The hardest game you ever played.

[A.D.R.I.A.N]

The title is self-explanatory. Mine is Ghosts and Goblins, because that game can (and will) make you suffer.

[travel27]

Not the hardest game for most, but personally I have always had a hard time with Mega Man.  Super Mario lost worlds, when I beat it I was so happy!

[SunGodPortal]

The title is self-explanatory. Mine is Ghosts and Goblins, because that game can (and will) make you suffer.

I've never made it beyond the first level of this game and rarely made it past the first two or three screens. Fuck this game.

[magictrufflez]

Overall, I'll 1-up OP by saying Super Ghosts and Goblins.  Same ridiculous difficulty (and ending schtick) with more levels.

As far as RPGs (which is about all I play), I'd say vanilla wise 7th Saga (US), no competition.  Every other RPG I've ever played can be made significantly more manageable by knowing the game systems.  I know how everything works in 7th Saga (US), and I still can't stand how RNG lucky you need to be to finish that game (or even make it half way).

Honorable mention to the original vanilla Persona 3---it's pretty damn difficult without the FES/portble quality of life improvements...

EDIT: I take back Persona 3-----Wizardry : Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord should take its place.  Or really, any console Wizardry that saves empty store inventories when your party dies in the dungeon.  That was the cruelest discovery as a kid when I bought it used that NOTHING reset in-game from when the first owner lost all the good shop gear deep in the dungeon....

[Kallisto]

SMT3

[Spooniest]

I do not swear at games other than Ninja Gaiden 1, in ways that I swear at Ninja Gaiden 1. I reserve special swears for Ninja Gaiden 1. Heck, I could almost use references to Ninja Gaiden 1 (NES) to swear at people.

"Good God man, you are being such a Ninja Gaiden Stage 6-2!!!" 

Edit (and coarse language warning): That was just the TUTORIAL LEVEL

[SunGodPortal]

I do not swear at games other than Ninja Gaiden 1, in ways that I swear at Ninja Gaiden 1. I reserve special swears for Ninja Gaiden 1. Heck, I could almost use references to Ninja Gaiden 1 (NES) to swear at people.

"Good God man, you are being such a Ninja Gaiden Stage 6-2!!!" 

I can agree with this one too (NES Ninja Gaiden in general) but mostly because I like playing games, not taking memorization tests disguised as games. At least they give you killer soundtracks to jam out to while you study.

[FAST6191]

A university I visited once had an accurate flight simulator and were letting people that might have never so much as seen inside a cockpit a try, and while you might say that was not a game it was framed as a stop the pigeon* affair.

*save a search https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sj6-LG5VpGk or "clean" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dexQhvczVeM

Sticking with academics I did also see someone make a few of those "genius tester" programs like you see on cheesy films and TV shows where they get people to solve fairly abstract 3d problems and have something visually cool on the screen at the same time. Not quite the same but if you want to head down that path then https://fold.it/portal/ .

Less academic but along the same lines I like playing on those stock market simulators.

I suppose it is at this point I try to figure out what hard is. I am not a fan of rote memorisation (some aspects of NES ninja gaiden) and the generally illogical (the rub everything with everything else approach to adventure games for instance) but I can at least accept the first in some instances. Controls divorced from reality can work but is so much easier to have not work -- if my generally lazy self can dodge charity muggers in the street rather nimbly when loaded with all my tools then tank controls adding to the tension of the former special forces characters I am playing being unable to dodge a lumbering zombie then OK, however I probably would not hold up pre Resident Evil 4 controls as something to aspire to... probably should have gone with the section in Metro 2033 where you have the child on your shoulders.

At the same time I kind of like things divorced a bit from reality. As such a I found fez's setup to be great. Speaking of fez then some of the "easter egg" stuff wandered dangerously close to the "there is a fine line between leaving secret messages in the open for those that know you to decode and being the person scrawling random gibberish" notion.

http://fundersandfounders.com/9-types-of-intelligence/ is something I am not a fan of but it is a nice framing device for a lot of gameplay styles -- ask me to keep a rhythm and I am completely hosed, never mind playing something musical back or worse still trying to improvise something that goes with an existing beat. That all starts with the basic split in games of whether something is on the spectrum between real time and not -- chess is often given as an example of decidedly not real time or reaction based and as such a completely paralysed person could school me at chess where they would have no hope at tetris, make it into timer/blitz chess and that is a different matter, unless you count them being able to be speak and someone move things accordingly as valid play.

Where do challenge runs, self made or possibly... "provided" by game devs fall into things? Computer games are rather nice in that their entire rules are codified and somewhat predictable and theoretically the same for everybody (I do know the site we are on) which can mean things for computer games that other things only wish they had.

[SleepyFist]

F-Zero X, fuck rubberbanding AI

[CM30]

A Super Mario World hack where figuring out what killed you and what didn't was literally nigh impossible/random. One block would kill you on the spot, then an identical one would be harmless. Same with everything from pipes to the ground to coins to even bits of the air.

Aka this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7cPS2cerFM

[KillerBob]

I've never made it beyond the first level of this game and rarely made it past the first two or three screens. Fuck this game.

I can't blame you, the NES port is terrible. I once beat it just so I could put the damn game behind me and it was not a joy.  Very much the wrong kind of difficult. The arcade original is OK but its sequels on arcade and SNES are truly fantastic games. Sometimes insanely tough but not unfairly so IMO.

Gradius III (Arcade) must rank as the hardest game I have ever played. Pure evil. The game was probably designed by Satan himself. 

[A.D.R.I.A.N]

I've played this game yesterday, and I'll easily say that this game deserves it's "Nintendo Hard" Title: Pac-Mania.
Sure, you can jump, giving some advantage against ghosts, but it doesn't matter, because you're dealing with eight ghosts instead of four. The green and the gray ghosts are the most dangerous (especially the gray one) since green ghosts jump at the same time you do, but only slightly lower than you (if your timing is right, you can jump over green ghosts), and gray ghosts can jump too, but this time, they can jump the same height as you (try jumping over grey ghosts, it's guaranteed that you'll lose a life) making them a real threat, especially when ghosts start swarming you, giving little to no time how to react properly (most notably on Jungly Steeps, the last world in the game).

The camera angle doesn't help either, since it's always fixed, you cannot tell if a ghost is approaching you (especially on the GBA version, with it's small screen) making you wish they could include a minimap or something.

If a game deserves to share the title of "Hardest game ever made" alongside Ghost and Goblins, then Pac-Mania certainly does.

[travel27]

A Super Mario World hack where figuring out what killed you and what didn't was literally nigh impossible/random. One block would kill you on the spot, then an identical one would be harmless. Same with everything from pipes to the ground to coins to even bits of the air.

Aka this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7cPS2cerFM

That just seems pointless though.  Not to sound mean, but what is the point, actually, of making a hack like that??

[Bregalad]

• Double Dragon III (Single live, no continues)
• Silver Surfer
• Gradius (and sequels)

but personally I have always had a hard time with Mega Man

Which one ? Mega Man I is realtively easy. Mega Man IV is the hardest in my opinion, but the final boss of VII is insane, too. Mega Man & Bass is definitely the hardest of the series.

[Spooniest]

Which one ? Mega Man I is realtively easy.

You think the Yellow Devil in Wily Stage 1 is easy? Man you must be better at Nintendo than me.

Yellow Devil is that rock guy who keeps turning into rocks that fly across to the other side of the room...and when the rocks hit you they do a giant chunk of damage to you.

The Yellow Devil is almost impossible for me. You can cheat (fire the Elec Beam, press Select to pause the game over and over), but then you don't get to say afterwards that you actually, strictly speaking, beat Mega Man.

[Bregalad]

You think the Yellow Devil in Wily Stage 1 is easy? Man you must be better at Nintendo than me.

Yellow Devil is that rock guy who keeps turning into rocks that fly across to the other side of the room...and when the rocks hit you they do a giant chunk of damage to you.

The Yellow Devil is almost impossible for me. You can cheat (fire the Elec Beam, press Select to pause the game over and over), but then you don't get to say afterwards that you actually, strictly speaking, beat Mega Man.

Oh yeah I forgot about that, I agree it's impossible to beat him but with the pause trick combined with the elec beam weapon it's relatively easy.

The hardest parts of Mega Man I are Ice Man's sage and the stage just before the "Yellow Devil" (I call him the "golem" myself), because of very unpredictable movable platforms combined with instant death traps (bottomless pit in Ice Man's, spikes in Yellow Devil's). Not only that but the moveable platform can also shoot at you. Thanks god the movable platform are predictable in other Mega Man games.

[Spooniest]

Oh yeah I forgot about that, I agree it's impossible to beat him but with the pause trick combined with the elec beam weapon it's relatively easy.

So then, the Yellow Devil beat you.

[Bregalad]

I guess it is possible to learn his pattern by heart, but it takes a lot of practice. Once you know that, I belive you can remember exactly how to time your jumps to avoid him entierely and he becomes easy. However if somehow your timing's off you're still dead.

[Spooniest]

Don't worry, I can't beat him either.

The hardest parts of Mega Man I are Ice Man's sage and the stage just before the "Yellow Devil" (I call him the "golem" myself), because of very unpredictable movable platforms combined with instant death traps (bottomless pit in Ice Man's, spikes in Yellow Devil's). Not only that but the moveable platform can also shoot at you. Thanks god the movable platform are predictable in other Mega Man games.

I hate that stage. The freaking two sections of disappearing blocks are bad enough, but then yeah, those <_< look left, >_> look right platform guys that shoot you, and you fall off them, and you die.

Magnet Beam is my friend, there. I just go to Gutsman first, he's not that hard to beat (if the platforms in HIS stage can be cleared, and that takes practice too), but then you can go to Cutman, then to Elecman, and in Elecman's Tower you can get the Magnet Beam.

Ice Man next, Magnet Beam over the Eyeball Platform Guys. Done and done. Now, the Eyeball Jumpers at the end of Guts, Cut, Elec, Ice Man, right before their doors? Ugh.

Really, it's telling that Mega Man 2 is a much more balanced game. It's not easy, but it's a walk in the park compared to the first game.

[SunGodPortal]

Yeah, screw Double Dragon III as well. I wanted to like that game so bad since I love DDII and have lots of fond memories playing it, but it left me no choice. It's like the AVGN says, that game is like what would happen in real life if you decided to take on that many guys. You'd get your ass handed to you.

Silver Surfer is just flat out unfair. As with Ninja Gaiden, killer soundtrack.