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

10. Gauntlet

Gauntlet was an extremely fun game with four players on any system. The first 30 levels or so were filled with the best medieval melee in all of videogamedom. It was past these levels though that Gauntlet started to become difficult even for four players playing at one time. Not only were the levels filled with enemies at every move, but the levels seemed to never end. The daunting task of completing this game seemed like one of the most protracted video game adventures. Codes would be used often by the video game player who couldn’t bare going through each and every level meticulously. Gauntlet was a game that was to be enjoyed by players who wanted to have immediate fun with their friends trouncing bogeymen. When the game was played for over an hour though, the fun factor would give way to the never endinglessness of the game. In this sense, Gauntlet was never meant to be beaten, but to be enjoyed for only a certain amount of time. We’re pessimistic about the odds of us ever meeting anyone that has been through this entire game. Like other games on this list, people will say that a game is easy and could be beaten quickly, but we know deep down that this is mostly just talk. We’re sure this is the case with Gauntlet.

9. Blaster Master

Blaster Master had great music and a winning overall theme. The game was hard as fuck though. The most difficult part of the game was that there was no saves anywhere and no password system. To be able to go throughout this game with no save was a remarkable feat. The bosses were hard, the obstacles were hard, every part of this game was hard. One would have to convince himself that they were to spend the entire day working on conquering this game as one hint of lost attention would leave the adventure never to be beaten again. Some of the obstacles in Blaster Master were obfuscating and mind numbing. Parts where you had to fit the tank into a place that was about 5 times smaller than the tank proved to be disparaging. Parts where you had to walk around a bosses level with an inordinate amount of dead ends proved to be just as disparaging. The final bosses of the game seemed to take forever to destroy with not much energy to come by. Five continues and three lives per continue may seem much for any game, but the player would have to be prepared to use each and every one of their lives to accomplish this game. As the player grew accustomed to the difficulty level, they would become accustomed the fact that they needed the best weapons to make any headway in this game. Bosses would not be able to be extirpated with regular weapons. Like most great games though, Blaster Master could be beaten showing a charm in making the player word hard for his achievement. It was not like some games on this list where it was basically impossible to beat even the first level. Blaster Master is heralded for its difficulty level then, even if it seems just a bit too hard at some points.

8. Bayou Billie

Bayou Billie had an absolutely ripping soundtrack throughout the game. The main theme was as heavy on funk as a Parliament record. Bayou Billie was also absolutely difficult. The enemies that Bayou came across in the game would not die. You would knock them down and they would just keep getting up. This wouldn’t be a problem if all the enemies were final bosses in levels, but every enemy was like fighting Abobo from Double Dragon. If one mastered the skills of fighting these sempiternal beasts, one would have to play even more difficult levels like the driving levels that would just not end. One quarter of the way through the level and you were overwhelming proud of yourself for making that far with all the insanely difficult turns and plethora of bombs coming from planes. Bayou Billie didn’t have it easy. Poor guy had to fight never ending levels with final bosses coming at him at every angle. Has anyone ever beat this game? We for one at Old-Wizard have all put in about 100 hours in trying to get to the end levels. We did not succeed. Bayou Billie had to go on the list for this reason.

7. Mike Tyson’s Punchout

Mike Tyson’s Punchout unlike many games on this list was actually moderately difficult to play through. Certainly, fighters such as Glass Joe and Don Flamingo were no challenge for little Mac. As one became good at this game, one could beat the likes of Mr. Sandman and Super Macho man easily and with a little practice. It was the last boss in Mike Tyson though that we witness one of the more difficult moments in video game history. One was amazed by how one small uppercut by Tyson could take Little Mac to the ground gasping for breath as Doc smiled on. Could a game really become this hard at the final boss? Where was the gradual increase in difficulty level that could get you ready for this domination? Certainly, it wasn’t Super Macho Man regardless of how powerful his Tornado punches were. It wasn’t Don Flamenco part two who had the stamina of 10 men. Nothing could get you prepared for having to dodge oddly timed uppercuts by the Bronx basher. Timing down Tyson’s uppercuts was beyond challenging. The gamer had better hope he had a game genie where one punch to an opponent could knock them down, or infinite stamina so that Tyson’s punch no longer had any impact. Take away the cheats, and one had to time all the uppercuts perfectly which was unbearably difficult. Unlike Contra though, Tyson could be beat with hours and hours of practice. Still, Mike Tyson is one of the most noticeable signifiers for “Difficult Boss” in video game history. Every gamer is struck with fear in having to battle an opponent who could spell game over for you in 1 hit.

6. Ninja Gaiden

Ninja Gaiden was known for amazing game play, solid controlling and smooth cut scenes not seen in any other game up to that point. Ninja Gaiden was also know for its difficulty. The bosses after each area were always challenging, making the player try 10-20 times before they were able to master a boss’s moves. Some of the jumps that Ryu had to make while evading occidental birds were annoyingly difficult. The player had to earn their way through the game with each level getting increasingly more difficult to the point of having to stop the game and come back to it some time later. After the player made it through the difficult levels of 3 and 4, they had to face some of the most difficult gaming in level 6. Beyond the later levels of the game, Ryu had to fight 3 bosses at the end of the game, all subtly difficult in their own right. We also cant forget the fact that every time you lost to a boss, you had to start over from the beginning of the level making the player more cognizant of the energy he expended in the level before. This kind of mentality required many lonely nights in ones bedroom to conquer Ninja Gaiden…Everything was put on hold to defeat Jaquio. The later Ninja Gaiden games would all be known for their conspicuous difficulty level, but none would ever come close to the challenge that lied in Ninja Gaiden 1. Anyone who has ever played stage 6-2 and 6-3 in Ninja Gaiden will be able to affirm this claim. There have never been levels in video game history that require as much focus, prudence, and skill to be able to conquer. One felt proud of themselves after beating these levels.

5. Contra

Contra contained the most conspicuous cheat code in gaming history and for good reason. We won’t go into the code because we know its already inculcated into every gamers brain beyond any doubt. Why is this code so well known though? Could it be that Contra was so hard that it became a staple for anyone who even attempted to start their journey in the game? This is precisely the reason why any code becomes imprinted on the human genome. It’s to bad too, because Contra is actually one of the more finer moments in early gaming history when one knew they could waste 30 lives on a level. Take away this ability though, and you were doomed to the first level, maybe the second if your practiced it for over two months. Once you were in the second level though, you were pretty much lost to the electric shocks and exorbitant enemies throwing bombs at you. The game after the second level just starts getting good too. The third level as the waterfall level in the game has one of the most perfectly abject bosses in gaming history. The gamer though who thought he was hard enough not to use the code would never be able to experience this boss, instead, throwing his controller to the wall in the event of being hit by the guns coming out of the ground in the first level. Contra today is known as a great game because it has become accepted that to play it in any casual fashion requires the code. The gamer does not feel remorse at having to play Contra with a cheat because he knows everyone else has to and that there is no one on earth who can possibly come close to beating the game without the code. One wonders if the creators of Contra ever knew how hard it would be to conquer the game without the code.

4. Double Dragon 3

The Double Dragon series was one of the most recognized street fighting games for any platform system. The success of Double Dragon 1 in the coin op platform gave way to a just as enjoyable Double Dragon 2 that even bettered parts of an already great game. Double Dragon 3 though was so difficult that we don’t think it should be included with the past 2 great games in the series. The difficulty jump from Double Dragon 2 to 3 is unbearable. To get anywhere even close to the middle of the game requires skill and a 2^nd player. Playing this game with one player with average skill would send you outside for hash relaxation. The biggest problem with the game involved the player only having 1 life to complete the entire game with less stamina than the characters from the previous two in the series. This had to have been a mistake by the creators of the game until one realized that they may have just been content being assholes by giving the player no chance at getting past the first level with their measly little life. If one wants to seriously play this game, it would be expedient to have an emulator where you can save every second, after you hit an enemy just once, because if you get hit once by an enemy you can consider that your close to having to start the whole game over again. Get by the second level and you were most certainly doomed at the 2^nd level where the karate fighters could knock down half your energy in two kicks making you start back at the beginning of the game probably losing in the first level from being to discouraged to try hard. One may have an interest in trying to beat this game with all the emulators available, but why waste the time on a game where the creators were just trying to piss off the gamer into video game practice mania.

3. Ghosts n Goblins

Ghosts n Goblins for the NES was one of the most annoyingly difficult games for the affable system. You were a warrior put to the most demonic of scenarios fighting off ghosts, zombies, bats, and innumerous scary movie enemies. At least you had a sword an armor though to fight throughout these nefarious lands, right? Yes, you had armor and a sword, but only the most shitty armor and sword to ever be put on in video game history. The sword had no reach and perennially did minimal damage. The armor would come flying off the player by basically walking into a bush. You would be better off going into this adventure with nothing on and without a sword because at least you knew that you had nothing to rely on except yourself. Beyond the poor weapon and armor that is giving to you at the beginning of the game is the difficulty in the actual enemies themselves. It’s not as if the enemies though are what was most difficult about Ghosts n Goblins, it was the sheer amount of enemies that could attack you at any time. You had to watch from all angles for enemies who in real life look like they really shouldn’t be able to hurt you. The flying birds that come swooping down look like my cockatiels without any fluorescent colors. Don’t rely on your armor though to stop pet store birds because you will be in for a rude wakening when you armor comes flying off from being in the same area as the bird. If one actually spent the time and made it past all the enemies in the first level, you were sure to be doomed in the 2^nd level. For the really ambitious player with nothing to do, there was the slightest possibility of getting to the end of this game with lifetime commitment and resolve. As we all know though, we would have to start back over because of some missing item that was supposed to be picked up along the way. We at Old-Wizard could never get this far though because of how annoyingly difficult the game was from the start. Ghosts n Goblins is a good concept, but designed way too hard to be any fun.

2. Paperboy

If one were interested in looking for the reasons why Paperboy was so fucking hard, one need only look at our review of it in the Top 20 Worst Video Games of All Time. After they look at that review, they can look at this recapitulation of it to understand further how grotesquely difficult Paperboy actually was. Anyone who tells you that they love this game has no idea why they love the game. Maybe they liked getting knocked down after the 3^rd house on the left by movers moving glass that they cannot get up on the curb for the life of them. Maybe they liked spending days and days of game play just to get to the end of the first day with the shitty bonus level that somehow turned from a street into a skateboard park with poorly designed skateboard ramps in the vein of the poor designs of Skate or Die. We at Old-Wizard have no idea why anyone would like a game this difficult. If getting by Monday was difficult, just trying getting by Tuesday and Wednesday. These were each about 10 times more difficult than Monday exponentially. Paperboy was a tiringly difficult game. Any game that you had trouble getting by the first level on had no business being recognized as a great game. Some gamers will try to convince you they got to Wednesday and even Friday, but we are sure that if we put them to the test in front of our eyes, they would fail. Something about the cover of this game screams “simplicity”, but that has nothing to do with the fact that its extremely difficult to get half way down the street in the first level with the neighborhood elements being thrown at you. If any one disputes these claims, they can send us their own personal video of playing paperboy and getting to Friday.

1. Battletoads

Battletoads for the NES would never end. There were many levels that would get exceedingly difficult not in proportion to the level before it. Playing the first level of Battletoads was amazing fun. Punching the enemies was fun. Punching the 2^nd player was fun. Beating the level was fun. Get beyond this first level though, and one was in for one of the most difficult games of all time. The cliff hanging level had as many enemies coming towards the Battletoads as Arthur in Ghosts N Goblins. The surfboard level proved to be one of the more difficult levels in video game history. Avoiding enemies in this level was on par with the paperboy trying to avoid break-dancers in the street. The twirl-around level was yet another level which was extraordinarily difficult due to ferocious enemies and its long length. Getting to the end of the game was only reserved for the best old-school video game players. If you were not one of these players, you were left to the first level pissing off the your partner by hitting him from behind while he was trying to fight enemies ahead of him. Although Battletoads was a great game, it could have benefited from a more moderate difficulty level. Thank God for the computer based emulator though. It has given us less skilled retro video gamers a chance to experience all the levels for the first time.

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105 Comments

#1 Zeromage says:
March 17th, 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 17th, 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 17th, 2010 at 7:47 pm

Germany? Poland? Sweden?
Ecuador rules!!

#4 Jason says:
March 17th, 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 17th, 2010 at 9:51 pm

Ever tried Contra for the NES without using the code?

#6 Osama says:
March 17th, 2010 at 12:21 am

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

#7 Doug donkegyamer says:
March 17th, 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 17th, 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 17th, 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 17th, 2010 at 8:41 pm

I cant even beat the first level without the code

#11 Gustav says:
March 17th, 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 17th, 2010 at 9:44 pm

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

#13 Kolphyre says:
March 17th, 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 17th, 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 17th, 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 17th, 2010 at 2:06 am

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

#17 Mitsu says:
March 17th, 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 17th, 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 17th, 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 17th, 2010 at 5:31 am

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

#21 Chad M. says:
March 17th, 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 17th, 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 17th, 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 17th, 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 17th, 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 17th, 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 17th, 2010 at 1:09 am

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

#28 The Game Rankings Are Odd says:
March 17th, 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 17th, 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 17th, 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 17th, 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 17th, 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 17th, 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 17th, 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 17th, 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 17th, 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 17th, 2010 at 11:00 pm

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

#38 Someone says:
March 17th, 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 17th, 2010 at 12:33 am

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

Avi, that was sarcasm.

#40 Goolag says:
March 17th, 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 17th, 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 17th, 2010 at 8:15 pm

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

Where’s the first Castlevania?

#43 James says:
March 17th, 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 17th, 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 17th, 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 17th, 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 17th, 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 17th, 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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