What was the hardest game you have ever completed?

There are people who will argue that games these days have gone soft and offer little challenge to gamers. So, the question becomes: what is the hardest game to complete from start to finish?

[Ulf]

The original Arcade version of Ninja Gaiden. I could do the entire game on one quarter about 65% of the time. It was all about mastering the backflip+throw timing, and making it to boss fights without the rest of the game tearing you down.

Somebody must be able to top that.

[Venatus-Deus]

Arcade version of Time Crisis II in an arcade on the Kings Cross strip in Sydney in 2001. (after hundreds of attempts could finally do it on $1)

Back when $1 OZ dollar equaled £2.50 English pounds.

I suspect however NG was harder...

[Bomberx]

Gears of War 3 on insane because of the boss fight with Myrrah. Took me days and hours. I passed it yesterday but what I find funny is that after sitting down and playing from morning to when the sun was setting down for such a long time I became so desperate and tired I decided to play while lying on my bed and I passed it. I was so happy to have finally passed it but even more happier to pass it while lying down on an uncomfortable position barely even trying lol I don't know what to say.

[MerkinMax]

I was going to post the same thing. There was just so many things to deal with. Not to mention you died instantly from just about anything.

How to win
1. Don't get fried
2. Watch out for Guards
3. Get Myrrah off the tower
4. Find ammo
5. Always use cover
6. Be accurate with your shots
7. Get lucky

It was a juggling act of epic proportions!

[_Aarix_]

I beat all 3 gears by myself on insane. Its not that gears 3 was harder but a just more aggervating than the second. Especially with no long ranged weapons ammo.

But theres alot more harder games :(

[Cyb3r]

For me it had to be Bomberman 2 on the SNES the last boss was almost impossible

[galmi]

Has to be the original xbox ninja gaiden on master ninja, damn that was difficult, seriously hated the fight go through, when you meet the demon looking guy, where you fight the alma look-alike and then the chick with the whip, super uncool, felt really satisfied when I finished it, the final boss was too easy though, hehehe

[Kos-Mos]

Wipeout 2097 for me I think.

[lastdual]

Probably Equinox on the SNES. Doubt many here have heard of it, but it was a beautiful isometric puzzle platformer with some intricate challenges.

[Bimkoblerutso]

Super Meat Boy probably. Just finishing the game is not impossible, but getting everything is pretty close...and I did it just a couple of months ago.

[Genghis]

Myst

[meetajhu]

what the **** avatar?

[andibandit]

COD World At War on Veteran

[yamzilla]

empire total war on very hard!

[caboose32]

Oh god.

I was honestly completely stressed out when it came to trying to beat this and Shogun on the hardest difficulties. Could never do it, always just gave up.

[brish]

Has no one played Demon's Souls or maybe no one finished it. I just stopped playing a it a few minutes ago and I must of died like 10 times in the hour that I played.

I was hoping to finish it before next week before Dark Souls came out. I doubt I will finish it by then.

[Bimkoblerutso]

It gets easier and easier as you go along, actually. You learn naturally as you play that you have to commit a tremendous amount of time and care to do absolutely everything in the game.

[Pacman321]

The first level can be hard for a lot of people and a lot quit there. My older brother quit after around 15 deaths in the first level so i had to do it for him, after that the game got easier for him and he just completed it the other day. Once you complete that first level, trust me you will start to find the game easier and begin to love the game.

[NewsForSnowflakes]

It does get a bit easier as you get further into the game. But Black world tendency makes it more difficult.

I got the Platinum trophy for this game =]

[Tanir]

dying alot in livinng form will get you black tendancy which makes harder enemies spawn, more enemies spawn, and u will have less hp in soul form, try to stick to soul form if you die, if u have white tendancy the game will give u more hp.

my 2nd play through i beat it in 21 hours, first play througgh in 115 hours. so its about being cautious and learning from mistakes

[toepin]

Beneath A Steel Sky was pretty hard for me but Total Recall on the commodore 64 destroyed me.

[JellyJelly]

Oh! I loved Beneath a Steel Sky and I miss those type of games. They had a lot more imagination going than many of todays games. Was it that hard though? It was more that it was time consuming to find the right solutions.

Sam & Max was harder imo cause the solutions had no logic to them whatsoever lol!

[Number_13]

Ninja Gaiden 2. . .the 90's original, and the 360 version too

[Blitz001]

Hmmmmm...i think Contra, but then again, i don't remember have i finished it...but i remember i had big struggle with it...

[SneeringImperialist]

OPF on hardest setting!

[MeatAbstract]

I could tick off a few but a game mode I will never, ever forget...

Devil May Cry - Dante Must Die. I think the sheer difficulty of that sometimes brought tears to my teenage eyes. It probably would now.

[Raptura]

angry birds

[Linzoid]

Jet Set Willy on the BBC Micro!

[xer0]

Ninja Gaiden Sigma - I still haven't completed it, and it's gathering dust.

Return to Castlevania... cheap levels make it boring to complete.

[ReservoirDog316]

Easily super meat boy. That game was something else.

And I didn't skip any levels.

Haven't went back to it since I finished it.

[Eyesoftheraven]

MGS4 on Big Boss Difficulty under the following conditions: Beat the game in less than five hours, don't use stealth camouflage or special items, don't trigger any alert phases, no deaths, no kills and no continues.

About as hard as it gets.

[SephirothX21]

No because you can just quit and reload if you make a mistake. I found it easy enough. Doing it in MGS3 was harder.

[Eyesoftheraven]

Good point considering all the other really hard games out there. Though if we narrowed it to this gen, I'd be pretty close to spot on, right? Or if you eliminate the option to reload a save.

[SephirothX21]

Well if you couldn't reload a save, then it would be impossible. I'd say give the player a limited number of reloads. Think about it. Why is Demon Souls so challenging? It is so because it demands consistency and does this by removing frequent checkpoints that plague modern games. Look at games like Uncharted, CoD and Gears of War. There's more checkpoints than enemies. Imagine if you played a sports game and reloaded when you lost a match? It's all about consistency. That's not to say there's no need for checkpoints; just a decremental of their frequency.

[Skynetone]

its got to be r-type, must have put 30+ hours in trying to get by, one area

gynoug was hard as hell, the last level looked so amazing for a megadrive game, and you had to fight every boss in the game all in one level

do love a good shooter

[pucpop]

Viewpoint on my Neogeo. Evil. @pucpop

[Mrmagnumman357]

everyone over 20 years old is about to think im the coolest person ever FOR MENTIONING THIS .... Super Contra... but i didn't beat the game, but i know someone who made it through the whole game without dying. Agree and add me as a friend if you agree that SC is the hardest game ever

[DARK WITNESS]

X-out on the old C64 (who remembers that?)

as far as this gen goes or the this and last gen;

Lost planet 1 on the hardest setting (before they updated it to make it easier because people were crying)

NG black - enough said.

The special mission in cod4 on the plane on veteran setting (I broke my control pad playing that)

[eXclurel]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1989. I played the underwater level so many times that I don't even remember if I passed it or not.

[Minato-Namikaze]

I hate even thinking about that game now lol. Especially the one level where you had to walk instead of jump over the little gap, like wtf

[gazgriff2k12]

mariokart snes sometimes rainbow road used to break my soul

[beast242tru]

well i didnt play too many games in ps2 and before days that i can remember and this generation had a bunch of easy as f*ck games sooo i really dnt know

[SlyGuy]

MegaMan!

[SageHonor]

Jak 2 for the PS2

[Jdoki]

Pretty much the bulk of the Spectrum 48k/128k or Commodore 64 systems libraries. Back then 'longevity' consisted of just making every game as hard to beat as possible.

I had some games on the Commodore Vic20 that were probably impossible to beat. QA was not really a big factor back then!

[scruffy_bear]

Demon Souls
God Hand

[Minato-Namikaze]

Ninja Gaiden sigma 2 specifically UN1 and 2 demons souls, mike tyson's punch out. I would put ghost and goblins on here here but I don't even know what level 2 looks like :'(

[njdevil254]

Actraiser 2 on the hardest difficulty

[Genghis]

super starwars

[sirdrake]

Ninja Gaiden on xbox on master difficulty. Freakin' tough!

[_Aarix_]

Bayonetta, i struggled on normal.

[josephayal]

MEGA MAN and KZ3

[RevXM]

You ment Kz2 right? :P

KZ2 Elite difficulty is insane, atleast in my opinion and achieving the Trophy for cempleting it on elite FELT SUPER AWESOME.

Gears of war on insane was pretty ...insane as well.

Gears 2 seem to be even worse... cant get past the REAVERS in that part of the game that you ride that big thing the cogs use to launch pods down in to the hollow.

So for me I think the most difficult game Ive completed as far as I can remember would be KZ2 on Elite.

[ambientFLIER]

Lumi, the indie XBL title. Ugh...the Boss...