Games that make you mad.

[toptenmaterial]

Ninja Gaiden is not easy, but it's doable. You can learn it. Same with castlevania, which I feel is harder overall. Castlevania I think is more blood-pressure raising because the controls are stiffer and there are more cheap shots, like the medusa heads and bats in bad places. Not that the controls in ninja gaiden Aren't stiff, they are. Your ninja can't jump for beans. And not that Ninja Gaiden doesn't throw cheap shots, it does, in bird form. Ok, fine, they're both pretty aggravating.

Nice analysis, Mr. President. I will say that I have never beaten either game, though I have gotten much further in Castlevania.

 

Off Topic: I would love to see a hack of Castlevania with Ninja Gaiden controls.

[gdement]

Ninja Gaiden is not easy, but it's doable. You can learn it. Same with castlevania, which I feel is harder overall. Castlevania I think is more blood-pressure raising because the controls are stiffer and there are more cheap shots, like the medusa heads and bats in bad places. Not that the controls in ninja gaiden Aren't stiff, they are. Your ninja can't jump for beans. And not that Ninja Gaiden doesn't throw cheap shots, it does, in bird form. Ok, fine, they're both pretty aggravating.

 

I didn't own either game at the time, I just played them on rentals or borrowed from friends. Owning them might have mellowed me out eventually, but as it stands I had a stormy relationship with both games.

 

Castlevania is incredibly stiff, and has the same "bounce into a pit and die" mechanics that are so infuriating. I loved that game and hated it at the same time.

Although it's more stiff, the enemy placement and spawn points don't seem as rampantly cheap to me as Ninja Gaiden. It might also help that it moves slower and has some amount of offscreen memory. Whatever the reason, I find CV more tolerable in recent years. I've still never beaten it, the only way I likely ever will is with lots of holy water.

 

I'm sure NG can be conquered with enough memorization, but the extent to which this is necessary is something I just find absurd. That game contains the most ridiculously contrived "gotcha" moments of any I've ever played. If you don't do everything exactly by the script, you lose. To reinforce this, the game has no offscreen memory whatsoever. Anything you just killed will reappear if you back off 1 pixel. I know the NES is limited but I don't remember any other game having such nonexistent memory.

Then they had to go making it cool with ninjas and fancy cinematic cutscenes, so I *had* to stick with it. Once the hook was set, they give you infinite continues (jerks!) so I was virtually guaranteed not to get away from the game before I'd either:

1) Crashed the game by hitting the NES

2) Been grounded for throwing a tantrum

3) Beaten the game

 

I never achieved outcome #3.

Seriously, I'm sure I can play the game now as an adult and just turn it off when I'm frustrated. I did that once but didn't get very far before reaching that point. It's not nearly as interesting a game as it was when I was a kid, so I don't bother.

Edited April 25, 2011 by gdement

[SoulBlazer]

I'm surprised to hear people say they had all these problems with Ninja Gaiden and Castlevania. Yes, they are tough games, but I beat both of them as a kid back in the day. It just requires memorization (which you'll get as you play it), good reflexes, a little patience, and some time.

 

Other games I'm proud to say i beat back in the day with little or no help:

 

Castlevania 1-3

Ninja Gaiden 1-3

Blaster Master

Mega Man 1-6

Double Dragon 1-3

Kid Icarus

Metroid 1-2

SMB 1-3

TMNT 1-3

 

The games I could NOT beat:

Ghosts and Goblins

Battletoads

 

Both those games are Exhbit A and B under 'cheap deaths!'

Edited April 25, 2011 by SoulBlazer

[DickNixonArisen]

I'm surprised to hear people say they had all these problems with Ninja Gaiden and Castlevania. Yes, they are tough games, but I beat both of them as a kid back in the day. It just requires memorization (which you'll get as you play it), good reflexes, a little patience, and some time.

 

Other games I'm proud to say i beat back in the day with little or no help:

 

Castlevania 1-3

Ninja Gaiden 1-3

Blaster Master

Mega Man 1-6

Double Dragon 1-3

Kid Icarus

Metroid 1-2

SMB 1-3

TMNT 1-3

 

The games I could NOT beat:

Ghosts and Goblins

Battletoads

 

Both those games are Exhbit A and B under 'cheap deaths!'

 

 

That sounds about right. This list is achievable with skill and hard work (and more complete than mine). TMNT 1 is pretty damn tough, as is mega man 1. Blaster Master isn't straight-hard but can get you lost quickly. The SMB's are pretty cake overall. Forget the toads and goblins; only japanese people beat those.

[goldenegg]

For me, it's Super Mario Galaxy. There's one level, late in the game, where you need to race another Mario through the level. No matter what I do, I simply cannot beat him!!! I actually stopped playing the game because of it.

[toptenmaterial]

For me, it's Super Mario Galaxy. There's one level, late in the game, where you need to race another Mario through the level. No matter what I do, I simply cannot beat him!!! I actually stopped playing the game because of it.

I know that level, it's a bitch. For me, the level where you have to race the ghost was really tough, but beatable. SMG 2 is another story...,

[toptenmaterial]

double post, oops.

Edited April 26, 2011 by toptenmaterial

[Tr3vor]

NES- Dragon warrior: your all saving up for the next, more powerful armor/sword and your almost dead, the game refuses to let you run, you die and have to grind for money again...

GBC- Pokemon, if you have 2 pokemon fighting at the same level, and the other just one shot kills you without having any super effectiveness... that pisses me off.

super mario bros 3

vortex (snes)

angry birds

dissidia final fantasy

MW2

many more

[Skarrj]

COD game in general, with special consideration for online play. The fact that I can unload a full auto SAW on someone just a few feet infront of me and I get no hit markers, but I can be killed from accross an entire map with those stupid shotgun has had me on the verge of commmiting a major atrocity. I lost count of how many controllers have perished in my anger

Edited April 27, 2011 by Skarrj

[DracIsBack]

Two games come to mind where I like them as a whole but utterly detest certain spots.

 

Sega Dreamcast: Spider-Man.

I like the game, but that final level where Carnage Ock is chasing you while screaming, "Die, Die, Diieeeee" causes me rage. As in, I wish I had the opportunity to kick the level designer in the nads rage.

 

GameCube: Resident Evil 4

 

I thought this game was soooo awesome on sooo many levels. For the time, spectacular graphics. Creepy. Good controls. Very creative.

 

Except for those random, "let's mash buttons to fight Krauser" interludes. I swore it smacked of, "we have a co-op student who's not very bright. Let's have him do this part and stick it in the game to show how we're open to ideas from Co-Ops (even though we didn't ask the smart ones to design something)

 

 

Atari 7800: Scrapyard Dog

I like it. It has solid graphics, scrolls fast and lots of variety. But one or two of the jumps are so unfair that you want to pull your hair out. And the person who designed that final 'showdown' also gets my 'kick in the nads' rage for throwing in something that looks, acts and plays nothing like anything else in the damn game!

 

GameCube: Zelda: Twilight Princess

That sequence where you try to protect the burning carriage, driven by the horse that gets spooked and misses the gate ... also made me almost toss the game in the trash.

Edited April 27, 2011 by DracIsBack

[Cynicaster]

Put me down for the arcade version of Exidy's Mouse Trap.

 

I've spent some time playing it for the currently underway MAME/Arcade HSC and there have been moments where I almost put my fist through the screen of my cabinet because of those blasted hawks. To anybody familiar with the game the hawks require no introduction, but for those who don't know what I'm talking about, I'll explain.

 

Mouse Trap is a game from 1981, basically one of the main Pac-Man clones of the era. You're a mouse that gobbles up cheese instead of dots and dodges cats instead of ghosts. There are other embellishments on the formula, such as the ability to alter the configuration of the maze with 3 different colored buttons, and the fact that you can store up your dog bones (power pellets) to use when you want.

 

Then, comes the hawk. First off, he sounds like a freakin' monkey, but that's beside the point. He shows up at regular intervals that get smaller and smaller as you progress through the levels. When he shows up he targets you pretty much right away, but he's not confined to the maze--he just flies right over it in straight lines. So, you're already at a big disadvantage. To make matters worse, there is no place to hide from him, and not even your power pellets will save you if he gets you. Your only hope is to be able to make it to the center of the screen and touch this box marked "IN", which throws the hawk off your scent and temporarily prevents him from directly targeting you. That helps a bit, but you need to be right next to the center of the screen for it to be of any use.

 

Now, all the above makes for a game that is just as difficult as it sounds, but I'd be happy to work with it if it weren't for this next point. As if the f(*king hawk isn't hard enough to avoid already, he can make himself disappear and then just spontaneously reappear anywhere on the screen. Yes, that includes right in front of your character, giving you zero chance to even react. Boom, dead. Gah, I'm getting upset just thinking about it.

[yllawwally]

I always liked the castlevania series. It was a little difficult but could be beat. However, Ghosts and Goblins was infuriating. I only was able to beat it playing on an emulator, using save states. I once read a review of the game, where they said it must have been designed by Satan himself, which if you played it you'd agree. Especially the last levels. If you somehow manage to get to the last enemy and you didn't have the right item, you got the pleasure of replaying the most difficult portion of probably the hardest game ever made. If you somehow get past all the bugs and glitches, and then defeat Satan, you had to play the whole damn game again, which to me is just being spit-full. To make it even harder the game always puts the least useful weapon in the most difficult to get past places.

[gdement]

COD game in general, with special consideration for online play. The fact that I can unload a full auto SAW on someone just a few feet infront of me and I get no hit markers, but I can be killed from accross an entire map with those stupid shotgun has had me on the verge of commmiting a major atrocity. I lost count of how many controllers have perished in my anger

 

 

I haven't played that game, but I was playing "Black Ops" a while back (not sure what series that belongs to.. can you tell I'm a fan?)

I got killed a couple hundred times and scored about 5 kills the whole time I was playing. Most of my kills came when other people would be in a gunfight and didn't immediately go after me because I was prone. My goal for each round was to score 1 kill - if I did that I felt like I had accomplished something.

I thought I was decent at DOOM back in the day, but that's little help. These type of games are so far out of my league I couldn't begin to get frustrated, I could only laugh at how hopeless it was.

[DickNixonArisen]

Ghosts and goblins never made me angry because I never had the expectation that I could get anywhere in it. Getting past the blue level with all the red devils just once was accomplishment enough for me. If I saw everyone else beating the game and could only get to level 2 myself, that might make me angry. I'm not sure the level design is cheap so much as it is purely brutal.

[NerdXCrewWill]

Am I the only person that doesn't hate "memorize how not to die" gameplay? Some of my favorite games use this mechanic: Another World, Heart of the Alien, Dragon's Lair 2, etc. Of course, the Ghosts 'n Stuff series is hard to me, because I can rarely find a working plan to memorize. I did manage to beat Ghosts 'n Goblins for the NES, but that's because it has infinite continues.

[eseles]

Am I the only person that doesn't hate "memorize how not to die" gameplay?

 

No sir! I'm sure anyone who loves the NES, or indeed older games, has learned to appreciate this.

Edited April 28, 2011 by eseles

[DracIsBack]

Anyone remember level 79 of BALDIES on the Jaguar? Grrr ....

[+HammR25]

I've never played it but I figured someone would mention Impossible Mission for the Atari 7800 since, due to a bug, it's truly impossible.

 

Generally any FPS when I play it with other people angers me. Dying over and over again without killing anyone isn't my idea of fun.

 

Otherwise it's College Hoops 2K8. The game loves to make you miss layups. I may have missed some layups but I didn't miss the slam dunk I did on my 360 controller that ended up breaking the left thumbstick and made the controller bounce across the room and off the wall.

 

I actually still play that game even though it can be frustrating at times. I haven't broken any more $40 controllers over it though.

 

There are probably some classic games that made me angry but it's been too long since I played any of the games that did this to me.

[Rikkarr]

Autoduel. My goodness I suck at that game. I do like the game, and the overall concept, but no matter how many times I try, I can't ever seem to get the hang of it.

 

Castlevania is another one, for most of the reasons other people have pointed out: cheap deaths, overly powerful enemies, etc. Still, I do like this game.

 

Super Mario Bros 3 too, mainly because I've never been good at it Stupid reason, I know

[DickNixonArisen]

Also, while I accept that some people have beaten GNG, I do not accept anyone's word for it.

[Animan]

Oh, and also Ridge Racer 3D has some moments where the rubber-band AI seems to beat me almost in an unfair way, making me redo a race.

 

Also, pretty much any game with rubber-band AI is frustrating. I don't mind it being there when it's put in right, but too often it's used to make a game way harder than it needs to be. It feels like the AI is cheating. Even Mario Kart Wii has this problem (with all the powerful items only making it worse).

Edited April 28, 2011 by Animan

[kelrodjr]

The first game that immediately comes to mind is Driver 2 for the original Playstation, the "Chase the Gunman" mission where you have to run a car off the road by damaging it. The car is quite fast and you only have 2 minutes to do it.

 

After the 50th time of restarting the mission I was screaming for the blood of the programmers. I'm surprised I didn't bust the controller from spiking it against the floor so many times.

[Vic George 2K3]

Donkey Kong 64. The game gives you practically no direction as to where to go next. So you spend a lot of time wandering around looking for the next level.

 

And some people want games like The Legend Of Zelda series to go back to that directionless find-the-next-dungeon-on-your-own kind of adventure. Not me.

[SuperDork3000]

The final track in Scorcher for the Sega Saturn used to make me angry. It's quite a devious design and took many, many hours in practice mode for me to be able to get through it without falling off at all.

 

Also, Deathsmiles has me a tad bit annoyed right now. The game itself is pretty manageable for the most part and I can get to the final bosses without continuing.. But it's that final point in the game that really, really gives me trouble. I have played some difficult shooters in my day, but the final boss forms in this game just seem downright unfair. The fact that the rest of the game isn't quite up to Cave standards in terms of difficulty just compounds my annoyed feelings further.

 

Many said the final track was unbeatable....but after years of trying to beat Scorcher, I just beat the game and got through the final track (The Spiral) in first place! To my disappointment though...nothing happened afterword and nothing unlocked! Guess I need to try and beat it on Hard mode next

[Austin]

 

Many said the final track was unbeatable....but after years of trying to beat Scorcher, I just beat the game and got through the final track (The Spiral) in first place! To my disappointment though...nothing happened afterword and nothing unlocked! Guess I need to try and beat it on Hard mode next

 

Yeah, the track is totally doable and I eventually became very proficient at it. So much so I could probably load the game up now and just roll through it (er.. no pun intended). The game is very barebones though when it comes to unlockables. When you beat it on hard mode I think it just gives you a slightly modified credits screen and tells you "you're the best" or something like that, along with extra stuff in the credits. Fortunately the game saves your times though so you can go back and play the time trial/time attack mode and try to best your times on each track. That's about as far as the replay value goes in this game, but learning tracks inside and out has always been a fun part of racing games for me, especially something like Scorcher where you can goof off and see what you can jump on top of (for instance, on track 5 you can jump into the patio/stairwells of the building to your left at the starting line. It's kind of funny when you do it).

Edited February 19, 2015 by Austin