Most difficult non-cheap NES game?

[Pingfa]

I'm looking for a challenge. What game comes to mind to you when you think of the most difficult, non-cheap NES game?

The game that first comes to mind for me is Silver Surfer - personally I do not get annoyed at this game because I always feel it was my own shortcomings that made me lose and thus find it has a very addictive quality.

Difficult as Silver Surfer is, though, I feel there must be a more difficult game on the NES. What could contend with Silver Surfer for this position?
I bet you're thinking of a shooter, aren't you?

[insideinfo]

Ninja gaiden. I could never beat this game. If you get a game over in levels 6-2, 6-3 or 6-4 you are sent back to 6-1. This made me give up.

[Breetai]

Zelda II is pretty f'n hard.
Ninja Gaiden (as has been mentioned), as well as II and ESPECIALLY III.
XEXYZ was pretty tough, although I haven't played through it since I was about 12 years old.
Any shooter is tough, Life Force getting my vote for the best.
None of these games are cheap, IMO.

[Dakinggamer87]

I would say Ninja Gaiden series.

[jp1]

Battletoads.

Do yourself a favour though and get MetalStorm. I don't know if you will find it difficult or not..but I bet you will find it awesome.

[Hobie-wan]

Zanac is an awesome shooter and there are always a ton of copies for sale cheap on ebay. It isn't the prettiest, but it was an early game. The controls are spot on though and it is a fair game. There are no controller throwing moments. It will let you continue, but if you get a game over in stages 11 or 12 it kicks you back to 10. The end boss goes through 3 different forms, which was a rare thing back in 1986.

It requires making maps to finish it properly, but Deadly Towers, as I mentioned here.

[buttonmasher123]

Zanac is an awesome shooter and there are always a ton of copies for sale cheap on ebay. It isn't the prettiest, but it was an early game. The controls are spot on though and it is a fair game. There are no controller throwing moments. It will let you continue, but if you get a game over in stages 11 or 12 it kicks you back to 10. The end boss goes through 3 different forms, which was a rare thing back in 1986.

It requires making maps to finish it properly, but Deadly Towers, as I mentioned here.

Yeah Zanac would be my choice as well. The thing that makes that game especially difficult is the fact that the AI will adapt to you on the fly. This means the game actually gets harder as you get better at it making it impossible to get patterns down.

Everyone saying Ninja Gaiden is the hardest haven't played enough NES games.

[Dylan]

If you want an actually good game, I'll echo Ninja Gaiden. Also stated, pretty much any shooter you pick up will be brutal, try Gradius or Abadox.

And there's always Bayou Billy.

EDIT: Oh, non-cheap. Guess that means no Billy.

[RadarScope1]

It's not the hardest, but it's in the top tier: Master Blaster. Not necessarily that hard at first but finishing it is tough.

If you want something different, check out Solar Jetman. It has some odd physics-based controls as you piloting a little space pod.

Try stacking some games. Go for Mega Man 1-6 all in a row.

[BAD PIXEL]

Agreed - Battletoads or Ninja Gaiden 3 are tough, great games. Battletoads is one of my favorites because it really has a good variety of game play. If you want to make it less of a "cheap" game, go for the Battletoads and Double Dragon team-up game, it's rarer and usually costs significantly more than just plain ol' Battletoads on eBay.

And hell yeah for Metal Storm... It's awesome.