This weekend while clearing up my cupboard I came across one truly awesome gadget J Yes my old 8 bit gaming device and nostalgia struck whether it was those endless sessions of Supermario bros or the albeit silly but fun Duck Hunt. There is something which attracts all of us to retro games, maybe it is the novelty factor or maybe the sheer simplicity of graphics and gameplay. Looking back at the golden generation of gaming we’ve compiled a list of 3 insanely difficult video games. I am sure you guys must have played most of them. Do share your thoughts in the comments below.
Contra
Like most retro entries on this list, Contra doesn’t respect you from the very beginning, which makes for a highly turbulent and frustrating relationship from day one. Poised as a Rambo-like maverick, your mission was to save Planet Earth from alien scum. Despite being considered a genuine classic, Contra was unbelievably tough. And though many have completed it thanks to the infamous “Konami code” (it gave you 30 lives), attempting to conquer this thing on just 3 lives is like storming the beaches of Normandy on D-Day solo.
Battletoads
Battletoads is never anything but something you wish you’d never been associated with. Hate it for its impossible-to-complete levels or the fact that it hates you from beginning to end, this game frequently finds itself atop most lists of the most difficult games ever available to purchase with real-world money.
Presumably taking their cues from several mutant turtles of certain fame, Battletoads had you battling a couple of anthropomorphic amphibians through a whole host of stages designed to break your mind. Be it the “Turbo Tunnel” – a stage so intricately insane that an Apache pilot would likely give up on the first go – or the “Snake Pit” – you’ll never get that far –Battletoads was surely a game that even its developers couldn’t complete. And maybe that’s the point. Maybe they’re still laughing at us to this very day. If they haven’t been lynched by an angry mob or something. Well here is your chance to take a look at the gameplay.
Castlevania
Castlevania set a kind of standard for insanely difficult games, a standard that kept on moving through the retro era like a never-ending gauntlet of razor-sharp rotor-blades. And though Castlevania is undoubtably a difficult game (and an influentially difficult one at that), you get a sense that it takes a real pride in its difficulty. And at least it’s semi-fair. Well, sort of.
Take a look at the way each level is laid out – perfectly so, as if to ensure that every single touch of your controller is perfectly timed. Then there’s the endless array of enemies designed purposely to give you brain ache. We won’t mention that the same endless array of enemies will knock down half your health should they hit you, or the fact that you can’t move whilst jumping. Oh, we mentioned it? Sorry: we’ve got to stop doing that.
