6 Games That Are More Difficult Than Dark Souls III

As the medium has become more commercialized, the difficulty of video games has definitely softened in recent years. In the name of profit, developers and publishers today certainly seem more interested in creating more player friendly experiences to encourage accessibility. Games of old forced you to explore and discover, to learn attack patterns and experiment with strategy. But now, waypoints, pop up hints and difficulty sliders all but walk us through too many gaming experiences without ever resorting to trial and error. Certainly, this makes for less frustration and a more cohesive narrative experience, but it also removes much of the satisfaction and sense of achievement in beating a game. There was a time when all video games were difficult. Many titles of the NES/SNES era were merciless in their hardship, providing little in the way of guidance and torturing gamers with relentless waves of enemies that make today's video gaming adversaries look like fluffy bunnies by comparison. Cheap deaths, absurdly obscure puzzles, ludicrously lengthy passwords, and a total lack of save points had players tearing their hair out and smashing controllers on the floor. Of course, not driving people insane with ridiculously hard game design was probably a smart move on the part of developers, but highly difficult games are now making a comeback. The Souls series has been reputed for its challenging gameplay ever since it first debuted back in 2011. Since that time, we’ve seen a host of new IPs imitate that same emphasis on punishing difficulty. It’s almost become a sub-genre, enjoyed by people who relish in the satisfaction of beating tough game design. Dark Souls III is the latest entry in this renaissance of challenging titles and is revered as a game only to be attempted by the bravest and most skilled. That being said, the games listed in this article are even more unforgiving and would no doubt turn even the hardiest Souls veteran into an aggravated mess after attempting their brutally tough level design. Mega Man 3 The Mega Man series has long been reputed for its tricky platforming sequences and tough boss battles. Mega Man gameplay isn’t so much about speed and quick reactions as much as it is about timing and strategy, requiring players to concentrate on careful movement and the study of enemy attack patterns. When played by veterans of the series Mega Man is graceful to watch; there is an elegance to its perfectly balanced gameplay which is mercilessly difficult but always fair. Respect a Mega Man game and you’ll be rewarded with a superlative gaming experience, but try to rush in without appreciating the required strategy and the game will chew you up and spit you out. Although the second entry in the series, Mega Man 2, features on many lists for the greatest games of all-time and probably does score highest as an overall experience, the third game introduced a new sliding mechanic and some horrendously tough boss battles. In fact, in a surprise ending, Mega Man 3 requires players to not only replay every defeated boss from the game, but to also defeat every boss from Mega Man 2 as well. Oh, and there are no save points either. Ninja Gaiden Reboot In all honesty, any entry from the Ninja Gaiden series could have made this list. The original 8-bit trilogy might have been excused for its absurd difficulty, given that it was perhaps developed at a time when developers were unsure quite how high to set the bar, but the rebooted titles on Xbox continued the madness with two 3D hack and slash games that redefined the meaning of frustration. In fact, the fact the first one was so difficult that many gamers found themselves struggling to even defeat the first boss. At the time, Ninja Gaiden was lauded as the pinnacle of action gaming, an instant classic and a genre defining action-adventure title. But only the most talented gamers were able to cope with its combat mechanics, requiring precision attacks in combination with complex block and parry manoeuvres. As opposed to the original 8-bit Ninja Gaiden games that featured maze-like level design, a lack of save points and tough platforming, the rebooted game's difficulty stems from mindbogglingly hard enemy attack patterns. Each enemy requires careful study, especially the almost obnoxiously tough boss fights that are so unrelenting that most gamers capitulated long before getting anywhere close to completion. Castlevania III Cryptic, ambient and featuring scintillating platform gameplay, the original Castlevania has been lauded by critics as a seminal title in the adventure-platforming genre. It sparked a franchise that still remains intact, albeit not quite with the same presence as in its heyday. The first three Castlevania games are beloved NES titles, but you won’t find many gamers that have actually beaten any of them. Castlevania first launched in 1986 and arguably set the benchmark for punishingly difficult games with its sharp learning curve, but the series third installment probably takes the cake as the hardest overall experience. Castlevania III is an unforgiving game in which even simple platforming maneuver is made difficult by unpredictable enemy movement. Most notorious is the dreaded recoil mechanic, in which a single hit from an enemy causes a knock-back effect that can quite easily bump you off a platform. It essentially meant that players were never safe from impending doom, no matter what scale of enemy they were facing. To beat Castlevania III, every controller input has to be perfectly executed and each jump perfectly timed. It's a true monster of a game that we imagine most people would have extreme difficulty with. Contra: Hard Corps Contra was an instant classic when it debuted in 1987, and it has since been remembered as a seminal run and gun game, a genre utterly synonymous with retro arcade titles of that era. Unsurprisingly for a game of the late 1980s, it’s stupidly hard with a near vertical learning curve right from the start. Almost unbelievably, in standard mode Contra only grants three lives to beat its myriad of hugely difficult levels. Seriously, if you’ve played Contra then you'll know that this is about as feasible as taking trying to take Hamburger Hill solo with a single clip of ammunition. For that reason, the game made popular the concept of cheat codes; the infamous Konami code bumping restarts to 30 when inputted, which made the game much more palatable, but still immensely tough. As hard as Contra was, we’ve decided to list the game's sequel, Hard Corps. Despite the original's almost impossible difficulty level, Hard Corps didn’t dumb down the Contra formula, but rather added to its excruciating difficulty by ramping things up another notch with even more boss fights. During some levels, players were faced with up to six boss encounters in one stage. To beat Contra: Hard Corps requires work, perseverance and patience on a level not seen anymore in modern gaming. Ghosts 'n Goblins All of the games on this list are demanding on a scale unheard of by today’s standard, but Ghosts 'n Goblins was actually considered extremely hard even by 1980s arcade standards. In fact, the game is often slated as one of the most challenging ever released. If you’re proud of beating Dark Souls III, then attempting Ghosts 'n Goblins would provide a sharp reality check. This game is no joke; a single hit will remove Arthur's armor, forcing players to continue with nothing but underwear as protection. A second hit and it’s all over, returning players right to start of each arduous level. If that wasn’t enough of a challenge, a three minute timer adds an extra pressure to complete each level, giving players little to no time to study attack patterns or memorize platforming sections. Any single stage in Ghosts 'n Goblins is probably harder than the entirety of most modern AAA games, but perhaps the most soul crushing moment in the game occurs right at its conclusion; after beating the final boss players are told the first encounter was merely "a trap devised by Satan," and are then required to play the entire game again on a higher difficulty. Battletoads 1991 saw the release of Battletoads on the NES. Hailed as one of the most beautiful games on the system, Battletoads spawned a franchise that spanned several sequels and spinoffs, which in itself is odd given that most players never made it past the game's third level. Battletoads simply has to be one of the most difficult games ever conceived, and almost entirely thanks to its infamous Turbo Tunnel level, which required both inhuman reflexes and a detailed memory of its level design to beat. Turbo Tunnel broke almost everyone that attempted it, but Battletoads actually continued to get harder from that point on. Yet, Turbo Tunnel remains notorious because to actually beat the level without losing a single life was next to impossible. Of course, this is before the days of saving progress or checkpoints; lose a life here and you are back to the very start, and even Battletoad's first two levels are punishing. If hell is a real place, then I imagine it’s probably playing Battletoad's Turbo Tunnel level on repeat. The only thing harder than actually beating the entire game might just be resisting the temptation to snap the cartridge in half out of frustration.