Top 10 Hardest Video Games

The Top Ten
1 Battletoads

I'm pretty sure most people have experienced the insane difficulty of the Turbo Tunnel. What most people probably don't know is that, aside from level 5, it doesn't get any easier than that. The last 4 levels of this game make the turbo tunnel look like a Kirby level. In fact, I'm almost certain that level 11 is impossible unless you either use an old CRT television, or use a pause trick at every corner.

I got the last level with my college roommate and only the last boss once. The last boss is so hard I gave up. It takes hours to make a perfect run only to get destroyed by the last boss. It takes months of playing everyday to perfect every level.

This is the one game where walkthroughs are ALLOWED... I've only played this on the NES.

2 Dark Souls

I use to think games set on the hardest difficulties were... But then played dark souls... And my character took a ten foot arrow to the knee and launched off a cliff. Your move skyrim on expert. Oh and I only died 80 times to a duel boss battle Ornstein and enough, no really no exaggeration it took me 6 hours to beat them.

I have play battletoads and this game and this game took way more lives for me to get past 4 bosses than it took for me to beat battletoads. This game has made me rage quit to the point I felt like blowing my brains out for a few seconds then I smoke a cig and calm down.

3 Contra

I finished this without the hack of getting like 50 lives and man it took some work and getting used to. Nintendo needa stop making people rage.

Extremely broken AI. Oh, and if you get hit three times, it's game over (unless you're using the Konami code).

It took me like a week just to pass level one. That code though, what would I do without it?

4 Cuphead

I've beaten this game on Normal Difficulty, and I refuse to play on expert because of the insane amounts of rage I would experience.

This game is hard. Not only do some bosses take up to hours to beat, but the run-'n-gun levels bombard you with enemies, not to mention you have a limited number of HP, which means you have to try as hard as humanely possible to stay alive. And then there's the Expert difficulty, which is just plain torture.

Why is this just number 11? Cuphead consists of bossfights that are also damn hard - except the root pack and 2 other exceptions have all taken me a lot of time, primarily Grim Matchstick! I took two weeks to crack him! Just a legend the game

5 Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels

This should be number 1 it's the hardest Mario game ever made.
Calling this game hard is an understatement the Lost Levels included Poison Mushrooms that damage Mario, high winds that interfere with the timing of your jumps and if that wasn't enough the game also had reverse warp pipes that send you back to previous worlds even searching for secrets can be a pain, even veteran players will have a hard time surviving.

Poison Mushrooms, 13 worlds, and warp zones that take you back to previous worlds. It pissed me off, I could barely even get to the first warp zone, and only got from World 1 to World 4 (not 1-4). The only way people could beat this game is with TAS, or Gaming skills (not by training in Call of Duty, but real games like Destiny, Mario LL, etc.).

6 Ninja Gaiden Black

One of the most competitive games I have ever played in my life... God of war is next of course but Ninja Gaiden bruh you put this on hard its impossible to pass.

As somebody who has beat both this and Darksouls, I can say with absolute confodence that Ninja Gaiden is far more difficult.

It's not that hard. I beat it in 3 days

7 Bomberman: Act Zero
8 Super Meat Boy

An incredibly hard game where 1 mistake is equal to restarting the entire stage. Even messing up a few milliseconds could screw you over completely.

Not long played the trail on Xbox 360 arcade... Damn it's hard

The levels start out easy but as you progress they get harder and harder, I can't tell you how many times I've quit to the map and gone to the next level and my personal hardest level is level 13

I think this game should be higher on the list, it's that hard

Just got A+ on every level and 106% completion (maximum achievable) and I have to say this was the hardest game I've played, having played a lot of games in my life. This game should be a solid top ten.

9 Gun
10 Ghosts 'N' Goblins

This game is impossible I swear it's just impossible you can't beat this, and even if you get through the ending you have to replay the whole game twice to get to the "true" ending. No saves, only 2 hits before you die of enemies that spawn everywhere & randomly. I can't even get through stage 1. And I've beaten games like Mega Man and Super Mario Bros The Lost Levels.

This is the most difficult and frustrating game EVER! Enemies spawn everywhere and attack you from angles where you are incapable of hitting them. You even need to memorize parts of the game since jumps I'm certain areas will make an enemy spawn right where you are going to land.

The Contenders
11 Frogger

If you think the arcade version of this is hard well here's my first difficult game in my childhood folks.

12 F-Zero GX

Contrary to popular belief, this game is actually NOT impossible...in fact, I just literally beat the Creators at their own game.

That's right; just to beat the mere STORY MODE of this game, you must literally beat the flipping GAME itself. How badass IS that?

This game is my favorite racing game ever. I spent so much time trying to beat everything and after trying and trying and tying. I would finally beat something and it felt so rewarding, especially because you also unlocked some new character too. This game is perfect

13 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

You don't know what the hell you're doing at all in this game not even the nerd can beat it

14 Sonic and the Secret Rings

Sonic The Hedgehog 2006 should be here and Sonic And The Secret Rings should be removed from this list, because Sonic And The Secret Rings is actually more balanced and more playable. - Gehenna

OH, and I forgot the Sharktronic Shark boss. It is probably hard.

15 Solstice
16 Mega Man 9
17 Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts
18 Silver Surfer

Why this game is hard:

1. There are countless enemies on the screen at once, all trying to kill you.

2. Some enemies must be hit dozens of times to be killed.

3. One hit kills you.

4. You can die from touching walls, floors, ceilings, and even rubber ducks, basically anything that's not a power up, (which one can distinguish by the fact that power ups appear only once certain enemies are killed).

5. Power ups do not exist just to make the game easier; many levels are actually impossible to beat without them.

6. Enemies will take you by surprise, coming from the back of the screen, so levels require memorization to tell when you should expect an attack from behind.

7. You may think that checkpoints make the game easier, but they often do the opposite; you will have to obtain all the necessary power ups to beat the level while missing out on all of those available before the checkpoint.

I've probably missed some points, but those above should explain why Battletoads is a breeze compared to this gaming challenge.

19 Geometry Dash

This is the game where you see how far you can push it. So far, players have pushed it to ungodly amounts ever since the first demon level was uploaded. Players have done by far some of the hardest stuff in gaming history. The GD community will keep on searching for the ceiling, no matter how high it truly is. Once 2.2 is released, the ceiling will rise the farthest it has gone in a single update, and the player base will improve accordingly. Geometry Dash is the game that gets harder and harder as it ages. It may be one of, if the hardest game ever made (that's possible, duh).

20 World's Hardest Game 2.0

It's the hardest game ever, but also the best and most fun!
I spend hours playing this game and voting for it in this site instead of doing my work.

21 Devil May Cry 3

Laugh out loud. I finished this game when I was in 6th grade. You know how long it took me to finish it?... ONE YEAR and 6 months on easy.

This game had to be released twice because of the diffaculty! This needs to be way higher this needs to be number one this is so hard!

This game is hard from an mature gamers point of view this game is very much fun.

22 I Wanna Be the Guy

HOW IS THIS NOT TOP 3??? The amount of work you need to put into this game just to beat a boss is absolutely insane. I'm not even sure how this isn't higher up on the list, considering how (in my opinion) it is THE hardest platformer in current gaming.

This is a terrible game and the developers should feel ashamed. It's free, though, so there's no use complaining there.

Not only does it require some insanely precise platforming with its awkward controls and threat of instant death, but there are traps everywhere that you will have no idea even exist until you've died to them. It's so disrespectful of the player that it isn't fun to play; you only do it because you want to tell people you've beaten it.

23 Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

Destroyed me for video games. It was the first video game I ever played. Put hours and hours (and hours) of time into it and gave up after about 50 attempts at Great Palace.

I've never played an adventure game since.

How the heck is this number 36, it should be number 1! Adventure of Link is the hardest game I've played... took me a long time to finish level 1, don't get me started on the Great Palace.

It's easier if you read Nintendo Power's cheats and guides of Zelda 2.

24 Bloodborne

I played Dark Souls and this game. I can absolutely grantee that Bloodborne is even harder than Dark Souls!

This is very underrated. This is WAY harder than Dark Souls! Should be swapped.

A better game (just opinion), but also a harder game. Should be WAY higher.

25 Dragon Spirit

I had a friend who beat this game easily. I saw him do it several times. It was amazing. I couldn't last but few seconds.

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