RIDICULOUS difficulty

[Infernostrider]

to me it was breath of fire 5: dragon quarter (shamefully never played the ones before that one, although currently working on BoF2)
Monsters and bosses increase in strength, in many different ways, the lower their hp gets. One of the more important story bosses goes from 2 hits at normal power at full hp, to 5 hits at double power at nearly dead :S

 

[Abedeus]

I grew up on Megaman (the originals). My friends and I traded off after every time we lost. The goal was not to beat the game, not even to beat the boss, but rather to get his life bar lower than your personal best.

Also, Ninja Gaiden 2 for the 360. Two Armadillo bosses that instakill explode when killed (you're only allowed to carry one revive). If I hadn't have gotten the game for such a great price it would have been returned the second those came up.

You know you can block when they explode, right? It reduces damage by a lot.

Ninja Gaiden 2 wasn't all that hard... Play the SNES version.

 

[MasterKirov]

Armoured Core For Answer. Occupation of Arteria Carpalis mission. 'Nuff said.

 

[Deadlock Radium]

That slums level in Jak 2.

-snip-

Many controllers were broken.

I stayed home sick once just to beat that level, devoting a full day to it. Though, the hardest mission was the one where you were at the Drill Mine and had to shoot down the forty KG with jetpacks.

NO missions I've EVER done have been as hard as that one, except for the one at the Drill Platform with the 40 KG's as BudZer mentions.

I remember a huge feeling of accomplishment when I got through that mission the first time.

 

[AlphaOmega]

Some of the advanced portal maps...

 

[Ben Legend]

Any Devil May Cry or Kingdom Hearts game.

 

[Ainx311]

Kingdom Under Fire........ridiculous

 

[More Fun To Compute]

Army Moves, Jet Set Willy. Those lightweights who use the phrase "nintendo hard" never had a Spectrum, that's for sure.

Ghosts 'n Goblins at the arcade was also what is becoming known as a "baby puncher."

 

[Retardinator]

The very first level in John Romero's Daikatana when a swarm of mosquitoes or whatever the hell they are attacks you.

 

[linwolf]

metal gear solid on European Extreme. If the regular grunts see you, you get a game over.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

Vampires and Mind Flayers in Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn are two of the most obnoxiously over-the-top ridiculously ludicrous enemies you will ever fight in a game.

Vampires level drain with each hit, and a swarm of them can reduce that fancy level 15 warrior to a lvl 1 punk within seconds. Even worse with mages as they loose all their spells and you have to manually re-memorize each and every spell they lost after the battle is over. Same with cleric.

And Mind Flayers ***EAT YOUR BRAINS!***

Enough said.

The original Baldur's Gate was worse in terms of the designer putting ridiculous stuff in there that kills you most of the time. It wasn't even cool stuff like Vampires either, it was like, here are these pathetic Kobolds that don't even use any tactics, but guess what? They are still much more powerful than you.

 

[Randvek]

Play a little freeware game called "I Wanna Be The Guy." Intentionally made to be extremely difficult (but beatable!).

 

[The Madman]

Negative Plane Protection, and Mordenkainen's sword.
The good thing about that game was that you had ways to deal with almost every challenge, provided you knew what they were.

Provided you knew what they were. Key phrase there. Plus Negative Plane Protection didn't last forever and wasted valuable spell slots. Casting it was like playing taking a bet 'Is it gonna attack me now and will I be able to kill em before the spell wears off?'. You don't know, you just don't know.

And any summoned construct works against Mind Flayers. Can't eat its brains if it ain't got any brains, amirite?

Problem is that in both those cases you've gotta know exactly what's coming, then take the time to prepare your mages and clerics accordingly, rest, renew your spells, then return for battle. Something not always possible! Plus first time through the game could be brutal because, let's be honest, it was trial and error. You stumbled across Mind Flayers, you died, you loaded last save, and then you prepare accordingly... unless your last save was in a place you couldn't rest and no opportunity to rest arose in which case you're simply doomed to repeat the battle endlessly till you figured out a strategy I call 'nuke em from orbit with fireballs and run'.

Works every time.

The original Baldur's Gate was worse in terms of the designer putting ridiculous stuff in there that kills you most of the time. It wasn't even cool stuff like Vampires either, it was like, here are these pathetic Kobolds that don't even use any tactics, but guess what? They are still much more powerful than you.

I know a single word that will terrify anyone who's played Baldur's Gate 1. You ready? You sure? Positive you can take it?

Greater Basilisk.

Oh Shit RUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUN... sorry, instinct.

 

[H-Bomb]

I think a notable mention should go to STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl. Anyone remember Half Life 2's helecopter scene? Lots of cover, the chopper reloads, etc? STALKER took that. It took it then forgot about certain parts, so now

- There's two helecopters, and unless you brought the rocket launcher (unlikely, really), no way to kill them
- Each doesn't stop to reload anything but rockets.
- Cover? Maybe you could use those sticks coming out the ground. Oh, wait, they're mines.
- Instakill snipers on the roof (no matter the difficulty)
- An APC unloading the best trained men in the second best armour with the second best guns
- Constant fortifications that don't save you from the helecopters, but are well-armed
- "Extra" mines that flash every 2 seconds that lift you into the air and explode you.
- There's a large wave of armymen not far behind you.
- 6 minutes until the whole area goes skyhigh, and the distance you have to cover is amazing.

Edit: Mind, you know they hate you when there's the scene in which you see a sniper tower, automatically train your sights on it and an enemy off to a side fire a ROCKET LAUNCHER at you.

 

[WickedSkin]

splinter cell on expert(they kill you with 1 or 2 shots,they can hear you and detect you from very long distances)
or RE 5 on professional (everything kills you with 1 hit,the zombies take like 12 shots to die and the zombies with guns are almost imposible to beat you have to be very careful)

Bah RE5 is easy

Ninja Gaiden games are usually very very hard

 

[Snor]

No one's mentioned it yet? Seriously?

The Water Temple from OoT. Everything's a breeze for the entire game, and then BAM! Lowering/raising water levels, going all the way to the clothing menu to change into your iron boots, and worst of all, being able to get yourself stuck forever if you do things wrong with absolutely no warning that such a thing was even possible.

Still haven't beaten it.

you are not alone, i hate that place XD never finished majoras mask because of it, did manage to get through OoT but now i hate water temples.

 

[Crystal Cuckoo]

I know this'll sound INCREDIBLY weak in comparison to BattleToads (yes, I played it when I was 6, beat the first level, got crushed by the second, and never played it again), but:

CoD4 on Veteran. Some levels I can manage (well, the SAS ones) but I cry at the American ones. TOO MANY FREAKING ARABS.

Trying to counter with the Hidden Blade on Assassin's Creed 1. Granted, countering with the sword would be much easier, but it doesn't guarantee a one=hit kill, so I tend to neglect it. Problem is, the window of opportunity to counter is VERY small, and failing means losing a quarter of your health because your opponents are slashing at you without giving you a chance.

That's it, for now.

 

[vBLADEv]

monster hunter freedom unite g-ranked fatalis'es ive gone solo throughout this game but these guys jus wont die

 

[Doitpow]

Incoming obscure game reference
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Sacrifice

 

[Dimbo_Sama]

Psychonauts. Oh my god that starts out just challenging, but as soon as you get to the end it's a lesson in controler snapping frustration.