What is the hardest NES game you beat without resorting to cheats or a walkthrough?

[Frozone212]

I beat Castlevania and Contra.

 

I think i can add Wheel of fortune as well

[mbd39]

Probably the hardest that I can beat are Battletoads and Bump n Jump.

Edited July 17, 2021 by mbd39

[Cobra Kai]

Has to be Batman. I don't remember cheating any NES game anyway. I got close with Battletoads and TMNT. 

[jvgs]

Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight. That game frustrated me to no end, but I stuck with it (probably longer than I should have) and I eventually beat it. Then I decided to never play it again. I wouldn't have the patience for a game that hard nowadays.

[Lord Mushroom]

I have only beat quite easy games:

 

Chip´n Dale Rescue Rangers

Flintstones

Nintendo World Cup (in 2-player)

River City Ransom

Super Mario Bros.

Super Mario Bros. 2

Tale Spin

Tecmo Cup Football Game

Turtles 2 (in 2-player)

 

Maybe more.

[toiletunes]

Does Zelda 1 count as hard?

 

(Unrelated, but I had Zelda 2 glitch my save file once, and it gave me a level / sword, it could kill anything in 2 hits or less! Without that, I would not have beaten the game)

[ChildOfCv]

I think I beat Willow in a day.  Had to anyway because it was a rental.

[+jeremiahjt]

On 8/1/2021 at 2:30 PM, jvgs said:

Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight. That game frustrated me to no end, but I stuck with it (probably longer than I should have) and I eventually beat it. Then I decided to never play it again. I wouldn't have the patience for a game that hard nowadays.

My best friend had this and we put some time in it, but neither of us could ever beat it.  It is now of my list of games to beat someday.  I have pretty much went back and beat all of my NES games I had as a kid that I never beat: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Astyanax, RoboCop, 1942, and Tiger-Heli (I may have looped this one and just not realized it). The only two of mine I have not beat are Mad Max and Snake's Revenge.  Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight and Abadox are two my friend had that I want to finish also.

[Tanooki]

Can't do it anymore or for a long time but, Ghosts n Goblins.  TMNT, Faxanadu, Fester's Quest, Silver Surfer and Tyson aren't pushovers either to name a few.

Edited August 7, 2021 by Tanooki

[4300]

I beat Ninja Gaiden last year.  Only took me 30 years.  And I honestly never want to play it again. 

[TheGameCollector]

Probably Abadox. I actually beat it using the NES Max controller.

[+thanatos]

20 hours ago, 4300 said:

I beat Ninja Gaiden last year.  Only took me 30 years.  And I honestly never want to play it again. 

I got to the 2nd to last boss, and that was over 30 years ago.  I don't want to try again either, I think I'm still mad.  :D

[mbd39]

3 hours ago, thanatos said:

I got to the 2nd to last boss, and that was over 30 years ago.  I don't want to try again either, I think I'm still mad. 

 

If you get back to the boss with the spin slash you can kill him in one hit! You should try again. ?

[JumbleJag]

Bayou Billy

[NE146]

I've beaten Ninja Gaiden 1-2-3, Ghost & Goblins, Punchout, Bionic Commando, Blaster Master, Batman, Metroid, Kid Icarus, Mega Man 1-2-3, and Street Fighter 2010,  just on a regular NES during their time (late 80s). I didn't consider them hard at the time.. I just kept playing them until I could beat it. Notice I didn't say Castlevania or Battletoads because I never had those games back in the day, and I also don't count Contra & Lifeforce because whenever I played them, I used the 30 extra men (who wouldn't?)

 

However the ONE game I want to say I beat without any cheats or hints or any help is CASTLEVANIA 2 around 1988. Honestly, I didn't get the original CV, so when CV2 came out I figured "that's the one to get!". I didn't even realize it was different than the first one. Anyway I played and played that game for hours after class, sometimes going for days without figuring out what to do next. It was in those desperate hours that I eventually tried kneeling at a lake and when a staircase showed up I thought I was going to explode. But yes that game was 100% beaten regularly I'm proud to say. ?

Edited September 20, 2021 by NE146

[mbd39]

3 minutes ago, NE146 said:

However the ONE game I want to say I beat without any cheats or hints or any help is CASTLEVANIA 2 around 1988. Honestly, I didn't get the original CV, so when CV2 came out I figured "that's the one to get!". I didn't even realize it was different than the first one. Anyway I played and played that game for hours after class, sometimes going for days without figuring out what to do next. It was in those desperate hours that I eventually tried kneeling at a lake and when a staircase showed up I thought I was going to explode. But yes that game was 100% beaten regularly I'm proud to say. ?

 

Nice!

 

Beating a super cryptic game like that without a guide is impressive.

 

My next door neighbor friend never cared about other Castlevania games but he loved Simon's Quest. He was more of an adventure/RPG guy.

[Leeroy ST]

Tetris.

 

Either version.

 

[NE146]

6 hours ago, mbd39 said:

Beating a super cryptic game like that without a guide is impressive.

Well you didn't really have a choice! I would have gladly read a hint, but there was zero information about it anywhere then unless you called the Nintendo Counselors .. There was a Nintendo Power that went over the game but I didn't have it.

[Austin]

I'd say Battletoads was mine. I've done a lot of other challenging games on the system, but I think that one took the most effort to learn.

 

Funny enough, it's one of the easier runs for me now. But it's just grueling to learn. 12 stages, each with their own mechanics and insta-death gimmicks. Only three continues, so you'd often have to repeat the whole thing again just to try the later parts of the game. You can warp, but then you're missing out on the 1-ups. Ugh.

 

I love it.

Edited September 21, 2021 by Austin

[JumbleJag]

1 hour ago, Austin said:

I'd say Battletoads was mine. I've done a lot of other challenging games on the system, but I think that one took the most effort to learn.

That game is brutally difficult,I couldn't complete it as a kid and there's no chance I can do it in my forties.

Edited September 21, 2021 by JumbleJag

[Rowsdower70]

I guess the fact that I could take down Tyson easily?   Most of the NES time for me was spent on quest/RPG games, and I think I finished most of them I rented. 

[Razzie.P]

On 9/20/2021 at 4:51 PM, NE146 said:

However the ONE game I want to say I beat without any cheats or hints or any help is CASTLEVANIA 2 around 1988. Honestly, I didn't get the original CV, so when CV2 came out I figured "that's the one to get!". I didn't even realize it was different than the first one. Anyway I played and played that game for hours after class, sometimes going for days without figuring out what to do next. It was in those desperate hours that I eventually tried kneeling at a lake and when a staircase showed up I thought I was going to explode. But yes that game was 100% beaten regularly I'm proud to say. ?

 

On 9/20/2021 at 4:58 PM, mbd39 said:

 

Nice!

 

Beating a super cryptic game like that without a guide is impressive.

 

My next door neighbor friend never cared about other Castlevania games but he loved Simon's Quest. He was more of an adventure/RPG guy.

 

18 hours ago, NE146 said:

Well you didn't really have a choice! I would have gladly read a hint, but there was zero information about it anywhere then unless you called the Nintendo Counselors .. There was a Nintendo Power that went over the game but I didn't have it.

 

Simon's Quest was pretty special to me.  I never really felt is was cryptic, though, and had no problem beating it without any hints.   I've probably thrown holy water on every single block in the game as a kid, wondering if there might be some hidden secret that I hadn't found yet.  

 

For the lake one, I found a clue that literally said "Kneel by the lake with the blue crystal" so that's what I did.  ?  And after the "keel and crap happens" trick, wasn't a hard stretch to think "I should give this kneeling thing a try here..." whenever I got stuck for a moment at other places (like the cliff).   The part I couldn't figure out as a kid, was how I got different endings when playing.

[Razzie.P]

For me, it was probably Mad Max or Narc.   Both games for the same reason -- I could get to the final boss, but just couldn't do it.   In both cases, I wasn't even sure if I was even doing damage to them and/or on the right path.

[mbd39]

EDIT: Never mind.

Edited September 21, 2021 by mbd39

[+thegoldenband]

I've beaten a ton of tough NES games without cheats, but without a walkthrough is tougher, especially if we include watching videos (YouTube or otherwise). And I grew up with Nintendo Power and the Official Nintendo Player's Guide, after all, plus that famous Secret Video Game Tricks, Codes, & Strategies VHS tape, so a ton of games were covered. If zero spoilers is the standard, I've seldom beaten a tough game without some kind of outside info, if only to confirm that I've got the right idea.

 

Anyway, I'd say maybe Double Dragon III? I beat that back in the day without assistance of any kind. Some people seem to think it's hard, though I think it's fairly easy until the end.

 

Black-box Tennis on Level 5 is pretty tough too, especially if you win both matches.

 

Firehawk and Skull & Crossbones come to mind, if you count unlicensed games.

 

If we throw in Famicom games, I think I did all 50 levels of Nuts & Milk without checking a walkthrough. I did use savestate practice, though, which isn't a big deal since the game has a built-in stage select anyway (but you don't see the ending if you use it). Same for Chack'n Pop.

 

BTW I came close to doing X-Men as a kid, but never quite beat Magneto. I did figure out the "unsolvable" label puzzle on my own; no idea why it stymies so many people.