Hard gamescome in all shapes and sizes with the same intent across the board: to provide you a balanced challenge. Games likeDark Soulsrelentlessly test your skill and endurance, while others likeXCOMstack the quantitative odds against you from the start. Older titles on this list may have been influenced by their arcade counterparts in that the difficulty stemmed primarily fromscamming more quartersfrom little kids.
Video games have since come a long way in providing various difficulty options for you before you start a game. In some instances,games can even sense when you are losingand offer you a tip or advantage. Some of the following games may make you experience cold sweats, phantom thumb pain, andvisions of dread. Make sure you save your game because below is a ranked list of thehardest games ever released.
10/10 XCOM: Enemy Unknown
Recipient of multiple awards, including theBAFTA Games Award for Strategy, Firaxis Games’XCOX: Enemy Unknownwas released in 2012. XCOM is a turn-based tactical strategy game where you command a squad of soldiers into battle tosecure resources, save civilians, and recover alien technology to upgrade your XCOM facilities post-mission.
Your soldiers can level up, learn new abilities, andoperate new alien weaponsand technology. You can name your soldiers, choose their outfits, and customize your entire squad to look and feel unique. The catch is,if your soldiers diein battle, they arepermanently deadand cannot be chosen for subsequent missions. If you spent hours honing and crafting your perfect alien death squad and things go bad during a mission, rest easy soldier.
9/10 Cuphead
Studio MDHR’srun-and-gun instant classic,Cuphead, is the type of game that really frowns upon blinking. The gorgeous animations andcrisp visualsare almost a necessity here as the screen can get really busy if you aren’t on top of your game. Jump, air dash, and parryhours ofboss battlesand fun platforming stages, but beware; this game is a tough one.
Playing with a friend may help whittle-down a boss' health bar faster but this game suffers from the same difficulty trope that plague games like Contra–more players mean more chaos on screen. Cupheaddemands you recognize patternsand know when to zig and, most importantly, where to zag.
8/10 Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde
TheNintendo Entertainment Systemis a legendary system that was home to some of the most important video games in the history of the industry. It is ever so fitting that some of the hardest games ever released were on the little-grey-box-that-could.
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hydefor the NES is a game that you hide when your friends come over because you haven’t quite figured out how to play and probably never will. You play as Jekyll and Hyde on your mission toget to your weddingin time. On your single-day mission, you encounter the most brutal enemies in video game history: bees, singing women, a child, pooping birds, and a man with a stick and a hat. Along the way, you also realize you probably should’ve rentedZeldaorMario.
7/10 Ghost ‘n Goblins
The punishment you receive in Capcom’s 1985Ghosts ‘n Goblinsis unlike anything seen in most mainstream games today. You playSir Arthuron your mission to save the princess, and along the way you are grossly outmatched even bya lowly first-level bat.You get hit twice and you die, at which point yourestart the level.You can grab an extra hit-point in the way of armor, but this power up is few and far between. When you lose your 3 lives, youstart the game overfrom the beginning.
Even hard video games today provide you with some form ofsave functionorWARNINGnotice before going into a hostile area you may not be ready for. Not here, Sir Arthur; it’s back to the start menu for you.
6/10 Contra
Contrafor the NES is a difficult game. Period. However, what brings this 1987 NES classic to number six on this list is the game gets exponentially more difficult with a second player.
Two player NES Contrasignificantly changes the gameplay in that you and your partner can drastically control the forward progression. There are platforming sections riddled throughout the missions, and if you jump and advance the screen before your partner is ready, its okay that you got angry.It’s not your fault.
5/10 Celeste
MountCelesteis calling your name,Madeline,and you better get those platforming shoes out because this game is scream-in-the-pillow difficult. Celeste, developed byMatt Makes Games, gives you all the tools you need to slide, jump, platform, air-dash, wave and super dash your way up the treacherous mountain.
Celeste is a hard game, but it makes it to number five on the list because of itssilky smooth movement,precise platform gameplay, itscompelling story, and the endorphin-rich feeling you get when you conquer a stage.
4/10 Super Meat Boy
Speaking of endorphins: Anger, meet Meat Boy. Meat Boy, meet Anger.Team Meat’s2010 platformerSuper Meat Boyis one of the hardest games ever made but for all the right reasons. Hard games do not have to be bad; they just need be fair.
When you die in Super Meat Boy, it’s probably your own fault. Theprecise gameplay mechanicsoffer everything you need to executepixel perfect platforming prowess. You will die often, but that’s okay because the game instantly puts you right where you need to be to try again, and again, and again, and again. And, as a bonus, the game shows you every attempt you made that run after you beat the level. The cacophony of splattering meat isblissfully soothing–or ridiculously embarrassing.
3/10 Dark Souls
Sometimes a hard game can be so rewarding, the challenge is worth every corpse run.Dark Soulspunishes you for making bad decisions and rewards you with enduring and overcoming those bad decisions.FromSoft’s2011 Dark Souls arguablyushered in a new era of hard video games.
FromSoft designed Dark Souls mechanics sotightly and precise, it’s hard to argue that when things go wrong you weren’t at fault. Granted, there are instances where Dark Souls isbrutally difficultto the point where you may need to grind just to level the playing field, power-wise, but the grind is what hones your skills. The more you play, the more efficient you become. But also, sometimes you need to take all your gear off andhigh-tail it to the next bonfire, grind be damned.
In Dark Souls, each life is precious, so use the second one more carefully than you did the first.
2/10 The Witness
Jonathan Blow’s 2016The Witnessis a gorgeous open world-esque puzzle game that is unlike anything that’s come before. While painfully difficult in some of the later areas, The Witness is a marvel of a challenging puzzle game design that is widely rewarding even dozens of hours in.
The environment cues, music, ambience, andmysteriousnessof the island in The Witness compels you to solve each puzzle, no matter how swollen your brain may become. Theextreme elationwhen conquering an especially troublesome puzzle andunlocking the secrets to the narrativeand the world makes this game a solid number 2 on this list.
1/10 Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest
Some games are hard but leave you with a great feeling at the end, like Celeste. Other games punish you until you agree to their terms and conditions, like Dark Souls.CastlevaniaII: Simon’s Questfor the NES is an open-world redacted government document where the blacked-out text is in another book.
NPCs straight up give youobscure or irrelevant information. There appear to be variouslocalization errorswhen the game shipped to the US, effectively making it impossible to actually beat this game without the use of a guide. The game also features aDay and Night cyclethat increases enemy power at night. On top of all that, platforming is atouch unresponsive,which can make the platforming sessionsan absolute nightmare.
