Alright, so let's talk about the games that are so hard that you want to tear your hair out, and yet you keep coming back for more. Recently I've been getting into old school action games and platformers, the harder the better. Jumper makes me want to tear my own face off, and I'm pretty sure that while playing I Wanna Be the Guy I suffered some sort of low-level aneurysm.
As far as console games go, God Hand is still pretty capably handing me my ass, but my collection needs more games that will punch me in the balls.
Games don't necessarily have to fall into the action/platformer genre either, as I've heard that games like Shiren the Wanderer are pretty damn punishing, but let's keep it restricted to more modern stuff. We all know that Battletoads is rape. I wanna know what's breaking your sanity NOW.
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Honestly, I think my oXbox laughed at me every time I died in Ninja Gaiden.
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The only really hard game that I really enjoyed despite the fact that I'm still not that good at it.
NGB has maybe 9 hours of gameplay. My first playthrough took 26 hours.
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Ninja Gaiden 2 for Xbox 360. Now the ninjas have rocket launchers.
Devil May Cry 3 and 4, especially beyond the normal difficulty settings. Not NG levels of hard, but still fucking hard.
Shinobi for PS2. You always have a time limit; you have to do very hard platforming sections involving wall running; you have to kill a bunch of enemies in a row to increase your damage potential for one hit, and if you don't do this right you won't do much damage to the boss at all. Most later levels involve all of the above. At one point you fight a blind samurai in a corridor full of water, and floating robots that shoot lasers at you. This may be the hardest 3d game I've ever played.
Worked fine when I tossed it on my friends 360 about 7 months ago.
all the contra games, really, but Contra 4 is so fucking good.
This. I went through the entire game without understanding the combo system. Then i finally realized what it took to get an A after studying a bunch of youtube videos.... I was like o_O at first, then i was all like .
I did eventually get A on the first level. I saved the replay because it will never happen again.
I made a game, it has penguins in it. It's pay what you like on Gumroad.
Currently Ebaying Nothing at all but I might do in the future.
I'm leaning towards NGB and Contra.
Which is the harder of the two most recent DMC games?
Has anyone else played Jumper? This is one of the EARLY levels.
Each of the yellow arrows allows an extra jump, and the yellow lines kill instantly, while the red are harmless.
It takes about 20 perfectly-timed jumps to beat that level. I cried.
Isn't that available for download on the XBox Originals? Since the XBOs are just disc images, I would imagine that compatibility is pretty good.
I really like the Ninja-Turtles-Cowabunga style of DMC, but for my money NG is a more tightly woven game.. I can't speak for NG2, though.
I've been having a harder with 4 than 3. It's not as fluid and dodging attacks seems harder.
There are games that are hard as fuck without being cheap. Ninja Gaiden, God Hand, Ikaruga etc.
EDIT: Also, DMC4 has swords that rev up via Motorcycle handles and then catch fire.
Oh c'mon... NG not cheap? Ikaruga not cheap? Have you SEEN the last level?!
Never played God Hand before but I'm sure there are tons of cheap moments.
Ninja Gaiden was not cheap at all and I went back to play through it up to Very Hard. If you die in a game because the enemies are on-par with you, it's not cheap. Suck it up, baby.
I assume you're talking about the xbox version or whatever, and not the NES versions... Because the NES versions DEFINED cheap deaths for me. The xbox versions -- You're telling me not one boss in the game is cheap?
Oh the old ones were cheap as fuck. As for the XBox one... no, not really. The only boss who ever frustrated me was the very last one and that was because I couldn't figure out how to fight him immediately. I never beat NG2 but what I played of it was too easy compared to the first.
The very first Murai fight was cheap, but not for how he fought. I think the reliable way to kill him is cheap... run up wall, slash, repeat.
Ninja Gaiden vs Ninja Gaiden 2 is an excellent example of hard vs cheap.
NG2 is a fine game, and I enjoy it, but there are a lot of levels that have masses of ranged enemies - machineguns and rocketlaunchers, mostly - along with melee enemies that are swarming you. On top of that, all later enemies will throw you fairly often, and for the most part, there is no indication that a throw is about to take place (or the indication is almost unnoticeable). This just isn't fun.
On top of that, the camera (a major problem in all 3d action games) is much worse than in NG1 or similar games - in fact, it seems like it actively wants to look away from the enemies. I spend most of my time in a fight with no idea where the enemies are except "behind me."
The bosses throw you even more often, with very little indication of their intent. The game is extremely throw happy. This forces you to basically never attack with an actual combo, just stick and move, which is not nearly as fun as NG1's flowing combo-to-combo, rolling, wall-running deliciousness.
Ninja Gaiden (NES)
Mega Man 9
And the king of impossible games:
BATTLETOADS!!!!!!
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My kingdom for a NGB gore mod.
While most of the combat is easy things get difficult when shotgun weilding miltants spawn right behind you.
This is why hard games are awesome. The frantic, screaming hordes of death do not have the same threat, and you do not feel like the blood-spattered god of destruction that you are, if the game is not hard, if there is no challenge in wresting the heads of your enemies from their bodies in glorious battle.
That quote and your post are fantastic and perfectly lay out why hard games rock.
I have to say that one of my favorite NDS games ever is Contra 4 though.
So beautiful, so perfectly well constructed, with such an excellent difficulty curve, and with all those challenges to train you for and add bonus content... plus it comes with the NES versions of Contra 1 and Super C!
Can't go wrong with that, esepcially at $20.
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edit: And Ninja Gaiden for the oxbox is rad. It's not cheap, you'll usually know what you did wrong for the most part.
Ghosts and Goblins was just as bad. You finally finish the game after level after level of horribly difficult enemies, just to find out that you have to finish the game all the way through a second time in order to get the real ending.
I threw my controller down in a fit of rage, and never touched the game again.
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You've actually seen passed the first level? By the time I make it to the end of the first level I run out of lives. Fucking game.
While not having the insane number of enemies on screen each of which will easily kill you like Ninja Gaiden. Mega Man instead focuses on making pixel perfect platforming and attacks. However it manages not to be cheap and when you die you know it's your own fault for sucking so much.