I know 5 years late to your comment. But, we werent pampered as kids playing these games! Yeah, we had game genie. But, most of the time most of us didnt have the luxury of using that. I remember password saves and you better not fall into any holes or let any enemies touch you!
I hate making comparisons like this but I can't help but notice the clips never match up with the content being explained, like AVGN does. While talking about Ninja Gaiden's knockback mechanic, it shows damage-less gameplay, for instance.
PhrozenFox So many nightmares playing Ninja Gaiden. 6-2 is absolutely the worst and most difficult level. It takes forever to get through it. I have been to 6-4, and have never passed the first boss which is my father. I have yet to beat that game, and have thrown many things and punched as well. lol
Contra should come off the list. It's actually pretty easy once you get super spread gun (the red bullets that spray in several directions) . This was my first NES game and I memorized each level. Once you know the patterns and have super spread you can beat it without the 30 man code. I can honestly say I've beaten original Contra more times than I can count with only one guy. If Contra was one of those guys with insane leaps to time or completely random enemy spans up the ass then I'd say include it, but honestly it's pretty easy to learn. BAD ASS NES game though.
I agree. My brother was pretty good at Contra. He was able to beat the game without using the Konami Code. I don´t remember well all the levels, but I do remember that I was able to reach the last level without the code. If I had practiced a little more I´m sure I´d able to beat it. It just required a lot of memorization, but there were lots of more difficult platformers than Contra at that time.
I agree. It was a pain at the arcade though, where lives used to cost actual money. Still, after getting beaten, you'd let out some aggression in SF or MK or something like that, and end up going right back home to feed quarters to Ma Contra anyway. Ah, the good old days.
Great list. I agree with most of these. I do wish that when you were talking about the death mechanic, that you would show that death on the screen. Like the one I'm writing this during, when you're talking about Ryu Hayabusa getting knocked off ledges by enemies because of the mechanic when you get hit, you should have shown an example of that. Otherwise, great vid! :D
DD Gaming I get what he's saying. It'd be so easy to play Ninja Gaiden for four and a half seconds just to get killed and grab your own gameplay footage, or to get just far enough into Ninja Turtles to fight Rocksteady and show off the "hit him from the upper right ledge" trick. I can't get enough of these videos, but sometimes I find myself screaming at my screen, "Show it! Show it!". However, if you ever did a Top 10 Ending Screens list or something, I'd be much more understanding:P
Danger Dolan GAMING which is why we wanna see YOU play these old classics, shouldve been a top 20 list, cause Batman, Master Blaster, The Guardian Legend, Castlevania and Double Dragon 2 Deserve this list.
+Danger Dolan GAMING Understood. But in my opinion, if you're making a video about the difficulty of a game, it's not the best option to show gameplay of someone who can beat it flawlessly. Even if you couldn't do it yourself, I'm sure you could have found someone willing to play that part for you and have that mechanic shown. Thanks for the response! Sorry for the delay, I don't even use this account much anymore.
+Danger Dolan GAMING I agree that you need to show footage of the examples you give. I know it would be more work to play and record them yourself, but would make way better videos.
No if you do that AND beat up chuck noris while BOTH of your hand tied behind your back and your legs tied together while blind folded THEN your a badass
Did you beat Makai mura? It's a japanese version of ghost and goblins. It has no infinite continues and enemies have much more health. Also in US version the fire weapon is OP.
Watching this video reminds me just how difficult NES games were, I've not played all of these games but the ones on here I have played I definitely would agree belong on a top ten list. BTW On Fester's Quest not every enemy slowed you down, just the ones that "stung" you and you could cure this by using the vice grips that you collected from Wednesday Adams. This information obviously came from someone who played the game but never read the instruction manual, which I understand that's kind of hard to do considering the manuals for most NES games are long gone, but at the very least someone could use trial and error to figure out what items in an inventory are for.
Wow Castlevania and Adventure of Link didn't even make the list? Considering how frustrating those can be, I don't even wanna try some of the other stuff on this list.
The list isn't perfect. I've beaten six games (Mega Man, Contra, Fester, TMNT, DD3, NG) from this list and haven't played all of the others. There are harder NES games out there.
Castlevania wasn't too bad for me when I practiced enough, Zelda 2 wasn't so bad either, except for the great palace haha, that part was insanely difficult
Fantastic list, totally agree with all of them. The format you've used for these top 10 lists is awesome. I can't be the only person who got nostalgically excited when they recognised the game as it was introduced before it appeared, simply by hearing the theme music. Some very frustrating, and brain tumor inducing difficulty right here. Congraturation! This list is happy end to your NES top lists... keep up the excellent work.
mike tyson's punchout? ppl will say it isn't difficult because a guy beat it blindfolded, but its because you can EVENTUALLY memorize everything. but its the same with all of these games
Ghosts n Goblins broke my co workers. It brought managers to their knees, and I've never beaten it. There are some things in life that aren't meant to be conquered...
Spelunker. I remember beating nearly all of the games on this list. Spelunker took a minor miracle to get past the first level. Insanely difficult and to this day the hardest video game I've ever played.
Surprised to see Contra on the list but I guess it can be daunting to new players. Ghosts n Goblins is definitely a tough game and one I have a love/hate relationship with. Spelunker is also very hard to play because of how precise your moves have to be, combined with small graphics and inability to fall from just about any height.
Beating MegaMan back in '88 was the pinnacle of my gaming career. I got so good at Contra that if I died 1 time I would restart the game... I once beat the Alien Heart w/laser just to say I performed Heart Surgery.TMNT is impossible, so is Ghost n Goblins. I think I sprained my wrist from punching solid oak out of Ninja Gaidens frustration.. this was all b4 the intranets!
I am surprised, where is Super Mario Bros 2? That game was so hard that the U.S. sent it back to Japan! And they were given a re-color of 'Doki Doki Panic' as their Mario 2.
Tonyis2lazy2writehis2names what are you talking about? the us never sent it back to japan.. japan never released it stateside because they were the ones who thought the west wouldnt like the difficult game, so instead, they gave us doki doki reskin. it wasnt for many years later that we got the lost levels
although i've never played battletoads, i always thought it was clever how during the driving (skiing??) levels, the game gave the illusion of going faster while still giving the player some ability to react to obstacles via blinking image of what was coming up next. a "stroke of genius" if you ask me
I grew up with these games and played them for hours on my NES. (Which I still have, tucked away in it's original box in my garage.) I absolutely loved them - the harder the game, the more I enjoyed it. Who the Hell wanted an easy game? Battletoads took me 6 weeks of solid playing to finish. And never once did I complain that it was 'too hard'. I still fire it up every now and again. I like the list - but the way you narrate during the video is almost as if you're complaining and whining. Gaming has gotten steadily easier over the decades to broaden the market appeal so 'fantastic' companies such as EA and Activision can make lots of money with their re-hashed, dumbed-down, achievements-given-for-pressing-jump, cinematic pumped "game" titles - oh, which also aren't difficult - so it should appeal to most. Gameplay over graphics *anyday* for me.
Revenant There’s still tons of difficulty games out there, moron. The only difference between old hard games and new hard is that the “classics” are hard to artificially inflate play time by being unfair. Modern hard games are difficult to test your skills and reactions.
I can remember when I was very little (about 5 or 6), my older sister gave me her NES and the games she had purchased for it. Among those games (which included Super Mario Bros., JAWS, MLB Baseball, Double Dragon, and Friday the 13th) was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Try as I might, I could never get past the third level.
Ah, yes, the extremely difficult games of the NES. I remember having the TMNT game as a young child, and the frustration of never being able to get past the second level.
I have beaten 7 of the games on this list, and without cheats - Metal Gear, Mega Man, Double Dragon 3, Contra, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Ghosts 'N Goblins, and Ninja Gaiden. Fester's Quest was the only one I didn't recognize by its music at the beginning.
Oh, man, I remember "Fester's Quest". Not only did you only have one life (requiring you to start over from the beginning if you were killed) but in order to replenish your life bar, you had to find five money tokens and THEN go to a hot dog stand. (Supposedly, Fester healed by buying and eating a hot dog.) And that was only ONE of the things that made it hard.
You are right on the mark for, "Ghosts & Goblins." Wow, what a nightmare that game was to play. Here are some additional REALLY hard NES games that I can remember, Danger Dolan: * Spelunker, staying alive * Elevator Action, mapping and staying alive * Hydlide, monsters keep coming * Challenger, great depth but really easy to die in * City Connection, split-second jumps * Legend Of Zelda (1), hard mapping and play * Star Voyager (very hard to shoot anything) * Valkyrie's Adventure (English Translated, constant attacks) * Castlequest (especially hard play and mapping) * Milo's Secret Castle, finding all the secrets * Friday The 13th, hard to play * Castelian, mapping and requires great reflexes * Deadly Towers (phenomenally hard mapping) * Gilligan's Island, mapping and play * Legacy Of The Wizard (very hard mapping) Do a review on any of these and you will see what I mean. :7
I've beaten Contra without getting shot once. The only thing that can give you trouble is being forced to drop the spread for the laser or flame. Show some patience, shoot enemies that drop pickups where you're not forced to walk into them, and it's a breeze. Not even close to being one of the 10 most difficult NES games.
I have played every one of these games and I cannot tell you how many controllers I have broken in half and how much money in the arcade I have wasted but thank you for making this video because it brought me back to my childhood and made my day
I can beat silver surfer without game genie, save states, or turbo controller. There are gamers, and then there are hardcore gamers. We r both pretty hardcore, aren't we?
+Darthadios Agreed. I haven't played all of them extensively, but I have beaten Battletoads, Mega Man and Ninja Turtles. They are challenging games, but they are certainly doable and I don't think they are even unreasonable. There are NES games that are much harder. If Silver Surfer is as hard as he says it is, it is much harder than these games.
+Darthadios Those games may not be hard to you, but to the majority of gamers those games went from hard to near impossible. This is coming from a guy who has beaten Mega Man, Castlevania, and Batman on NES. Those games you mentioned are very hard, you all are just really good at them. I had a friend like you all. He made hard games look like a walk in the park while the rest of us were sweating, heart racing, palms sweaty, and fingers near bleeding. Oh yeah I also beat Ghostbusters on the Master System. That was a tough one as well.
Decent list, definitely agree with Battletoads being at the top. Bayou Billy deserves to be on this list near the top as well. However, Contra isn't that difficult even without the code. Mega Man 1 isn't that tough either, especially if you use the pause trick on the Yellow Devil.
There was no time limit in TMNT, thankfully since the only way to beat levels 3 and 5 is to stock up on scrolls. And the turtles don't drown, the current takes them back outside. This is beneficial if you're stocking up on pizzas and scrolls.
I should've mentioned the time limit on the dam stage, which is actually quite easy if you swap turtles constantly. It's actually easier than the first part of the stage given the jump at the end.
You got quite a few things wrong in the video. For example, in Silver Surfer you have 3(?) lives and when you die later in a stage, you restart at a checkpoint. It also has infinite continues. I suggest you actually play the games before making these videos.
+CarozQH Some of these games actually had multiple versions, actually. I played a version of Bucky O'Hare (NES) when I was a kid where you die instantly from any damage. I wouldn't be surprised that there is a Silver Surfer version where you die in one hit.
I was honestly expecting to see a game like "Solar Jetman" somewhere on this list. Super long game, difficult and awkward controls that were varied due to being based on a gravity mechanic that was different in nearly every stage. Your goal was to collect pieces of a spacecraft at the end of each level, and after 20+ levels of madness, you build the ship and have to endure an extremely difficult side scrolling shooter mission that takes only ONE hit, and gives you only ONE life to complete the game. Sure, they do have passwords to continue the game, but if you died in the final stage, you'd still have to play through the final ship part stage (which took a long time to complete) to get another slim to none chance at beating it. I loved that game.... but it was torture... brutal and unforgiving torture.
Where is Batman? I think Everybody played Batman on the Nes in the 80s and 90s and omfg that game is a bitch. I have owned that game since the 1991 and still can not beat it.
Indeed I would put Batman on that list instead of Double Dragon 3. DD3 wasn't exactly easy but IMO doesn't even come close to belonging on that list. ESPECIALLY below Mega Man, which should have been in the top 5 IMO. Hell even Mega Man 2 was way harder than DD3. God those were the days. Now it's harder to fail at video games than it is to succeed... and jesus we only had 2 buttons (one before NES) yet they still managed to challenge players more than today.
I would have added Zelda 2. Why? -The platforming controls feel off.-Life dolls don't respawn when you get a game over, yet you always start with 3 lives (at least Super Mario Bros. puts all the 1-up mushrooms back when you start over).-Some enemies drain your xp (name one other game where enemies make you lose xp)-You're sometimes swarmed by flying enemies in parts that are full of bottomless pits.-Getting a game over means getting sent back to the beginning of the game (unless it was the final dungeon). -The final boss is among the hardest on the NES if you don't know a specific trick that works no where else.-Death Mountain. It's maze-like, it's full of some of the hardest enemies in the entire game, it's mandatory, and they make you go through it early in the game.
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You should do a top 10 hardest game boy games and number 1 should be Bart Simpson's escape from Camp Deadly mainly because of unfair boss patterns where they continually bock. The game akso has no saves. 😒
I don't know... Never considered most of the games in the list particularly difficult. Definitely not Battletoads (it does have it's moments though). Just off the top of my head, try Final Mission/S.C.A.T, Technos Ice Hockey, and especially Recca.
To me, the hardest part of Ninja Turtles was that final narrow hallway before you reach Shredder. If mom only knew that " I'm sick , can I stay home from school" translates to "As soon as you leave for work, I'm going to spend the entire day trying to beat that stupid hallway".
Ghosts n Goblins, and Batman, absolute #1 on my list. You are so right about the rest of these as well DD. Never tried SS, and now that I see it, I'm glad I never did.
I remember my NES days when I was a kid, I can´t believe that I used to torture myself playing many of these games, but I guess is all thanks to that that now I can play pretty much every single todays generation game in the hardest difficulty and I think I wouldn´t even close to the normal difficulty of those NES games hehe
The toughest ones for me but beat all three were TMNT,Castlevania, Ghosts N Goblins. Its fun to play these now and run through them so fast when back in the day when they came out they took time to beat.
If this were counting Famicom, then The Transformers: Mystery of Convoy would've definitely made it onto the list. You have to do Level 9 just right or you'll never get past it. And I don't mean it's easy to be killed: I mean you have to follow a specific pattern and even if you survive, you're sent back to the beginning for one misstep.
That was a time when you finished one of those games, that made you feel like a real gamer... anyone can beat a game such as Metal Gear nowadays, but it took perseverance, training and reflexes to beat those back then.
I'm Surprised Legend of Zelda II was missing. Not only was it deviated from the series, it was also extremely difficult because the controls were often not responsive.
I agree with a lot of this list. I would definitely put the original Castlevania on this list. Also, Kid Icarus was painfully unfair at times because the vertical scroll would kill you if you scrolled too far up.
You stated that in Fester's Quest that getting hit "makes you go slower," But this isn't the case. There's only one type of enemy attack that slows you down and that is the frog enemy's spit. Your entire video gives me the impression that you get your information 2nd hand.
I remember my brother playing Ninja Gaiden, he would leave the NES on overnight with his character in a safe little area just to continue where he left off the next morning.
I don't think the 80's were such tough times (with the exception of the Cold War), but this list is why TV Tropes calls any insanely difficult game Nintendo Hard. Now people complain all the time that games are too easy. Can't please anyone.
My No.1 most difficult game would be total carnage (arcade version). You have two analogsticks, one for movement direction and one for shooting direction, enemies that eat bullets like popcorn, deathtraps you simply cannot see because there is so much going on on the screen and of course ... one hit death
Top 10 my list the hardest NES games: 1. Ninja Gaiden first and second, 2. Megaman, 3. Captain America and The Avengers, 4. TMNT one, 5. Contra, 6. Wolverine (Ljn) , 7. Super Spy Hunter, 8. Castle Excellent, 9.The Legend of Kage , 10. Spider-Man: Return of the Sinister Six.
I'm not even a truly hardcore gamer but I can beat both Contra and Lifeforce with one life. Lol. Dragon's Lair, on the other hand, was pretty damn tough.
The Japanese Final Mission should be in the top 5. You only get 3 hits in that version, and lose your power-up when you get hit. With all that crap flying at you from every direction, homing shots from enemies, plus the auto scrolling, it's almost unplayable without cheats.
I beat a few of these games when I was a kid. When I've tried to play them as an adult, I have no idea how the hell I managed to do it.
I know 5 years late to your comment. But, we werent pampered as kids playing these games! Yeah, we had game genie. But, most of the time most of us didnt have the luxury of using that. I remember password saves and you better not fall into any holes or let any enemies touch you!
I could never beat battletoads for nes as a kid I just beat it for nes 2 weeks ago today
ghost n gobilns is way harder then ninja gaiden...
Its hard to limit to just 10 or agree on the same 10. Ghosts N Goblins deserves to be on every list. That game man...
Just beat it the other day....Never again will I play that
I can beat ghosts n goblins in 2 run throughs back to back. Its the 3rd run through thats impossible.
I hate making comparisons like this but I can't help but notice the clips never match up with the content being explained, like AVGN does.
While talking about Ninja Gaiden's knockback mechanic, it shows damage-less gameplay, for instance.
PhrozenFox exactly my though...and exactly the same example I was thinking of.
PhrozenFox pretty much all the game footage was from expert gamer play which doesn't illustrate the difficulty as he is explaining each game
PhrozenFox I noticed that too. It's because he was borrowing the clips from a speedrun
PhrozenFox So many nightmares playing Ninja Gaiden. 6-2 is absolutely the worst and most difficult level. It takes forever to get through it. I have been to 6-4, and have never passed the first boss which is my father. I have yet to beat that game, and have thrown many things and punched as well. lol
Louis Lee Fuck you nob,,,90% Nes games are beautiful games.
Contra should come off the list. It's actually pretty easy once you get super spread gun (the red bullets that spray in several directions) .
This was my first NES game and I memorized each level. Once you know the patterns and have super spread you can beat it without the 30 man code.
I can honestly say I've beaten original Contra more times than I can count with only one guy.
If Contra was one of those guys with insane leaps to time or completely random enemy spans up the ass then I'd say include it, but honestly it's pretty easy to learn. BAD ASS NES game though.
I agree. My brother was pretty good at Contra. He was able to beat the game without using the Konami Code. I don´t remember well all the levels, but I do remember that I was able to reach the last level without the code. If I had practiced a little more I´m sure I´d able to beat it. It just required a lot of memorization, but there were lots of more difficult platformers than Contra at that time.
See the quotation marks?
gael del la o parentheses.
I agree. It was a pain at the arcade though, where lives used to cost actual money. Still, after getting beaten, you'd let out some aggression in SF or MK or something like that, and end up going right back home to feed quarters to Ma Contra anyway. Ah, the good old days.
Six years later hut agree 100%
DUDE, fuckin Battletoads was BRUTAL, still doesn't compare to Deadly Towers though.
I mastered Battletoads (single-player) as a kid. Every game I played after that seemed easier.
As much as i loved this game I was never able to beat it.
For some reason I enjoy these videos, something about the nostalgia of getting pissed off.
Great list. I agree with most of these. I do wish that when you were talking about the death mechanic, that you would show that death on the screen. Like the one I'm writing this during, when you're talking about Ryu Hayabusa getting knocked off ledges by enemies because of the mechanic when you get hit, you should have shown an example of that. Otherwise, great vid! :D
The playthrough video I was using - the guy that played never got hit by anything :P
DD Gaming I get what he's saying. It'd be so easy to play Ninja Gaiden for four and a half seconds just to get killed and grab your own gameplay footage, or to get just far enough into Ninja Turtles to fight Rocksteady and show off the "hit him from the upper right ledge" trick. I can't get enough of these videos, but sometimes I find myself screaming at my screen, "Show it! Show it!". However, if you ever did a Top 10 Ending Screens list or something, I'd be much more understanding:P
Danger Dolan GAMING which is why we wanna see YOU play these old classics, shouldve been a top 20 list, cause Batman, Master Blaster, The Guardian Legend, Castlevania and Double Dragon 2 Deserve this list.
+Danger Dolan GAMING Understood. But in my opinion, if you're making a video about the difficulty of a game, it's not the best option to show gameplay of someone who can beat it flawlessly. Even if you couldn't do it yourself, I'm sure you could have found someone willing to play that part for you and have that mechanic shown. Thanks for the response! Sorry for the delay, I don't even use this account much anymore.
+Danger Dolan GAMING I agree that you need to show footage of the examples you give. I know it would be more work to play and record them yourself, but would make way better videos.
4:58 loool as a kid i could finish contra whenever i wanted...
3 y old,but yet I agree that contra was fucking easy once you got into it.
So if I beat all these games, am I then officially badass?
No if you do that AND beat up chuck noris while BOTH of your hand tied behind your back and your legs tied together while blind folded THEN your a badass
ashtyn hohenstein
ok, i'll be sure to do that too.
lol
you better
Gorgeous Gadot amen, haha
Did you beat Makai mura? It's a japanese version of ghost and goblins. It has no infinite continues and enemies have much more health. Also in US version the fire weapon is OP.
Watching this video reminds me just how difficult NES games were, I've not played all of these games but the ones on here I have played I definitely would agree belong on a top ten list. BTW On Fester's Quest not every enemy slowed you down, just the ones that "stung" you and you could cure this by using the vice grips that you collected from Wednesday Adams. This information obviously came from someone who played the game but never read the instruction manual, which I understand that's kind of hard to do considering the manuals for most NES games are long gone, but at the very least someone could use trial and error to figure out what items in an inventory are for.
number 1 ...Dragon's Lair O__o
I can proudly say that I finished Battletoads with no warp zones. I still play it to this day every once in a while.
Wow Castlevania and Adventure of Link didn't even make the list? Considering how frustrating those can be, I don't even wanna try some of the other stuff on this list.
The list isn't perfect. I've beaten six games (Mega Man, Contra, Fester, TMNT, DD3, NG) from this list and haven't played all of the others.
There are harder NES games out there.
Ruudos
Transformers on NES
to be fair castlevania isnt too hard once you learn all boss patterns and how to avoid the knights and medusa heads,castlevania 3 on the other hand
draskafer Yeah, I can beat CV1 in one sitting after beating it, now that you know how to prepare and kill the bosses real quick. Still tough as balls.
Castlevania wasn't too bad for me when I practiced enough, Zelda 2 wasn't so bad either, except for the great palace haha, that part was insanely difficult
Fantastic list, totally agree with all of them.
The format you've used for these top 10 lists is awesome. I can't be the only person who got nostalgically excited when they recognised the game as it was introduced before it appeared, simply by hearing the theme music.
Some very frustrating, and brain tumor inducing difficulty right here.
Congraturation! This list is happy end to your NES top lists... keep up the excellent work.
mike tyson's punchout?
ppl will say it isn't difficult because a guy beat it blindfolded, but its because you can EVENTUALLY memorize everything. but its the same with all of these games
Ghosts n Goblins broke my co workers. It brought managers to their knees, and I've never beaten it. There are some things in life that aren't meant to be conquered...
This list is perfect Mr. Dolan. I kept saying "let Battletoads be #1."
It is not perfect
Beth Sandomierski in your humble opinion...
Spelunker. I remember beating nearly all of the games on this list. Spelunker took a minor miracle to get past the first level. Insanely difficult and to this day the hardest video game I've ever played.
Battletoads, ending friendships since 1989.
It was relaesed in 1991
Surprised to see Contra on the list but I guess it can be daunting to new players. Ghosts n Goblins is definitely a tough game and one I have a love/hate relationship with. Spelunker is also very hard to play because of how precise your moves have to be, combined with small graphics and inability to fall from just about any height.
badluck bootsy beaten Silver Surfer on NES :o
massive skill to compensate for bad luck.
DarcnessTrophies I know and it sucks I can't say how lucky he is D:
BotKid its call skill not.luck
TheOlderBrother RespectRNG I know that's why I can't say how lucky to have that skill not how lucky to beat the game
***** Indeed it is! Isn't it the finest ass you ever did see?
When he mentioned battletoads, I felt my blood literally boil. That game caused me so much grief and rage. ESPECIALLY the sled missions.
This'll be the last NES top list, now working on other projects :-)
I still have the original Battletoads cartridge for NES.
Top 10 PS1 games
Zargaal Xi Mine are Medievil and Tekken 3.
yo Dolan, love your videos man. Keep up the good work :)
what about tank 1998 or tank battle or battle city (those are the names of one unbeatable game on NES
Beating MegaMan back in '88 was the pinnacle of my gaming career. I got so good at Contra that if I died 1 time I would restart the game... I once beat the Alien Heart w/laser just to say I performed Heart Surgery.TMNT is impossible, so is Ghost n Goblins. I think I sprained my wrist from punching solid oak out of Ninja Gaidens frustration.. this was all b4 the intranets!
I am surprised, where is Super Mario Bros 2? That game was so hard that the U.S. sent it back to Japan! And they were given a re-color of 'Doki Doki Panic' as their Mario 2.
I expected that game as #1
Tonyis2lazy2writehis2names what are you talking about? the us never sent it back to japan.. japan never released it stateside because they were the ones who thought the west wouldnt like the difficult game, so instead, they gave us doki doki reskin. it wasnt for many years later that we got the lost levels
Riftweaver1981 They sent it over to be tested, It was deemed to difficult for Western audiences, So it was sent back and therefor was changed
Not one mention of that god forsaken hell hole of a water level in the Turtles game at #5? That was EVIL.
Area 5 and the Technodrome are actually far worse than the dam(n) stage. Jet pack guys. 'Nuff said.
Contra is one of easiest NES games, I passed it without single death in age of eight,
yes me to. i also did silver surfer . no single death
I beat the entire NES library in 5 minutes without dying, blindfolded and with earplugs, while swimming and doing my taxes
@@bobjones1783 I did all of that too, but I don't know if it counts because did it while I was asleep.
Spanky Jones 😂
although i've never played battletoads, i always thought it was clever how during the driving (skiing??) levels, the game gave the illusion of going faster while still giving the player some ability to react to obstacles via blinking image of what was coming up next. a "stroke of genius" if you ask me
The Ninja Turtles are land turtles. They can drown. Turtles are my favorite animal is how I know!
Contra is really ridiculously easy once you've managed to beat the game a couple of times... Burai Fighter, THAT game caused me some sleepless nights.
I grew up with these games and played them for hours on my NES. (Which I still have, tucked away in it's original box in my garage.)
I absolutely loved them - the harder the game, the more I enjoyed it. Who the Hell wanted an easy game?
Battletoads took me 6 weeks of solid playing to finish. And never once did I complain that it was 'too hard'. I still fire it up every now and again.
I like the list - but the way you narrate during the video is almost as if you're complaining and whining.
Gaming has gotten steadily easier over the decades to broaden the market appeal so 'fantastic' companies such as EA and Activision can make lots of money with their re-hashed, dumbed-down, achievements-given-for-pressing-jump, cinematic pumped "game" titles - oh, which also aren't difficult - so it should appeal to most.
Gameplay over graphics *anyday* for me.
Revenant
There’s still tons of difficulty games out there, moron. The only difference between old hard games and new hard is that the “classics” are hard to artificially inflate play time by being unfair. Modern hard games are difficult to test your skills and reactions.
I can remember when I was very little (about 5 or 6), my older sister gave me her NES and the games she had purchased for it. Among those games (which included Super Mario Bros., JAWS, MLB Baseball, Double Dragon, and Friday the 13th) was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Try as I might, I could never get past the third level.
I played a game called Abadox back when I was like 9. That game was so hard, I wanted to commit genocide lol
Ah, yes, the extremely difficult games of the NES. I remember having the TMNT game as a young child, and the frustration of never being able to get past the second level.
Contra is one of the easiest games to learn. It's not even "Hard" difficulty. It's a joke with some decent experience.
Ikr I've beat it a lot but not so much super C
I actually just beat both games multiple times without too much effort and now, 2 of my favorite childhood games have become a joke 💀
I have beaten 7 of the games on this list, and without cheats - Metal Gear, Mega Man, Double Dragon 3, Contra, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Ghosts 'N Goblins, and Ninja Gaiden. Fester's Quest was the only one I didn't recognize by its music at the beginning.
Castlevania? Anyone?
"Congraturation, The story is happy end. Thank you." Does it get anymore hilarious than that?
The original Mega Man is NOT as hard as you made it seem.
true but it still is pretty hard
Mega Man 9 is one of the hardest Nintendo games
April Herman Mega Man 9 was not developed by Nintendo, nor was on the original NES
Oh yeah well check out the top 10 hardest video games then you'll see what I mean.
Sorry if I was a little mean.
Oh, man, I remember "Fester's Quest".
Not only did you only have one life (requiring you to start over from the beginning if you were killed) but in order to replenish your life bar, you had to find five money tokens and THEN go to a hot dog stand. (Supposedly, Fester healed by buying and eating a hot dog.) And that was only ONE of the things that made it hard.
Where's color a dinosaur ? That game is impossible !
yes
Thanks for the nostalgia. Battle Toads and TMNT were my favorites despite how hard they were.
Dragons lair?
Absolutely deserves to be on this list, that game is ridiculously hard!
My most frustrating NES memory... Yet, somehow fun...
You are right on the mark for, "Ghosts & Goblins." Wow, what a nightmare that game was to play.
Here are some additional REALLY hard NES games that I can remember, Danger Dolan:
* Spelunker, staying alive
* Elevator Action, mapping and staying alive
* Hydlide, monsters keep coming
* Challenger, great depth but really easy to die in
* City Connection, split-second jumps
* Legend Of Zelda (1), hard mapping and play
* Star Voyager (very hard to shoot anything)
* Valkyrie's Adventure (English Translated, constant attacks)
* Castlequest (especially hard play and mapping)
* Milo's Secret Castle, finding all the secrets
* Friday The 13th, hard to play
* Castelian, mapping and requires great reflexes
* Deadly Towers (phenomenally hard mapping)
* Gilligan's Island, mapping and play
* Legacy Of The Wizard (very hard mapping)
Do a review on any of these and you will see what I mean. :7
*Kid Icarus :P
Silver surfer: Touhou for beginners
touhou was poor at best. I treat bullet hell games like maze games and theyre super easy
I've beaten Contra without getting shot once. The only thing that can give you trouble is being forced to drop the spread for the laser or flame. Show some patience, shoot enemies that drop pickups where you're not forced to walk into them, and it's a breeze. Not even close to being one of the 10 most difficult NES games.
NES contra is not difficult at all.
Up,up,down, down, left,right, left, right, b,a,select, start.
@@robertmalone9699 no, just finish it the way it's meant to
I have played every one of these games and I cannot tell you how many controllers I have broken in half and how much money in the arcade I have wasted but thank you for making this video because it brought me back to my childhood and made my day
I can beat contra without the konami code, come at me
I can beat silver surfer without game genie, save states, or turbo controller.
There are gamers, and then there are hardcore gamers. We r both pretty hardcore, aren't we?
Then00bhunt3r I can beat smb lost levels without dying, come at me
J Park I played Through the Fire and Flames expert 100...with the power glove
ooooh it's so bad
J Park
It's not a lie, I just enjoy practicing hard games, then I finally beat it, then brag about it all over the Internet.
That's it. Tomorrow I'm going to the nearest flea market/junk store to buy an SNES and/or NES. The fond childhood memories demand it.
You got FIVE lives in Contra? Isn't it THREE?
It is.
It is Three...He must never saw that on his script
In the 1st level? Yes it is.
Gyruss was such a hard game as well. The bosses at Jupiter and the Sun Levels were frustratingly hard without practice
Metal gear, Mega man, Fester´s quest, Contra or Turtles are not hard games. I also beat Ninja gaiden without too much of trouble.
+Darthadios Agreed. I haven't played all of them extensively, but I have beaten Battletoads, Mega Man and Ninja Turtles. They are challenging games, but they are certainly doable and I don't think they are even unreasonable. There are NES games that are much harder. If Silver Surfer is as hard as he says it is, it is much harder than these games.
+Kip Ritchie You Want hard? (Gradius is hard)
+Darthadios Those games may not be hard to you, but to the majority of gamers those games went from hard to near impossible. This is coming from a guy who has beaten Mega Man, Castlevania, and Batman on NES. Those games you mentioned are very hard, you all are just really good at them. I had a friend like you all. He made hard games look like a walk in the park while the rest of us were sweating, heart racing, palms sweaty, and fingers near bleeding. Oh yeah I also beat Ghostbusters on the Master System. That was a tough one as well.
Decent list, definitely agree with Battletoads being at the top. Bayou Billy deserves to be on this list near the top as well. However, Contra isn't that difficult even without the code. Mega Man 1 isn't that tough either, especially if you use the pause trick on the Yellow Devil.
+RyuHayabusa06 i agree with the The Adventures of Bayou Billy!!! it was so hard that I coudln't be alive more than 30 seconds into the game lol
Didn't AVGN make the same "this image of silver surfer will be burned into your retina" joke? God damn that's lame.
Im pretty sure he just got most of the entries from avgn and other video game reviewers :/
I always miss Xevious, Isolated Warrior, Snake Rattle N Roll and Rush N´Attack. Those games are even harder than the most games in your video.
what about Blaster master, metroid and castlevania? xP
Metroid's not that hard.
well the first time it is, mainly because it has no map xP
+Kameron Wraith du Kemp I agree Blaster Master should be on the list…That's the only one of the three that I never beat back in the day.
+Kameron Wraith du Kemp I beat Castelvania and wouldn't say it is one of the toughest games for NES that I've played.
+Kameron Wraith du Kemp Blaster Master lol
So the racing level in Battletoads was where the entire game design from Flappy Bird came from? Neat.
No Lost Levels?
There was no time limit in TMNT, thankfully since the only way to beat levels 3 and 5 is to stock up on scrolls. And the turtles don't drown, the current takes them back outside. This is beneficial if you're stocking up on pizzas and scrolls.
Bootsy can beat Silver Surfer
Angry Video Game Nerd channel he does it.
John Doe I literally just saw "Avgn" and clicked like
I should've mentioned the time limit on the dam stage, which is actually quite easy if you swap turtles constantly. It's actually easier than the first part of the stage given the jump at the end.
You got quite a few things wrong in the video. For example, in Silver Surfer you have 3(?) lives and when you die later in a stage, you restart at a checkpoint. It also has infinite continues. I suggest you actually play the games before making these videos.
No offense, but u also got it wrong, u have 5 lives, and 4 continues
+CarozQH Some of these games actually had multiple versions, actually. I played a version of Bucky O'Hare (NES) when I was a kid where you die instantly from any damage. I wouldn't be surprised that there is a Silver Surfer version where you die in one hit.
+dqluan all silver surfer "versions" you die in one hit. that hasnt ever changed.
I was honestly expecting to see a game like "Solar Jetman" somewhere on this list. Super long game, difficult and awkward controls that were varied due to being based on a gravity mechanic that was different in nearly every stage. Your goal was to collect pieces of a spacecraft at the end of each level, and after 20+ levels of madness, you build the ship and have to endure an extremely difficult side scrolling shooter mission that takes only ONE hit, and gives you only ONE life to complete the game.
Sure, they do have passwords to continue the game, but if you died in the final stage, you'd still have to play through the final ship part stage (which took a long time to complete) to get another slim to none chance at beating it.
I loved that game.... but it was torture... brutal and unforgiving torture.
Where is Batman? I think Everybody played Batman on the Nes in the 80s and 90s and omfg that game is a bitch. I have owned that game since the 1991 and still can not beat it.
Same here. I could make it to the joker than.. GAME OVER!
I eventually beat Batman. It definitely takes time and practice.
Indeed I would put Batman on that list instead of Double Dragon 3. DD3 wasn't exactly easy but IMO doesn't even come close to belonging on that list. ESPECIALLY below Mega Man, which should have been in the top 5 IMO. Hell even Mega Man 2 was way harder than DD3.
God those were the days. Now it's harder to fail at video games than it is to succeed... and jesus we only had 2 buttons (one before NES) yet they still managed to challenge players more than today.
***** how is megaman 2 harder than double dragon 3, wtf
Lithium Flower
DD3 was easier, that is how. I beat DD3 dozens of times but MM2 only twice.
I would have added Zelda 2. Why? -The platforming controls feel off.-Life dolls don't respawn when you get a game over, yet you always start with 3 lives (at least Super Mario Bros. puts all the 1-up mushrooms back when you start over).-Some enemies drain your xp (name one other game where enemies make you lose xp)-You're sometimes swarmed by flying enemies in parts that are full of bottomless pits.-Getting a game over means getting sent back to the beginning of the game (unless it was the final dungeon). -The final boss is among the hardest on the NES if you don't know a specific trick that works no where else.-Death Mountain. It's maze-like, it's full of some of the hardest enemies in the entire game, it's mandatory, and they make you go through it early in the game.
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Solar Jetman For NES gAME WAS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE ALSO. Srry caps
You should do a top 10 hardest game boy games and number 1 should be Bart Simpson's escape from Camp Deadly mainly because of unfair boss patterns where they continually bock. The game akso has no saves. 😒
Danger Dolan GAMING u forgot super mario bros 3
Danger Dolan GAMING you forgot castelvania
Danger Dolan GAMING How could you leave out Blaster Master? Now THAT is an impossible game.
I don't know...
Never considered most of the games in the list particularly difficult.
Definitely not Battletoads (it does have it's moments though).
Just off the top of my head, try Final Mission/S.C.A.T, Technos Ice Hockey, and especially Recca.
LOL, I used to routinely beat Contra with 1 life :P
We got a 😎 badass over here
To me, the hardest part of Ninja Turtles was that final narrow hallway before you reach Shredder. If mom only knew that " I'm sick , can I stay home from school" translates to "As soon as you leave for work, I'm going to spend the entire day trying to beat that stupid hallway".
Today the games are sooo easy... It just shows you... Click here, and you beat the game!
Ghosts n Goblins, and Batman, absolute #1 on my list. You are so right about the rest of these as well DD.
Never tried SS, and now that I see it, I'm glad I never did.
where's Mike Tyson's punch out?
I know right!!!!!
peyton miller
yuppers lol glad to say i got to beat him once best day of my life...lol
dante bigguy i never did!!!!!!!,
Gorgeous Gadot
right...i was walking on clouds that day too....lol
peyton miller
damn...i feel for you...try beating him...lol...it will test your skills for sure....lol
I remember my NES days when I was a kid, I can´t believe that I used to torture myself playing many of these games, but I guess is all thanks to that that now I can play pretty much every single todays generation game in the hardest difficulty and I think I wouldn´t even close to the normal difficulty of those NES games hehe
Super Mario Bros.? (I can already hear the "Obvious troll is obvious comments") this game is a bitch.
Try the original (japanese only) Super Mario Bros. 2 also known as Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels, then you know what a bitch is
Yasin 2000
:/
***** u so meen i cri evrytiem
U dnt evn no wat i can does i can ht u ofline in 2secedns U lil dumy i am 7 hole yers old dny nder estim8 meh (obvious steriotyicle hate reply back)
***** :'(
I've played Ninja Gaiden as a kid, and remembered it to be one the hardest games I ever played. It was absolute torture!! Glad to see it on this list.
The toughest ones for me but beat all three were TMNT,Castlevania, Ghosts N Goblins. Its fun to play these now and run through them so fast when back in the day when they came out they took time to beat.
12:03
Clinger Winger is the bane of my existence. I have more trouble with that level than with Turbo Tunnel.
If this were counting Famicom, then The Transformers: Mystery of Convoy would've definitely made it onto the list. You have to do Level 9 just right or you'll never get past it. And I don't mean it's easy to be killed: I mean you have to follow a specific pattern and even if you survive, you're sent back to the beginning for one misstep.
most difficult would be, in my opinion, Back To The Future... that game is hard as hell.
That was a time when you finished one of those games, that made you feel like a real gamer... anyone can beat a game such as Metal Gear nowadays, but it took perseverance, training and reflexes to beat those back then.
I've watched several videos on this topic and yours is by far the best
And there's Star Force, Dragon's Lair and Lode Runner. Probably a couple more I've never played that deserve at least a honorable mention as well.
I'm Surprised Legend of Zelda II was missing. Not only was it deviated from the series, it was also extremely difficult because the controls were often not responsive.
I agree with a lot of this list. I would definitely put the original Castlevania on this list. Also, Kid Icarus was painfully unfair at times because the vertical scroll would kill you if you scrolled too far up.
You stated that in Fester's Quest that getting hit "makes you go slower," But this isn't the case. There's only one type of enemy attack that slows you down and that is the frog enemy's spit.
Your entire video gives me the impression that you get your information 2nd hand.
I remember my brother playing Ninja Gaiden, he would leave the NES on overnight with his character in a safe little area just to continue where he left off the next morning.
Fester's Quest was actually advertised. 28 levels and if you die once, you have to start completely over.
Does anyone else remeber Bald Bulls special punch from punch out? That was very frustrating
I think I might be a little bit of a sadist because every time I see that image of the Silver Surfer sob into his board I crack up.
Great list, couldn't agree more. Rockin'Cat or something like that is a very hard game too. Long and repetitive hard to kill bosses.
I use to love playing Battletoads with my little brother when we were kids. Even thought it was as hard as nails.
I don't think the 80's were such tough times (with the exception of the Cold War), but this list is why TV Tropes calls any insanely difficult game Nintendo Hard. Now people complain all the time that games are too easy. Can't please anyone.
My No.1 most difficult game would be total carnage (arcade version).
You have two analogsticks, one for movement direction and one for shooting direction, enemies that eat bullets like popcorn, deathtraps you simply cannot see because there is so much going on on the screen and of course ... one hit death
I beat silver surfer when I was 10 years old. To this day I consider it my greatest accomplishment in gaming.
Top 10 my list the hardest NES games:
1. Ninja Gaiden first and second, 2. Megaman, 3. Captain America and The Avengers, 4. TMNT one, 5. Contra, 6. Wolverine (Ljn) , 7. Super Spy Hunter, 8. Castle Excellent, 9.The Legend of Kage , 10. Spider-Man: Return of the Sinister Six.
and what about dragon's lair? and contra is normally the first because its in the top 5 diffivult gemes in the word
I'm not even a truly hardcore gamer but I can beat both Contra and Lifeforce with one life. Lol. Dragon's Lair, on the other hand, was pretty damn tough.
The Japanese Final Mission should be in the top 5.
You only get 3 hits in that version, and lose your power-up when you get hit. With all that crap flying at you from every direction, homing shots from enemies, plus the auto scrolling, it's almost unplayable without cheats.