Top 20 Hardest Video Games of All Time

Top 20 Hardest Video Games of All Time

Written by Zeromage 105 Comments
Last Updated:: October 23, 2008

Remember the first time you played a game where you couldn’t get by the first level no matter how hard you tried? Remember thinking to yourself that you spent three dollars to rent a game that was so difficult you wanted to return it and ask for something more tolerable? The staff here at Old-Wizard remembers these games like we played them yesterday. We remember all the controllers crushed under the weight of our throwing power. We remember the broken windows from the throwing of the controller at them. It wasn’t until the invention of the Game Genie and emulator programs that we were able to make any headway into the places we wanted to in these video games.

We didn’t think that all of the video games on this list were difficult because we couldn’t conquer the first level though. Some of the games on our list had one level where we just gave up because we knew that it would take a year of practice to conquer it. On top of this, one would have to go back through the whole game to get to the part that takes a year of practice to conquer. This was vexing, and when one had the chance for using cheats, they were used, knowing that they would get them to where they wanted to go regardless of the pride lost in the apparent lack of skill. These next games then are the definitive most difficult games of all time for us. No games more than these have ever been as smashed after playing them.

20. Mega Man 1

Mega Man 1 was no walk in the park and was arguably the most difficult game in the entire series. It was after Mega Man 1 that the games would become easier after it was realized that the first installment was hard as hell. The bosses in Mega Man 1 were difficult to beat, unlike the bosses in Mega Man 2 who you could sometimes shoot with a proton gun and kill in 10 shots (Flashman). The stages themselves were just as difficult as the bosses. One need only play the Guts Man stage to experience one of the most difficult levels in gaming history. The moving platforms in the beginning of the level were discouraging to even the most skilled of video gamers. Guts Man himself was basically impossible to beat without the right weapon. Many of the bosses in the Mega Man series could be beaten without the secret weapon that they needed. In Mega Man 1 though, it was imperative that one beat all the bosses with the appropriate weapon or they would be playing levels over and over again. Bomb Man’s stage was just as difficult as Guts man’s stage. Shooting proton cannons would shoot in all directions at poor Mega Man as he was trying to climb difficult areas. If one were lucky enough to beat the bosses in Mega Man 1, they had to fight an even more difficult final area with the first appearance of the Yellow Devil who seemed to hit the player every every second. Wiley himself was incredibly difficult to conquer. When looked at a whole then, Mega Man 1 was hard in every facet from the levels, to the post levels, and to all the bosses. If one were interested in playing one of the hardest Nintendo games of all time, one need not look any further than Mega Man 1.

19. Final Fantasy 3

The average game player going into this game would have had to prepared themselves for one of the most epic journeys of all time or they would not be ready for what was in store for them. This game took anywhere from 60-90 hours to conquer and it wasn’t easy at any step, especially if you didn’t have a strategy guide to help you. All the bosses were difficult and the final boss was a monster that required all your characters to have the max hit points and appropriate weapons, not to mention a knowledge of which character worked best at each part of the final boss (Kefka who is in our top 10 greatest final bosses of all time). This game is long and hard. Unlike many other hard games though, it’s very rewarding and deserved a high rank in our top 100 video games of all time.

18. Back to the Future

Back to the Future was nothing like the great movie that preceded it. That would be Okay though, as long as it held its own as a video game it didn’t have to replicate the movie. It didn’t hold its own as a game though, because it was so damn hard. Walking down the street would prove to be one of the most difficult tasks in a video game ever. Birds could knock you down. Fucking birds could fly into you and defeat in one light swoop. Movers holding glass would intentionally get in your way every chance they got. This game was reminiscent of paperboy in its difficult level. The sheer difficulty level of Back to the Future though was just one of the many reasons why this game sucked ass.

17. Silver Surfer

A game is not bad just because its hard. Sometimes hard games gives us more of a sense of accomplishment because of its difficulty level. Silver Surfer was so ridiculously hard though that you could never in your wildest dreams gain this sense of achievement, because it was impossible. There are a seemingly infinite amount of enemies that will make you hammer the shit out of the B button in this game to the point of numbness. No matter which level you choose from, you’re in for shit loads of enemies with never ending button tapping. Isn’t Silver Surfer supposed to be one of most powerful superheroes of all time? How the fuck are lizards killing him with absolute ease? In the comic books, he is well nigh invulnerable. He could survive being hit by a nuke. Did the video game developers ever read a comic book? No one must have test-played this game. There is no one on the face of this earth who would continue this game after seeing how every level is so bastardly hard.

16. Street Fighter (when playing with Zangief)

Street Fighter was a great game. The amount of time DestructoMaximo and I have spent playing this game is enormous. All those characters to beat the game with and all the two player action that could be had in this game made for one of the best fighting games in history. Play the game with Zangief though, and the player was in for one of the most difficult fighting games of all time. Zangief was slow, had no shooting power and excelled in no area except for basic power which was useless in a game with fighters as diverse as Ryu and M.Bison. Congratulate yourself if you conquered Street Fighter with Zangief. It’s something even the most adroit players can’t accomplish.

15. Bionic Commando

Bionic Commando must have been made to be intentionally difficult. The jumps you have to make in this game are some of the hardest in gaming history. Your swing mechanism was hard as hell to control and would often leave you dead in a ditch. The levels are long and the enemies are never ending. It’s been said that there have only been 55 people in the entire world who have beaten this game. We aren’t one of them and we don’t know one of these 55 people. If anyone has any information on who has beaten this game, please give us their email address so we can send them and Old-Wizard T-Shirt.

14. TMNT for NES

This game was annoyingly hard. How easy it was to get run over by steem rollers rolling around every inch of the top map. There was seemingly impossible jumps throughout the game along with enemies who could take down your energy in seconds. Get past these obstacles and one was certainly done for in the water level where you had no time to detangle bombs that were timed to explode the city. This task was near-impossible. We never got past this level so can’t tell you what comes after. We assume more hard shit though.

13. Top Gun

Ever try landing on the aircraft carry on this game? It’s not worth trying to land on it because no matter how hard you try, and no matter how perfectly you follow the on screen instructions, you will crash making this game impossible to beat. The dogfights are easy and the missiles given to you in the fights are smartly efficient enough to create a moderate difficult level in the sky. Try landing on the aircraft carrier though and you are thrown into one of the most difficult moments in video game history. It’s one of the greater accomplishments in life itself.

12. Smash TV

This game looked easy upon appearance. It looked like a regular game show, except this game show there was no winning. You were cornered at all angles by an infinite amount of enemies. Screen after screen you were surround by rockets being shot at you, monster bosses, and little soliders crawling all around you. Even with two players, this game was near impossible to beat. After playing the first level alone, the gamer would know how hard of a game Smash TV was. It was a fun game though and could have gained a much greater legacy if it wasn’t so damn difficult.

11. Doom 2

Doom 2 was the hardest of all the dooms. Cyberdemons infested this game making the player in need of the most precise rocket shots. Get past the complicated levels and the player had to face one of the most difficult final bosses of all time in the Icon of Evil (which appropriately had a high rank in our top 10 hardest final bosses of all time). Even with codes, the Icon of Evil was difficult to beat because you had so little time to knock a rockets into his head from the top of the elevator in the middle of blood infested poison. Doom 2 is a perfect example of a game that is too hard sheerly on the difficulty of the last boss.

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105 Comments

#1 Zeromage says:
March 16th, 2010 at 1:40 am

Guys, we should note:

Old-Wizard takes no official stance in the debate between Germany and Poland. Our stance is firmly pro-Sweden.

#2 NecroVMX says:
March 16th, 2010 at 6:01 am

How the hell is Doom 2 on here? Play Final Doom, that one’s actually hard (and has the same exact last boss, who isn’t all that hard)

The Zangeif thing is laughable, people play and beat it with Zangeif all the time, and even those maniacs who play street fighter tournaments play him

Other than that, most of these games are hard as fuck, but I think silver surfer should have in the top 5

#3 Jose says:
March 16th, 2010 at 7:47 pm

Germany? Poland? Sweden?
Ecuador rules!!

#4 Jason says:
March 16th, 2010 at 10:30 am

Bionic commando is one of the few games i remember beating and really feeling like I accomplished something. I was like 10 and it took me about 3-4 months. I also owned top gun and never made it past the level where the battleships in the water shot at you. I broke several controllers during fits of rage because of that evil game.

#5 Jose says:
March 16th, 2010 at 9:51 pm

Ever tried Contra for the NES without using the code?

#6 Osama says:
March 16th, 2010 at 12:21 am

What??? Zangief is like the BEST character in Street Fighter II! SPINNING PILE DRIVER!

#7 Doug donkegyamer says:
March 16th, 2010 at 12:50 am

Rygar is a great call, but it was only the last level that truly was brutal. Another fact too, in the USA version you could max out both lines of the health bars , on the pal version (which I had only) only allowed you to have 2 power things on the second line of the health bar and made the last boss almost impossible!

#8 David says:
March 16th, 2010 at 3:43 am

You guys always go too retro i love retro games but there are harder games, case in point Contra: Shattered Soldier for the ps2, EASILY harder than any other Contra.

#9 George says:
March 16th, 2010 at 5:11 am

Dude, it would take a legend to beat Contra without the code. The only harder games (if they exist) would be Battletoads, F-Zero GX, Ghosts n’ Goblins, Paperboy, and Mario: Lost Levels. You’re just talking out your asshole.

#10 TheMountain says:
March 16th, 2010 at 8:41 pm

I cant even beat the first level without the code

#11 Gustav says:
March 16th, 2010 at 5:08 pm

TMNT was really hard, but I have managed to get through the game a couple of times. There´s some really hard jumps here and there, and some of them was really hard even if you cheated with the Game Genie. And Bayou Billy, fuck me, that was a tough game. never succeeded on that one. Double Dragon 3 also costed me some mean words, but that one was possible to conquer.

#12 James McCloud says:
March 16th, 2010 at 9:44 pm

blaster master and gauntlet.
i forgot about those. i loved those games

#13 Kolphyre says:
March 16th, 2010 at 1:38 am

I actually played TMNT on the Commodore 64 and the strange thing is, the water level (disarming the bombs at the dam) was technically the easiest level – but only because of a glitch. For whatever reason, your turtle would not die once his health reached zero, so you simply swim as quick as you can to each bomb and disarm them, not caring if you hit any obstacles or not. When the level was over, your turtle would then die, but the game would continue. I was never able to beat the level without my health reaching zero (although I did get close several times), so I have no idea if the glitch would have caused you to lose one life anyway. Still, a small price to pay to be able to get through an otherwise tough level. Too bad I couldn’t beat the rest of the game… too many glitches throughout on the C64 version made it pretty impossible (for example – INVISIBLE enemies! You gotta love those… and I know it was a glitch because sometimes they would show them and sometimes they wouldn’t).
Oh – and not only was Battletoads a pain on the Genesis (I didn’t have an NES or SNES), but it was just as difficult on the GameBoy! Although Battletoads/ Double Dragon was one of the easiest games I ever played… kind of sad, really…

#14 nick says:
March 16th, 2010 at 6:22 am

what about the star levels in snes super mario bros? i never got past the third, but looked like there was room for a lot more

#15 spyder says:
March 16th, 2010 at 11:51 pm

i guess i’m one of the 55 people to beat bionic commando. Its not really that hard. You just find a place where enemies keep falling and you can power up to the max. Then make sure to hit all the trucks in the game so you can get continues. It takes about 5 hours or so.

#16 Lint says:
March 16th, 2010 at 2:06 am

Did you guys ever played something that’s not on top of a nintendo?

#17 Mitsu says:
March 16th, 2010 at 2:44 am

Nice list! Although I think Shinobi (2002) should be on there; i seriously had to meditate and talk to a counselor after trying to beat the final boss. But my shrink told me it all boiled down to the fact that i hated my mother and wanted to have sex with her, and somehow that got me sidetracked and helped me to win…

#18 I_Like_Pie says:
March 16th, 2010 at 2:45 am

No list is complete without -Target Earth- for the Sega Genesis. That game was impossible.

Also Bionic Commando was not hard if you figured out the unlimited lives secret.

#19 Salvan says:
March 16th, 2010 at 4:40 am

I thought After Burner and Space Harrier were really hard, though its been a long time since ive played them.

Also… it really doesnt seem like it now, but Mario Time Machine was one impossible game (at least for a 7 year old) i mean, when your 7 — who the hell cares about Newton.

#20 Dover says:
March 16th, 2010 at 5:31 am

WTF, WHERE IS ‘I WANT TO BE THE GUY’?!?!?!!

#21 Chad M. says:
March 16th, 2010 at 5:52 pm

Way back when I was like 8 years old, my dad and I managed to beat Bionic Commando. I have no idea how we did it, but it was ridiculous. We weren’t expecting to shoot Hitler in the face with a bazooka, that is for sure.

Then I got yelled at for reading “damn” out loud during the ending. Bittersweet.

#22 Justin says:
March 16th, 2010 at 6:05 pm

your comments about Bionic Commando are true. As a child however, I completed this game and the sence of accomplishment in the final sequence (once you time your falling shot correctly) was probably the best ever from any game I’ve completed to this day. Now I load this badboy up on a boring day and play through it for fun. I’ve not yet tried the remake of it but I somehow doubt it will live up to the orginal

#23 New Here says:
March 16th, 2010 at 10:16 pm

Yea, I beat Bionic commando, I don’t remember it being that hard. But I haven’t played in like 10 years, so maybe I just forgot the difficulty.
good list.

#24 Alexx says:
March 16th, 2010 at 2:37 am

TMNT was extremely hard. I made it to the final level once and that was an accomplishment itself. Overall the game sucked because it had bad control and the enemies were retarded. (Flying hot air balloon). Playing Double Dragon was a rude awakening the first time I got killed in the image shown which is the absolute beginning. I did beat it eventually but the last stage was crazy hard and the final boss was really difficult.

#25 senyl says:
March 16th, 2010 at 3:59 pm

I beat Rygar by “cheating”. I found a place where if I killed a certain enemy, it would respawn right there and then. So when I found this, I put a rubber band around my NES Advantage joystick to hold my character down and put a rock on my B button with turbo on, turned off the TV and went to sleep. I woke up the next morning with my levels maxed and was able to finish the game.

#26 Michael M says:
March 16th, 2010 at 9:03 pm

I just wanted to let you all know that more then 55 people must have beaten Bionic Commando because my twin brother and I did it when we were like 7 years old. We were born in January of 83.

Also, Double Dragon 3 is not has hard as you are making it…in fact it’s way more difficult. If you manage to get to Egypt and get to the tombs with the mummies you have some serious issues then. A lot of that top 20 we took out but maybe it’s cause we didn’t do good in school till after high school LOL!

Most people post that they beat games but they use ROMS and save load save load. I’d love to see a video game tournament with no saving and loading and see how people do. That would be entertainment. I don’t live near my old friends and my twin brother anymore but we used to hold our own tournaments for fun. Those were the days!

#27 dani says:
March 16th, 2010 at 1:09 am

What about alex kid??? that last level was pure random luck!!!

#28 The Game Rankings Are Odd says:
March 16th, 2010 at 6:02 am

Why is Silver Surfer so low in the list? That game is easily the most grotesquely difficult thing ever made (mostly because, not only were you bombarded with shit flying at you from all sides, but because just touching the fucking walls could kill you). It is almost impossible to beat.

Battletoads is manageable once you train your body how to react to those god-awful driving levels that demand split-second precision. But getting to that point is… hard, to say the least. Still, it is much easier than Silver Surfer.

And saying that nobody can come close to beating Contra without the Konami Code is just stupid. The game isn’t all that hard. For one thing, the first level is one of the easiest levels I’ve ever encountered in a NES game (compare this to the far more hectic first level of Super C.) The snow base level and the level with the flames shooting out of the walls took some practice, but those two can be mastered without too much difficult. I’ve actually cleared the game on two lives (right at the end, when you’re shooting the alien heart, one of those little aliens spawning from the heart took me by surprise and ruined what would otherwise have been a perfect playthrough). I never actually heard about the Konami Code until years after I’d already beaten the game several times and sold my NES (these days, if I want to play Contra, I’ll just play the DS port that you can unlock in Contra 4).

Paperboy a bad game? Hardly. The game is well-made. I’ll admit to never having gotten past the first two levels, but then again, I never really made a concentrated effort to do so. I just had a ball breaking peoples’ windows and pelting unsuspecting by-standers on the street with the papers. This really was the only pre-GTA game that I played purely to cause havoc.

This list is missing some other games I’d consider overly difficult, such as Tombs and Treasure, Bard’s Tale, the original Metroid, and Zelda 2. I’d agree with most, if not all, of the selections you made, though. The placement is just weird.

#29 The Game Rankings Are Odd (part 2) says:
March 16th, 2010 at 6:12 am

WHY is FFVI (NOT III, thank you very much) on here? That game is easy. Especially if you pimp out Celes with Dual Cast and the Economizer and cast Quick on her, you can have her casting Ultima 4 times per turn for only 1 MP each time it is cast. This effectively turns her into a walking meat grinder and she makes the final string of boss fights at the end significantly easier.

#30 Stan says:
March 16th, 2010 at 6:53 pm

Silver Surfer that low?? I would beat TMNT 500 times before I beat Silver Surfer just once! Where is Adventure of Link and Megaman 9?? also Aleste for Sega Master System is another brainwasher with a fuckload of ammo going your direction. I never beat that game without save states –__–

Final Fantasy VI shouldn’t be on the list. RPG games in general doesn’t suit in this list at all. Ikaruga and the first Castlevania are much better choices imo including the earlier ones I pointed.

#31 B.W.W. says:
March 16th, 2010 at 8:10 am

How about the Genesis port of Shadow of the Beast?

Or just about anything from Psygnosis for that matter…

As for some other comments: Yeah, Final Doom over Doom II, I’d go with that. And Ecco the Dolphin? Not just a hard game, but dark. If the difficulty didn’t give someone nightmares, the story did.

#32 aiman says:
March 16th, 2010 at 1:57 am

i don’t understand why final doom is not on the list. Also, contra is not that hard. I dont understand why the Konami Code is such a big deal as i was easily able to beat the game without it.

Why is paperboy on the list? Does this site hate paperboy? Its just a very simple game.

#33 erik says:
March 16th, 2010 at 5:41 pm

I beat Bionic Commando in college. One of my friends had an old Nes system. I basically had to play it for 6 hours straight. There are no saves and you can only get a couple of powerups so if you got hit you didn’t die. The ending was a little funky with a cloned hitler.

#34 Silver Surfer says:
March 16th, 2010 at 4:03 am

I’m beginning to think all the people claiming Silver Surfer is difficult have not actually played Silver Surfer. Sure, you get Nintendo thumb after beating it, but it’s not very hard.

#35 Avi says:
March 16th, 2010 at 12:16 pm

five words: I wanna be the guy. makes battletoads look like Kirby’s Dreamland by comparision.

#36 Razgriz says:
March 16th, 2010 at 9:48 pm

iwbtg isnt hard. its just impossible. i know a few people who have finsished it but i wouldnt call it a hard game. its a game you spend hours and never make it past the third screen, its just a game to play to see if ur any better than last time. also i thought that the last levels on yoshis island were crazy hard.freaking instadeaths.also after the second level on super rtype it is stupidly hard. on castlevania aria of sorrow thw last boss in the chaos zone was hard too. if anyones ever played tales of symphonia on mania difficulty against abbysion with no items, no teamates and only a wooden blade, then you have officially finished the hardest trail i have ever attemted on a video game.

#37 Avi says:
March 16th, 2010 at 11:00 pm

”isnt hard, just impossible?” that makes no friggin’ sense.

#38 Someone says:
March 16th, 2010 at 9:36 pm

The “right weapon” for Gutsman in Megaman 1 is actually the default gun (the one you start the game with)

#39 Delta says:
March 16th, 2010 at 12:33 am

”’isnt hard, just impossible?’ that makes no friggin’ sense.”

Avi, that was sarcasm.

#40 Goolag says:
March 16th, 2010 at 10:42 pm

Contra should not be on that list. I have beaten the game numerous times with a single life without the code. You just get the spray gun and win forever.

#41 JordanV78 says:
March 16th, 2010 at 6:02 am

How can this list not have any Mega Man, or Ninja Gaiden games? Doom, Paperboy? hmmm gotta say that those aren’t even close to being as hard as Batman, Or Ninja Gaiden for the NES.

#42 Jonah Falcon says:
March 16th, 2010 at 8:15 pm

It DOES have Mega Man 1 (at #20).

Where’s the first Castlevania?

#43 James says:
March 16th, 2010 at 1:06 am

Bionic Commando I didn’t think was too hard once you got the hang of it. I used to beat that game in no time.Don’t get me wrong,It was hard.

#44 James says:
March 16th, 2010 at 1:09 am

Also Mega mAN #1 was very hard.Until I learned all you had to do was hit the pause button when your bullets hit the bad guys and it would do extra damage.

#45 Wesker-will-be--back says:
March 16th, 2010 at 3:17 am

i haven’t heard of half these games though i do agree with battle toads being number one what i don’t agree is that silver surfer being so low on the list. that game is IMPOSSIBlE.

#46 awmehgoddd says:
March 16th, 2010 at 9:33 pm

This list is pure bullshit. How do they not even mention Zelda II for the NES? That game is pure bat-shit crazy impossible.

#47 matt says:
March 16th, 2010 at 11:58 pm

i like the list, but one thing is wrong here. People (including myself) have beaten Battletoads. No one, and I mean, NO ONE, has beaten Ghosts and Goblins.

#48 matt says:
March 16th, 2010 at 12:02 am

also, what about “A Boy and his Blob”? that game sucked, but still, I’ve beaten 10 out of 20 games on this list (including Zelda II which I agree, should be there), and that game was straight tough.

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Top 20 Hardest Video Games of All Time

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