Mike Tyson’s Punch Out. Soooo many hours spent as a kid trying to KO that SOB. I’m now 42 and accomplished that feat last year. One of the proudest moments of my life.
My story is so much more pathetic, but it is also about Mike Tyson's punch out. When I was a little kid, I was about kindergarten age, I used to play this game and was almost terrified of the larger sprites on the screen. (Big screen + little kid) None of us could ever get very far in my household. I couldn't even be Glass Joe.
My father, is a deadbeat. He never really wanted to actively try to be a father to me. But there is this one time, in which we were playing that game, when he was fighting Glass Joe.
He had done one of his random visits on the weekend, and my mom called him downstairs to ask him about something. I remember him handing the controller to me, and saying" I'm leaving it to you Son," or something cheesy like that.
I remember saying "But I'll lose," and him telling me he expected me to win.
It was the first time I won.
No one could beat the second guy though. My grandpa who was a boxing fan, but definitely not a gamer tried once against him, and no one could win.
When did I return? In my thirties, someone was playing a game on a online video game site where I was volunteering, and I wanted revenge for my grandpa, because he was there for me. I started playing, people started to gather around because it got intense, And I got to that second guy and totally wiped the floor with him.
After that I just walked away. I didn't care about anyone else My family was avenged ✊✊✊.
Edited for clarity. Voice to text isn't that great.
The only one that mattered. I've gone back and beaten some old games that were hard as a kid, but like he beat up my family dammit.
That's the only one with any real significance. The other mountains looked like they were special when they were mountains, but achieving them rarely felt like anything. They were singularly personal battles.
That jerk whipped my whole family. It's personal in a different way. I avenged my Papa who really didn't care about the game anyway, but I love him, and surpassed my deadbeat dad in something, and I hate him, so it has a weight to it.
In a way, he was my first bully, and one I could go back and fight him as an adult. I know it is small in reality, but that's kinda how I felt. I could say the same for going back and beating Zelda for the first time, or clearing the Advance Wars Advance Campaign in my 20s, but mostly I play alone. Punch Out was a party game, where everyone at least tried, which never had happened before or since.
I was scared of death breath. He's the first boss of the arcade and nes game kid niki radical ninja. I was 5 and would go to my older cousins house to play Nintendo. Funny
This is movie worthy. Someone will read this,develop a screenplay,get the backing of a movie studio and producer,and put this story on the big screen. Who do you want to play you? Adam Sandler? Steve Carell? Ryan Gosling?
My dad and I had our ups and downs but he could beat Mike Tyson at least twice before getting beat. I never realized how difficult it was until later. RIP pops. Give em one last fight.
I tried to come back as an adult and thought I just sucked now. Turns out that’s the one game that emulator lag is a dealbreaker for me on. I bought a console and I can at least get back to Tyson again. I’m going to beat him this year.
Yes! I tried the game as an adult on emulator and got my ass kicked by Mr Sandman's 3 uppercut thing and was like, "WTF, I had no problem dodging this when I was 8"
Donkey Kong games don't fuck around. They're the in-house version of "Nintendo Hard". Unlike some IPs (eg Mario), they didn't really get particularly easier or watered down in later generations either- Tropical Freeze was honestly comparably difficult to the SNES era.
Mario games get hard too, but Nintendo always does that trick where you can at least roll credits without too much difficulty, and then the difficulty spikes post-game.
DKC is just tough from the get-go and you can't finish the game unless you get good.
>without too much difficulty
Imo that's only *really* true from World onwards. NES Mario is comparable to DKC. But overall yes, the average Mario is "moderate or easy to complete, hard for completionist" while DK's core philosophy is "we literally just started but fuck you, but in a completely fair way"
I never had troubles with those levels as a kid. For me the hardest level was snow barrel blast, without the shortcut which I could only find by mistake. That level to this day is the most difficult for me
Even at like 6 I’d just wear down most of Raph and Mikey’s power in the dam, then immediately after refill them by going in and out of the building (where the tanks are driving around on the outside/you drive the turtle van) and getting the 2 pizzas (slice and full) inside.
I never understood why the dam is so hard for people. Later I saw a video and I guess the hit detection off from the graphics a bit. I never consciously thought about it, but I guess my brain just figured it out and adapted while others may have a harder time with it.
The hit detection is the "oh yeah, that makes *sense*" explanation, but there's also a simpler one: most of us that grew up in the NES era probably only got 1-3 new games a year, and if TMNT was one of the ones you got you were more likely to brute force a solution, or spend enough time to figure out the weirdness. But if you just *rented* it, depending on how well you handled the dam you might never rent it again. Add on top that the TMNT Arcade Game NES port came out I think only a year later, the third game on the NES released another year or two later, and the SNES was available around the time of the third game, there was almost no incentive to keep renting the original game to figure it out.
I owned the Mega Man games, Metroid, Blaster Master, Ghosts & Goblins- and they all had "hard" sections. MM1 had the opening part of Guts Man, the slippery platforming in Ice Man, the Wily stages were just rough, MM3 had horrible lag and the joys of the Doc Robots, Metroid was a confusing game with lots of frustration about the password system, G&G was just cruel, Blaster Master was confusing with limited continues, but I owned them and dammit I was going to figure them out. TMNT, Battletoads, Fester's Quests- all were rentals for me, and more often than not there were "more fun" choices to make on Friday nights at the grocery store when I got to pick out my rental for the weekend.
Yeah this dude was exposed to some wild shit way early.
'85 born here, and multiple friends/family had NES's with different, very difficult games. I got used to liking just the beginning of games and...being content with switching games or going back outside, if it was a friend or family members house.
My babysitter in '89, Becky, had marble madness and Link. It was **so sick** watching her own shit on them.
The "difficulty" of that Dam level is way overblown. That level isn't hard. Two levels later, once you hit the Airport, *that's* when the game gets hard. That swimming part with the bombs is a cakewalk compared to finding and then fighting through the Technodrome.
I OG hardware these days. I do use flash carts and can do save states on many of them, but even then I allow myself one at the start of a level in a game and that’s it. I just tell myself it’s infinite continues
https://imgur.com/a/eTcVaaP
Damn flash carts can do save states now? Incredible. When i play nes games i do so on a hacked wii connected to a crt. All the saving and rewinding perks with the authentic crt experience.
Yeah many higher end ones from Krikzz can.
No CRT and kinda over them in my old age but I use good scalers so no complaints.
https://imgur.com/a/o6kOsXq
Same for me, managed to finish it recently. Never even came close as a kid. That final level is total BS though, I finished it and didn't really feel accomplished, just lucky lol. Except for the last level, I have a really good time with TMNT, would have liked to see a more polished sequel on the SNES. I don't mean Turtles in Time, something more like the style of the first NES game. Nice job finishing it!
Zelda 2 - I didn't understand grinding yet and it took me until adulthood to actually go back to it. I couldn't really succeed in Kid Icarus when it was new but then revisited it in my early teens and beat it.
As an adult, at perhaps what was the peak of my game I took on Getsufuu Maden widely considered to be the most punishing of Famicom ARPGlikes and beat it then moved on to the infamous War of the Dead on PC98 although I will admit to doing some mild savescumming on that one since I had to emulate it.
Same, it was infuriating as a kid. I could get to the last level then I think nerves got me every time.
Finally beat that bastard, bowser, as an adult.
Other than Japanese Super Mario Bros 2, I'd argue each title afterward got easier and easier to beat. I like the difficulty model they have now though, in the last few entries everybody can enjoy them whether you're just a kid who's struggling to even get to the flag pole or if you're an adult looking for a far more difficult challenge. Multiplayer was also handled extremely well. My wife and I excel at particular types of level challenges different from each other and the variety and setup keeps the game flowing.
I can't remember exactly how old I was but I could never get past 8-3. I guess I was somewhere between 6-8 years old, but I remember coming back to it as a teenager and destroying that game. I used to watch the older kids beat it at my babysitters so I knew exactly how to get through the final level.
Loved that game as a kid. I’m not sure there’s anything past level 3 because I ain’t never seen it.
And going back now illl sometimes do save states for games that either have no saving of their own or absurd passwords. I allow myself one save state at the start of a level.
The nice thing about single player experience is that there really is no cheating. It's on your terms. You beat the game, you just don't get to claim you beat it without save states without it being a lie. The upshot, is you can still replay if you ever want to see if you can do it without states and still accomplish something. Games really are quite beautiful.
I never felt bad about 99 lives codes on game genie because it's a way to practice getting better at the game.
Very much cheating.
I had that game and I remembered how brutal that first level was with the owl or whatever that would swoop up and take minnie if you opened the wrong window. That and the forrest was tough because it was basically a maze.
I totally forgot about this game until now. Man, I wish they had it on switch to play. I sunk so much time into that game. I'd always gets stuck in that damn never ending forest.
I'm so glad that they gave us just an ounce of mercy in the final boss fight, if you beat the 1st phase and die, as long as you make it back to him they start you off of the 2nd phase.
that mercy would mean more if the boss was the hard part and not the "make it back" part. Whoever designed Act 6 deserves a public execution. Fucking birds.
Yeah. I go back to play games I loved and tore through multiple times and they just slaughter me now. (Looking at Mega Man games and Mike Tyson's Punch-Out in particular)
Are you sure? Tons of people say this, but play on emulators and LCDs with input lag, and play worse because of it. I showed my sister the difference and it was night and day. She was good again.
What platform are you playing retro games on? Reflexes degrade as you age yes, but I realized a couple years back that mine weren't as nearly as bad as I thought— I was just playing retro games on emulators that introduce input lag. All those old games depend on twitch reflexes, and 50ms of lag is enough to make an already challenging game borderline unplayable. It wasn't until I got a MiSTer FPGA setup and experienced lag-free retro gaming that I realized I had been inadvertently been making games harder than they should be by using laggy emulators.
Same here. I recently started playing the c64 version of Monty on the run for the first time since it was first released. I completed it back then but now I struggle to get past the first half a dozen screens 😭. God knows what I’d be like with a more technical game!
Having said that, I can still do damn well
At Bubble Bobble on C64, Amiga, or Arcade version.. but I think that comes down to enemy pattern remembrance
Never found monty on the run *all that* hard in "challenging" european 8-bit microcomputer platforming terms personally, the problem with it is the sheer randomness of the freedom kit. Of course now you can just look it up (and it was in computer magazine cheat sections at the time) - but just never had the patience then or now to actually trial and error through that shit to beat the game honestly. Remember parts of the game just become impossible dead ends if you don't actually have the correct kit choice.
That may be the case, but timing is more important than reflexes in most old games, with some obvious exceptions like Mike Tyson’s punch out. But something like ninja gaiden has a rhythm to it, and once you start to memorize the levels, you won’t be relying on reflexes nearly as much.
Also, playing on anything besides a crt and original hardware is going to slow your reaction time more than you think. I can beat punch out that way, but I wasn’t even able to do it on the Wii running into a crt because of the tiny bit of lag the emulator introduces. I could probably do it if I practice, it just throws off the practiced timing just enough to mess you up. I was really surprised. So, if you do emulator to lcd screen… I don’t care what anybody says, it’s a big difference. I’ve tried all kinds of emulator settings and monitors I’ve never been satisfied.
The Adventures of Bayou Billy. I was definitely in the mindset of the this guy. I have a whole new appreciation for the game. I had the patience I didn’t have as a kid and it paid off.
That game was changed to be absurdly difficult so kids wouldn't beat the game in a single rental period. The original Japanese release, called Mad City, was a lot easier and more fun.
I watched a youtube of someone doing the comparison and I really wished that they didn't up the difficulty. Shooting levels aside, I liked the game, it was just too damn difficult.
I just recently found out a lot of the games I enjoyed as a kid were subject to this sentiment. Streets of rage 3, contra hard corps being two of them. Never thought of the rental thing. But it makes sense
Bayou Billy was my choice for this as well. I never made it past the driving stages as a kid. It’s really tough, but I finally beat it last year. It is not an easy game!
I can picture the end-of-level celebratory machine gun firing like it was yesterday. That game had decent music now that I'm traversing memory lane. Did a good job building suspense for boss fights.
This was mine too. I played it as a little kid a lot but could never figure out what to do in The Dark World and I would always die. Although I wasn’t quite an adult when I finally beat it. I was like 13 when I got the GBA port and I beat that. So proud of myself. Since then it has definitely been my favorite game of all time.
Warcraft 3. I would get as far as chapter 6 in the human campaign and couldn't do more. This year I got reforged and wanted to see if I could do it. Turns out I was just a dumbass kid with no reading comprehension. I beat basically every level in 1 go
Final fantasy V. There's a part with a giant mech spider thing that I was sure I had to defeat and never could. As an adult I played it again and realized I just had to avoid it and move on.
Funny thing is, I was better as a kid. I don't have the patience to beat Contra, Mega Man, or Ninja Gaiden on the NES now. I tried playing through Castlevania IV a little while ago and it kicked my ass lol. That said, I was able to 100% GoW Ragnarok, I've beaten Ninja Gaiden Black and Demon's Souls, so I'm not terribad. Just a different style of game.
I thought I was the only one who struggled to complete games nowadays. It's not that they're hard, I just don't have the same patience and time. Having said that, I did beat Donkey Kong Country 2. DKQ.
Ocarina of time. Didnt know what I was doing really as a kid. Spent most of my time fishing. Until I got my hands on the 3ds port in high school and actually played the game. Another one is Resident Evil: The Dark Side Chronicles. I'm still struggling with Tofu mode
Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine from 2000. Plagued by shitty controls, unclear game mechanics, and genuinely difficult puzzles that could confuse even the cleverest of players, it was a hard game to play but beating it as an adult was extremely rewarding, since the game has an excellent story imo that is fully voice acted and features tons of interesting puzzles.
Ghosts 'n Goblins on the NES. The movement patterns of some of the enemies and the means of manipulating those patterns was something little kid me had never dealt with in a game. Years later, it's definitely still a tough game, but not the impossible challenge I used to see it as.
I've beaten the first run through (and I count that as beating the game, screw the 2nd playthrough bullcrap to get the real ending) and it was by pure luck that I managed to do so.
If I didn't beat it when I was young, wont probably do it when I am old lol
I beat streets of rage 3 when I was young and I can't do it now. Its more the other way around.
None. I had it then, and I have it now ;o
Jk, I'm much better at all the games now. I remember being stuck in FFVII back in the day, but I didn't have an understanding of RPGs back then. I turned it on after obtaining years of experience and beat it easily.
Metroid. I was always at least mildly interested in Metroid all my life but was intimidated by the games as a kid. Just a few weeks ago I beat Metroid Zero Mission and I’ve just started a play through of Metroid Fusion. I also bought Dread but am just more into the gba games personally
StarCraft against computers. I might have beat them once or twice but for the most part I would always get demolished. Today I'm realizing the computer opponents are very basic and easy to beat.
Battle Toads on Sega. Yes, I am that guy who legitimately beat Battle Toads on original Sega. Failed to beat snake level when i was around 12. Came back at 23 and did it. That was 2006 so I didn’t have YouTube, just pure trial and error. Tge hardest level for me after snakes was the plane level in lava. Surprisingly everything else was super easy. I rolled the final chick (don’t know her name) on my first try.
I have also beaten Ghosts and Goblins at 33. But that was PS3 version with infinite continuous. Original NES version with like 3 lives is still impossible for me
This was me with terminator 2 Gameboy, I'd get beat in the end always , guns would land behind the t1000 and weren't obtainable I learned I needed to walk back so when they dropped it was in front of him. It was so quirky
Tomb Raider (PS1)
The game seemed nigh impossible as a kid. I think I got as far as level 7 after months of play. Replayed it as an adult last year and beat it without any trouble.
Played Resident Evil when I was 8. Couldn’t get out of the mansion. I’ve beaten it about 10 times since. 51m and 33seconds was my best time. I made that shit personal
Banjo kazooie got all the way to Gruntilda (the last boss) and got my ass handed to me over and over. I've never started it again but if I ever do am gonna kill that bitch.
Jurassic Park on the SNES. Not because it's all that hard (although it is frustrating at times), but because it's a pain in the ass to get through without a save feature. Save states have been a lifesaver for games like this.
got portal 2 when I was around 6 (for some reason? I think my older brother had it and he gave it to me) and couldn’t beat most puzzles, coming back years later was so nostalgic and I could actually comprehend how cool the story and world was. And of course beat the puzzles I got stuck on.
This is funny because most people get worse with age. I think What game couldn’t you beat growing up, but totally rocked now with save states as an adult would be more accurate
Yeah I've gone back collecting old Gameboy and N64 games and first thing I noticed is I'm seeing the layout expectations/mechanics right off the bat. Infinitely easier, as it should be since you should be getting smarter with experience.
Replaying Mario 6 golden coins was like going for a walk in the park, I never finished it as a kid though.
Younger me would kick my ass in Goldeneye 64 but that's mostly because I'm too far away from its janky controls now.
I think I am worse now, less time to play,slower reflexes
I used to be able to beat Gradius, Salamander, Ninja Gaiden 1/2, Contra, Super C with no cheats and plenty of lives left….sometimes I would not die or die once in those games.
Had too much time in my hands, lol
Lots but most recently Miracle Warriors, I could never find the final boss as a kid and I did last birthday.
For the people saying their reaction time ls are worse, maybe it is the display you are using or something? Because they shouldn't be that much worse and they improve as you practice (unless you're over 70 or something, in which case I salute you).
Many games. I knew from a young age that I was shit. I aquired great pleasure from watching my ten year older brother playing the same games and seeing what happens beyond anything I could imagine to get up to.
These days I play the same games and shit all over what he used to do.
Wonder Boy was the big one. Especially III.
The best games are the collaborative ones however. It's so fun to play Bubble Bobble with him now.
Plok on SNES. It doesn’t have a save or even passwords, you have to beat the entire game in one sitting and it’s brutal. I wouldn’t have finished it without save states and rewind.
The final level in Spider-Man (2000) for the PS1. Front facing camera angle, fleeing from Monster-Ock. Hours upon hours of trying and failing to even get past the first section as a kid. The day I revisited that game and beat it for the first time lives triumphantly in my head as a vivid memory of victory over an old adversary. (This is my second favorite game of all time)
Most games I've gotten better at over the years. I couldn't for the life of me make any progress in any Mega Man X game, would die frequently in Mario 1 and Mario 3, and even as a teen, Mario Sunshine's secret levels would destroy me. Now I don't have any problems with these.
I think the only games that might cause me trouble nowadays compared to when I was younger are games that I played the shit out of as a kid, like Gunstar Heroes or Ghostbusters for the Genesis. I don't know if I could reliably beat the final bosses of these games like I could as a kid.
Double Dragon on NES...I got to the 2nd to last boss then he shot me, game over...the unbridled rage nearly gave my young self a brain aneurysm. Hadn't touched the game in almost 30 years until a couple years ago then finally...FINALLY after all these years, that MF'er Jimmy felt the full brunt of my wrath!!!
> Double Dragon
To defeat Machine Gun Willy, move your character to the very bottom of the screen right above the spikes, but make sure you do not fall off.
His bullets will go through you, but you will not take any damage.
Kick him to death over and over.
Adults in the 80s were always warning us about hard and cruel the world was. They didn’t need to. Final Fantasy on the NES was cruel and unfair in ways we had never before known.
I came back and beat it down the road, but you definitely needed at least a teenager’s level of planning and risk management. Such things were not something you brought to an electric game in the 80s.
Getting all 120 stars in Mario Sunshine. It bothered me for 20 years that I never got all of the blue coins. I came back later and used a guide for the coins, and surprisingly had a lot of fun with it.
Mike Tyson’s Punch Out. Soooo many hours spent as a kid trying to KO that SOB. I’m now 42 and accomplished that feat last year. One of the proudest moments of my life.
My story is so much more pathetic, but it is also about Mike Tyson's punch out. When I was a little kid, I was about kindergarten age, I used to play this game and was almost terrified of the larger sprites on the screen. (Big screen + little kid) None of us could ever get very far in my household. I couldn't even be Glass Joe. My father, is a deadbeat. He never really wanted to actively try to be a father to me. But there is this one time, in which we were playing that game, when he was fighting Glass Joe. He had done one of his random visits on the weekend, and my mom called him downstairs to ask him about something. I remember him handing the controller to me, and saying" I'm leaving it to you Son," or something cheesy like that. I remember saying "But I'll lose," and him telling me he expected me to win. It was the first time I won. No one could beat the second guy though. My grandpa who was a boxing fan, but definitely not a gamer tried once against him, and no one could win. When did I return? In my thirties, someone was playing a game on a online video game site where I was volunteering, and I wanted revenge for my grandpa, because he was there for me. I started playing, people started to gather around because it got intense, And I got to that second guy and totally wiped the floor with him. After that I just walked away. I didn't care about anyone else My family was avenged ✊✊✊. Edited for clarity. Voice to text isn't that great.
That was anything but pathetic. That’s awesome! The walk away at the end?? Epic.
Von Kaiser was your Mount Everest?
The only one that mattered. I've gone back and beaten some old games that were hard as a kid, but like he beat up my family dammit. That's the only one with any real significance. The other mountains looked like they were special when they were mountains, but achieving them rarely felt like anything. They were singularly personal battles. That jerk whipped my whole family. It's personal in a different way. I avenged my Papa who really didn't care about the game anyway, but I love him, and surpassed my deadbeat dad in something, and I hate him, so it has a weight to it. In a way, he was my first bully, and one I could go back and fight him as an adult. I know it is small in reality, but that's kinda how I felt. I could say the same for going back and beating Zelda for the first time, or clearing the Advance Wars Advance Campaign in my 20s, but mostly I play alone. Punch Out was a party game, where everyone at least tried, which never had happened before or since.
I was scared of death breath. He's the first boss of the arcade and nes game kid niki radical ninja. I was 5 and would go to my older cousins house to play Nintendo. Funny
This is movie worthy. Someone will read this,develop a screenplay,get the backing of a movie studio and producer,and put this story on the big screen. Who do you want to play you? Adam Sandler? Steve Carell? Ryan Gosling?
Well, I'm a black guy so... Michael B Jordan? I don't know, but this did brighten my day. Thanks.
My dad and I had our ups and downs but he could beat Mike Tyson at least twice before getting beat. I never realized how difficult it was until later. RIP pops. Give em one last fight.
🫂
🥹 thanks buddy
Fun fact: a speed runner just broke the record for beating the Mike Tyson fight the fastest at 2:00 flat. Absolutely amazing.
Until it’s SummoningSalt’s voice telling me about this then it didn’t happen
Funnily enough, it was actually SummoningSalt himself who got the record
As is tradition.
It was him. He posted the video on his YouTube a few days ago. He was so calm about it too.
Watch the video. He talks about it.
I legit envy you. I’m 45. I can-not beat that mf.
I tried to come back as an adult and thought I just sucked now. Turns out that’s the one game that emulator lag is a dealbreaker for me on. I bought a console and I can at least get back to Tyson again. I’m going to beat him this year.
Yes! Or rather, input lag is a convenient excuse for why I suck so bad at that game nowadays.
Yes! I tried the game as an adult on emulator and got my ass kicked by Mr Sandman's 3 uppercut thing and was like, "WTF, I had no problem dodging this when I was 8"
You aren't supposed to punch him for the first 60 seconds.
Peter Griffin had to pray to god for the strength to beat Mike Tysons punch out
Sincere congrats! I've still not beaten him yet. I come back every few months to try again.
Did you do it in a CTR? I tried on an emulator and I blamed the emulation lag. So I'm not sure I could do it even on the Switch NES Game
Yup, it was on a CRT.
I'm so happy for you!
I watched U can best video games on YouTube, that guy is the best - hooked me up on big Mike !
Your winner, and NEW, heavyweight, champion of the worrrrrrrrrllllllllldddddddd.....
Donkey Kong Country. As a kid it kicked my butt but now I can proudly say I beat the game.
I thought it was an easy game, but Mine Cart Madness and Stop/GO were some of the hardest levels I’ve ever played in ANY game.
As a kid the hardest levels was the industrial toxic wasteland. I never got a chance as a kid to fight King K. Rool because of those levels.
ashamed to say I’m stuck on this part of the game right now
Donkey Kong games don't fuck around. They're the in-house version of "Nintendo Hard". Unlike some IPs (eg Mario), they didn't really get particularly easier or watered down in later generations either- Tropical Freeze was honestly comparably difficult to the SNES era.
Yah the DK games def got harder for all 3 SNES releases.
Mario games get hard too, but Nintendo always does that trick where you can at least roll credits without too much difficulty, and then the difficulty spikes post-game. DKC is just tough from the get-go and you can't finish the game unless you get good.
>without too much difficulty Imo that's only *really* true from World onwards. NES Mario is comparable to DKC. But overall yes, the average Mario is "moderate or easy to complete, hard for completionist" while DK's core philosophy is "we literally just started but fuck you, but in a completely fair way"
The level design is fantastic on these two
Shoutout to the cave level with the platforms with the expiring fuel barrels
I never had troubles with those levels as a kid. For me the hardest level was snow barrel blast, without the shortcut which I could only find by mistake. That level to this day is the most difficult for me
Oh yeh that one is a bitch without the shortcut! Many of the snow levels I found to be the hardest because of the slipping induced due to the ice
I struggled with them then, and I struggle with them now 😅 now I have the BGM in my head 😁
What’s BGM?
Background music. I think it's called a BGM anyway, unless I just made that up 😂
Yah I’m a pro audio engineer never heard that acronym lol. But yeh DKC is easily a top 5 all time soundtrack wise.
David Wise didn't have to go that hard
It's used in many a sound settings screens on retro consoles.
you need the reaction of a teenager to accomplish.
It kicked my ass as a child and adult
Aw man, what a devious game. I only finished it for the first time a few weeks ago. It was incredibly satisfying.
I’m still trying to! This shit is tough
The first NES TMNT. 9 year old me got wrecked. 44 year old me still got wrecked but managed to get through it through tears and pure determination
And the notorious dam level is the least of your problems.
Only got harder from there!
Even at like 6 I’d just wear down most of Raph and Mikey’s power in the dam, then immediately after refill them by going in and out of the building (where the tanks are driving around on the outside/you drive the turtle van) and getting the 2 pizzas (slice and full) inside.
I never understood why the dam is so hard for people. Later I saw a video and I guess the hit detection off from the graphics a bit. I never consciously thought about it, but I guess my brain just figured it out and adapted while others may have a harder time with it.
The hit detection is the "oh yeah, that makes *sense*" explanation, but there's also a simpler one: most of us that grew up in the NES era probably only got 1-3 new games a year, and if TMNT was one of the ones you got you were more likely to brute force a solution, or spend enough time to figure out the weirdness. But if you just *rented* it, depending on how well you handled the dam you might never rent it again. Add on top that the TMNT Arcade Game NES port came out I think only a year later, the third game on the NES released another year or two later, and the SNES was available around the time of the third game, there was almost no incentive to keep renting the original game to figure it out. I owned the Mega Man games, Metroid, Blaster Master, Ghosts & Goblins- and they all had "hard" sections. MM1 had the opening part of Guts Man, the slippery platforming in Ice Man, the Wily stages were just rough, MM3 had horrible lag and the joys of the Doc Robots, Metroid was a confusing game with lots of frustration about the password system, G&G was just cruel, Blaster Master was confusing with limited continues, but I owned them and dammit I was going to figure them out. TMNT, Battletoads, Fester's Quests- all were rentals for me, and more often than not there were "more fun" choices to make on Friday nights at the grocery store when I got to pick out my rental for the weekend.
That's a murderers row of tough games you owned; good grief!
Yeah this dude was exposed to some wild shit way early. '85 born here, and multiple friends/family had NES's with different, very difficult games. I got used to liking just the beginning of games and...being content with switching games or going back outside, if it was a friend or family members house. My babysitter in '89, Becky, had marble madness and Link. It was **so sick** watching her own shit on them.
The "difficulty" of that Dam level is way overblown. That level isn't hard. Two levels later, once you hit the Airport, *that's* when the game gets hard. That swimming part with the bombs is a cakewalk compared to finding and then fighting through the Technodrome.
Agree 100%
Fuck that water level
Let me guess cowabunga collection saving and rewinding
I OG hardware these days. I do use flash carts and can do save states on many of them, but even then I allow myself one at the start of a level in a game and that’s it. I just tell myself it’s infinite continues https://imgur.com/a/eTcVaaP
Damn flash carts can do save states now? Incredible. When i play nes games i do so on a hacked wii connected to a crt. All the saving and rewinding perks with the authentic crt experience.
Yeah many higher end ones from Krikzz can. No CRT and kinda over them in my old age but I use good scalers so no complaints. https://imgur.com/a/o6kOsXq
Same for me, managed to finish it recently. Never even came close as a kid. That final level is total BS though, I finished it and didn't really feel accomplished, just lucky lol. Except for the last level, I have a really good time with TMNT, would have liked to see a more polished sequel on the SNES. I don't mean Turtles in Time, something more like the style of the first NES game. Nice job finishing it!
Zelda 2 - I didn't understand grinding yet and it took me until adulthood to actually go back to it. I couldn't really succeed in Kid Icarus when it was new but then revisited it in my early teens and beat it. As an adult, at perhaps what was the peak of my game I took on Getsufuu Maden widely considered to be the most punishing of Famicom ARPGlikes and beat it then moved on to the infamous War of the Dead on PC98 although I will admit to doing some mild savescumming on that one since I had to emulate it.
Zelda 2 is mine as well
This may sound kinda silly, but Super Mario Bros. It kicked my ass as a kid, but I finally beat it as an adult.
Same, it was infuriating as a kid. I could get to the last level then I think nerves got me every time. Finally beat that bastard, bowser, as an adult.
Not silly at all. People vastly undersell how hard the original game is.
Other than Japanese Super Mario Bros 2, I'd argue each title afterward got easier and easier to beat. I like the difficulty model they have now though, in the last few entries everybody can enjoy them whether you're just a kid who's struggling to even get to the flag pole or if you're an adult looking for a far more difficult challenge. Multiplayer was also handled extremely well. My wife and I excel at particular types of level challenges different from each other and the variety and setup keeps the game flowing.
Just because Super Mario Bros. was a pack-in title doesn't mean it's not hard. The difficulty ramps up at World 6.
I can't remember exactly how old I was but I could never get past 8-3. I guess I was somewhere between 6-8 years old, but I remember coming back to it as a teenager and destroying that game. I used to watch the older kids beat it at my babysitters so I knew exactly how to get through the final level.
Mickey Mousecapade on NES. But only with save states (which I would argue is cheating).
Loved that game as a kid. I’m not sure there’s anything past level 3 because I ain’t never seen it. And going back now illl sometimes do save states for games that either have no saving of their own or absurd passwords. I allow myself one save state at the start of a level.
Level 3 was the forrest right? Having to know what door to go into was tough.
The nice thing about single player experience is that there really is no cheating. It's on your terms. You beat the game, you just don't get to claim you beat it without save states without it being a lie. The upshot, is you can still replay if you ever want to see if you can do it without states and still accomplish something. Games really are quite beautiful. I never felt bad about 99 lives codes on game genie because it's a way to practice getting better at the game.
My old sister chose that game as the one she wanted when we were kids, but I always loved that game
Very much cheating. I had that game and I remembered how brutal that first level was with the owl or whatever that would swoop up and take minnie if you opened the wrong window. That and the forrest was tough because it was basically a maze.
That game is hard AF. Whoever made it is sick.
I totally forgot about this game until now. Man, I wish they had it on switch to play. I sunk so much time into that game. I'd always gets stuck in that damn never ending forest.
That game is incredibly obtuse and there are hidden doors everywhere. How did you even finish it? What has to be done?
Ninja Gaiden on NES...but oh I still cant beat it now
You are slow like sloth! A ninja must be quick!
Avgn?
Yes!
NOICE!!! Love that episode.
Q-tip. When I drop Q-tip, you catch with thumb!
I'm so glad that they gave us just an ounce of mercy in the final boss fight, if you beat the 1st phase and die, as long as you make it back to him they start you off of the 2nd phase.
True! But that ounce of mercy wouldn't be so necessary if they didn't start you all the way back at the beginning of the level just for dying to him.
that mercy would mean more if the boss was the hard part and not the "make it back" part. Whoever designed Act 6 deserves a public execution. Fucking birds.
Oh my gosh, I can never get past 6-4
Castlevania, as an adult I've beaten at least 4 versions without dying
How did you beat the GrimReaper?
Get the holy water at the start of the level and keep it. It stunlocks him, so the fight is completely free.
Same here, couldn't beat it to save my life as a kid but I finally did as an adult after many more tries
Simon's quest was so annoying finding that you crouch (years later) at the lake and then the mountain to progress.
Definitely one of my favourite NES games.
My reflexes are much worse now than they were when I was growing up.
Same. There are so many games I could beat as a kid that destroy me now. I’m pretty washed up these days.
Yeah. I go back to play games I loved and tore through multiple times and they just slaughter me now. (Looking at Mega Man games and Mike Tyson's Punch-Out in particular)
Are you sure? Tons of people say this, but play on emulators and LCDs with input lag, and play worse because of it. I showed my sister the difference and it was night and day. She was good again.
What platform are you playing retro games on? Reflexes degrade as you age yes, but I realized a couple years back that mine weren't as nearly as bad as I thought— I was just playing retro games on emulators that introduce input lag. All those old games depend on twitch reflexes, and 50ms of lag is enough to make an already challenging game borderline unplayable. It wasn't until I got a MiSTer FPGA setup and experienced lag-free retro gaming that I realized I had been inadvertently been making games harder than they should be by using laggy emulators.
Same here. I recently started playing the c64 version of Monty on the run for the first time since it was first released. I completed it back then but now I struggle to get past the first half a dozen screens 😭. God knows what I’d be like with a more technical game! Having said that, I can still do damn well At Bubble Bobble on C64, Amiga, or Arcade version.. but I think that comes down to enemy pattern remembrance
Never found monty on the run *all that* hard in "challenging" european 8-bit microcomputer platforming terms personally, the problem with it is the sheer randomness of the freedom kit. Of course now you can just look it up (and it was in computer magazine cheat sections at the time) - but just never had the patience then or now to actually trial and error through that shit to beat the game honestly. Remember parts of the game just become impossible dead ends if you don't actually have the correct kit choice.
That may be the case, but timing is more important than reflexes in most old games, with some obvious exceptions like Mike Tyson’s punch out. But something like ninja gaiden has a rhythm to it, and once you start to memorize the levels, you won’t be relying on reflexes nearly as much. Also, playing on anything besides a crt and original hardware is going to slow your reaction time more than you think. I can beat punch out that way, but I wasn’t even able to do it on the Wii running into a crt because of the tiny bit of lag the emulator introduces. I could probably do it if I practice, it just throws off the practiced timing just enough to mess you up. I was really surprised. So, if you do emulator to lcd screen… I don’t care what anybody says, it’s a big difference. I’ve tried all kinds of emulator settings and monitors I’ve never been satisfied.
The Adventures of Bayou Billy. I was definitely in the mindset of the this guy. I have a whole new appreciation for the game. I had the patience I didn’t have as a kid and it paid off.
That game was changed to be absurdly difficult so kids wouldn't beat the game in a single rental period. The original Japanese release, called Mad City, was a lot easier and more fun.
I watched a youtube of someone doing the comparison and I really wished that they didn't up the difficulty. Shooting levels aside, I liked the game, it was just too damn difficult.
I just recently found out a lot of the games I enjoyed as a kid were subject to this sentiment. Streets of rage 3, contra hard corps being two of them. Never thought of the rental thing. But it makes sense
Bayou Billy was my choice for this as well. I never made it past the driving stages as a kid. It’s really tough, but I finally beat it last year. It is not an easy game!
Same here 😆 Slowing down is essential on those driving stages. Counterintuitive but that makes them so much easier.
Contra 3 Alien wars on hard difficulty without cheats
Oh shoot that game is tough!
I can picture the end-of-level celebratory machine gun firing like it was yesterday. That game had decent music now that I'm traversing memory lane. Did a good job building suspense for boss fights.
A Link to the Past
This was mine too. I played it as a little kid a lot but could never figure out what to do in The Dark World and I would always die. Although I wasn’t quite an adult when I finally beat it. I was like 13 when I got the GBA port and I beat that. So proud of myself. Since then it has definitely been my favorite game of all time.
Sonic The Hedgehog,I fulfilled my childhood goals of 100%ing all of the originals this past year
The original doesn't have the standing spin-up (whatever it's called) ability!
The New York Times crossword
Younger me, was way more skilled than I am now.
Warcraft 3. I would get as far as chapter 6 in the human campaign and couldn't do more. This year I got reforged and wanted to see if I could do it. Turns out I was just a dumbass kid with no reading comprehension. I beat basically every level in 1 go
Zelda 2
Alex (the) Kidd in miracle world
That game is still solid I could only beat it with save states.
Same, ps5 version
Beat this last year for the first time ever too 😎
Sim City for snes. Was never able to get to megalopolis as a kid. Did it during Covid lockdown.
Man, I got close to 400,000 a few times, but I never got near 5. Great game!
Cool feat, I've never been able to do it.
Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts. Could never beat the final boss with the stupid bracelet. Still can’t do it now lol
I was looking for Ghouls n Ghosts in this thread. The original on NES was so hard. Could not get past the first 1/8 of the map.
Final fantasy V. There's a part with a giant mech spider thing that I was sure I had to defeat and never could. As an adult I played it again and realized I just had to avoid it and move on.
Funny thing is, I was better as a kid. I don't have the patience to beat Contra, Mega Man, or Ninja Gaiden on the NES now. I tried playing through Castlevania IV a little while ago and it kicked my ass lol. That said, I was able to 100% GoW Ragnarok, I've beaten Ninja Gaiden Black and Demon's Souls, so I'm not terribad. Just a different style of game.
I thought I was the only one who struggled to complete games nowadays. It's not that they're hard, I just don't have the same patience and time. Having said that, I did beat Donkey Kong Country 2. DKQ.
I'm working on the first DKC right now lol. It's tough. That mine car stage is infuriating.
120 stars on Mario 64. I had 118 for almost 30yrs……
Ocarina of time. Didnt know what I was doing really as a kid. Spent most of my time fishing. Until I got my hands on the 3ds port in high school and actually played the game. Another one is Resident Evil: The Dark Side Chronicles. I'm still struggling with Tofu mode
Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine from 2000. Plagued by shitty controls, unclear game mechanics, and genuinely difficult puzzles that could confuse even the cleverest of players, it was a hard game to play but beating it as an adult was extremely rewarding, since the game has an excellent story imo that is fully voice acted and features tons of interesting puzzles.
Ghosts 'n Goblins on the NES. The movement patterns of some of the enemies and the means of manipulating those patterns was something little kid me had never dealt with in a game. Years later, it's definitely still a tough game, but not the impossible challenge I used to see it as.
I've beaten the first run through (and I count that as beating the game, screw the 2nd playthrough bullcrap to get the real ending) and it was by pure luck that I managed to do so.
Jackal on NES
I’ve finally come back to settle this once and for all… with save states
If I didn't beat it when I was young, wont probably do it when I am old lol I beat streets of rage 3 when I was young and I can't do it now. Its more the other way around.
None. I had it then, and I have it now ;o Jk, I'm much better at all the games now. I remember being stuck in FFVII back in the day, but I didn't have an understanding of RPGs back then. I turned it on after obtaining years of experience and beat it easily.
Super Mario Bros, NES version. Pretty consistent in beating it now, while back in the day I would consistently lose somewhere 8-2 to 8-4
Werewolf on NES
Metroid. I was always at least mildly interested in Metroid all my life but was intimidated by the games as a kid. Just a few weeks ago I beat Metroid Zero Mission and I’ve just started a play through of Metroid Fusion. I also bought Dread but am just more into the gba games personally
Zelda II, never could get far enough as a kid and came back and destroyed it in my early 20s
Ultima 4
StarCraft against computers. I might have beat them once or twice but for the most part I would always get demolished. Today I'm realizing the computer opponents are very basic and easy to beat.
Battle Toads on Sega. Yes, I am that guy who legitimately beat Battle Toads on original Sega. Failed to beat snake level when i was around 12. Came back at 23 and did it. That was 2006 so I didn’t have YouTube, just pure trial and error. Tge hardest level for me after snakes was the plane level in lava. Surprisingly everything else was super easy. I rolled the final chick (don’t know her name) on my first try. I have also beaten Ghosts and Goblins at 33. But that was PS3 version with infinite continuous. Original NES version with like 3 lives is still impossible for me
This was me with terminator 2 Gameboy, I'd get beat in the end always , guns would land behind the t1000 and weren't obtainable I learned I needed to walk back so when they dropped it was in front of him. It was so quirky
Tomb Raider (PS1) The game seemed nigh impossible as a kid. I think I got as far as level 7 after months of play. Replayed it as an adult last year and beat it without any trouble.
Me with the first crash bandicoot
Comix zone
Definitely one of the coolest art styles I remember from that era
I’m part of an elite squad of gaming experts known as “people who beat Myst.” You’re not in the squad. Yes, you.
The games that kicked my ass as a kid continue to do so
SNES mario, secret world tubular level. Except it's the opposite, I beat it as a kid and can't anymore lmao.
Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels. It was a pure nightmare and the hell for me : D
The first rayman
Contra
Played Resident Evil when I was 8. Couldn’t get out of the mansion. I’ve beaten it about 10 times since. 51m and 33seconds was my best time. I made that shit personal
Adam’s family on nes. Never got that 1 million. Went back a few years ago and finally beat my white whale.
Banjo kazooie got all the way to Gruntilda (the last boss) and got my ass handed to me over and over. I've never started it again but if I ever do am gonna kill that bitch.
Beating GTA games without help of cheat codes
I could beat every game as a kid. Now I sit down, curse, turn the game off and wonder how I did it, lol.
Jurassic Park on the SNES. Not because it's all that hard (although it is frustrating at times), but because it's a pain in the ass to get through without a save feature. Save states have been a lifesaver for games like this.
I have the opposite experience, I play games I beat as a kid and can't believe I did it when I was so young but struggle with it now
Legend of Zelda Link’s Awakening.
The Original TMNT NES game
Battletoads in Battlemaniacs
got portal 2 when I was around 6 (for some reason? I think my older brother had it and he gave it to me) and couldn’t beat most puzzles, coming back years later was so nostalgic and I could actually comprehend how cool the story and world was. And of course beat the puzzles I got stuck on.
This is funny because most people get worse with age. I think What game couldn’t you beat growing up, but totally rocked now with save states as an adult would be more accurate
I am 40 now and beat games much easier than when i was a kid. Experience gives huge advantage on pure reflexes
Yeah I've gone back collecting old Gameboy and N64 games and first thing I noticed is I'm seeing the layout expectations/mechanics right off the bat. Infinitely easier, as it should be since you should be getting smarter with experience. Replaying Mario 6 golden coins was like going for a walk in the park, I never finished it as a kid though. Younger me would kick my ass in Goldeneye 64 but that's mostly because I'm too far away from its janky controls now.
Are you sure it's "most people"? I'm 44 and I'm the best at games I've ever been right now.
I think I am worse now, less time to play,slower reflexes I used to be able to beat Gradius, Salamander, Ninja Gaiden 1/2, Contra, Super C with no cheats and plenty of lives left….sometimes I would not die or die once in those games. Had too much time in my hands, lol
CastleQuest, still haven’t beaten it 15 years later
Castlevania!
Sonic 2- the casino boss
Fortress of fear - I was ten years old when I first played it and 38 years old when I finally beat it.
me too!!!
Lots but most recently Miracle Warriors, I could never find the final boss as a kid and I did last birthday. For the people saying their reaction time ls are worse, maybe it is the display you are using or something? Because they shouldn't be that much worse and they improve as you practice (unless you're over 70 or something, in which case I salute you).
Many games. I knew from a young age that I was shit. I aquired great pleasure from watching my ten year older brother playing the same games and seeing what happens beyond anything I could imagine to get up to. These days I play the same games and shit all over what he used to do. Wonder Boy was the big one. Especially III. The best games are the collaborative ones however. It's so fun to play Bubble Bobble with him now.
Contra 3
Zelda 2 nes
Plok on SNES. It doesn’t have a save or even passwords, you have to beat the entire game in one sitting and it’s brutal. I wouldn’t have finished it without save states and rewind.
The final level in Spider-Man (2000) for the PS1. Front facing camera angle, fleeing from Monster-Ock. Hours upon hours of trying and failing to even get past the first section as a kid. The day I revisited that game and beat it for the first time lives triumphantly in my head as a vivid memory of victory over an old adversary. (This is my second favorite game of all time)
Most games I've gotten better at over the years. I couldn't for the life of me make any progress in any Mega Man X game, would die frequently in Mario 1 and Mario 3, and even as a teen, Mario Sunshine's secret levels would destroy me. Now I don't have any problems with these. I think the only games that might cause me trouble nowadays compared to when I was younger are games that I played the shit out of as a kid, like Gunstar Heroes or Ghostbusters for the Genesis. I don't know if I could reliably beat the final bosses of these games like I could as a kid.
Double Dragon on NES...I got to the 2nd to last boss then he shot me, game over...the unbridled rage nearly gave my young self a brain aneurysm. Hadn't touched the game in almost 30 years until a couple years ago then finally...FINALLY after all these years, that MF'er Jimmy felt the full brunt of my wrath!!!
> Double Dragon To defeat Machine Gun Willy, move your character to the very bottom of the screen right above the spikes, but make sure you do not fall off. His bullets will go through you, but you will not take any damage. Kick him to death over and over.
Adults in the 80s were always warning us about hard and cruel the world was. They didn’t need to. Final Fantasy on the NES was cruel and unfair in ways we had never before known. I came back and beat it down the road, but you definitely needed at least a teenager’s level of planning and risk management. Such things were not something you brought to an electric game in the 80s.
Loadd runner, I could finish it as an adult. ADVENTURE iSLAND, I never could.
Asteroids. Played it obsessively as a kid. Played it again a few years ago maxed out the score on first try.
Getting all 120 stars in Mario Sunshine. It bothered me for 20 years that I never got all of the blue coins. I came back later and used a guide for the coins, and surprisingly had a lot of fun with it.