Some of the most beloved video games, games that are considered classics, are also some of the most difficult. In fact many classic games are famous for their extreme level of difficulty – or perhaps a more proper phrasing would be that these games are considered classic despite being infuriatingly difficult. Games such as the ones on this list walk a fine line between being famous, and being infamous.
Games like King’s Field, while known for being insanely difficult, are not widely regarded as a “classic game”. Some games, like Jak 2, are classics and somewhat difficult, but not really famous for being difficult. For a game to make this list it must be considered a classic, it must be difficult, and it must also be famous for being difficult.
10 The Mega Man Games
The Mega Man games have a reputation for being more than a little difficult. The biggest culprits are the original Mega Man, Mega Man 9, and Zero. These games are not difficult because of poor controls or level design. They are also not difficult because of other typical culprits like one-hit deaths either.
Mega Man games are difficult because of the relentless barrage of enemies that can fill the screen with projectiles, and for certain elements of levels like disappearing platforms and traps that give players almost no time to react. Also, if the bosses aren’t fought in the correct order some of them can be quite hard to defeat.
9 Cuphead
Is Cuphead a classic game yet? It’s only about two years old, but it has sold over four million copies and has a Metacritic rating of 88, with a User Score of 8.2 (averaged out of over 1000 user reviews). Many considered it an instant classic; so, for the purposes of this list Cuphead is a classic game. It is also well known for its difficulty. The vast majority of the negative reviews on Metacritic are because of the game’s high level of difficulty – other than that most players and critics have nothing but praise for this game.
8 Battletoads
This entry is for the NES game, but the SNES version is nearly as difficult. Battletoads was a beat ‘em up from Rare, who are better known for their later games like GoldenEye 007 and Donkey Kong Country. Battletoads doesn’t seem that difficult when a player first starts; the first couple of levels are challenging, but not overly difficult. At level three, titled “Turbo Tunnel”, the difficulty goes from medium to brutal. To defeat this level requires the player to have played the level enough to memorize the placement of barriers, or have the reflexes of a Jedi.
7 Ninja Gaiden Black
The first three Ninja Gaiden games for the NES are also classic games known for their difficulty, but for this entry we will focus on the Xbox game Ninja Gaiden Black. This was a remake of the Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox, which had been criticized for its difficulty. Black had two difficulty settings – Ninja Dog and Master Ninja. Ninja Dog is a nerfed version of the original; while Ninja Master is even more difficult than the original – which, again, players complained was too difficult. Ninja Gaiden Black game even pokes a little fun at players who select Ninja Dog.
6 Ghosts ‘N Goblins
Much like the Mega Man franchise, the Ghost ‘n Goblins franchise (particularly the first two games) are classic games that are famous for being painfully difficult. The player controls the knight Arthur as he tries to rescue his beloved Guinevere from the devil Astaroth.
Arthur can only be hit twice before he dies and the player loses a life. The difficulty of Ghosts ‘n Goblins derives from the persistence of the enemies and the length of the levels. To add insult to injury, the player must complete the game twice in one sitting to see the true ending.
5 Super Meat Boy
Super Meat Boy was released in 2010 for a variety of home consoles and computers. In the nearly ten years since then, Super Meat Boy has earned a reputation for being one of the most difficult games ever made. This game’s difficulty factor is often compared to Ghost‘n'Goblins, which generally means try not to break the controller out of frustration while playing. In this game, the player controls a small cube of meat named Meat Boy as he tries to rescue Meat Girl. The player does this by navigating Meat Boy through levels full of perils – like spinning sawblades. The controls are nearly perfect in Super Meat Boy; so players don’t even have the luxury of blaming them when Meat Boy dies over and over and over.
4 Contra
Again we see an NES title on this list, but truthfully the PlayStation Contra game, Shattered Soldier, is probably slightly more difficult. The Contra title for the Sega Genesis, Hard Corps, is also known for being insanely difficult. The extreme difficulty of the Contra games doesn’t stop people from enjoying these games, and certainly hasn’t stopped them from being regarded as classic games either. Most Contra games are run-and-gun side scrollers. For the most part, these games are difficult due to the one-hit deaths of the player-characters combined with the swarm of enemies players must deal with.
3 Myst
Myst was originally released for the Mac in 1993 and the PC in 1994, but was later released on the newer disc-based consoles of the time like the PlayStation and 3DO. Myst was a point-and-click adventure/puzzle game that at times could get devilishly difficult.
The player is not given much back-story or objectives when starting a game, and it was made even more difficult due to the inability of players to go online and find walk-throughs since the internet was not really a thing yet. The game used still images that were impressive for their time, but are very low-res by today’s standards.
2 Devil May Cry 3
Capcom’s third game on this list, Devil May Cry 3 was a shock to many fans of the series when it was released. The first two games in the series were not too difficult – they generally aren’t known for their difficulty anyway. Then Devil May Cry 3 was released. The enemies in this game react to the player’s tactics; if the player uses Dante’s guns too much they will start fighting in a manner that limits the opportunity for their use. The enemies are also a little faster and a little more responsive to the player’s actions. Take away the more generous save-game features and Devil May Cry 3 was the Demon’s Souls of its day.
1 Demon’s Souls And Dark Souls I & II
In the modern era of gaming, no game series is as collectively known, and loved, for its brutal difficulty like Demon’s Souls and its sequels Dark Soul I, II, and III. It is difficult to stay alive in these games, and the games go the extra step of punishing players for dying. If a player dies a second time before reaching the spot of their previous death that character loses all of the souls they have been collecting. The game mechanic of stamina loss during battle is another major reason these games are so difficult. The boss-fights in the Souls series are some of the most frustrating experiences in gaming.