ridiculously hard NES games

[Nerdius Maximus]

So I've downloaded a few NES titles to my Wii via the virtual console. Double Dragon. Did anyone ever beat this without the help of a game genie? The first Ninja Turtles game is even more difficult. Still, for five bucks a pop, it's a nice trip down memory lane. Now Kirby's Adventure, that's more my speed. I actually do love that game, it's very relaxing to me, the SNES version even moreso.

But seriously, how did we ever play and beat some of these games? You get like, three lives in Double Dragon, with no opportunity to get extras, and the villains just keep coming and coming. Not to mention how easy it is to fall off the screen on a lot of these games, because you're always jumping from ledge to ledge.

They've got Lifeforce on there now, too. That one was hard, but I actually beat it back in the day.

 

[TemporalFlux]

I remember a fairly hard NES RPG called The Magic of Scheherazade; but it was made difficult due to it's artificial intelligence feature that adapted to your game style as you played. Of course, I found out that the A.I. was pretty easy to circumvent; I had my brother come in and take down the next to last boss given that the A.I. didn't know his style and thus couldn't counter it.

 

[Kelthaz]

Double Dragon isn't really that hard. It just takes practice and knowing the right moves to use.

Anyway, here's my list:

Ghosts 'n Goblins
Battletoads
Ikari Warriors
Silver Surfer
Castlevania I and III
Ninja Gaiden I

 

[Mr. Adventure]

^^ Surfer was hard to beat with an invulnerablity code, I remember playing it that way and wondering how the hell anyone could complete it without it.

I'm often surprised how much older games were more difficult than I remember, like with old arcade games and so on.

 

[CommodoreKong]

Yeah based on the Angry Video Game Nerd review of Silver Surfer when he draws out the paths of the bullets that are being fired at you it seems pretty much impossible to get by some sections unless you have perfect reflexes or have completely memorized the paths of the bullets.

 

[crouteru]

I found the original Mega Man difficult to the point that I was put off the franchise until I discovered that the second and third games had a much more managable difficulty curve. It was those damn block puzzles that were most annoying.

 

[Canadave]

It always amazes me how many NES games there are out there where it's entirely possible to die within the first 15-20 seconds of beginning the game. A lot of them are just cruel!

 

[Sephiroth]

Deadly Towers

 

[General_Phoenix]

Contra, without the Konami code.
Battletoads
Ghost and Goblins

Probably a lot more, but my mind is drawing a blank right now.

 

[Teelie]

Contra, as was mentioned.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja/Hero Turtles game is difficult. I recall it wasn't even a TMNT game originally but was reskinned when the franchise took off. Makes sense, given the enemies and some of the things you do in it.
There was this werewolf game I can't remember the name of but it was rather difficult. You were a weak, puny human unless you were able to get the werewolf power up and even then you had to get other power ups to make it through some parts of the game.

 

[Kelthaz]

There was this werewolf game I can't remember the name of but it was rather difficult. You were a weak, puny human unless you were able to get the werewolf power up and even then you had to get other power ups to make it through some parts of the game.

It's called Werewolf

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

Actually I remember there was an exploit in Double Dragon where you could gain more hearts and unlock more moves early in the game

the games I remember being insanely hard at the time were TMNT, Batman, Bionic Commando,even Metroid, without using the Justin Bailey code

 

[Teelie]

There was this werewolf game I can't remember the name of but it was rather difficult. You were a weak, puny human unless you were able to get the werewolf power up and even then you had to get other power ups to make it through some parts of the game.

It's called Werewolf

Really? I thought it had some longer name like Werewolf: Whatever or Whatever: Werewolf but I'm too lazy to sort through an NES title database to look.

 

[Kelthaz]

There was this werewolf game I can't remember the name of but it was rather difficult. You were a weak, puny human unless you were able to get the werewolf power up and even then you had to get other power ups to make it through some parts of the game.

It's called Werewolf

Really? I thought it had some longer name like Werewolf: Whatever or Whatever: Werewolf but I'm too lazy to sort through an NES title database to look.

Yeah, there's a subtitle to it. Werewolf: The Last Warrior.

 

[Obiwanshinobi]

Bubble Bobble, Mike Tysons Punch Out, Captain Planet

 

[Unicron]

Battletoads was ridiculously hard in some places (L3, anyone? ). Castlevania II wasn't necessarily difficult for its time, but some things were more difficult than they should have been. It takes way too long for Simon to get full L6 experience.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

There are a lot of classic games that are really, really difficult like Battletoads and Megaman.

I'm forgetting if Kid Icarus was NES or SNES, but that's a tough game as well. It might just be my style, though. I'm just not used to platformers that require you to shoot instead of allowing you to jump on things (then again, Metroid isn't quite so bad as far as difficulty goes, and the game is great).

 

[Agenda]

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

I could never complete it.

 

[Kirkman1987]

Ghost and Goblins would be my pic. It's insanely hard, and I've never beaten it. Castlevania is also tough, and I only got to the end once.

Mike Tyson's Punch-out is actaully insanely easy once you learn the patterns.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gClwzmbC8ms[/yt]

 

[thedude]

Contra
Super Contra

And if you haven't played it... Stinger. It's another Konami game w/ in my opinion some of the BEST 8bit music in any NES game. It's a shmup but addictive and support 2 players, which is just a LOT of fun. Plus it had bells you have to bounce to get powerups WHILE still fighting the enemies...