next »

[skaldicpoet9]

Yet Nethack can be pretty damn brutal. I think I have had just as much success with Nethack as I have had with ADOM.

[GregWS]

Yeah, games have gotten easier, but there are still some painful gems out there.  A lot of them have easy modes, except those are fairly meaningless because you need to play the higher difficulties to unlock stuff (and in Contra 4's case, you can't even win the game on easy).  F-Zero GX is like that; the requirements for getting all those extra tracks and pilots are insane.  I can't even win the story mode!  And thanks to it's scoring system, the Megaman Zero series kept things interesting too; over 80% would get you new moves, and they sounded cool, so I trained until I got them, repeating levels again and again until I had that one good run.  The fact that time was part of the system didn't help either.

A friend of mine showed me a video of I Wanna Be the Guy on YouTube a little while ago; it really is unfair with all those hidden traps and whatnot, I can't believe that some of you guys are playing it without your monocles popping off and shattering due to the sheer futility of it all.

[Valter]

Yeah, I beat IWBTG. It was really hard, but definitely quite manageable after some practice.

I think FLaiL was harder, and more fun, really. The inertia is hard to get used to, but once you have it down you have a lot of fun. I beat that too.

Bonesaw is the other super hard freeware platformer I've played. The difficulty curve was a bit arbitrary, considering. The main path through the game is rather easy, if you're not trying to get all the pucks, but then you hit a brick wall when you reach the space levels, and the last boss is especially hard. Still, it's probably in the top three favorite freeware games of mine (with La Mulana and Cave Story).

[GregWS]

I think what I like about these painful games is that once you've gotten good at one, the skills are fairly transferable throughout the genre, and these games are sooooooo satisfying to win (or even just to win a level/boss).  I almost never played action games before I got good at Zero 3 (rts, fps, and those great old adventure games were my thing), and as soon as I mastered that game, I really got into the action genre in general (2d and 3d).  I guess it all comes back to quick reflexes and quick thinking, plus some great high-stakes moments that you just don't get in other genres, eg. incredibly intense boss fights.

[Annabelle Kennedy]

oh god i started trying to play La Mulana..

 

its too hard....

[ImaginaryThomas]

I just picked up bangaio spirits for the DS and it's a little bit of hell in this regard.

I had to special order a copy because no one's stocking it but they have a midnight launch for Madden (the same game you play every year) 09 

[Don Andy]

Anyone here ever played Gun Valkyrie for the (original) Xbox? I think THAT game was hard. Well, it's not directly hard, but you really have to master the controls if you want to get anyhwere and they can be a bitch to master.

I still can't believe I beat that game (Although with the girl, I think if you play the guy it's even harder).

[siiseli]

oh god i started trying to play La Mulana..

 

its too hard....

La Mulana actually isn't all that hard once you get the hold of it. Except hell temple. Hell temple is hell.

[godsavant]

Anyone here ever played Gun Valkyrie for the (original) Xbox? I think THAT game was hard. Well, it's not directly hard, but you really have to master the controls if you want to get anyhwere and they can be a bitch to master.

I still can't believe I beat that game (Although with the girl, I think if you play the guy it's even harder).

To all gamers: "Play Gun Valkyrie before you even think of complaining about the wonky camera in Ninja Gaiden 2..."

[neon]

i can beat knytt stories.

 

[jimmythechang]

Good call, it's a gem if ever there was one. It's one of those titles you glaze over when looking at the racks at your local game store (Like God hand, check that one out too). I got it used at EB for $10!

Definitely, definitely get God Hand. The game actually punishes you for doing well. But it hurts so good.

[Tanner]

I just picked up bangaio spirits for the DS and it's a little bit of hell in this regard.

I had to special order a copy because no one's stocking it but they have a midnight launch for Madden (the same game you play every year) 09 

Bangai-O Spirits is one of my top 5 DS games.
Go out and buy it now, everyone.

[Craig Stern]

Final Fight. I could always get through the first few stages, and then it would just become impossible for me to progress without dying.

The original Super Mario Brothers. Some of the jumps you're expected to make in that game are just sadistic, and I could never get used to the excessive inertia of your character. Also, I freakin' hated those turtles that sat on the clouds and threw spiky balls at you. (I'm intentionally not factoring in the level-skipping cheats, since that's not really playing through the whole game.)