Hardest game you never beat (i.e., without cheats).

[Grumath]

Fuck Mike Tyson. And yeah, without the cheats, the Contra games were pretty much impossible.

[gavinrad]

yeah, you had to slow down alot more than the HUD tells you in Top Gun, and you have to ignore when it tells you UP UP UP cause its overly sensitive.

cant believe I remember that shit from 15 years ago.

[Adam12]

Landing in Top Gun was never an issue for me...I found refueling to be harder/touchier.

I'm with the OP, Ghost and Goblins was hard as hell, and I put a lot of time trying as a kid.

[Twobit Whore]

Tyson wasn't hard to beat. A couple of the guys before him gave me more trouble.

Ghosts and Goblins was idiotic. I actually beat it cheat-free and then it makes you go back and do it all over, only harder to actually beat it. So.. I half beat it. Fuck that game.

[Delenar]

Originally Posted by Twobit Whore

Tyson wasn't hard to beat. A couple of the guys before him gave me more trouble.

Wow really? At the peak of my geeky MTPO ability i could probably beat all the previous guys with my eyes closed but never, at any point in my life could beat Mike Tyson. No game made me throw my controller across the room like this one did.

[Zehn - Vhex]

Most games I didn't beat were largely because I didn't have the time or patience to put up with it. Ghost Busters for example. I got to the part where you have to climb the tower and it was one of those 'wtf?' moments in gaming history. Like Double Dragon 2 (or was it 3?). In fact most of the games I didn't beat were because they were designed not to be beaten. Or I'd get bored. The Lolo series of puzzle games. I'd breeze through the first 20~30 levels and then be like, "Meh" and stop playing.

Some games came really close to besting me though. Battletoads I only beat by memorizing the riding parts. Mike Tyson was part luck. Castlevania gave me trouble until I learned to master the whole holy water to gimp bosses thing.

Rock Band is currently the game giving me the most trouble. Handful of songs I can't beat on expert, though I don't know if you want to open the can of worms that is difficulty levels.

[Screamfeeder]

Aside from the NES games that are already listed, this is one that I never beat that still haunts me to this day.

[James]

I beat em all, actually, at least the ones worth playing. I'm rather fanatical about single player games like that, though. That Top Gun video is fucking perfect, too. An otherwise excellent game marred by the single hardest fucking landing sequence ever imagined.

[Burg-Hyjal]

For as hard as NES ghosts and goblins was, the SNES one is fucking insane.

[Kaxmax]

Rygar.

Can't even remember if it was NES or SNES, but fuck that game.

[Wombat]

Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts is the SNES one. Gets my pick as well, I made it to the second fucking level ONCE.

Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is the runnerup. I never made it past level two or so either; most of the problem was that you could walk right through platforms unless you hit them from the top.

Sure, Battletoads was ugly as well, but SNgN and SSW:ETSB were a higher plane of assbeat.

[Runnen]

Man that's funny, I was thinking of that exact game when I opened the thread and BAM, Ghost'n'Goblins in my face! But seriously, another very hard game from the NES era's got to be that damn TMNT game where you saw the city from above and had to avoid Foot Clan steamrollers.. fuck that game, it was glitchy, had shitty graphics and the difficulty level was just insane.

[AladainAF]

Without a doubt, battletoads.

That shit was rough.

[Arbitrary]

Originally Posted by Grumath

And yeah, without the cheats, the Contra games were pretty much impossible.

My parents beat Contra and Super Contra.

[Millie]

Originally Posted by Necrolyte

Ghosts and Goblins was tough.

Ghosts and Goblins was basically impossible. I couldn't even beat the first level! My sirry Amelican reflexes cannot handle a game of such intensity and finesse.

A slightly rarer hard game was Pocky & Rocky for the SNES.

LOL, someone else out there actually bought Pocky & Rocky? I thought I was the only one in the world who owned that game, which I bought solely because the raccoon (Rocky?) was really cute.