They destroyed many a pad and keyboard. Here are the hardest games ever [TOPtech]

Contra (1987)

We start with a production that enjoyed enormous popularity in the “Pegasus Era”. Contra, because we are talking about it, seems to be a fairly simple game. Just another platformer in which we play the role of a commando and shoot everything that moves.

The problem is that while getting to know the mechanics of the game is not difficult here, with each new level, both the number and strength of enemies increases. And there are also powerful bosses and deadly traps.

Cuphead (2017)

Cuphead is another game that can deceive us with appearances. We are dealing here with a wonderfully animated platformer that takes us to a fairy-tale world inhabited, among others, by by the title Cuphead and his brother Mugman.

A fun game for the little ones? Nothing could be more wrong. Cuphead is a cruelly difficult game that does not forgive even the smallest mistakes, and at times requires even angelic patience from the player.

Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines (1998)

If there is a game that I really wanted to play as a child, and which overwhelmed me with its level of difficulty, it is the first installment of Commandos.

Set in the realities of World War II, the strategy requires precise planning of each movement of our heroes, and at the same time gives us great freedom in approaching individual missions. A freedom that many players were not prepared for.

In Commandos, no one is guiding us by the hand. There are also no indicators and checkpoints known from modern games. Even one small mistake can make the entire mission fail.

Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels (1986)

Super Mario Bros. is not a game that we associate with a very high level of difficulty, although it must be honestly admitted that in the last stages of the adventure of a nice plumber, they were not the simplest ones.

The Lost Levels, however, takes the adjective “difficult” to a completely different level. It looks a bit as if Nintendo wanted to test the patience and devotion of Mario fans.

Interestingly, the game, which was released in Japan as Super Mario Bros. 2, did not initially released in the US and Europe. Its authors considered that the it will be too demanding for the Western player, which in itself tells us a lot about this title.

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice (2019)

This ranking could consist only of From Software games, and probably no one would have raised any major objections to it then. The Japanese have got us used to the exceptionally high level of difficulty in their productions.

If, however, I were to choose the most difficult soulslike game, my choice would not be the first part of Dark Souls or the latest Elden Ring, but Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.

Reason? While in all of these games we will face very difficult opponents, only Sekiro requires us to be almost absolutely perfect with every clash and every blow.

The samurai story, along with the next hours spent with it, seems to be an increasingly difficult game and less forgiving mistakes, and even at the beginning it does not forgive them too often. We also do not have a sense of the growing strength of our character, known from many other Souslike titles.