Yeah, a lot of Video gamer gods on this board. But surely there've been game over the years that's put you in your place?

A few of my humbling experiences that come to mind:

Original NES:

Master Blaster - Great long game. Didn't really kick my ass, but was never able to finish it because they forgot to put in a SAVE feature.

PS1:

R-Type Delta - Really tough. Made me start to wonder if perhaps I was too old for shooters.

Tails Concerto - Pretty easy game until the final boss level, where you had to scale a 3D tower of platforms. Most of the target platforms were offscreen. And moving. And you were doing it underwater so you jumped in slow motion.

DS Lite:

Contra 4 - Convinced me that I'm DEFINATELY too old for shooters. I made it to the second level boss once. On EASY.

claymates, cool spot on snes have given me hard times.

snes/genesis and backwards have had some hard games that'v made me mad. cant think of too many more at the moment.

NES - Contra 3. Followed by Tyson's Punch Out, which I eventually beat...and Rad Racer.
Genesis - Gairies. This has to be one of the toughest shooters EVER. I owned that game for years until I got rid of my Genesis, could never beat the fucker.
SNES - Super Ghosts N Goblins. Fuck this game.
PSX - nothing that jumps out at me right now...gotta think about it.
PS2 - Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution. The AI on that game is just SICK - and you can forget it on the harer modes.
Xbox - Ninja motherfucking Gaiden. Fuck that shit. I beat it once on the OG XBOX, and then when I sold the system upon getting a 360, I almost cried before I deleted that save. I've only played through a few levels on the 360...not sure if I'll ever beat it again.
Xbox 360 - Currently, Call of Duty 4 is smacking the fuck out of me on Veteran.

Battle-f'ing-Toads

SNES - Super Ghosts N Goblins. This was my choice as well.

Mike Tyson in Mike Tyson's Punchout for NES literally kicked my ass.Beat everyone but him.Tried way too many times and was so close but i never did beat him.

Lately everything. I loved Final Fantasy Tactics when I played it on the PSone. I started playing it again on the PSP and finally just gave up 10 hours in. Game is too freaking hard now. Guess I just got used to later SRPGs like Fire Emblem and Jeanne D'arc.

I beat things like Ninja Gaiden and Mike Tyson's Punchout back in the day and now I struggle with most games.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the NES! That game was such a bitch to play, it's one of the few games that I gave up on in frustration.

Why the hate for Super Ghosts N Goblins? It's one of the few games I owned for the SNES and brings back some good memories.. just don't lose that golden armor though

Here's the first part of a speed run someone did through it. "super ghouls n ghosts speed run" under Youtube.

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I always remember Batman for the NES being very difficult. Of course, I was 8 years old at the time...

TMNT 1 for NES. It took me forever to beat that and when I finally did we got that shitty ending. It was those damn flying guys who shoot the lasers. I didn't know the trick to make them disappear so they kept killing me. If I actually made it to Shredder, I'd have one guy left and it was usually useless Raphael.

Castlevania 3. I had no patience for the damn medusa heads. I had to beat it with a code.

Mace Griffin Bounty Hunter, the game itself was ok, but I never could get past the final sequence even w/ cheats




Most recent was the final sequence on Jericho. I knew what had to be done but could never quite figure out the best way to do/get it down w/ everything that goes on in that game.

It seems Ninja Gaiden (NES) and Ninja Gaiden (Xbox) are both freaking tuff. Many moments i had with those games that i wanted to toss the controller at the nearest person beside me. But i still love the series as a whole, great games!

The hardest game I have ever played is battletoads on the NES. I am not sure how anyone can disagree especially with that hoverbike stage

Funny you should ask. I installed this today and I got to the second level on EASY before I couldn't progress any further:
http://retroquake.planetquake.gamespy.com/blog/?p=177

If we're talking old school, then Ninja Gaiden on the NES.

Current stuff, and I'm almost afraid to say it, but I've been stuck on the second level of Battlefield: MC for the 360 for a freaking year now. I cannot get past it. I have tried and tried and tried. And I'm playing on the easiest difficulty.

I've only played 4 games in my life that I could not beat.

Super Ghouls N' Ghosts (SNES) - I was so happy when I got to the last level, then the game told me to play through the whole thing again to play the last boss.

Einhander (PS) - Patterns, just tough.

Abbadox (NES) - Same.

Vagrant Story (PS) - I just didn't have the patience.

I just got the Mile High Club achievement on COD4. It literally took me 12 hours to complete a 1 minute level.

Off topic, but I misread this and now I totally want to play a game called "Merv Griffin Bounty Hunter." I'm not sure if you'd play as a bounty hunter trying to track down Merv Griffin or you'd play as Merv Griffin trying to track down other bounties, but either way, I'm there!

As for the topic, most games kick my ass because I have no skillz. I'm currently playing COD2 on Veteran and I'm stuck on the second floor of train depot in the Russian campaign -- I just captured it from the Germans and I can't seem to stop them from retaking it.

I've also got some games -- Condemned and Gears of War come to mind -- where I've made it to the final boss but can't beat him.

No Fighting in the War Room on Veteran in CoD 4.

ditto

But I did end up beating it, which amazes me.

I was gonna say TMNT for NES as well. I always got stuck on the part where you have to jump I think you were supposed to use a rope and swing across or something. Never got past it.

Oh yeah, forgot about TMNT (NES). I always got killed in the swimming stages.

Not many games I've completely given up on, but off the top of my head...

Xbox: Breakdown- Started off being pretty good and challenging, but there's a part that just gets cheap with guys coming from all sides.

Ninja Gaiden- Kicked my ass and I gave up on it for about 3 months. Came back and beat it. That was satisfying.

360: Call of Duty 2 and 4 on veteran. Never gave up, but man did they kick my mother fucking ass!

I also agree with Super Ghosts and Goblins. FUCK. THAT. GAME.

E.T. on Atari

Reading this thread, I think it must be something genetic in gamers that make them swear like muthafuckers when they even THINK about games that've given them a hard time