Your Hardest Games

[The Nihilist]

What's the consensus on the difficulty of the Donkey Kong Country games? I've not played 3, but I find them bare-knuckle hard, 2 more so, and I only played them for the first time at 22, so go figure.

I've played 1 and 3 on SNES and they seemed pretty easy to me.
There are a couple stages that are hard as shit that come out of nowhere, but for the most part, they are easy.

DKC 1 drops 1 ups like it's going out of style.

[harper]

DKC 1 drops 1 ups like it's going out of style.

Haha yeah, it is very easy to just rack up on one ups and beat the game no problem. Except if I rememer correctly it doesn't save the amount of lives you had when you start the game over. But you can still always go back and get more.

[Gamerforlife]

Pushmo is kind of pissing me off right now and I'm starting to think I won't finish this one. Some of the stages seem literally impossible to solve. Ego is the only thing making me keep trying as Pushmo is one of the most boring puzzlers I have ever played. It doesn't have an interesting story like Crush or funny dialog like a Portal game. It doesn't have cool graphics or music like Braid. It doesn't have extra items to grab in each stage like Crush. It's one of the blandest, most generic puzzlers ever. In fact, if you've played Catherine you won't even be all that impressed by its block pushing mechanic. About the only thing I can give the game props for is that a few of its stages are very, very difficult. Too difficult if you ask me. For a game to be this demanding with its puzzles it should be rewarding in some way, and Pushmo never rewards you in any way. You finish a puzzle, you simply move on to the next one. Never anything new or interesting like other puzzlers I've mentioned in this post

[Luke]

Castlevania Lords of Shadow has been giving me a little guff lately. I haven't broken down and read any faqs, but at times I feel inclined to check one out. It's a gorgeous game, but it's all over the place. It can't tell if it wants to God of War, or SOTC, or Onimusha, or Twilight Princess. The game feels like it doesn't know exactly what it wants to be, and switching through so many game styles is getting a little annoying.

[BurningDoom]

DKC 1 drops 1 ups like it's going out of style.

Haha yeah, it is very easy to just rack up on one ups and beat the game no problem. Except if I rememer correctly it doesn't save the amount of lives you had when you start the game over. But you can still always go back and get more.

This is true. 1ups are easy to acquire in the game. But that doesn't mean the platforming doesn't get difficult. Those last couple of maps have some freaking hard levels.

[Balasubbie]

DKC 1 drops 1 ups like it's going out of style.

Haha yeah, it is very easy to just rack up on one ups and beat the game no problem. Except if I rememer correctly it doesn't save the amount of lives you had when you start the game over. But you can still always go back and get more.

This is true. 1ups are easy to acquire in the game. But that doesn't mean the platforming doesn't get difficult. Those last couple of maps have some freaking hard levels.

Indeed. Mind, nothing quite prepares you for DKC 2, where it gets difficult quite sharply and continues that way, with the odd break so you can tuck your eyeballs back into your skull after reeving them out in frustration, all the while crazily mumbling to oneself "brilliant game, it's a brilliant game". DKCR on the Wii also perfects this balance of addictive, playful masochism.

I'm looking forward to DKC 3 like a mad thing, whenever I get around to picking it up. I know this series has taken lumps over the years, but I think it still retains great value in its core gameplay, even if its initial graphical oomph has gone the way of the dodo.

[elmagicochrisg]

SNES Gods
SNES Battletoads in battlemaniacs
SNES Robocop 3
SNES Lethal Weapon 3

DC Ecco the Dolphin

[Gamerforlife]

Castlevania Lords of Shadow has been giving me a little guff lately. I haven't broken down and read any faqs, but at times I feel inclined to check one out. It's a gorgeous game, but it's all over the place. It can't tell if it wants to God of War, or SOTC, or Onimusha, or Twilight Princess. The game feels like it doesn't know exactly what it wants to be, and switching through so many game styles is getting a little annoying.

It doesn't want to be anything. It just wants to be "cool". So it copies all of the other "cool" kids(God of War, SOTC, Onimusha, Twilight Princess, etc.), not realizing that being "cool" is all about being unique and finding yourself. That's something that 3D Castlevania games have not done yet. I think the only original part of the game is the magic system, but I'm undecided as to whether or not I like that system

I actually think the best parts of the game are when you are fighting vampires and it almost feels like a Castlevania game again, or the fight against the Butcher. That fight has a little of that silliness that classic Vania games all had.

[Luke]

It doesn't want to be anything. It just wants to be "cool". So it copies all of the other "cool" kids(God of War, SOTC, Onimusha, Twilight Princess, etc.), not realizing that being "cool" is all about being unique and finding yourself. That's something that 3D Castlevania games have not done yet.

Halfheartedly agree, but I also lean towards the thought that the designers tried to overachieve on LOS (and that possibly a few great 3D CV games exist). For me it has a lot to do with he flow of the game, as its simply inconsistent.

For some reason, I can't stop playing it though.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

Tower Toppler.

Seriously, such a hard game.