10 Outrageously Difficult Games From Recent Years

"As gaming begins it slippery descent into the eighth generation with the upcoming dawn of the Wii U, it's a time of reflection for many of us as we hark back to the golden eras of gaming. Whether you grew up with an Atari, NES or PS1, childhood gaming experiences are one of the great sources of nostalgia that the modern gamer can rely on. One thing we so often see in our gaming pasts is the sheer difficulty of some of these older titles. Pitfall, Contra, Battletoads etc. These retro classics are some of the hardest games out there, but difficult games haven't completely receded in recent years. To hush all the hand-holding cake walks out there are plenty of titles from the past five years that will truly have you tearing your hair out. We've picked out ten of them for you."

[Elderly_Cynic]

What an incredibly lazy... did you call this an article? I't just a series of screen shots... no discussion of 'why' the games are difficult? Shameless...

[Lord_Sloth]

Most people don't actually read the articles written for top 10 lists anyway, they just get the list. Especially when the ass-hat running the site spreads everything across 10 pages.

[Cam977]

They spread it across 10 pages so they can gain more revenue from ads. Avoid articles like this at all costs.

[beerkeg]

According to their updates some of their readers are dead. It's probably due to clicking through so many pages.

[caseh]

Lmao I just saw that and thought WTF, i'm guessing they mean 'Dear' rather than 'Dead'.

[Bimkoblerutso]

Yeah, I'm not clicking through that many pages just so you can get a few extra hits.

[Eyeco]

What do you expect from Gamingbolt ? heres the list people

1.Ninja Gaiden Sigma
2.QWOP
3.The Heist
4.Trials HD
5.I Wanna Be the Guy
6.Trauma Center (really ?)
7.Sin and Punishment (really ?)
8. Super meat boy
9.Mega Man 9
10. Demon Souls

[BinaryMind]

I'm not sure if this list is in order, but there's no way you could put Ninja Gaiden Sigma ahead of MM9 or Super Meat Boy. Heck, where's Super Hexagon?

[Captain Qwark 9]

id agree with sigma, trials, smb, mm9, and demon/dark souls.

never played the rest. also id like to note that despite their difficulty, easily some of the best games this gen too

[Donnieboi]

Where is Catherine? It was so hard that they had to add an easier mode, and it was STILL hard.

[Fateful_Knight]

That first screen is from Ninja Gaiden 3, not Sigma.

[The_Con-Sept]

As seen on top10.com Hahahaha what's with this shizzle?

[kupomogli]

Even on the harder difficulties, I thought Demon's Souls was very easy. Dark Souls on the other hand was much harder and not in the same way. Dark Souls had way too many cheap death parts rather than actual difficulty.

Dark Souls also had many weapons that became useless fairly quickly as you progressed unless you grinded in order to upgrade these weapons. The Gaping Dragon is a ridiculously easy boss, but unless you came prepared with a grinded out weapon, it's a long monotonous battle. That in itself could be the cause of death.

Demon's Souls is a great game. Dark Souls is good, but not nearly as good as Demon's Souls was.

[No FanS Land]

About the same reason I like Demon's souls more.

[FunkMacNasty]

Though Its been one of my favorite racers this gen, Midnight Club LA has gotta be one of the hardest games I've ever played, at least once you pass a certain level with your character and the races you can enter. Green and yellow coded races were usually pretty achievable at a first place finish, but beyond that.. No matter your car, upgrades, or special abilities it was just literally impossible to pass the competition. Still an awesome game though.

[PhoenixRising37]

Trials HD is not hard, it just takes time to master. You can play the easier tracks all day until you get good enough to handle the extreme ones. Ninja Gaiden II is WAY harder than sigma. Demon's/Dark souls are also not hard games, they just punish you for being really stupid.

[StrawberryDiesel420]

Demon's Souls and Dark Souls are very hard. Try Smough and Ornstein solo on NG+++, Manus solo on NG+++, or Maneater solo on NG+. Then come back and say they just punish you for being stupid and aren't truly some of the hardest games out on console. They aren't hard if you use youtube to show you everything of course, but if you solo the games blind they're hard as hell.

[PhoenixRising37]

I did beat smough and ornstein by myself on NG+++. want my psnID so you can see my platinum?

[StrawberryDiesel420]

Doesn't mean the game isn't hard just because you can do it. The average gamer would most certainly have trouble. I can see be your arrogance though that this is meaningless.

[PhoenixRising37]

I guess they're hard for today's standards, I'll give you that.

[Jon_Fu_]

Super Meat Boy made me want to throw my console out the window!! What a frustrating game! I still think Team Meat's awesome though.

[Steadyhndz]

Pretty poor article, just screenshots with descriptions...no talk about the game from the writers perspective. Stop getting lazy writers! Do something!

[Greyslash]

Where is DMC 3? That game has made me bash my controller against every part of my wall. And you cant say it's not recent because IWBTG was only two years younger.

[CrescentFang]

All Ninja Gaidens are hard, but fair except for 3 (RE has not come out yet so nothing to day about that). NG3 (if you played on Master Ninja and could unlock it of course) was difficult and cheapness + unfair to the max. You had to be on a whole other level to complete NG3

[Eyeco]

NG2 was hard but for all the wrong reasons, the game was plagued with cheap attacks, cheap enemy placement, and unavoidable attacks. It wasn't hard in the way i would consider old nes games for being hard (but fair) it was hard because it was cheap. (Armadillo fight was absolute BS)

[LiquidSword93]

Ninja gaiden 2 was a bitch. I raged so hard literally on even level past the first. So many broken controllers...

[Max-Zorin]

Ninja Gaiden 2 makes you hate life.

[Tzuno]

What is this a noob cry article?