Games that were difficult in your childhood

The hardest game I’ve ever played is Dynamite Headdy on the Megadrive. Wonderful, twee platformer at face value with a slight nightmarish aesthetic to it.

Anyway, after about hour in the game becomes SO HARD.... specifically at the ‘Babyface’ boss. Relentlessly, ‘**** you’ hard. It’s not so much that it’s ultra ultra hard, it’s just that as it took so long to get back to the point where you died, after you ran out of lives, you could never really practice getting good at it.

I downloaded it years later and it was STILL hard as nails. After ‘Babyface’ the game just goes absolutely mental. I’m pretty sure I’ve never beaten the ‘Twin Freaks’ boss.

Holy **** that game is HARD.

For those that haven’t heard of it, a link below. Honestly just the screenshot of that ****ing baby’s head gave me anxiety :eek:

https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/dynamite-headdy-review/1900-6177866/

LewisRaz said:
The final boss on that is literally impossible without memorising it, and it takes so long to get to it. How on earth that game got approved at that difficulty level is beyond me
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Eh are you on about the bit with the caves that teleport you? Or scar? I sussed that when I was about 6/7.... that is definitely not an accurate recollection you have :p

The bit people (i.e. children) got stuck on with lion king was the second level where you had to roar at the monkeys. Of course, a total doddle as an adult.
 
The original Lemmings. It outfoxed me as a kid on all but the easiest difficulties where you get all the tools/time you could ever need and lower completion requirements. I played it again more recently and it seems to match up nicely to the capabilities of the adult brain and provide a good challenge, whereas young kids stand no chance at 'proper difficulty settings' going by my recollection.
 
Illuminist said:
Some game on the c64 where you were a side scrolling blonde wrestler?? swinging people around, grannies, gorillas and thugs, literally, swinging around and around and letting them go, if anyone knows that games name please tell me.

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Haha I'd forgotten all about that game but your description of it is perfect. It's like a demented Hulk Hogan with a perm beating the hell out of old grannies. I remember a friend and I cracking up laughing playing this.

 
PC777 said:
Haha I'd forgotten all about that game but your description of it is perfect. It's like a demented Hulk Hogan with a perm beating the hell out of old grannies. I remember a friend and I cracking up laughing playing this.

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Dude, so you know how long I've wanted to know what that games called? 30 years!! Thank you so much
What's the ground tickle thing all about?, amazing, I remember there was a trick to swinging them forever even when all their health was gone, picking them back up before they die and swinging them againI used to love that game so much
 
Vexr said:
The original Lemmings. It outfoxed me as a kid on all but the easiest difficulties where you get all the tools/time you could ever need and lower completion requirements. I played it again more recently and it seems to match up nicely to the capabilities of the adult brain and provide a good challenge, whereas young kids stand no chance at 'proper difficulty settings' going by my recollection.
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I completed it on proper difficulty as a kid - a few levels I lucked through though. Watching some of the ways people approach it now are so different to the way I muddled through as a kid. Definitely a lot of kids would struggle with it though.
 
Nitefly said:
The hardest game I’ve ever played is Dynamite Headdy on the Megadrive. Wonderful, twee platformer at face value with a slight nightmarish aesthetic to it.

Anyway, after about hour in the game becomes SO HARD.... specifically at the ‘Babyface’ boss. Relentlessly, ‘**** you’ hard. It’s not so much that it’s ultra ultra hard, it’s just that as it took so long to get back to the point where you died, after you ran out of lives, you could never really practice getting good at it.

I downloaded it years later and it was STILL hard as nails. After ‘Babyface’ the game just goes absolutely mental. I’m pretty sure I’ve never beaten the ‘Twin Freaks’ boss.

Holy **** that game is HARD.
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Completely forgot about Dynamite Heady. Ended up watching this in part:


Most of it looked familiar, so I guess I must've done some sight-seeing cheating as a kid. Have to respect the lengthy ending sequence.

The Lion King was so difficult it was abominable. A level involving log jumping up a waterfall did me in if I remember right - had to cheat past that, and that wasn't even in the adult Simba phase of the game.
 
Minusorange said:
I was remembering back to my childhood of old games that were notoriously difficult at the time and I remembered Zarch which at the time I only got to play at primary school so no chance to properly learn it like you would a game you could play for hours at home but I always remember it being one of the most frustrating games I've ever played


What other vintage games did any of you struggle with or seem to remember as being hard ?
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I remember playing the port for the Atari ST which was called Virus. I got pretty good at it once I mastered the controls and dimensional awareness (is that an actual term ?)

Also liked the followup tank game called Conqueror. I would drive while my friend would control the turret....fun times :)
 
Solomon's Key.
I could get to stage 30 every time but the damn wizards were a mare. I got past it a few times but only by chance, never by skill.

Solomon%27s_Key_Stage30.gif


Didn't know at the time that this level has an exploitable bug that makes it much easier.
 
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tonym said:
One of the first games I ever 'cleared'.
Got it for christmas one year.... well.... I found it hidden under my parents bed, took the tape out, played it, finished it, put it back, and they were furious on christmas when I just didn't want to play it..... cough.
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lol

ooo
I remember this game !
i really did enjoy this, got quite far, never managed to it..
 
Flashback on the Amiga 1200 stands out for me. I was about 5 years old I think?
Though Putty, Cannon Fodder and Zool were more at my skill level.
 
Flashback on the Amiga was a strange beast, I remember doing the first couple of levels over and over for weeks and never getting very far, then one day I suddenly got to level 3 and it seemed like plain sailing from then on to the point when I completed it after no time I remembered being really shocked that was it!

Definitely a game I think you could still play now, would make a good iOS game I reckon.
 
This is extremely niche and also ages me, but a game that I found difficult to the extent that I had to write a letter, remember those?, to the game publisher asking for a hint, I'd basically got stuck near the end of the game getting onto a boat in a lake. The game was a text adventure on the Acorn Electron called Quest for the Holy Grail, published by Epic Adventures. They actually wrote back with the hint, and typically it was a complete and utter noddy thing that I had missed, just had to try a different word to get on the sodding boat. That is pretty retro I think.
 
I can remember having a pirated copy of Supercars 2 on the Amiga.

I don't know if it was a bug in the game, or a bug in the cracked copy, but on one level the track crash detection was misaligned to the graphics.

You had to remember the course and drive something like 3 car lengths to the top right of the graphics.
 
Bubo said:
This is extremely niche and also ages me, but a game that I found difficult to the extent that I had to write a letter, remember those?, to the game publisher asking for a hint, I'd basically got stuck near the end of the game getting onto a boat in a lake. The game was a text adventure on the Acorn Electron called Quest for the Holy Grail, published by Epic Adventures. They actually wrote back with the hint, and typically it was a complete and utter noddy thing that I had missed, just had to try a different word to get on the sodding boat. That is pretty retro I think.
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Aaaaah, text based adventure games.

There's a good Big Bang Theory where they reference the frustration with getting the vocab exactly right.
 
Loosecannon said:
Rick Dangerous...

Midwinter (probably as I had no idea what to do)

Dungeon master (Worm level as a kid - though easier playing now)

Shadow of the beast 3
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I feel like play Dungeon Master now or carry my party over and play Chaos Strikes back. Still a good dungeon crawler today. I think the worms were level off the top of my head were level 4
 
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