A solid argument can be made that video games have progressively gotten easier since the advent of 3D graphics. Could it be gamers have simply improved over the last couple of decades? Afterall, most genres tend to revolve around comparable mechanics, therefore someone with thousands of hours on first-person shooters should find a new release quite straightforward to manage.
While this explanation makes sense, it is also factually wrong! As a whole, games are easier than ever to complete! Developers seem less willing to envision a project that hinges its enjoyment on providing a robust challenge. Back in the NES and SNES eras, Nintendo packed its catalog with mountains of near impossible to complete titles; heck, TvTropes.com’s Nintendo Hard category refers to games that are crushingly difficult. Nowadays, the publisher’s output appears to go out of its way to eliminate any potential hurdles. Super Mario Odyssey’s main campaign could be completed on autopilot, while the Kirby titles are afraid to even risk throwing a genuine threat at players.
As advancement in technology provides dev studios with the required tools to create some truly immersive environments, gaming has developed into a far wider-reaching hobby. Despite, or due to, the controls getting more complex with each passing generation, games prefer to offer as little resistance as feasibly possible. Thankfully, there are still a couple of studios that pride themselves on breaking their clientele’s spirit! Here are 25 modern console games that are impossible to beat (and how to beat them)!
25 Cuphead
As a run-and-gun shooter set in Walt Disney’s fever dream, Cuphead lovingly returns to the retro games of yesteryear. Putting aside the jaw-droppingly gorgeous visuals, gameplay is far and away StudioMDHR’s main selling point. Prior to its release, Cuphead ended up embroiled in a lengthy discussion on the qualities expected from a gaming journalist, but there is no denying that Microsoft landed an insanely hard exclusive. Largely consisting of boss fights, battles are a healthy mix of discernable patterns and spontaneous attacks; in other words, learn from your mistakes but remain 100% vigilant.
24 Demon’s Souls
FromSoftware instigated a renewed admiration for games with an unforgiving edge, but the Souls franchise has never sacrificed fairness for toughness. With the exception of certain areas in Dark Souls II, the player is always to blame for their failures.
Due to its somewhat janky controls and restrictive checkpoint system, Demon’s Souls is the least accessible of the bunch.
Even if around every corner lurks a horrifying Lovecraftian abomination, exploration leads to success. Unlocking shortcuts greatly reduces the frustration of revisiting most areas, so we recommend searching behind that ominous door…
23 Bloodborne: The Old Hunters
Bloodborne takes the basic Dark Souls formula and ramps up the intensity by ten. With shields offering about as much resistance as a tablecloth and the combat rewarding aggressive behavior, FromSoftware’s masterpiece punishes anyone who approaches Bloodborne as just another Souls title.
If the base game was not challenging enough, and it most certainly cannot be described as a cake walk, Bloodborne: The Old Hunters sees FromSoftware going for broke. Home to the hardest and best boss fights, The Old Hunters swiftly pounces on any blunders made by the player. As per the main game, the only way to win is to dive head first into any encounter. Also, never stop moving!
22 Super Meat Boy
According to IGN, Super Meat Boy was 2010’s most challenging game, and we cannot think of a title that is more deserving of such an honor.
A platformer with tight controls and split-second timing, Team Meat designed over 300 levels of pure frustration.
A love letter to old NES titles, Super Meat Boy comes with infinite lives, and the titular cube automatically respawns at the start of a level after succumbing to the whims of a grinder. Serving as a reminder of your recent failures, Super Meat Boy leaves a red trail outlining the protagonist’s previous attempts at overcoming the obstacles; in other words, repeating the same actions would be nothing short of insanity.
21 Ninja Gaiden
Ryu Hayabusa’s inaugurating 3D adventure remains the pinnacle of Team Ninja’s hack and slash franchise. Ninja Gaiden 2 is slightly more managable, while Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge compensated for the appalling base game’s shortcomings by artificially heightening the difficulty.
Published in 2004, Ninja Gaiden is not meant to be played like God of War or Bayonetta, as Ryu is at his best when bidding for an opportunity to strike.
Perfect the art of dodging and the life of a shinobi should be within reach. Alternatively, there is always the overpowered jump and slash mechanic…
20 Doom
After luring players into a false sense of security with the opening levels, 2016’s Doom spikes up the difficulty to immeasurably heights towards the end of the campaign. Packed with hordes of hungry demons with an affinity for ruining Doomguy’s day, venturing into a new room is enough to devolve most battle-worn players into bumbling children, and this is without even mentioning Ultra-Nightmare mode. Thankfully, id Software provides players with all the necessary tools to overcome the hordes of monsters. While the shotgun may be awesome, it is not the only way to win.
19 Mega Man 9
Capcom’s Mega Man franchise exists to instigate ragequits and push third-party controllers. Despite coming out during the heyday of stupidly difficult games, Rockman’s series ranks among the hardest platformers on the market.
Published in 2008, Mega Man 9 brought back the frustrating mayhem which once defined Capcom’s intellectual property.
This iteration is arduous enough to test the might of even the most experienced of veterans, but victory lays in practice. Even if this is not a particularly long game, Mega Man 9 requires months of work to truly master.
18 Operation Flashpoint
Bohemia Interactive Studio’s series might look like a military shooter, but Operation Flashpoint could not be further removed from the likes of Call of Duty or Battlefield. Taking a far more realistic approach to gunplay, this tactical shooter garnered a reputation for its backbreaking difficulty and unwillingness to pamper players. Our best advice is to completely erase any memories of first-person shooters, as they will only add to the frustration. The Operation Flashpoint trilogy is less Rambo and more Platoon, so hide behind walls and pray a sniper is focused on someone else.
17 Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock
After the success of Guitar Hero II, Neversoft was faced with a dilemma: how can we ramp up the difficulty without altering the mechanics? If handled poorly, Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock could have felt like nothing more than a glorified expansion for returning players.
Neversoft’s solution was to throw logic out of the window and demand an absurd level of skill from players.
Tracks like “Raining Blood” and “Through the Fire and Flames” dish out note structures that serve little connection to the actual song, and are seemingly designed just to frustrate customers. Our solution? Pick up a real guitar, as it might be easier to learn.
16 Duke Nukem Forever
An experience that strains the mind and body, Duke Nukem Forever is the whole package. The gaming industry’s answer to Guns N’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy, Duke Nukem Forever manages to simultaneously be too hard and too easy. Prior to maxing Duke’s ego and rendering moot any potential challenge, the protagonist goes down with only a couple of hits and lacks the required ammo to handle the waves of enemies. With the exception of the shotgun, Duke Nukem Forever’s armory ranges from mediocre to dreadful, leaving the titular loudmouth with precious little equipment capable of taking out the endless hordes. Frankly, just play Doom.
15 S.T.A.L.K.E.R
In an admittedly bold move, S.T.A.L.K.E.R’s default difficulty is harder than “Master.” As the realism spikes up with each level, enemies take far more bullets to bite the dust on the easiest difficulty. Struggling to complete S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl? Restart the game on a higher challenge and hope for the best! Be it the lack of ammo or obvious weak points, GSC Game World’s gunplay prides itself on being grounded in authenticity. Rather than unleashing a wave of bullets in the enemy’s general direction, fights are decided by outthinking the AI.
14 Broforce
Working as an homage and parody of hypermasculine action films starring the likes of Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Broforce is a chaotic side-scrolling shoot’em up with glass cannons as playable characters.
Sure, they may be able to destroy anything along their path, but these “heroes” go down at the slightest touch.
Covering the screen with more explosions than all of the Transformers films combined, Free Lives’ engrossing platformer is a blast to play. When a hero falls, another random character takes their place, so failure opens up a range of new special abilities and moves.
13 Ikaruga
While other genres sacrificed toughness in favor of accessibility, SHMUPS tend to serve as an exception. Shoot’em ups continue to overwhelm fans with mesmerizing but destructive light shows, but Treasure’s Ikaruga is the living embodiment of impossible. Ported over to the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4, this 2001 gem has not lost a step over the last 15 years. With innumerable laser beams hailing from all directions, the urge to reduce the number of enemies may be rather overwhelming; however, Ikaruga is more about dodging than firepower. There is even a reward for completing a level without discharging a single shot.
12 Devil May Cry 3: Dante’s Awakening
Any edition of Devil May Cry 3: Dante’s Awakening packs an incredible punch, but special mention has to go to the original NTSC release. In a creative choice which remains puzzling to this very day, the American version’s Easy mode coincides with Normal in the Japanese or European iterations.
Devil May Cry 2 garnered a ton of flack for being too forgiving, so could this have been Capcom’s way of making amends?
Even if that were the case, American publications were hardly the only ones to bring up this criticism. Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition fixes most of these issues and is viewed as the definitive version.
11 Bayonetta
Led by the director behind the original Devil May Cry, Bayonetta is a tour-de-force worth playing by anyone with an appreciation for stylistic character-action projects. On the default setting, PlatinumGames designed more than enough hazards to entertain the vast majority of people, but Hard mode comes with a noticeable spike in game overs. While the upgrades consist of the typical harder-hitting enemies who happen to be far more resilient, they also seem to discover a newfound mean streak that was lacking in the lower difficulty. Witch Time transforms from a handy tool to a downright necessity, as completing the game requires mastering Bayonetta’s dodge mechanics.
10 The Wonderful 101
Amidst a sea of underappreciated gems, The Wonderful 101 may be PlatinumGames’ most forgotten modern classic. Stuck on Nintendo’s Wii U, this action-adventure game is quite a departure from the studio’s typical output. Played from an isometric viewpoint, the basic mechanics revolve around controlling a horde of superheroes and finding new members to join the team. Due to the unique combat, The Wonderful 101’s learning curve is steeper than most other games, so the first few hours can be quite daunting. In this case, the only viable recommendation is to get back on the horse.
9 Mordheim: City of the Damned
Based on the 1999 tabletop game with the same name, Mordheim: City of the Damned yearns to crush players into submission. After picking a faction and forming a warband, a variety of missions open up, but quite a bit of them will result in failure. Luckily, defeat does not equate to wasted time, as progress is made with each fight. As it is possible to lose members of your unit to injury, the wisest approach is to resist the urge to split up your team. If it never worked on Scooby-Doo, there is no reason the results will be any better in Mordheim.
8 Celeste
Averaging a Metacritic score in the 90s, Celeste is an indie darling for a reason. A platforming game that makes Super Mario Bros. seem like New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Matt Makes Games realized some customers may be more interested in the story than the gameplay, so the developer introduced an Assist Mode. From crushing to omnipotent, this feature allows players to tweak the mechanics and dictate the type of experience they would like. Satisfying everyone tends to be a recipe for mediocrity, but we would love to see other developers embrace this concept.
7 Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep
Do not be fooled by the Disney aesthetic, Kingdom Hearts is not for the faint of heart. With the exception of Kingdom Hearts II’s main campaign, the series never shies away from testing its audience’s resolve.
Out of all of them, Birth by Sleep is arguably the hardest, largely due to a couple of downright ridiculous difficulty spikes.
The levels themselves are simple enough to complete, but quite a few of the bosses feel absurdly overpowered. Besides being absolutely thrilling, Birth by Sleep’s combat is skill based. Nevertheless, the game remains a JRPG, and grinding is always the answer.
6 Touhou 15: Legacy of Lunatic Kingdom
Dark Souls popularized Git Gud, but the phrase is more apt for something like the Touhou franchise. While we went with 2015’s release, the entire series warrants a mention.
The cast may consist of adorable waifus, but the SCHMUP gameplay is frantic and punishing!
As with most entries in this genre, the player’s hitbox is quite tiny and dodging is not really all that improbable; nevertheless, it does not take much to get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of noise packed in each level. The trick is to aimlessly shoot while concentrating exclusively on avoiding any oncoming bullets.
