Challenge accepted: 5 of the most difficult games you’ll ever play

I recently had a strange urge to go rummaging through my gaming treasure chest. I had this unquenchable want to play a classic title from my past. After quite some digging, and a few nostalgic moments, I finally found it. As I started playing the old quirky puzzle-adventure game (which features on this list) one thing immediately became apparent. It was the first time in ages I felt like I was truly being challenged.

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Then, I decided to take a look into some current games. One by one I tried my hand at these games and with each passing title my frustration grew tenfold. I then realised that most of the games we play today are no longer challenging. So a new thirst grew within me. Why have most games become so easy? To counteract let’s take a look at some classic games that will cause you to lift your mouse/gamepad/keyboard/neckbeard in rage and smash it against the wall.

Woodruff and the Schnibble of Azimuth

After a few minutes of watching this, you’ll see why it’s on the listReleased in 1994 by Sierra Entertainment, Woodruff and the Schnibble of Azimuth still remains one of my favourite adventure games of all time. It is an eccentric, post-apocalyptic delight of puzzle solving and is brilliantly balanced with one of the most unusual narratives I’ve come across. You play as Woodruff, the son of the genius professor Azimuth. After an apocalyptic event the humans resurface from the earth and are gracefully taken in by a race known as the Boozooks. Ungratefully the humans take advantage of this peaceful race and decided to enslave them. Woodruff’s main objective is to track down the Schnibble, a mysterious figure and the illusive saviour of the Boozooks. As Woodruff, you will go on an epic journey. Best of all, you will constantly be faced by puzzles, some brain meltingly difficult. Surprisingly, it’s even harder than most Lucasarts classics such as Day of the Tentacle and The Secret of Monkey Island.

Hardest Game Ever

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glBTtGpkvo0

Yes, this is the actual name of the game and it definitely lives up to it. The game design is very simplistic and doesn’t seems intimidating at all. You play as a red square. Your objective is to collect all the yellow dots, while avoiding the blue ones before you can exit to the next level. “That does not sound very complicated,” you might say. Well, I dare you to complete this game. There are a total of 30 levels. You can only submit a high score once you’ve completed all these levels. Your high score is calculated by the least amount of deaths. I think you’re starting to get the picture. As the makers so eloquently put it: “Hardest game ever is not for pathetic people who get anxiety or emotional over simple logic problems that require quick thinking, this game is for winners.” There is also Version 2.0 that’s even harder and contains 50 levels. If you enjoy having mental breakdowns, play the game.

Contra

Not as easy as it looksThis 2D side-scroller action game from the 80’s was so hard that it was responsible for the rising popularity of cheat codes for consoles. Even if you played with a co-op partner and activated the famous “30 lives” cheat, it was still a grueling challenge. You play as Bill Rizer (with Lance as your co-op partner) and your objective is to face and defeat an alien army known as the “Red Faction.” You will be dodging enemy fire, jumping around on moving platforms and at the end of each level you will be facing a boss that’s ten times your size and has an arsenal of weapons at its disposal. The true Contra gaming challenge is trying to finish this game without a co-op partner and without any cheats. If you manage to achieve this you can safely bestow on yourself the prestigious title of “Gamer”.

Devil May Cry 3

The combo system is as deep as any decent fighting gameThe Devil May Cry series is one of the most famous hack-and-slash fighting games of all times. And it’s known for its insane difficulties, especially on the harder options and especially on the 2013 remake – there’s a difficulty called “hell or hell” which gives all enemies normal health, but you die in a single hit. Brutal.

But Devil May Cry 3 stands out as being an extremely challenging game, even on Normal. The original version was so hard that the creators had to release an entirely new version with the only change being the decrease in difficulty. Some of the main reasons contributing to the original’s insane difficulty were swarms of hard-to-kill enemies attacking you all at once. Losing concentration for a mere second meant your imminent death and, if you died, you were forced to start the level again. Being enveloped in fits of rage and frustration would be putting it mildly when it comes to Devil May Cry 3.

Demon’s Soul

1:30 hours of torture. And that’s just the opening stagesHere’s another game of more recent times that probably managed to send a few people to the loony bin. Released in 2009, it was already a time when games were well on their way to becoming commercially easy. But developers, From Software, decided to ignore this growing trend and create a monster of a game. Demon’s Souls was the result. It was a marvellous game and one that once again provided the gaming world with a true challenge. Even the weakest of enemies were formidable rivals. Demon’s Souls didn’t even have a pause option.

If you decided to go in, you were in it for the long haul (or until you saved again by a bonfire). But probably the most terrifying part of Demon’s Souls is that if you ever die in it, you will lose all experience you’ve gathered throughout the game. The only way to reclaim any of this is to run back to where you died  – but in a sad twist, enemies once dead, suddenly respawn. Demon’s Souls doesn’t take any shit, or give any.

Mollycoddling, checkpoints, walkthroughs and cheating with in-app purchases

What happened to skill? In brief: in-app purchases. These quick-fixes usually come in the form of power-ups and bonuses, and can only be obtained for a price. There is no skill involved. You are buying cheat codes for your game. Has the great art of gaming really sunk to this level? The rewards now go to those with the thickest wallets instead of those who greatest skill. It’s a sad and desperate method of reward.

And what about walkthroughs? These are tome-like guides explaining step-by-step, the process it takes to finish a game. If you are stuck at any point in the game all you have to do is minimize, do a quick Google search and before you know it you’re laughing at how simple the solution actually was. What’s the point in playing the game then, do we not buy games for the challenge? But like in-app purchases, these are only present as an option to the user, not a mandatory requirement. And unlike in-app purchases, walkthroughs are free.

Even if you resist the urge to take a peek at a walkthrough, there is still so much working to your advantage. Checkpoints in most recent games are so regularly found that you easily accept your failure and just try again. The quick save function alone has changed the landscape of gaming difficulty. Essentially, you’re creating your own checkpoints.

It feels like most games no longer require the type of skill that classic games presented. Games now are made to guide the player by their hand instead of test them. Why? As games are a money-making business, with guided single player modes tacked on to please the core gamers, leaving online multiplayer to pick up the slack (see Battlefield 4 as the latest example of this). I’m a gamer, I want to game. Challenge me, test my skills. It’s okay, I want you to.

Image via deviantART