You know what I’m talking about. Some Nintendo games (and other consoles) of that era had some tough games, be it due to jumping puzzles, number of enemies flying at you, or a combination of this and other factors. But what games nowadays fit this type of description or has the day of a real challenge in gaming gone the way of the dodo?
Ikaruga. Ikaruga.
I’d say Metroid Prime’s difficulty is comparable to some of the older Nintendo games.
There are too many variables here.
You talking about the hard/medium setting?
How about hitting quicksave every three seconds?
Most computer games are a breeze just b/c you can save every three feet if you want to but if you just played through they would be nearly impossible in spots.
Ikaruga. Yes.
F-Zero is fairly hardcore towards the end… this is the GameCube one I’m talking about.
Advance Wars 2 is pretty evil, especially on the hard campaign, but it’s not really the same kind of challenge (not skill based, I mean).
The PAL (Australian and European) version of Metroid Prime had the difficulty beefed up compared to the Japanese and US releases, and on Hard Mode was often very dire.
Viewtiful Joe has plenty of this exact type of challenge.
Diablo II towards the end of the game (Hell), especially when the character you’re playing as was designed without powerplaying too much. Also, Diablo II manages to masterfully avoid the normal trouble associated with loading and saving in computer games, although it’s painfully easy to hack characters sometimes (though if the game bugs out and cripples your character, this can be a good thing).
Trying to take certain shortcuts or beat world records in Elastomania is a teeth-grinding experience, and I’ve been playing the game solidly for three years. I suppose playing it through the first time was rather nasty too. Currently I’m trying to complete it controlling the game only with my toes, although admittedly, this cranks up the difficulty on most games.
That’s all I can think of presently.
~ Isaac
The new Castlevania games are every bit as hard as the original ones.
Different Genre than the old Nintendo games, but try beating CivIII on Sid level. Very difficult - the AI gets massive production and trade bonuses, and starts out with 18 extra combat units, and 2 free settlers. And if you can do that, then go into the editor, and set the difficulty level even higher - like this guy did.
On the NES, Abadox made a friend cry. I played it on an emulater, and even with saving every 10 seconds, it took me forever just to beat the first two levels. Now THAT’S a hard game.
Kya and Jak II (for the PS2) are both pretty damn hard.
Viewtiful Joe is very big on making you play for a long time, including a boss battle, without any save points until afterwards. Metroid Prime also had some of this nastiness, where you had to play through a big section of the level to get back to the difficult boss.
Viewtiful Joe is also good at one of the most devious tricks of old Nintendo games to increase challenge: More enemies. The last level is crazy about just piling on enemy after enemy all at once, which is hell especially on higher difficulty levels. Metroid Prime does this as well, most often in the Phazon Mine areas.
You’re kidding, right?
I found the three Gameboy advance games and Symphony of Night–as beautiful and as fun as they are, to be really, really easy in comparison to, say, Castlevania 1 or 3. Death still kicks my ass every time in the first one.
Sorry about going OT there.
Current games? I had a really difficult time with Advance Wars, like the poster above mentioned…it’s not -exactly- the same kind of challenge as those old NES platformers, but it still captures the idea of being -really- difficult, but not impossible given a little luck and skill.
Devil May Cry is a very stylish, fast paced, fun, and challenging game. One of my favorites of this generation.
Bosses don’t gewt much harder than the final boss in Shinobi (PS2).
And Return of the King is hella hard. I have most of the characters on my file at level ten, and I still play it on easy on co-op.