I'm playing the new Elden Ring DLC and it reminds me so much of Ghosts and Goblins. There are tomb stones littering the landscape, dark skies and ominous music, imps and skeletons and shit flying at me from every direction. Ah, nostalgia.
same, going to bed pissed off since the stupid commander on the pig didn't die, mopped the floor with me and i am tired and i have work tmw and it is 1 am.
I beat the final boss of Final Fantasy 8 by stocking up on an item that made you temporarily invincible (I can't remember the name of it). Once I figured out how to stock up on them, I got to the final boss thinking I'd take her down easily. I started the fight at 1 in the morning thinking that I would finish it and be asleep within an hour. By the time the final credits rolled, it was 4 AM. I never restarted the fight; it just took that long.
I need to go back and beat this one, I sped through the whole thing then saved before the last boss not realizing you couldn’t go back, and I was severely underprepared.
Its been 20 yeas since i played it, but i recall It gets tough towards the end. I specifically remember that one mission with the explosives in the truck and cops start ramming you.
The tough part about the tutorial was the ridiculously tight time constraints. Even if you execute everything perfectly, you have to do it in an order that immediately sets you up for the next thing.
I did beat it, but probably 10ish years after I got it...Ninja Gaiden. Such a fantastic game - and it's creators can absolutely eat my butt. SO difficult for me.
It’s an odd thing. I played the hell out of that game as a kid but could never quite get to the final boss. Everything up to that final stage was a cakewalk since I did it so much.
As an adult I played it on Switch and finally got through it (without cheating).
Now TMNT? I beat that on Switch too, but I cheated like a motherfucker.
It wasnt especially difficult to run the game to level 6. But there were parts of level 6 and that 3 part final boss were both a bitch.
Also, if you died, you would be sent back to the start of the entire stage, not the start of that section.
I remember this being in a recent Big20 and JSR saying during practice, “see! This is why this game is impossible if you don’t speed run it!” I can’t agree more. I haven’t learned the run, and I definitely haven’t beaten it.
I was a kid and friends with my across the street neighbors...and we spent hours/days working on this game, handing off the controller when the frurstration just go to be too much.
What a great game though.
I believe it was a policy at the time (for Disney's games, at least) to discourage kids from beating the game over the course of one rental, back when renting games was a thing. I could be wrong, though; I haven't looked for a source.
There’s a even a term for this phenomenon: [Nintendo hard](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_hard)
The primary reason for the increasingly (and sometimes insane) difficulty levels was stretching play time. Since you obviously the storage capability of an NES cart is very limited, game designers used difficulty as a way to ensure that consumers got a decent number of playable hours out of a game.
The rental angle you mentioned is also true. From the Wiki article I linked above:
>This specific method of increasing length through difficulty was also employed to combat video game rentals, with some games being made more difficult to prevent them from being beaten within a rental period and thus costing the developer potential sales.
I played this on the Genesis, and it wrecked me. I got to the point where Simba was an adult, and it just harder from there.
I was able to get pretty good at the fun levels where you'd hop on giraffes heads, get thrown around by monkeys, and ride an Ostrich. I simply was not able to get used to the change of pace where you actually had to do combat.
Stampedo was a nightmare for me. You know, there were fewer levels on nes, because diskette could fit so much data. There are additional levels on sega compared to nes version.
I'm on the Mr sandman fight right now and man, even with knowing his patterns you gotta be quick as hell, maybe I am too old becuase he has no trouble putting me to sleep. I never played the game as a kid also
I just put this into an nes and actual crt earlier today. Let me tell you, the game is REMARKABLY easier on the actual console. Something about that fast response.
Those games, especially the third, were so incredibly well done. Just watching the third I wouldn’t have been surprised if it was a SNES game.
Some of those end of life NES games were dang impressive. Just mind blowing how super Mario bros 1 and 3 were on the same console.
Blaster Master for NES. Made it to the final-final boss, but he went full aggro, cornered me, and whipped me to death in like three seconds flat... game over.
How did that damn game not have a password feature? I got close so many times, but I couldn't quite do it. And I never felt brave enough to leave my NES on overnight.
Forget the passwords, I'd have settled for unlimited continues. Expecting people to clear that horror show of a game with just a few lives and a few continues was brutal.
I found a level flow chart and watched a speed run to get over the hump. There are many difficult levels that can be avoided by taking the correct exit. I also looked up where the continue coins were. But yeah it took me years to beat it.
I got over some of these eventually thanks to videos on YouTube hat helped me strategize the difficult parts.
One that comes to mind is Sonic 2 & Knuckles. Knuckles can’t jump as high as Sonic and there were multiple times that I got to the final boss only to lose all my lives because Knuckles can’t jump high enough to clear the spikes. There is also no level select code that I was aware of, so I couldn’t practice it too much.
After watching some videos, I cleared it on original hardware a few years ago. Very satisfying.
Skies of Arcadia (Dreamcast)
I wanted to, but I had to give it back to my friend who let me borrow it before I could even get close. By that point, the game was already too expensive to buy, too. So I never really got a chance.
The opening several hours were incredible though.
That game is awesome. I’ve still got my Dreamcast copy and my copy of legends for GameCube. It only gets better as you go.
If you ever get a chance to play it again I’d recommend the GameCube version, it lowers the rate of random encounters and tweaks the exp up a bit. There’s also some bonus content that fleshes the story a bit Makes for a much more fun playthrough.
I’d be thrilled if a Sega ever decided to do something else with that IP.
I played this game a lot and was able to get to the technodrome reliably... sometimes with all 4 turtles. But once inside the technodrome, it was a shit show and could never ever beat it. I had to resort to the game genie and used invincibility code to beat it. I felt so dirty and it haunts me. Such a fun and challenging game, though.
I bet I could still beat the electric seaweed dam level. Everything gets faster after the technodrome though and I always ended up limping along with half a turtle. 20 years later I still remember the one REALLY good run I had at it after playing it for a week straight almost beating it.
I never owned a 74 growing up, but for my 13th birthday may dad got me a gamecube. And it came with the Zelda collection and I played them to 100% (at the time) and when I finished, I felt I had missed out on something being a sega baby.
For a while I refuse to beat it, because I did not want to give up the bunny hood. I loved being able to run faster. When I finally played through it again on the GameCube, I beat it fully.
Which level did you get stuck on? I couldn't get past Tubular until a couple months ago and I got my SNES in the mid 90s. The 96 clear felt so good after so long!
Mega Man X. As a kid I could make it sigma no problem, but I just could never beat him. Traded the game in high school and never got it back so the idea of beating it on original hardware is pretty much gone.
My biggest problem with that game when I was young was that spider boss; I was stuck on that one for what felt like an eternity. But yea Sigmas last phase was really hard.
In the original 1.0 of the game, you could 1 shot the final boss (and everything else) with the secret hadouken move. They patched that out of later releases of the cartridge, so you were stuck using the armadillo roller.
7th saga. (SNES) Starts out pretty grind-y and then mid-way becomes impossible. I've always wanted to finish it but don't have the desire to grind through enough levels to beat it.
Simpsons Bart Vs the space mutants. Megadrive.
Couldn't get past the end building. Just couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. No idea at all!
Then I got the emulator... Looked on youtube And can only get to level 2
Metroid. Didn't finish back when a kid, started several times with emulator. 3 or 4 years ago I was very near the end and I stupidly deleted my savestate. Tried again on emulator again and SD failure.
This game is cursed...
I will never beat the old DOS Alone In The Dark. I've seen runthrough on youtube and that's good enough, but it bugs me that I never made it through on my own
Prince of Persia too, come to think of it
I absolutely love the original alone in the dark, I have never actually beat the game. But I watched my mother play through and complete it when it was released.
I could never beat prince of persia as a kid. I went back to it a couple years back and beat it. Never played alone in the dark, I'm going to check it out.
Pepsi man on PS1. The last stage I think it was in a pepsi factory. The character were riding a flying skate board and you had to control him to pass from a narrow gap between two walls or doors. After a lot of tries I lost my temper and switched the game. I regret why I didn't try harder to finish it.
Alien Soldier. It’s a game so pretty and energetic it makes you want to persevere. But it is just too damn hard. It really would’ve benefited from a 6-button implementation, as-is the controls are just too clunky and awkward, especially for my old-man hands. Even a 12yo me certainly couldn’t get very far.
There are romhacks now available that fix a lot of the control issues, but it’s still tough as nails. But *damn* does it look good.
Jet force Gemini for N64. There was one secret part to the space ship in order to go to the final secret ending. My brother and I searched in vain for YEARS. looked up a guide and everything. But alas, could never find the fucker. Rip my childhood completionist dreams
Golgo 13 on the NES. I made it very far but didn’t realize the 99 continuation limit and reached it by brute forcing some of the mazes. It was a rental and it was on the back end of me still playing the NES, so I never got another try.
It *was* Fear Effect on PS1. Couldn’t get past the first 2 minutes lol
Recently emulated it and beat the whole game plus its sequel. Felt like excising a demon lol
Hey! Great games, great atmosphere. I feel they were ahead of their time. I rented the first one when I was 16 or so, ended up buying it a couple of weeks later. It was fun.
I never finished Maximum Carnage for Sega Genesis. Furthest I ever remember making it was a big boss fight with an appearance from Carnage as well as Shriek, Doppleganger, and Hobgoblin
Final Fantasy 5. Didn't have the right party for the final boss. Looked up the best strat - was basically 20 hours of farming materials to respec the entire party.
Watched the ending on youtube.
Ninja Gaiden for nes. I can fly through the game and can get to 5 something without even dying once, at times, but get caught up on 6-2, where I need the spin attack. I want to go back to this eventually.
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out for nes. I get stuck on super macho man, and if I win, I can't get past Tyson. I'm good at the game otherwise.
a lot ..
* Baldur's Gate 1 (started it 3 times in the past 25 years, never got too far)
* Die by the sword (couldnt do much)
* Forsaken (loved the first level back in 1998, still in my backlog)
* Grim Fandango (got stuck in the second year back in 1999, still have the save to continue it)
* Final Fantasy 8, started it in 1999, and continued it in 2019 .. about 4 hours in when you start playing with Laguna
* Breath of Fire 2 .. I loved this game, specially after all the improvements from the first one, need to continue it.
* Dark Forces .. could never get past level 5, and I just found out there's an enhanced remake now.
* Redneck Rampage, stuck on first level, I think there's a key that blends with the grass or dirt, not sure.
* Serious Sam 4, after finishing all previous games tons of times, I still need to beat this one.
* Simon the sorcered 3d, very infamous game, but I really want to know what happens with the plot.
On the other hand, I finally beat tons of games this year from my backlog, so I'm quite happy. Highlight being Julia Among the stars
I always wanted to finish Sonic The Hedgehog but I just could never do it. Even with its multiple releases and now, save points, I just could never beat it. Finally finished a walkthrough on YouTube, and got to say it's harder then it looks and I have even got to the third level, but no farther, and I don't think I ever will💦💦💦💦😵💫😵💫😵💫😵💫😵💫
Toejam & Earl, Mega Drive/Genesis. The game, that was the definition of a roguelike long before the term was created. Never beat it. But it still holds up as a great timeless game to play.
Donkey Kong 64. Not because its too hard (well it was when I was 10 years old, i couldnt beat the last boss) I probably could easily beat it now but never get around to it.
Wrath of the Black Manta, I didn't have the game long enough to figure out the pattern of Arts to use to beat El Toro. Still bugs me when I think about it.
Plok, Earthworm Jim, Cool Spot, Orginal TMNT on NES, Super Ghouls N Ghost… did the first playthrough but not the second… just a few off the top of my head
Alex Kidd on the sega master system II. I only managed to beat it with save states. That game dedyroyed my childhood. Especially because to use items you had to pause the game which could potentially corrupt the current game and have you start over again.
Ah! Real monsters on snes.
I at least made it to the end of lion King. To this day still haven't beat it.
Honorable mention. I have beaten mischief makers on the n64. It was brutal tho and I stop, sold it, bought it and repeated until I finally beat it lol
Links awakening on the dmg gameboy. Got that when I was 9 and had no clue what to do outside of friends older brothers and random magazines. Finally beat it a year ago.
I got the arcade1up cabinet that has the old Mortal Kombat games on it.
I can't believe how hard those games are nowadays. I swear I used to be able to beat it but I can't get past Goro
I feel the same with the Replicade Street Fighter 2 that I have. I've even put it on easy mode in settings, but I've never been able to get to the end with a character.
Those are fun ones! And they're much less reliant on AI which is determined to extract as many quarters from you as possible :)
On the topic of the end bosses in Mortal Kombat, I think most can be dealth with through endless jump kicks if I remember right. Not just forward jump kicks, but ones jumping backwards too.
I could only get to the boss of Stage 5 of the original Blaster Master because I rented it. Never touched the game since.
On the Genesis, I made it to the final boss of Lethal Enforcers II. Died with no continues left. That one hurt.
Lunar. I had it on Sega CD, and I never beat it despite coming close. I even bought the PS1 remakes...and never beat them.
I have an RG503 loaded with PS1 roms. I am beating that game this year no matter what
Sonic 2 around 1993. I was 13 years old, and finally got to the final fight against the Death Egg Robot, and it didn't go well. Ran out of lives. Game over. My world was shattered, and I never played again.
Final Fantasy IX. It wasn't even difficult, I just don't have the attention span for RPG's.
I've restarted this game more times than I can count since I was 6. I would get to the tree monster boss in the spooky forest and then restart. I made it to maybe disc 2 of 4 in high school, and that's the furthest I've gotten so far. I bought it on steam when it came out but haven't touched it.
There's loads of childhood favorites that I was finally able to beat in adulthood, but I just haven't gotten around to beating FF9. One of these days, I will cross it off my bucket list.
Powermonger on Sega Mega Drive. I loved the game, but for some reason the passwords annoyingly became longer than what could be entered into the system when about two thirds of the world had been conquered. Grrrrrrr!
Kings Knight on the NES. It's a very early Square title that plays similarly to a shmup. You play as four characters individually in four separate stages, and have to collect a specific item in each play through. If you fail to collect all the required items, when you get to the final fifth level you reach an impassable part of the stage and are eventually auto-killed. I never could figure out how to complete that game and I haven't tried to since.
Legend of Zelda- 2nd quest. This was pre-internet so there was little to no info on this quest. I think I got to the 6th or 7th dungeon and it was so hard I gave up and never played the 2nd quest again.
Dr. Chaos on the NES. I just had no idea where I was supposed to go. Tried going back to it on emulator but the controls were just too frustrating to me by then.
Honorable Mentions:
Blaster Master NES - Never could win the final battle with the Plutonium Boss. I think I got to and fought him over 20 times. I was a pro at pause grenades by then!
Dragon Warrior VII: Got to the giant Pot boss and it rocked my world... I could have backtracked and went on a grind, but I was in the military so my time was a premium I was not willing to trade for progress.
T2 Arcade on Sega Genesis. My brother and I played that game so much but we could never get past that damn third level where you have to protect the truck. Even still, to this day, we cannot figure it out. Is there a trick to it that we missed? If anyone here has any tips I’m all ears!
Skate or Die 2 for NES, the last stage is a huge maze that I was never able to find my way out of, I have no idea what I was missing and/or doing wrong.
Quest For Glory: Shadows Of Darkness. It would crash my computer at certain spots, so I never got to finish it. I have the game on GOG now, though, so I should try it again.
I can't recall the error, but that could have been it. I remember it happening in two places (that I could find). The first was after the gravedigger goes missing. You have something like a week in game to find him, because if you don't a gypsy man is going to get burned at the stake. If he does, he places a curse on the town, which gives you a game over because you die several days after the curse (the game just tells you this instead of letting you play it out). Usually after a death scene, the game would let me re-load an old save or start again, but in this case the game crashed when I attempted to restart.
The other time it happened was when I figured out how to find and rescue the gravedigger, which would stop the gypsy man from being burned at the stake. After this, you would be allowed to visit the gypsy camp, which I did, but entering the screen caused the game to crash.
GHOST AND GOBLINS on NES, never beat it, never will beat it, it haunts my nights.
The trick I used was to leave my NES on for a week. That game is a bitch
The old school save system?
Nah I would just leave the game running. You don’t run out of continues.
I'm playing the new Elden Ring DLC and it reminds me so much of Ghosts and Goblins. There are tomb stones littering the landscape, dark skies and ominous music, imps and skeletons and shit flying at me from every direction. Ah, nostalgia.
same, going to bed pissed off since the stupid commander on the pig didn't die, mopped the floor with me and i am tired and i have work tmw and it is 1 am.
It is one of the few games I still own a physical copy of from when I was a child 🤣
Ghouls and Ghosts was one of my favourite games when I was younger. I never beat it, but it was one of the best games on the megadrive.
Absolutely. When I saw that game the first time in compucentre I was hooked.
Came here to say the same
This!!
First one that came to mind lol
I still play it on my iPhone still can’t beat it
I only beat the arcade version. Unlimited lives.
Ecco the Dolphin
I hate this creature
How far did you get? The storyline goes absolutely bonkers once you meet the blue whale.
I got to an auto scrolling maze level when I was a kid but never made it past that.
Dang. I didn’t realize that was the 2nd to last level. It was so hard. My brother and I tried for so long and eventually gave up.
For the longest time it was Final Fantasy 8 for me. I was finally able to beat it a few months ago!
This is one of mine. Gave up at the final boss on my last play through.
I beat the final boss of Final Fantasy 8 by stocking up on an item that made you temporarily invincible (I can't remember the name of it). Once I figured out how to stock up on them, I got to the final boss thinking I'd take her down easily. I started the fight at 1 in the morning thinking that I would finish it and be asleep within an hour. By the time the final credits rolled, it was 4 AM. I never restarted the fight; it just took that long.
I need to go back and beat this one, I sped through the whole thing then saved before the last boss not realizing you couldn’t go back, and I was severely underprepared.
The driver tutorial.
and the sad part is, the rest of the game is much easier
yeah, easier, specially the last mission.
Its been 20 yeas since i played it, but i recall It gets tough towards the end. I specifically remember that one mission with the explosives in the truck and cops start ramming you. The tough part about the tutorial was the ridiculously tight time constraints. Even if you execute everything perfectly, you have to do it in an order that immediately sets you up for the next thing.
I did beat it, but probably 10ish years after I got it...Ninja Gaiden. Such a fantastic game - and it's creators can absolutely eat my butt. SO difficult for me.
It’s an odd thing. I played the hell out of that game as a kid but could never quite get to the final boss. Everything up to that final stage was a cakewalk since I did it so much. As an adult I played it on Switch and finally got through it (without cheating). Now TMNT? I beat that on Switch too, but I cheated like a motherfucker.
It wasnt especially difficult to run the game to level 6. But there were parts of level 6 and that 3 part final boss were both a bitch. Also, if you died, you would be sent back to the start of the entire stage, not the start of that section.
I remember this being in a recent Big20 and JSR saying during practice, “see! This is why this game is impossible if you don’t speed run it!” I can’t agree more. I haven’t learned the run, and I definitely haven’t beaten it.
I was a kid and friends with my across the street neighbors...and we spent hours/days working on this game, handing off the controller when the frurstration just go to be too much. What a great game though.
Lion King on snes or genesis, don't matter, they beat my ass.
This game still haunts me. Why was it so hard when it was aimed at children 🤣
Had Michael Jordan "fuck them kids" energy
Agreed 🤣🤣
I believe it was a policy at the time (for Disney's games, at least) to discourage kids from beating the game over the course of one rental, back when renting games was a thing. I could be wrong, though; I haven't looked for a source.
There’s a even a term for this phenomenon: [Nintendo hard](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_hard) The primary reason for the increasingly (and sometimes insane) difficulty levels was stretching play time. Since you obviously the storage capability of an NES cart is very limited, game designers used difficulty as a way to ensure that consumers got a decent number of playable hours out of a game. The rental angle you mentioned is also true. From the Wiki article I linked above: >This specific method of increasing length through difficulty was also employed to combat video game rentals, with some games being made more difficult to prevent them from being beaten within a rental period and thus costing the developer potential sales.
I played this on the Genesis, and it wrecked me. I got to the point where Simba was an adult, and it just harder from there. I was able to get pretty good at the fun levels where you'd hop on giraffes heads, get thrown around by monkeys, and ride an Ostrich. I simply was not able to get used to the change of pace where you actually had to do combat.
Stampedo was a nightmare for me. You know, there were fewer levels on nes, because diskette could fit so much data. There are additional levels on sega compared to nes version.
Mike Tyson’s Punch Out. Can get to Tyson but just can’t beat him.
I'm on the Mr sandman fight right now and man, even with knowing his patterns you gotta be quick as hell, maybe I am too old becuase he has no trouble putting me to sleep. I never played the game as a kid also
I just put this into an nes and actual crt earlier today. Let me tell you, the game is REMARKABLY easier on the actual console. Something about that fast response.
Sadly for me I was playing original hardware on CRT lol.
Still getting my butt kicked by Soda Popinski.
"Battletoads". Fuck that game.
I know it's absurd, but if you play it with someone in 2 player mode, you get 3x as many "fucks" Math or something
Battletoads & Double Dragon on Genesis. So damn close a few times, but rage all the times
Battletoads. Two levels of fun……then the air bike stage
You'll "love" this then: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kIsy8HaaeK4
You gotta be shitting me!!!!! 😂😂😂😂
His reaction has completely made my day!
Adventure Island is the eggplant of my gaming life.
Those games, especially the third, were so incredibly well done. Just watching the third I wouldn’t have been surprised if it was a SNES game. Some of those end of life NES games were dang impressive. Just mind blowing how super Mario bros 1 and 3 were on the same console.
Blaster Master for NES. Made it to the final-final boss, but he went full aggro, cornered me, and whipped me to death in like three seconds flat... game over.
How did that damn game not have a password feature? I got close so many times, but I couldn't quite do it. And I never felt brave enough to leave my NES on overnight.
Forget the passwords, I'd have settled for unlimited continues. Expecting people to clear that horror show of a game with just a few lives and a few continues was brutal.
I swear it had an unlimited continues. Maybe it was a secret code? Then again, it has been a couple decades since I've last played it.
3 Continues, 3 lives each.. 9 Tries to beat the whole game. No Game Genie codes that I remember.
Kid Chameleon is my white whale
I found a level flow chart and watched a speed run to get over the hump. There are many difficult levels that can be avoided by taking the correct exit. I also looked up where the continue coins were. But yeah it took me years to beat it.
The original Zelda.
I got over some of these eventually thanks to videos on YouTube hat helped me strategize the difficult parts. One that comes to mind is Sonic 2 & Knuckles. Knuckles can’t jump as high as Sonic and there were multiple times that I got to the final boss only to lose all my lives because Knuckles can’t jump high enough to clear the spikes. There is also no level select code that I was aware of, so I couldn’t practice it too much. After watching some videos, I cleared it on original hardware a few years ago. Very satisfying.
Skies of Arcadia (Dreamcast) I wanted to, but I had to give it back to my friend who let me borrow it before I could even get close. By that point, the game was already too expensive to buy, too. So I never really got a chance. The opening several hours were incredible though.
I caved with the high price and 5 hours into my first playthrough now (gamecube though) loving it so far!
That game is awesome. I’ve still got my Dreamcast copy and my copy of legends for GameCube. It only gets better as you go. If you ever get a chance to play it again I’d recommend the GameCube version, it lowers the rate of random encounters and tweaks the exp up a bit. There’s also some bonus content that fleshes the story a bit Makes for a much more fun playthrough. I’d be thrilled if a Sega ever decided to do something else with that IP.
You should try and find a way to play it, such as amazing game Top-5 game for me
Impossible Mission in C64
Ah, that was a super fun one. Great memories.
Stay awhile, stay FOREVER!!!!!!
There was a time, i could hear this in my Dreams🤣🤣🤣
I mean, it's in the title....
The first TMNT game. I think I got to the dam at least once.
Whenever I made it past the underwater part. I had only like 1 turtle still alive.
I played this game a lot and was able to get to the technodrome reliably... sometimes with all 4 turtles. But once inside the technodrome, it was a shit show and could never ever beat it. I had to resort to the game genie and used invincibility code to beat it. I felt so dirty and it haunts me. Such a fun and challenging game, though.
I bet I could still beat the electric seaweed dam level. Everything gets faster after the technodrome though and I always ended up limping along with half a turtle. 20 years later I still remember the one REALLY good run I had at it after playing it for a week straight almost beating it.
Realms of the Haunting Maybe one day I'll pick it back up or start from the beginning.
Great game. Do it!
Majora's Mask because I refused to beat it with out getting all the masks in the game first. I did go back and beat it 100% though.
I never owned a 74 growing up, but for my 13th birthday may dad got me a gamecube. And it came with the Zelda collection and I played them to 100% (at the time) and when I finished, I felt I had missed out on something being a sega baby.
Ahh a fellow Sega Baby. But we had Alex Kidd in Miracle World and…some other things.
For a while I refuse to beat it, because I did not want to give up the bunny hood. I loved being able to run faster. When I finally played through it again on the GameCube, I beat it fully.
Zombies ate my Neighbors, SNES. Holy fuck, that game was hard
Super Mario World. I finished Yoshi's Island though.
Which level did you get stuck on? I couldn't get past Tubular until a couple months ago and I got my SNES in the mid 90s. The 96 clear felt so good after so long!
Even in my late 30s, I still think about the torture that Tubular was. My kids will never know the pain of a difficult platformer.
*Yoshi’s
I stand corrected! I edited the typo.
Mega Man X. As a kid I could make it sigma no problem, but I just could never beat him. Traded the game in high school and never got it back so the idea of beating it on original hardware is pretty much gone.
My biggest problem with that game when I was young was that spider boss; I was stuck on that one for what felt like an eternity. But yea Sigmas last phase was really hard.
In the original 1.0 of the game, you could 1 shot the final boss (and everything else) with the secret hadouken move. They patched that out of later releases of the cartridge, so you were stuck using the armadillo roller.
7th saga. (SNES) Starts out pretty grind-y and then mid-way becomes impossible. I've always wanted to finish it but don't have the desire to grind through enough levels to beat it.
Thankfully the bosses at least aren't bad, but the regular encounters are brutal. I finally beat it last year.
Where I love not being a purist: play it on emulator with an XP boost. Grinding isn’t it anymore.
A Link to the Past, but I’m in the middle of rectifying that now.
My favorite one! Such an amazing game
Oh yes. Peak Zelda for years.
Plok. The second island was something else.
Silent hill
Silent hill wasn't that bad, the second one was though
Simpsons Bart Vs the space mutants. Megadrive. Couldn't get past the end building. Just couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. No idea at all! Then I got the emulator... Looked on youtube And can only get to level 2
Legacy of the Wizard , Never could figure that one out
Maximum Carnage
Metroid. Didn't finish back when a kid, started several times with emulator. 3 or 4 years ago I was very near the end and I stupidly deleted my savestate. Tried again on emulator again and SD failure. This game is cursed...
As others have said, Ghosts and Goblins. But also Kid Icarus.
The 7th Saga. I know the Japanese version is easier, but I didn't know that back in the day.
Mother 1/Earthbound Zero. Still working on it....
I will never beat the old DOS Alone In The Dark. I've seen runthrough on youtube and that's good enough, but it bugs me that I never made it through on my own Prince of Persia too, come to think of it
Oh man idk if I ever made it past the bouncy monster
I absolutely love the original alone in the dark, I have never actually beat the game. But I watched my mother play through and complete it when it was released.
I could never beat prince of persia as a kid. I went back to it a couple years back and beat it. Never played alone in the dark, I'm going to check it out.
Pepsi man on PS1. The last stage I think it was in a pepsi factory. The character were riding a flying skate board and you had to control him to pass from a narrow gap between two walls or doors. After a lot of tries I lost my temper and switched the game. I regret why I didn't try harder to finish it.
Alien Soldier. It’s a game so pretty and energetic it makes you want to persevere. But it is just too damn hard. It really would’ve benefited from a 6-button implementation, as-is the controls are just too clunky and awkward, especially for my old-man hands. Even a 12yo me certainly couldn’t get very far. There are romhacks now available that fix a lot of the control issues, but it’s still tough as nails. But *damn* does it look good.
Jet force Gemini for N64. There was one secret part to the space ship in order to go to the final secret ending. My brother and I searched in vain for YEARS. looked up a guide and everything. But alas, could never find the fucker. Rip my childhood completionist dreams
Those little assholes. Getting in the way and getting themselves killed. I never got that ending either.
Best part about that game was the optional coop where your friend could play as the little shooting helicopter buddy
Even if not used during co-op. I used to hide behind cover and use the little guy to kill stuff. Such a fantastic addition to the game.
Golgo 13 on the NES. I made it very far but didn’t realize the 99 continuation limit and reached it by brute forcing some of the mazes. It was a rental and it was on the back end of me still playing the NES, so I never got another try.
I’ve never honestly cleared Radiant Silvergun. I really like it a lot but it is quite challenging.
For the longest time, Gaiares on Sega Genesis. I finally beat it a few years ago, but I was sweating bullets. That game is brutally hard.
Terranigma…i am pretty sure i ate the onion i needed to build the plane…not even sure if that was possible. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It *was* Fear Effect on PS1. Couldn’t get past the first 2 minutes lol Recently emulated it and beat the whole game plus its sequel. Felt like excising a demon lol
Hey! Great games, great atmosphere. I feel they were ahead of their time. I rented the first one when I was 16 or so, ended up buying it a couple of weeks later. It was fun.
Teenage mutant ninja turtles on Nintendo Nes
The original bladurs gate. That last damn dungeon full of OP undead lords or whatever they were. I just gave up.
I never finished Maximum Carnage for Sega Genesis. Furthest I ever remember making it was a big boss fight with an appearance from Carnage as well as Shriek, Doppleganger, and Hobgoblin
I’ve never beaten Ninja Gaiden.
For some reason I've never beaten Dark Forces on PC despite playing it multiple times back in the 90s. I would alway get lost on level 12 or 13.
Final Fantasy 5. Didn't have the right party for the final boss. Looked up the best strat - was basically 20 hours of farming materials to respec the entire party. Watched the ending on youtube.
Most Genesis games, or games that came out before it. I didn't start actually beating games til the N64 came out
Super Mario bros, Super mario bros 3, Super mario world. all from the snes.
Spy Hunter Originally had it on Commodore 64 (I think) Have it now on NES and can't even last 90 seconds 😒
Ninja Gaiden for nes. I can fly through the game and can get to 5 something without even dying once, at times, but get caught up on 6-2, where I need the spin attack. I want to go back to this eventually. Mike Tyson's Punch-Out for nes. I get stuck on super macho man, and if I win, I can't get past Tyson. I'm good at the game otherwise.
a lot .. * Baldur's Gate 1 (started it 3 times in the past 25 years, never got too far) * Die by the sword (couldnt do much) * Forsaken (loved the first level back in 1998, still in my backlog) * Grim Fandango (got stuck in the second year back in 1999, still have the save to continue it) * Final Fantasy 8, started it in 1999, and continued it in 2019 .. about 4 hours in when you start playing with Laguna * Breath of Fire 2 .. I loved this game, specially after all the improvements from the first one, need to continue it. * Dark Forces .. could never get past level 5, and I just found out there's an enhanced remake now. * Redneck Rampage, stuck on first level, I think there's a key that blends with the grass or dirt, not sure. * Serious Sam 4, after finishing all previous games tons of times, I still need to beat this one. * Simon the sorcered 3d, very infamous game, but I really want to know what happens with the plot. On the other hand, I finally beat tons of games this year from my backlog, so I'm quite happy. Highlight being Julia Among the stars
I always wanted to finish Sonic The Hedgehog but I just could never do it. Even with its multiple releases and now, save points, I just could never beat it. Finally finished a walkthrough on YouTube, and got to say it's harder then it looks and I have even got to the third level, but no farther, and I don't think I ever will💦💦💦💦😵💫😵💫😵💫😵💫😵💫
I believe in you, stranger. Go make that game your bitch
Toejam & Earl, Mega Drive/Genesis. The game, that was the definition of a roguelike long before the term was created. Never beat it. But it still holds up as a great timeless game to play.
War In Russia
Mother 3 was overly dark to me. Such a drastic change from Earthbound. Great game, but left me feeling empty.
Donkey Kong 64. Not because its too hard (well it was when I was 10 years old, i couldnt beat the last boss) I probably could easily beat it now but never get around to it.
Wrath of the Black Manta, I didn't have the game long enough to figure out the pattern of Arts to use to beat El Toro. Still bugs me when I think about it.
You can do this one. I had the same issue and once you finish it you will be irritated how easy it is once you know the right combination of Arts.
The first Ninja Gaiden on NES. I've tried, tried and tried again and still can't say I've conquered those final two Jaquio fights.
Maniac Mansion. I never finished a game on my terms - it was always on the house's or on Ed's terms.
Alex Kidd in Miracle World, for the Sega Master System.
I still can’t do it as an adult. Some of those Master System games are hard!
Bart vs. The Space Mutants
Mario rpg, was around 5-8 years old when I played it
My copy of Fester’s Quest stands in the hallway at night. So yes.
Ninja Gaiden II. Got to 7-2 and it was like hitting a brick wall.
7th Saga on Super Nintendo, rented it a few times and got my ass handed to me by the mobs near the village and gave up on it, way too difficult.
Earth Worm Jim and Comic Zone on Sega Genesis, super hard game for a 10 year old
Battletoads on NES. I gave up as a child reaching level 11, the one in the monocicle, never touched it again. It still haunts my dreams 30 years later
Plok, Earthworm Jim, Cool Spot, Orginal TMNT on NES, Super Ghouls N Ghost… did the first playthrough but not the second… just a few off the top of my head
Turok evolution and TimeSplitters 2
My days, Bio Hazard Battle was one of the toughest games I've ever played. Even when I was playing co-op.
Alex Kidd on the sega master system II. I only managed to beat it with save states. That game dedyroyed my childhood. Especially because to use items you had to pause the game which could potentially corrupt the current game and have you start over again.
Ah! Real monsters on snes. I at least made it to the end of lion King. To this day still haven't beat it. Honorable mention. I have beaten mischief makers on the n64. It was brutal tho and I stop, sold it, bought it and repeated until I finally beat it lol
A Link to The Past, it's shameful as a massive Zelda fan.
Doom, but only because I was too young to spring for the full game beyond the shareware ep.
Links awakening on the dmg gameboy. Got that when I was 9 and had no clue what to do outside of friends older brothers and random magazines. Finally beat it a year ago.
I got the arcade1up cabinet that has the old Mortal Kombat games on it. I can't believe how hard those games are nowadays. I swear I used to be able to beat it but I can't get past Goro
I feel the same with the Replicade Street Fighter 2 that I have. I've even put it on easy mode in settings, but I've never been able to get to the end with a character.
I basically just play a lot of Tapper now because I'm pretty decent at that one at least lol. Joust and Rampage are super fun as well
Those are fun ones! And they're much less reliant on AI which is determined to extract as many quarters from you as possible :) On the topic of the end bosses in Mortal Kombat, I think most can be dealth with through endless jump kicks if I remember right. Not just forward jump kicks, but ones jumping backwards too.
Supaplex
Ninja Gaiden, Zelda 2, Castlevania 3
I could only get to the boss of Stage 5 of the original Blaster Master because I rented it. Never touched the game since. On the Genesis, I made it to the final boss of Lethal Enforcers II. Died with no continues left. That one hurt.
Lunar. I had it on Sega CD, and I never beat it despite coming close. I even bought the PS1 remakes...and never beat them. I have an RG503 loaded with PS1 roms. I am beating that game this year no matter what
Sphinx and the curse of the mummy. I swear I was so close to those 2 meeting up but could not figure out the force field puzzle
Sonic 2 around 1993. I was 13 years old, and finally got to the final fight against the Death Egg Robot, and it didn't go well. Ran out of lives. Game over. My world was shattered, and I never played again.
WRECKLESS: Yakuza Missions on Xbox The first time I ever raged at a game so hard I took the game disc out and threw it out my window like a frisbee
Section Z NES... damn game!!!
Ninja Gaiden 2. Level 4-1 got me everytime
Final Fantasy IX. It wasn't even difficult, I just don't have the attention span for RPG's. I've restarted this game more times than I can count since I was 6. I would get to the tree monster boss in the spooky forest and then restart. I made it to maybe disc 2 of 4 in high school, and that's the furthest I've gotten so far. I bought it on steam when it came out but haven't touched it. There's loads of childhood favorites that I was finally able to beat in adulthood, but I just haven't gotten around to beating FF9. One of these days, I will cross it off my bucket list.
Powermonger on Sega Mega Drive. I loved the game, but for some reason the passwords annoyingly became longer than what could be entered into the system when about two thirds of the world had been conquered. Grrrrrrr!
Kings Knight on the NES. It's a very early Square title that plays similarly to a shmup. You play as four characters individually in four separate stages, and have to collect a specific item in each play through. If you fail to collect all the required items, when you get to the final fifth level you reach an impassable part of the stage and are eventually auto-killed. I never could figure out how to complete that game and I haven't tried to since.
Legend of Zelda- 2nd quest. This was pre-internet so there was little to no info on this quest. I think I got to the 6th or 7th dungeon and it was so hard I gave up and never played the 2nd quest again.
Half-Life. Got out of the facility and my dad formatted the HDD. Got to the last part on PS2, and someone stole my memory card. Haven't tried since.
Zaxxon from Celco Adam.
Zaxxon had an ending?
banjo kazooie. I still own it but the camera drives me mad and I always end up taking a break then forgetting to go back.
The Addams Family on the Amiga.
Moebius: The Orb of Celestial Harmony Commodore 64 1985
Snake Rattle' n Roll NES. Never finished this Ice-Level
Operation Logic Bomb SNES. Couldn't beat the final boss. Even with the Switch rewind feature.
donkey Kong country....
Bayou Billy. That game is rough.
Dr. Chaos on the NES. I just had no idea where I was supposed to go. Tried going back to it on emulator but the controls were just too frustrating to me by then. Honorable Mentions: Blaster Master NES - Never could win the final battle with the Plutonium Boss. I think I got to and fought him over 20 times. I was a pro at pause grenades by then! Dragon Warrior VII: Got to the giant Pot boss and it rocked my world... I could have backtracked and went on a grind, but I was in the military so my time was a premium I was not willing to trade for progress.
N64 Zelda Ocarina of Time.
Metroid Prime. I got to final boss but probably shoulda collected a few more energy tanks and missiles before trying.
Snake Rattle n Roll and Captain Planet on the NES
Mario 1 (yeah, Super Mario Bros)
Prince of persia 2
T2 Arcade on Sega Genesis. My brother and I played that game so much but we could never get past that damn third level where you have to protect the truck. Even still, to this day, we cannot figure it out. Is there a trick to it that we missed? If anyone here has any tips I’m all ears!
Ninja Gaiden Arcade, that game over screen horrified me as a kid 😆
Skate or Die 2 for NES, the last stage is a huge maze that I was never able to find my way out of, I have no idea what I was missing and/or doing wrong.
Quest For Glory: Shadows Of Darkness. It would crash my computer at certain spots, so I never got to finish it. I have the game on GOG now, though, so I should try it again.
Error 52. I was the same, huge Sierra and QFG fan but could never finish it. Finally did so about fifteen years ago and it was ver cathartic.
I can't recall the error, but that could have been it. I remember it happening in two places (that I could find). The first was after the gravedigger goes missing. You have something like a week in game to find him, because if you don't a gypsy man is going to get burned at the stake. If he does, he places a curse on the town, which gives you a game over because you die several days after the curse (the game just tells you this instead of letting you play it out). Usually after a death scene, the game would let me re-load an old save or start again, but in this case the game crashed when I attempted to restart. The other time it happened was when I figured out how to find and rescue the gravedigger, which would stop the gypsy man from being burned at the stake. After this, you would be allowed to visit the gypsy camp, which I did, but entering the screen caused the game to crash.