What do you think the #1 hardest NES game is?

[The White Hunter]

Okay you need to start qualifying these threads a bit more because there are tonnes of utterly broken things like Silver Surfer or one of the Terminator games and such.

But for a game thats actually possible? A game that is fully functioning and worth playing?

Ghouls N Ghosts bar none. THE hardest game on the NES that isn't totally broken. Ninja Gaiden? No, you get a life bar there.

Edit: Was tempted to say the real Super Mario Bros 2 but thats kinda... idk.. when I play it feels more like it's just not really that well designed, lots of beginners traps and placements of enemies just over blind jumps and such.

 

[Murrdox]

Thanks for reminding me about bionic commando too, I remembered I have the rearmed on my steam account, still. Need to play that at some point.

Bionic Commando: Rearmed was insanely good. The final boss fight was jarring, since you were suddenly using remote-control missiles, which you pretty much get JUST for the boss fight. Other than that though, really fantastic game. Definitely worth playing.

 

[Murrdox]

The Adventure of Link.

I still get nightmares about the final dungeon and Death Mountain.

Ahh I love that game so much. The final boss is really tough. The game overall I don't think is too difficult though.

 

[Klumpfot]

I'm going to say Solomon's Key. Brutally difficult puzzle platforming with a time limit that gets relentlessly restricting after the first half or so. I've never beaten it, and I don't expect I ever will.

 

[Murrdox]

The Adventure of Link.

I still get nightmares about the final dungeon and Death Mountain.

Ahh I love that game so much. The final boss is really tough. The game overall I don't think is too difficult though.

Yeah the final boss is real easy once you do that trick to beat him,but to me Adventure Of Link was brutal it took me years to beat it.

I used that trick to beat him a few times, and yes it's definitely a godsend bug because he's so incredibly difficult otherwise.

It took awhile for me to work up the courage to seriously attempt beating him WITHOUT using the invincibility bug. Hard, but definitely doable. I give myself better odds doing that though than getting through the first level of Ghouls and Ghosts!

 

[IrateDonnie]

Rygar,Kid Icarus, Ghosts & Goblins,& Deadly Towers were some of the harder ones I can remember right off the top of my head.I always had a hard time with Metal Gear too for some reason.

 

[gamernerdtg2]

Blaster Master. I dare anyone to try that game and NOT get frustrated.

I still love Blaster Master. It's the best NES game after SMB3 IMO.
I noticed they fixed the infamous good bad bug in the Wii Virtual Console version... pressing pause on certain bosses with an active grenade no longer does continuous damage.

You're definitely a "hardcore" gamer if you can hang with Blaster Master. For sure. I got super far on that game, but when you lose all of your lives you have to go aaaaaaaallll the way back the the first level. Cruelty from the old school-ty! And that's super crazy of them to take away the trick with pause! Wow!

 

[lechat]

am i the only one who failed on tmnt not because of the (water) dam level but because of the levels after it?
long time ago but i remember beating the dam level a few hundred times but never finishing the game

 

[DocMcCray]

Ooh, nostalgia time!
First for the ones I've been able to beat:
Ninja Gaiden 1,2 and 3 - Played NG1 so much I could speed run the thing in 23 minutes (record is 13)
TMNT - water level wasn't bad for me. Next stage was a ***** for a long time. Inside the technodrome pissed me off until I equiped all my turtles with max scrolls.
Castlevania - wasn't too bad after a ton of practice
FInal Fantasy 1 - Actually beat the final boss in 1 hit with a blackbelt. Other than that he wasn't hard for me.

Now for the ones I couldn't beat:
Punch-out - Bald Bull and Tyson. Just couldn't do it.
G&G - Um...no. Just no.
Battletoads - Rat Race was so much more difficult that hover bikes IMO.
Blaster Master - Game was incredibly fun. Just couldn't get to the final boss.

One that I'm surprised hasn't been mentioned is Street Fighter 2010. Fun up to a point then it just devolved into irritation.

 

[ultrabiome]

Lets see, I have beat the following NES games:

Battletoads (yes, rat race is insanely hard)
Rygar
Castlevania I,II, and III (and I is harder than III by far and i even beat III with no sidekick)
Silver Surfer
Section Z
Metroid
Gradius & Lifeforce

i beat most of them by practicing with a game genie, then trying genie-less runs.

never did try Ghosts n' Goblins or TMNT or Ninja Gaiden, Solomon's Key is practically impossible after a while, and i can't remember if i beat Punch-Out.

 

[Ashadowpie]

i still till this damn day cant play the first Zelda, yah i know its incredibly sad but i die ALL THE FREAKING TIME!!!

same with Link to the Past, its all good and fun untill your in the dark world or whatever, the difficulty spikes so bad for me its unplayable. i thought at first its because of the birds eye view style but its not, i happily beat all the gameboy Zelda games but these two...damnit it sucks

i havnt played Zelda 2, seen it, dont wanna play it.

 

[Murrdox]

i still till this damn day cant play the first Zelda, yah i know its incredibly sad but i die ALL THE FREAKING TIME!!!

same with Link to the Past, its all good and fun untill your in the dark world or whatever, the difficulty spikes so bad for me its unplayable. i thought at first its because of the birds eye view style but its not, i happily beat all the gameboy Zelda games but these two...damnit it sucks

i havnt played Zelda 2, seen it, dont wanna play it.

Here's my thing with the original Zelda.

The game is SOOOO freaking big, and you have NO hints to go on. This is a game that I only played as a kid with a Nintendo Power open in front of me on the living room floor.

Fighting is OK. There are some hard enemies, but it's playable. Zelda was a great action game in this regard.

Dungeons are OK. Most dungeons can be figured out without too much difficulty. There are only so many blocks you can push, and wall-bomb spots are well-defined. Many of the more difficult dungeons didn't rely on puzzles so much as putting you in a room with a lot of very difficult to defeat enemies, and severely reducing your movement through various obstacles in the room. Boss fights were really fun in Zelda, but doable.

It's the Overworld that's unbearable. It's the Overworld that's a killer. There are so many screens. Each screen has hundreds of bushes to burn or blocks to push. On top of that, when you're burning bushes, you can only use the Candle item ONCE per screen, then you had to leave and come back! Many puzzles in the game rely on you burning bushes or pushing blocks to discover item stores, hearts, or Dungeon entrances. There are also no hints in the game as to where you should go and what you should do. Almost the ENTIRE overworld is open to you at the very start of the game. You can almost get to the entrance to the final dungeon right from the get-go. There's no easy path to the first Dungeon. It's just endless trial and error.

I never had the patience to beat Zelda. I think I got to the 6th or 7th dungeon, and there were a couple of rooms I just kept dying on, and I didn't have the patience to hunt around for more heart containers to make myself a little more resilient to damage, and I just put it down.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

Considering my childhood, I'm going to say Battletoads, never beat it, same with Castlevania(thought at least with that game it felt that if I tried harder that I would finally beat it).

But in the end, NES games may be hard, but they've never lost their appeal. Finally having a job and using money I got from last Christmas, my NES library has more than double to around 46 different games. Awesomely so far, 9 of them are complete in box(E-bay is my friend for that, and surprisingly it isn't that expensive to get a CIB NES game in great condition).

In the interest of something different, I'm saying Air Fortress.

I actually got that one from an NES mystery grab bag that I bought at a retro store a couple weeks ago.

I didn't get to play it very long, but it didn't seem that hard, though I had had only enough time to beat the first fortress. So of course, I don't have a good enough perspective on it yet.

 

[Yuno Gasai]

Super Ghouls 'N' Ghosts.

I remember playing it with my brother when I was very young, and the endless hours of frustration we endured after finally completing a level and getting to the Princess, only to be told that SHE'D LOST ANOTHER PIECE OF HER GODFORSAKEN JEWELLERY.

You'd think she'd learn after losing her bracelet (or whatever the first thing she asks you to get is), but no. Looking back, how do we know she wasn't just some kind of crazy gold-digger who thrives off of sending heroes to their doom just so she can amass riches?

Realistically though, I'm amazed at my gaming prowess when I was a kid. I've tried to go back and play some of the games I beat back then now, as an adult - and my god, do I suck. Either games have lowered their difficulty or I'm massively out of touch. (Heck, maybe even both.)

 

[deathzero021]

Ghosts N Goblins. that game is terrible. pretty much designed to kill you repeatedly and eat up all your quarters. The NES version is no different. Even allowing you to re-spawn infinite times doesn't help. Who has the patience for that? Dying in 2 hits is just a terrible idea for how much danger is on the screen.

Also the NES version of Dragon's Liar is probably much much harder, due to even worse controls and even more unfairness with the health mechanics.

 

[enriquetnt]

Correct me if im wrong but im pretty sure battletoads was unbeatable, i beated all 3 ninja gaidens (yep, including 1), all megamans, all castlevanias, AND ghost and goblins (tough cookie but not nearly as tough as the end bosses in NG) silver surfer was so broken that in didnt even bother, im gonna give roadrunner a shot (in the emu cause i dont think i can get the cart) im a memorization beast, and to this days AI is about patterns and if you have good eyes, good hands and good memory you can beat anithing

TMNT wasnt that bad i put it under "challenging" right whit robocop and both zeldas,

Punch Out, im and absolute monster in it, i can beat most of the opponents in less than 15 seconds, i have both the mike tyson version and the mr. dream version, tyson is a bit cheap but your not suppossed to let yourself being hit anyways

and if someone confirms me that battletoad us version on cart playing on the actual console (not emu) IS beatable im willing to give it another whirl (i havent replayed since it came out originally, i got stuck on some race and then my brother gave away the cart to some cousins on "loan" and i never saw that cart again, i bought it used some years ago but have never played it again)

 

[themyrmidon]

I'm so glad no one has said The Kirate Kid. So many of my friends say it's the hardest game they've ever played, but I beat it without too much struggle and can't find any major problems with it.

OT: Played Ghosts and Goblins in an arcade, never touched it again. That game was insane. Hardest one I've put any serious effort into is Battletoads.