and level learning in order to master the art of games such as Super Mario Bros., Mega Man, Final Fantasy, and Contra to name a few. Yet despite the unbearable levels of frustration, surely numerous outbursts, and anger management therapy some people may have needed, the NES library consists of some of the greatest games in history for their notorious difficulty. These are 20 of the toughest games to ever release oౠn the Nintendo Entertainment System.
20 But I've Already Been The꧂re!
1987's Rygar splits time as being both a side scroller and top down platform run and gunner. Much like the Mega Man series, players can move between the game's five different levels however they please. The difference though is that Rygar is a metroidvania style game, forcing players to have to backtrack once they're able to unlock new areas from pr💞eviously explored levels. There are also a number of enemies who by default move much quicker than Rygar does, which leads to a number of areas where you're forced to toil with enemies that just litter the screen, forcing you to master cooperating dodge movements and ranged attacks. To make matters worse, anyon♕e who purchased the PAL region's version of the game may have had a game bug in their copy that lowered the stats of Rygar before the final boss fight with Ligar, making victory nearly impossible.
19 🎃 A True Test Of Patience And Stealth
From the mind of Hideo Kojima, Metal Gear began what is now know as the modern day stealth genre. First and foremost, the biggest challenges that players have to face is the shear number of enemies that you have to sneak around as Solid Snake in a true test of tactical espionage. The early stages of trying to become familiar with maneuvering in and out of patrols probably led most players into dyer situations of multiple guards chasing you around the base, which can be daunting up until you've found yourself some weaponry to work with. What makes Metal Gear frustrating is it's meant to be played discretely, which would make the ones who like to light up the screen with bullets start to lose it pretty quickly. Metal Gear is the ultimate test of patieওnce and strategy, and that only adds to the pressure to progress further.
18 This Game ඣTricks You Into Thinking It's Easy 🦩
If you thought that The Karate Kid for the NES having only four levels would mean that the game was short and sweet, then try again. Based on the first two Karate Kid movies, the first level of the game is fairly easy, which can give players a false sense of confidence before heading into the remainder of the game. Mechanically the game is designed unfairly for players. While you can punch and kick your way through enemies, the added platforming elements cause the majority of your strikes to miss their intended point of contact. Add in traps you can land in, and being hit causes your character to fall backwards can create a chain of damage resulting in your accelerated death. The Karate Kid isn't a very long game by any means, but it's designed in a way such that the longer ꦯyou spend playing the game, the more and more you're going to hate it.
17 Not A Gam✱e For Beginners
Though it has the same name as the 1986 movie, Top Gun has little resemblance other than the key concept of acting as a flight simulation for players. The game consists of just four different levels, just like The Karate Kid, with objective modes for players such as Refuel and Landing mode. The two aforementioned mode that are playable can become a daunting task, since forgetting to call in your refueling tanker can leave you crashing into the ground unless you've master your fighter's aiming mechanics. While flying, the game's graphics can wreck havoc for players, since the single shaded horizon makes it difficult for you to figure out your F-14 Fighter's altitude. Also between the game's four levels, there are fourteen different types of ships, planes, and ground forces that you'll have to bring a new plan of attack for leading up to the game's top secret fourth mission. Every aspect of Top Gun is unforgiving. There are over a dozen enemy tactics to adjust to in a short amount of time. The controller layout, while simple on the NES, is more elaborate than it should be. Nothing about the game is appeal to any beginner, and like The Karate Kid from before, the longer you wind up 𒊎playing the game, the more frustrating it beꦿcomes.
16 💜 🎶 So Hard, You Have To Play It Twice
Having been released on arcade cabinets a year prior, the NES port of Ghosts N' Goblins' high difficulty isn't the biggest reason why the game is notoriously frustrating. To start, players can only be hit twice before losing a life, and must return to the start of the level each time (a common theme with most NES side-scrollers). But the kicker with Ghosts N' Goblins is the game's true ending or rather, how to unlock it. Players are already at a disadvantage with the exclusion of a save function. But it order to get the game's "true ending", you need to replay the entire game a second time on an even higher difficulty to unlock the real final battle. Most of these NES games have some sor♋t of permadeath option already, forcing players to restart the entire game once they've depleted themselves of their remaining lives. But being forced to experience the horrors of losing everything after you've already beaten the game once? Yeah, forget about it.
15 No, You Can't Save Your Game ꧙
In contrast to the two previously mentioned games Top Gun and The Karate Kid, Blaster Master offered players a little more substance that the formers lack of levels. Blaster Master is a typical 2D side-scroller combined with run and gun mechanics, consisting of eight different levels that players are required to return to on occasion in order to progress through the game. While the added content can be praised, the lack of a password/save system can potentially lead to one of the most frustrating of experiences in gaming. Combined with the fact you must beat the game all in one sitting, the idea that someone could lose all of their lives right up until the final boss fight and be forced to start all the way from the beginning is something that players today would grow gray hairs just thinking about. Many games from this era are quite unforgiving, so Blaster Master's game💯 design standing out has to account as one of the mo♚re daring gaming challenges for players to take on.
14 Don't Know The Map By Heart?ﷺ Too Bad!
As a game that many label as "unbeatable", Gauntlet lives up to its reputation for the sheer marathon-like approach. Consisting of 100 levels, it doesn't matter who you are or what your experience with the game is. 100 levels is 100 levels, and there's no working your way around it. When you add in that your health meter is basically a ticking time bomb slowing eating at your vitality, there's a real sense of panic if you're a first-time player that can't find the entrance to the next level. The key to being successful at Gauntlet isn't the hours of dedication you must put forth to overcome it, it's the experience of knowing where everything in the game is already. For someone to understand the level layout of Gaunlet's copious number of levels would drive players to the brink ꧟of insanity. For throwing the controller at the screen, players might just throw themselves at it with this one...
13 Jumping's For Losers 🥃
Almost all 2D platformers from the NES era consist of the same three basic functions: left, right, and jump. But what happens when you rip out one of those three moves? The answer: Bionic Commando. In the game, players must use Ladd Spencer's mechanical arm to clear gaps and maneuver throughout the level. Herein lies the problem. At this point, most if not all of us are accustomed to running and jumping from platform to platform, it's muscle memory at this point. Anyone who's tried to play Bionic Commando has probably had the same issue as everyone before them. They try jumping, probab꧟ly lose thei🃏r minds, then go back and try to learn the game's unique style.
12 In Space, Energy Is Scarce 🐻 🐈
When the Metroid series was first introduced back in 1986, it followed suit with the majority of games in the NES library with its ramped up difficulty in a shorter game which forced players to memorize enemy locations and level designs like a mad scientist in order to be able to execute a perfect run of the game. Metroid handles its high degree of difficulty differently though. The game begins with players having 30 energy (the game's version of a health bar), and can only acquire mor𒐪e energy by killing enemies. The problem with this health drop approach is that the rate at which players can gain more energy is inconsistent and at most times unfair. Unless you're going for a perfect, clean run, players will lose their minds trying to hold onto their last bit of health whilst having to take out enemies that "may" have a small bit of energy to offer you in return.
11 Not Even Your Childhood Favorites 🦩Are Safe 🎀
If there was ever a single portion of a game that could drive players to total madness, you could make a strong case for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' second stage. During the game's second level, players jump back a forth between swimming through the Hudson River in order to disarm eight bombs within a strict time limit of two and a half minutes. To make matters worse, the underwater portion is also littered with electric eels that severely limit your movement throughout the water. Failure to both survive and disarm all eight bombs results in a total restart of the game. Even though the entire game contains six levels in total, it wouldn't surprise many that most players would more than likely have given up before the halfway point. The best part about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles h♋owever is that the NES version of the game isn't even the worst. , the PC version of the game has a jump that is literally impossible to clear without cheating.