Photo: gbrundin (Getty Images)
Kids today have it easy for the most part. Almost every video game that’s come out over the last decade or so has come with infinite lives, checkpoints, continues, or more. Today it’s “Have you beaten this game yet?” when it used to be “How far have you gotten?”
He’s heating up: ‘NBA Jam’ Remains Basketball’s Most Outrageous Video Game
Back in the ’80s and ’90s when you fired up the NES or SNES, “Game Over” meant game over. No matter how long you played, how far you got, once you were out of lives, that was it. Spent all morning and afternoon on Super Mario Bros 3 to get all the way to world eight? Better have plenty of lives, because if you run out, your day was all for nothing.
For those who grew up in that era, it would sometimes lead to a controller being thrown at something, usually a wall, inevitably breaking it. Cue tears. Parents would come to check on things and you would try to explain, except instead of sympathy you hear the dreaded words “it’s just a game.” Below is a list of games that caused this spontaneous and destructive rage. Are there any games you would add to this list?
A new polish of HD: Mandatory’s 9 Favorite ’90s Video Games We’d Like to See Remade
Follow Mandatory on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Hardest Nintedo Games
-
'Batman Forever' - SNES
This game was absurd, and hard, and just weird. The graphics were outstanding, but the controls and gameplay were broke AF.
-
'Battletoads' - NES
Go to hell, Battletoads. You're not even worth the words.
-
'Blaster Master' - NES
This was just added to the Nintendo Switch classic library. Go ahead and try.
-
'Back to the Future' - NES
This game has almost nothing to do with the movies. The only games harder than this were the Back to the Future 2 and 3 follow-up games.
-
'Ghosts n' Goblins' - NES
If you can beat this game with no Game Genie or codes or voodoo, then you are a gaming master.
-
'Jurassic Park' - SNES
What even was this? The Sega version of the game you got to play as a velociraptor. Over on SNES, you got this weird version of the game that never ended.
-
'Mega Man' - NES
All Mega Man games on the NES are classics. And classically hard.
-
'Punch Out!' - NES
The first round of guys, no problem. Later on, leading up to the epic showdown, good luck against Soda Popinski.
-
'Rygar' - NES
Just getting to the next stage of the game was an accomplishment.
-
'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' - NES
The water level. We're just gonna leave it at that.
-
'Top Gun' - NES
This game was so hard and stupid it was literally unplayable.
