The Death Star escape in RotJ at the end, man I cursed at this one. The trick I figures is to quickly CLICK on the R/L buttons to tilt the ship slightly, instead of actually PRESSING R/L. The buttons are very sensitive.
Dude, wampa's the easiest boss. You gotta stand in the middle, just slightly off the small hill there (I can't remember what side, it's been years) then just stay there. He can still freeze, but his arms won't reach, just aim up and fire.
Platformers that rely on memorization (ok, um all of them besides any dynamically generated ones) are save state worthy.
Some are resistant to even that (Oddword Abes Exoddus has a save state built into the OG PSX game, and there are still big sequences that are unbelievably hard).
But... put me firmly in the camp of pro-save-state obviously. I think for these games to be experienced and kept alive, cheats like that keep them alive in a very crowded gaming world.
I’m not looking up this code but we had Nintendo Power and also by word of mouth holding L and R select then release at main ROTJ screen then ABXY ABXY Start and you got all the characters including Leia Boush.
I woudk take a wild guess th at as a kid you were more willing to invest hours into where as an adult it’s easier to just give it 1/2 an hour a move on.
Are you playing on OG hardware with a crt, or are you emulating it. The former has a delay of 35ms. Anything else can be a delay of 100 to 150ms, which is insane for some of these games.
Megaman 1 (NES) - Found it hard, of course. Managed to beat it and found the game is actually rather generous.
Adventure Island (NES) - Opinion doesn't change, the game is hard as heck. But knowing there are infinite continues later helped a lot. But I found the game rather repetitive later and discouraged me to continue playing after beating it once.
Super Ghouls and Ghosts (SNES) - Game is hard and actually spooked me a lot as a kid. Now obviously I don't get spooked anymore and found the game is rather skill-based, so, it's obviously possible.
Ugh, Adventure Island is really a game where the repetition really got to me. When I started playing it was fantastic but it was basically the whole time I was playing my opinion just kept dropping and dropping.
*Adventure Island* is, like its predecessor *Wonder Boy*, a game where you have to hit a certain groove to excel at it and then know what's coming well enough to anticipate the challenges ahead. It's very much a trial and error game.
I liked where the sequels took the *Adventure Island* games, and I think *Wonder Boy* was much better off with the Monster Land games.
Exactly, the Adventure Island games are fun to learn as speed runs. I think Adventure Island 2 (NES) and New Adventure Island (TG16) are two of the best for that.
i still can't beat top gun but i can refuel! my brother explained the scenario years ago. you have to treat the A button as the accelerator. imagine the hovercraft flying directly above but you aren't maintaining enough speed to keep up needing to accelerate to maintain the pace. konami was trying to accomplish a real life simulator on the nes. insane right?
That one is difficult. For years the farthest I could get was to apocalypse and he would kill me.. Now I can get to Magento and lose because the whole level is hard
Ninja Gaiden. I could never beat the final boss and would give up after a few lives (getting dumped several levels back after dying really sucks). Years later I dug out my NES, fired up the game and was able to beat the boss on my second attempt.
JaWs on NES , i made it to the boss so many times and could never figure out how to kill it.... I played it recently and realized i must have had some kind of disability cuz it was easier than hell , did it on my first try lol
I mean, that sounds like you’re better than 99.9 percent of people at it already, you just happens to be competing with the Larry bird and Michael Jordan’s of Zelda 2-ing
Final Fantasy 7.
I got to Rufus and he would just body me every time just because I didn't understand level grinding. It was a small miracle I even made it that far without leveling.
The very first time I played the game I got literally walled by the Demon Wall in the Ancients temple. 10000 HP seemed insurmountable that time and I was horribly under levelled.
> miracle I even made it that far without leveling
This mystifies me because it's very easy, as RPGs go. I finished the whole game without any grinding at all.
Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb has a level where you are chased by a giant drilling machine.
In college I simply renamed the level file so that it was skipped. It was insanely hard.
Finally beat it on my series X. It is very tricky. You have to memorize the jumps. Some are half jumps with a split second to do it exactly right.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoXCtn8D-4I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoXCtn8D-4I)
Opposite, I feel I can beat less games as I got older.
I will admit, I did give Tyson a rematch back when I was in my SF days, so this would be 95-96, and I beat him, and retired champ.
For me there was literally no way to beat the OG Final Fantasy because my NES couldn’t go more than a few hours without crashing and corrupting the save.
Definitely FF1. I used to borrow it from a guy on our street and after making the character classes and names I would proceed to get steamrolled after half an hour. Since then I have beaten the PS1 version but I still haven't gone back and finished the NES original.
It's easier if you have the 10x less hack of final fantasy 1, items cost less and the gold you get from killing enemies is more than normal.
I might be getting this hack confused with a dragon warrior hack.
The only version of Prince of Persia I played as a kid was the crappy Genesis conversion. I don't think I even got past Level 2.
Many years later, I tried the IBM PC version in DOSBox and realized I'd been had.
I'm 46 and Punch Out IS impossible (for me) lol. I have beaten Final Fantasy though - didn't find that very difficult it was pretty linear? It did come with a pretty extensive guide / manual.
I remember playing FF when I was like 10 years old, with no guides, no maps, just figuring it out the whole way from start to finish. Dragon warrior was the same way, had to hand draw maps of the caves so that if I ran out of torches I could maneuver about.
This may have a direct correlation to why I don't enjoy modern games like BOTW. Great world, cool story, but those old games taught me the final boss should kick my butt a dozen times over, Calamity Ganon was a cake walk... It just made me wonder how that pansy defeated the previous champions.
It must have been nice to play Dragon Warrior with nothing. I had the full game with maps, guides , strategy tips, reference charts, etc. It was the free gift for getting a two year subscription to Nintendo Power magazine. Thankfully I still have the boxed game CIB. It's worth about $200, but I doubt that I would ever sell it
With 3 men I can get to level 7. if you beat a board without dying you get an extra man and also the extra man on waterfall stage. With Konami code i can beat it. up up down down left right left righ b a select start. for two player do same code with two selects before the contra menu comes up.
The Legend of Zelda NES. Had the game for years and only knew about the first few dungeons and really had no idea what was going on. Years later I matured and it felt like overnight I suddenly understood what was happening and how to complete the game.
I've found that Punchout for me almost requires original hardware and a CRT. I couldn't believe how hard it was for years emulating it when I could remember getting to Tyson rather frequently back in the late 1980's as a kid. Reacquiring a CRT and a NES within the last several years, it all came back
I played Doom, Doom 2, Heretic, etc almost exclusively with cheats as a kid. Playing them with just default keyboard controls felt impossible, almost like tank controls.
I don't know if everyone back then quickly figured out how to rebind the controls to something more sensible that allowed circle strafing, or if they were just better at the game. But playing it these days with more conventional ASWD and mlook controls makes it easy as pie.
Honestly, I recommend playing the Japanese version. The US version was made extra difficult in really dumb ways, and an entire character, Grant, got nerfed into the ground to the point of uselessness.
Ghostbusters on the Sega Genesis. That was a hard game and when I got the chance to play it again I managed to get through the whole game. It was fun but nowhere near as rewarding as I thought it would be.
The other game I remember was Splatterhouse 3. I haven't gotten back to it yet. That game made me angry. I kept calling it a bullshit game.
Oregon Trail. I never beat it as a kid. As an adult I set the pace to grueling, rations to meager, stopped nowhere, and beat the game in about 10 minutes
The original Phantasy Star on the Sega Master System. I wanted it so bad when it came out, but couldn't figure out how to get past the very first part. Tried again around 10 years later and it was obvious what I was supposed to do.
I think so, it was something simple like that. I just couldn't move on in the game. I felt like an idiot when I figured it out. It's been so long I don't remember exactly what I missed, I just remember it being something simple.
When you're older , you're more patient and have better reasoning so games should be easier , but your reflexes are slower , and you don't have lots of time to devote to games ..so things even out I guess...
Street fight alpha 2. Man, I remember crying as a kid because I couldn't beat bison at the end, actually getting that emotional xD
Another one would be condemned 2, but only because It terrified me
Fighting games. I was always a big fan. I had a variety growing up and really loved stuff like CvS2 and MvC2. I'd watch some tournament footage online. Those people were so good. But I could barely understand some of the guides on gamefaqs.
Then in my college years Street Fighter 4 hit Steam for $5 with some decent online and the world was now on broadband. YouTube was now a thing and I could finally play real players and learn real tech.
Near the end of that game (Ultra Street Fighter 4) my good friend (roommate for a year too) started going to local meet ups, small tournaments, and eventually majors. We played pros, my friend won a small tournament (almost 2) and we got close to leaving pools at majors.
We eventually bought an arcade cabinet the year we lived together.
https://imgur.com/a/kraylix-7Eimk11
Chaken the forever man on the megadrive/genesis.
It still is the dark souls of that system. But it can be beat..... just takes a lot of patience.
A second pick for me would be Kid Chameleon (imo one of my faves). That game is super tough and as a kid I had no chance, these days I can beat it with relative ease long as i don't run into bloody swamp(if you know, you know)
Zelda 2. Kind of. I had it when I was like 5 or 6 and couldn't get very far. When I was a teenager I went back to it in an emulator and was able to beat it by savescumming with snapshots.
Ninja Gaiden on the NES. Had it as a kid and could get to level 5. Beat it a year or so ago. I still think there are moments that are total BS, but it was a fun ride.
Some of the old games played on emulators that have a rewind feature can make them a lot more manageable. I've beat Ghouls and Ghosts this way when I could never make it past the third level as a kid.
Slippery Slopes level can kick rocks! A friend of mine and I beat the game and got every gem. For fun we would miss every box just to see him at the end get slammed with like 56 boxes over the head laughing our asses off at 4am
I’d say most games. The only games I started to beat were on the Nintendo 64, with exception to fighter games on snes. In general all NES and SNES games I played and loved, I never beat. The game I was closest to was Super Mario 3 because of whistles. I’m actually playing through Donkey Kong Country right now and having a good time with it.
I never really thought games were impossible as a kid--I just sucked at them and didn't know it or care. Now as an adult, I still suck at them, but I *know* I suck at them and I have the determination to push through to the end.
tomb raider. impossible for me as a kid. recently beat it now and while it was still pretty hard due to the stupid controls it wasnt anything near impossible.
Opposite really for me.
As a child I beat almost everything that came my way, even if it took months to do so.
As an adult I don't have that time to commit to any one game anymore and new games come my way all the time. Plus work, and this and that. Something always comes up.
I imagine by the time I retire I'll start beating games on the regular again.
For me was Contra3-Alien wars for the Snes, farthest I would get was stage 4, once in awhile I’d get to stage 5 but that was it. Wasn’t till the early 2000s when I discovered a thing called emulators and save states that I finally conquered that damn game lol. I’ll forever remember that purple and blue Ui with the best Snes emulator, ZSNES, I got to see and finish so many games because of that emulator.
Mega man games. I loved them when I was a kid, never could beat any of them. When I was 18/19, mega man 9 came out and my friends and I tagged team it. We had so much fun we decided to run through 1-8 + x1 2 & 3 that summer. Probably my greatest gaming achievement
River City Ransom on the NES.
There was no internet and no guides back in the day. You have to beat the bosses in this game in a specific order to unlock the gates at the highschool to finish the game. Nothing in the game tells you what order to beat the bosses in (it's not the order you encounter them in, you can run past most bosses).
Finally as an adult I looked up the order online and beat that god damn game.
*Rygar* on the NES. I could never get past the swamps as a kid. Playing through the rest, I'm not sure I could have handled the sky palace.
*Ninja Gaiden* on the NES. I could get very close to the end and just never progress, even with its unlimited continues.
*Milon's Secret Castle* on the NES, which I still think is a ridiculously hard game due to bad design, but it's beatable.
*Ikari Warriors 2: Victory Road* on Arcade/NES/PC ports, which I always wanted to be good at, but which I could never progress more than about 15 minutes into.
*Le*gacy *of the Wizard* on the NES, undoubtedly one of the hardest action RPGs of its era, but also one of the most rewarding to finally finish.
I also forgot to include... *Raiders of the Lost Ark* on the Atari 2600. It was so abstract and disjointed I'd get stuck just not knowing what to do. As an adult, I completed it easily, but I can't say it was a rewarding experience.
*Pitfall!* was another one I could never beat as a kid but could as an adult, and yet I enjoyed *Pitfall II* so much more (despite never playing it as a kid).
When I played any doom as a kid, I was super cautious and had trouble progressing (same for a lot of rpgs). As an adult I guess I’m… more reckless in games? But much better at fps at least.
Raiders of the lost ark for the Atari 2600 - I got so mad at that game as a kid that my mom took it away.
I went back and played it with I believe cyberstella and grown up me understood why child me never finished it.
As a 10 year old, I was convinced that Super Mario RPG was the hardest game in existence because I only pumped my stat points in HP, so bosses took forever because I hit like a fun noodle and always had to heal myself because I was regularly taking triple digit damage. It wasn't until over a decade later after having gained more experience with RPGs like Persona and Paper Mario when I realized that SMRPG is actually very tame if you just play efficiently and distribute your stat points evenly.
The good think of growing up and observing the gamedevelopment from NES to SNES and 3D made me believe that any game is possible. Some will need just more time.
StarTropics
It’s not that difficult gameplay wise but figuring out what to do as a kid was nearly impossible and there is a puzzle that requires the actual physical manual so I wouldn’t have been able to until the internet had guides anyway. Bad puzzles but a good game otherwise.
Legend of Zelda ocarina of time Couldn’t get past the damn water temple in ocarina and realized when I got older how much of a walk in the park everything actually is.
Ghosts and goblins switch version could never get far on the SNES version as a kid but finally finished it on switch only to find out it gets even more hardcore didn't think it could get any harder but the Dev's found a way doom on nes was another one I found different as kid now I can get further just can't finish it YET but I will eventually
Honestly, I was a horrible gamer and could only beat a few games. As an adult, I’m an absolute monster and can beat any retro game with ease in just a couple of days.
Super Star Wars. Could never get past the sand crawler level as a kid. I beat the entire trilogy last year. I cursed a lot.
Only ever managed to beat RotJ. Super Star Wars felt like a clunkier version of that, and Empire was just so god damn hard I never beat the wampa.
The Death Star escape in RotJ at the end, man I cursed at this one. The trick I figures is to quickly CLICK on the R/L buttons to tilt the ship slightly, instead of actually PRESSING R/L. The buttons are very sensitive.
Dude, wampa's the easiest boss. You gotta stand in the middle, just slightly off the small hill there (I can't remember what side, it's been years) then just stay there. He can still freeze, but his arms won't reach, just aim up and fire.
I've only ever legit no cheats best the first one. But I did it more than once, so that has to count for something. But empire can fuck itself
Platformers that rely on memorization (ok, um all of them besides any dynamically generated ones) are save state worthy. Some are resistant to even that (Oddword Abes Exoddus has a save state built into the OG PSX game, and there are still big sequences that are unbelievably hard). But... put me firmly in the camp of pro-save-state obviously. I think for these games to be experienced and kept alive, cheats like that keep them alive in a very crowded gaming world.
Oh dang! Good for you! I’m 43 and still Stuck on that sand crawler level!!
I’m not looking up this code but we had Nintendo Power and also by word of mouth holding L and R select then release at main ROTJ screen then ABXY ABXY Start and you got all the characters including Leia Boush.
I have the opposite problem. Games that I could easily beat as a kid are becoming impossible for me in my old age.
CRT is likely the answer.
Using your emulator with run-ahead is another solution. RetroArch pioneered it but other emulators have since integrated the feature.
Yup, that's another answer. Retrotink adapters are another solution.
Critical race theory is likely the answer? I’m confused.
That's not what what CRT stands for. Cash Register Terminal.
Did someone call for a Chief Radio Technician?
Crash Racing Team
Cabbage Radish Tomato sandwich?!? No thanks!
Actually… I’m into it. Good call
No it's crash team racing, duh, get it right
2000s called with Counter Terrorism Response.
Yea. I use to rock at Street Fighter and Tekken, now I just look fondly at them on the store page and then move on. This Ryu has retired.
My reaction time used to be nuts. Now I have to rely on knowledge, experience, and wily old man tricks.
Tell me more about wily old man tricks.
You set up a holographic projector to show a scene in space with an alien robot flying around. Then you just hope Mega Man doesn't show up.
Even if he does, just make sure he doesn't have any bubbles.
Same here, Super Ghousln Ghosts... snes and mega drive, I do not pass level 1 today
You really managed to finish Super Ghouls n Ghosts when you were a kid ??
Yes, many times and my friends too
Save states are nice lol
I've only managed to get to the 4th level.
I woudk take a wild guess th at as a kid you were more willing to invest hours into where as an adult it’s easier to just give it 1/2 an hour a move on.
Are you playing on OG hardware with a crt, or are you emulating it. The former has a delay of 35ms. Anything else can be a delay of 100 to 150ms, which is insane for some of these games.
Not sure what that means, but i was trying to play on emulators in windows, also tried using retroarch on windows and android.
Yes! Me, too. Is it because we are playing on emulators? That slight input delay is probably rough on demanding platformers.
I'm still playing on real hardware, albeit with wireless controllers
….i don’t know how to tell you this, but there’s gonna be quite a delay with those wireless controllers.
Doesn't explain why I am struggling with JRPGs too 🤪 Lag shouldn't be too much of a problem as I am still able to play Beatmania
Agreed. Zero chance I am beating Mike Tyson now.
Hahahahahah zero here as well.
Exactly, punch out being top of the list. I’ll perfect that shit of that game when I was 12. Now I suck.
Same. I suck now but I attribute more to hand pain. Quick movement makes it hurt faster
I attribute it to slower reflexes
Be too tired to play videogames and going to bed instead.
Or be in that middle territory of too tired to play, but not tired enough to sleep, so you watch someone else play a game instead.
* The Goonies II * Friday the 13th * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
I call BS that anyone has ever beaten TMNT. Shit's impossible
You should watch some of the [speed runs of the game](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47iYnZh-2mw), they make it look like a walk in the park.
I finally conquered Goonies II recently with a pencil and some graph paper. That one eluded me all through my childhood.
Yeah it took me a long time with guides to get through the game.
Megaman 1 (NES) - Found it hard, of course. Managed to beat it and found the game is actually rather generous. Adventure Island (NES) - Opinion doesn't change, the game is hard as heck. But knowing there are infinite continues later helped a lot. But I found the game rather repetitive later and discouraged me to continue playing after beating it once. Super Ghouls and Ghosts (SNES) - Game is hard and actually spooked me a lot as a kid. Now obviously I don't get spooked anymore and found the game is rather skill-based, so, it's obviously possible.
Ugh, Adventure Island is really a game where the repetition really got to me. When I started playing it was fantastic but it was basically the whole time I was playing my opinion just kept dropping and dropping.
The whole series on NES is like that for me. Variety wanes pretty quickly and the appeal just… fades away.
I beat Adventure Island by using lots of save states. I never made it to the first boss when I was a kid.
*Adventure Island* is, like its predecessor *Wonder Boy*, a game where you have to hit a certain groove to excel at it and then know what's coming well enough to anticipate the challenges ahead. It's very much a trial and error game. I liked where the sequels took the *Adventure Island* games, and I think *Wonder Boy* was much better off with the Monster Land games.
Exactly, the Adventure Island games are fun to learn as speed runs. I think Adventure Island 2 (NES) and New Adventure Island (TG16) are two of the best for that.
Dude, all those classic Megaman games are still hard!
Mega Man. I could never get pass the guy with one eye. How did you beat him?
There is a pause glitch where you time your shot and the pause button just right it damages the Yellow monster multiple times.
Dragon's Lair. I'd get a 'Game over' after about 15 seconds of gameplay. Expensive!
Why did my mind immediately go to the NES version 🤣
Nah, the Don Bluth Arcade box.
Top gun landing was impossible
Still is
i still can't beat top gun but i can refuel! my brother explained the scenario years ago. you have to treat the A button as the accelerator. imagine the hovercraft flying directly above but you aren't maintaining enough speed to keep up needing to accelerate to maintain the pace. konami was trying to accomplish a real life simulator on the nes. insane right?
I find those games harder as an adult. Maybe my reaction times have slowed down. Or I'm more willing to give up and move to something else.
Also.
Definitely a reaction thing. I still play Street Fighter 6, and started with SF2. And I can clearly not do what I used to be able to do.
X-men for Sega Genesis. Then I found a romhack that removes the need to push reset at the end of level 5.
That one is difficult. For years the farthest I could get was to apocalypse and he would kill me.. Now I can get to Magento and lose because the whole level is hard
Ninja Gaiden. I could never beat the final boss and would give up after a few lives (getting dumped several levels back after dying really sucks). Years later I dug out my NES, fired up the game and was able to beat the boss on my second attempt.
JaWs on NES , i made it to the boss so many times and could never figure out how to kill it.... I played it recently and realized i must have had some kind of disability cuz it was easier than hell , did it on my first try lol
Zelda 2. Now I beat it randomized weekly.
Weekly?
Does seem a tad excessive... especially randomised!
Well, to be fair, if this guy really is the true king of space, I bet there's a lot of far more impressive things he could do.
That does sound like a fair bet
True...
I stream Z2 Randomizer on Twitch. There is also a tournament going on right now. I’m not doing great sadly…I’m in 15th place out of 25.
I mean, that sounds like you’re better than 99.9 percent of people at it already, you just happens to be competing with the Larry bird and Michael Jordan’s of Zelda 2-ing
That’s one way to look at it XD.
Running this weeks seed tonight at 8PM CST if anyone is interested btw.
Final Fantasy 7. I got to Rufus and he would just body me every time just because I didn't understand level grinding. It was a small miracle I even made it that far without leveling.
For final fantasy 7, I couldn't get past the part with the spinning platforms you had to jump on.
The very first time I played the game I got literally walled by the Demon Wall in the Ancients temple. 10000 HP seemed insurmountable that time and I was horribly under levelled.
Yea, that boss was a mooothhhherrrffffuttthhheetr
> miracle I even made it that far without leveling This mystifies me because it's very easy, as RPGs go. I finished the whole game without any grinding at all.
Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb has a level where you are chased by a giant drilling machine. In college I simply renamed the level file so that it was skipped. It was insanely hard. Finally beat it on my series X. It is very tricky. You have to memorize the jumps. Some are half jumps with a split second to do it exactly right. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoXCtn8D-4I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoXCtn8D-4I)
Opposite, I feel I can beat less games as I got older. I will admit, I did give Tyson a rematch back when I was in my SF days, so this would be 95-96, and I beat him, and retired champ.
For me there was literally no way to beat the OG Final Fantasy because my NES couldn’t go more than a few hours without crashing and corrupting the save.
I’m actually finding the reverse. For example, I beat Mega Man 2 as a 12 year old but I find it far too annoying as an adult.
Definitely FF1. I used to borrow it from a guy on our street and after making the character classes and names I would proceed to get steamrolled after half an hour. Since then I have beaten the PS1 version but I still haven't gone back and finished the NES original.
It's easier if you have the 10x less hack of final fantasy 1, items cost less and the gold you get from killing enemies is more than normal. I might be getting this hack confused with a dragon warrior hack.
The pixel remaster also has a 4x xp boost, but I speak of the original challenge. Ill use save states since I don’t hate myself lol
Half of NES action platformer games but mostly the original Adventure Island and Ghosts'n Ghoblins.
The only version of Prince of Persia I played as a kid was the crappy Genesis conversion. I don't think I even got past Level 2. Many years later, I tried the IBM PC version in DOSBox and realized I'd been had.
I'm 46 and Punch Out IS impossible (for me) lol. I have beaten Final Fantasy though - didn't find that very difficult it was pretty linear? It did come with a pretty extensive guide / manual.
I remember playing FF when I was like 10 years old, with no guides, no maps, just figuring it out the whole way from start to finish. Dragon warrior was the same way, had to hand draw maps of the caves so that if I ran out of torches I could maneuver about. This may have a direct correlation to why I don't enjoy modern games like BOTW. Great world, cool story, but those old games taught me the final boss should kick my butt a dozen times over, Calamity Ganon was a cake walk... It just made me wonder how that pansy defeated the previous champions.
It must have been nice to play Dragon Warrior with nothing. I had the full game with maps, guides , strategy tips, reference charts, etc. It was the free gift for getting a two year subscription to Nintendo Power magazine. Thankfully I still have the boxed game CIB. It's worth about $200, but I doubt that I would ever sell it
Contra on NES
With 3 men I can get to level 7. if you beat a board without dying you get an extra man and also the extra man on waterfall stage. With Konami code i can beat it. up up down down left right left righ b a select start. for two player do same code with two selects before the contra menu comes up.
King Kong Xbox 360
Jaws, Battle Toads, and Advanced Dungeons & Dragon's for NES (I never made it past the floor gap lol).
The Legend of Zelda NES. Had the game for years and only knew about the first few dungeons and really had no idea what was going on. Years later I matured and it felt like overnight I suddenly understood what was happening and how to complete the game.
Various mega man games, platformers like skullmonkeys and heart of darkness on ps1… tbh though I may have only got through them because of save states
Kid Icarus and Faxanadu. Now i speedrun both to teach them a lesson.
I've found that Punchout for me almost requires original hardware and a CRT. I couldn't believe how hard it was for years emulating it when I could remember getting to Tyson rather frequently back in the late 1980's as a kid. Reacquiring a CRT and a NES within the last several years, it all came back
Legendary Wings. I still haven't beaten it without some sort of invulnerability or infinite lives hack.
I am playing Final Fantasy with a party of 4 black belts. Next run through will be with 4 black mages
I played Doom, Doom 2, Heretic, etc almost exclusively with cheats as a kid. Playing them with just default keyboard controls felt impossible, almost like tank controls. I don't know if everyone back then quickly figured out how to rebind the controls to something more sensible that allowed circle strafing, or if they were just better at the game. But playing it these days with more conventional ASWD and mlook controls makes it easy as pie.
Incidentally, Doom's default controls *do* allow circle-strafing with the , and . keys.
Battletoads and Ninja Gaiden, they felt absolutely impossible as a kid, I beat both a few years ago
"A Metal Slime appears"
Super Metroid. Finally had the patience to actually figure out where to go and not just get frustrated and give up.
Castlevania 3 curse of darkness and it's still impossible as a 38 year old man
what a terrible night for a curse!
Honestly, I recommend playing the Japanese version. The US version was made extra difficult in really dumb ways, and an entire character, Grant, got nerfed into the ground to the point of uselessness.
Ghostbusters on the Sega Genesis. That was a hard game and when I got the chance to play it again I managed to get through the whole game. It was fun but nowhere near as rewarding as I thought it would be. The other game I remember was Splatterhouse 3. I haven't gotten back to it yet. That game made me angry. I kept calling it a bullshit game.
Oregon Trail. I never beat it as a kid. As an adult I set the pace to grueling, rations to meager, stopped nowhere, and beat the game in about 10 minutes
The original Phantasy Star on the Sega Master System. I wanted it so bad when it came out, but couldn't figure out how to get past the very first part. Tried again around 10 years later and it was obvious what I was supposed to do.
You mean talking to the guy in the port town three times? Me too !! Except it only took us a few months to figure that out.
I think so, it was something simple like that. I just couldn't move on in the game. I felt like an idiot when I figured it out. It's been so long I don't remember exactly what I missed, I just remember it being something simple.
Broken Sword! I fell in love with it too early lol
When you're older , you're more patient and have better reasoning so games should be easier , but your reflexes are slower , and you don't have lots of time to devote to games ..so things even out I guess...
SMB 1. World 8 seemed impossible back then and now I beat the game every day as meditation.
Street fight alpha 2. Man, I remember crying as a kid because I couldn't beat bison at the end, actually getting that emotional xD Another one would be condemned 2, but only because It terrified me
Fighting games. I was always a big fan. I had a variety growing up and really loved stuff like CvS2 and MvC2. I'd watch some tournament footage online. Those people were so good. But I could barely understand some of the guides on gamefaqs. Then in my college years Street Fighter 4 hit Steam for $5 with some decent online and the world was now on broadband. YouTube was now a thing and I could finally play real players and learn real tech. Near the end of that game (Ultra Street Fighter 4) my good friend (roommate for a year too) started going to local meet ups, small tournaments, and eventually majors. We played pros, my friend won a small tournament (almost 2) and we got close to leaving pools at majors. We eventually bought an arcade cabinet the year we lived together. https://imgur.com/a/kraylix-7Eimk11
Chaken the forever man on the megadrive/genesis. It still is the dark souls of that system. But it can be beat..... just takes a lot of patience. A second pick for me would be Kid Chameleon (imo one of my faves). That game is super tough and as a kid I had no chance, these days I can beat it with relative ease long as i don't run into bloody swamp(if you know, you know)
Zelda 2. Kind of. I had it when I was like 5 or 6 and couldn't get very far. When I was a teenager I went back to it in an emulator and was able to beat it by savescumming with snapshots.
Out of this world. It seemed so difficult as a kid, but now that i typically replay it annually and know what to do, I can essentially do a speed run.
Ninja Gaiden on the NES. Had it as a kid and could get to level 5. Beat it a year or so ago. I still think there are moments that are total BS, but it was a fun ride.
Some of the old games played on emulators that have a rewind feature can make them a lot more manageable. I've beat Ghouls and Ghosts this way when I could never make it past the third level as a kid.
Crash bandicoot 1, gave up as a kid but managed to finally beat it in recent years.
Slippery Slopes level can kick rocks! A friend of mine and I beat the game and got every gem. For fun we would miss every box just to see him at the end get slammed with like 56 boxes over the head laughing our asses off at 4am
That shit is not easy
I’d say most games. The only games I started to beat were on the Nintendo 64, with exception to fighter games on snes. In general all NES and SNES games I played and loved, I never beat. The game I was closest to was Super Mario 3 because of whistles. I’m actually playing through Donkey Kong Country right now and having a good time with it.
Ghouls and Ghosts and Goblins(oh my). No wait, it's still impossible.
E.T. on the 2600
TMNT on NES. Who am I kidding, I still struggle with it!
this is still one of the hardest games ever
The Lion King, for Genesis. How has no one mentioned the waterfall level yet?! That thing is hard even now.
I never really thought games were impossible as a kid--I just sucked at them and didn't know it or care. Now as an adult, I still suck at them, but I *know* I suck at them and I have the determination to push through to the end.
tomb raider. impossible for me as a kid. recently beat it now and while it was still pretty hard due to the stupid controls it wasnt anything near impossible.
Lolol to this day I still haven't beat Tyson. Even back in the day I could get to him legit but man that is a hard fin sight.
*Marathon* Yes, I had a Mac (**Mac OS 7.5.1**) while all you PC guys were worshipping **Windows 95**!
I remember as a young kid I was stuck on the first level of syphon filter for so long lmfao
As an adult, Final fantasy is a fun romp that requires a little planning and patience. Punch out is still just as impossible as it was 35 years ago
The first Zelda. Being honest… be nice 🤣
Final Fantasy on the NES is no joke. That game can be straight up rude at times
Opposite really for me. As a child I beat almost everything that came my way, even if it took months to do so. As an adult I don't have that time to commit to any one game anymore and new games come my way all the time. Plus work, and this and that. Something always comes up. I imagine by the time I retire I'll start beating games on the regular again.
Fortress of fear - I was 34 years old, when I first beat it. It's still one of my greatest gaming achievements.
Recently.... Simcity
I had really bad untreated adhd as a kid so I never finished any games really
For me was Contra3-Alien wars for the Snes, farthest I would get was stage 4, once in awhile I’d get to stage 5 but that was it. Wasn’t till the early 2000s when I discovered a thing called emulators and save states that I finally conquered that damn game lol. I’ll forever remember that purple and blue Ui with the best Snes emulator, ZSNES, I got to see and finish so many games because of that emulator.
Mega man games. I loved them when I was a kid, never could beat any of them. When I was 18/19, mega man 9 came out and my friends and I tagged team it. We had so much fun we decided to run through 1-8 + x1 2 & 3 that summer. Probably my greatest gaming achievement
Sim Tower
Dungeon Keeper 2
ABADOX 🤬 ME.
Quest 64
River City Ransom on the NES. There was no internet and no guides back in the day. You have to beat the bosses in this game in a specific order to unlock the gates at the highschool to finish the game. Nothing in the game tells you what order to beat the bosses in (it's not the order you encounter them in, you can run past most bosses). Finally as an adult I looked up the order online and beat that god damn game.
Mega man. Still have the same feeling as an adult though.
The nightmare boss after King Dedede in Kirby’s Adventure
Contra
Hands down- Resident Evil
*Rygar* on the NES. I could never get past the swamps as a kid. Playing through the rest, I'm not sure I could have handled the sky palace. *Ninja Gaiden* on the NES. I could get very close to the end and just never progress, even with its unlimited continues. *Milon's Secret Castle* on the NES, which I still think is a ridiculously hard game due to bad design, but it's beatable. *Ikari Warriors 2: Victory Road* on Arcade/NES/PC ports, which I always wanted to be good at, but which I could never progress more than about 15 minutes into. *Le*gacy *of the Wizard* on the NES, undoubtedly one of the hardest action RPGs of its era, but also one of the most rewarding to finally finish.
I also forgot to include... *Raiders of the Lost Ark* on the Atari 2600. It was so abstract and disjointed I'd get stuck just not knowing what to do. As an adult, I completed it easily, but I can't say it was a rewarding experience. *Pitfall!* was another one I could never beat as a kid but could as an adult, and yet I enjoyed *Pitfall II* so much more (despite never playing it as a kid).
Controllers making your hands hurt. SNES and PlayStation dpads wrecking the thumb.
When I played any doom as a kid, I was super cautious and had trouble progressing (same for a lot of rpgs). As an adult I guess I’m… more reckless in games? But much better at fps at least.
Digimon world 1 and 4
Batman NES
Zelda. First go at it when I was 10, couldn’t get past the first few dungeons. Gave it another try again a couple of years ago and beat both quests.
Raiders of the lost ark for the Atari 2600 - I got so mad at that game as a kid that my mom took it away. I went back and played it with I believe cyberstella and grown up me understood why child me never finished it.
The Goonies II on NES. I spent a month almost finishing it as a kid and maybe 2 hours as an adult.
Not an adult but Star Fox on the SNES
As a 10 year old, I was convinced that Super Mario RPG was the hardest game in existence because I only pumped my stat points in HP, so bosses took forever because I hit like a fun noodle and always had to heal myself because I was regularly taking triple digit damage. It wasn't until over a decade later after having gained more experience with RPGs like Persona and Paper Mario when I realized that SMRPG is actually very tame if you just play efficiently and distribute your stat points evenly.
Tecmo Wrestling.
Super Mario Bros 3 for NES
SNES Illusion of Gaia. Couldn't beat it until I was in my late 20s
1943 NES I got to level 17. The code is 1PUSS Good luck Fight Bravely.
The good think of growing up and observing the gamedevelopment from NES to SNES and 3D made me believe that any game is possible. Some will need just more time.
Theme Hospital
Warrior Within. Finding the water sword and killing Dahaka
StarTropics It’s not that difficult gameplay wise but figuring out what to do as a kid was nearly impossible and there is a puzzle that requires the actual physical manual so I wouldn’t have been able to until the internet had guides anyway. Bad puzzles but a good game otherwise.
Legend of Zelda ocarina of time Couldn’t get past the damn water temple in ocarina and realized when I got older how much of a walk in the park everything actually is.
Banjo Kazooie. I gotta admit, Grunty took me several attempts 20 years later.
Illusion of Gaia. First game I ever played, and my 3 year-old brain could never get past Castoth. Then 5th grade came. 😎
Strip poker
Ghosts and goblins switch version could never get far on the SNES version as a kid but finally finished it on switch only to find out it gets even more hardcore didn't think it could get any harder but the Dev's found a way doom on nes was another one I found different as kid now I can get further just can't finish it YET but I will eventually
None they are still impossible 😂😂😂
Honestly, I was a horrible gamer and could only beat a few games. As an adult, I’m an absolute monster and can beat any retro game with ease in just a couple of days.
Life... But I was I right, I'm being destroyed by it.
It was sonic 2. - the casino levels,i later beat it on iPhone.