The 20 Hardest Games Of All Time (That I've Played!)

[@Conradcadeau-oj9pp]

Sekiro is definitely my favourite platinum I have, it is so damn rewarding

[@Lou_Begga]

Sekiro is one of the greatest games of all time

[@Conradcadeau-oj9pp]

@@Lou_Begga I 100% agree

[@Walamonga1313]

Sekiro's plat would've been the best one... if it wasn't for that goddamn "unlock all skills" trophy/achievement. It takes forever. When I 100% the game again (played it 1st on PS4, then a 2nd time on PC) I got every achievement really fast except for that grind. Oh and getting all materials kinda sucked too. I'd say Elden Ring has the least tedious plat so far

[@mac1bc]

That's how I felt about the Ninja Gaiden games

[@NeoKokoro20]

A big reason why Devil May Cry 3 was so hard is because the difficulty was deliberately increased from the original Japanese release. Their Normal was our Easy, their Hard was our Normal, and so on. The Special Edition was closer to the Japanese difficulty system, making the game noticeably easier, though still no walk in the park.

[@MILDMONSTER1234]

Only normal mode made a difference, playing on hard-DMD is the same as the og and as far as im aware there were no noticeable balancing tweaks.

[@Jburneyjr]

Depends on which one you played. The Original one Normal mode was like the hard mode for the American release. Then they released it in special edition which made each region equal.

[@diegomireles]

I had to farm a lot in the second stage only to beat Cerberus, yeah DMC3 was no joke, but when you spend all your savings in just one game you can't chicken out. Even if I beaten DMC1 in DMD mode DMC3 was hard as ballz.

[@NeoKokoro20]

@@diegomireles Funny enough, Cerberus is actually probably the easiest boss in the game, besides the optional Jester fights. They only get harder from there.

[@dy8244]

I was there, Gandalf.

[@JoshuaJacobs83]

I'm a married man with a toddler in twins on the way, the hardest game for me is anything beyond hitting the start button Since some of the people responding must have been born to mothers on crack (I am so sorry), I'm not complaining. I won't get rid of my kids or divorce my wife. I meant it as a playful joke saying that married dad's often have a hard time making time for games. It's not a complaint, but then again, I don't hate my life like some people do

[@BradBrad-ff6hq]

Sounds like you’d fined up for years of headache to me

[@bernielosesbigleague192]

@@BradBrad-ff6hqsounds like you’re a boy and he’s a man

[@stevenmcdonald5837]

sounds like pull out game is the hardest game for you

[@Grosario92]

I have a toddler (3 years old) and twin boys (1 and a half yrs ols). My advice is getting them on a sleeping schedule with white noise and a nany cam. With time and consistency. You will succeed! Currently passing RDRD2

[@yeow1507]

Mine is playing the game of trying to not drop the baby who is attempting to yeet himself on the floor as I play games while holding him lol.

[@cletokings4302]

Im a an average gamer skill wise and Returnal took me like 10 hours to get to the second level but after putting around 50 hours into the game, I started a new game with no upgrades and was able to complete the entire game without dying. Returnal is a very well balanced game.

[@lukaszzylik4437]

100% agreed about Returnal. The difficulty doesn't change as far as I remember, what changed is your skill level you got super good at it.

[@josephjoy2245]

I loved Returnal. Your skills improve and you eventually dominate. It is perfectly balanced

[@ryanpongracz8051]

Underated, it's console exclusiveness made it relatively unknown

[@josephjoy2245]

Coincidentally Housemarque just announced a Returnal graphic novel and animated show

[@DragnGo]

What do you mean by second level? The red desert area? I don’t understand how you beat the whole game in one life. The game gets much harder after Act 1 (after you defeat the final boss), with new enemies and completely new attack patterns. To be able to figure all that out on your first attemp makes you an impressive gamer, not average.

[@derpchief9614]

It's just a kid's flash game, but "Winnie the Pooh's Home Run Derby" is infamously difficult. It just becomes insane when you reach Christopher Robin.

[@MODDED7]

"Howdy my totally tubular gamers we're back with youuu guess it anoother video" A Truly Iconic Intro 💯

[@zbi2zbu762]

u guessed it or u guess it

[@Greatzinger67]

Cringe

[@mr.smithgnrsmith7808]

Got something on your nose dude….

[@youngotterking5450]

Thanks for putting respect on Nioh 1. Going from the base game to DLC bosses is the most insane difficult jump I've ever had.

[@joeyjones9041]

Even end of base game Nioh was brutal for me, but yeah it's up there as the hardest game I've completed.

[@prsuave420]

Honestly I found nioh to be more difficult then any other souls like I've played. In fact I found that dark souls felt slow and easier after playing nioh. Not only that but the combat system is on another level. Mastering that is it's own challenge. And alot more satisfying then any other souls like.

[@sageinfinitenj2791]

Great video. Sekiro might be my favorite game of all time. It’s just perfect.

[@notimportant8643]

And not nearly as hard as he makes it out to be in the video

[@nuclearscarab]

@@notimportant8643 Sekiro is not that hard to learn, but it does take a lot of time to learn and a lot of tries on each boss. Also, it feels really hard because it's almost impossible to just jump in and actually be good at the combat.

[@kal-el8402]

Sekiro is not even hard lmao

[@summermoney2971]

​@@notimportant8643he did say that "difficulty is subjective"

[@ok10469]

​@notimportant8643 if you dont cheese it in any way and don't go out of your way to make the game easier, it's hard bro don't even lie. The first hours of any player are just a massacre and the game does not help at all. When you are at your lowest all you'll get is a new dragon rot notification telling you another one of your friends is about to die because of you

[@equanimity92]

When you mentioned Toy Story 1 ( a game for "kids" that most people would think would be easy) I immediately got vietnam flashbacks of the Abe's Odyssey games on the PS1 and Lion King for the SNES and Genesis😭😭

[@TotallyTubularJonathan]

man Abes Odyssey is a honorable mention for sure game was hard but honestly more frustrating than difficult it felt like lol

[@StewNWT]

the lion king was NEVER that hard. It was challenging sure but I can breeze through that game without dying easily now

[@coffeebean_tamer]

I forgot about Abes Odessy totally freaking insane.... I'm definitely putting Wipeout 2097 on my list just trying to unlock gold in latter tracks is insane when combined with the speed and speed reaction time.

[@lokomaniatiklmo2862]

The lion king was made with a hard difficulty on purpose because in that years people used to rent games and games developers were worried about lower sales,when Westwood Studios was making the lion king Disney ordered them make the second part of the game harder.

[@slingshotdon]

Lion King is super hard, way harder than toy story

[@gwnoob_op547]

50:55 The difficulty of Sekiro is why I am playing it for the 3rd time right now

[@TheKing77nl]

All Souls games are stupid easy compared to Ninja Gaiden Black/Sigma and Ninja Gaiden II on Master Ninja

[@ElGaby323]

Two different types of difficult. Master Ninja difficulty is just plain unfair and unbalanced. The Souls series has the perfect difficulty balance.

[@supersaiyan_os]

@@ElGaby323its not unfair it just test how good you are enemies can die with one combo if you know how to execute it the only downside is spamming explosive shurikens

[@smoothyodaproductions4373]

@@ElGaby323Im a huge souls fan but dont act like its perfectly balanced, there is a lot of bullshit in these games, just less than most on this list.

[@viktorvogel4106]

i took out NG1+2 on master ninja without to much difficulty. in the third one i struggled due to very limited healing. dark souls i find so easy that i dont even get hit if i put some effort into it. but BATTLETOADS and other ultra hard NES games i just cant beat them without either practicing rough parts with savestates or watching a speedrun and copying their strats.

[@2bizzystu868]

​@smoothyodaproductions4373 especially elden Ring, it's easy with summons, but when you play the right way the bosses are extremely artificially difficult for no reason, like Maliketh was artificially difficult dude was broken as all he'll

[@RetroNicho]

No matter how hard Battletoads is, it’s still a blast to play.

[@nickparsons337]

Agreed. I've only beaten it once when I was a kid. It was a Blockbuster rental weekend and I HAD to make sure I beat it before I returned it. Thank God for Nintendo Power. Lol

[@RetroNicho]

@@nickparsons337I wish I was alive during that time.

[@nickparsons337]

@@RetroNicho Trust me; I know how lucky I am to have been alive at that time.

[@reallyshel]

​@@nickparsons337I was also alive. Also Battle Toads/ Double Dragon was a banger.

[@THEMETALISBETTER]

Phantasy Star II on the genesis. Even with a guide it was a nightmare. You can't power level, the enemies scale with you, the dungeons are comically large and labrynthian. It's a miracle I completed it.

[@zeusapollo6504]

Why its an easy game? I had absolutely no problems playing it back in the days. Thought it was too easy and short played without a guide. I remember it, because of the rewarding end. I like really tragic endings. The harder RPG at the time was Breath of Fire II on the SNES. That was really hard, even with grinding levels. And it was required to do it to reach the end. While you can just blast through Phantasy Star II without leveling much, so scaling does not matter.

[@MrRodQ]

Having Jak 2 in the 20 spot made me smile. The battle at the docks on PS2 was crazy. And that battle with Barron Praxis is where I got stuck and quit. Good times.

[@maxcooks2963]

OMGGGG I felt so validated when you put Jak 2 on here! I love difficult games, but Jak 2 has so much jank to the point where the game is just plain unfair.

[@kevinfromsales9445]

Yeah I liked the game overall and got all the trophies on PS3 version but man is it frustrating and downright cheap.

[@jazsebastian]

Yep raged so hard at that shit when I was like 12-13 took it back to the trade in store for credit. Awful game, such a troll for young kids that think it's gonna be fun like the first one.

[@betelgeuse68]

The final boss in JAK 3 sucked, very difficult.

[@neorickio]

NG Black on Very hard difficulty is probably the hardest thing ever created. After finishing the game on its normal difficulty, which is no easy task, I couldn't even finish the second stage lol my brother finished it (on VH) and God, it was absurd how good he needed to get for it.

[@stevedonner7387]

Crash Bandicoot 4. The purple relic time trials. That's the hardest challenge i have ever done. I stopped playing platformers for about a year after completing that challenge.

[@Psych0technic]

I'm a big platformers fan, but I absolutely hated this game. One of the few games I regret buying with my own money. Very poorly designed from start to finish, couldn't even bring myself to finish it in any form. Very disappointing.

[@stevenbrown4001]

Bro the last level took me over 140 tries! All the different powers you have to use in quick succession was just insane. It felt so satisfying when I won and beat that game. It’s one of my favorite platformers. Right up there with Donkey Kong Country 2, Tropical freeze, and Super Mario Odyssey.

[@tandawg25]

I seriously can’t believe you haven’t played every single video game. Casual

[@panamike6178]

I struggled and never progressed in Cuphead, that game is insane. Just when you think you/re getting good at it....

[@AaronLederer-z9p]

Spent a whole 2 weeks on and off working on getting the platinum trophy. Probably the hardest plat difficulty wise that I’ve ever done. There are much long and tedious plats but this is easily the worst difficulty wise.

[@rubub8455]

I beat it in a day after seeing some videos of it on KZbin. Pretty harsh and occasionally super annoying, but I think people call the game way harder than it actually is

[@vanbanderholme3170]

Skill issue. Cuphead is too fair and well-balanced game to be called "one of the hardest of all time"

[@chai8130]

Im a very casual gamer but i beat cuphead in one sitting somehow

[@Robbie1219lelTheSuperKid]

I have Cuphead on my switch but not played it too much due to it's difficulty but there's one game that broke me SO MUCH It's a soulslike Metroidvania called Grimvalor it's the soulslike game that broke me because of the ancient beast in shattered rift it's probably one of the hardest enemies in any game I ever played

[@maximusprometheus6149]

You were spot-on with a lot of these. Can definitely agree with most of these games on this list. An honorable mention I would say is...Gunstar Heroes for Sega Genesis. Love that game despite its difficulty. Fun co-op as well. Zombies ate My Neighbors for Super Nintendo. The Lion King - Never beat it. I remember me and my sister were taking turns trying to beat it. Very frustrating. Never beat it. Toejam & Earl the original one. Comix Zone. World of illusion. X-Men - The original arcade version. And I've got other ones that are very obscure that most people have probably never played. Great video man.

[@whodoes3481]

sekiro is the most hardest and most fraustrating game i've ever played in my 20 years of gaming...no map, dying a hundred time..

[@shivrajdaund66]

I agree about no map and no direction about story

[@DylanSzerlip-ce2uw]

There’s a map lol it’s just useless

[@FunnyMan-ez9vq]

Sekiro you’re kidding right? Just play it it gets so much easier to me it’s definitely not the hardest and I would say one of the easiest I played :-)

[@ThorWZ]

Git gud

[@Lyserg250]

I have played every From Software game and platinumed DS2, DS3, Bloodborne, Sekiro and Elden Ring, have played Nioh 1+2 as well as DMC3 in PS2 and still almost nothing compares on difficulty with Cuphead. I seriously lost it at some bosses!

[@BEASTMODE-mv3gs]

Strangely I have an easier time with the bosses in Sekiro than I do with the groups of more common enemies. If I can continuously subject myself to a bosses move set I can get to the point that I can basically map out the fight before it’s even started. I took longer getting to Genichiro than I did beating him.

[@KillswitchRobie828]

I'm proud to say I beat F Zero GX on Very Hard and have the full roster unlocked :) It took me a total of 2 years to beat it.

[@jcukier2]

I remember as a kid renting Battletoads from Pharmor, if I recall (pretty sure they had video games to rent, or maybe it was a different place NOT called Blockbuster). Like the AVGN used to say, the rented game was our entire weekend once chores & HW were done. We never beat the turbo tunnel. Endless attempts, but no success. We eventually beat Super Ghouls n Ghosts but never Battletoads. We kept replaying the first 3 levels because it was fun, but the tunnel was the endgame.

[@JVIoneyman]

I’ve beaten a lot of hard games, but Battletoads is just something else. As a kid I beat the turbo tunnel maybe once or twice but when you die after that in the next stage and realize you have to do that again… the only game in my 37 years alive I just straight up gave up trying, not out of lack of interest but pure hopelessness.

[@GCDeadshot]

my top 10 is this: Ghosts n Goblins Resurrection Devil May Cry 3 Megaman 9 Donkey Kong Country 2 Sekiro Super Mario Bros Lost Levels Cuphead Bayonetta FZero GX Spelunky 2

[@2bizzystu868]

DMC 1 was a living headache, I went back for a 2nd playthrough, the game made me want to pull out my eyes

[@2bizzystu868]

DMC 3 was extremely Versatile with Dante and had many ways of combo-ing, but dmc 1 was something I wouldn't even recommend

[@alexterieur8813]

bayonetta ? on the hardest difficulty or you mean Rodin ?

[@jebronlames5997]

That's the new ghosts and goblins right? If so i agree that shit is relentless. It's harder than any of the other ones I've played I think.

[@n3rfpho3nix16]

Im Glad you never played battletoads 😅

[@PZ-26-i1q]

Love the deadly premunition music in the background!

[@olivier4916]

I love contra alien wars I used to play everyday smoking a cigarette back in 1995-1996 at the arcades in Mexico I was 6 years old

[@WhoDaF0ok1sThatGuy]

Souls vet here. Sekiro was the toughest but Ninja Gaiden 1 was absolutely hellish! NG1 is the hardest game I’ve ever played (both the NES and Sigma, but NES first)

[@Jsobone]

Those damn Tonbi birds ruining your day in NG NES.

[@H-TownGamer]

And black was slightly even harder, they are super hard lol. Beating on the hardest difficulty is definitely a test of skill to your limits lol

[@nickparsons337]

I've got one harder than Battletoads. It's a shooter on the NES called Recca: Summer Carnival. It was never released outside of Japan and was never intended for mass production. It was a competition game made just for a festival in Japan. I've only been able to play it through emulation; but man, it's fucking incredible what those programmers did with the hardware. The very definition of the earliest examples of a bullet hell shooter and it was on the fucking NES. Fast paced as fuck, and even with the screen filled with enemy fire; pretty much ZERO slowdown. It's incredible. Highly recommend. (If you're a glutton for punishment.)

[@dukewilson14]

I do remember beating Jak 2 as a kid with cheats on which is a testament to how hard it was. Out of the games here that I've played, Nioh 1 edges out Sekiro for difficulty. Isshin the Sword Saint took the most attempts out of any fromsoftware boss, but Nioh's combination of Date Masamune and Maria really gave me a hard time. Only reason I beat Maria was cause she glitched into the wall otherwise I wouldn't have beaten her ever.

[@issi529]

Not ever eventually you would have beated her. it will only took longer thats all. Isshin was indeed one of the all time hardest bosses ever!

[@Astrqx]

On my first playthru, when i encountered isshin i spent like 70+ tries in one sitting and couldnt defeat him, then month later i decided to try again and beat him in 2 tries.... Underwhelming

[@porkwhisperer3050]

I mean you are including the dlc there. I’m pretty confident Nioh 1s dlc is the hardest action rpg content I’ve ever played. Still think for the average person Nioh 1 is the hardest souls like game and action rpg. I also think it’s harder than sekiro. I actually think it’s harder than any other team ninja game on the normal difficulty.

[@Fluffychoupikkos]

Listen man, since you are covering subgenres lately which i really enjoy, some of my favourite videos on youtube period. Anyway i just want to make a special request for a subgenre i really love since forever. It might not even be your thing really, just a reccomendation thats all, anyway i am Talking Isometric arpgs. Not baldurs gate, i mean the diablo clones like path of exile or torchlight 2 or you know, Diablo. Thanks! Have a nice christmas.

[@TotallyTubularJonathan]

Interesting request! Well to be totally honest I haven’t played a bunch of them but I will see what I can do. I haven’t even played Diablo 2 or 4 lol

[@Fluffychoupikkos]

@@TotallyTubularJonathan I am playing Diablo 4 currently. Anyway thanks for considering the idea, btw I really adore Diablo 4 even though A LOT of people hate it.

[@KitsGravity]

Jak II is the only Jak game I have played. It made me cry as a kid almost everyday. Racing missions like you mentioned felt unfair.

[@kruegerpoolthe13th]

Cuphead is the one video game that broke me It’s a great game, modern classic but I fucking hate it and I earned that right

[@Yehya-rc1sm]

just platniumed it i honestly dont undertsand i dont play diffcult games and it wasnt all that as soon as you learn the moves thats about it and the bosses are short so you dont lose alot of progress when you die that said i died a 1010 times lol

[@kruegerpoolthe13th]

@@Yehya-rc1sm the game just isn’t tailored to my liking I’m not saying the game is bad, I just really, really don’t like it And I specifically mean the gameplay, the visuals are great and the characters and story are charming

[@Yehya-rc1sm]

@@kruegerpoolthe13th everyone has a type

[@kruegerpoolthe13th]

@@Yehya-rc1sm exactly

[@dighad3824]

this channel is criminally underrated and FOR WHAT KZbin?? FOR WHATT

[@Nicholasmcmath-cr1xl]

Same

[@GoosyGooseMX]

43:04 Jon: "There is no an easy Ninja Gaiden" Ninja Gaiden Shadow: "am I a joke to you?"

[@offsidev6059]

I'm currently playing Hollow Knight and it's driving me insane. The bosses can be challenging, but they're not really what makes the game difficult. The really difficulty is the map and the game giving you barely any direction on where to go next. I like the characters, the world and most bosses, but I hate that the game is designed to waste huge amounts of your time.

[@CarlosDiaz-fs6cv]

Your suppoosed to feel like a hunter and explorer.

[@offsidev6059]

@@CarlosDiaz-fs6cv That would be great, but this game makes you feel like a maze solver.

[@numedeutilizator0043]

You havr to try the path of pain in hollow knight its gonna take you hours

[@raidert2120]

Battle Toads is super tough. that game was a pain in the ass. I could never get past the speed tunnel. another tough game is Double Dragon 3, the sacred stones .

[@themastersword1621]

I literally quit on Castlevania 3 because every time I tried to get off the stairs I would just plummet.

[@Alex_DC413]

You're not alone on thinking Toy Story is really hard. The Lion King is also a low key ball-buster. Although I've beaten Cuphead and Ninja Gaiden 2 legit, I had to resort to marginally easier Japanese versions to beat Castlevania III and Battletoads

[@josetomascamposrobledano4618]

Great video idea man, congrats! Difficulty was truly insane in the old era of gaming, since game design was completely different. So here are my 2 cents from games I’ve played. I don’t know the hardest game I ever played because I played too many classic games, like Splatterhouse and Battletoads. I also loved Arcade games, and House of the Dead 2 gets a mention from me. The fire-rate requiered to play well is something that most people can’t achieve. No wonder internet people play with a mouse instead of a light gun with auto-reload. When it comes to popular games, Resident Evil Code Veronica is the hardest one of that series. DMC1 is the hardest one from that one since Gold orbs weren’t that but rather Yellow, so if you didn’t know strategies, ran out of items, and lacked gaming skills/brains to load a save if you messed up. You could be stuck on a guaranteed D rank save that will force you to play the entire level once you die. Souls-likes are overrated on the difficulty topic IMO, but Nioh 1 has to be the hardest if you aren’t paying attention. On the late game there are too many “duo fights” and gauntlets. They are great if you manage to create a build, but hell on earth if you are going with a character that dies in 1 hit.

[@CrazeeAdam]

I think there are different sorts of difficulties. As far as a lot of older games goes, the difficulty comes from inexperience and not being developed well enough imo. Limitations in control and more. You'll find very few older games that are balanced and fair when it comes to SUPER difficulty. That's what games like the Souls series, Nioh and more do well. It's quite fair in the difficulty scaling. It's meant to challenge you, but also give you the right tools to advance forward if you use them correctly.

[@juanpabloduarte2001]

Technically speaking Nioh doesn’t start to get hard until you reach “Way of the Demon” or NG++ only because by then…. - every enemy does a gazillion damage stacked with modifiers - armor and weapons don’t drop the recommended level - to get stronger you have literally farm for new armor and weapons - beating the final boss of nioh requires a beefy build. On the other hand nioh can be super easy like im telling you, the easiest way to beat nioh on your FIRST playthrough is the following - onmyo magic: sloth, weakness, elemental talisman, and kekkai (onmyo magic just makes the game braindead easy) - guardian spirit (you are literally invincible until you run out) - ninjutsu (has stunlock builds) - armor and weapons at EVERY LEVEL drop the recommended gear. So you don’t have to farm or grind for armor - Spears, Odachis, and Kusarigama (poking game)

[@josetomascamposrobledano4618]

@@juanpabloduarte2001 have you heard about how not everybody uses guides at first Playthrough like a casual? Nioh is very old now. Everything has been figured out. When I played many years ago, I didn’t know about leveling and equipment levels. So I basically played NG with constant 1 shot deaths. But I learned all movesets thanks to that and every single NG+ was a joke. Even way of the Nioh’s enemy repositioning. Saying you need builds at NG+ whatever sound more like you turned the game into a RPG experience instead of the classic Souls of perfect dodging and not being an Estus chugger.

[@josetomascamposrobledano4618]

@@juanpabloduarte2001 and my point stands. The difficulty of Nioh 1 is the gank fights. Look at raw game designs Nioh 2 was full of 1v1’s in comparison.

[@hitomikagewaki31]

If you haven't played La Mulana 1 and 2 I strongly recommend you do so. Cave story is also pretty damn difficult too. I liked and subscribed, keep up the good work sir.

[@SriMJ54]

I heard “Sheep, Dog, and Wolf” track when DMC 3 was showcased. Bravissimo! Completed DMC3, Ninja Gaiden: Black, Sekiro, Dark Souls, and Ghosts n Goblins from the list. Couldn’t agree more with your #1 and #2…those are obnoxiously hard. Lion King (SNES) and Terminator 3: Redemption were surprisingly hard that I didn’t finish. NES Ninja Gaiden games were brutal also!

[@gimo80]

I’m so glad you mentioned Mega Man 9! The final 3 levels and THEN beating all of the bosses and THEN Dr Wily in 3 forms…it is absolutely insane. The hardest game I have ever played in the history of gaming is The Adventures of Bayou Billy. I would go on to say that it’s actually impossible. Journey to Silius, SILVER SURFER and Ninja Gaiden (OG Xbox!) are all brutal too. By the way, I loved the video! Great picks and I really enjoyed your commentary, very detailed with each game. Subscribed 😊

[@mac1bc]

Really surprised about MM9. I thought MM10 was harder, but I liked MM9.

[@JustJame_]

I remember completing the lost levels as a kid. The bit that always sticks out was the wind and springs with the pits and you had to land on another spring, but you had to guess where you would fall even though the wind was pushing you and you had to press hard on right to even make it. 😂 good times!!

[@VV-ho8dg]

Whenever someone mentions a hard game my mind immidiately goes to the original Rayman. It's like getting you ass beat by a childrens cartoon

[@Gaming_since_the_eighties]

I totally agree with the number one, you have choose of the 20 Hardest Games Of All Time that you, and also i have played. I play video games since 1986, and i have finished every game i wanted to finish, including most of the games on your list (there are some, i didn´t played Cuphead, Returnal and Super Meat Boy), but in those 38 years of playing video games, i was never able to finish Battletoads on the NES or Super Nintendo. I was hoping that with the rewind feature in Rare Replay, it will be easy to finish it but still no success in this case. At least Battletoads Arcade has unlimited lives and continues, otherwise i don´t think i could finish this game either.

[@Ennello]

Cuphead is all the way up there for me. Yes, harder than Sekiro. Granted, each boss has an "easy mode", but I'm only talking regular difficulty. It's brutal.

[@Skeletron7]

Sekiro just takes more skill. You can't win based on luck

[@LucienThePeacebringer]

I think cuphead is so overestimated in terms of difficulty, I am having such a hard time getting through ds1 yet i beat cuphead in expert mode when I was 11 not even knowing people saw it as a hard game. Cuphead isn't that hard at all in my opinion. It's not that I'm trying to flex my gamer skills, because I don't see myself as particularly great at video games.

[@Skeletron7]

@@LucienThePeacebringer Cuphead is hard in its own right, but all the Soulsborne games require more forecasting and planning

[@LucienThePeacebringer]

@@Skeletron7 that actually makes a lot of sense, I have pretty good skills when it comes to video games but I'm stupid asf lol

[@Skeletron7]

@@LucienThePeacebringer I have become pretty decent at the Souls games by just learning how they work. You don't need to be a genius to git gud

[@Xylus.]

I love Sekiro. I'm proud to say its one of my only platinum trophies. Ive heard people say its a rhythm action game in a way, and I agree 100%. I've been a musician for most of my life, and being able to lock into the rhythms of the fights is the key. Every string of attacks has its own groove, and it's so satisfying to finally get it down.

[@rubeng370]

Battletoads 😢 I also first played it on Rare Replay. Never finished the game but man I can't imagine the 90s where you and your school friends cannot beat the turbo tunnel to even see the rest of the game 😮 Watch Bootsy (Cinemassacre/Angry Video Game Nerd) play Battletoads and beaten it.

[@dathip]

Nothing but RESPECT for putting nioh 1 on that list. Nioh 2 is one my top 10 games of ALL time. Nioh 1 when it came out Feb 2017 was played NONSTOP until the release of horizon zero dawn, and I still put more time in nioh. End game DLC is on a whole another level!

[@jasonmiller4844]

TMNT NES. Truly wonder how many kids in the 90s beat that game.

[@TheDaggerman30]

Agreed.

[@jmccain22090]

That damn water level.

[@charlesajones77]

The first time I got to Shredder he immediately killed me in one hit. It was quite a while before I had the fortitude to try it again. Beat it once and never played it again.

[@ryangardner7709]

When I seen the tidal of this video, this was the first thing I thought of. The water level in TMNT nes , and the speeders in battle toads. Two hardest levels ever

[@joeyjones9041]

I always died in the van after the water level lol

[@Kenno10rapid]

Hardest gaming challenge I've ever done is to get gold on the 3rd Ayrton Senna race on Gran Turismo 5. It's at Brands Hatch in the Lotus 98T F1 car. You have to beat his record breaking qualifying lap time which I think is the lap record to this day. It took me hundreds of attempts to beat it. You get a silver trophy for beating all 3 of the challenges with gold. By the time I finished I was an absolute pro with that car on that game. I used to go into pen lobbies and was doing doughnuts in it all over the place. If I can do that I think I can do anything!!!! You can look up his lap on YT. It's well worth a watch and shows why Senna is the GOAT.

[@PlasmaSnake369]

Don't the rules make the cars less powerful nowadays?

[@Kenno10rapid]

​@@PlasmaSnake369They technically might be similar power overall. The way that the power is created is different. The cars back then were out and out animals. With the Lotus you have a ton of turbo. It affects the way the car handles. Until you can learn about when and where the power is going to kick in through the turbo the car is a nightmare to drive. Once you get the feeling for it to the point where you are basically used to it you can master that car but it takes alit of practice. I was on the pad back then so not sure how it would be with a wheel. Nowadays the cars are more stable and predictable so way easier to drive. Got to give credit to Polyphony for the work they did on getting that car right though. Like most people I've never had the chance to drive a real F1 car from the turbo era but if I had to guess they done well making the video game equivalent and I would guess the handling model for that car is about as close as you can get to the realistic thing.

[@betelgeuse68]

NINJA GAIDEN BLACK is one of the very few games I've beaten multiple times. The very first run through I struggled mid-game with Alma - I wanted to throw the controller multiple times. Then one Saturday I repeatedly tried to beat her taking long breaks after multiple attempts and about 8 hours later, VICTORY. I was stunned. Fast forward to the last time I faced Alma (a while ago) and I beat her without her touching me ONCE. :-) Though I have to say, I would not have the patience to get that good today.

[@TypicallyUniqueOfficial]

DMC3 is so easy. It’s super exploitable, I have every edition of the game and bought the first release at launch. It’s DMC1 on steroids. Beat DMC1 and you will learn how you’re supposed to play it. There’s so many invincibility frames in the dodge roll, jump, and with trickster’s dash.

[@aimanimran3010]

even kindergarten kids can finish dm3😂

[@suikakujyuu]

SUCH a good video. Subscribed

[@thebossthusiast1960]

I found the Souls series to really not be that bad. You can level up, enhance weapons, use spells from range, and befriend various NPCs that'll show up at boss fights to help out. Bloodborne is the toughest (since it's faster moving). However any games where you can level up and overpower foes can be surmounted with some time and effort. Sekiro is the From game that goes against this by getting rid of all your potential advantages, but even that game I found to not be as hard as the media hyped it up to be. Your parries go up and down so quickly that you're not really penalized for mistiming a parry, so tapping it a couple times as an attack comes in works well. Try to get it close to the attack but it's okay to parry too early because boom you can do another one right away. I didn't really need to learn the rhythm of enemy attacks, just tap-tap when an attack was incoming. Now the Nioh games, on the other hand, those are hard. You can level up but it doesn't make the kind of huge difference it makes in the Souls series, plus they move very fast (faster than Sekiro). After platinuming all of the From games, I got crushed in Nioh. Think I made it about halfway through it before I just kinda trailed off. I need to give it another go eventually.

[@smmemperorlucifer2]

It's always worthy of a good chuckle seeing games like Nioh pop up on these types of lists. Sekiro kicked my ass so hard 'cause I couldn't git gud enough to pass the skill checks, but Nioh's way more a matter of knowledge than skill. Build your character in a halfway smart manner, spam shurikens/kunai/etc. Almost all bosses and regular enemies die long before you run out of ammo, and you can stay way out of range of their attacks with weapons like the Kusarigama. Nioh 1 was laughably easy with the exception of one annoying slime boss that everyone (including the devs) agree is BS. Nioh 2 balanced stats and options out better so not every enemy was a complete pushover, but also it came with so many more build choices that fleshed out every combat option thoroughly. Cuphead, Sekiro, Mario Lost Levels, F Zero GX, now those are some HARD hard games that demand nothing less than highly skilled play to make it through. Maybe it's just a different way of viewing what qualifies as "hardest". If there's an easy mode that offers a much lower skill floor, I don't think that competes on the same level as games that don't have a super duper easy mode.

[@sinelacico]

Yeah, dark souls mostly has its reputation for being so hard because of the era, and while there were a couple sections in the game that I really struggled with (smough & ornstein) it is a game that is fundamentally built to be overcome no matter how bad you are, it’s why dying is contextualised and it suits the world and story thematically. Hollows only go hollow because they’ve given up, but even in death the player doesn’t go hollow because they are pushing forward until the end. A very fundamental core value of the game is that you will get stronger and win. All souls games are built like that. That being said, for the type of game that dark souls is, the difficulty is pretty high even to this day outside of games that try to emulate it. Arcade games and character action games on the hardest difficulties will always be THE MOST difficult but that is entirely by design, quarter sucking and level by level games that are purely about knowledge and execution- by nature of just design souls games cannot be more difficult, but they are definitely hard.

[@Walamonga1313]

Their difficulty is overblown for sure. They are challenging but nothing near Ninja Gaiden or older Monster Hunters for example

[@Walamonga1313]

​@@smmemperorlucifer2Nice copypasta that you posted already, you can cheese Sekiro too with firecrackers, Mikiri, Ichimonji, 2nd life...

[@guitarspud1723]

Bloodborne was easy for a miyazaki game, because of the mobility from start to finish.

[@NohStar]

for ikaruga, see the person playing 2-player through the arcade version controlling both ships, one with each hand. sheer lunacy

[@andyauthor2007]

I have a few for you: Hagane: The Final Conflict (SNES), Nightmare Busters (SNES), Holy Diver (Famicom/NES my Kryptonite), Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight (NES, and NO, this is NOT a 2D fighting game), Undead Line (Genesis), Chakkan: The Forever Man (Genesis). I'm sure I forgot some but give this list a try, LOL. If you think Ikaruga is hard, you haven't played Ketsui, give that one a try then tell me Ikaruga is hard, LOL again. Maximo is NOT that hard. The original Ghosts N Goblins is hard. I did beat it on both arcade and NES (and yes, went through the second loop and got the true ending on both of them). I enjoyed the video.

[@TotallyTubularJonathan]

Thank you for watching! Of the ones you mentioned the only one I have tried or really even heard of is Street Fighter 2010. And major props for beating Ghosts N Goblins!

[@andyauthor2007]

@@TotallyTubularJonathan Try the other games, but don't say I didn't warn you. Insert sinister grin here.

[@kaihuotari4312]

Hagene is tough. I agree with that.

[@alliedanielle2897]

I feel validated with Jak too. It was so hard I gave up on gaming as a kid, because I thought I didn't have the skills to game. It wasn't until 2018 that I tried again. Cement.

[@Monoplacophora]

After a shit day at work, this was exactly what I needed, new subscriber here. Absolutely fantastic list, very entertaining sir awesome

[@marioauditore2859]

My list would be ALL NES games

[@silvereloking6149]

I play 1st Contra so many times as kid that I would complete game without losing 1 single life. That was like 30 years ago.

[@adammoynihan2589]

I have to shout-out SMT 3 Nocturne as doing the impossible of taking a turn based JRPG and somehow making it as punishing as Bloodborne, still love the game though.

[@titaniumcranium3755]

I LOVE nocturne and they have dante, but I'm sht at it. I have HD on pc, I beat Matador with low af health so am I trash and how do I get better? General tips because I'm really loving this game.

[@MILDMONSTER1234]

@@titaniumcranium3755 Agility buffs/debuffs and wind magic resistance, theres actually a video on this topic to cheese the hell outta him lol

[@titaniumcranium3755]

@@MILDMONSTER1234 I already beat mat, I just need to know if that's good enough for the rest of the game and what other tips

[@SteelBallRunner]

@@titaniumcranium3755 Strength build is always better than magic for the MC. Fog Breath and War Cry are must have support moves. The next Fiend you'll fight (Daisoujou) is totally broken and basically a MP-giving machine, besides being a great healer. Put him on your team ASAP.

[@titaniumcranium3755]

@@SteelBallRunner tysm! I put too much mag on demi Fiend to fight matador but looks like I can reload a save and put stats into strength instead

[@norwegianblue2017]

Ghosts 'n Goblins Resurrection is the hardest game I have ever played. You can't even compare the original to it. I finished the original in the arcade paying quarters. The new one is just impossible for me.

[@folgargrimm6811]

Cup heads much harder the DS in my opinion, that fucking Candy corn 😂

[@stevenbrown4001]

I’m playing Sekiro for the first time right now. Please pray for me!

[@appiah-53]

Nioh series best soulslike action game

[@Fiesel11]

One of my proudest gaming accomplishments was beating roughly half of the story missions in F-Zero GX on very hard difficulty, including the final mission. I still don’t know how I did that when I was only a teenager.

[@titaniumcranium3755]

Og dmc3 is hard as sht and makes no sense at how hard it was. Special edition reallly saved this game

[@THE_BEAR_JEW]

The toughest for me was fricking Lion King on SNES. That second level with the giraffes and whatnot was just too much lol. Aside from that, probably Battletoads yeah. It's 100% the toughest.

[@Eltron92]

The hardest thing about Sekiro for me was getting thru my head that I wasn't playing a Souls game. All of my ingrained habits from years of experience had to be forcibly unlearned and I was still making those same mistakes on the final boss the first time. If you play back to back NG cycles it becomes dramatically easier and I've 1 shot Isshin several times but if I went back today I'd probably have to relearn everything.

[@holystepper6893]

Lion king snes

[@only1smally]

Although xcom is relentless and beats you down, those moments of glory with an incredibly well put together ambush and the rng gods in your favour feel truly satisfying.

[@pureakkuracy7510]

Dark souls and dmc3 shouldn’t be here tbh because I’ve been able to beat them on my first playthrough but games like ninja gaiden I can’t even get past the second level

[@levyrigor109]

OP explicitly said it's THEIR list with games THEY'VE found difficult. So yh, anything they put on the list, should be on the list.

[@ChrisHavok]

Sekiro is my favorite FromSoftware game but it's also one of the easiest for me. The game is essentially a Dexterity build, which is normally how I play Souls games, and it's completely tailored to the style, which makes it a walk in the park.

[@mrstudent9125]

Sekiro's difficulty is overrated. Sense of rhythm and average human reaction are only things you need.

[@heransd]

Sekiro made me rage than any other game. More than any other fromsoft game. It is not overated. It is actually hard

[@AnimosityIncarnate]

I think your perception here is misguided. The issue is needing consistent flow state, and it's very hard to reach that in modern times for a lot of people. That's why peeps be abusing Adderall 🤣

[@juanpabloduarte2001]

I think Sekiro is easier NOW. Key word being NOW. Because when you start with Sekiro the skill curve is MASSIVE. As taking the time to learn the tricks and feel for any new game that you just started, can take time. but Sekiros takes LONGER. Especially learning enemy patterns from some mini bosses Aka - Seven Spears of Ashina - Longswordsman that are in the well - Jinsuke Saze - Chained Ogre - Flaming Bull - etc. And we haven’t gotten to the main bosses.

[@aryaman6528]

@@juanpabloduarte2001 sekiro is only hard for the first 20-30% of the game once you get past the learning curve things come to you much more naturally and it's way easier

[@juanpabloduarte2001]

@@aryaman6528 true except for the final bosses like Demon of Hatred, Owl (Father), Isshin the Sword Saint. And even once you do beat it, then there’s still the gauntlets you have to beat with all of their “inner forms.” Which is not easy to do because it’s all in one take…

[@threeswordssama]

I played Ikaruga on the Gamecube and loved it. Great list here. Played F-Zero GX too. I pretty much 100% completed that game and yeah the tougher difficulties get ridiculous. You basically need to take out the other racers in the top 3 to have a chance to win.

[@jackjager8790]

Sekiro too high its not that difficult.

[@iambravvo]

On first play through its extremely hard but then once you learn it becomes way easier

[@Fonz23]

Playing games such as: Battletoads Bucky o hare Willow Contra Guardian legend TMNT 1 Double dragon 3 All back in the mid 90’s with no help or guides/internet and being 10-11 years old is about as hard as it can get. Great times with friends trying to figure it out!!!!

[@oggyman123]

When it comes to difficulty, Battle Garegga is the GOAT for me. I feel like I'm in an abusive relationship with that game. It constantly hurts me but I can't help but keep on getting back to it. It's a true masterpiece of EVIL game design I would say. I have a thing of always playing hard games blind for the first couple of days/weeks/months, and Battle Garegga is such a treasure trove of game mechanics if going in blind, holy shit! You start by not knowing ANYTHING about rank, ships and pickups, and slowly game teaches you by delivering strategic amounts of pain to your psyche. But slowly you learn to persevere - both physically by building up necessary reflexes, and mentally by strengthening your character through hundreds of failed attempts. Truly a GREAT game.

[@UnknownUser69]

Give "Hotline Miami" a try. Unique game, marvelous Soundtrack, very hard. Another Tipp: "Hollow Knight". It is among my top 5 best games ever playes

[@ralphiecifaretto8961]

Ninja Gaiden Black is only hard on the hardest levels. I think most people should be able to beat it on its lowest levels with practice.

[@hangingon]

I had put Nioh down years ago after getting stuck on the bat succubus bat lady fight. Picked it up before Stellar Blade dropped, took her out after 3 tries, and am now about to beat it. One of my gaming achievements is beating DS on the Switch, after putting it down on. PS4 years ago.

[@markkevorkian]

Dude Jak 2 is brutal. That mission where you are on the docks and all the ships come down dropping a million dudes. Ninja Gaiden always jumps forward for me. The first boss is insane. That idiot with the nunchucks. A couple newer ones that I played recently that killed me were the first ghost runner and nioh 2. The underwater level in returnal was pretty brutal as well. Donkey kong country 3 is a killer also

[@OtterloopB]

The dock mission in Jak 2 is a cakewalk if you do the upward punch all the way through. Sounds crazy, I know, but I tried it myself. Got through the whole thing without incident by just using the upward punch maneuver.

[@jaycub4711]

This is a really fun list! Nice vid!

[@dylanrobicheau-rl8pf]

My biggest accomplishment of gaming is unlocking the secret Character in F Zero GX and I’m very proud of it and holy crap that game absolutely brutal and evil hard.

[@bigego503]

I'm a little too old and slow to play most of these, though I still try (and fail, mostly) at Dark Souls, Sekiro and Cuphead. I am currently trying for a legendary playthrough of Xcom 2 WotC. This is my fourth attempt and I can testify to it's mind numbing difficulty. A couple of honorary mentions for you masochists out there. For strategy the Pathfinder games, particularly Wrath of the Righteous. And for you action junkies try any or all of the Serious Sam games. Good vid

[@alexg350]

Hi man, your video is very good. I do have a question: my first souls game was Sekiro and I completed it through the difficult ending. It took me tones of hours and effort. The most difficult game of my life. Then i went through Darks Souls games, ER, Lies of P... They are difficult but not as challenging as Sekiro. Question is... Will I suffer a lot when playing Nioh?

[@aimqiv9744]

no nioh isn’t hard lmaoo compared to any other souls game lol idk why this guy finds nioh hard

[@pedrovisk54]

One of my favorite channels, really.

[@Zeetana1]

Lol, that might explain why I never made it past the racing level. I loved Battletoads as a kid, but never made it further. It was so difficult and it deserves first place IMO.

[@muoaz9351]

Thank you for your time man great video 🙏

[@smmemperorlucifer2]

It's always worthy of a good chuckle seeing games like Nioh pop up on these types of lists. Sekiro kicked my ass so hard 'cause I couldn't git gud enough to pass the skill checks, but Nioh's way more a matter of knowledge than skill. Build your character in a halfway smart manner, spam shurikens/kunai/etc. Almost all bosses and regular enemies die long before you run out of ammo, and you can stay way out of range of their attacks with weapons like the Kusarigama. Nioh 1 was laughably easy with the exception of one annoying slime boss that everyone (including the devs) agree is BS. Nioh 2 balanced stats and options out better so not every enemy was a complete pushover, but also it came with so many more build choices that fleshed out every combat option thoroughly. Cuphead, Sekiro, Mario Lost Levels, F Zero GX, now those are some HARD as cement games that demand nothing less than highly skilled play to make it through. Maybe it's just a different way of viewing what qualifies as "hardest". If there's an easy mode that offers a much lower skill floor, I don't think that competes on the same level as games that don't have a super duper easy mode.

[@Walamonga1313]

Sekiro was a lot easier than Nioh for me 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@aimanimran3010]

this KZbinr is probably a casual player in nioh unlike you who cringe tryhard play the game 24/7 😂 it's his opinion anyway i chuckled reading your comment who tried to ego himself like a loser

[@-Mintyy]

@@aimanimran3010the only one who looks like a loser here is you brother lol.

[@dedosmagicosmetal]

I've beaten Nioh 1 without getting hit and some other games from this list, i can tell you Toy story is insanely hard, i was routing this game for a No dmg run but the amount of precision required is overwhelming, i had to stop and switch to another game lol Some runs i'll probably do some day are Cuphead, Ghouls n' Ghosts, Ninja Gaiden and the Dark souls series for sure!. Great list, very accurate.

[@eros727]

I love how you pronounce a word one way and literally two seconds later you pronounce it another lol. Gaiden and Gayden, Sekiro and Sekeero 😁

[@darkgames97]

Wow I did not expect jak II to make the list, and I'm so glad you put it in, I thought I would see just fromsoftware games and ints clones, Jak II is so good and yeah it is hard

[@ghostparty2062]

I tried noih 2 and it nearly broke me 😂😂 never finished it unfortunately

[@alex.starostin]

The way you perceive difficulty really depends on whether you like the game itself or not. I've beaten all the Souls games multiple times (Nioh included) and they sure were difficult but I never stopped having fun with them. On the contrary is the game Returnal. I absolutely hated the difficulty and couldn't force myself to play it any longer after suffering 8 hours on the first level but that's because I was just not enjoying the game itself, it's gameplay mechanics just aren't fun for me

[@mchyiporosty]

I think you would love Rainworld. The game is sooooo hard, has beautiful pixelart graphics and also a living world (which is your biggest enemy). And as a person who finished Sekiro/DS/BB many times - yeah, Rainworld is HARD. By the way, Battletoads was the game of my childhood which was way too hard for me and probably still is. The same thing with it's spinoff, "Double Dragon and Battletoads"