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61 Frames Per Second

GameTrailers' Top 10 Most Difficult Games

Posted by Nadia Oxford

GameTrailers.com posted a video list that names the ten hardest games of all time (so far). Does anything look familiar to you? Maybe selection number seven is responsible for that fist-sized dent in your wall? Perhaps #3 is represented in your mind by a controller dashed against the floor?

Not surprisingly, the comments section for the video is filled with insightful discussion, including "WHAT? Devil May Cry 3 was easy! ur just a pussy faggot!" and "u shuld get cancer & die."

The revival of old franchises has also rekindled a lot of talk about truly challenging games versus unfair games. Bionic Commando, for example, is a tough journey because you have to re-think everything you thought you knew about game physics. You unconsciously hit a jump button that's not there; you have to scale up, not out. Suddenly, a simple obsticle with an enemy soldier lying in wait behind it becomes a small puzzle because you cannot initiate a death from above. Not in the traditional goomba-stompin' manner paved by Mario.

My pick for hardest game doesn't make GameTrailer's list, but it will burn on in my heart like a cinder: Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter. Capcom's fifth installment in its famous RPG franchise about swords and dragons was anything but traditional. Dragon Quarter takes place in a congested underground world that's as hostile as a baboon pen during mating season. Everything is out to kill the main character, Ryu--including the less-than-benevolent dragon spirit that posesses him.

In Dragon Quarter, you are expected to die. It's the only way you learn how to fight and in fact, dying is the only way to see the entire story. It's not exactly hard to perish, given that enemies fight strategtically and force you to do the same in every single battle. But the system is so beautifully thought out and so balanced that if you die, you have nobody to blame but yourself and your rashness.

It's probably why I appreciate Dragon Quarter as one of the greatest RPGs in console history but can't bring myself to finish it. I admit I'm not a heavy thinker or wizard problem solver, especially when I'm playing video games. I play games to relax. I'm not much for strategy, especially not real-time strategy, which makes me break out into a sweat.

Unfortunately, idiots like me are killing the RPG genre. Dragon Quarter sold very poorly thanks to its radical design, dooming RPGs to a thousand years of swords, menu commands and destined orphans with burnt hometowns.

I'm really sorry I'm such a wuss when it comes to genuinely challenging games.

Related Links:

Games and Motion Sickness: The Struggle To Not Toss Your Cookies
Fifty-Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right
The Ten Videogames That Should Have Been Controversial


Comments

Rob said:

Well, now I feel like a badass.

I've beaten Contra, Ninja Gaiden, Zelda II, and Battletoads.  I was gonna say the list was worthless without Ghosts and Goblins, and it made #2.  That game is fucking impossible, and you really have to be a masochist to keep playing it cause it's brutally un-fun.  

Other games I could never beat...Mario 2, Paperboy, and the original TMNT.

August 14, 2008 3:20 PM

Amber Ahlborn said:

You are a wuss ;)  I own Dragon Quarter and find a lot to love about it.  I have beaten it a couple times but still haven't got my ranking up very high.  I feel it has the best turn based combat system I've ever played.  I even featured it in my post pitting turn based VS real time combat in RPGs:

August 14, 2008 3:22 PM

Roto13 said:

Zelda 2 was ridiculously hard. You can get the hang of it, but it's still pretty tricky. It's pretty unforgiving. I managed to get through it, though. :P What kind of a Zelda fanboy would I be if I couldn't finish the second game?

Shinobi was retardedly hard! I don't think I got past level three or something. xP Soon after getting the sword that devours you, it got too hard to be any fun any more. :P

Ikaruga. That's another one. I'm just bad at shmups, is the problem. Well, that and it's a very hard shmup anyway. :P

Racing games are another type of game I blow at, but F-Zero GX is my absolute favourite for some reason. xD I haven't unlocked the extra tracks. :P

I don't think people would consider Battletoads to be nearly as hard as they think it is if not for that horrible underground speedster thingy.

Good list, though.

August 14, 2008 6:59 PM

Nadia Oxford said:

Sometimes I replay games like Zelda 2 and wonder how the hell I had the patience to master them in the first place.

August 14, 2008 7:39 PM

Demaar said:

I don't think you're to blame for RPGs. After all, you bought BOFV, right? Even if you don't play it, you still gave the dev team the credit (or rather, the monies) they deserved.

Anyways, will watch the vidya later, and also comment on it later.

August 18, 2008 2:55 AM

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  • about the blogger

    John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

    Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

    Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

    Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia's prized possession is a certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

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