The Impossible Games Collection.

[toxic]

As I grow older, I realize that game designers have done the world a great favor. They have made games easier. Easier to learn, easier to beat ... and they even reward you for playing these games for hours (bonus characters and levels). This wasn't always the case.

I was a crazy completionist back in the NES days ... I think by 1990 (when I bought my Genesis) I had completed over 120 games.

Here is my list of the "games that got away"


DEADLY TOWERS:


The cover art on this game was great. But there is a problem. This game gives you barely any direction, the control is shitty, and the game is repetitive. The graphics will make your eyes bleed, and there is nothing remotely rewarding about the game. I doubt it even has a proper ending. For some reason, at the time of its release, there was much else in the fantasy/action/adventure genre .. so I suffered through it.


SOLOMON'S KEY

One of the greatest games by TECMO for the 8-bit generation. 49 levels of mind bending puzzles. It's not bad enough that you have to plan out your moves, you also have things trying to kill you ... and oh yea .. you have 3 lives to do it with.
(Also, another TECMO game called MIGHTY BOMB JACK is pretty unforgiving also (but I think it had unlimited continues))


BATTLETOADS

My memory is hazy on this one. It was a two week rental for me. I get a feeling there was one stage I couldn't master, and I threw in the towel (Might be that flying bike stage). After beating TMNT, I was feeling there was no side scroller I could not master. This game humbled me to no end.


UTILMA EXODUS (NES)

The first Ultima falls under the "horribly broken" category. The magic system is rediculous, and the random encounters go from "one hit and dead" to "holy fucking impossible" within the same area! Everything about that game is unrelenting.


ATHENA (NES)

Another one of those shit-tastic side scrolling adventure games for the NES. Not only do you get weapon/armor upgrades that make no sense, the collision detection on some of the weapons is off. Making the game much harder than it should ever be. Factor in no continues, and you have a fine companion to Deadly Towers.


There are still difficult games today (Super Monkey Ball comes to mind) but with the emergence of the internet and strategy guides ... the idea of playing the same stage over and over again for 4 hours seems quaint.

[Joust Williams]

Timelord
Truxton
Action Fighter

lots more ;o

[Fe 26]

I recall the Gen's Gouls and ghost or ghost and goblins or whatever, being hard as fuck.

[Mzo]

Battletoads is doable, I can still beat it now.

I'll back you up on Athena, though. The furthest I ever got was the sky level. 5, I think. That game was so bad =(

[Zerodash]

Adventures of Batman and Robin on Genny= Hardest fucking game ever.

Also, Street Fighter...but that's just because the control sucks.

[Timber]

Legendary Wings:



It was the bane of my childhood. Someone bought it for me and I instantly loved it but even after years of trying to complete it I fell short. But I did complete the arcade version on one credit, the NES one was just cheaper in a lot of ways and it drove me insane.

[Fe 26]

A lot of the genny games, preSonic were really hard.

A lot of them were ports of arcade games, and I guess it didn't dawn on them that they needed to remove the "you die and put more money in" factor.

[JMET]

Solomons Key owned me completely...

[rezo]

Legendary Wings:



It was the bane of my childhood. Someone bought it for me and I instantly loved it but even after years of trying to complete it I fell short. But I did complete the arcade version on one credit, the NES one was just cheaper in a lot of ways and it drove me insane.

I beat the NES one.

Only NES games I remember not being able to finish now are the ones with those "3D mazes". I'd always make it to them, and then become to bored and lost to ever get past them. Games like wizardry, and the second golgo 13(made it through the first one somehow)

[mollipen]

Even putting in the code so that you didn't die when you were hit by enemies, I STILL could not beat Athena back when I played it. Inevidably, an enemy would hit me, I'd bounce backwards, and into a pit, falling to my death. That game was just stupid hard.

Target Earth for Genesis was another good one. ECM claimed that he beat it without using the cheat code, but I still to this day don't believe him.