20 Difficult Games

[Nester the Lark]

I often think about how current games are different from games I used to play when I was kid in the 80's. A few months ago, when I was having a good retro gaming fix with the likes of Midway Arcade Treasures and Namco 50th Anniversary, it occurred to me that classic games were played more for the challenge and modern games were played more for the experience. Old games, like Pac-man and Tetris, were designed to challenge the player, to see how far you could get or how high your score could be (and most of all, earn the most quarters in the shortest amount of time). With newer games, it's not so much if you'll reach the end, but when, and they often hold your hand at least part of the way. Current games are designed to be beaten.

I just read a fascinating article at Gamasutra called Game Design Essentials: 20 Difficult Games in which the author, John Harris, seemed to reach the same conclusion. In it, he examines 20 games on how and why they are challenging. He makes it clear that his list is not intended to be about "the most challenging games of all-time", but rather games that are challenging in a specific and interesting way. Some of the games on the list include Solomon's Key, Adventures of Lolo, Super Monkey Ball, The Legend of Zelda (second quest), Blast Corps, and Mischief Makers.

Anyway, it's a long article (11 pages!), but I thought it was a really interesting study on challenge in video games.

[TV Eye]

Very nice article! It is so true. There aren't that many games out there that are just fun to play (also very hard)! The DS though is good for games of that genre.

[Blueberry_pie]

In case you don't want to click 'next page' 10 times... the printer friendly version has everything on one page.

[nocturnal YL]

Hmm...You call Mischief Maker hard...? Mr Driller? Oh... that's a bit of exaggerating, I'd say...


And the Lode Runner series isn't entirely hard. Try NP Lode Runner and see, its not hard at all (but boring...)

And to me, the hardest thing would be Wario Woods. I love puzzlers and they're too easy for me, but this is an exception! Other "hard" games like Fire Emblem Thracia 776 would be nothing to me compared to this monster!