When my dad got us an NES back when I was a kid he got SMB and Zanac as games. SMB was beaten many, many times. Zanac........not so much. I did eventually beat it years later as an adult, but holy crap did it remind me of what 'Nintendo Thumb' was all about!
I like how you just talk about a game. Not one of the TH-camrs that rely on memes and gifs to fill a video in an obnoxious way. Keep up the good work. Side note: Great Cro Cop joke. “right kick hospital, left kick cemetery”
I wanted the miracle piano so bad as a kid, my cousin got it for Christmas and never touched it outside of the week after Christmas but he wouldn’t let me play, borrow or have it… years later I asked what happened to it and he said he broke the piano while filming a vhs video acting like he was nirvana and smashing instruments well in this case instrument because it was the only one he had I was so upset hearing that, what a douche and to boot he doesn’t even have the vhs of the dastardly act anymore When I was a kid if I had a game I didn’t like I either used it as trade bait or lent it out to a Friend in hopes I could borrow a better game, wizards and warriors was one of those games I owed that I constantly lent out and got back better games lol
@@FrankBeingFrankomg what an idiot! I was never a fan of Nirvana anyways. I’d love to have that piano, as well! I’ve seen the game cart out in the wild, but never the piano.
Hey just wanted to say keep going. You have a gift to broadcast man , don’t worry about the views this was good and funny, your in my subscriber rotation 👏
I have played” The Immortal” a ridiculous amount of times on multiple platforms and it drives me nuts on a personal level. To quote Madeline Kahn in Clue, “flames on the side of my face.”
The Arkanoid dial controller made your paddle move incredibly fast, thus making it more playable. Using the stock NES pad slowed it down to a miserable crawl. Also, "Solomon's Key" and "Abadox" were were both bloodthirsty monsters. Beautiful and awesome, but monsters nonetheless.
As someone who grew up with an NES and played a bunch of games, and read about many more, I’m happily surprised at how many of these games I’ve never heard of before. Nice list!
@@duranduran6456 I actually mentioned in a 10 NES Games You Should Play episode! It's BEYOND cool that they hybrid mixed vertical and horizontal, because I believe the only other one I've seen do it (efficiently) was Salamander/Life Force
Shadowgate is my favorite game on this list. The low torch sound still gives me anxiety to this day. My fastest completion is 15 minutes flat but was played on the PS4. It came in a collection that included Deja Vu and Uninvited as well.
I borrowed Ghosts & Goblins from a school friend and didn’t have any of it. I owned The Immortal and I finished it. I got into it, but yes it was a hard game. I made a point if finishing all the games I owned, except for one - Metroid. I couldn’t handle that one
I'd personally have Silver Surfer at the top; unbelievably brutal. Though Battletoads still deserves to be near the top and is actually more unforgiving when trying to play with a friend no thanks to friendly fire.
been a subscriber to many many video game/retro game channels for years. On occasion YT algorithm will suggest something new, well, it did. Your video editing, voice and content are pretty stellar. I subbed to the channel and need to catch up, only watched about 3 so far but im diggin it. Are you just doin top 10s or? I love it so far. One thing tho about NES, im older, 45 and grew up on NES first. Loved it! Now, i really struggle to want to play games on it. I mean SMB3 is still fantastic and there are a few games I would still play but the nostalgia for me is gone with most NES games. SNES now, i can still play the hell outta that. I dunno what it is but NES i just dont play anymore.
Hi there! I don't intend on doing just Top 10's no, in fact I never saw myself being a "list based" producer in any way. I much prefer telling the story of video game history over 10 lists, because they are stupid easy to make, but now that I have been streaming for 6 years, and I have enough of a backlog figured out, with a ranking system that aligns with it, I'm able to make them, so if I have 10 games that fit a bill for bad or good, I'll make a video. Other projects I work on include: Ready Go Gaming Show: LONG, longform videos about video game history, if you want to watch this, understand the first 5 episodes were me trying to edit for the first time in my life, some videos are good, some are just information vomit, but I enjoy them. Generations: This is my favorite project, it's a deep-dive into each generation, I'm scripting Generation 4 right now. Legends: Occasionally I get to speak to industry figureheads, it's a new series :) System Shock: One stop shop for everything you would need for a system, info, troubleshooting, etc. Series Slayer: If I beat a series, I review the whole thing. I'd like to get back into reviewing individual games, I might do that actually.
i’m unironically, a fan of Athena. I rented it as a kid and found the power up on the mushroom in the first level, and it blew my mind and that such I have huge nostalgia for it I wish somebody would come up with a patch to make it less shitty.
In Battletoads for NES, if you play with another person, you can hit each other and cause the other person to lose a life. However, if one player loses all their lives, BOTH PLAYERS have to restart the level. And sometimes lives are not at normal capacity. In Battlemaniacs for SNES, there is an option for 2 players to not hit each other BUT if one player loses all lives then both restart the level. And I watched James and Doug (AVGN) play Battlemaniacs, the game does not start at full health.
I had a period where I only played NES games every day. I'd include T and C Thrilla's Surfari. Most games I'd at least beat the first chapter. In Surfari, I couldn't get past level TWO.
hold up here.. immortal for the sega genesis was a cult classic. my first gore experience in a video game, a good story, and you actually had to work to beat the game. game is a masterpiece for its time
Wow! To the Earth is not a widely known game. Cool that you included it in your video. Extremely hard. My dad bought it for me and I only played it for about 20-30 minutes and was done. Too hard of a game to progress in.
Absolutely! If you want to check out more Zapper games, I do have a video dedicated to it on the channel! I covered all official nes zapper titles, some unlicensed, and even some homebrews!
Nice list. I beat GnG, Ninja Gaiden and Battletoads from this list. Well and Shadowgate but not without help. I would consider Burai Fighter (all the way through) and Snake Rattle N Roll to be the hardest NES games I've beaten. Oh and in the puzzle department Boulder Dash which you have to beat four times.
Funny enough, the AVGN's review of Ghosts 'n Goblins helped me beat the game. I had played it a couple of times before watching his review, but never got past the first level. But then when I sat down to conquer the game, I remembered how he said in the review that the knife was the best weapon, the fireball sucks, you needed a shield to beat the final boss, and you had to beat it twice. I went in knowing what to expect and I managed to beat it. I actually enjoy Silver Surfer. I doubt I'll ever beat it, but again, thanks to YT I went in knowing what to expect and I just had a good time blasting enemies to those awesome 8-bit tunes.
I'm considering doing full-scale reviews for games I've beaten. Obviously none of the gimmicks like AVGN, he's earned that right and all but crafted an entire era around it, but it's better than my 1 hour reviews I was doing.
The Battletoads arcade game should have neen what was ported to the NES. Would have given TMNT the arcade game a run for it's money. Speaking of TMNT, it should have made this list. The 1st one.
Imagine renting Deadly Towers as a 10 year old, with no game manual. Not only is the game HUGE, and the knockback physics insane, but the entire game is wholly inscrutable.
Well, Micronics... By chance, not only you included Athena, but also Ghosts'n Goblins and Ikari Warriors, games they the hecks have also adapted to the NES/Famicom! No wonder why they're soooo competent...
@@Fortefyre Absolutely! 🤣🤣 It's very easy to see how they are distinct in their design, just look at their frame rate in every game! Look at how much those characters can move! How broken their controls are! They beat in their own drum, and NOT in a good way!
This embodies everything I think about video game "Difficulty". The vast majority of games that are considered difficult are either designed poorly, or changed how things were designed so much that it took people a long time to get used to them. Mario 2 isn't "Difficult". It just has bullshit pixel perfect jumps and 2d mazes. It's all muscle memory or regular memory. There's no such thing as a difficult game. It's always the controls or something. Even something like Demon Souls and Dark Souls isn't difficult, it was just such a departure from both the control schemes we were used to and the design philosophies that we were used to that it took us a game or two to get used to. Now us demon souls vets stomp on Elden Ring, while people who hadnt played a dark souls game before consider elden ring way too hard and wanted it patched. Though I guess, to be fair, the same could be said about anything in life. Nothing is hard if you know how to do it
Piano... Definitely difficult. Did have a few teaching games. I definitely wouldn't have thought of it but yeah I can certainly see your point. Bonus points for choosing something way out of left field!
Two games that come to my mind that are not on this list are Fester’s Quest and Bayou Billy. I was successful in completing both games but they were both a freakin pain in the you know what. Great work man! 💪
I loved Shadowgate. It helped a lot that I also had a friend who owned it, though, so we could trade tips when we got stuck. We both ended up beating it within about 30 minutes of each other. Personally I’d say the hardest NES games I ever beat were Paperboy and Gunsmoke. The hardest ones I ever played, IMO, were Solar Jetman and Genghis Khan. I know there’s a hardcore fanbase out there for those Koei strategy games (Genghis Khan, Nobonaga’s Ambition, etc.), but without some kind of guide or walkthrough, which didn’t exist in the pre-internet age, I just found them impossibly obtuse. I liked Solar Jetman though, I just could never beat it.
@10:35-10:45= hey Fortefyre; with what you said on the timeframe herein marked, I'm now having mental pictures of a few of SNK's most notorious female protagonists from KOF (Shermie, Angel, Whip, Leona, Mai, the aforementioned Athena, Luong, etc.) in domi outfits with evil grins extorting ca$h a la Yamazaki while beating the life out of players... thanks for that, I think!
Dude I loved the Immortal, been a little while since i played it on the Amiga and Sega. Good moods and roleplay. I never knew it was on the NES as well. Cheers for the video!
Good list. I own or have at least played over half of these. My honorable mentions would be Solomon's Key, Fester's Quest, Mission Impossible, and Dragon Warrior 2 without a guide. People think TMNT, Contra, and Kid Icarus are hard but those games don't hold a candle to the REAL hard games on the NES.
I actually found Battletoads an amazing game. Took a while to clear, sure, but was a fun experience and way ahead of its time. I will say I would not want to play it on anything other than original hardware / crt. Also, honorable mention to Solomon’s Key. Cleared that recently and it was a test. Really fun though.
When talking about hard games, SMB: The Lost Levels never got to see North America until Super Mario All-Stars's release on the SNES. Nintendo of America likely didn't want the Super Mario series to be associated with being hard and frustrating, especially considering that Super Mario Bros. was what became the overall standard for how the difficulty scale should be handled in casual games.
I have beat Battletoads and Ninja Gaiden 3 but cant get passed the 3rd level of ghosts and goblins and was completely lost with Deadly Towers. Guardian Legend was a hard one for me too but a great game.
I found the Immortal and Shadowgate to be fairly easy. No need for lightning quick reflexes, just a lot of (frustrating) trial and error. I believe the NES games of old are harder now for two reasons: 1. Signal lag on HDTVs, reducing reaction time compared to CRTs 2. We're adults with money and choices. I had little money growing up. Bayou Billy cost me $50, or almost 3 months allowance. I crushed that game. Why waste time on a certain game when you have 1000 other things you can do.
Gotta say NARC is definitely one of the most underrated difficult games I've ever played. Arcade version was way ahead of its time & never forgot watching the older kids playing that game with limbs & blood squirting everywhere on the screen. But,damn! Arcade version didn't port well on the NES. Eff bomb that bs game! Lol.
In regards to games not mentioned in the video; Super Mario Bros. 2 Japan, The Adventure of Link, Dragon Quest 2, and Dick Tracy. Super Mario Bros. 2 Japan and The Adventure of Link are unusually difficult for Nintendo made games. Usually Nintendo games just get difficult during specific areas or with optional content. However, these two NES games go toe-to-toe with some third party made stuff. Dragon Quest 2 is one rough RPG to experience. The NES version of Final Fantasy 1 and Dragon Quest 1 may show their age, but they don't brutalize the player as much as this first sequel to Dragon Quest. As for Dick Tracy NES; no continues what so ever.
Great picks! My own personal list would include a couple of games from Rare (RC Pro-Am and Cobra Triangle) as well as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We rented that last one a dozen times but could never finish it. Oh, and the first Castlevania. CV 2, I played a billion times and loved. Original CV, never finished due to the brutal difficulty.
Arkanoid with the usual NES controller is borderline impossible, and some levels completely unplayable. Arkanoid with the paddle that came with it makes the game so much more fun and fair in difficulty. It's still hard at times, but definitely beatable.
@@Fortefyre It's the same kind of movement as in the arcade version. With the paddle knob, you can instantly move the bar (Vaus as it's actually called in the game) from one side of the screen to the other, for those really fast balls or if one happened to hit any of the floating things and change its direction without warning, or move it very slowly over a tiny bit for precise aiming or to predict where the ball(s) might end up after bouncing around in levels like 10 or 21 or 32 where you need to hit it at just the right angle to get it back up there and lasers won't help at all. With the controller, aiming is harder and after a while you just can't keep up, even if you do know where the ball is going.
The Adventures of Bayou Billy, which is essentially Double Dragon, Operation Wolf, and Spy Hunter combined into one game, took me over six months to beat! Getting past the first level is harder than getting to the third mission in Double Dragon (arcade) on one quarter!
I made it to the final boss ONCE and died, I don't know if I have the patience to try again and actually beat it. The NES Advantage helps a lot with the beat'm'up parts. I learned pretty fast that the shooting stages favor a controller user, DON'T use the zapper. The driving parts might be the hardest part until you memorize all the hazards.
Deadly towers was fun but also hard as hell , did beat it , not going to lie , had to write a lot of things down to just beat it , way harder then goonjes 2
Solomon's Key should be on anybody's top 10 hardest games list. It's nearly impossible if you don't know about the continue code, and you have to start all over at the beginning. Heh, I just beat Battletoads a few nights ago. I used the 5-Toad code, but still played through every level. It deserves to be on the list though! I beat Ninja Gaiden 3 in just over 30 minutes once. It's much easier to me 'cause I got it in 1991 or '92, and I never owned parts I and II until 2000. I've also beaten I and II on the NES and part 1 on the Switch.
Hi! Happy to see Star Force in the list, I have been working on that game for a really long time now but still haven't beaten it. How far have you gotten in that game?
The game that was hard for me when i was little was Clash at Demonhead ... That game was hard for me i was only like 10 lol also Karnov that was hard too
Silver Surfer is not nearly as hard as people say it is. You learn what portions on the map you can go very quickly. The game itself is amazing though. Great audio, great graphics, snappy action, precise, and its damn fun
@@Fortefyre thats what we did when we were able to convince our parents to stop treating us like peasents. But, for a handful of years, we preteens just had to do it the old fashion way
Ghosts ‘N Goblins and Ikari Warriors were pupated by Micronics as well. The word and concept of “developed” does not fit with Micronics most of the time.
I found driving easier on Master System by a good sight. You don't have to manage fuel, and if you buy the ghost vacuum for your car, they're basically free money. You can also continue on to new loops on the Master System, retaining your remaining cash and such from the previous.
I put Bandit Kings of Ancient China and Dragon Quest 2 ahead of Battletoads. I challenge people to climb the Rhone cave without a map showing you where to go. I challenge people to execute Gao Qiu (before 1127) without using the glitch in the marketplace to get more money you wouldnt have.
@@Fortefyre Koei, Enix and Square had great games back then. While they did extremely well in Japan, their games didnt sell that well in North America. In all fairness, people dont know the definition of ''NES hard' until they beat one of their NES games. Dragon Quest 2 is known as the toughest game in the franchise. Even then, Koichi Nakamura acknowledged the level of difficulty due to him hiring younger programmers and his failure to delegate the work properly, leading to a difficult game to the point they changed the experience system to give out more experience points later in the game. I cite the Rhone cave as the toughest dungeon Ive ever encountered in an RPG. With all the ways to go around in circles and all the trap tiles, and no map to see where everything is, its a tough one (so try doing it without a walkthrough). Not too many people have heard of Bandit King of Ancient China. Even an experienced player that knows what he is doing will find it challenging. The worst thing Yoichi Erikawa did was make a rule where you had to get an Imperial Edict to execute Gao Qiu. The game is tough enough. Making you basically control half of China before you can attack province 23 makes the game even tougher (I argue that it adds another 10 years to the game). I know when I play it, I typically finish with 3 years to spare (barely making the deadline). Nowadays, the game is more expensive to get your hands on then it was when it first came out (a mint condition copy of this game, with the instruction book can cost $350).
@@Fortefyre Bandit Kings of Ancient China was typical of Koei's early games. Yoichi Erikawa left a very steep learning curve in his games when he did almost all of the programming and design of his games. Even if you knew what you were doing, you would still be challenged. Bandit Kings of Ancient China is no exception to that, and I consider it to be Koei's toughest game. Its actually very rare to find an NES cartridge copy of this game, Ive heard they sell for over $400 (in mint condition with everything). Dragon Quest/Warrior 2 was well admitted by Koichi Nakamura himself as being difficult. They even added more experience points to the monsters later on in the game just because they noticed the difficulty, and its still a difficult game. Its a game that starts off at a decent pace if youve played an RPG before, but as you play deeper into the game, youre in for a ride. The Rhone Cave is well documented for its difficulty, and as I said, beating this game without a walkthrough is a challenge. Think about how hard this game was back in 1987 (it wasnt released until 1990 in North America).
Good list! Not sure if it counts since it is Famicom, but the Japanese version Super Mario Bros 2 can be quite cruel! I'd give honorable mention to Gradius, Castlevania III, and Bucky O' Hare. I think Konami just liked to torture kids back then. 😅
I can breeze thru the first ten levels of Battletoads, and the final level isn’t particularly difficult when starting from there using an emulator. But I’ve never gotten even halfway thru level 11, the only level in the game without checkpoints.
When my dad got us an NES back when I was a kid he got SMB and Zanac as games. SMB was beaten many, many times. Zanac........not so much. I did eventually beat it years later as an adult, but holy crap did it remind me of what 'Nintendo Thumb' was all about!
I like how you just talk about a game. Not one of the TH-camrs that rely on memes and gifs to fill a video in an obnoxious way. Keep up the good work. Side note: Great Cro Cop joke. “right kick hospital, left kick cemetery”
I don't tend to use memes that often, but if I do, I edit them appropriately for the games lmao. I think I've done it twice in my whole career.
@@Fortefyre it’s nice to not have them. I watch these old NES to remember my childhood, not to be annoyed by memes that reference 2015 or sooner.
I could see that!
There's this guy called TheMexicanRunner who finished every NES game. The Miracle Piano took him longer than every other NES game
I know TMR, he's a legend in streamer circles lol
I wanted the miracle piano so bad as a kid, my cousin got it for Christmas and never touched it outside of the week after Christmas but he wouldn’t let me play, borrow or have it… years later I asked what happened to it and he said he broke the piano while filming a vhs video acting like he was nirvana and smashing instruments well in this case instrument because it was the only one he had
I was so upset hearing that, what a douche and to boot he doesn’t even have the vhs of the dastardly act anymore
When I was a kid if I had a game I didn’t like I either used it as trade bait or lent it out to a Friend in hopes I could borrow a better game, wizards and warriors was one of those games I owed that I constantly lent out and got back better games lol
@@FrankBeingFrankomg what an idiot! I was never a fan of Nirvana anyways. I’d love to have that piano, as well! I’ve seen the game cart out in the wild, but never the piano.
First name that came up to me!
Incredibly underrated channel.
Hey just wanted to say keep going. You have a gift to broadcast man , don’t worry about the views this was good and funny, your in my subscriber rotation 👏
Thank you :)
I have played” The Immortal” a ridiculous amount of times on multiple platforms and it drives me nuts on a personal level. To quote Madeline Kahn in Clue, “flames on the side of my face.”
It's like a more mature Soltice to me lol
Mirko Cro-Cop: left leg - hospital, right leg - cemetary.
Facts lmao
You read my mind, but like 2 months ago, lol.
The Arkanoid dial controller made your paddle move incredibly fast, thus making it more playable. Using the stock NES pad slowed it down to a miserable crawl. Also, "Solomon's Key" and "Abadox" were were both bloodthirsty monsters. Beautiful and awesome, but monsters nonetheless.
I LOVE Abadox lol. I did use a NES Advantage for it though. I KNEW there had to be something special about the paddle controller!
Came looking for this comment. With the special controller the game makes total sense
As someone who grew up with an NES and played a bunch of games, and read about many more, I’m happily surprised at how many of these games I’ve never heard of before. Nice list!
Oh you just wait! There are TONS of video games out there :)
Hey nice list! I’ve been able to beat a few of these. Ghost and goblins, Ninja gaiden 3, and battletoads.
So far for me it's just GNG lol
Here’s my idea for your next list: games you find easy in your childhood that are hard to you now.
Great Idea!
Abadox is a game that's so hard 90% of people won't even get past the first level.
I had Abadox and I can confirm. Game is hard
But God is it a good game.
Yes! It is definitely one of the hardest on nes. Top three hardest! Yet NOBODY, except you and I, seems to mention it.
@duranduran6456 Probably because the game is somewhat obscure. "Hardest games" lists usually only have well-known games like Battletoads and TMNT.
@@duranduran6456 I actually mentioned in a 10 NES Games You Should Play episode! It's BEYOND cool that they hybrid mixed vertical and horizontal, because I believe the only other one I've seen do it (efficiently) was Salamander/Life Force
Shadowgate is my favorite game on this list. The low torch sound still gives me anxiety to this day. My fastest completion is 15 minutes flat but was played on the PS4. It came in a collection that included Deja Vu and Uninvited as well.
Sounds like a decent collection!
I borrowed Ghosts & Goblins from a school friend and didn’t have any of it. I owned The Immortal and I finished it. I got into it, but yes it was a hard game. I made a point if finishing all the games I owned, except for one - Metroid. I couldn’t handle that one
Metroid is rather irritating to me.
I'd personally have Silver Surfer at the top; unbelievably brutal. Though Battletoads still deserves to be near the top and is actually more unforgiving when trying to play with a friend no thanks to friendly fire.
Friendly fire in a beat-em-up is a sin.
been a subscriber to many many video game/retro game channels for years. On occasion YT algorithm will suggest something new, well, it did. Your video editing, voice and content are pretty stellar. I subbed to the channel and need to catch up, only watched about 3 so far but im diggin it. Are you just doin top 10s or? I love it so far. One thing tho about NES, im older, 45 and grew up on NES first. Loved it! Now, i really struggle to want to play games on it. I mean SMB3 is still fantastic and there are a few games I would still play but the nostalgia for me is gone with most NES games. SNES now, i can still play the hell outta that. I dunno what it is but NES i just dont play anymore.
Hi there! I don't intend on doing just Top 10's no, in fact I never saw myself being a "list based" producer in any way. I much prefer telling the story of video game history over 10 lists, because they are stupid easy to make, but now that I have been streaming for 6 years, and I have enough of a backlog figured out, with a ranking system that aligns with it, I'm able to make them, so if I have 10 games that fit a bill for bad or good, I'll make a video.
Other projects I work on include:
Ready Go Gaming Show: LONG, longform videos about video game history, if you want to watch this, understand the first 5 episodes were me trying to edit for the first time in my life, some videos are good, some are just information vomit, but I enjoy them.
Generations: This is my favorite project, it's a deep-dive into each generation, I'm scripting Generation 4 right now.
Legends: Occasionally I get to speak to industry figureheads, it's a new series :)
System Shock: One stop shop for everything you would need for a system, info, troubleshooting, etc.
Series Slayer: If I beat a series, I review the whole thing.
I'd like to get back into reviewing individual games, I might do that actually.
as an arcade enthusiast
arkanoid without a spinner is not worth playing
its so much easier to control with the spinner
That's what I thought.
i’m unironically, a fan of Athena.
I rented it as a kid and found the power up on the mushroom in the first level, and it blew my mind and that such I have huge nostalgia for it
I wish somebody would come up with a patch to make it less shitty.
don’t get it wrong though the arcade game is trashy too
Most SNK games hold a major part of our memories in gaming.
That game needs more like an entire surgical team to fix it, not a patch 😂
"He knows Ninja Gai-den!"
LMAO It's GAI-DEN.
In Battletoads for NES, if you play with another person, you can hit each other and cause the other person to lose a life. However, if one player loses all their lives, BOTH PLAYERS have to restart the level. And sometimes lives are not at normal capacity. In Battlemaniacs for SNES, there is an option for 2 players to not hit each other BUT if one player loses all lives then both restart the level. And I watched James and Doug (AVGN) play Battlemaniacs, the game does not start at full health.
That's such a chore haha.
I had a period where I only played NES games every day. I'd include T and C Thrilla's Surfari. Most games I'd at least beat the first chapter. In Surfari, I couldn't get past level TWO.
Surfari kicked my ass lmfao.
hold up here.. immortal for the sega genesis was a cult classic. my first gore experience in a video game, a good story, and you actually had to work to beat the game. game is a masterpiece for its time
I agree! I look forward to checking it out in its entirety at some point.
Wow! To the Earth is not a widely known game. Cool that you included it in your video. Extremely hard. My dad bought it for me and I only played it for about 20-30 minutes and was done. Too hard of a game to progress in.
Absolutely! If you want to check out more Zapper games, I do have a video dedicated to it on the channel! I covered all official nes zapper titles, some unlicensed, and even some homebrews!
I was right there with you! That game was rough
Nice list. I beat GnG, Ninja Gaiden and Battletoads from this list. Well and Shadowgate but not without help.
I would consider Burai Fighter (all the way through) and Snake Rattle N Roll to be the hardest NES games I've beaten.
Oh and in the puzzle department Boulder Dash which you have to beat four times.
Oh wow!
wow, the last part of ninja gaiden I found impossible and just gave up, congrats
Hudson's Adventure Island is another one.
Honestly, it's that ONE jump that kills the run.
Dude shadow gate !!!! Ahhhhhhhh . .. .arrrggghhhh. never beat it. Still haunts me to this day. Great game. Thanks for putting on the list.
You bet!
Funny enough, the AVGN's review of Ghosts 'n Goblins helped me beat the game. I had played it a couple of times before watching his review, but never got past the first level. But then when I sat down to conquer the game, I remembered how he said in the review that the knife was the best weapon, the fireball sucks, you needed a shield to beat the final boss, and you had to beat it twice. I went in knowing what to expect and I managed to beat it.
I actually enjoy Silver Surfer. I doubt I'll ever beat it, but again, thanks to YT I went in knowing what to expect and I just had a good time blasting enemies to those awesome 8-bit tunes.
I'm considering doing full-scale reviews for games I've beaten. Obviously none of the gimmicks like AVGN, he's earned that right and all but crafted an entire era around it, but it's better than my 1 hour reviews I was doing.
Dino Ricky is a game I hated playing as a kid. I'd rather put a campfire out with my face than play that game ever again.
I like your style lol
The Battletoads arcade game should have neen what was ported to the NES. Would have given TMNT the arcade game a run for it's money. Speaking of TMNT, it should have made this list. The 1st one.
Honestly, one you have the strategy for what turtles to sacrifice at the dam and rescue on the air field level, it's not had.
The arcade game actually came out after the NES game. NES Battletoads came out in 1991. The arcade Battletoads came out in 1994
I love the og shadowgate. I still play it from time to time. Wonderful game.
I need to play it at somepoint.
Imagine renting Deadly Towers as a 10 year old, with no game manual. Not only is the game HUGE, and the knockback physics insane, but the entire game is wholly inscrutable.
It's an error in gaming for sure.
I had to play it like...3 months ago and it was absolute nonsense.
Well, Micronics... By chance, not only you included Athena, but also Ghosts'n Goblins and Ikari Warriors, games they the hecks have also adapted to the NES/Famicom! No wonder why they're soooo competent...
LMAO right?
@@Fortefyre Absolutely! 🤣🤣 It's very easy to see how they are distinct in their design, just look at their frame rate in every game! Look at how much those characters can move! How broken their controls are! They beat in their own drum, and NOT in a good way!
Beating Silver Surfer when i was a kid was a personal triumph for me
That's an incredible accomplishment!
Nes Advantage for Arkanoid was great for the game and helped a great deal and as always thanks for your work
Thank you!
15:14 Me too. Bullet hell shmups fucking rule, baby.
I adore bullet hells lol.
And let’s not forget, plenty of replay value. That’s what many shmups excel at imo.
Sky Shark, soon as you press the start button you get 'game over'.
🤣 I'll bear that in mind!
Star Force is one of my favorites as difficult as it is I always come back for more.
Which is a great sign of a wonderful game!
This embodies everything I think about video game "Difficulty". The vast majority of games that are considered difficult are either designed poorly, or changed how things were designed so much that it took people a long time to get used to them. Mario 2 isn't "Difficult". It just has bullshit pixel perfect jumps and 2d mazes. It's all muscle memory or regular memory. There's no such thing as a difficult game. It's always the controls or something. Even something like Demon Souls and Dark Souls isn't difficult, it was just such a departure from both the control schemes we were used to and the design philosophies that we were used to that it took us a game or two to get used to. Now us demon souls vets stomp on Elden Ring, while people who hadnt played a dark souls game before consider elden ring way too hard and wanted it patched.
Though I guess, to be fair, the same could be said about anything in life. Nothing is hard if you know how to do it
Big facts!
Piano... Definitely difficult. Did have a few teaching games. I definitely wouldn't have thought of it but yeah I can certainly see your point. Bonus points for choosing something way out of left field!
Thank you!
@@Fortefyre welcome
Two games that come to my mind that are not on this list are Fester’s Quest and Bayou Billy. I was successful in completing both games but they were both a freakin pain in the you know what. Great work man! 💪
Festers isn't AS bad if you use a turbo controller. Hell, it even says in the manual that you should lol.
Fester's Quest was great. Turbo made it playable. Without it, you were cannon fodder.
Back to the future! I love this ❤️
I'm glad :)
Good list! Solar Jetman and Fun House might make it to draft list. Controls v. Game design difficulty is real.
I loved Shadowgate. It helped a lot that I also had a friend who owned it, though, so we could trade tips when we got stuck. We both ended up beating it within about 30 minutes of each other.
Personally I’d say the hardest NES games I ever beat were Paperboy and Gunsmoke. The hardest ones I ever played, IMO, were Solar Jetman and Genghis Khan. I know there’s a hardcore fanbase out there for those Koei strategy games (Genghis Khan, Nobonaga’s Ambition, etc.), but without some kind of guide or walkthrough, which didn’t exist in the pre-internet age, I just found them impossibly obtuse. I liked Solar Jetman though, I just could never beat it.
Koei strategy can be incredibly rough!
@10:35-10:45= hey Fortefyre; with what you said on the timeframe herein marked, I'm now having mental pictures of a few of SNK's most notorious female protagonists from KOF (Shermie, Angel, Whip, Leona, Mai, the aforementioned Athena, Luong, etc.) in domi outfits with evil grins extorting ca$h a la Yamazaki while beating the life out of players... thanks for that, I think!
Hahah hell yeah, some old fashioned Mai findom.
Dude I loved the Immortal, been a little while since i played it on the Amiga and Sega. Good moods and roleplay. I never knew it was on the NES as well. Cheers for the video!
Thank you! I'm glad you learned something today:)
Solomon's Key and Dino Riki. You showed it in the intro man!
I did :)
Good list. I own or have at least played over half of these. My honorable mentions would be Solomon's Key, Fester's Quest, Mission Impossible, and Dragon Warrior 2 without a guide. People think TMNT, Contra, and Kid Icarus are hard but those games don't hold a candle to the REAL hard games on the NES.
And for some reason it ends up on lists all the time. As if people have some weird echo chamber for the games out there.
I actually found Battletoads an amazing game. Took a while to clear, sure, but was a fun experience and way ahead of its time. I will say I would not want to play it on anything other than original hardware / crt.
Also, honorable mention to Solomon’s Key. Cleared that recently and it was a test. Really fun though.
I think that Battletoads is a fairly decent game 100%
When talking about hard games, SMB: The Lost Levels never got to see North America until Super Mario All-Stars's release on the SNES. Nintendo of America likely didn't want the Super Mario series to be associated with being hard and frustrating, especially considering that Super Mario Bros. was what became the overall standard for how the difficulty scale should be handled in casual games.
I know there's a specific story that is the truth, I just haven't had the purpose to look into it, one of our viewers knows about it though.
I have beat Battletoads and Ninja Gaiden 3 but cant get passed the 3rd level of ghosts and goblins and was completely lost with Deadly Towers. Guardian Legend was a hard one for me too but a great game.
On a fundamental level, Deadly Towers is a mistake.
I found the Immortal and Shadowgate to be fairly easy. No need for lightning quick reflexes, just a lot of (frustrating) trial and error.
I believe the NES games of old are harder now for two reasons:
1. Signal lag on HDTVs, reducing reaction time compared to CRTs
2. We're adults with money and choices. I had little money growing up. Bayou Billy cost me $50, or almost 3 months allowance. I crushed that game. Why waste time on a certain game when you have 1000 other things you can do.
These are all fair points!
Athena on the NES looks like she is related to the dude from Deadly Towers.
You might be on to something lmao.
WHOO. New Fortefyre vid dropped!
Just for you :P
Deadly Towers man I never knew what the hell I was supposed to do
I don't think anyone did, there's a reason why there isn't a deadly towers 2 lol
@@Fortefyre god damn game lol
Gotta say NARC is definitely one of the most underrated difficult games I've ever played. Arcade version was way ahead of its time & never forgot watching the older kids playing that game with limbs & blood squirting everywhere on the screen. But,damn! Arcade version didn't port well on the NES. Eff bomb that bs game! Lol.
I hate hone ports of narc were jankkkk
As shitty a game as Deadly Towers is, it has some incredible music.
Oh absolutely!
In regards to games not mentioned in the video; Super Mario Bros. 2 Japan, The Adventure of Link, Dragon Quest 2, and Dick Tracy.
Super Mario Bros. 2 Japan and The Adventure of Link are unusually difficult for Nintendo made games. Usually Nintendo games just get difficult during specific areas or with optional content. However, these two NES games go toe-to-toe with some third party made stuff.
Dragon Quest 2 is one rough RPG to experience. The NES version of Final Fantasy 1 and Dragon Quest 1 may show their age, but they don't brutalize the player as much as this first sequel to Dragon Quest.
As for Dick Tracy NES; no continues what so ever.
So at some point, I'll cover Famicom games:)
Great picks! My own personal list would include a couple of games from Rare (RC Pro-Am and Cobra Triangle) as well as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We rented that last one a dozen times but could never finish it.
Oh, and the first Castlevania. CV 2, I played a billion times and loved. Original CV, never finished due to the brutal difficulty.
Oh! You HAVE to go back and try to beat CV, just abuse the hell out of holy water and doublers lol.
happy to see you didn't just go with all the usual suspects
I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Silver surfer also has an invincibility code if I remember right lol.
I'd try to not use it, honestly I try to avoid cheats period unless the game absolutely powerfists me into dust lol
@@Fortefyre that’s understandable lol.
Used to speedrun Shadowgate back in the days, but beating it the first time was HARD. No guides, nothing. After that, piece of cake.
I envy you!
Two very similar ones that I think we all played, but somehow all sucked at - T&C Surf Design and California Games. Those were harddduh
Soooo bad haha
Arkanoid with the usual NES controller is borderline impossible, and some levels completely unplayable. Arkanoid with the paddle that came with it makes the game so much more fun and fair in difficulty. It's still hard at times, but definitely beatable.
Ahhh gotcha. I guess it made the paddle move at a level that was not natively capable with the NES controller.
@@Fortefyre It's the same kind of movement as in the arcade version. With the paddle knob, you can instantly move the bar (Vaus as it's actually called in the game) from one side of the screen to the other, for those really fast balls or if one happened to hit any of the floating things and change its direction without warning, or move it very slowly over a tiny bit for precise aiming or to predict where the ball(s) might end up after bouncing around in levels like 10 or 21 or 32 where you need to hit it at just the right angle to get it back up there and lasers won't help at all. With the controller, aiming is harder and after a while you just can't keep up, even if you do know where the ball is going.
I still think ghosts and goblins is the hardest. Having to go through it twice is insanity
It's like that in EVERY single one as well. But I will say, I tend to find loop 2 slightly easier because you know what to expect.
Zelda 2 isn't that difficult if you Level up accordingly
The Adventures of Bayou Billy, which is essentially Double Dragon, Operation Wolf, and Spy Hunter combined into one game, took me over six months to beat! Getting past the first level is harder than getting to the third mission in Double Dragon (arcade) on one quarter!
It should be noted the original Japanese version is more forgiving.
I made it to the final boss ONCE and died, I don't know if I have the patience to try again and actually beat it. The NES Advantage helps a lot with the beat'm'up parts. I learned pretty fast that the shooting stages favor a controller user, DON'T use the zapper. The driving parts might be the hardest part until you memorize all the hazards.
Sooo true!
Deadly towers was fun but also hard as hell , did beat it , not going to lie , had to write a lot of things down to just beat it , way harder then goonjes 2
I hate deadly towers lol
Hardest game on NES: Racket Attack. Game is so broken, you can never win a tennis match ever! 😂
Wow! Really?
Battle toad, you have to find the warp or else you can even play the game
It took me forever to figure out there WERE warps lol
Solomon's Key should be on anybody's top 10 hardest games list. It's nearly impossible if you don't know about the continue code, and you have to start all over at the beginning. Heh, I just beat Battletoads a few nights ago. I used the 5-Toad code, but still played through every level. It deserves to be on the list though! I beat Ninja Gaiden 3 in just over 30 minutes once. It's much easier to me 'cause I got it in 1991 or '92, and I never owned parts I and II until 2000. I've also beaten I and II on the NES and part 1 on the Switch.
I need to get the rest of the Ninja Gaiden games myself.
You should try Soltice on the NES. My god that game was brutal to beat.
And lowkey kind of boring too lmao. I wonder if Equinox was better.
Hi! Happy to see Star Force in the list, I have been working on that game for a really long time now but still haven't beaten it. How far have you gotten in that game?
I haven't dabbled in it as much as I would want, but like the 2nd stage lmao
Friday the 13th was a misunderstood title.
It really is.
I beat ghosts n goblins and when I found out I had to beat it again to see the ending, I said hell no , This counts.
Haha, I did it anyway.
Athena bro! Fr! Great list!
Thank you!
Ghosts and Goblins, Startropics 2,The Guardian Legend, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,Stinger. The top 5 most hardest NES games I've played.
The Guardian Legend is probably a top 10 NES game for me. I wish more people knew about it.
I need to play it.
Anything TwinBee pisses me off on a fundamental level. LOL
The game that was hard for me when i was little was Clash at Demonhead ... That game was hard for me i was only like 10 lol also Karnov that was hard too
Yeah Demonhead can be gnarly, I mean most Vic Tokai games are lmao.
Silver Surfer is not nearly as hard as people say it is. You learn what portions on the map you can go very quickly. The game itself is amazing though. Great audio, great graphics, snappy action, precise, and its damn fun
I would just use a turbo controller to be honest lol
@@Fortefyre thats what we did when we were able to convince our parents to stop treating us like peasents.
But, for a handful of years, we preteens just had to do it the old fashion way
Ghosts ‘N Goblins and Ikari Warriors were pupated by Micronics as well. The word and concept of “developed” does not fit with Micronics most of the time.
Pupated 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Ironically, Ghostbusters NES has more forgiving driving sections than the otherwise superior Master System port.
Wow!
I found driving easier on Master System by a good sight. You don't have to manage fuel, and if you buy the ghost vacuum for your car, they're basically free money. You can also continue on to new loops on the Master System, retaining your remaining cash and such from the previous.
Do you consider Ghostbusters on NES was the Atari E.T.?
Eh...I'd moreso say Uncanny X-Men was.
A Week of Garfield. Takeshi's Challenge. Donkey Kong Jr Math.
Takeshi's Challenge is a famicom title which isn't considered for this particular episode :)
I put Bandit Kings of Ancient China and Dragon Quest 2 ahead of Battletoads.
I challenge people to climb the Rhone cave without a map showing you where to go.
I challenge people to execute Gao Qiu (before 1127) without using the glitch in the marketplace to get more money you wouldnt have.
Now I'm intruiged.
@@Fortefyre Koei, Enix and Square had great games back then. While they did extremely well in Japan, their games didnt sell that well in North America. In all fairness, people dont know the definition of ''NES hard' until they beat one of their NES games.
Dragon Quest 2 is known as the toughest game in the franchise. Even then, Koichi Nakamura acknowledged the level of difficulty due to him hiring younger programmers and his failure to delegate the work properly, leading to a difficult game to the point they changed the experience system to give out more experience points later in the game. I cite the Rhone cave as the toughest dungeon Ive ever encountered in an RPG. With all the ways to go around in circles and all the trap tiles, and no map to see where everything is, its a tough one (so try doing it without a walkthrough).
Not too many people have heard of Bandit King of Ancient China. Even an experienced player that knows what he is doing will find it challenging. The worst thing Yoichi Erikawa did was make a rule where you had to get an Imperial Edict to execute Gao Qiu. The game is tough enough. Making you basically control half of China before you can attack province 23 makes the game even tougher (I argue that it adds another 10 years to the game). I know when I play it, I typically finish with 3 years to spare (barely making the deadline). Nowadays, the game is more expensive to get your hands on then it was when it first came out (a mint condition copy of this game, with the instruction book can cost $350).
@@Fortefyre Bandit Kings of Ancient China was typical of Koei's early games. Yoichi Erikawa left a very steep learning curve in his games when he did almost all of the programming and design of his games. Even if you knew what you were doing, you would still be challenged. Bandit Kings of Ancient China is no exception to that, and I consider it to be Koei's toughest game. Its actually very rare to find an NES cartridge copy of this game, Ive heard they sell for over $400 (in mint condition with everything).
Dragon Quest/Warrior 2 was well admitted by Koichi Nakamura himself as being difficult. They even added more experience points to the monsters later on in the game just because they noticed the difficulty, and its still a difficult game. Its a game that starts off at a decent pace if youve played an RPG before, but as you play deeper into the game, youre in for a ride. The Rhone Cave is well documented for its difficulty, and as I said, beating this game without a walkthrough is a challenge. Think about how hard this game was back in 1987 (it wasnt released until 1990 in North America).
Good list! Not sure if it counts since it is Famicom, but the Japanese version Super Mario Bros 2 can be quite cruel! I'd give honorable mention to Gradius, Castlevania III, and Bucky O' Hare. I think Konami just liked to torture kids back then. 😅
Konami did have a masochistic reputation haha
Blaster Madter, Solstice, and Zelda 2 for sure
I didnt find Zelda II to be that difficult in retrospect.
Ghostbusters 2. Only ever beat it once
Yeah it's just as rough. Weird one too!
No game list would e complete without Ultima:Exodus. The only time I ever died in an RPG with invulnerability cheat on.
Whaaaat? Wowww
I can breeze thru the first ten levels of Battletoads, and the final level isn’t particularly difficult when starting from there using an emulator. But I’ve never gotten even halfway thru level 11, the only level in the game without checkpoints.
I haven't made it past the turbo tunnel hahaha
The hardest game for me is Stack Up... The difficulty arises from how hard it is to keep this cart in the NES to actually play this "game".
That's the R.O.B game right?
Friday the 13 not bad , love the game , hard yes but beatable.
Indeed!
I thought Time Lord would make the list. I still never beat that damn game, lol.
I haven't messed around with it yet lol
Gunsmoke is a difficult game to beat
It's ridiculously hard lol.
Trojan for the nes was pretty hard to me.
That is a very difficult game! Did you know it's part of the Kung-Fu line of games?
@Fortefyre no I didn't
Blaster master was very difficult.
Indeed! I had to use a map, I didn't have the time nor patience to deal with the bs.
Battletoads gets hard so fucking fast
It really does!
Only the racing obstacle coarse is hard. The rest of the game is quite fun and not that hard, in my opinion.
it gets harder faster than Jared Fogle in an elementary school
Nice Cro Cop reference
Thanks lol.
The new ghosts n goblins game is really good. It's really hard though.
As it should be, an easy GnG game would be concerning.
life really was easier to live back then
It truly was.
Live the video. I subscribed. Great job. I agree w most of those.
Thanks! Welcome to the community!
omg I loved Athena!
You are a special breed of badass lol
Oh yeah, I'd also add Dr Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, but I'd NOT recommend even playing it....
Oh lord that game lmao
Awesome!!!Big Like 😀🤘🏼
Big thanks!