If I remember correctly, “Win the Grand Prix”, Mission 7, was another one I had a hard time with in GX–you more or less HAD to kill Black Shadow (And ideally Blood Falcon) right away, or you had no hope of ever catching up with them. I think Mission 8 was another toughie, because again, CRUSH ALL COMPETITION didn’t work–Deathborn actually RETURNED TO THE TRACK if you somehow managed to knock him off, at least on VH.

And you’re absolutely correct in regards to my gaming style; I very much tend to go the brute force route wherever possible, even in ostensible “Strategy” games like StarCraft–wait, you mean “Mass Carriers = Instant Win” is just a joke?! Oh…

The Rad Racer games are very unforgiving and despite having a built in continue code listed in the manuals, I have trouble with them both. They are rarely mentioned in NES challenges but try getting past level 6 in Rad Racer and tell me what you think.

I’ve always thought Ninja Gaiden wasn’t very hard outside of the memorization AND execution of stage 6-2 and keeping the spin attack throughout stage 6-3. I DO admit, it took some practice on the Emulator to master all forms of Jacquio without using special weapons but it is very possible to figure it out. It’s funny, three of NES’s hardest games: Castlevania, Punch Out and Ninja Gaiden are all titles I can play through in a single session and I do just that once in a while.

“Hardest” is a tricky term when it comes to NES games. Some are “hard” because of awful play control, stupid level design or just bad gameplay (Athena anyone?) Heck, Super Mario Bros. is pretty hard but rarely gets mentioned because it’s a good game. I think Ghosts N Goblins is sort of both–cheap enough to warrant anger yet a skilled player can master the controls and make it look easy.

F-Zero GX was a bear– I had trouble on “Save Jody” in particular, yet passed VH Mission 1 the first time I tried. Go figure. I also think the gold medals in Rogue Leader are pretty damn hard, espcially the Battle for Endor gold (ugh). In that vein, the missions in Tie Fighter on the PC are pretty rough too.

I noticed a trend in your gaming style IE Civlization, F Zero– when given a choice between RAW POWER and strategery, looks like might makes right!

(Plus, it worse comes to worst, Kareshi has a Game Genie which we can use for the purpose of restarting at the beginning of whatever level I encounter any crippling bugs on should it happen. That’s all I’d use it for, however.)

As far as the list goes, I’ve played most of those games (Exceptions: Top Gun 2, Rad Racer 2, and I think I have SLIGHT experience with Digger T. Rock from when you brought it over my house one time), and of the ones I know, I’d swap out Ninja Gaiden III for Life Force. Honestly, from a skill perspective, I think the original Ninja Gaiden was the hardest of the three; III was just outrageously cheap and excessive with its penalties for failure (RANDOM FUN FACT: Did you know the Japanese version of NGIII had passwords?). I beat Ninja Gaiden III in five days from when I got it, compared to the ten YEARS it took me to take down the original. Granted, I was about 6 or 7 when I got the original NG and maybe 17 when I first got III, but still.

RE: G’N'G: The main concession I’ll give to it being easier than Battletoads is that it has unlimited continues, meaning even a total beginner can theoretically beat the game in an “Infinite Number of Monkeys” way, given enough time and determination (And yes, I realize this hurts my argument for including the original Ninja Gaiden on a Hardest Games list versus the third installment). Regardless, I feel that overall, it’s more random than Battletoads is, as well as being much less balanced in a learning curve type of way–haven’t you said that Level 2 is actually the hardest level except for Level 6?–which also makes it harder.

As far as F-Zero GX goes, maybe I played it much more obsessively than most people, but I didn’t think a lot of the VH missions were super hard like a lot of people seemed to–the last one I completed was actually Mission 1, probably because CRUSHING ALL COMPETITION was not in any way a useful skill in that mission. Everything else seemed to be made easier if you incorporated my style of trying to execute a Police Code 188 in with your “use skill and finesse to win” style–hence why you found the Dark Schneider useless, whereas I won two Master Class cups with the thing (Acceleration? Handling? Bah, overrated! Destruction capability? THAT’S where it’s at!).

So in short, I agree that, while Battletoads isn’t an easy game, it’s also not completely impossible beginning with Level 3 like a lot of people want you to think it is. Well, unless you get to Level 11 with two players, but that’s another rant entirely.

-EE

Once you have the skills down, it’s a matter of staying sharp. NOW– acquiring those skills is a worthy task, so it’s still an awesome endeavor to link all the levels together.

Here’s 10 Games I consider harder than Battletoads in no order:

1. TMNT
2. Rad Racer
3. Gradius
4. Double Dragon
5. Top Gun
6. Rad Racer 2
7. Ninja Gaiden 3
8. Top Gun II
9. Stinger
10. Digger T. Rock

Noticed I omitted Ghosts N Goblins. GNG is another memory pattern game that can be dialed in (I’ve beaten it without continuing) ala Battletoads. I think games with random enemies and shooters are much tougher (I consider my two greatest gaming accomplishments beating all the VH’s in Story mode in F-Zero GX and unlocking the Selene ship in Einhander–hardest difficulty setting, less than two continues). Blazing Lazers is another tough one–shooters like Ikaruga though, aren’t as fun since they purposely overwhelm you but offer unlimited gameplay to master the stages. I much prefer a balanced game like Einhander.

All that said, Battletoads is certainly not at easy game. But because the play control is good, the skill of the player and not cheap shots determine the outcome.

Good luck!