Top 10 Hardest NES Games

jwdonal · Post by **jwdonal** » Fri Jun 11, 2010 2:46 am

I found this site by accident when I was looking for something else. I thought it was a fun read and figured I should share it. Enjoy!...or not.

http://www.retrojunk.com/details_articles/2161/

Bregalad · Post by **Bregalad** » Fri Jun 11, 2010 3:02 am

Well, I think it's a bit biased... I finished Mega Man 1 multiple times easily I don't think it has anything to do on that list (Mega Man 4 however is impossible).

And sure BT is hard, but yet it's ridiculous to put it before Ghost & Goblins.... Almost anyone can go halfway to stage 3 of BT, but few gamers will survive more than 30 seconds in G&G.

mic_ · Post by **mic_** » Fri Jun 11, 2010 4:13 am

I agree that Megaman 4 is harder than Megaman 1.
Silver Surfer has no place in the #1 spot. You just need to play the stages a few times, and then you can beat them without too much problem.

I would definitely rank GnG as the hardest of the games on that list, possibly followed by DD3 and BT.

I would also remove Bart vs The Space Mutants from the list and replace it with something like Contra or Snake Rattle 'n Roll (assuming that cheats like the Konami code are disallowed).

Bregalad · Post by **Bregalad** » Fri Jun 11, 2010 4:17 am

Contra is easy honnestly I beat it muliple times without the code and alone.

However, there is also something significant to take into accound : If the game is good or bad.
For example BT is hard but in a good way. However, G&G or Silver Surfer are honestly very lame (despite being incredibly hard).

Luke · Post by **Luke** » Fri Jun 11, 2010 6:10 am

Yeah the trick is definitely in picking hard, good games. Otherwise you could say a game like X-Men by LJN (which I had the pronounced misfortune of owning as a child) is the hardest game on the NES. Anyway, replace Silver Surfer with Ninja Gaiden and I think that list is pretty good.

Ian A · Post by **Ian A** » Fri Jun 11, 2010 6:49 am

One of the most difficult things in Ghosts in Goblins is the jumping. Since you only change the direction you're facing and absolutely nothing else, you can die right in the beginning if a zombie comes to life underneath you.

There was a time when I was trying to get as far as I could in that game without continuing. I think I gave up after a week.

mic_ · Post by **mic_** » Fri Jun 11, 2010 7:32 am

Anyway, replace Silver Surfer with Ninja Gaiden and I think that list is pretty good.

Not if you're talking about the first Ninja Gaiden - that doesn't even belong on a top 10 of hard NES games, let alone the #1 spot.
Ninja Gaiden 3 (at least the last couple of levels) is harder IMO, but that might be because I haven't played it anywhere near as much as the first game.

Bregalad · Post by **Bregalad** » Fri Jun 11, 2010 7:39 am

The lame part of Ninja Gaiden is when you loose at any final boss at stage 6-4, you revert to 6-1 (but if you died normally in, say, 6-3 you would restart in 6-3). This is not challenge/difficulty any longer but lame design and intended to frustrate people.
This applies to all bosses I think but other bosses are so easy it doesn't really matter.

It's true NG 2 and 3 are harder when it comes to actual difficulty, I wasn't able to get past the first few stages on those.

Luke · Post by **Luke** » Fri Jun 11, 2010 8:50 am

I think Ninja Gaiden 2 is much easier than 1. Haven't played much of 3.
I see the point about NG1 being unfairly hard because of how they laid out the last level but I still think it deserves a spot over most of the games on the list.

koitsu · Post by **koitsu** » Fri Jun 11, 2010 9:08 am

I disagree with one entry the site in question mentions: Mega Man. I have absolutely no problems beating this game. There's only a couple places where it's difficult.

I am happy to see that Contra isn't on their list though. Like Bregalad, I have no problem beating Contra either. It's best to familiarise yourself with the game using the Konami code (30 men); once you do that, finishing it with only 3 guys (you'll have more by that time) is pretty easy. You'll lose most of your guys during the final level.

I still haven't finished Ninja Gaiden (1, 2, or 3). Furthest I've gotten in NG1 is to the 2nd phase of the final boss, which is where I said "Are you kidding? FUCK THIS" and turned the console off. It's a great game, but as Bregalad noted, the whole return-to-6-4 thing is not only frustrating, but downright stupid. If there's ever a point in the game players need that "extra help", it's those final stages.

mic_ · Post by **mic_** » Fri Jun 11, 2010 10:42 am

Furthest I've gotten in NG1 is to the 2nd phase of the final boss, which is where I said "Are you kidding? FUCK THIS" and turned the console off.

Ragequit

The "trick" is to be patient and not taking any chances. Get up on one of the pedistals and take one stab at the boss as he flies towards you, avoiding getting any closer to him than you absolutely need to. Then get down on the floor again and avoid the two flames he throws and make sure they actually leave the screen. Repeat until the boss is dead.

In the event that you do get hit by the flames, don't attempt to attack the boss until the flames have gone away. That way you've got less stuff to keep track of.

Really what it's all about is not taking unnecessary risks just because you want to finish him off quickly or because you're on the last-boss-adrenaline-high

I only had a handful of games for my NES as a kid. Of course I borrowed games from other people, but I also played the games that I owned a lot. One of those games just happened to be Shadow Warriors (european title for Ninja Gaiden), so I used to do speedruns of it (although I had never heard of that term at the time) where I basically played through the game over and over with a stopwatch running to see how fast I had beaten it. And if I died anywhere in the game I just pressed reset and started over again.

GradualGames · Post by **GradualGames** » Fri Jun 11, 2010 9:40 pm

I started really loving to play hard games when I realized that they are microcosms of real life: unimaginable numbers of failures followed finally by success.

About Ninja Gaiden: at least once you reach the final boss, if you die and go back to 6-1, the final boss will be the same form you last saw it at. So it doesn't make you re-do everything. Castlevania on the other hand forces you to do all forms every time but you start right outside Dracula's lair. Trade offs...just like the challenge of life itself

Bregalad · Post by **Bregalad** » Sat Jun 12, 2010 4:41 am

Gradualore wrote: About Ninja Gaiden: at least once you reach the final boss, if you die and go back to 6-1, the final boss will be the same form you last saw it at. So it doesn't make you re-do everything.

Nevertheless, this is still incredibly stupid and frustrating. It's not like if 6-1, 6-2 and 6-3 were a piece of cake.

GradualGames · Post by **GradualGames** » Sat Jun 12, 2010 11:30 am

I generally find I get frustrated with a game if it does not have unlimited continues. Continues are basically "built in quarters" as I see it. If you buy a game, you should automatically get infinite quarters---it doesn't make sense to make a game pretend it is an arcade game and assume that whomever is playing would have only brought 10 quarters along to the arcade =). I recall trying to play through Arkista's Ring a few months ago, and it wasn't that hard til the last level and then I ran out of continues. Ninja Gaiden, though very difficult, simply doesn't run out of continues so it is much less tedious.

Bregalad · Post by **Bregalad** » Sat Jun 12, 2010 11:40 am

I don't think limited continues are that bad - they force you to turn the console off at some point which isn't too bad.

However, when it gets like Double Dragon 3 where you have ONE life and NO continues, then yes it is crap.