In the last debate, we discussed which Pokémon species and game was our favorite. With hundreds of critters and a dozen different games to choose from, it was probably the most varied range of votes I've ever seen in a debate before. While the winner was pretty clear, there was a ten way tie for both fourth and fifth place, and over sixty different pokémon with votes cast for them. Below are the top results from each category:
- Favorite Pokémon species:
- 1st: Squirtle (16 votes) -- Winner!
- 2nd: Charizard (11 votes)
- 3rd: (Tie) Alakazam & Scyther & Mudkip (8 votes)
- Favorite Pokémon Game:
- 1st: Pokémon Gold (20 votes) -- Winner!
- 2nd: Pokémon Blue (19 votes)
- 3rd: Pokémon Red (18 votes)
- 4th: Pokémon Silver (11 votes)
As you can see above, even though Pokémon Gold received the most votes, the Red/Blue release pair was obviously the winning team of games. For this week, we're going to share similar nightmare stories with each other from possibly every console and genre from the past few decades. I want to hear what's the hardest game you've ever played. Was it a game with insanely difficult enemies and bosses? Or a game with terrible controls that made it practically unplayable? Perhaps the game was so awful that you could never even figure out what to do? Or maybe you had the balls to play an untranslated foreign import game and failed miserably?
What's the hardest game you've ever played, and why? Give it some serious thought, cast your votes and reasons, get some friends to share their opinions as well, and check back next week for the winner.
Bonus Question: What is the easiest game you've ever played? Why?
05/06/2008 22:10
Easiest: You Have To Burn The Rope
05/06/2008 22:11
I would have to say God Hand. Without a doubt. This is of course in the modern era. Old school would have to be Battletoads or Ghosts n Goblins.
05/06/2008 22:12
Easiest game? You Have to Burn the Rope, lol.
05/06/2008 22:14
Easiest...probably Super Mario Land III: Warioland. Bought it eagerly, expecting something as good as Super Mario Land II, and got some boring, mind-numbingly repetitive piece of shit obviously made as easy as possible for children who want a game they can beat in a matter hours without actually dying.
05/06/2008 22:15
05/06/2008 22:15
Easiest: Minesweeper.
05/06/2008 22:15
Hahahaha. `You have to Burn the Rope` is awesome!
05/06/2008 22:23
05/06/2008 22:23
05/06/2008 22:25
Easiest... Echochrome. Wow? Too easy!
05/06/2008 22:26
Easiest - Super Paper Mario
05/06/2008 22:27
05/06/2008 22:28
If we be goin' by American only: Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts (2 Loop completion w/bracelet)
Easiest: Super Mario Galaxy
05/06/2008 22:30
05/06/2008 22:30
Easiest: Any MarioKart on 50cc
05/06/2008 22:30
Easiest: Passage
05/06/2008 22:31
Bonus Question:
Hmmm hard to choose since all the games these days are friggin six hours long :( I wanna say the original Mario game since it's so easy after the thousands of times I've played it, but that's not fair since it was definitely difficult the first many times I played it. Hmmmmm. Fuck. I don't know what the easiest one is. Maybe reading everyone else's comments will trigger something.
05/06/2008 22:33
05/06/2008 22:34
Easiest - Duck Tales 2? or You Have To Burn The Rope.
05/06/2008 22:36
05/06/2008 22:37
05/06/2008 22:41
05/06/2008 22:41
05/06/2008 22:41
There is something about a series of holes that FUCKING MURDER ME....
I die.... and use much profanity
05/06/2008 22:44
05/06/2008 22:46
05/06/2008 22:48
Easiest game for me is Kirbys dreamland on the GameBoy. I can beat that game in less than an hour.
05/06/2008 22:50
05/06/2008 22:50
Easiest? Probably Halo: Combat Evolved, a buddy of mine and I co-oped Legendary Campaign while blizted out our skulls.
05/06/2008 22:54
Easiest... Whatever... Too many games that barely qualify as games to mention really.
05/06/2008 22:55
You know, I had that game catridge like for 5 years in my childhood and I could NEVER beat it. I almost did though, I got to the spaceship of the final boss...
05/06/2008 22:56
The hardest game in the history of mankind is I Wanna Be The Guy. If you haven't played it, Google it, download it, and prepare to die countless frustrating deaths.
05/06/2008 22:57
easy is Burn the rope FTW
05/06/2008 22:58
05/06/2008 23:03
Hardest modern game: Battletoads.
Easiest: All the Zelda series :(
05/06/2008 23:04
05/06/2008 23:05
hmm...
maybe the ps2 shinobi... I still haven't beaten it...
mm.. ninja gaiden sigma was decently tough...
gradius 3 was pretty tough, as was wartech...
no... the mother of hard... culdcept saga. you can play for hours on a single match, and winning most of the time, to lose the entire game just a turn or two before you wouldve been able to end the match victoriously.
because you got unlucky. that game can get so hard... augh.
easiest?
any minigame compilation where you can't actually lose.
I haven't played I wanna be the guy, but since I've seen people beat it, and with enough repetition it can be done. culdcept requires both sheer insanely geeky skill, and intense amounts of luck, and the ability to withstand mostly terrible music... why do I still like that game?
05/06/2008 23:06
05/06/2008 23:08
Take that.
05/06/2008 23:08
Easiest: Yoshi Story for the N64
05/06/2008 23:23
;)
05/06/2008 23:28
Contra 4 is incredibly difficult at first, but I can find myself not losing a life on the first level on Normal. But the latter levels are WHOA tough.
Double Dragon III is frustratingly hard because you only have one life/continue and enemies dish out way too much damage and are wicked hard. You know a game's too difficult when you can only make it to the second screen and then get a Game Over!
Shinobi is frustrating due to cheap deaths via pitfalls, difficult enemies, and the fact that your life bar decreases unless you kill enemies, not to mention that THERE'S NO EFFING CHECKPOINTS.
Easiest: Yoshi's Story. Sure, some areas are a little tricky, but it's soooo easy to get 30 fruits in a level. And Baby Bowser was a joke.
05/06/2008 23:28
05/06/2008 23:32
05/06/2008 23:34
05/06/2008 23:40
Easiest--Yoshi's Story, jump a few times, enjoy the kinda neat design, and suddenly it's over
05/06/2008 23:48
Hardest for me was playing the first Resident Evil without a memory card, no saving, couldn't die once, couldn't switch it off. That was fucking hard.
I also wanna lump some of the old point and click adventures in there, the old Sierra ones for instance. The ones where you couldn't work out what the fuck to do and even then there were ways of totally boning yourself by not getting something the one chance you had to get it. Liesure Suit Larry 3, I'm looking at you.
Easiest is harder, maybe any Metal Slug with infinite credits.
05/06/2008 23:54
As for the easiest game...not sure, I saw pokemon snap higher up on the list and thought I'd post that one but then I remembered how hard it was get some of those pics.
Anyway...too bad I missed the pokemon one. I love me some pokemon.
05/06/2008 23:56
As for easiest game... hm, I think I'd nominate Okami. There's very little challenge in any aspect of the game. Puzzle solutions are telegraphed (even Zelda: Wind Waker had less obvious puzzles) and combat is a joke.
05/07/2008 00:07
Oh jesus, great call on Wizardry IV! It's one of the few games that actually tried to warn people of it's difficulty on the box of the game.
05/07/2008 00:15
05/07/2008 00:24
Easiest was Super Paper Mario. Loved it nevertheless.
05/07/2008 00:25
Easiest... I'm gonna say Katamari Damacy. I loved it, but I beat every challenge on the first try.
05/07/2008 00:29
05/07/2008 00:32
05/07/2008 00:36
I almost threw my NES out a three story window.
Modern times has got to be Contra IV. I've been going at it pretty steady since early March, and I just recently can get to Level 9, but I'm fucking getting destroyed. Many many many hours put into this very unfair game, but the music and the joy of killing so many aliens keeps pulling me back in.
05/07/2008 00:37
that is all.
05/07/2008 00:38
But I don't know ANYONE that has beaten THE IMMORTAL...
05/07/2008 00:39
05/07/2008 00:40
Easiest game: Yoshi's Story
05/07/2008 00:57
Easiest Game: Mario's Time Machine, You couldn't die! All you had to do was guess the correct answers.
05/07/2008 01:10
Easiest Game: Yoshi Story. But DAMN was that a fun game. I play it to this day.
@BADinc: What did I do??
05/07/2008 01:16
Easiest game ever? Well, if not cheating with life codes...Mega Man 2.
05/07/2008 01:24
i nearly returned that game it was so hard
05/07/2008 01:30
Easiest: Quest For The Crown - Despite the lack of a challenge, I just can't stop playing... <You know our love was meant to be...>
05/07/2008 01:32
Easiest Game: There are probably tons of games I played as a child and forgot about, but I think I'll have to go with Zone of the Enders. Not only was it ridiculously short, but once you figured out how to boost dodge correctly you couldn't be hit by anything. I'm glad they changed both of those problems in ZOE2.
05/07/2008 01:42
The easiest was The Guy Game easy trivia and BOOBIES! :D
05/07/2008 01:49
I can’t think of any particular game that I thought was ridiculously easy, so I’ll just cheat and say a two-player game of something like Madden NFL 2005. I remember my brother and I would rack up scores of, like, 400 points each if we played a game with full 15-minute quarters.
05/07/2008 01:49
Easiest: The Bouncer
05/07/2008 01:53
Easiest: Mystic Quest Legend (SNES).
05/07/2008 02:15
And that's not a good thing.
Someone got thier Nethack in my Breath of Fire and it became poop on a stick.
05/07/2008 02:17
easiest=U R MR GAY
05/07/2008 02:18
Fuck you, Red Arremer. I can't even consistently get through the first level of this game. I managed to beat the second level once. I don't know if I'll ever muster the patience to finish it. All the weapons are shit, the sequels are easier due to better controls and better weapons.
Easiest: Gauntlet II for the NES. I've maxed out my health and score and stats on that game a few times. It's a pity it doesn't have an ending.
05/07/2008 02:18
For my hardest game pick, I'd have to go with God Hand. Going through Hard mode; if there are even slightly more then one enemy on screen, and you make one wrong twitch, you're fucked. I haven't even beaten Hard and I can only imagine how much harder a "Kick ME" Sign clear would be.
A close 2nd would be the first Devil May Cry, fucking No Name enemies...
For easiest, Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. It was painful how non-challenging that game was. The game was all water and no Water Dungeon.
05/07/2008 02:28
Ikari Warriors... impossible without the code, you die like every 30 seconds :P
Contra is up there as well
05/07/2008 02:52
Bonus: probably super mario land on the original gameboy
05/07/2008 03:02
05/07/2008 04:08
@ Qalamari -- sweet, thanks for the reminder. That's definitely going to be my vote for easiest game of all time. I loved Katamari Damacy, but dammmmn is it easy and over fast.
05/07/2008 04:32
Oh and easiest game (and also biggest let down) was Yoshi's Story on the N64. I thought I had completed the first chapter but, no, that was the whole game...bastards - no excuses Nintendo - that was just such a rushed game.
05/07/2008 04:37
05/07/2008 04:45
05/07/2008 05:03
Hardest Game to play period Sonic Next Gen (Seriously the game is that bad I, a sonic fan, just couldnt play it all the way through).
Easiest Game I remember, Sonic 1. Finished without dieing.
05/07/2008 05:13
05/07/2008 05:25
05/07/2008 05:28
Easiest game? Audiosurf on Ninja Mono, Ironmode. I expected it to be impossible to someone who had just got the game, especially with songs like Fat Boy Slim's Ya Mama (try it, it's awesome) and various fast paced drum and bass. Lo and behold I survive every time and sometimes even place in the worlds top 10.
05/07/2008 05:40
Easiest: Barney's Hide & Go Seek for the Genesis.
05/07/2008 05:45
Shadow of the Beast for the Sega Genesis, hands down.
05/07/2008 06:21
Easiest: Bully (Canis Canem Edit). Brilliant fun, but stupid easy.
Honourary mention to all Devil May Cry games for Dane Must Die mode.
05/07/2008 06:30
Also, Zaxxon on Intellivision.
Fahrenheit was easy.
05/07/2008 06:36
05/07/2008 06:52
05/07/2008 06:56
For both easiest and hardest.
05/07/2008 07:01
05/07/2008 07:17
05/07/2008 07:29
05/07/2008 07:30
I see a lot of people listing "hardest" games that I beat many times on NES (Contra w/o codes, Ghosts and Goblins, TMNT, etc) and it makes me feel like "the wizard" from that old crappy 80's movie. Except, you know, without the mental retardation.
05/07/2008 07:37
05/07/2008 07:42
Dragons lair was so damn annoying! Just to get onto the draw bridge and not be killed bythat one bat was an achievment
@Fronz
Why? Why mention the electric coral? I had erased that from my memory for so long and you just throw it back ion my face!
I may have to dig these games out and put my demons to rest.
Hardest: I wanna be the guy, but thats hard becuase its non-sensical mainly. My vote would be for dragons lair.
Easiest? Well if you think about it most final fantasy games are easy, just really really long but im going for Parappa the rapper 2, easy but fun :)
05/07/2008 07:47
here you are the beacon for Galactus the eater of worlds, but you can't touch the ocean floor.
that whole game was a cluster-fuck.
now easiest? I dunno, i'll go with super mario world for the snes it was more time consuming than difficult.
05/07/2008 07:49
Honorable mention goes to trying to beat Metal Slug without dying. That game makes me want to tear my hair out, but it's still really fun.
The easiest for me is Mega Man 2, but only because I've played it so many times through the years that I know where all the enemies, traps, and powerups are located. It's pretty sad, actually.
05/07/2008 07:53
05/07/2008 07:58
Easiest is Pokémon Channel I guess.
05/07/2008 08:02
05/07/2008 08:08
I'll go with Ninja Gaiden only because its the only game I have that I get mad at when I see it.
05/07/2008 08:11
05/07/2008 08:26
Easiest: Ranger X for genesis. Awesome game just always remember how easy it was.
05/07/2008 08:50
05/07/2008 09:09
Easiest is actual probably harder to think of because I don't usually like the games that I can beat with little effort. Katamari, Mario Land, and any Kirby game.
05/07/2008 09:10
The easiest game I've ever played would have to be Resident Evil 4. It was easy in the fact that I've beat it multiple times on both Normal and Professional without the game ever getting old. It's easy because the replay value of the game is so high that no matter how much I die I just want to keep playing. Therefore the game is incredibly simple to get through just because I get so addicted to it every time I play. It's downright amazing.
05/07/2008 09:30
05/07/2008 09:38
Easiest: Yoshi's Story
05/07/2008 09:49