The Top 25 Hardest Games of All Time

VGB writes:

"Gaming difficulty is an interesting beast as it has really evolved over the years. Many gamers still hold to the fact that games of yesteryear were much harder than games on today's consoles. But is that really true?

Obviously it all depends on who you ask. GameDaily has come up with their own list of the hardest games and series of all time. Though they mostly concentrate on franchises instead of one entry in a series. So I took a few liberties to add "series" like when they went with the original Battletoads (um, excuse me, but they're ALL hard!)"

[Gue1]

From the bunch in my opinion the hardest games are Battles Toads, Zelda II, Ikaruga, Gouls N’ Ghosts, Contra, and R-Type because I can only beat them by cheating but the rest? Those are easy.

R-Type and Ikaruga are maniac shooters so by nature they have to be hard but the hardest maniac shooter ever is....!!!! DonPachi vs Mushihimesama Futari. I don't know which one...

If anybody knows any game harder than these then let me know to actualize my data. LoL

=This guy must be son of Jesus or something because a miracle it's the only explanation of someone beating that game.

[ShabzS]

call of duty 4? ... nah but world at war maybe... or call of duty united offensive ... that infinte spawning is a killer on veteran

[StephanieBBB]

I would say that KZ2 on hardest is also up there with Ninja gaiden. The A.I of the mobs in that game is ridiculus at hardest.

[Marceles]

God of War shouldn't be up there, Portal shouldn't, Viewtiful Joe shouldn't...

[creatchee]

Agree with Ninja Gaiden - especially on the hardest difficulty. But at least it stayed fun. Same with Battletoads.

You want hard and unfun though? Try Altered Beast from back in the day. Or maybe the infamous snowboarding levels from Cliffhanger on the Sega CD.

[drewsny]

i dont know about you but beating cod4 of veteran wasn't all too hard and beating portal was a piece of cake (no pun intended)

also sorry to the above user for pressing reply

[UnwanteDreamz]

I agree with Ninja Gaiden getting in there though I would have been happy if it got in the top 5.

I can't agree with your comment though the NES Ninja Gaiden was and is still one of the hardest I have played. I hate it when people talk about the recent Ninja Gaiden games like they are the first. Some wont acknoledge the fact that this franchise started in the 80's.

EDIT Battletoads was crazy hard too. I remember when I was a kid my fam was poor. I had a console but only one game. I was allowed to rent one game like once a month. I wasted 3 rentals on Battletoads trying to beat it with my friends. Sadly it never happened.

[n4f]

same with prince of persia people doesnt know that is stared in the 90

[ThanatosDMC]

Battletoads was just impossible just like most retro games. Anyone remember Topgun? Impossible to land your jet.

[IrishAssa]

Haha I remember topgun that was fu*kin crazy trying to land, I only ever landed once for a 2 day rent

[lsujester]

Top Gun wasn't so bad if you ignored the "help" flashing on the screen. Just keep the alt and speed close to 200 and 288, respectively, and you would land everytime.

You know, Top Gun and Trojan are really the only two games I can recall actually beating right off hand from back then.

[ipe]

never finished it,ridicilous diff.
ninjda gaiden deff.

[ThanatosDMC]

Play DMC3 Special Edition they made that version a lot easier. The first ones that came out were really hard... but i loved every second of it. Took a while for me to kill Cerberus on the original DMC3. I never play easy mode.

[Foxgod]

According to this list, i beat the hardest game ever, which i did on warrior level.
I find it hard to believe that it doesnt get any harder then Ninja Gaiden.

[UnwanteDreamz]

The real Ninja Gaiden never had a warrior difficulty or game saves.

[ThanatosDMC]

It's beyond me why they say God of War is a hard game.

[Jockamo]

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[XLiveGamer]

Wow my favorites 5 on the list.
Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link (NES), Doom, R-Type, Gouls N’ Ghosts series and of course Ninja Gaiden series.

Sweeeet!

[Jinxstar]

poor list

They need Wolverine Adamantium Rage in there and many of those games are not hard at all...

[UnwanteDreamz]

I vowed never to play an x-men game after that one.

[IzKyD1331]

COD4 is easy as hell. Even veteran can be beat easily if you know what to do in specific situations

[Simon_Brezhnev]

they forgot to put demon's souls in that list. reason why because even old nes/snes/gen u had lives to continue with when you die but in demons souls when u die u start back at the beginning of the level with half your health. most boss battles they can kill you in one hit. when you beat the game the game gets even harder and my character is maxed out level 712

[ThatCanadianGuy]

Arggghh!!!! I ordered that game a few days ago, can't freaking wait till it gets here!

[tda-danny]

Grats! Great game, hope your wait isn't too long!!

[pippoppow]

Yeah Demon's Souls is brutal. Great but brutal. Definitely deserves a spot.

[0verdrive]

lol i was waiting for someone to bust out demon's souls, considering what all the reviews were saying

that being said, i just ordered my copy tonight, and i cannot wait for it! rawr!

[tein]

OMG where are Enclave? Demon soul are realy hard if you play alone.

[yojoe26]

Contra: Shattered Soldier on the PS2 which is BY FAR the HARDEST game I have ever played to date. It was really awesome in terms of gameplay and graphics, but I have never successfully beaten this game even with the thirty lives cheat. Seriously people. Go try this game. Ninja Gaiden doesn't hold a candle to this game in terms of difficulty.

[UnwanteDreamz]

Thats nothing new to Contra. The original Contra couldn't be beat without the infinite lives cheat. Most people I know couldnt get through 3 lvls without a game over screen.

[Miraak82]

pffff KZ2 on elite, thats giving me a run for my money still on the first lvl . ya I agree dmc3 was brutal , never played special edition I played the original but the difficulty is why I loved the game.

[UnwanteDreamz]

KZ2 is very hard on Elite. I am not looking forward to the last lvl.

[xabmol]

The waves of enemies before the last boss fight are INSANE! Whenever you push forward those damn Higgs just push you right back.

Now I'm facing Radec and OH MY FRICKIN GORD! >.<

How the heck am I supposed to beat this guy. There is nowhere to hide. The Higgs come at you from all directions.

Anyone actually beat him? If so... Share some tips?

[Nineball2112]

Well, I beat KZ2 on elite. Which is weird because I pretty much suck at the multiplayer. :-)

**Spoilers**

What I did at the end was stay at the front of the room at the beginning of that area. There are two gun racks on either side of the alcove I was in and the column in front (in the middle of the alcove) provided cover for me. I just pretty much stayed in that area until the gates opened up for the second floor.

Now, it got ridiculously difficult at that point. I normally stayed at the back (opposite of where Radec is) on the second floor until the guys with the rockets spawn.

Once they spawn, I immediately run up to the left side of the second floor (when facing Radec at the back of the room) with the sniper rifle. That side seems to provide the best cover from the guys with rockets. I just keep picking off the Helghast with rockets and then ducking back against that wall for cover when they fired at me.

It took me SEVERAL attempts at that whole level to finally beat Radec. It just takes patience and (admittedly) some luck. There was a lot of cursing going on while I played that level. :-)

[xabmol]

I'm gonna give it a try.

[Cajun Chicken]

...I didn't think MDK2 was hard.

[Incognegro]

MDK 2 was my joint for the longest. I still haven't beaten that game yet. Dang that brings back memories.

[Cajun Chicken]

Bring on entry number 3.

[Incognegro]

although, I wonder what the possibility of that happening would be.

[Bxknuckles]

These people have OBVIOUSLY not played Baten kaitos or baten kaitos origins

[JeepGamer]

A lot of people, including the author(s) of this article confuse difficult with being cheap.

Cheapness is when things like the camera, the controls, or the fact that the enemy has attacks that are virtually impossible to predict or avoid, or loopy requirements like getting through whole games with only a few lives or very limited continues like the old days... Or a combination of these things.

Difficult is when the controls are great, the camera works with you, and the enemies have a wide variety of attacks that require you to think about what you're doing.

[Incognegro]

that game takes alot of patience to get down. Getting the trophies in HD was ridiculous. I still can't believe I got a platnium for it. Also I wanna know if they played God Hand... that game is ridiculous.

[LeonSKennedy4Life]

Portal is one of the easiest games I've ever played. What are they smoking? I love Portal...but it's not hard at ALL!

Also, Devil May Cry 3 is much harder than Ninja Gaiden.

[ReTarDedFisHy]

I'd also say that DMC3 is a lot harder than Ninja Gaiden. I was stuck on the first boss for nearly a week (the reaper) 'till I found out about lock-on which the game clearly tells you about, haha. I now rule at DMC3 so hard. ;)

[1ikedamaster]

I disagree for both games. Ninja Gaiden for xbox(original) was the hardest game I EVER played(on normal difficulty). Portal was indeed ultra hard but only when going for the gold challenges.

God of War was too hard when playing in God/Titan mode as well.

Btw, I loved DMC3. It was indeed hard but not hardest.

[LeonSKennedy4Life]

Whoever has COD4 on here obviously hasn't played Resistance 2.

Killzone 2 is a breeze compared to R2.

[Amplitude]

Shinobi? I remember breezing through that game back in the PS2 days. >.>

And Guitar Hero? Im one of those retards that has hit high 80 percents on Fire and the Flames, and i can definately say that IIDX is 10 times harder - and more fun.

Call of Duty 4? LMFAO. Hell no..

....Viewtiful Joe? .............Was this list a joke, or... ???

Portal?
F-Zero?

What the hell were these people smoking? xD

[Homicide]

I can't believe they put God of War there. The game is very casual friendly.

[The_Devil_Hunter]

How was DMC3 brutal, I found it it fairly normal. I thought DMC1 was harder. But I still think the hardest gane I played was Contra1

[IVYvsTAKI]

Never beaten an R-Type, from the first one all the way to Final, and I think I've played them all. Those games are hard as hell if you don't know what you're doing.

A friend and I beat Contra in one sitting, with the code of course, but I hadn't beaten it before that.

I recently finished Uncharted on the crushing level, and that was pretty hard, but probably shouldn't make the list. I'm just glad I was able to do it!

[Panthers]

Where is Colony Wars 2? That game was impossible with cheat codes. But it was soooo good. They should make a PS3 Colony Wars!

[Redempteur]

Tetris ? God of war ?
i see a problem

first tetris isn't hard at all ( i easily manage to play on the fastest speed during hours NO problem )

God of war is really easy ..God difficulty is a little hard but nothing spécial ...

BUT Ninja gaiden ... BUT WIpeout Hd ( all the Elite races to do , beat zico and the list goes on ) IS HARD .. PHANTOM ELITE Races or tournaments ARE a pain in the ass ..The Ai waits for you if ( and you will ) you are too slow in a lap BUT you can't manage to get past them without A LOT OF SKILL AND LUCK .. Zone 75 ?? Argh ...

i have to agree on metal slug ... i spent 5 days trying to improve my way of playing metal slug 3 in order to beat it with one continue ... that game is hard ...

Also Call of duty 4 was so easy i don't know what make them think it's hard ...

[Nikuma]

Maybe he meant them both cause Gdamn DOOM 2 was freaking hard without cheat codes. I'm having nightmares again about that level where you kill the 4 big dual wielding rocket launcher dudes, and then all the walls open up and "OH GOD SPIDERS! /\/\",,"/\/\"

[Cherchez La Ghost]

Call of Duty on Veteran is the hardest sheit I've ever played that pisses me off!! I can never play nothing under Veteran because I feel like I'm cheating myself as a gamer. One part of CoD 3 took me 3 days to pass because I was getting shot thru the trees. I never in my life threw a controller on the ground. LOL!!

[peeps]

hmmm should have thought about his list more tbh cus there are way too many series rather than picking a game from that series, and some left me confused. COD4?? even on vet it's not all that hard (apart from perhaps the epilogue) WAW is harder simply because the ai is terrible and unbalanced, enemies will sprint past your team mates (who do nothing) just to try and kill you. portal?? really, seemed pretty easy. the extra puzzle stuff is a bit more challenging but in general it's not a hard game.

[DelbertGrady]

Wonderboy III: The Dragon's Trap. It's not only hard as nails, it's also extremely awesome =)

And Phantasy Star I. The dungeons... Some of the hidden bosses in Final Fantasy Tactics were pretty brutal as well.

[Snatcher]

is another hard game from Konami. There were like 48 levels. Every level after 20, can be considered HARD.

[ballsofsteel]

how is god of war 7 on that list? the game isn't necessarily easy but no way in hell is it hard. i would agree with ninja gaiden seris. those game are annoying hard never even completed the first one all teh way. the gameplay was fun but just insanely hard

[Disccordia]

Commando's on the PC was always considered to be very tough.

[PS360PCROCKS]

Tetris? lol...My choices would be god of war, devil may cry and Ninja Gaiden (UGH) But some random ones is Halo 2 on Legendary, Guitar hero 3 on Expert, dragonforce? my god...Resident Evil back in the day was crazy and Lost planet was ridiculous at times.

[UltimatePS3]

There's games i used to play as a kid which were hard then and still hard today, what about sega master system games stryder and blade eagle, amoungst 100 others and all the other consoles, spectrum zx ect.

[robaloi]

super ghouls and ghosts on the snes oh and battletoads on the snes with both those games i think I shouted so hard at my snes that it blew up! if only powerthirst was around back then!