I've started to hate the term "Hardest".

Give me two months in Unity, and I can make a game that's "harder" than every game on any one of these lists. It would also be unplayable trash, that would prompt hundreds of "How the fuck are you supposed to XXX" responses due to obscurity. Part of what makes those listed games enjoyable is having a decent difficulty curve, compelling progression of skill demonstration, and a good feeling of reward. They're getting difficulty right.

Some of those old games from the NES or even into the SNES era were just outright impossible. IIRC there was a Dennis The Menace game didn't have the final boss ready for the publishing deadline so they just put an impossible jump just before it so players couldn't get that far.

Battletoads would like a word

Elden Ring isn't even the most difficult soulsborne game, by a longshot

Some of you have never Wanna be the Guy and it shows.

Idk if I'm finally getting old or the real nerds are hiding. Nobody in here knows about Nethack? At least someone said Dwarf Fortress.

Sorry about the PTSD, but....

Imagine souls games giving you only three lives before sending you back to the very beginning of the game.

[NES] Sector Z, Goonies, and others would like a word [Atari] E.T. has entered the chat

I hate hard games nowadays, but when I was a kid I had a high tolerance for them because that's pretty much all there was. I have a fondness for the Ghosts 'n Goblins series because it was part of my childhood, but I wouldn't give it the time of day if they came out now.

Elden Ring isn't even the hardest Soulslike

Silver Surfer for the NES is way harder than TMNT. It's possible, though I've never done it, to beat TMNT. AFAIK , Silver Surfer is actually possible to beat, but basically no one has done it.

Did we already forget about Battletoads?

Lion King on SEGA Genesis?

Takeshi's Challenge?

Dragon's Lair?

Ninja Gaiden?

Marble Madness?

Battletoads?

The young'uns nowadays don't know what a difficult game is. Not to mention the "impossible" ones.

Did anyone ever play Pursuit Force on the PSP?

That game was brutally difficult.

I completed TMNT as a kid... on Commodore 64. That version is admittedly a little bit easier than the NES version (some mechanics were missing, and an entire level is gone, as I recall). Still, I have no idea why people complain about the second level (river), it's actually pretty fun. Compared to what's to come later in the game.

To me, the definitive "hard" game is Metroid Prime 2: Echoes on GameCube. Dark Souls just makes me say "eeeeeehhhh this is probably doable, I'll play this after I'm done with MP2E."

(When I first played MP2E, I only got through the second to last boss. Then my MadCatz memory card died. Played through the game again, with the fury of million suns. 99% complete. Because I missed one optional scan. ...One of these days I replay this bastard.)

I forget which platform it was, but one version of that TMNT game was literally impossible because someone fucked up the distance of a jump in one of the sewer levels, making it an impossible jump to make.

I had it on PC as a kid and it was hard enough just reading the codes out of the booklet using that piece of red cellophane to get the fucker to start up lol