Game Essentials - 20 Difficult Games

Last week, in a discussion of the essentials of game design by John Harris, Gamasutra posted a list of twenty really difficult games. It's interesting not only for the purposes of the article (examining the concept of challenge in game creation) but also simply as a personal scorecard for your own gaming career. My personal albatross: "8. Monkey Ball, a.k.a. Super Monkey Ball. Putting that monkey in the ball may have been a whimsical masterstroke, but don't let it fool you. This game is hard. Design lesson: If you're going to make a super hard game, make it fair. No one thinks Monkey Ball is unfair. There is no randomness. Everything that happens is a direct result of the player's actions, and there are no hidden portions of the level waiting to destroy the player. It's not like a boss enemy with secret attacks the player couldn't possibly survive the first time seeing it. It's not only possible to reach and finish Monkey Ball's Master levels, but it could be done on one's first try. Winning the lottery is more likely, but it's possible." How many have you mastered?

Comments

The TMNT game for NES

[EraseEraseMe]

Now that game was F'ing hard. I could finish every other game on the NES we had in my youth, except that one. Getting to the technodrome, with it's one hit kills and various baddies was hard enough. Shredder then would proceed to live up to his namesake and spit out a gutted turtle corpse. It wouldn't be so bad if you could restart from where you lost your original turtle, but no such luck. Back to the beginning of the level you went, often with the weakest turtle to fight Shredder with.

Try Battletoads

[Alicat1194]

The only time I ever managed to get past the first speeder bike level was when I accidentally hit a level warp (and got sucked into a surfing level, where I was quickly killed off)

Got to say it did wonders for the heart rate though - no need to exercise, just play Battletoads and watch it go!

Battletoads

[Databass]

My brother and I could beat Battletoads for the old NES. As if that weren't enough, we could beat it beat it playing straight through the twelve levels (ie, not warping.) On top of that, we did in two-player mode- ie, if one person failed, we both failed. Well, up until the second to last level that is. (The game cartridge has a bug on the clinger-winger stage where if you are playing two-player, player two loses control.) Looking back, I honestly can't believe we ever did that.

Battletoads starts out survivable and fun on stages one and two. Then on stage three, the speed bikes in the Turbo Tunnel, is as far as I'd estimate 9 out of 10 people will ever get. Walls come at you at maybe 60 miles per hour and you have to twitch your way around them. You have maybe a second of lead time.

Ice Cave- Slide around dangerous spikes
Water Surfing- Surf around logs, beat very large and dangerous boss who can flatten you in one hit
Snake Cave- Jump between spikes on giant metal snakes, finding difficult paths through
Jets- Fly between tiny holes in the fire
Tunnels- swim and jump through more dangerous spikes
Rat Race- Race a rat downwards between girders to a bomb at the bottom. If he gets there first you die.
Clinger Wingers- Suction cup unicycles. Outrun a deadly ying yang. If you twitch a corner just right you gain .1 seconds.
Twisty Tower- a rotating 360 degree tower. To fall is to die. Climb to the top and defeat the Dark Queen.

I couldn't beat Battletoads today except in an emulator with Quicksave and Quickload. I have NO idea how we did twelve stages back to back where the slightest wrong twitch meant death. It reminds me of doing twelve complicated, difficult and dangerous circus tricks with no net, in game terms anyway.