Pantheon of Pain

I must be a sucker for pain. Cause' I play a lot of tough games. I mean a ton of them. But unlike others who bitch and complain how unfair a game may be I dig in my heels and have another go. Adventure Island? Nice place. TMNT? Those are my boys. Ninja Gaiden III? Been there, done that. Contra? I got your rifle right here.

So many tough games on one system!

So what are the hardest of the hard games on the NES? Why do players (of all ages really) say "that's NES tough" to designate the difficulty (and level of difficulty) of newer games? Yeah, the Nintendo was notorious for brutal difficulty, the kind that slaps you in the face, pours salt on your wounds and kicks you downhill...into a nest of bees. I've been there man. And I want to tell you some of my heroic deeds. I may not be the best looking dude around, hell, I'm not even the most intelligent. But I do know how to beat games. Let's take a look at my "gamer cred".

In my lifetime I've beaten these games (multiple times mind you):

• Double Dragon III
• Ninja Gaiden series (1, 2, 3)
• TMNT
• Ghosts N' Goblins
• Silver Surfer
• Battletoads (with warps and no warps mind you)
• Adventure Island
• Contra
• Super C (which I think is the tougher Contra game)
• Adventures of Bayou Billy
• Batman
• Mega Man ( I think this one is even tougher than the third installment)
• Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!

Hudson had a thing for extremely difficult games

I'm sure there's more but you get the idea. Still, there's a lot of other games I want to beat but simply can't wrap my head around them. Like Alpha Mission, Star Voyager, Destination Earthstar, Adventures of Dino Riki, Knight's Quest and many, many more. But I keep chipping away. Little by little I add another cart in the defeated pile. But for what reason? To impress my fellow gamers? I dunno, maybe. To be honest its a constant battle within. See, as a kid I had a burning desire to be the best at something. Anything really.

Whether it was sports, the arts, or academically it didn't matter. When I was turned on to the NES at a young age (around 6 but it went full viral when I was 7) I knew then and there I wanted to be the best at the NES. And not just one game. All of them! Any game that was thrown in my lap I wanted to be able to tell my friends "I can beat that, no sweat!" and then do it. Now almost 23 years later I still have that passion. It's one of those things that defines me (although it isn't my entire life by a long shot). 

"as a kid I had a burning desire to be the best at something. Anything really."

Another reason why a few years back (2009) I started to keep a record of all the NES games I've beaten. It's a fun little thing to look back and see what you've accomplished in a year. Hell, you can check my other thrashed games list right here on my blog! I think I'll keep on playing these tough games for another 23 years. I'm a sucker for pain.

-Will ^>^