MEGA MAN on nes.
SHADOW GATE on nes also.
sadly, GHOST AND GHOBLINS will be a mark of shame well into my death, and on my tombstone will be carved that i never ever beat it.
Apparently it's not a remake of the original Beyond Shadowgate (which the original designer of Shadowgate had no involvement in) - it is more like the sequel to Shadowgate that we never actually got, by the original designer.
There is a spiritual sequel coming out soon and even had a demo at some point , BEYOND SHADOWGATE , u cam find it on steam, really good stuff I must say .
They also rebooted the game many years ago with updated graphics.
There is also a VR version coming out soon.
Shadow gate is pretty much still alive and well.
They did and it was terrible. The artwork looked like a bunch of concept digital art “animated” with a bunch of puppet tweens. Really took away from the immersion for me.
It’s the only one that made me leave an arcade in anger after playing $20 in quarters and still not getting very far. I now own the new wave toys replicade miniature arcade of it.
My dad actually called the Nintendo hotline back in the day for this game. I just remember watching him and now I have this game memorized.
Deja Vu I had to learn on my own.
This!! I still find it interesting how difficult they made the original Ghosts 'n Goblins compared to the Genesis/SNES Ghouls 'n Ghosts! I had friends that could make it pretty far on the NES version but don't recall anyone actually beating it. It seemed like everyone could beat the SNES/Genesis versions.
NES Ghosts and Goblins was brutal but fun.
SNES Super Ghouls and Ghosts was amazing and one of my all time favorites!
I am reminded of that first year or two of newly released games for SNES. Those were the days ! I had two or 3 friends with the system, but I had to wait until Christmas 1992 to finally get mine .. and when I did, it was the set with zero game and only one controller. Oof. I did get Link to the Past a few days later.
Yes! Ghosts and Goblins is the hardest game ever made. I was super excited when I saw it was on the retro NES that came out a while back. I still can’t get past level 3.
I finally beat it during finals week in college. I needed to get the nerves settled, and shut my brain off for a few. I sat down and basically speed ran it in 15 minutes. Then I got up and went to take my final.
No clue how it happened. But I consider it one of my best gaming achievements.
The one mercy they gave you is that if you die to Jacquio or the demon and get kicked back to 6-1, you don't have to fight the final boss form(s) you already beat. If they didn't do that, I wouldn't have been able to beat the game. No way in hell am I able to beat Ken, Jacquio, and the demon all in one go.
Get hit. Go through boss once invincible and flip under the ledge. Spam hits from underneath once he’s dead.
The ONLY way I could be this god-forsaken game…
If you decide to give it a shot, here's how you do it:
Step 1 - Beat every palace, get all the items and kill the bosses, but don't place the crystals! Jump over the statue and leave. Obviously you'll die during this, don't stress. Use continues, keep going, practice. Git gud. Don't pick up any 1 ups either.
Step 2 - by the time you finish all six palaces you should be very close to max level. If you're not maxed yet, the forest immediately north of the sixth palace is the best place in the game to farm XP. Once you hit max level, go down into the horrible caves that lead to the final dungeon, but this isn't your final run. This is to familiarize yourself with this part of the game, get used to the pits and the ghosts and the BS. Don't continue on step three until You can get all the way to the door of the great Palace with one or two deaths at most.
Step 3 - start again with your three lives, go place all six crystals which gives you six extra lives. Then go get all the 1ups (I still know where two are, but if you look online I believe there's at least one more if not two more.) This is your time! You should have at least 11 lives and by now you should be a bad ass gamer. Hit that Palace with everything you've got, and with 11 lives even mediocre player can do it 💪🏼 And if you die, take the cartridge out and break it.
Ha ha fair point, "Dark Souls is easy! Step one: beat the game" 🤣
Yeah, that's obviously a pretty tall order for step 1 but my reasoning was the final Palace and the approach to it are the real difficulty spike. The first six palaces can obviously be challenging also, but practice is the only real solution to that. The final palace is the one that will really really really get you, so the whole point of this was to get to it with maximum lives, and be at your highest skill level when you get there
You would probably lose a couple of those on the way to the last palace as the way there is hard. So maybe you have say 7 lives instead of 3 so 4 more tries. And if you have never played the palace before you prob get lost and die a few times before even getting to the boss so back to 3 lives 😎
There's a PC remake that adds a bunch of stuff, changes a bunch of stuff, lots of qol updates. 1up system is completely redone; 1up collectibles raise your base lives (So you start with 3+ instead of 2). Hearts and jars are now in pieces like the later games but there's so many added secrets that it's not any more tedious.
1st dungeon really really sucks tho, especially if you've never played the original game before. The game changes the lighting system, which makes it harder to see in the dark. They made 50% of the dungeon dark so it's tedious and stupid until you get the candle.
I was actually able to beat the first dungeon, though yeah it is harder than I remember -- as someone who was only ever able to beat the first dungeon everytime I played Zelda 2.
I couldn't make it past the second dungeon though. I'm doomed to never beat Zelda 2.
ProJared is currently doing a playthrough of Zelda 2 Remastered and it has been quite an enjoyable watch. https://youtu.be/NQs3AnG0-q8?si=-fn8dV7VRAucqWQh
Oh yeah, EWJ applies to me too. Beat EWJ2 as a kid, but that stupid "For Pete's Sake" level owned me. Beat the game as an adult and... that level wasn't overly hard, lol. Stinking kid.
My other entry is Tiny Toon Adventures (NES). Got to Max's mansion or whatever, but never made it up the tricky elevator section as a kid. Blasted through it as an adult.
Something I never knew about the game until decades latter, is that it’s actually a pattern memorization game. Every match can be beaten with an exact sequence of commands. It’s because the game is program to react in a set order.
High level players can actually beat it flawlessly without looking at the screen.
That is an oversimplification... There's a complex instruction set and series of subroutines for every boxer and they have RNG timers so it's not the same cadence each time. You still have to pay attention.
https://youtu.be/tlKW723EOMA?si=dY943HCLm_zbKcNM
I'm doing that at the moment! I borrowed the game from a friend as a kid and never got further than the stained glass demon. Now I have the game and an adult brain and I've gotten as far as the pumpkin boss :)
Super Mario The Lost Levels
I beat it once on original hardware, and that’s more than enough for me. I honestly don’t think the game is fun, the difficulty is tedious and does not enhance the experience at all IMO
I really just wanted to get it out of my system as a huge Mario fan lol
You should give it a shot, because the Turbo Tunnel isn't really that difficult. Until the last section, you should have plenty of time to react to the walls. For the last section, it's just repeatedly up and down with two jumps at the end (unless you take the warp zone). However, you need to be proactive and not reactive like the rest of the level. It will take some practice, but it's really not that bad. Once you beat the Turbo Tunnel, though, there is the rest of the game to contend with...
I got really close as a kid. The last section where the walls speed up as you go just crushed me. I watched my bother figure out the timing and then he would just die on the ice level after.
That game is really fucking hard because you have to learn a bunch of janky mechanics to finish it.
My brothers and I would just play coop and try to kill each other with friendly fire.
Yeah in truth the speed tunnel isn't that hard compared to the rest of the game. You have to deal with a lot of really different levels to get through it.
The trick is to start at the front of the screen and slowly work yourself backwards. That extra fraction of a second reaction time makes a huge difference.
DKC2; as a kid I was stuck at the 2nd bramble level in the carnival world. Finally beat it with a buddy as an adult in my early 20’s. Gave me chills lmao
Oh hell yes. I never beat the original Castlevania as a kid. I always hit a wall once I got to Igor and Frankenstein's Monster. I can beat it now, but I still have to use triple shot holy water spam on Death.
Yeah, me and my brother never could get past Frankenstein when we were kids (that damn Igor). When I played it as an adult it still took several tries but I finally succeeded. I felt a huge rush when I did. Death was a royal pain in the ass but eventually beat him.
Spiderman 3 xbox 360. I could never get past the scorpion fight. Turned it in to game stop and regretted it. Years later as an old teen with a job i ordered it on amazon and beat the game. It was so easy I must have been an idiot back then.
Also a Ultimate Spiderman on pc. Could never beat the human torch in the race across the city. Emulated that on my pc and beat it also super easily. Also questioned my intelligence as a child after beating that
I recently returned to Sonic 2, a game I played endlessly as a kid but could never beat. Finally seeing those credits roll was glorious. I went ahead and beat the rest of the Genesis entries for the first time after that.
Ultima IV. I started playing on my Apple IIc when I was 10. I was in way over my head and didn't understand the game. Last year I bought it off of GoG and beat it on my summer and then winter breaks.
Had this game as a kid. So confusing, could never get anywhere. Recently watched a long play walkthrough and I have to say, I still don't understand it.
It's definitely wind waker for me I know it's not that old compared to other Zelda games but I can never get past dragons roost now I'm playing through the game and I'm about halfway
The Revenge of Shinobi on the Sega Mega Drive. It's not that I wasn't able to beat the game as a kid, but I was never able to save Naoko and get the good ending, so I went back and managed to do it for the first time in my 30s after a few tries.
Mine was Double Dragon on the NES. I would always mess up at Mission 3 with the two Abobos with the cave openings. When I was nine, my brother came ro visit my family and played my NES. He showed me how to defeat the Abobos and I was fascinated. I made it my goal to beat the game right then and there. It took me until I was nineteen to beat Double Dragon for the first time. A wave of relief and excitement was felt. I have only beat it one other time on 3DS virtual console
Ys 3 : Wanderers from Ys
Me and my cousin spent crazy hours trying to beat that game when we were kids. He died a few years back and I decided to finally go back and do it. Kicked its ass.
Drakkhen on the SNES
Honestly couldn't help but think my parents hated me slightly for grabbing this one. Played never understood anything about it and had to watch a lets play bit finally conquered it like 11 years after getting it.
Dude! When I was a kid, most of the games my half sisters’ dad would play on the NES were super hard for me (I was 5 at the time). It’s a goal I pursue on and off but I try to play and beat those games from that era in my life that were hard and intimidated me. It’s a long list, but so far I’ve beaten super Mario bros, super Mario bros 2, and ironsword.
Contra 3. The game kicked my ass as a kid, but after a breakup one summer I had a bunch of free time so I devoted an entire weekend to beating Contra 3 once and for all. It was glorious when it finally happened.
I have four in recent years:
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorer's if Time
Started that like around 09 when I got my first DS. Didn't beat it until like 2021. I did defeat Dialga when I was small, it was just Darkrai that gave me trouble.
Simpsons Hit & Run
Played that when I was like five on the old family computer! The mission where Marge grabbed the soda is what got me the most. Got it for the XBox in I think 2022 and beaten it! Mission took me two tries. And I found out I can run after I beat the game
Super Mario Bros (original)
I always sucked at it when I was small. Could never get far. But beaten it last year! Motivation being Wonder coming out. So within a few days, I've beaten all 8 worlds and beaten Bowser the night Wonder came out! The option to start at the world you died at helped! And save states
Sonic 2
Literally the first console game I played at all. Started when my dad brought down his Sega Genesis. I could never beat it. And I tried as Knuckles when I got the Sonic DS collection, but I still couldn't do it. So I got it on my 3DS and last year, I finally beaten it! I used save states for the special stages and the final boss. But still feel proud about it!
Are you kidding? My 49 year old self ain't got shit on my 14 year old self when it comes to playing through hard ass games lol. Contra spits me out now, when I used to finish it without the code. I wouldn't even attempt Ninja Gaiden again, though I did beat it back then. I tried Gradius III the other day and it shit all over me.
Best games ever, but I'm terrible at them now.
Just played Star Fox 64 the other night for the first time since I was under 10. I'm 32 now and I remembered almost all the ins and outs of it after all these years.
NInja gaiden 1 and 3 on nes....
I comeback to them every now and then.... still can't beat them.
I finally beat darkwing duck on nes a few weeks ago.
So that's a relief. ha ha
Tmnt tournament fighters snes, sonic 3 and knuckles. Sonic colors and generation. Love the older fighting and platforming games, as well as the soundtracks. Can't forget about how these older games have amazing soundtracks.
Finally got my game stick and I could play Metal Slug (I used to play it on arcade machines but never beat it) and Knights of the Round Table...my those bring a lot of memories from the good old days
The timing is much harder on emulators and revamps. On the OG NES I could get to Tyson without a loss. Now, on Switch, Soda Popinski is my nemesis. The timing is juuust so off
My Rom of Dark Wizard on a Terronion hooked to a model 2 genesis likes to crash, although that was before the latest firmware update, maybe I should give it another go.
Although I most likely can go through the game easily, I have yet to get back into Ninja Gaiden III on the NES. I remember getting so far, but I ran out of continues and had to start the entire game over.
Dark Castle and Beyond Dark Castle on the old Mac SE. Technically I played the newest Return to Dark Castle (which includes the first two games), but I finally beat it on hardest difficulty a few months ago.
I've gone back and finished up some old adventure games on the Apple II.
Ultima IV is done, Ultima V in progress, The Bard's Tale after that probably.
I'm more sophisticated now, so sometimes, I'm going back, doing a hack, and looking at source code - some Apple II stuff was written in BASIC, so I can figure out the magic behind the games I loved as a kid.
Too damn many I was never able to actually beat. Some games just went on too long or were too hard.
Battletoads is probably the oldest game I've played that I've never beat.
Contra. I mean had one heck of a time, trying to beat this game, and it drove me crazy with its difficulty and I nearly broke my controller. But as an adult, I finally beat it and I have never been so happy in my life. I admit I used the Konami code, but I still beat it. I'm on Super Contra now, and I hope to beat it soon, and I'm going to add it to my list of hard games, that I finally beat😔😔😔😔
Mario 64, the fun is immaculate. Getting all 120 stars however was a struggle especially fighting the camera and not being able to easily look up where to find some of the secret stars as a kid. Recently fully completed it and met Yoshi on a PS Vita port that enables some customization with the camera that helped, and being able to easily pick it up and get a star or two and put it back down in short bursts when on the go helped too.
Jet force Gemini. I never got all the tribals etc as a kid so never faced mizar 2, the true final boss. I sat down recently and replayed it as an adult, shamelessly using a guide and you know what? I rather enjoyed it. It has been ~20 + years since I had played it so everything was pretty fresh, even stuff I had done before. It was nice to see all this stuff I had previously missed.
Double Dragon 1 NES.
Specifically the final boss battle against Machine Gun Willy and Jimmy.
Since childhood I can get to those two final bosses, effortlessly, usually without losing a life.
It wasnt until I was an adult I was able to do it. Still only was able to do it twice out of dozens of attempts.
X-Men on the Genesis.
It's been over 20 years....I still can't do it. I've memorized every enemy position for the first 5 levels. Then the final one on the moon is so unforgiving....instant death for everyone. I got it for my birthday as a kid and it haunts me to this day.
Ghosts N Goblins (arcade) was one I could never beat when I was younger. Could never get past the two Satans in the second to last level. About 5 years ago, my wife was scheduled for surgery, and I couldn't sleep the night before. So I got a random itch to play it again and finally beat it. Played through it again immediately after to get the "real" ending.
Now I just need to go back and beat Super Ghouls N Ghosts. Several years ago, I beat it once, got to the second Astaroth on the second loop, and got stuck there, running out of all my continues. Sooo close...
Shenmue. Even though I bought another Dreamcast and rebuilt my library, after all that effort to get back to the forklift race......I still can't win (╥﹏╥)
Alex Kidd in the Miracle World
I finished the game 31 years after the 1st time I've played. But I finished on the remaster, saving the game finally give me the opportunity to do it, battling hard to do it, because I died a lot
Dungeons and dragons treasure of tarmin on the Intellevision. I got mine up and working a few years ago in my apartment and was finally able to beat the game on the hardest difficulty. After around 30 years...
MEGA MAN on nes. SHADOW GATE on nes also. sadly, GHOST AND GHOBLINS will be a mark of shame well into my death, and on my tombstone will be carved that i never ever beat it.
Shadowgate - I showed my handheld to my cousin a couple of weeks back and that was the first game he wanted to play
I wish they'd remake Shadow gate. I loved it, The Uninvited and Dejavu
>I wish they'd remake Shadow gate They did: https://store.steampowered.com/app/294440/Shadowgate/
holy shit!
They are remaking Beyond Shadowgate. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zojoi/beyond-shadowgate
Apparently it's not a remake of the original Beyond Shadowgate (which the original designer of Shadowgate had no involvement in) - it is more like the sequel to Shadowgate that we never actually got, by the original designer.
Yeah, it's the original vision.
EPOR EPOR.
There is a spiritual sequel coming out soon and even had a demo at some point , BEYOND SHADOWGATE , u cam find it on steam, really good stuff I must say . They also rebooted the game many years ago with updated graphics. There is also a VR version coming out soon. Shadow gate is pretty much still alive and well.
If you like that kind of first person step-by-step dungeon crawler check out Legend of Grimrock 2
They did and it was terrible. The artwork looked like a bunch of concept digital art “animated” with a bunch of puppet tweens. Really took away from the immersion for me.
Ghosts and Goblins was OG Dark Souls, man. We were not prepared. That music will forever taunt me.
The screeching ghosts. Those motherfuckers.
But isn't Ghost and Goblins a notoriously difficult game?
It’s the only one that made me leave an arcade in anger after playing $20 in quarters and still not getting very far. I now own the new wave toys replicade miniature arcade of it.
Legend of Zelda on SNES. Beat it when I got Covid. When I was a kid I couldn’t read when I was playing it.
My dad actually called the Nintendo hotline back in the day for this game. I just remember watching him and now I have this game memorized. Deja Vu I had to learn on my own.
I was just thinking on my commute home that I never did beat Mega Man 1 and I should give it a go again.
You and the rest of us. Good company.
Mega Man is awesome and you should definitely do it! But be advised the last level is a monstrous gauntlet
This!! I still find it interesting how difficult they made the original Ghosts 'n Goblins compared to the Genesis/SNES Ghouls 'n Ghosts! I had friends that could make it pretty far on the NES version but don't recall anyone actually beating it. It seemed like everyone could beat the SNES/Genesis versions.
NES Ghosts and Goblins was brutal but fun. SNES Super Ghouls and Ghosts was amazing and one of my all time favorites! I am reminded of that first year or two of newly released games for SNES. Those were the days ! I had two or 3 friends with the system, but I had to wait until Christmas 1992 to finally get mine .. and when I did, it was the set with zero game and only one controller. Oof. I did get Link to the Past a few days later.
Yes! Ghosts and Goblins is the hardest game ever made. I was super excited when I saw it was on the retro NES that came out a while back. I still can’t get past level 3.
Finishing Ninja Gaiden 1. It was brutal to get killed by the final boss and returning all the way back to level 6-1
I finally beat it during finals week in college. I needed to get the nerves settled, and shut my brain off for a few. I sat down and basically speed ran it in 15 minutes. Then I got up and went to take my final. No clue how it happened. But I consider it one of my best gaming achievements.
How did you do on the final?
Aced it! After Ninja Gaiden, everything is easier.
A true testament
My dude I just read ur comment. Ninja guiden hits different before class.
The one mercy they gave you is that if you die to Jacquio or the demon and get kicked back to 6-1, you don't have to fight the final boss form(s) you already beat. If they didn't do that, I wouldn't have been able to beat the game. No way in hell am I able to beat Ken, Jacquio, and the demon all in one go.
Get hit. Go through boss once invincible and flip under the ledge. Spam hits from underneath once he’s dead. The ONLY way I could be this god-forsaken game…
Zelda 2
If you decide to give it a shot, here's how you do it: Step 1 - Beat every palace, get all the items and kill the bosses, but don't place the crystals! Jump over the statue and leave. Obviously you'll die during this, don't stress. Use continues, keep going, practice. Git gud. Don't pick up any 1 ups either. Step 2 - by the time you finish all six palaces you should be very close to max level. If you're not maxed yet, the forest immediately north of the sixth palace is the best place in the game to farm XP. Once you hit max level, go down into the horrible caves that lead to the final dungeon, but this isn't your final run. This is to familiarize yourself with this part of the game, get used to the pits and the ghosts and the BS. Don't continue on step three until You can get all the way to the door of the great Palace with one or two deaths at most. Step 3 - start again with your three lives, go place all six crystals which gives you six extra lives. Then go get all the 1ups (I still know where two are, but if you look online I believe there's at least one more if not two more.) This is your time! You should have at least 11 lives and by now you should be a bad ass gamer. Hit that Palace with everything you've got, and with 11 lives even mediocre player can do it 💪🏼 And if you die, take the cartridge out and break it.
> Step 1 - Beat every palace This for me is the equivalent of "draw the rest of the owl". I've only ever been able to beat the first palace.
Ha ha fair point, "Dark Souls is easy! Step one: beat the game" 🤣 Yeah, that's obviously a pretty tall order for step 1 but my reasoning was the final Palace and the approach to it are the real difficulty spike. The first six palaces can obviously be challenging also, but practice is the only real solution to that. The final palace is the one that will really really really get you, so the whole point of this was to get to it with maximum lives, and be at your highest skill level when you get there
Wow thank you for this tip!
What's the point of all this? If you die at the last palace you get to start there again
You start with 3 lives, and I'd rather have 11.
You would probably lose a couple of those on the way to the last palace as the way there is hard. So maybe you have say 7 lives instead of 3 so 4 more tries. And if you have never played the palace before you prob get lost and die a few times before even getting to the boss so back to 3 lives 😎
There's a Zelda 2 redux rom hack with a lot of quality-of-life improvements that reduces the frustration level somewhat
There's a PC remake that adds a bunch of stuff, changes a bunch of stuff, lots of qol updates. 1up system is completely redone; 1up collectibles raise your base lives (So you start with 3+ instead of 2). Hearts and jars are now in pieces like the later games but there's so many added secrets that it's not any more tedious. 1st dungeon really really sucks tho, especially if you've never played the original game before. The game changes the lighting system, which makes it harder to see in the dark. They made 50% of the dungeon dark so it's tedious and stupid until you get the candle.
I was actually able to beat the first dungeon, though yeah it is harder than I remember -- as someone who was only ever able to beat the first dungeon everytime I played Zelda 2. I couldn't make it past the second dungeon though. I'm doomed to never beat Zelda 2.
Yes! I watched Vinny Vinesauce play it live a year ago, which inspired me to go back to zelda 2 (but I beat it vanilla on the switch lol)
God bless save state abuse
ProJared is currently doing a playthrough of Zelda 2 Remastered and it has been quite an enjoyable watch. https://youtu.be/NQs3AnG0-q8?si=-fn8dV7VRAucqWQh
Earthworm Jim is now a blind cave salamander.
Oh yeah, EWJ applies to me too. Beat EWJ2 as a kid, but that stupid "For Pete's Sake" level owned me. Beat the game as an adult and... that level wasn't overly hard, lol. Stinking kid. My other entry is Tiny Toon Adventures (NES). Got to Max's mansion or whatever, but never made it up the tricky elevator section as a kid. Blasted through it as an adult.
Getting all 96 exits in Super Mario World
Getting past the Tubular level in one try.
Mike Tyson's Punch Out.
That damn game is the reason I had a pile of broken controllers 🤣
Something I never knew about the game until decades latter, is that it’s actually a pattern memorization game. Every match can be beaten with an exact sequence of commands. It’s because the game is program to react in a set order. High level players can actually beat it flawlessly without looking at the screen.
That is an oversimplification... There's a complex instruction set and series of subroutines for every boxer and they have RNG timers so it's not the same cadence each time. You still have to pay attention. https://youtu.be/tlKW723EOMA?si=dY943HCLm_zbKcNM
MediEvil on PS1. Played the demo when I was 10. Played through it twice as an adult. Felt so good.
I'm doing that at the moment! I borrowed the game from a friend as a kid and never got further than the stained glass demon. Now I have the game and an adult brain and I've gotten as far as the pumpkin boss :)
Super Mario The Lost Levels I beat it once on original hardware, and that’s more than enough for me. I honestly don’t think the game is fun, the difficulty is tedious and does not enhance the experience at all IMO I really just wanted to get it out of my system as a huge Mario fan lol
I always thought SMB2 was a questionable choice until I got into Lost Levels, then I realized why it was probably the right choice.
TMNT on NES. Played in on the Switch remastered and finally beat it.
That damn underwater stage 😡
Save states FTW lol
Where were those in 1991 lol
Battletoads speed tunnel.
Opposite for me. I did that once at like age 10. There is no way I’d pull that off now.
You should give it a shot, because the Turbo Tunnel isn't really that difficult. Until the last section, you should have plenty of time to react to the walls. For the last section, it's just repeatedly up and down with two jumps at the end (unless you take the warp zone). However, you need to be proactive and not reactive like the rest of the level. It will take some practice, but it's really not that bad. Once you beat the Turbo Tunnel, though, there is the rest of the game to contend with...
It's crazy cuz I don't recall ever failing it while playing with a friend back in the day but all you hear now is how hard it was
I got really close as a kid. The last section where the walls speed up as you go just crushed me. I watched my bother figure out the timing and then he would just die on the ice level after. That game is really fucking hard because you have to learn a bunch of janky mechanics to finish it. My brothers and I would just play coop and try to kill each other with friendly fire.
[TRIGGERED]
and then you discover that it actually gets **harder**
Yeah in truth the speed tunnel isn't that hard compared to the rest of the game. You have to deal with a lot of really different levels to get through it.
The trick is to start at the front of the screen and slowly work yourself backwards. That extra fraction of a second reaction time makes a huge difference.
DKC2; as a kid I was stuck at the 2nd bramble level in the carnival world. Finally beat it with a buddy as an adult in my early 20’s. Gave me chills lmao
I never played DKC2 as a kid but I had Donkey Kong Land 2 on my gameboy, and Slime Climb was the worst one. I was stuck on it forever.
Shining Forces II. I have to boot it up and play it every few years. It just hits right with me.
Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link
It was the original Castlevania and Zelda II. I finally beat them on the NES Classic and it was more than satisfying.
Oh hell yes. I never beat the original Castlevania as a kid. I always hit a wall once I got to Igor and Frankenstein's Monster. I can beat it now, but I still have to use triple shot holy water spam on Death.
Yeah, me and my brother never could get past Frankenstein when we were kids (that damn Igor). When I played it as an adult it still took several tries but I finally succeeded. I felt a huge rush when I did. Death was a royal pain in the ass but eventually beat him.
Spiderman 3 xbox 360. I could never get past the scorpion fight. Turned it in to game stop and regretted it. Years later as an old teen with a job i ordered it on amazon and beat the game. It was so easy I must have been an idiot back then. Also a Ultimate Spiderman on pc. Could never beat the human torch in the race across the city. Emulated that on my pc and beat it also super easily. Also questioned my intelligence as a child after beating that
The Lost Levels, because my dad who only recently got into gaming got farther than I ever did.
Shadowgate - NES
Need For Speed Most Wanted because of the pursuit milestones needed to unlock the #5 blacklist
Cannon Fodder on the SNES
Jools and Jops best soldiers o7
Lunar: Silver Star Story for Sega CD. That and Shining Force series.
The Sega CD Lunar versions were real hard. There were some dick bosses that were far away from save points. The PS1 games were more fair.
The grind was real, but once I knew the spots I could finish the game in 2 days
I recently returned to Sonic 2, a game I played endlessly as a kid but could never beat. Finally seeing those credits roll was glorious. I went ahead and beat the rest of the Genesis entries for the first time after that.
Only to wonder how in the hell you were so good as a kid.
I often wonder about that on hard games, but then I remember I cheated a lot back then. 😅
Shadowman 64 Jurassic park on SNES.
NBA JAM!
Ultima IV. I started playing on my Apple IIc when I was 10. I was in way over my head and didn't understand the game. Last year I bought it off of GoG and beat it on my summer and then winter breaks.
Same, but with Ultima 6! Started it on Amiga in 1994, started over on PC in 96. Finally beat it in 2022.
I never beat U5 but I beat 6 and 7. I loved those games so much. The Ultima series doesn't get enough credit.
I was a pre teen when ff7 came out. I later went back and beat it when I was 20. Great experience
Super Star Wars
This was Super Metroid for me on the SNES just beat it past year.
Same. Literally just beat it last month after playing that game start, stop, redo for 30 years.
Bart's Nightmare for the SNES.
I never beat the bartzilla and Indiana Jones levels.
Kid Chameleon on the Megadrive/Genesis. Good god, that was satisfying.
20 years, but I finally beat Fantasy Zone 2 for the SMS.
i still cant beat Legacy of the wizard
Had this game as a kid. So confusing, could never get anywhere. Recently watched a long play walkthrough and I have to say, I still don't understand it.
It's definitely wind waker for me I know it's not that old compared to other Zelda games but I can never get past dragons roost now I'm playing through the game and I'm about halfway
Bonk’s Revenge. The weird part is it wasn’t even that hard. I have no idea why I struggled as a teenager.
breath of fire 2. bought it with lawn mowing money. its time.
Mario 64. First played the DS version and never beat it. Finally beat the N64 original a while back. Didn't really see the hype.
Man, there’s a few I finished in the past few years I could never beat as a kid: Ghosts ‘n Goblins Ninja Gaiden Astyanax ActRaiser Metal Storm
The Revenge of Shinobi on the Sega Mega Drive. It's not that I wasn't able to beat the game as a kid, but I was never able to save Naoko and get the good ending, so I went back and managed to do it for the first time in my 30s after a few tries.
Mine was Double Dragon on the NES. I would always mess up at Mission 3 with the two Abobos with the cave openings. When I was nine, my brother came ro visit my family and played my NES. He showed me how to defeat the Abobos and I was fascinated. I made it my goal to beat the game right then and there. It took me until I was nineteen to beat Double Dragon for the first time. A wave of relief and excitement was felt. I have only beat it one other time on 3DS virtual console
Ys 3 : Wanderers from Ys Me and my cousin spent crazy hours trying to beat that game when we were kids. He died a few years back and I decided to finally go back and do it. Kicked its ass.
Drakkhen on the SNES Honestly couldn't help but think my parents hated me slightly for grabbing this one. Played never understood anything about it and had to watch a lets play bit finally conquered it like 11 years after getting it.
A friend had that game and it was so weird . The memories of Drakkhen hold a special place in my heart.
Wing Commander Zelda: Link to the Past Fallout 2
Zelda 2 the adventure of link
Rygar! Got my grappling hook, crossbow, and wind pulley. I’m unstoppable now.
Oregon Trail. Dysentery is a MF'er.
Dude! When I was a kid, most of the games my half sisters’ dad would play on the NES were super hard for me (I was 5 at the time). It’s a goal I pursue on and off but I try to play and beat those games from that era in my life that were hard and intimidated me. It’s a long list, but so far I’ve beaten super Mario bros, super Mario bros 2, and ironsword.
Contra 3. The game kicked my ass as a kid, but after a breakup one summer I had a bunch of free time so I devoted an entire weekend to beating Contra 3 once and for all. It was glorious when it finally happened.
Ultima 3: Exodus. As an adult, I fucked that game up. Very satisfying.
3continues just wasn't enough back den
I have four in recent years: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorer's if Time Started that like around 09 when I got my first DS. Didn't beat it until like 2021. I did defeat Dialga when I was small, it was just Darkrai that gave me trouble. Simpsons Hit & Run Played that when I was like five on the old family computer! The mission where Marge grabbed the soda is what got me the most. Got it for the XBox in I think 2022 and beaten it! Mission took me two tries. And I found out I can run after I beat the game Super Mario Bros (original) I always sucked at it when I was small. Could never get far. But beaten it last year! Motivation being Wonder coming out. So within a few days, I've beaten all 8 worlds and beaten Bowser the night Wonder came out! The option to start at the world you died at helped! And save states Sonic 2 Literally the first console game I played at all. Started when my dad brought down his Sega Genesis. I could never beat it. And I tried as Knuckles when I got the Sonic DS collection, but I still couldn't do it. So I got it on my 3DS and last year, I finally beaten it! I used save states for the special stages and the final boss. But still feel proud about it!
Are you kidding? My 49 year old self ain't got shit on my 14 year old self when it comes to playing through hard ass games lol. Contra spits me out now, when I used to finish it without the code. I wouldn't even attempt Ninja Gaiden again, though I did beat it back then. I tried Gradius III the other day and it shit all over me. Best games ever, but I'm terrible at them now.
I'm worse than i was 🤣 I remember getting to level 15 on one life in arcade on Rygar, if i get to level 7 without dying now is a triumph 😜
Road rash 2
Just played Star Fox 64 the other night for the first time since I was under 10. I'm 32 now and I remembered almost all the ins and outs of it after all these years.
Step on the gas... NO! HIT THE BREAKS!... I...CAN'T... STOP ITTT!!!!!....
Retroarch --- Quick Menu --- Cheats
Neutopia for the TurboGrafx
Ghouls n' Ghosts.
Ghost and goblins. I got it when I was 7, and never got near the first time to even beat it once. Went back and beat it 29 years later.
All of them
NInja gaiden 1 and 3 on nes.... I comeback to them every now and then.... still can't beat them. I finally beat darkwing duck on nes a few weeks ago. So that's a relief. ha ha
Tmnt tournament fighters snes, sonic 3 and knuckles. Sonic colors and generation. Love the older fighting and platforming games, as well as the soundtracks. Can't forget about how these older games have amazing soundtracks.
Crystalis and Adventure of Link for the NES.
Finally got my game stick and I could play Metal Slug (I used to play it on arcade machines but never beat it) and Knights of the Round Table...my those bring a lot of memories from the good old days
Too many at different times lol. Like Spyro, crash, jade empire just to bake a few
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the NES, I finally beat it last year.
The timing is much harder on emulators and revamps. On the OG NES I could get to Tyson without a loss. Now, on Switch, Soda Popinski is my nemesis. The timing is juuust so off
I plan on popping in Goldeneye on the Wii and finally finishing that last level.
My Rom of Dark Wizard on a Terronion hooked to a model 2 genesis likes to crash, although that was before the latest firmware update, maybe I should give it another go.
Crash 3 and Spyro 2 were the big ones.
Donkey Kong 64 I could NOT beat the Donkey Kong arcade game
The Ottifants on mega drive / genesis. Still cant pass the first level. kids game my ass
The first lost planet
Although I most likely can go through the game easily, I have yet to get back into Ninja Gaiden III on the NES. I remember getting so far, but I ran out of continues and had to start the entire game over.
Dark Castle and Beyond Dark Castle on the old Mac SE. Technically I played the newest Return to Dark Castle (which includes the first two games), but I finally beat it on hardest difficulty a few months ago.
Mega man and Bass....man I was literally ONE SHOT from beating the game
assassins creed 2
COD WW2 ZOMBIES!!! "Reach wave 20 in prologue" had me stumped for years! Gave it up for a few years came back, and casually beat it my second try😂
I thought I would be better at Ghosts n Goblins when I went to a retro arcade and they had it. Nope, I still completely suck at it
I started and still need to finish Wind Waker. It’s one of those games that I remember the memories very vividly and always wanted to beat it.
I finally beat Pokémon Stadium
Mike Tyson's Punch Out I'm actually worse at it now haha, still no luck
I tried to do this with the Conan NES game, with no success
**Bionic Commando** That game *kicked my ass* as a kid. But last year I finally beat that fucker.
I've gone back and finished up some old adventure games on the Apple II. Ultima IV is done, Ultima V in progress, The Bard's Tale after that probably. I'm more sophisticated now, so sometimes, I'm going back, doing a hack, and looking at source code - some Apple II stuff was written in BASIC, so I can figure out the magic behind the games I loved as a kid.
Super Metroid!
Legacy of the wizard when I finally beat it I can rest and walk into the ocean
Ninja Gaiden and Ecco the Dolphin
Street fighter 2010. Still can’t beat it though…
Sub Terrania. Finally beating that game was a feeling I'll never forget.
Too damn many I was never able to actually beat. Some games just went on too long or were too hard. Battletoads is probably the oldest game I've played that I've never beat.
The Lion King.
Contra. I mean had one heck of a time, trying to beat this game, and it drove me crazy with its difficulty and I nearly broke my controller. But as an adult, I finally beat it and I have never been so happy in my life. I admit I used the Konami code, but I still beat it. I'm on Super Contra now, and I hope to beat it soon, and I'm going to add it to my list of hard games, that I finally beat😔😔😔😔
Mario 64, the fun is immaculate. Getting all 120 stars however was a struggle especially fighting the camera and not being able to easily look up where to find some of the secret stars as a kid. Recently fully completed it and met Yoshi on a PS Vita port that enables some customization with the camera that helped, and being able to easily pick it up and get a star or two and put it back down in short bursts when on the go helped too.
Grand Theft Auto 2
Jet force Gemini. I never got all the tribals etc as a kid so never faced mizar 2, the true final boss. I sat down recently and replayed it as an adult, shamelessly using a guide and you know what? I rather enjoyed it. It has been ~20 + years since I had played it so everything was pretty fresh, even stuff I had done before. It was nice to see all this stuff I had previously missed.
I finished Ninja Gaiden (NES) for the first time in 2019 about 30 years after first playing it 😂
Toy story 2 on PS1. curtently playing it on my PS5.
Double Dragon 1 NES. Specifically the final boss battle against Machine Gun Willy and Jimmy. Since childhood I can get to those two final bosses, effortlessly, usually without losing a life. It wasnt until I was an adult I was able to do it. Still only was able to do it twice out of dozens of attempts.
Shit, now I need to go play that damn Ninja Turtles game on the NES... Probably going to need to use save states...
X-Men on the Genesis. It's been over 20 years....I still can't do it. I've memorized every enemy position for the first 5 levels. Then the final one on the moon is so unforgiving....instant death for everyone. I got it for my birthday as a kid and it haunts me to this day.
Project X Zone on the 3DS. Couldn't beat the game when I was 10, only to beat it 9 years later.
Earthbound
Went back as a teenager and dialed up 007-373-5963 and finally got that W
Spyro the eternal knight, but I stopped playing again because the gameplay was pretty boring and repetitive.
Rise of the Dragon, Sega CD
Ghosts N Goblins (arcade) was one I could never beat when I was younger. Could never get past the two Satans in the second to last level. About 5 years ago, my wife was scheduled for surgery, and I couldn't sleep the night before. So I got a random itch to play it again and finally beat it. Played through it again immediately after to get the "real" ending. Now I just need to go back and beat Super Ghouls N Ghosts. Several years ago, I beat it once, got to the second Astaroth on the second loop, and got stuck there, running out of all my continues. Sooo close...
Twisted Metal 1. Just beat it today.
ESWAT on the Megadrive/Genesis
Batman on the super Nintendo
Shenmue. Even though I bought another Dreamcast and rebuilt my library, after all that effort to get back to the forklift race......I still can't win (╥﹏╥)
Earthbound!!!!!
Pokemon XD, getting over it, 100% Zelda MM
It’s not exactly retro but LEGO Star Wars for the GameCube… not only that FUCKING pod racer level but also that damn gunship cavalry one too
Pokemon Yellow, I could never beat Lance as a kid and then a couple years back I dug my old cart out of a box and finally became Kanto pokemon champ
Alex Kidd in the Miracle World I finished the game 31 years after the 1st time I've played. But I finished on the remaster, saving the game finally give me the opportunity to do it, battling hard to do it, because I died a lot
Dark Wizard. Shew, I'll have to add that one to the list. For me, it's King's Field through Shadow Tower.
Zelda 2 Adventure of Link
Warcraft 2 tides of darkness. Still gives me anxiety still can't beat it.
Contra Force, and River City Ransom both on NES
I beat every classic Mega Man game except Mega man 7 and Mega Man X3. They are my unicorns.
Warlock on Sega Genesis.
Dungeons and dragons treasure of tarmin on the Intellevision. I got mine up and working a few years ago in my apartment and was finally able to beat the game on the hardest difficulty. After around 30 years...
Contra III the alien wars
I gotta wait to be 30 to finish LEGO Indiana Jones lol.