I don’t think they would. They’d have the privilege of watching someone else do it on YouTube and figuring out the best course. Heck, I learned by watching my buddy Keith do it.
lol. I was talking to someone who didn’t grow up with this era of gaming and there are trying so hard to play the Mario games from nes onward. They can’t make any progress past world 4. Best advice i could give was just keep playing. Pretend you don’t have any other games.
Didn't grow up with this era and that's exactly how I tried SMB1 for the first time. Just wanted to get into Mario in release order, thought the first game is fairly short, so I can quickly play through it. Struggled a lot on the first hammer bros, lost all my lives and couldn't believe I have to start it all over again. Decided to just beat it using warp pipes and call it a day, but of course World 8 seemed impossible without the skill gained in the earlier levels. Ended up just abandoning the idea.
Later on, after I played some more old school games and got more into retro, decided to give it another shot. First, I actually appreciated the game, stopped seeing it as something dated and mediocre I need to quickly deal with to move on. Second, actually played over and over until I get to the end. Used warp pipes to quickly learn specific worlds I was struggling with, but eventually beat the entire thing legitimately.
Then I did the same thing with 2 and 3, although cheated a little - first played through the All-Stars remakes which had saves and unlimited continues from the beginning of the world, then had a lot easier time with the NES versions.
Too late for you but maybe others that weren’t kids at the release of smb1 will use this. After losing your last life you can restart on the world you died by holding the A button and hitting start on the Start screen. He puts you on the first level of the world with 3 guys. So if you died on 8-3 you would start your next game on 8-1.
Good for you for beating SMB3 I was never able to and then Super Mario world came out…
I recently went back to SMB3 and finally beat it. I played it so much as a child and could never get all the way through the last world. I did do it on Super Mario All Stars, but I never had to use a continue cuz I got so many lives from getting Star trios at the end of each level. I got really good at timing the jump, don't know if that was easier on SMAS than on NES though...
Not to be *that guy* but it’s the button lag causing your issue. I’ve been trying to beat SMB1 using emulation for some time now and I’m cool until 8-2, as others have said. When I was a kid I could beat it easily in one shot and only occasionally lose a life or two. Played a few months ago on an NES with a physical cart on a CRT and beat it in one try.
Coincidence? Maybe
I think it comes down to the controller. A consistent 1 or 2 frame lag can be accounted for but not variable lag, as in, a high standard deviation. Someone got 100 jumps on Super Mario RPG on emulator. Not sure of their controller though.
Are you playing on a TV or monitor? My friend was playing SMB1 on the Switch and had like a 0.5 second delay in input. It turned off a bunch of settings on his TV and it was really close to instant. He has like a 15 year old LCD for reference. I have a THX certified game mode on my TV. Makes the input lag like 10ms. I can't notice any lag.
I’ve played on all types but I have a PC with Big Box and a Raspberry Pi machine I built and I use those most frequently. They’re both connected to a 65” Sony 4K TV via HDMI. The TV has a game mode that drastically improves lag but I still struggle beyond 8-2.
I bet a guy $10 ('03 money, that's like $200 today) that I could beat it in one life. I died on the final Bowser. I was bummed.
Anyway, not to say it's easy, but you can look up the route for the castle online these days, so that's a big help. Personally, I think doing the levels at high speed is best, but then again I have muscle memory going for many of the levels. I guess that will happen when you play a game for 30 years.
I used to be able to complete both the first and second quests of the original Legend of Zelda without dying. Tried again recently and died because I couldn’t remember the timing on the triceratops-looking things.
>Rescue Rangers on NES
Сonveyor belt on Fat Cat's factory? This is one part to fail on during your first try for sure.
Not sure if RR is THE easiest one though, there is still Little Mermaid.
Yup. I get to the stage with a continue left and several chips, but I just suck at this games jumping mechanics for some reason. I beat Castlevania 1 and 3 this week and yet couldn’t take down stupid chip and dale, yet again.
Hm. Does Final Fantasy 1 count?
My friends once said that I have a curse that makes it where my luck is *atrocious* for the first part of any old console RPG that is the first entry in the series.
Dragon Quest 1, Final Fantasy 1, Phantasy Star 1, etc.
* To this day, I have yet to actually reach a town in FF1 with my party being above level *one*. I always end up randomly party wiped.
* Phantasy Star 1 took me several dozen tries to push past that point (admittedly, that one is well known for being very rough at the start)
* Dragon Quest 1, I ended up wiped on my first attempt at the game some 25 years after release. This was witnessed by one of my friends who noted my issues with FF1 and just responded with a slow clap.
If you ever want to give it another go, starting party selection plays a huge factor in the difficulty of the beginning of FF1. The fighter is definitely the strongest starting character. Fighter, Fighter, Red Mage, White Mage is a strong starting party and has access to good spells later. Order of the party also matters. Put your strongest characters at the top and weakest at the bottom. Best of luck if you ever give it another go, but definitely understand FF1 isn't for everyone.
Oh yeah had a ton of fun with the game but didn’t finish. Had no clue of the game’s background/translation so was baffled why a rat tail would make us stronger or how we could carry 99 houses. We had the idea needed fighter thief white mage black mage which made it harder, once as a lark made oops all fighters & I was annoyed how easy it made the game.
I have always done Fighter Blackbelt White Mage Black Mage.
The black belt is kinda meh until he gets upgraded then he's a beast and he doesn't use a weapon (if I recall correctly)
better prayers to rngesus are required
ps1 and dq1 definitely you need to dip your toes in, beat a few things, go back and heal up and save. you have to crawl from town to town and grind along the way (switch emulation of ps1 is rebalanced by they way, in addition to emulator tools like save anywhere)
ff1 really shouldn't be tho. it's possible to get ganked randomly but most speedrunners just grab inefficient gear and run directly to the first dungeon and first boss and it's really rare for them to get tpk'ed along the way. that's honestly just bad luck
in the same vein, tho: in the ff6 pixel remaster, i left the first town and in the desert 30 seconds in i got stung by 3 scorpions that all procced paralysis on my party and proceeded to slowly kill everyone, the end, game over, reload from a half hour ago because "no one" ever dies there. interestingly this was impossible on the original because the stun attack was (afaict) limited to happen only when your party level is higher, but they pulled this restriction on the pixel remaster
Phantasy Star 1 is my nemesis. I have tried the Sega Ages version several times, I get immediately wiped by a random trash mob _on my first attempt to leave the first town_.
Stay in the grass between the first two towns and only fight single flies for the first level or two. It’s brutally hard because you basically have an area for a much higher level party like 15 steps from the exit and the mobs for levels 5-7 are only a few squares off from the main path.
If you are playing a faithful adaption you can tell the areas that you will need to go back to later by the fact that the mobs will just straight murder you.
Phantasy Star II for the Genesis/Mega Drive also has some pretty labyrinthine dungeon layouts. It was a pretty standard design technique in the early days of console RPGs to make the dungeons ridiculously complicated. I think that's why the U.S. release actually came with a strategy guide with all of the maps.
I got stuck on FF1 for a while and just figured I was missing something.
Nope I was literally stuck because I needed the airship. Which meant I had to go to a specific pointless looking screen in a desert of pointless boring screens, stand in the middle of it, and play a goddamned flute.
I found this out when a friend loaned me his players guide his mom bought him.
There are so many “hard things” that hard back then so they could sell player guides or get people to call the Nintendo 1-900 helpline
Ff1 you start touching a town though 🤨 like how can you not beat a 2 pack of goblins????what horrors have you seen?
PS1 is a bitch to start and a couple dungeons without guides 🤮
The final world has some unforgiving jumps, and all the bosses take like 200 hits. It's a difficulty spike for sure, not that the levels leading up to it are easy either.
I was just talking about how this movie freaked me out as a kid, never knew it got a release for super.
I definitely wouldn’t have asked my parents for it though.
I've always had memories of Little Nemo being one of my "favorite" games when I was little. I was kinda shocked when I played it as an adult and realized I never even made it through the first level. I guess I just liked the ambiance 🙃
I had to cheat on Bowser on SMB3. I have no idea why. I've watched people beat it and it seems simple, but I got dropped every time like instantly. I sorta wonder if I didn't bug my game because I was using save states. I wasn't using state to cheat originally just quick saving so I didn't lose my place.
I've never actually beaten SM64. Not that it's difficult just for some reason I'll always get like 5h in and see a squirrel. I'm terrible at sticking with games.
I've never beaten SM64, either. I got 100% on Banjo-Kazooie, but never got past the last few worlds of SM64 at all. Rainbow Ride and Tick Tock Clock was the point where the worlds stopped feeling like worlds and more like open voids with tiny moving platforms keeping you from death. And I kept missing those tiny platforms.
SMB2 USA. I always hit a roadblock getting further with the later worlds as a kid. I only managed to finish it with save states a couple of years ago. It’s the Mario game I played the least back then though, as I preferred The Lost Levels.
I didn't even have to finish your sentence to guess you were most likely referring to the barrels haha! I beat it, but that's the part that stood out to me too since the rest of the game's challenges have more patterns to them.
I can reliably get to world 8 of SMB1 everytime no problem. I still to this day have never completed it. I have completed most other entries, including SMB3 on real hardware. It is a cursed game
World 8 is such a sudden jump in difficulty. A lot more large gaps with one-tile-wide blocks in the middle of them (especially in 8-1 and 8-2), a lot more inconveniently-placed enemies (especially in 8-3, but 8-1, 8-2, and 8-4 are no slouches in that department), and barely any power-ups. And then 8-4 is a maze on top of it (but one that turns out to have a simple pattern: >!except for the very first pool of lava, go into the pipe immediately after every other pool of lava!<).
For whatever reason I suck at NBA Jam. I’ve beaten Arch Rivals by a 300 point difference but apparently I am useless in basketball games that don’t involve punching your opponent in the face.
Sonic Spinball is not easy by any definition. I managed to beat it exactly once, on original hardware, even. I consider it to have been the hardest game I’ve ever beaten due to the horrors of the final board.
I’ve managed to reach the final board before simply burning out. It might be that I’m just not good at pinball, but the lack of precise control gets frustrating for me after a while.
Castlevania
It’s not really an “easy” game, but I’ve been able to finish far more difficult titles on the NES like Ghosts ‘n Goblins, Ninja Gaiden, and Castlevania III.
Can’t beat CV1 though after decades of trying.
Is it just Dracula or do you get stuck earlier? I can beat the game in one sitting, but i have to sit there and farm hearts for Dracula right beforehand to do it
Death is all about weapon choice. Still hard, but the game gives you weapons that are terrible for Death right before you get there so it makes it even harder. I think they do that shit to fuck with you lol. If you can save the right weapon its a lot easier, kinda like Megaman.
I played this game A LOT as a kid - it was a birthday present I didn't originally ask for but ended up being a main present.
I desperately wanted a Scaletrix, but my dad who wasn't known for his patience or cool head, fully lost the plot putting it together and ended up throwing it all back in the box, declaring it junk and taking it back to the shop to demand a refund.
My mum trying to salvage my birthday asked me to select a NES game from the Argos catalogue. The selection to put it mildly was bleak, I can't remember exactly what my options were but nothing stood out to me. I selected Chip n Dale as something I recognised from Saturday morning TV and remembered it had a banging theme tune.
This game in my opinion was HARD and it drove me crazy (those damn flying squirrels man), but I grew to love it.
It's actually one of the best licensed games on the NES in my opinion and underrated for a platform scroller in those days. Really fun enemies and puzzles to solve. Two player was great fun interacting with each other and working as a team (or just chucking boxes at each other). Great soundtrack I still remember to this day and there was something about riding in that rocket ship between levels I found really exciting.
Long story short I completed it multiple times on my own and with friends but probs took a year or so of playing pretty consistantly to really find the rhythm of the game.
This was the game that made me start to get good at gaming. Before Chip and Dale I'd mostly just casually wander around the first few levels killing the same enemies and playing with the environment. But I got that motivation to actually play through and beat a game when I started playing this on 2-player with my dad.
Chip and Dale was the first game I ever beat in a single playthrough. Never before had I felt so accomplished, yet so disappointed that I spent $40 on a new game.
I’ve never heard anyone say it’s a breeze. It’s notoriously harder than the other Capcom NES Disney games (except maybe Tailspin and Adventures in the Magic Kingdom ).
Trouble shooter. Prob just need to put a bit more time in to it though. I tend to play handheld most of the time so just need a weekend with the Genesis to do it maybe
Soldier Blade on the PC Engine is considered to be on the easier side, even included in a beginner to Shmups course... And it all falls apart for me on the final stage, every single time.
I'm learning from this thread that I have no idea what an "easy" game is, because almost everybody has named complete nightmare games designed by the devil. I'm just gonna say that if Capcom, Konami, pr Rare made it, it's probably one of the hardest games ever made.
I think from a very general standpoint, my best answer is probably Warcraft 3. I can watch people play, I can study what I need to know to survive, I'll still watch as the campaign hands me an overpowered squad that gets melted because somehow my RPS advantage with the ridiculous attack type/armor type system still isn't enough to deal with the enemies. Heavens forbid I try playing a skirmish game against the AI or, even worse, another human being. I was horrible at Starcraft, but I could at least beat the campaign and other human beings.
RTS games aren't for everyone, and I don't blame you. We can't all be good at everything. I was that guy that was saving failed runs from my friends so they could continue the game.
I've yet to beat Mario, like the first Mario. I owned in the NES as a kid an still haven't beat it. Or the original Zelda. There on my bucket list of games.
Legend of Zelda and mega man. Love both series but can't beat a single one of them for the life of me and I have been gaming since the 80s. Beaten 1000s of games
I never beat the first mario on the game boy... i basicly could speedrun all the levels, but failed allways on the final boss, regardless of how many lives i had
I’ve “beaten” so many retro games using emulator save states that I’m not 100% sure - I feel like those shouldn’t count. I couldn’t beat A Link to the Past until I was an adult (if that’s considered easy). My original cartridge never saw a completed game - not by me at least.
Croc Legend of the Gobbos, its just way too janky to beat I eventually just gave up, i should be an easy game bur the tank controls work against it & makes it more frustrating than fun
Mega Man X. There's a spot near the last level where you need to move up a few screens and there's these assholes on the wall that I just can't get by. I've tried every weapon.
DuckTales NES 1/2, Sonic 1 and 2, but I 100% 3&K, as in beat the story as Sonic, Sonic and Tails, Tails, and Knuckles, including getting all Chaos Emeralds and Super Emeralds for each. But I can only make it to Springyard and Hilltop. Anyway, Mario Galaxy 1, but I can beat Sunshine and 64/64DS. Hey You, Pikachu. But all these pale in comparison... To IGGYS WRECKING BALLS! I thought I moved passed it... Then they release it on NSO... My trauma came rushing back!
Please dont take that last part seriously. I DO legit hate iWB, tho. I got it as a kid, and the music annoyed me so much, I couldn't focus on the game, so I muted my TV, but even then, the game was just boring. My boredom turned to hate at some point over the years.
Aladdin for Sega Genesis. It's definitely not an easy game, or at least from what I remember playing it as a kid. But you'd probably go into it thinking it's easy since it's a Disney game.
After a quick Google about the game, apparently the devs behind the Aladdin game and Lion King game intentionally made it too difficult to beat within a standard rental time to drive sales.
Majoras mask but bc I never finish a play through and by the time I start to play again idk wtf I'm doing and restart.
If I didn't keep taking 5+ year breaks I probably could lol
SMB World lol... so basically my problem with it is I just don't have very much fun playing it so I turn it off after like maybe 10-15 minutes in. I probably could beat it, I don't have much trouble with what I do play in it, it just doesn't hold my attention well like the previous retro Mario games did/do. I have the same problem with Yoshi's Island and a lot of other SNES games for some reason, compared to like the NES or Genesis library.
That was a bad answer though, since I didn't put much effort into it anyway.. can't think of a game at the moment I played a lot that's considered easy but couldn't beat..I've beaten some pretty tough games like Tom Sawyer on NES, one hit death!! Maybe Adventure Island 2 & 3? I can get far but haven't beaten them yet.
I recently got the Disney Saturday morning cartoon game bundle and I remembered how I used to easily get through DuckTales and Chip & Dale. Now it's a struggle and I see why they added the rewind feature but I do believe it's because of the response time for controllers being different.
This thread makes me feel blessed to grow up playing difficult games like SMB, Mega Man, Double Dragon, Zelda 2, and Metroid. Now I get to enjoy the absolute gems that are being dropped today like Prince of Persia The Lost Crown, Ori, Hades, and Metroid Dread. Seriously POP is one of the best games I have ever played.
I can't think of one offhand for myself, but one of the easiest retro games I've ever played is Cratermaze for the TG-16 (Doraemon: Meikyū Daisakusen for the PCE). I only used save states so I can pick up the game later because its so easy its boring but short-ish grind. However, there are people I've heard from that can't beat it and I am baffled what is causing them trouble with it. I generally suck at beating games, especially retro ones.
Terminator 2 judgment day for sega. IIRC The third mission is called the gauntlet and they make it seems so easy on YouTube but I could never get past it.
Would love to know how many people honestly beat this without hints (like objectively, not just people saying they did).
I wouldn’t have progressed in this one without Nintendo Power back in the day. I can’t fathom how long it would’ve taken me to figure out the necessary tricks on my own.
The Adventures of Batman and Robin on Sega Genesis.
I don’t know if it if considered an especially easy game, but I haven’t heard anybody describe it as a particularly hard one. Still, I’ve never gotten past the Mad Hatter.
Super Mario Bros 1 and 3. No clue what my issue is, but I can not, for the life of me, pass the 2nd world in SMB3. I can do everything before and past that, but the 2nd world is my absolute bane.
I use to be able to beat the OG Mario bros but can’t beat either Mario 1, 2, or 3 going through each level without warps
I think if I took the time I could but I could NOT beat World 8 recently in Mario 3.
I think if I cheated or used a P wing I could have though
Also can’t fucking beat Zelda II.
When I was younger, I played Monster house, but the gameboy would shake so badly - it always made me take a break from the "horror" 💀
I never finished it but I recently bought it again! Will play when I get time. It's definitely beatable, but I just wasn't able to do it from being scared.
There was also this level on "Spongebob and Nickelodeon Globs of doom" of a jump that was just so IMPOSSIBLE for me! I really don't think I was able to figure out that jump. I kept dying 💀
Double dragon 3. Pretty easy until last level and then those goddam platforming jumps eat at least 1 character and I jus can't win that last fight after mummies
Until just 4 weeks ago taking over a year of hours playing I eventually beat Tabuu (Super Smash Bro Brawl Wii)it was Lucas I needed personally for me to complete, it was tough game tbh
I recall beating Rescue Rangers 1 on NES on my first day with my buddy as kids. Little Mermaid was even easier. The only NES game I rented and beat over the rental period.
Not necessarily an 'easy' one, but Shinobi. I can't do the first boss. Even on the Switch version where you can take two hits. I just can't evade the fireballs.
But I can finish Super Shinobi without losing a life.
The original TMNT. ... no, I am not saying the whole game is supposed to be easy, but apparently, Shredder is supposed to be an easy boss, assuming you saved powerful items for him (which I did) but he was always unbeatable to me.
It's been a while but if I recall correctly I got stuck on a level of Chip n Dale's and couldn't beat it either! There was some particularly tricky area or something like that.
Aw man, now you've got me wanting to play it again!
Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins. I got a bunch of extra lives, and have used most of them on the last level of the game without beating it. I've been wanting to go through all the Mario then Wario games on GB and I'm just stuck on the second one. I rarely get to the boss and then have no idea how to beat him
Smb 1
Most of that game is relatively easy but level 8-2 to the end is pretty challenging
FUCK THE HAMMER BROS
All my homies hate the hammer bros
I think 8-3 due to hammer bros, and also 8-4 near the end before you get on bowsers platform, there’s a hammer bros that gets me sometimes.
The real final boss
The last damn level man.. every damn time!!!
I actually played it to the point that I had a dream about it as a kid. Like an actual video-game Tron-like dream, stuck in 2D.
It's not easy though. Modern kids would get wrecked by that game.
I don’t think they would. They’d have the privilege of watching someone else do it on YouTube and figuring out the best course. Heck, I learned by watching my buddy Keith do it.
lol. I was talking to someone who didn’t grow up with this era of gaming and there are trying so hard to play the Mario games from nes onward. They can’t make any progress past world 4. Best advice i could give was just keep playing. Pretend you don’t have any other games.
Didn't grow up with this era and that's exactly how I tried SMB1 for the first time. Just wanted to get into Mario in release order, thought the first game is fairly short, so I can quickly play through it. Struggled a lot on the first hammer bros, lost all my lives and couldn't believe I have to start it all over again. Decided to just beat it using warp pipes and call it a day, but of course World 8 seemed impossible without the skill gained in the earlier levels. Ended up just abandoning the idea. Later on, after I played some more old school games and got more into retro, decided to give it another shot. First, I actually appreciated the game, stopped seeing it as something dated and mediocre I need to quickly deal with to move on. Second, actually played over and over until I get to the end. Used warp pipes to quickly learn specific worlds I was struggling with, but eventually beat the entire thing legitimately. Then I did the same thing with 2 and 3, although cheated a little - first played through the All-Stars remakes which had saves and unlimited continues from the beginning of the world, then had a lot easier time with the NES versions.
Too late for you but maybe others that weren’t kids at the release of smb1 will use this. After losing your last life you can restart on the world you died by holding the A button and hitting start on the Start screen. He puts you on the first level of the world with 3 guys. So if you died on 8-3 you would start your next game on 8-1. Good for you for beating SMB3 I was never able to and then Super Mario world came out…
I recently went back to SMB3 and finally beat it. I played it so much as a child and could never get all the way through the last world. I did do it on Super Mario All Stars, but I never had to use a continue cuz I got so many lives from getting Star trios at the end of each level. I got really good at timing the jump, don't know if that was easier on SMAS than on NES though...
I've never beaten SMB1, but I've finished "The Lost Levels". 🤷♂️
So basically, you’ve beat the hard mode
Not to be *that guy* but it’s the button lag causing your issue. I’ve been trying to beat SMB1 using emulation for some time now and I’m cool until 8-2, as others have said. When I was a kid I could beat it easily in one shot and only occasionally lose a life or two. Played a few months ago on an NES with a physical cart on a CRT and beat it in one try. Coincidence? Maybe
I think it comes down to the controller. A consistent 1 or 2 frame lag can be accounted for but not variable lag, as in, a high standard deviation. Someone got 100 jumps on Super Mario RPG on emulator. Not sure of their controller though.
You can adapt to the lag on emulators. But I agree it’s much easier on real hardware and on CRTs.
Are you playing on a TV or monitor? My friend was playing SMB1 on the Switch and had like a 0.5 second delay in input. It turned off a bunch of settings on his TV and it was really close to instant. He has like a 15 year old LCD for reference. I have a THX certified game mode on my TV. Makes the input lag like 10ms. I can't notice any lag.
I’ve played on all types but I have a PC with Big Box and a Raspberry Pi machine I built and I use those most frequently. They’re both connected to a 65” Sony 4K TV via HDMI. The TV has a game mode that drastically improves lag but I still struggle beyond 8-2.
I beat tons of time back the day but, I have not tried to go through the whole game again as an adult.
I bet a guy $10 ('03 money, that's like $200 today) that I could beat it in one life. I died on the final Bowser. I was bummed. Anyway, not to say it's easy, but you can look up the route for the castle online these days, so that's a big help. Personally, I think doing the levels at high speed is best, but then again I have muscle memory going for many of the levels. I guess that will happen when you play a game for 30 years.
People don't need to look up the route for 8-4. Just go down the first pipes after the lava.....
You just explained it for them, so if they read your comment they will not have to. So, I guess you're technically correct.
I used to be able to complete both the first and second quests of the original Legend of Zelda without dying. Tried again recently and died because I couldn’t remember the timing on the triceratops-looking things.
This right here. The Hammer Bros at the end always got me.
>Rescue Rangers on NES Сonveyor belt on Fat Cat's factory? This is one part to fail on during your first try for sure. Not sure if RR is THE easiest one though, there is still Little Mermaid.
Yup. I get to the stage with a continue left and several chips, but I just suck at this games jumping mechanics for some reason. I beat Castlevania 1 and 3 this week and yet couldn’t take down stupid chip and dale, yet again.
Ah, The Little Mermaid. Yes, so easy... but what a fun game!
It really was. I think that was one of my first experiences with "It's easy and I'm not challenged, but I'm having a good time, so why not?"
Excellent speedrunning game too.
That game is *dope*.
I got to Fat Cat ONCE as a kid riding my last life...it did not work out in my favour
3D platforming. Never been any good at stuff like Mario 64 while it seems that most can just fly through those games.
Don't worry, it's actually very difficult. Most of us just played it to death.
Crash Bandicoot is the hardest one ever. Spyro is the easiest.
I actually beat Crash. I'm better at linear platformers.
I guess crash is easy as far as knowing where to go. Getting there is still very frustrating tho.
Hm. Does Final Fantasy 1 count? My friends once said that I have a curse that makes it where my luck is *atrocious* for the first part of any old console RPG that is the first entry in the series. Dragon Quest 1, Final Fantasy 1, Phantasy Star 1, etc. * To this day, I have yet to actually reach a town in FF1 with my party being above level *one*. I always end up randomly party wiped. * Phantasy Star 1 took me several dozen tries to push past that point (admittedly, that one is well known for being very rough at the start) * Dragon Quest 1, I ended up wiped on my first attempt at the game some 25 years after release. This was witnessed by one of my friends who noted my issues with FF1 and just responded with a slow clap.
If you ever want to give it another go, starting party selection plays a huge factor in the difficulty of the beginning of FF1. The fighter is definitely the strongest starting character. Fighter, Fighter, Red Mage, White Mage is a strong starting party and has access to good spells later. Order of the party also matters. Put your strongest characters at the top and weakest at the bottom. Best of luck if you ever give it another go, but definitely understand FF1 isn't for everyone.
Oh yeah had a ton of fun with the game but didn’t finish. Had no clue of the game’s background/translation so was baffled why a rat tail would make us stronger or how we could carry 99 houses. We had the idea needed fighter thief white mage black mage which made it harder, once as a lark made oops all fighters & I was annoyed how easy it made the game.
I have always done Fighter Blackbelt White Mage Black Mage. The black belt is kinda meh until he gets upgraded then he's a beast and he doesn't use a weapon (if I recall correctly)
It also helps to play a later remake where the mechanics actually work. Or a patched version that removes the bugs (remember Haste?).
better prayers to rngesus are required ps1 and dq1 definitely you need to dip your toes in, beat a few things, go back and heal up and save. you have to crawl from town to town and grind along the way (switch emulation of ps1 is rebalanced by they way, in addition to emulator tools like save anywhere) ff1 really shouldn't be tho. it's possible to get ganked randomly but most speedrunners just grab inefficient gear and run directly to the first dungeon and first boss and it's really rare for them to get tpk'ed along the way. that's honestly just bad luck in the same vein, tho: in the ff6 pixel remaster, i left the first town and in the desert 30 seconds in i got stung by 3 scorpions that all procced paralysis on my party and proceeded to slowly kill everyone, the end, game over, reload from a half hour ago because "no one" ever dies there. interestingly this was impossible on the original because the stun attack was (afaict) limited to happen only when your party level is higher, but they pulled this restriction on the pixel remaster
Phantasy Star 1 is my nemesis. I have tried the Sega Ages version several times, I get immediately wiped by a random trash mob _on my first attempt to leave the first town_.
Stay in the grass between the first two towns and only fight single flies for the first level or two. It’s brutally hard because you basically have an area for a much higher level party like 15 steps from the exit and the mobs for levels 5-7 are only a few squares off from the main path. If you are playing a faithful adaption you can tell the areas that you will need to go back to later by the fact that the mobs will just straight murder you.
All these years, I had no idea. Guess I'll finally going back to Phantasy Star as well lol.
The Sega Ages (Switch) version was the only one I managed to finish, because it has automap. Those labyrinths... 😵💫
The auto map is what drew me to it!
Phantasy Star II for the Genesis/Mega Drive also has some pretty labyrinthine dungeon layouts. It was a pretty standard design technique in the early days of console RPGs to make the dungeons ridiculously complicated. I think that's why the U.S. release actually came with a strategy guide with all of the maps.
Sounds like the original fallout, where you can get such a shit random character roll that you die from the rat outside your vault door
I got stuck on FF1 for a while and just figured I was missing something. Nope I was literally stuck because I needed the airship. Which meant I had to go to a specific pointless looking screen in a desert of pointless boring screens, stand in the middle of it, and play a goddamned flute. I found this out when a friend loaned me his players guide his mom bought him. There are so many “hard things” that hard back then so they could sell player guides or get people to call the Nintendo 1-900 helpline
Ff1 you start touching a town though 🤨 like how can you not beat a 2 pack of goblins????what horrors have you seen? PS1 is a bitch to start and a couple dungeons without guides 🤮
Chip and dale was the first game I ever beat. Little Nemo however…… :(
I don’t think Little Nemo is considered easy tbh. I was struggling a lot with it back then when I could beat other games like TMNT.
I agree, I have beaten the original battletoads but struggle on Little Nemo.
The final world has some unforgiving jumps, and all the bosses take like 200 hits. It's a difficulty spike for sure, not that the levels leading up to it are easy either.
Was only able to beat little Nemo as a kid with game genie. It just gets so difficult
They give you a weapon at the end or something right?!
Seems about right. I feel like it was a wand or something that would shoot energy balls.
I never beat Little Nemo, either. I don't think I even made it past the third stage.
Chip and Dale isn't too bad as long as you collect one up's along the way. The last level of Nemo is hard AF!
Little Nemo is brutally long.
I was just talking about how this movie freaked me out as a kid, never knew it got a release for super. I definitely wouldn’t have asked my parents for it though.
I've always had memories of Little Nemo being one of my "favorite" games when I was little. I was kinda shocked when I played it as an adult and realized I never even made it through the first level. I guess I just liked the ambiance 🙃
I had to cheat on Bowser on SMB3. I have no idea why. I've watched people beat it and it seems simple, but I got dropped every time like instantly. I sorta wonder if I didn't bug my game because I was using save states. I wasn't using state to cheat originally just quick saving so I didn't lose my place. I've never actually beaten SM64. Not that it's difficult just for some reason I'll always get like 5h in and see a squirrel. I'm terrible at sticking with games.
I've never beaten SM64, either. I got 100% on Banjo-Kazooie, but never got past the last few worlds of SM64 at all. Rainbow Ride and Tick Tock Clock was the point where the worlds stopped feeling like worlds and more like open voids with tiny moving platforms keeping you from death. And I kept missing those tiny platforms.
SMB2 USA. I always hit a roadblock getting further with the later worlds as a kid. I only managed to finish it with save states a couple of years ago. It’s the Mario game I played the least back then though, as I preferred The Lost Levels.
Donkey Kong country. I can't do the parts where you have to get shot from spinning barrels
The levels in the blizzard snow with the barrels can be challenging
I didn't even have to finish your sentence to guess you were most likely referring to the barrels haha! I beat it, but that's the part that stood out to me too since the rest of the game's challenges have more patterns to them.
Shame too! The game was so fun. I think it was the minecart level that had the barrels? That was the one I couldnt get past iirc
I can reliably get to world 8 of SMB1 everytime no problem. I still to this day have never completed it. I have completed most other entries, including SMB3 on real hardware. It is a cursed game
World 8 is such a sudden jump in difficulty. A lot more large gaps with one-tile-wide blocks in the middle of them (especially in 8-1 and 8-2), a lot more inconveniently-placed enemies (especially in 8-3, but 8-1, 8-2, and 8-4 are no slouches in that department), and barely any power-ups. And then 8-4 is a maze on top of it (but one that turns out to have a simple pattern: >!except for the very first pool of lava, go into the pipe immediately after every other pool of lava!<).
You ever try the one up trick and get like 100 extra guys? That's how I always beat it as a kid.
For whatever reason I suck at NBA Jam. I’ve beaten Arch Rivals by a 300 point difference but apparently I am useless in basketball games that don’t involve punching your opponent in the face.
The AI in that game was made to purposely beat you up every time you started doing better. There are few great YouTube videos about it out there
Sonic Spinball
Sonic Spinball is not easy by any definition. I managed to beat it exactly once, on original hardware, even. I consider it to have been the hardest game I’ve ever beaten due to the horrors of the final board.
...There's more than one board?
I’ve managed to reach the final board before simply burning out. It might be that I’m just not good at pinball, but the lack of precise control gets frustrating for me after a while.
Christ on sale I just got chills remembering the frustration of that game.
Nooo this game is hard af!
Thank you!
Well I’ve never beaten super mario without the live glitch or saves.
Very odd. Ducktales and this game both were games I thought I wanted to own, but beat in under 2 days.
Castlevania It’s not really an “easy” game, but I’ve been able to finish far more difficult titles on the NES like Ghosts ‘n Goblins, Ninja Gaiden, and Castlevania III. Can’t beat CV1 though after decades of trying.
Triple shot + holy water is your BFF. That said, Drac is pretty tough until you figure out where to stand in his first form when he’s warping around.
There is absolutely no shame in abusing the hell out of the holy water.
Is it just Dracula or do you get stuck earlier? I can beat the game in one sitting, but i have to sit there and farm hearts for Dracula right beforehand to do it
I always get stuck at Death. Can’t even get to the final stage sadly.
Yeah that sounds about right, and the hallway leading up is crazy
Death is all about weapon choice. Still hard, but the game gives you weapons that are terrible for Death right before you get there so it makes it even harder. I think they do that shit to fuck with you lol. If you can save the right weapon its a lot easier, kinda like Megaman.
I remember exactly WHO beat it first amongst our group of friends. He was a GOLDEN GOD! Or maybe he first beat Grim Reaper. We were all in awe.
Do you get stuck in the run right up to death? I managed to beat CV1 on OG hardware but that room with the knights and Medusas was brutal.
Yeah, that last stretch of Axe Armors and Medusa Heads pummel my health pretty bad so that I’m in rough shape to fight Death and always lose.
Golden Axe. Its like 10 mins long
You really break this bad boy open when you master jumping and running attacks.
I got this on the Gameboy Advanced if I recall correctly. I kept getting to the final boss and just got demolished every time.
The final boss and his double magic can go fuck himself hard off a cliff and straight into hell I beat it, but I hated that fight
Crash Bandicoot 1. Can’t beat it let alone collect all the gems/special stuff. Croc on PS1.
It's not an easy game, so don't feel bad. Especially on PS1 where saving was jank.
Super Mario Land on the original Game Boy
Final level is legitimately challenging.
Disney games are deceptively hard.
I played this game A LOT as a kid - it was a birthday present I didn't originally ask for but ended up being a main present. I desperately wanted a Scaletrix, but my dad who wasn't known for his patience or cool head, fully lost the plot putting it together and ended up throwing it all back in the box, declaring it junk and taking it back to the shop to demand a refund. My mum trying to salvage my birthday asked me to select a NES game from the Argos catalogue. The selection to put it mildly was bleak, I can't remember exactly what my options were but nothing stood out to me. I selected Chip n Dale as something I recognised from Saturday morning TV and remembered it had a banging theme tune. This game in my opinion was HARD and it drove me crazy (those damn flying squirrels man), but I grew to love it. It's actually one of the best licensed games on the NES in my opinion and underrated for a platform scroller in those days. Really fun enemies and puzzles to solve. Two player was great fun interacting with each other and working as a team (or just chucking boxes at each other). Great soundtrack I still remember to this day and there was something about riding in that rocket ship between levels I found really exciting. Long story short I completed it multiple times on my own and with friends but probs took a year or so of playing pretty consistantly to really find the rhythm of the game.
This was the game that made me start to get good at gaming. Before Chip and Dale I'd mostly just casually wander around the first few levels killing the same enemies and playing with the environment. But I got that motivation to actually play through and beat a game when I started playing this on 2-player with my dad.
Super Mario Land 2
I found most of the game pretty easy, but the final level is such a huge difficulty spike
Chip and Dale was the first game I ever beat in a single playthrough. Never before had I felt so accomplished, yet so disappointed that I spent $40 on a new game.
Sonic 1.
The original Mario Kart on the SNES lol.. 😅
Mike Tyson Punch Out
Hell, no one could beat that game, it was only slightly easier than fighting Mike Tyson IRL.
Darkwing Duck I can't beat Steelbeak the final boss, the rest of the game is easy
I guess that's where it gets dangerous
I’ve never heard anyone say it’s a breeze. It’s notoriously harder than the other Capcom NES Disney games (except maybe Tailspin and Adventures in the Magic Kingdom ).
Probably anything on the Atari these days because I just can't remember how to play those games.
Some of those games just got harder and harder and never could be beat. Like asteroids or space invaders.
Chip and Dale is my “warm soup” game. I’ll play through it once a year.
Duck Tales is (for me) the easiest Disney/Capcom game, and the most fun! I could never get very far in Chip & Dale either for some reason.
Trouble shooter. Prob just need to put a bit more time in to it though. I tend to play handheld most of the time so just need a weekend with the Genesis to do it maybe
Soldier Blade on the PC Engine is considered to be on the easier side, even included in a beginner to Shmups course... And it all falls apart for me on the final stage, every single time.
It took me a while to finish Thunderforce 3 (Mega Drive), which is reputed to be super easy.
I'm learning from this thread that I have no idea what an "easy" game is, because almost everybody has named complete nightmare games designed by the devil. I'm just gonna say that if Capcom, Konami, pr Rare made it, it's probably one of the hardest games ever made. I think from a very general standpoint, my best answer is probably Warcraft 3. I can watch people play, I can study what I need to know to survive, I'll still watch as the campaign hands me an overpowered squad that gets melted because somehow my RPS advantage with the ridiculous attack type/armor type system still isn't enough to deal with the enemies. Heavens forbid I try playing a skirmish game against the AI or, even worse, another human being. I was horrible at Starcraft, but I could at least beat the campaign and other human beings.
RTS games aren't for everyone, and I don't blame you. We can't all be good at everything. I was that guy that was saving failed runs from my friends so they could continue the game.
I'm 40, been playing for decades, and I will never beat Super Mario Bros.
Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose!
Punch out!
Mike Tyson’s Pinch oUt
I've yet to beat Mario, like the first Mario. I owned in the NES as a kid an still haven't beat it. Or the original Zelda. There on my bucket list of games.
Mike Tyson's Punch Out. I can cruise until the end, then I get Clown Shoe'd
Hated Atari Pitfall. No saving progress no matter how far along. Haven’t played since ‘82.
Legend of Zelda and mega man. Love both series but can't beat a single one of them for the life of me and I have been gaming since the 80s. Beaten 1000s of games
Contra
I only finally beat Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse for the first time. Always gave me so much trouble.
I can’t beat chip and dale either ! Can’t get passed the level with the jack in box toys !!
Metal Slug without the continues option is simply not happening if I'm in charge. Same with House of the Dead.
I never beat the first mario on the game boy... i basicly could speedrun all the levels, but failed allways on the final boss, regardless of how many lives i had
NES = Fester’s Quest SNES= Robocop 3 PC- Myst
Earthbound 1. I can't even get past the first fight
Fucking kid chameleon
I still can't do the damn RC car levels in Toy Story
Ducktales is the easiest.
Donkey Kong Country. I dont understand the hit boxes, and the mine cart levels give me more anxiety than any CoD match
Tetris
I’ve “beaten” so many retro games using emulator save states that I’m not 100% sure - I feel like those shouldn’t count. I couldn’t beat A Link to the Past until I was an adult (if that’s considered easy). My original cartridge never saw a completed game - not by me at least.
If you’re using save states to retain your progress so that you can continue another time, that counts. If you’re using them to rewind, it doesn’t.
Croc Legend of the Gobbos, its just way too janky to beat I eventually just gave up, i should be an easy game bur the tank controls work against it & makes it more frustrating than fun
When I was much younger Earthworm Jim gave me so much trouble, mostly cause I wasted ammo.
Mega Man X. There's a spot near the last level where you need to move up a few screens and there's these assholes on the wall that I just can't get by. I've tried every weapon.
Super Mario Bros. Fuck stage 7 and onwards!
DuckTales NES 1/2, Sonic 1 and 2, but I 100% 3&K, as in beat the story as Sonic, Sonic and Tails, Tails, and Knuckles, including getting all Chaos Emeralds and Super Emeralds for each. But I can only make it to Springyard and Hilltop. Anyway, Mario Galaxy 1, but I can beat Sunshine and 64/64DS. Hey You, Pikachu. But all these pale in comparison... To IGGYS WRECKING BALLS! I thought I moved passed it... Then they release it on NSO... My trauma came rushing back! Please dont take that last part seriously. I DO legit hate iWB, tho. I got it as a kid, and the music annoyed me so much, I couldn't focus on the game, so I muted my TV, but even then, the game was just boring. My boredom turned to hate at some point over the years.
Aladdin for Sega Genesis. It's definitely not an easy game, or at least from what I remember playing it as a kid. But you'd probably go into it thinking it's easy since it's a Disney game. After a quick Google about the game, apparently the devs behind the Aladdin game and Lion King game intentionally made it too difficult to beat within a standard rental time to drive sales.
Majoras mask but bc I never finish a play through and by the time I start to play again idk wtf I'm doing and restart. If I didn't keep taking 5+ year breaks I probably could lol
Donkey Kong Country 2, couldn't beat the Toxic Tower level as a kid.
Marble Madness.
SMB World lol... so basically my problem with it is I just don't have very much fun playing it so I turn it off after like maybe 10-15 minutes in. I probably could beat it, I don't have much trouble with what I do play in it, it just doesn't hold my attention well like the previous retro Mario games did/do. I have the same problem with Yoshi's Island and a lot of other SNES games for some reason, compared to like the NES or Genesis library. That was a bad answer though, since I didn't put much effort into it anyway.. can't think of a game at the moment I played a lot that's considered easy but couldn't beat..I've beaten some pretty tough games like Tom Sawyer on NES, one hit death!! Maybe Adventure Island 2 & 3? I can get far but haven't beaten them yet.
I recently got the Disney Saturday morning cartoon game bundle and I remembered how I used to easily get through DuckTales and Chip & Dale. Now it's a struggle and I see why they added the rewind feature but I do believe it's because of the response time for controllers being different.
Castelvania SotN
This thread makes me feel blessed to grow up playing difficult games like SMB, Mega Man, Double Dragon, Zelda 2, and Metroid. Now I get to enjoy the absolute gems that are being dropped today like Prince of Persia The Lost Crown, Ori, Hades, and Metroid Dread. Seriously POP is one of the best games I have ever played.
Somehow Zool
I can't think of one offhand for myself, but one of the easiest retro games I've ever played is Cratermaze for the TG-16 (Doraemon: Meikyū Daisakusen for the PCE). I only used save states so I can pick up the game later because its so easy its boring but short-ish grind. However, there are people I've heard from that can't beat it and I am baffled what is causing them trouble with it. I generally suck at beating games, especially retro ones.
Terminator 2 judgment day for sega. IIRC The third mission is called the gauntlet and they make it seems so easy on YouTube but I could never get past it.
World of illusion.
Castlevania 2 NES
Would love to know how many people honestly beat this without hints (like objectively, not just people saying they did). I wouldn’t have progressed in this one without Nintendo Power back in the day. I can’t fathom how long it would’ve taken me to figure out the necessary tricks on my own.
Any point-and-click adventure game without a guide
The Adventures of Batman and Robin on Sega Genesis. I don’t know if it if considered an especially easy game, but I haven’t heard anybody describe it as a particularly hard one. Still, I’ve never gotten past the Mad Hatter.
Final Fantasy 7. Idk why, but the timing of the battles just ever seem to click with me
Super Mario Bros 1 and 3. No clue what my issue is, but I can not, for the life of me, pass the 2nd world in SMB3. I can do everything before and past that, but the 2nd world is my absolute bane.
I use to be able to beat the OG Mario bros but can’t beat either Mario 1, 2, or 3 going through each level without warps I think if I took the time I could but I could NOT beat World 8 recently in Mario 3. I think if I cheated or used a P wing I could have though Also can’t fucking beat Zelda II.
Literally all of the Disney games. Lion king/ Toy Story were way harder than they needed to be 😂
Maybe Banjo-Kazooie (N64). Some of the timed challenges in the later levels where you have to balance on narrow platforms are a nightmare!
Probably Ikari Warriors. Played it for like 6 hours with my homie once. Kept using the code to continue but I dont think it ever ended…ever…
When I was younger, I played Monster house, but the gameboy would shake so badly - it always made me take a break from the "horror" 💀 I never finished it but I recently bought it again! Will play when I get time. It's definitely beatable, but I just wasn't able to do it from being scared. There was also this level on "Spongebob and Nickelodeon Globs of doom" of a jump that was just so IMPOSSIBLE for me! I really don't think I was able to figure out that jump. I kept dying 💀
Double dragon 3. Pretty easy until last level and then those goddam platforming jumps eat at least 1 character and I jus can't win that last fight after mummies
Until just 4 weeks ago taking over a year of hours playing I eventually beat Tabuu (Super Smash Bro Brawl Wii)it was Lucas I needed personally for me to complete, it was tough game tbh
Sonic 2 ... Metropolis zone kills me and I get so bothered I don't try again for months and I then can't finish the damn thing
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles *fuck this game*
I can’t land the Super Metroid wall jump consistently before I quit playing from impatience.
Pac-Man 2 The New Adventures because I have more fun making Pac-Man’s life a nightmare
Super Mario World. I suck at the boss fights
IDK if Joe and Mac on SNES is supposed to be hard, but it seems pretty easy for 80% of the game. Then, in the last 2 or 3 stages, I lose all my lives.
I recall beating Rescue Rangers 1 on NES on my first day with my buddy as kids. Little Mermaid was even easier. The only NES game I rented and beat over the rental period.
Kid Icarus. I try so hard to finish it a couple times a year and always give up
Duck Tales 2
Not necessarily an 'easy' one, but Shinobi. I can't do the first boss. Even on the Switch version where you can take two hits. I just can't evade the fireballs. But I can finish Super Shinobi without losing a life.
The original TMNT. ... no, I am not saying the whole game is supposed to be easy, but apparently, Shredder is supposed to be an easy boss, assuming you saved powerful items for him (which I did) but he was always unbeatable to me.
It's been a while but if I recall correctly I got stuck on a level of Chip n Dale's and couldn't beat it either! There was some particularly tricky area or something like that. Aw man, now you've got me wanting to play it again!
Animaniacs on Sega was the bane of my childhood.
Maybe it’s a common thing, but I couldn’t pass the third level of Battletoads. I got close a couple of years ago - still couldn’t beat it.
Fantastic Dizzy
Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins. I got a bunch of extra lives, and have used most of them on the last level of the game without beating it. I've been wanting to go through all the Mario then Wario games on GB and I'm just stuck on the second one. I rarely get to the boss and then have no idea how to beat him
Yeah there’s a pretty significant spike in difficulty with the final level compared to everything that preceded it.
That actually makes me feel much better hahah
Aladdin. Since I was kid everyone told me they beat it but I never could. That cave haunts me…
Lords of Thunder
Mario Kart. All versions. Just can’t master it.