What videogames should every gamer beat?

May 11, 2005 1:56 PM

Fill in the blank: "Don't even talk to me about video games until you've beaten _____." What do you think? When Ninja Gaiden was released for the XBox, some people had said it was so hard that gamers would wear it as a badge when they beat it. So what are some other games that every gamer should try to take on? Not just difficult ones, classic games apply too.
posted by patgas to sports, hobbies, & recreation (51 comments total)

I have, in the course of my entire life, met perhaps two people who ever beat Battletoads without the aid of cheat codes. That does not hold for any other video/computer game I've ever played. It is without any moment's consideration the hardest videogame ever created.
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 2:03 PM on May 11, 2005

I can't get several of the "super" weapons at the end of Final Fantasy X, so I just keep leveling up, but I can never beat Sin.
posted by Mean Mr. Bucket at 2:08 PM on May 11, 2005

MDK 2 (I have the Dreamcast version) is a very hard game as it gets to the later levels. Feels nice to beat it.

I've never heard of Battletoads.
posted by 6550 at 2:09 PM on May 11, 2005

Nethack?
posted by mr_roboto at 2:12 PM on May 11, 2005

System Shock. Both 1 and 2.

Myst.

The Super Mario Brothers series.

Half-Life.
posted by bshort at 2:13 PM on May 11, 2005

Battletoads was an NES game released in 1991. It was really hard, especially when you had to start over from scratch because you were out of lives.
posted by smackfu at 2:14 PM on May 11, 2005

NES system games that defined genres
Legend of Zelda- action adventure
Final Fantasy- RPG
Super Mario Brothers- platform


PC games that are great in one way or another:
Zork- text adventures are the forefathers of the modern adventure/RPG game
Monkey Island I, II, and III- funny as hell and challenging too
Doom- defined a genre (first person shooter)
Half Life- the first truly "Great" FPS
Deus Ex- a masterpiece of branching storyline and available options tied into a nifty FPS
Myst- defined a genre (eye candy games)

I could go one forever, but I'm sure others will have good input too.
posted by cosmicbandito at 2:20 PM on May 11, 2005

How about the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy text adventure game? It also was really hard with the starting over each time you forgot to do something.

I personally think that this sort of difficulty is stupid. I could make a game that just as few people could beat: you start the game, it presents a blank screen, and if you're able to press a button at exactly the right moment, you win. If you fail, the game won't let you play for a year. That's what I think about starting over when you're out of lives.
posted by breath at 2:21 PM on May 11, 2005

My roommate is one of the people who beats these games (well, rpgs, anyways). He's not egotistical about it, but he is an RPG master. For instance, for those who have played FFX, one of the challenges it to beat the game without using the sphere grid (equivalent of leveling) which he did. Another recent one is with Kingdom Hearts and it's something like get hit less than 1000, 500, 100, or something equally insane on hard made (aka japanese mode) for a special ending. For him, beating a game is not nearly enough- it is all about the challenge of beating a game with handicaps. For more, check out gamefaqs message boards for rpg's you've played and chances are people will post challenges of some sorts. That is what he does.

As far as actual games, one of the early final fantasies come to mind that I always hear about...maybe the first one? Also, word is that beating the new secret of mana is ridiculous without dieing (when you die, the game starts over but you keep experience so it's a longass process of leveling up).
posted by jmd82 at 2:23 PM on May 11, 2005

Well, back in ancient times, I remember Kid Icarus being pretty tough towards the end. Also, one of the Castlevania games was pretty brutal. Was it 2? I can't remember. Of course everyone had to beat Mario, Metroid and Zelda (both times through), but I didn't think that was so hard. Actually to tell you the truth, I found the oldschool side-scrolling NES games generally more difficult than modern equivalents -- especially the ones without save features. Contra, Trojan, Ghosts and Goblins...
posted by drpynchon at 2:23 PM on May 11, 2005

Lemmings
posted by jfuller at 2:32 PM on May 11, 2005

Does nobody remember Deadly Towers? The hardest game ever (which I did finally beat one summer as a kid).
posted by Who_Am_I at 3:04 PM on May 11, 2005

Nethack is the classic - who have you ascended with?

RPG: so many.. Recently, Baal in Disgaea comes to mind. Your character needs a couple of thousand levels to beat him..
Physically: one of the DDRs in Oni mode, yeeuch.

On the net, www.stickcricket.com world domination ^_^

I'll stick a list of must beats up later (I've played too many hundreds of games..).
posted by Mossy at 3:12 PM on May 11, 2005

Starflight...if there is any playable form of it anywhere now.
posted by abingham at 3:13 PM on May 11, 2005

Kurasawa II (a.k.a. the Ralari Rescue mission) in the original Wing Commander is famously difficult.
posted by vorfeed at 3:17 PM on May 11, 2005

Equinox for the SNES.
posted by fleacircus at 3:17 PM on May 11, 2005

I remember jumping around and shrieking like a little girl when I beat the first Super Mario Brothers. Of course, at the time I was a little (well, young teenaged) girl, so I had an excuse.

Marble Madness, however, mocks me to this day. Oh! Even further back--there was an Indiana Jones adaptation for the Atari 2600 that I'm convinced is unwinnable.

(Hey! You damn kids get off my lawn!)
posted by Vervain at 3:26 PM on May 11, 2005

Soul Reaver for PS1 took me forever to beat, but I was smoking a lot of pot at the time, so who knows...
posted by saladin at 3:28 PM on May 11, 2005

AstroWarrior for Sega Master System
Mario - Lost Worlds (Japans Mario 2)
posted by schyler523 at 3:40 PM on May 11, 2005

Myst yes, but Riven more so. I got all of the way through, but with the help of a large amount of hints, not to mention straight-out solutions for puzzles. I then hated myself for a while for not doing it without help.

Anyway, if you can understand Riven and finish it and see all the pieces of the GIANT PUZZLE come together with no help, I will admire you forever.

Consider this a challenge.
posted by Lotto at 3:49 PM on May 11, 2005

Star Control 2.

Which is now available as a free open-source port, called The Ur-Quan Masters

It is, in my humble opinion, perhaps the best video game ever made.
posted by Jairus at 3:58 PM on May 11, 2005

Solomons Key was an underrated action/puzzle game. Difficult because of the complexity, undocumented elements, and 100 levels. Zanac was the epitome of speed in a shooter. List of difficult NES games.
posted by Jack Karaoke at 4:03 PM on May 11, 2005

Spellbreaker.
posted by Wolfdog at 4:32 PM on May 11, 2005

Empire Strikes Back for Atari 2600.

;-)
posted by DakotaPaul at 4:33 PM on May 11, 2005

Once you *have* to beat something to feel validated, it stops being a game and starts being job. And there's nothing I hate more than work.

But still, beating any Super Monkey Ball makes you a true champ. It takes more than a strategy guide or a super weapon to conquer the monkey ball. Also, it has none of the needless repetition of leveling up, treasure finding and backtracking that seemds to plague most games today.
posted by gaelenh at 4:41 PM on May 11, 2005

Gauntlet

Yes.. gauntlet! Is that actually beatable?
posted by eurasian at 4:53 PM on May 11, 2005

Beating the original NES Contra without using the Konami code is a challenging but still pretty attainable goal to separate the wheat from the chaff.

There are no shortages of ways to make games even more challenging -- ascending in Nethack using a pacifist tourist, going through Diablo 1 using only the worst cursed items you can find and without casting any spells, etc. But as a metric to distinguish casual gamers from hardcore gamers, Contra is a pretty good one.
posted by DaShiv at 4:57 PM on May 11, 2005

I see Zork and Hitchhikers up there, but if we're gonna bring up old text games I have to plead for Trinity, a just amazing and often overlooked Infocom game that has whimsical giant mushrooms, requires animal cruelty on the part of the player, and will teach you a little bit about the history of atomic weapons if you let it.

And don't talk to me about video games until you've played Yars' Revenge until the barrier disappears and the shield turns pink.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 5:28 PM on May 11, 2005

Ghosts and Goblins

Bullpucky. I can beat GnG in an hour. You just have to keep killing the guys carrying the bags of treasure until you get the dagger, then go to town. Hitchhiker's Guide is a text game, so in my books doesn't count. Battletoads is insanely annoying, mostly because the only way to complete it is to play it and die so often that you memorize the entire game and obstacles. I never beat it, personally.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 5:37 PM on May 11, 2005

It's easy to make a difficult game. The trick is to make a difficult game that doesn't make you throw up your hands in disgust because it's stupid-difficult. Like having to memorise minutes of millisecond timings.
My most memorable games: XCom2, Dune2, Deus Ex, Little Big Adventure, Ultima 4, Monkey Island 1+2, Starcon2.
posted by quiet at 6:04 PM on May 11, 2005

Yars Revenge. You kids and your 3D.
posted by Popular Ethics at 6:25 PM on May 11, 2005

PinkStainlessTail: So you're a frustrated old fogey as well. I still look at that game as the fish that got away.
posted by Popular Ethics at 6:30 PM on May 11, 2005

I don't know CD... Check out what they have to say on that link from Jack Karaoke. I wasn't the only one that found G'n'G for the NES tough.
posted by drpynchon at 7:19 PM on May 11, 2005

I can feel the older game love here.

An RPG classic is Dungeon Master. It's a must for dungeon crawl purists and bonus points if you can beat the even much harder sequel. I didn't and I managed to get through all 3 Bard's Tales.

Super Mario Brothers is a decent platformer, but if you can finish Shadow of the Beast, then you can brag some. Other hard, good ones from back then are Turrican, GODS, Shinobi, Pitfall 2, Jumpman Junior, and Bionic Commando.

Top scrollers: Ikari Warriors, 1942, Mach 3, Commando, and Super Contra 3 with out continuing, of course.

Side Scollers: NARC, Raiden, R Type, Defender (survive hyperspace)

Fighting Games: Punch Out, Double Dragon

Then there are games that just get so hard that it's just a matter of getting to a certain point. Robotron gets near impossible on something like the 12th round. Joust gets stupid hard at about level 45.

For the old Amiga gamers a certain UK company called Mastertronic pumped out some crazy-hard games. One was called The Last V8 and I could never get more than a few seconds past the 2nd level. Another game they made, One Man and His Droid, wasn't as hard, but it had a wild song that I still find popping in my head at odd times.


And one last one. To get to elite in Elite. I know I never came close.
posted by john at 7:40 PM on May 11, 2005

I've gotta agree on Battletoads. It wouldn't be that hard if you memorized the patterns. I've got a friend who owned it, and made it to the tower a couple of times, but I never had the patience. There are two (well, at least two) levels that are pure memorizing which buttons to push (the speedbike levels). Annoying shit.

Ha! Super Monkey Ball doesn't have repetition? Have you never played the same damned level 20+ times in a row because you keep falling off? I like the game, but it was damned unforgiving at times.

Pretty much all of the games that are considered really really hard I've cheated to beat. I'm not ashamed of that fact, System Shock 2 was fucking hard. (And I just can't handle the constant fear of the game, being goaded, turning a corner and getting slammed by a robot...damn. That game scarred me, even with cheating.)

On Preview: What about games that almost NO ONE beat? Daikatana? BMX XXX? Does it make you a true gamer if you work your way completely through a shitty game?
posted by graventy at 7:57 PM on May 11, 2005

Nethack and Ghosts & Goblins. Ikaruga for GameCube is also absurdly hard. I had a hard time with the last few levels of the "Mysteries of the Sith" expansion pack to Jedi Knight, too.

Incidentally, I find this kind of gaming more fun than the story-driven graphics intensive kind, the games that are a test of your personal willpower and resolve. I like insanely hard motor-skill challenges (Nethack being the exception). Apparently I'm not alone.
posted by Succa at 7:57 PM on May 11, 2005

I beat Battletoads. Of course, I learned video game patience from a friend who used to throw his controller at the screen when he lost. Having to counter-balance his rage in two-player matches was a real life lesson.
posted by alas at 8:17 PM on May 11, 2005

The hardest video game ever was Mutant Virus.
posted by drezdn at 12:01 AM on May 12, 2005

The last mission in Driver was insanely hard.
posted by salmacis at 1:09 AM on May 12, 2005

The Indiana Jones on the 2600 is beatable--they just don't give any indication of how to do it, and IIRC the documentation was slightly misleading about it.

There's this little medallion thingie that randomly shows up in one of the baskets in the marketplace (you just have to keep trying...eventually it appears). Then you have to take that to the map room and stand in front of the map while holding it, at a certain time of day. When the sun shines through the "ceiling" at that time (noon?) the Ark location will flash on the map screen (like the scene in the movie).

Then you have to take a shovel and a parachute and dive down to that spot and dig. This is all coming from admittedly fuzzy memories of decades past. But yes, the game can be finished...
posted by First Post at 1:14 AM on May 12, 2005

I don't know CD... Check out what they have to say on that link from Jack Karaoke.

I'm not saying it's not a hard game to beat (and you have to beat it twice). But since it was (and still is) one of my favorite games, to which I've clocked in several hundred hours worth of game time, I find playing it isn't as big a challenge as others have. The two-strikes and your dead thing is annoying, but you can get armor if you open two treasure chests. The key is getting the gold armor so you can use the special weapon features (though some are more lame than others). The battle-axe is the pissiest weapon, btw (the upwards angle when you throw it makes it almost useless) second only to the fire-ice (which is nearly impossible to attack upwards with).
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 1:16 AM on May 12, 2005

The more advanced levels on Skyroads were just totally and utterly impossible.
posted by ori at 1:17 AM on May 12, 2005

Accomplishments that'd really impress me:
Viewtiful Joe (the first one, on Ultra V-Rated difficulty), Amplitude/Frequency (on their respective highest settings), Psyvariar 2 (just getting to Area 6 at all, let alone beating Gluon), the MAX tours on PSP Ridge Racer, 5-star CPU/drop difficulty on Meteos.

Ikaruga's hard but not impossible, and certainly nothing compared to Psyvariar 2 (the chaining's where the challenge is). As much as I love Disgaea (and other RPGs) with all my heart, with the real end-game stuff (Uber Prinny Baal), levelling to the point where it's possible just becomes mindlessly repetitive.

Oh, and Space Channel 5 / SC5 Part 2. They're not hard, but I can't help but love anyone who's played through them just a little bit.
posted by terpsichoria at 1:32 AM on May 12, 2005

Chuckie Egg. While I don't think you can actually "beat" it (what a horrible, violent word), I think the truly hardcore could wear a little chicken-shaped badge bearing the level number on which your final life was extinguished. To this day I can find Q, A, O, P, and space faster than any other key on the keyboard.

Disgaea is an issue. I went on a levelling marathon to get the first special character, and I can't face doing it again. I'm at level 2,500ish, and knowing how long it took me to get there I can't bear the thought of taking it to 9,999...

Resident Evil 4 on professional difficulty isn't insanely difficult, but it is relentless, so that might be worth a go.
posted by ArmyOfKittens at 3:35 AM on May 12, 2005

The game should be relatively well-known.

A widely agreed badge of honour is to finish Super Mario World uncovering all 96 levels -- preferably on the SNES rather than GBA version which doesn't spell out where the hidden levels are.

I certainly agree with the tougher difficulty on Viewtiful Joe being impressive.

I'd throw in Hellfire for the Megadrive/Genesis

Puzzle games will distinguish you as a thinker rather than a gamer, but I'll second Lemmings and suggest the toughest difficulty on civ or civ2.
posted by nthdegx at 4:01 AM on May 12, 2005

It's essentially impossible to beat Robotron, but the feeling you get when you're finally one with the game is indeed a key video game epiphany.
posted by felix at 9:06 AM on May 12, 2005

Ghosts & Goblins NES version is farily easily beatable. The arcade version is NOT.

I think people are confusing games you should have beaten with games you should have played.

The games you should have beaten to demonstrate massive skill should include: Battletoads (NES), Castlevania (NES), Marble Madness (Arcade), ghosts & Goblins (Arcade) at minumum. If you can 'go infinite' on Robotron, Zaxxon, or Gauntlet (all arcade) then I'd qualify that as massively skilled.
Some other games that are very hard to beat: Ninja Spirit (Arcade), Impossible Mission (C64), Klax (either version), X-COM: TFD (PC).

The list of games you should have played so you can 'know your roots' is very long and should likely be a separate topic.
posted by Four Flavors at 11:22 AM on May 12, 2005

I think people are confusing games you should have beaten with games you should have played.

I don't think a single person here has confused the point of the question.
posted by nthdegx at 12:57 PM on May 12, 2005

Genetic Drift was a Broderbund game on the Apple ][ that got insanely fast by level 5, with intricate keyboard controls. They gave away T-shirts (one per state) to people who beat it. I was the first person in New York.

Civilization 1, in Emperor mode, starting as the Britons. You're stuck on this little rock for a long time until you develop boats, and meanwhile the computer players have developed tanks or something.

The Space Bar was the hardest adventure game I have ever played (and not because it has find-the-pixel puzzles). Also the best. No comparison with Hitchhikers' or Spellbreaker (all three of which are by Steve Meretzky).

Bureaucracy, a text adventure by Douglas Adams unleavened by Meretzky, is insanely difficult, in a bad way.
posted by Aknaton at 1:43 PM on May 12, 2005

Nethack?

Nethack.

So few have ever beaten this game. It takes years of play to get good enough to even know how to approach beating it. Most 'ascensions' take ridiculous amounts of time to complete. If you die, and you do, you have to start over from scratch. And you die of the most mundane of things.

There is a tournament every year where a bunch of people all start new games simultaneously over telnet. Fuckin' crazies.
posted by blasdelf at 1:15 AM on May 13, 2005

Spellbreaker was not Meretzky.
posted by Wolfdog at 7:33 PM on May 25, 2005