Well, to me, only having one character left alive makes the game sound pretty tough to beat.

Hmm... Dragon's Lair comes immediately to mind, and then of course there's Color a Dinosaur.

The original Mega Man is hard as hell! I've only ever beaten it with the cheat using the select button to make your weapon do more damage.

^ Mega Man is kind of like Contra, once you stop cheating it becomes INFINITELY easier to beat legit. Stop using select an you'll see

And as for the Color a Dinosaur comment... um, what!?!

I'm sorry but I got to agree with Basil here... Friday the 13th is one of the easiest NES games for me to beat.  I have beat it probably 100 times with no kids and no councelors dead.  I love that game though and play it all the time.  I have to disagree with Basil for like the first time ever though in my life.  Lighting the fireplaces kicks ass.  You can only have 3 characters with torches though... or at least that's what has always happened to me... after you have 3 you can light all the fireplaces you want but you'll never get another torch.  The torches KICK ASS, plain and simple, 1 Jason life bar per hit... you can roast his ass easy with them.  The pitch fork only takes away 1 hit as well but kicks ass since it will clear all zombies on screen with 1 hit.  The trick is to just keep dodging until 1 move Jason makes on the 3rd time through since he never slows down... however when he makes the one move you hit him everytime... every other time you will either miss or get hit.  Experiment and you will be able to tell which move it is. 

Oh and for the motherbrain I agree... I love Kid Icarus but I found it hard to beat too.. but it can be done... I got pics to prove it from the last time I beat it! 

^ Haha, well if you play any game that much it will be easy for you... but that was my point: that Friday the 13th wasn't a difficult game. I haven't played it since that one time I beat it (thusly accomplishing my goal to beat the game) but I'm sure it would be a breeze if I played it as much as you do. I still disagree on wasting time on the fireplaces though... what's the point? What do you have to gain for all that wasted effort? I just use the pitchfork on Jason.

Yeah I agree, if you load up Mark with the Sweater and the pitchfork and the meds he's all you need to beat the game easy. My point is since you basically sit around waiting for Jason to strike you might as well do SOMETHING and lighting the fireplaces is good cause then you can sit 3 of the slow ass people with torches so if Jason attacks them you can switch to them and fight him with the torch instead of running your happy ass all the way to the cabin he's in...

Well, I didn't grow up owning Friday 13th, so I just don't have the practice i guess. I've gotten to the 3rd day a couple of times, and gotten greased.

As for Kid Icarus, I can EASILY whip the current "record" high score for that game. It's really not that hard once you get the hang of the game. It's tons of fun, though. Thematically, I think that game is great.

i have beat battletoads a long time ago when i was a kid and for some reason i cant beat it now.

i would have to say silver surfer is freakin hard. and bucky ohare had been giving me fits too.

What's with all the TMNT votes? Shit, it's not that hard...oh, and arch_8ngel, I had the same problem with that jump in level 3, but you can consistantly make it by TAPPING the jump button instead of holding it down. Once I noticed that, I haven't missed that jump.

I might end up rethinking this list one day soon, since I haven't really had time to play many games as of late, but my list:

1. Conan (love it, but too much randomness, especially on levels 4 and 6)
2. Ikari Warriors/Ikari Warriors II (without using ABBA...and on Ikari II, ABBA doesn't work on the final boss fight, so it's still possible to lose)
3. Jurassic Park (goddamn T-Rex...I think we're gonna need another Timmy...)
4. Paperboy (can anyone make it past day 2?)
5. Zanac (holy shit!)

Really though, it depends on a person's strengths. I can plow through TMNT with only a few parts that give me grief...okay, pretty much just that one spot before the Mouser in Level 4 where you have to time your drops perfectly or the walls will kill you, as well as the stretch just before the Shredder in the Technodrome. Man that shit is tough. Anyway, back on track...I can plow through TMNT, but haven't beaten any of the Super Mario games. I can get to level 6 in Conan relatively easily, which is a feat not many people would ever achieve, but lack the reaction time to master simple shooters like Gradius. People mention Silver Surfer, and I tend to agree based on my skills, but at the same time, Roth can beat it in his sleep. Just depends on what type of games you're good at and which ones you're not.

^^^ I've beaten Paperboy. Gets boring once you catch on to the nuances of things.

I'll have to try perfecting the LvL 3 jump in TMNT. I've made it before, but I think it was only once or twice EVER.

I'm right there with you on the TRex. Geez. I got there with a full load of rockets (or whatever you want to call the powerful bullets)...and no dice. Timmy got chewed right up!

Are you joking with Paperboy? I have never beat it but I have got through day three without one cancelled subscription.And have made it do day 5 for sure probably further.

Is that level 3 jump in TMNT the one in the sewer? If so, what' the problem? You can retry forever because it doesn't even take away a life if you fail...

And Mike, I've beaten Zanac with 2 deaths and 45 ships in reserve at the end Totally agree though, what games you find tough will all depend on your skill-set.

The problem with the jump in the TMNT sewer, is that I keep missing it and get bored to death before I can make it successfully. It's the same reason I won't beat Ghost n Goblins, even with infinite continues, is that once you try to get past a certain point a million times, you just want to stop and do something else.


I'm dead serious about Paperboy. I've made it through the full week. It was tough at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's doable.

Yeah, try what I said. It's all about the timing...get to the edge, tap jump, and go. It's only really tricky because people tend to hold the jump button down, and if you do that, you jump to high to make the jump successfully.

i've never really sat down determined to beat it.

i just get tired of looking for that fucker

it never interested me so that may be why i just never learn/tried to beat it.

For the record, I have beaten those games that I listed, except for Bayou Billy which I simply rented once.  Can you imagine, there was a time when you could rent NES games from the gas station, hehe.

Even with the earlier stages of paperboy being easy, they really throw a lot of obstacles at you later in the week, so I do agree that it's a tough one.  I would put it on a list of tough games, but not a list of toughest games.

Has anyone here beat Rampart? You get 3 lives to beat 6 stages, and I've only gotten to stage 5. I haven't played it that much, but enough to have fun and then say screw it you're going back on the shelf where you belong.

Solar Jetman is pretty tough, especially the final battle, one hit, one kill, one shot. >.<

IMO, the two that come to mind are Battletoads and Ikari Warriors.

THE LEGEND OF ZELDA 2. I swear to god, playing it now I have NO idea how I beat it as a kid. Getting past the screen with the fence where they throw rocks at you, trudging through that huge mud field, THEN getting in to the last palace and fighting Thunderbird... ARGH!

I don't know why everybody has trouble with Battletoads... I had that speederbike section down to a science. (A science with a warp zone in it!)

If you want to cheese it Im pretty sure you can just turn in to the fairy and fly across =p

But that uses up magic you need for later. :-P If I remember right, when I was a kid I would cast jump, and hop through the whole stage trying to take the fewest hits possible.

Zelda 2 eh? Hmm... that gives me an idea...