Top 10 Hardest Video Games of the 90's

[The Blackangel]

The kids here won't remember any of these, but those of us that are older definitely do. I'm still on a rage quit from a couple myself. 😋

 

 

[Shagger]

Oddworld: Abe Odyssey is the sort of difficulty that I really hate. It's the "From Software" approach gone nuts. Everything and trial and cryptic bullshit I hat that approach because it isn't a test of anything that is of value to a gamer. Not skill, not timing, not strategy, just patience. All you need to beat them is time. Because of that that, I refuse to even call games with that approach to difficulty "challenging". Battletoads is worthy of a number 1 spot on that list for sure, but as least that game is hard because it demands skill, timing and good command of the controls, rather than "Here's two levers. One will kill you, the other will open the door. Pick one."

[StormyFire]

It seems like games in general were harder back then. Today, a lot of games tell you exactly what to do to beat them. It seems like games from the older times just made you figure it out for yourself!

[kingpotato]

If we are talking 90s difficulty the donkey kong country series on the SNES are the most diffcult I have played, I have never finish one.

[The Blackangel]

7 hours ago, StormyFire said:

It seems like games in general were harder back then. Today, a lot of games tell you exactly what to do to beat them. It seems like games from the older times just made you figure it out for yourself!

You’re absolutely right. Games back then were immensely more challenging. We didn’t have guides, or online walkthroughs, or even the internet to look for help from other gamers. The only way to get any tips was word of mouth. Mainly I’m talking about the NES. But even the next couple generations were almost as bad. Nowadays every game has in depth guides, and online walkthroughs written by scores of people. In all honesty, the closest thing we had back then was a Game Genie.

[Lämmchen]

On 11/25/2021 at 11:40 PM, The Blackangel said:

You’re absolutely right. Games back then were immensely more challenging. We didn’t have guides, or online walkthroughs, or even the internet to look for help from other gamers. The only way to get any tips was word of mouth. Mainly I’m talking about the NES. But even the next couple generations were almost as bad. Nowadays every game has in depth guides, and online walkthroughs written by scores of people. In all honesty, the closest thing we had back then was a Game Genie.

My thoughts exactly! I remember when my daughter first realized she could get cheats on the internet and I told her she should first try to figure it out on her own. To this day she still prefers to get the cheats.

I think that games used to purposely be challenging so that they took longer to play but also maybe the creators didn't realize that they were so difficult?

 

[The Blackangel]

I think games were just a completely different enterprise back then. Games were more unique, and some were so massive that you had to spend a lot more time than expected to find your way around. For example Blaster Master is a huge game. You will spend hours in Area 2 trying to find the boss if you don’t know your way already. And you would think that the way to the next world would be found in the world you’re currently in. Two leads to three, three leads to four, four leads to five, etc. Not so much. For example the entrance to Area 4 is found in Area 1. It’s one of the games that had kids calling up the developers and going WHAT THE FUCK?!

[Empire]

I remember two games on pc back in the 90's that was so hard. The first one is Extreme Assault, omg. Loved how they maked that game and hope its coming another type of that game soon. The second is the RTS Incubation.