I think what a person's opinion of the most personally-challenging game is, says a lot about that person's personality. I'd like to know what your favorite game is for the NES. Please be honest -- try not to post a game that everyone else necessarily thinks is a popular/cool game, but instead one that is personal to you.

For me, I personally love the game Solomon's Key -- I spent over 15 years trying to beat that game, and developed a love/hate relationship with it. But because there was something about that game that kept me coming back, year after year, frustration and more frustration, I would have to say that's my all-time most personal favorite. A close second would be Milon's Secret Castle.

What about you?

-Dain

Battletoads

Even with a game genie, I still can't beat this game.

I have a few personal favorites. The first being Metal Gear. This along with the next game I'm going to mention got me hooked on the NES. My dad bought this game when it first came out and we would literally spend hours playing it. We use to get frustrated trying to find the different items but once we found them we would act like we won the lottery. lol I still play it. All the time

The next is SMB3 because it holds a sentimental value. It was the first game I ever beat on the NES and to me has always been simply the best game on the system and the best Mario ever made. It's also a game that made me love the system

I don't know if my favorite game would say much about my personality, since I didn't play many of the games for what they were (i.e. when they came out). I was a PC and Amiga gamer during the NES's lifespan, and only bought a NES in the mid-90s when I read in the SNES Ultima 6 manual that there were three Ultima games released for the NES (I was a big fan of Ultima back then ). Anyway, my favorite game back then and still now is probably Gun*Nac. Shmups are generally not my favorite genre, but Gun*Nac stood out from the other games due to its very smooth and fun gameplay, and of course the nice graphics (plus I used it in combination with the QuickShot XXI "Trackball" controller, which is a perfect match for the game).

P.O.W. for me, for some reason that game's mastery still eludes me, I've got my good days and bad days with it but i've never come close to beating it.

As soon as I read the title to this thread, I knew Solomons Key was going to be in that post!! Great game, I know how much you love it Dain.

As for mine, Solor Jetman. I think it is a underated gem that most people never get into. But Contra and Super C hold a special place in my heard also. I beat them at least once a week.
~~NGD

NGD you beat me to it, Solar Jetman is indeed mine and what immediately sprung to mind when I saw this topic. I spent countless hours finding secret warp portals, collecting all the neat gear...I was a fan of these sim-style-space-games as early as the Lunar Lander on old DOS and C-64 boxes and this was right up my alley. I also never beat it until I was 25 I would always cock it up when I got the damned Warpship together and hit a wall. Pooh.

Honorable Mention goes to Deadly Towers, the first game I played on an actual NES, before a D&D session at a rich friend's house (he had 8 games and ROB so therefore he was rich lol). No, it's not as good as I remember

I used to despise Deadly Towers, but once I figured out a few things that prevented me from dying instantly, I actually started to like that game. Sure, I can see how most people don't like it, but I found it to be enjoyable.

-Dain

go for it NGD!

I am already watching that Speedy. I hope to pick it up cause it is one of my favorite games. I hope it doesn't go for to much.

I thought I was the only Solar Jetman fan in the whole world, glad to finally have a friend, hehe.
~~NGD

lol it's yours NGD I still need to complete my NTSC before I move onto sexy yet obscure things. Good luck

Ok, good luck man!

For sheer sentimentality, it would have to be TMNT. Technically got it before I got my system...parents passed me the wrong gift As for an underrated title, I'm going with Conan. Everybody hates on it, but once you get past the shitty controls, it's not too bad a game. Anyone who knows a trick to getting past the level on the ship, let me know...I keep getting struck by lightning

For me, it's got to be Snake Rattle N Roll. Not only is a a challenging game for beginners -- there's a lot of enemy and hazard memorization involved -- but it's also a game I played with my closest cousins for hours and hours when I was little. We had so much fun, and surprisingly, back then, we got to only about the fifth level. It was so hard for us. Now, without too much of a problem, I can play through to the final boss -- the foot -- but I can never lick it enough times to get it to explode. Someday soon I'll figure it out.

Solomon's Key - Never finished this game as a kid. I think the farthest I've made it is Cancer - the fourth set of rooms, 4-2 if I remember right. I did finish it on an emulator a few years ago though.

Deadly Towers - Really hard game but I did finish this one although it took a long time. The last three bosses - the dragon, the lion, and the wizard - all of which you have to fight one after another are really gay. Other than that, this game isn't as bad as most people think. I still really like it.

Snow Bros. - A friend of mine had this game back then and we finished this a bunch of times. It's pretty difficult but fairly easy to finish because of the tons of lives you get. I really loved the toa-plan arcade version too. I used to play that one all the time until it broke down and they put it storage.

As a kid one of my favorite games was M C Kids. I could NEVER beat it. Now I can beat it pretty easily if I have a few hours to kill.

Another title that I played endlessly with my brothers is TMNT Manhattan Project. That is easily the best TMNT title and one of the best NES games IMO.

I also love Little Samson, but I never had it as a kid, I discovered it when I started collecting. It's one of the best little known games out there.

Hmm I would say Shadowgate. I never have nor now beat a lot of games. That one in particular held my attention from beginning to end. The art style was done well and the music was fantastic. California games is important to me as well. That was the first game I got to play by myself at home. I rented a NES system for 20.00 and that game. I stayed in my room all weekend long.

Though it's not my all-time favourite, I'd say Castlevania is the most sentimental for me. I had it back in the day, and it was game my original NES wing-man loved most. He was one of those guys who liked to watch you play while he'd help out in other ways, like with mapping or directing you from magazine tips as you played. Anyway, our life ambition, as far as gaming was concerned, was to beat Castlevania, though we never could. Time past, and eventually we learned that his family was going to move far far away. So what did we do with our last ever day together as little 12 year old friends? Castlevania, that's what! We spent over THREE HOURS at Dracula, but still couldn't beat him (yes, we were pretty shitty players back then, I guess) and we failed in our quest.

Yada yada yada... he walked out of my life and I drifted on to SNES then N64. But when I finally got back into NES again, and before I even considered myself a collector, I hunted Dracula down and drove a stake through that slimy bastard's heart. And now all is right with the world... the end.

Super Mario Bros:Because it was one of the first games I played and its the only game my mom and my girlfriend wanted to play against me. But that doesn't lasted too long because I kicked their asses

Has to be Castlevania 3 for me. Something about the cheapness of that game really pissed me off. The jumping was awful and I would constantly get knocked off a ledge after making it through some extremely challenging part of the game. Beating that game was probably my most satisfying Nintendo accomplishment.

I'm going to say Bionic Commando becuase this was the first game I ever brought for myself with my own money. It's the game I remember playing more than any other when I was younger.
It's one of not many games I will pull out and play regularly to this day.

SMB for sure most sentimental(probably second arcade game I ever played), then Excitebike, and Final Fantasy for my most personally challenging. If you want a non NES game, Id have my sentimental choice would be for Moon Patrol for the arcade, as this was the very first game I ever played, when I was about 6 or 7 years old, and it was at the laundrymat!

Although I played all the lolo games more than anything else...

Double Dragon has to be the most sentimental, because I got so good at getting to the guy with the machine gun(Jeff), and then getting my ass kicked wondering in awe how the hell you were supposed to beat him. The strategy guides just said "kick him" but I found that never ever worked as he always shot you. Eventually I found a way to beat him without even getting hit using a bug. 
  The trick is: stand on his right side when he appears, and walk at him so he walks to the left.(do no use this trick with the right side-it's riskier) Eventually he will walk down left out of the screen. When he's offscreen to the left, walk up to where you think he is and kick. If the kick connects keep hitting him. If your kick misses simply dodge up and move down again real quick. Even if you mess up he will miss you 95% of the time due to the fact his bullets explode when they hit the edge of the screen, regardless of the fact they are actually "entering" the screen rather than leaving it.
  I remember how easy beating Jimmy was compared to Jeff.

 This is probably what led to me beating games in challenging ways, and seeking the hardest games out.

elevator action

fav: river city ransom. i'll get back to you on challenging. prob in another 3 years.