Yeah, it was. The Lynx had a port of the arcade version and it's more of a beat-'em-up than a hack-and-slash game.

I'm not sure what the absolute hardest game ever is, but for me it'd probably be either Street Fighter 2010 (NES) or Cannon Fodder (Jaguar). I've played a lot of difficult games, but these two really stand out.

Ah that is it! Do you know how many years i've been trying to remember the name of this game and no one else had ever heard of it. You are the first gamer (even among my old school gamer-dork friends) who knew this game. The comic was so cool and the game sucked so incredibly much - nothing in it made sense the challenges were impossible - blah. Very cool thoug hto look at the links to the games and see there were like real life prizes for the first person defeating it.... fascinating. Now back to trying to purge the game from our collective consciousness.

Zak McKracken was challenging, but nowhere near most difficult ever. But I got it when I was maybe 8 and had no idea what to do once I got to the yak. Beat it once I bought this, which, incidentally, answers your question. I have this, and it's a good collection of some LucasArts classics. Comes with a neat half-inch-thick booklet about all the games... walkthroughs, stories, manuals, etc.

Hahaha you summed that game up perfectly right there! That was one evil game.

The other very difficult one's were Raiders of the Lost Ark, just because that stupid part where you had to make it in the hole in the side of the cliff. I did beat that game though once. Pitfall 2 was also very hard, and so was Chakan: The Forever Man on Genesis. I didn't beat that game.

I'd agree with Battletoads. I can't think of any others offhand that just make me think about how hard they were.

Here's the story of the competition for the prizes. A great read:
http://www.atari-history.com/swordquest.html

Yeah, we had Earthworld and Fireworld, and they both totally confused me. Yet I couldn't stop playing them...

Thanks!!! I agree that it is not the most difficult ever, but I couldn't finish it!!! I beat Indiana Jones, Maniac Mansion, All of the quest games.

I think I got as far as Mars, and there was a Monolith to bring you to the Face. Thats where I got stuck.

On Indiana Jones is that the part where you are just falling down like a 5 screen shaft and on one of the screens there is a small hole on the right you have to guide your guy through? If that is the part you are refrring to i think i gave up in frustration on that one - never did beat it.

Man, I loved that game....finished it too. I do remember some parts while you were on the moon were pretty tough.

I've actually been looking for a copy myself, along with copies of any other Lucasarts Adventure games from that period. I think you might be able to order it in a classics pack directly from lucasarts but i'm not sure.


As for hardest game, I would also have to go with Ninja Gaiden....insane.

Edit: I guess I should've read down a little more, thanks for the link.

Rogue Leader is climbing the charts everyday.

If I remember correctly, you have to go to that part of the game later. At the start, you need to blow a hole (with some explosives) in the right side wall of one of the screens.

I thought ironsword was tough and I had problems with Final fantasy I.

Last Battle for Genesis, Super Contra for SNES, and Bayou Billy for NES were all pretty tough as I recall.

I always meant to go back and try Kid Icarus again (I never owned it) but I never did.

Battletoads is a good one. Those jetski levels were a bitch. I remember just hunkering down and doing the smallest possible taps back and forth on the d-pads to get through those. There was a whole rhythm thing with the steering and jumping. Very challenging.

Ninja Gaiden was definitely tough, as was Chakan. However, the toughest game for me was this top down scrolling shooter for the Genesis called Giares. I wore out a controller on that game. Really, I can't even tell you how friggin hard it was. after the first 2 levels, forget it, you couldn't do anything. And I play alot of shooters.

The original contra was pretty tough without the code, but it was at least beatable with patience. Then there was the Original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game from Ultra (not the arcade game!), that sucker was hard. The OG Mike Tyson's Punch-out was tough too. Damn, those were the days...

I got Frequency recently for the PS2, and it is pretty difficult. I know for some other people with slow reflexes and no rhythm will be very very difficult for them.

I think my brother has Gigares - as I mentioned above, I'm not that great of a shooter player, so a cheat code really helped (it's something like press start and hold left, a, and c if I remember correctly - the game is good enough for you to look into this if you have it )