In Comix Zone you need to mix up high, low and mid attacks on most enemies. If you just mash the A button, they'll block most of your attacks and counter them, but if you mix them up, they go down real quick. Also when dealing with destructible elements such as the cooling fans or boxes, the Shoulder Smash move (back-forward-A in quick succesion) takes them far quicker than normal punches. Learning how to do all the moves of Comix Zone's rather nice fighting system is very rewarding and makes the game way easier.
@@thesoulforge3607 a friend got it on a Rom for his shield and having save stats helps out so much. But yea I loved just messing around to see all the different levels.
It was really tough to be a kid in the '90s sometimes. The only real research you could do on a game's quality where either screenshots in a magazine or your friend's word, neither of which were very reliable. On top of that, I was playing the Sega Genesis when I was maybe 9 years old, and a lot of the titles expected you to have really good reflexes. I was 9 years old. I didn't have any reflexes.
There was Tips & Tricks magazine. Tons of useful stuff. Codes, tactics and all that. I still have clippings from there. Although, i was 14-15....not 9 But i still play it several decades later :-)
Ive been a gamer since 1994. Trust me when I say we have been pampered since the PS2/Xbox/GameCube era. Games of the 80s and 90s (especially the 80s) were damn hard
@@gammaguyyt I see what you mean, with save features and bigger rom storage, but still, I'm glad arcadey games eventually picked up that "if it's fun people will replay it, you don't need to make it a wall of difficulty". TBH I view games that are "Nintendo hard" from the 80s and 90s as a cheap, lazy way to get people to buy instead of rent, combating video stores with the psychological trick of "I want to beat this even though it's just hard and not very fun". Modern games are all still too easy, can't think of a single one past Fire Emblem Awakening where I've failed a mandatory challenge multiple times and had to restart that part, but Battletoads and Ninja Gaiden, I'm just going to say it, the difficulty is a result of laziness and ignorance on the part of the devs.
Echo The Dolphin really is a creative feat. I remember the game being very fun and challenging, but I was probably only playing the first level or first few levels. The physics felt so good, it was very impressive in it's own time.
@@SegaLordX I've realized recently, thanks to you, that many of the best memories I had with my late father involved the Genesis and Saturn. Since I had your ear for a second I just wanted to thank you for that.
Talking about this stuff has a way of bringing back the better times in our lives. Or at least times worth remembering. I'm glad the channel could help with that. :)
The original PROTOTYPE was a perfect example. The design of that game felt so broken. I did beat it once but it was a very, VERY frustrating affair. PROTOTYPE 2 did everything right and very thoroughly enjoyable.
@@deliciousfirstsip Sword of Sodan. Chakan. Fatman. (yes, there was such game...more like an abomination) There are plenty of such "gems" for Megadrive.
That game was the first to ever visually wow me through screenshots in a magazine, and I remember wanting it so bad. I'm glad I never got it as a kid though, because it is absolutely brutal.
@@DxV04 except it doesn't play like R-Type at all. It's a much faster game, and the TOZ module cannot be used to shield your ship, so it's not as defensive of a playstyle. It plays more similarly to Thunder Force than R-Type, honestly.
Aw, no Target Earth, the game the Japanese consider the hardest Mega Drive game (Assault Suit Leynos) of all and a game they had to tone down the difficulty for the PS4 remake.
Ah, hi Larry. Agreed. Level 4 of Target Earth just plops you in the middle of a flat terrain that's just SWARMING with ground and airborne enemies. It doesn't let up after that.
My friend was crazy good at Target Earth. He plowedthrough that game. He was also the same guy to beat Forgotten Worlds in the arcade on a quarter. I watched him do it.
I can complete the game on normal and hard (without the all weapons cheat). I think Hyper mode is practically impossible, though. In level 2 on hyper, you get quickly vaporized by the grenade launchers, and without the all weapons cheat and jet pack, you are hosed. Hyper mode is so hard, I refuse to believe anyone completed it without cheating unless they do it right in front of me on the original hardware.
Ah, Road Rash... I knew within 20 minutes of playing when I rented it that I wanted to buy it, lol. As fate would have it, I never bought MUSHA, even though I rented it enough times that I probably could have with all that rent money. Hell, even with a 100 life cheat code that I found in GamePro magazine once, I couldn’t finish out Stage 5.
I got Road Rash and Sonic 1 with my Megadrive back in Christmas 91. I had seen Road Rash on one of the old video games TV shows and had pestered my poor parents for months. It hardly left the cart slot of my MD (until RR2 came out)
Dynamite Headdy's a great game, but it becomes absolutely BRUTAL from about half way through the tower level, I don't know how the 9-year-old me had the patience to make it past that one.
Nice work. That game seems to get brutal. I had limited time with it so far but saw my friend playing it. I can tell I would need heavy practice to put that game to sleep. ha ha. Keep in mind by heavy practice I mean using save and load states to practice efficiently which was not an option back then.
Yeah, I kept dying on the Twin Freaks boss fight because I keep hitting the switch by mistake when trying to hit him. He get all red and stomps me out of all of my lives.
Literally just played through that one...And yes it's gets seriously tough especially after the halfway point. Some of those later bosses are just mind-numbingly tough. But the art design, characters, and overall feel of the game, is just so unique and interesting, and IMO kept me going. Plus, the game is the good kind of challenging and isn't cheap or mindless kind of tough. It's kind of the game that keeps you playing because you know it's you that messed up and not the game. Treasure was seriously one of the best developers out there, it's kind of crazy just how good and timeless their games are. It's really sad to learn about the state of the company nowadays, with them being basically a shell of their former selves...They only have about 30 employees and there last game came out in 2014, and they mostly focus on more lucrative licensed titles and/or re-releasing their old titles. They even said that they no longer make completely original software and now exclusively use middleware to develop games, no longer using custom programming to push the hardware to their maximum levels. Which was a major trademark of Treasure and a big factor in what made their games so highly prized.
To be fair it gives you an extra life after you finish every two pages, but that still only leaves you with a maximum of three lives to finish the game with. And also, twenty-three years later and I STILL haven't beat the last boss!
@@Rayofficial13565 Yeah, there's a bit before the long-fingernail boss where if you don't have your rat with you, you're basically fucked (having to punch through that spiky punching bag thing).
When I first tried Comix Zone I tried to play it like a normal beat em up and got frustrated, but I later came back to it and came to understand that its its own style of game and when you take time to understand the mechanics it becomes a very fun and rewarding game.
I love Shadow Dancer! It was one of the first games I got with my Genesis and the first Shinobi game I had played since the original arcade (I didn't play 2 or 3 until years later). I played the hell out of it. So much so that, as a kid, I would turn off the shuriken and beat the game using sword and dog only. I'd love a modern remake.
Genesis Shadow Dancer was a rather easy game once you figure it out. Playing with only the sword wasn't even hard as it is just as powerful and useful than the shurikens.
Sonic and Shadow Dancer were my first 2 games with my Sega. I played the shit out of both of them. The game is still solid to this day. I always found a way to knock the boss off the Statue of Liberty for an instant kill just for shits and giggles.
Awesome comment section to find fellow gen Xers and older millenials. A lot of us had blue collar parents that told us back then to choose a path: Super NES or SEGA. They were not getting us both. I chose the Genesis because a good buddy had the SNES so we would switch systems often. Damn...remember how big of a deal it was to bring your entire system over someone's house? Many a hot sweaty days and nights on the 3rd floor with just a box fan, gaming system and stolen ciggs. I was such a goddamn degenerate. Wasted childhood.
Your comment makes me realize that although my family was far from wealthy, me and my brother, and younger sister were pretty fortunate as far as games were concerned. We had the NES, then the SNES, Gen, TG16 and a PC.
I love the challenge and intensity of 16-bit gaming, it's one of the reasons why I prefer this era over modern gaming or *cough* "open world" gaming overall. The majority of my most memorable and favorite games are some of the hardest of the console, like Alien Soldier, Shinobi trilogy, Thunder Force 4, Musha, Fire Shark, Super Hang On etc (the shooters on harder difficulties), Gunstar Heroes, SOR2 (again on harder diff) etc. I would challenge myself to win without continues or to play Shinobi without ever losing a power up and it gives the experience alot of life for me. The biggest difference comes down to good design, challenge backed up by fair smart design is always desired, fun and rewarding to master.
I definitely have those games in my radar and know there are games that capture the "spirit" of 16-bit gaming still, they're just sadly not as popular or as common of course anymore but I'm delighted they still exist.
Nowadays, I discovered a lot of 16- Bit Games where the harder difficulties offered me much more satisfaction, too. Especially Shmups playing with 1 credit for the highscore.
Honestly the 16 era I got the most enjoyment from cuz I really had to "get gud" at alot of games and eventually did with some. Others took some time to figure out.
Exactly, that's where alot of the fun&satisfaction comes from. Overcoming the challenge. Plus many 16-bit games, have some hidden attacks/mechanics that you'd likely never discover on your own without a gamefaqs or manual. I never would have known about the dash attack in Shinobi 3 with invincibility frames for ex. That learning process can be exciting too and adds more to the game.
Chakan is surprisingly beatable, even on hard. The secret is to use the door spell. ALOT. It warps you back to the main hub, but it saves the spot you warped from, so everytime you re-enter the level, you start from there. Makes the game a hundred times easier. And potions regenerate, so its no big deal to keep using them. The door spell also skips half the game if you use it on top of an little island in the hub world. Like I said, extremely useful to finishing the game.
Alien 3. I absolutely love that game: smooth sprite animation, tight gameplay (a great mix of blasting, exploration, and racing against the clock), and a kick-ass Matt Furniss soundtrack... but I could never get past the alien ship. Over a quarter of a century after I first played it, I still haven’t completed it - but I still love firing it up for a quick blast when I have the time. :)
I love it when the Mega Drive and the SNES have totally different games belonging to the same franchise -- it's so neat to see the different interpretations that developers came up with. Interestingly, the SNES version is the odd-one out here: the Mega Drive version was also released on the Amiga, the Master System, the Game Gear, the Commodore 64, and the NES. The SNES was the only system to receive its version of Alien 3.
I think that game would have been made much better/more fair by simply removing the timer. The aliens were fast and lethal, that restrictive timer on top of everything else kinda killed the fun for me.
Jools Stoo The time-limit is pretty brutal on some stages. Many’s the time I failed a mission because I’d missed a single hostage early on (and by the time I realised, there wasn’t enough time to go back for the hostage and *then* get all the way back to the exit). Maybe if the time limits were a little bit longer then it would have been better... or if they only used a time-limit on the stages that didn’t involve rescuing hostages. To be honest, though, I kind of enjoyed the sense of panic that the timer introduced to the game... but I’m probably in the minority!
It was the closest thing we got to the Aliens game in the arcade. I ended up it buying the Aliens arcade game years later to play at home.I still enjoy Aliens 3 on the Genesis today.
What makes me mad in Ecco is how fast you run out of air. It's so annoying as real dolphins can hold their breaths for long periods of time, and in Ecco you have a few minutes of air.
I absolutely hate Chakan the Forever Man. My hatred for that game knows almost no bounds, it's terrible in everyway and I'm glad we can both agree on that.
Somehow Sega must own the rights for it, despite always believing it was/is based on a comic book. They keep re-releasing that fucker on every AtGames plug-n-play that seems to come out.
I never played it back in the day, but Lord X's repeated criticism of it actually makes me curious to give it a try (I'm sure it will be as bad as he says)
For some reason I always kept playing it as a kid. I kind of liked what they were trying for but the end result wasn't that great. I never finished it though.
Comic Zone wasn't too bad once you learned the tricks of each panel. When to use the environment, what items to use, when to pull the rat out to search for hidden items, etc. It was almost a puzzle beat 'em up, if that makes sense. Anyhow, it's one of my favorite Genesis games. :)
Indeed, but if somehow you're able to play the JPN release (which have the option to put the game in English and not forced to play with JPN texts during the game), every page you clear (there are 6 pages in the game) you can get up to 5 extra lives to keep trying to beat the game (the USA and EUR releases ONLY give you 2 extra lives by completing the two pages of stage 1 and 2).
Awesome video. I grew up playing most of these games, owning them all except Thunder Force 2, and I dont think I beat any of them. X-men, Shadow Dancer, Chakan; loved them all! I'm happy to see I didn't just suck at gaming and that others found them equally difficult...lol. oh and Budokan looked beautiful but is utter head-shaking programming.
I played an rpg called The Faire Tale Adventure. My character would leave the town, die instantly, and then his brother would take over as the lead. He would leave town, die instantly, and then the final brother repeated that again and it was game over. Never got far into it.
I managed to beat the amiga 500 version of that game only by grinding for at least 10-15 hours worth of skeletons, getting my bravery high enough so that little could hurt me. Then I found out you can stand on top of the turtle on the east coast and slash it forever, raising bravery quickly while it took no damage. Tape the fire button down, come back half an hour later and you'd have a bravery of 500, making you invincible.
Loved that atmosphere of that game though, and the music..! ...i also may have saved over my older brother's progress in that game, putting my life in peril. lol
I loved how nightcrawler really broke the system by teleporting. Even nostalgically looking up him versus apocalypse. PS of course when you're a kid with a handful of games, as long as it's beatable, you'd tough through it
This game is a blast, I was playing it co-op with my cousin back in 98 and getting it done in every single playthrough each weekend including get every ending... I barely pass 1st stages without losing lots of lives nowadays...
I finished it recently for the first time with my buddy and damn this game is a gem, to me is on par with III on SNES is hard but is so good and fun and the sound and FX explosions everything is great.
@@afistfulofpimples1745 You can say that for pretty much every game, e.g. ninja gaiden (NES), etc, of course it becomes easy once you learn the patterns, but that doesn't mean it's easy.
Si,son un dolor de cabeza porque tienes que pegarle 2 veces para matarlos, imaginate con los ninjas grises que estan mas dificiles y tienes que pegarles cuatro veces para que se mueran, y en el modo sin shurikens se complica mas por que tienes que esquivarlos y pegarles con tu espada por lo que eso hace mas dificil el juego.
The hardest Genesis game I've ever played, is also one of the very worst. Last Battle aka Hokuto no Ken. Which was basically the sequel to Black Belt/HNK on the Master System. Except while Black Belt was the good kind of challenging, Last Battle was difficult due to the fact that every aspect of the gameplay was poorly designed. You get enemies and hazards that can easily juggle you to death, there are these really awful dungeon levels where you have to navigate same-y looking rooms to find the exit, boss battles where one screw up will gobble up most of your health, and there are no continues. It also isn't helped by the fact that you are basically useless unless you power up. Doing so requires grinding. If you manage to defeat the boss of the area, you don't stay powered up and have to grind all over again. The original Japanese version is exactly as terrible, but has some blood and gore not present in the Western release.
It's terrible but I like it. I used to play it a lot. Eventually you learn there's an optimal way to traverse the map to gain the power ups in a certain order to make the cheap boss fights a little easier. It does have a cheat code that starts you at the beginning of the last chapter you made it to, at least. I wish they'd kept the gore. Enemies flying off the screen just looks really dumb.
Last Battle, awesome awesome game. And black belt. Beat both with no problem. Its crazy every game on the list of the video. I've beat and owned. And I never threw my controller and I was laugh but never gave up and beat every single game that I played and enjoyed all of them.
Last Battle is a very mediocre game but doesnt seem too hard when you know what to do. My good friend beat the game, but it is very boring and the levels have mazes that you need to know which order of doors to enter, etc, from what I remember.
Thanks! I always thought I sucked at games, but I completed Road Rash 2 so I can feel pretty satisfied about that! I thinbk I stuck it out because the game is well designed, it gets progressively harder. Games that start out hard don't really encourage you to keep playing because they stifle your progress.
In Japanese games when you died it was mostly your fault most of their games are challenging without being cheap or because of clunky controls as opposed to most older western releases
I agree on Chakan's stupid difficulty, and when I first rented it, I barely got to some bosses, but I will defend that game with twin swords from here to kingdom come. Shadow Dancer on the other hand was one of my first games, and I played SO MUCH that at a point I knew exactly where every enemy was supposed to be, and obviously beat the game.
For me to name a few. Never beat them to this day: Tatsujin/Truxxton (especially on Hard) Undead Line Slapfight MD Zero Wing (on Hard difficulty) Gaiares ... Hi Mel Tom from Germany
I beat them long time ago,not the hardest ones but better gameplay and visibility in action,collisions,pattern...Hellfire(hidden hardest mode)&Phelios(better then arcade for my part,not simple portage,all revisited stages for genesis).
Yeah. The Boss (Dont know which level it was/ guessing the 4th on hard) with those rockets which fly towards you while moving. Very hard as I am in the morning to dodge for me ;)
One thing I noticed during my years playing video games is that the Sega Genesis is one of those consoles that have very tough games to beat and they require a lot of practice.
I absolutely LOVE Comix Zone! I could not beat it in its original form but got so close... Beat it on a collection disk with save states many years later. One of my favs to this day.
Comix Zone is on my list for sure, taking damage while punching stuff also made things tougher. I also felt Maximum Carnage was tough but eventually beat it, as well as Mickey Mania; The Revenge of Shinobi; Golden Axe 3; Streets of Rage 3. Beat all of them eventually but they weren't so easy.
I am just starting to watch the episode so I have no idea if it will come up, but The Terminator was totally insane on the Genesis. Back when I had to rent a Genesis (My parents were against us having consoles for the longest time) this was one of the few selections available. You start off armed only with grenades that fly in a high arc and if you manage to get past the first two very hard enemies without dying you are then forced underground... where your grenades explode directly over your head on impact thus forcing you to crouch and soak up bullets. Safe to say I never got past the first level and still didn't when I streamed it myself about a month or so ago.
Wow, I thought I was the only person who had trouble with TFII. Budhakon is tough, deep, and fustrating., but when u finally "get it" ..... its good. The timing is extreme. ecco, as much as I love it, I admit to never finishing it. The first road rash is still my favorite but imo u need to grind early and then just master the courses. Easily worth it, incredible timeless game
I remember I would have been fine in Budhakon if I wouldn't have run out of nunchaku or bo-staff uses. When I'd get down to Karate or Kendo, game over...
Zombies Ate My Neighbors. I found that game to be extremely hard because certain household projectiles and weapons are more effective than others (The water gun works on zombies, but not on chainsaw-wielding maniacs.). Oh, and the whole pressure of rescuing all the neighbors before the monsters get them. 😵
I still play this game often. Nowadays I can save all the neighbors until I get to like level 30, still cant get a perfect run T_T those damn Water Creatures are a nightmare for the neighbors, popping up just ahead of me pulling a cheap kill!
Definitely not the only one. The game has a lot of challenges and can be extremely confusing, but if you treat death as a learning tool instead of a barrier it's totally beatable and insanely rewarding if you finish it. Gotta git gud casuls.
@@JackXombi Yes Chakan is a great game that mostly is not appreciated. The method is to focus on getting through one stage, each time you play. Probably once each day. And leave the Genesis on, the whole time. Plus there's a trick to warp to the halfway point of the whole game.
As a kid it was always Dragon Crystal on the Sega Master System that I was never able to beat. It was a randomly generated maze type game much like Fatal Labyrinth on the Mega Drive/Genesis where it always had you looking for the exit picking up items and weapons along the way and having to fight monsters that you had to defeat in order to progress. Sometimes i'd be doing so well after about 11 stages and then boom! The next level loads you up in a large room with phantoms, witches and monsters all throwing things at you from all directions and you'd be dead in seconds. Even avoiding their fire was equally as punishing as they often make you dizzy and light headed where the controls wouldn't respond properly for several seconds leaving you open to more of a bashing from the monsters. Oh man I could go on but yeah it wasn't a Mega Drive game but I thought i'd share that experience none the less. Thank you for another video SegalordX.
2 games from this that I had were Shadow Dancer and Chakan. However, I did like both of them. Shadow Dancer I would play on the highest difficulty and without Shurikens (it's mostly memorization of where enemies spawn, or where to stand and move - since some of the enemies were the ninjas that appear out of nowhere and pounce on you). As for Chakan... I can see why people wouldn't like it. Just like you said - the difficulty was the main factor. Some of the enemies were easier to fight if you had the right weapon. And the potions / alchemy were what made the game easier. It had a system, but you just had to work with it to get through most of the stages. While the games story was pretty good (imo) the atmosphere was one of the best in any game I've ever played. I think the closest any games comes to in terms of atmosphere are the Legacy of Kain games.
With Shurikens disabled your attack would always be a sword slash, or kick (when jumping). The Power-Ups caused you to punch or kick with a bright blue power-wave (or whatever). Enemy proximity usually determined what you used as an attack. The only time Shurikens were available was when you were fighting a boss.
@@frankiegee6135 Yes! I can hardly believe it myself. But back then, there wasn't much else to do but play video games all day. And if anyone plays a game that much - of course they're going to get that good at it. :-D
I think one of the hardest games for me on Genesis was Eternal Champions. Jesus and Mary! I could make it past the first three fights just fine, but then? Brick wall. Trident was always the bastard that got me. I remember my cousin Aprilyn would come stay weekends at my house, and we would stay up all night trying to beat it. Vectorman, too. 💜
Me and a cousin I think in 1993 used to rent the entire SNES and Super Black Bass for the weekend from some mom and pop video store. (Called GA Video) I recall we once pulled Friday to Monday morning straight no sleep playing it. Got the shit kicked out of me and grounded for missing school that day. The ass kickin is probably why I remember this.
Ghouls n Ghost was definitely challenging. I would say troublesome but I was able to beat it without too much pain. Now the SMS version was a different story. Streets of Rage 3 was definitely the hardest of those games, but I often played that in co-op multiplayer, so it usually wasn't as terrible as some of these here.
I still haven't beat the 3rd streets of rage :) . But I don't mind because it's fun and keeps me coming back for more every now and then. I almost wish there wasn't playthroughs on UA-cam. Spoiled the ending for me.
@@HeavensBladeTM Bare Knuckle 3 is better in a number of ways. Sega of America did a lot of terrible, nonsensical things to that game. By the way, there's a great fan translation for BK3 on RomHacks.
I beat Comix Zone when I was 12 and playing it every year at least once.. difficulty was just perfect for such a wonderfull game, one of the best of the 16 bit era
Another great video! Subscribed, your channel has a lot of interesting content! Interesting you mentioned Road Rash, I like all of them, but have still not managed to get all the way through (aside from Road Rash 3D on PS1, which while cool graphics updates, cooler tracks and fighting mechanics and duels, made it really fun, it was beatable....Much easier than all the other games which were on Genesis and Sega CD, games on the Genesis, SNES, NES were extra challenging with many seeming dang near unbeatable unless you find a way to cheat. Newer systems might be better graphically but they seem to be easy compared to those older consoles which I still play today, including the Genesis Road Rash games.) Great video!
Video game publishers combating video game rentals in the late 80's/early 90's were to blame for a lot of it. There are quite a few Japanese games which have been made much more difficult for this reason. A few examples of games made harder due to the publisher requesting it be that way so they couldn't be beaten during a rental... Contra Hard Corps, The Lion King (the monkey puzzles were made much longer), Castlevania Bloodlines, Adventures of Bayou Billy, Super Star Wars (all 3 games), just to name few.
Bayou Billy... fuck that game. I mean, I was able to beat Bionic Commando and that game was a challenge but I would consider Bayou Billy broken in how difficult it was.
It goes to show just how ridiculously stupid publishers were during the era. Damaging the intricate balance of a game (Contra HC perfect ex), effectively lowering the games quality overall, reducing the fun factor. Unbalanced, non-developer intended difficulty is not and was not going to incentivize me to buy a game! Instead, a game that I enjoyed so much that I want to continue replaying it after a rental period is what would drive sales. Seriously, how was this not understood? Virtually everything was done wrong during this period regarding Sega's business. SOR3 is another victim, pretty sure Comix Zone has the same design ethos, as well as Adventures of Batman &R.
@@retrosoul8770 reality was...if you beat the game during rental, you weren't buying it. And if you dont beat the game, youd probably rent it again since you already invested and it was there AND you got some patterns down AND it's cheaper to rent than buy. Especially if you're just a kid and your parent is really the one who's making that decision. Why would they buy you the game when they could rent it for another night..or in my case, the next weekend, for 1 or 2 dollars..compared to $40+ buying
So if that was the case for most people then the problem isn't solved regardless. If you didn't beat the game and you rent it again (which maybe you wouldn't because of frustrating difficulty I know SOR3 was this way for alot of people, it was modified to be so hard and tedious that it wasn't fun anymore), that still doesn't drive sales and thus doesn't serve the intended purpose, making artificial, unbalanced/unintended difficulty completely meaningless. Might as well have left the games from Japan as they were and design balanced games, doesn't change my argument.
Road rash is so fun. In road rash 2 I’m at the 3rd stage and I’ve found that the lightweight bikes are working really well for me ! The physics are so hard but so good. Some other really hard games are Ranger X and Elemental Master. Also I totally have to try Immortal because of this video ! Thanks for this content, and happy 2024 to you.
Let me tell you a story about The Immortal. My brother, 5 years older than me, had a friend when I was 11-12ish, WaY back in the 90s, that would come over and basically shit talk my Genesis collection. My games were too childish and so easy(well if you're a girl you throw like one) He thought ONLY one game I had, which I think my brother might have stole, Shinning Force(maybe part 2?) was just ok. He kept bragging about The Immortal this and that and how it was the best game ever in the history of 16-bit gaming. Well screw me if our local rental store either never had it or just didn't stock it, I think they only bought the bargain bin KB toys sales for rentals, so I would beg him to borrow it. No biggie his friends brother asking to borrow a game he had beat multiple times. I thought this dude was an ass and said no( when I "Borrow" I give it back no excuses). I think I told him he could have shinning force if I could just "borrow" the immortal until I beat it. Pretty sure now looking back that he would have never got his copy back. He eventually agreed to come hang out on a Saturday with me and I could play it awesome guy looking back, that shit was so hard. He came and put in the code for the last boss or maybe a save file so I could watch him beat it. I own 4 physical Gen carts today and this is one.
@@2chickenbone I beat it when I was about 14. There were no strategy guides or internet back then. I had a lot of time on my hands and not that many games to play. The game is really hard to figure out, but you have unlimited continues and eventually you try everything until you find the solution. I love that game.
@@LaborHours fair play, i just didnt havent the patience back then, i did have patience for the combat system tho, loved figuring out how to dodge enemy attacks making them tired then counterattacking.
😂🤣 I actually had that game.i beat it but it wasn't easy. Ecco the dolphin was hard to me, sad but never beat that game. Always got stuck and didn't know where to go next.
That's funny. As a kid I could not get past the second level in Maximum Carnage where you had to climb up the buildings while being shot at by Shriek. I did beat both Xmen games though.
@@Gatorade69 yeah I made it quite a bit further than that but never beat it I had the handheld I believe it's called nomad where it took full size cartridges remember taking a trip to Florida from Michigan please all the way there and all the way back I do remember getting quite mad at that other game forever man but only put Maybe 10 hours in it in total
@@jamievmssuv35c15 yeah, the Nomad. I had one too. I finally beat Maximum Carnage years later on an emulator using save states. The sequel Separation Anxiety was pretty challenging too, especially the later stages.
@@Gatorade69 I bought a modded og xbox off a buddy it had like 10000+ games on it and just a few months ago I played that separation anxiety game I only played it like 5 minutes before moving on to checking out other games thanks for the reminder ill try to get it out in the next few days and play it
Not gonna lie, I was so happy you put Chakan on this list. So many people dont even know this game exists, and it is by far, in my opinion, one of the toughest games I've played to date. I'm gonna give this list a whirl, should be fun (or absolutely infuriating lol)
This was a cool vid. Brought back some memories! You must of never played, "Shadow of the Beast". Graphics were awesome... Enemies were 🤨🤔🤔🤔 "odd"...Gameplay was like... WTF do I do, but it was addicting AF!!! Annoying AF!!! But we kept playing it because we wanted to see what was next! 😂
Had every one of those moments back in the day. Although once you develop a rhythm for this game - it becomes very manageable. Especially when you start memorizing enemies.
Superman. The yellow box one. For being Superman everything kills you and anything you touch. You can jump to punch enemies and also land on them but... They made Superman very touchy. Let's see if Batman fairs better. One game I always seen was the death and return of superman. Never rented it or did try the game. I think I shall tho.
Shadow Dancer is a great game. Yes you need to practice, but after you get enough hours in you memorize everything. It's a very satisfying feeling to go through a level in record time. The last level is quite hard, though, almost impossible.
I find it easier with no shuriken, managed to Speedrun it relatively fast, around 13 mins. The cave is the most annoying part. The last level can be rushed, only one screen need you to be cautious.
I'm gonna need some type of comix zone nextgen remake or something. It's soo much more they can expand, on a already great concept. Too bad sega isn't really interested in reviving any of they OG IP's.
My God, that Double Dragon music is like having your nagging wife whose on her period yell in one ear while jamming an icepick in the other ear Moe from The Three Stooges style
In my childhood I had trouble with a lot of my sega games but two games that stood out to me as incredibly difficult were The Lion King and Shadow of the Beast, the latter especially. Having acquired all of my games secondhand, I had no manual to help me make sense of it and no internet to rely on. That game left me frustratedly scratching my head so many times. I eventually got to a point where I believed the game was designed to be unwinnable as a commetary on the bleakness of life or something
In Comix Zone you need to mix up high, low and mid attacks on most enemies. If you just mash the A button, they'll block most of your attacks and counter them, but if you mix them up, they go down real quick. Also when dealing with destructible elements such as the cooling fans or boxes, the Shoulder Smash move (back-forward-A in quick succesion) takes them far quicker than normal punches. Learning how to do all the moves of Comix Zone's rather nice fighting system is very rewarding and makes the game way easier.
Ugh, Comix Zone was such a badass idea, with such a cool look to it. But a beat-em-up shouldn't be that unforgiving. Thanks for posting
Hey you ! Have a great rest of your day.
What’s up snesdrunk!✌🏼😎
Mmmmm Segadrunk
More GBA games SNES drunk ;)
I think it could be viable if there werent so many enviromental things that damaged you (punching barrels, crates, etc)
Kid chameleon.. I could never beat it... there were just so many levels... one of my favorite games though
That game needed a save feature terribly.
You can beat it pretty fast but you have to know what warps to take. If you take a wrong one you can end up back in the very early levels.
@@buckroger6456 true.. but then you miss out on the exploration.. and I guess now with save states it should be easier.. I'll have to revisit it.
@@thesoulforge3607 a friend got it on a Rom for his shield and having save stats helps out so much. But yea I loved just messing around to see all the different levels.
This sounds like the perfect game for M2 to tweak and rerelease!
It was really tough to be a kid in the '90s sometimes. The only real research you could do on a game's quality where either screenshots in a magazine or your friend's word, neither of which were very reliable. On top of that, I was playing the Sega Genesis when I was maybe 9 years old, and a lot of the titles expected you to have really good reflexes. I was 9 years old. I didn't have any reflexes.
There was Tips & Tricks magazine. Tons of useful stuff. Codes, tactics and all that.
I still have clippings from there. Although, i was 14-15....not 9
But i still play it several decades later :-)
"So, like... most of them?" -me, 0.832 seconds before realizing I've been pampered and babied by modern games
Ive been a gamer since 1994. Trust me when I say we have been pampered since the PS2/Xbox/GameCube era. Games of the 80s and 90s (especially the 80s) were damn hard
Dude no one cares
They were all hard to mostly prevent you from beating a SUPER short game, so if we had good tech back then we would have never struggled
@@gammaguyyt I see what you mean, with save features and bigger rom storage, but still, I'm glad arcadey games eventually picked up that "if it's fun people will replay it, you don't need to make it a wall of difficulty".
TBH I view games that are "Nintendo hard" from the 80s and 90s as a cheap, lazy way to get people to buy instead of rent, combating video stores with the psychological trick of "I want to beat this even though it's just hard and not very fun". Modern games are all still too easy, can't think of a single one past Fire Emblem Awakening where I've failed a mandatory challenge multiple times and had to restart that part, but Battletoads and Ninja Gaiden, I'm just going to say it, the difficulty is a result of laziness and ignorance on the part of the devs.
@@baronvonsvengoonie1767Then why reply?
Comix zone was such a unique concept like a lot of other Genesis games. Great video as always.
Echo The Dolphin really is a creative feat. I remember the game being very fun and challenging, but I was probably only playing the first level or first few levels. The physics felt so good, it was very impressive in it's own time.
You'd think a game where you control a dolphin would be calming and relaxing! Not so with ECCO the dolphin 😂😂
Man I love Shadow Dancer. I remember spending hours working through it with my dad, and how we celebrated when we beat it. Man, good times!
Yup. My good friend and his late father use to play it with me. Good times for sure.
@@SegaLordX I've realized recently, thanks to you, that many of the best memories I had with my late father involved the Genesis and Saturn. Since I had your ear for a second I just wanted to thank you for that.
Talking about this stuff has a way of bringing back the better times in our lives. Or at least times worth remembering. I'm glad the channel could help with that. :)
I can't figure out how to hit the last boss more than once on that game. lol
Butterworthy your dad is cool my pops maybe was a little bit too old to game with me but it’s funny he now what’s to get a PSVR lol
I have no problem with fair difficulty, but when a game is difficult due to poor/cheap design, that's irritating.
What games would you consider difficult due to design?
Cuphead says hi
The original PROTOTYPE was a perfect example. The design of that game felt so broken. I did beat it once but it was a very, VERY frustrating affair. PROTOTYPE 2 did everything right and very thoroughly enjoyable.
@@deliciousfirstsip
Sword of Sodan. Chakan.
Fatman. (yes, there was such game...more like an abomination)
There are plenty of such "gems" for Megadrive.
That and time limits
LOVED XMEN!!!! But could never make it past the 2nd level. Somehow i still would play it every day and never got tired of it.
Gaiares. Man, that game is hard. It took me 29 years to finally see the ending. It's brutal, yet it's such a great game.
That game was the first to ever visually wow me through screenshots in a magazine, and I remember wanting it so bad. I'm glad I never got it as a kid though, because it is absolutely brutal.
My all time favorite shooter. Bought it as a kid and played the hell out of it, but don't recall getting too far. The music is incredible, too.
agree.. shoot em ups were ridiculously hard
That is such a R-Type rip off!! LOL
@@DxV04 except it doesn't play like R-Type at all. It's a much faster game, and the TOZ module cannot be used to shield your ship, so it's not as defensive of a playstyle. It plays more similarly to Thunder Force than R-Type, honestly.
Aw, no Target Earth, the game the Japanese consider the hardest Mega Drive game (Assault Suit Leynos) of all and a game they had to tone down the difficulty for the PS4 remake.
Ah, hi Larry. Agreed. Level 4 of Target Earth just plops you in the middle of a flat terrain that's just SWARMING with ground and airborne enemies. It doesn't let up after that.
My friend was crazy good at Target Earth. He plowedthrough that game.
He was also the same guy to beat Forgotten Worlds in the arcade on a quarter. I watched him do it.
He did say games that destroyed him when he was younger Larry.
I can complete the game on normal and hard (without the all weapons cheat). I think Hyper mode is practically impossible, though. In level 2 on hyper, you get quickly vaporized by the grenade launchers, and without the all weapons cheat and jet pack, you are hosed.
Hyper mode is so hard, I refuse to believe anyone completed it without cheating unless they do it right in front of me on the original hardware.
Ah, Road Rash... I knew within 20 minutes of playing when I rented it that I wanted to buy it, lol. As fate would have it, I never bought MUSHA, even though I rented it enough times that I probably could have with all that rent money.
Hell, even with a 100 life cheat code that I found in GamePro magazine once, I couldn’t finish out Stage 5.
MUSHA seems great. I should play it more.
I got Road Rash and Sonic 1 with my Megadrive back in Christmas 91. I had seen Road Rash on one of the old video games TV shows and had pestered my poor parents for months. It hardly left the cart slot of my MD (until RR2 came out)
Dynamite Headdy's a great game, but it becomes absolutely BRUTAL from about half way through the tower level, I don't know how the 9-year-old me had the patience to make it past that one.
True and you had to start from the start when you lost all your lives
Nice work. That game seems to get brutal. I had limited time with it so far but saw my friend playing it. I can tell I would need heavy practice to put that game to sleep. ha ha. Keep in mind by heavy practice I mean using save and load states to practice efficiently which was not an option back then.
Yeah, I kept dying on the Twin Freaks boss fight because I keep hitting the switch by mistake when trying to hit him. He get all red and stomps me out of all of my lives.
@Hand Hanzo Nice. I will have to play that one more. I barely played it but from watching my friend play it looked like it got very hard.
Literally just played through that one...And yes it's gets seriously tough especially after the halfway point. Some of those later bosses are just mind-numbingly tough. But the art design, characters, and overall feel of the game, is just so unique and interesting, and IMO kept me going. Plus, the game is the good kind of challenging and isn't cheap or mindless kind of tough. It's kind of the game that keeps you playing because you know it's you that messed up and not the game.
Treasure was seriously one of the best developers out there, it's kind of crazy just how good and timeless their games are. It's really sad to learn about the state of the company nowadays, with them being basically a shell of their former selves...They only have about 30 employees and there last game came out in 2014, and they mostly focus on more lucrative licensed titles and/or re-releasing their old titles. They even said that they no longer make completely original software and now exclusively use middleware to develop games, no longer using custom programming to push the hardware to their maximum levels. Which was a major trademark of Treasure and a big factor in what made their games so highly prized.
Comix zone was a pain in the ass, but was an amazing game anyway.
I loved the presentation. It really was a cool game. But man was it infuriating sometimes.
To be fair it gives you an extra life after you finish every two pages, but that still only leaves you with a maximum of three lives to finish the game with.
And also, twenty-three years later and I STILL haven't beat the last boss!
Some things infuriate me about it, like taking damage for punching objects that you need to punch to get by.
@@Rayofficial13565 Yeah, there's a bit before the long-fingernail boss where if you don't have your rat with you, you're basically fucked (having to punch through that spiky punching bag thing).
its just a nice game. the difficulty which makes you play the same over and over again, spoils the fun a lot.
When I first tried Comix Zone I tried to play it like a normal beat em up and got frustrated, but I later came back to it and came to understand that its its own style of game and when you take time to understand the mechanics it becomes a very fun and rewarding game.
Really difficult Genesis games. In other words, Genesis games. Haha! Great vid.
Exactly
I love Shadow Dancer! It was one of the first games I got with my Genesis and the first Shinobi game I had played since the original arcade (I didn't play 2 or 3 until years later).
I played the hell out of it. So much so that, as a kid, I would turn off the shuriken and beat the game using sword and dog only. I'd love a modern remake.
I finished it in two days !!!!
Genesis Shadow Dancer was a rather easy game once you figure it out. Playing with only the sword wasn't even hard as it is just as powerful and useful than the shurikens.
@@XENOS_Indie_Game_Dev Exactly! And let's not forget the prettiest endgame
sequence (out of 3 available) - is shown only on hard difficulty.
Sonic and Shadow Dancer were my first 2 games with my Sega. I played the shit out of both of them. The game is still solid to this day. I always found a way to knock the boss off the Statue of Liberty for an instant kill just for shits and giggles.
Awesome comment section to find fellow gen Xers and older millenials. A lot of us had blue collar parents that told us back then to choose a path: Super NES or SEGA. They were not getting us both. I chose the Genesis because a good buddy had the SNES so we would switch systems often.
Damn...remember how big of a deal it was to bring your entire system over someone's house? Many a hot sweaty days and nights on the 3rd floor with just a box fan, gaming system and stolen ciggs. I was such a goddamn degenerate. Wasted childhood.
Those were the days weren't they, mate? I just wish my son could experience sth like that era.
Only missing chicks on that story
Your comment makes me realize that although my family was far from wealthy, me and my brother, and younger sister were pretty fortunate as far as games were concerned.
We had the NES, then the SNES, Gen, TG16 and a PC.
I love the challenge and intensity of 16-bit gaming, it's one of the reasons why I prefer this era over modern gaming or *cough* "open world" gaming overall. The majority of my most memorable and favorite games are some of the hardest of the console, like Alien Soldier, Shinobi trilogy, Thunder Force 4, Musha, Fire Shark, Super Hang On etc (the shooters on harder difficulties), Gunstar Heroes, SOR2 (again on harder diff) etc. I would challenge myself to win without continues or to play Shinobi without ever losing a power up and it gives the experience alot of life for me.
The biggest difference comes down to good design, challenge backed up by fair smart design is always desired, fun and rewarding to master.
Play "Ori and the blind forest" on hard, or "Cup Head."
I definitely have those games in my radar and know there are games that capture the "spirit" of 16-bit gaming still, they're just sadly not as popular or as common of course anymore but I'm delighted they still exist.
Nowadays, I discovered a lot of 16- Bit Games where the harder difficulties offered me much more satisfaction, too.
Especially Shmups playing with 1 credit for the highscore.
Honestly the 16 era I got the most enjoyment from cuz I really had to "get gud" at alot of games and eventually did with some. Others took some time to figure out.
Exactly, that's where alot of the fun&satisfaction comes from. Overcoming the challenge. Plus many 16-bit games, have some hidden attacks/mechanics that you'd likely never discover on your own without a gamefaqs or manual. I never would have known about the dash attack in Shinobi 3 with invincibility frames for ex. That learning process can be exciting too and adds more to the game.
I thought Gargoyles was one of the harder games for me. Loved every second of it
Chakan is surprisingly beatable, even on hard. The secret is to use the door spell. ALOT. It warps you back to the main hub, but it saves the spot you warped from, so everytime you re-enter the level, you start from there. Makes the game a hundred times easier. And potions regenerate, so its no big deal to keep using them.
The door spell also skips half the game if you use it on top of an little island in the hub world. Like I said, extremely useful to finishing the game.
Dude dats da game I been looking 4 omg I hated dis game man I hated dis game finally found it
I found Streets Of Rage 3 to be a pretty damn tough game on Genesis. I could beat 1 and 2 but 3 man forget it.
3 was easiest
I have never heard of comix zone, but its one of the nicest looking Genysis games I have seen.
Alien 3. I absolutely love that game: smooth sprite animation, tight gameplay (a great mix of blasting, exploration, and racing against the clock), and a kick-ass Matt Furniss soundtrack... but I could never get past the alien ship. Over a quarter of a century after I first played it, I still haven’t completed it - but I still love firing it up for a quick blast when I have the time. :)
I love the SNES version but the Genesis one always threw me for a loop being a completely different game.
I love it when the Mega Drive and the SNES have totally different games belonging to the same franchise -- it's so neat to see the different interpretations that developers came up with. Interestingly, the SNES version is the odd-one out here: the Mega Drive version was also released on the Amiga, the Master System, the Game Gear, the Commodore 64, and the NES. The SNES was the only system to receive its version of Alien 3.
I think that game would have been made much better/more fair by simply removing the timer. The aliens were fast and lethal, that restrictive timer on top of everything else kinda killed the fun for me.
Jools Stoo The time-limit is pretty brutal on some stages. Many’s the time I failed a mission because I’d missed a single hostage early on (and by the time I realised, there wasn’t enough time to go back for the hostage and *then* get all the way back to the exit). Maybe if the time limits were a little bit longer then it would have been better... or if they only used a time-limit on the stages that didn’t involve rescuing hostages. To be honest, though, I kind of enjoyed the sense of panic that the timer introduced to the game... but I’m probably in the minority!
It was the closest thing we got to the Aliens game in the arcade. I ended up it buying the Aliens arcade game years later to play at home.I still enjoy Aliens 3 on the Genesis today.
Comix zone was the hardest for me, I was so frustrated and angry. Thanks for video, very interesting
What makes me mad in Ecco is how fast you run out of air. It's so annoying as real dolphins can hold their breaths for long periods of time, and in Ecco you have a few minutes of air.
Real dolphins ftw
If you had the lung capacity of a real dolphin though, it wouldn't give you that challenge.
+Jeremy Seal
Maybe Ecco was a smoker.
+Hand Hanzo
I had it as a kid, but could never beat it. It was a beautiful game, though.
Welcome to the machine is brutal.
I absolutely hate Chakan the Forever Man. My hatred for that game knows almost no bounds, it's terrible in everyway and I'm glad we can both agree on that.
Somehow Sega must own the rights for it, despite always believing it was/is based on a comic book. They keep re-releasing that fucker on every AtGames plug-n-play that seems to come out.
Me too, hated it back then and still hate it today.
I never played it back in the day, but Lord X's repeated criticism of it actually makes me curious to give it a try (I'm sure it will be as bad as he says)
@@mrbig2648 honestly don't, your curiosity is better used elsewhere, you'll just end up jaded by early 90s terrible game design, lol.
For some reason I always kept playing it as a kid. I kind of liked what they were trying for but the end result wasn't that great. I never finished it though.
Comic Zone wasn't too bad once you learned the tricks of each panel. When to use the environment, what items to use, when to pull the rat out to search for hidden items, etc. It was almost a puzzle beat 'em up, if that makes sense. Anyhow, it's one of my favorite Genesis games. :)
Paper planes
I loved that game, if we are talking sega then its ecco the dolphin. I would get stock on it and not know what to do next.
I agree 100%. I don't see the fuss with this game.
Don't forget the rather robust (for a beat'em up) fighting system upon mastering which you can take out most enemies in no time.
Indeed, but if somehow you're able to play the JPN release (which have the option to put the game in English and not forced to play with JPN texts during the game), every page you clear (there are 6 pages in the game) you can get up to 5 extra lives to keep trying to beat the game (the USA and EUR releases ONLY give you 2 extra lives by completing the two pages of stage 1 and 2).
I could never figure out what I was supposed to do in Echo the Dolphin and The Immortal. I was the GOAT at Road Rash though! 💪🏼
Awesome video. I grew up playing most of these games, owning them all except Thunder Force 2, and I dont think I beat any of them. X-men, Shadow Dancer, Chakan; loved them all! I'm happy to see I didn't just suck at gaming and that others found them equally difficult...lol. oh and Budokan looked beautiful but is utter head-shaking programming.
Alien Soldier
Average difficulty, and game itself is a hidden gem of the system.
That game was hard.
Chameleon Kid’s floaty-slippery controls are of pure evil.
I remember beating Chakan back when I was younger. I loved that ending.
The giant worms in the Immortal were great.
with even just 3 lives Comix Zone could have been a classic, but one life and no continues is inexcusable
Yeah that's brutal 😂😂
I played an rpg called The Faire Tale Adventure. My character would leave the town, die instantly, and then his brother would take over as the lead. He would leave town, die instantly, and then the final brother repeated that again and it was game over. Never got far into it.
I managed to beat the amiga 500 version of that game only by grinding for at least 10-15 hours worth of skeletons, getting my bravery high enough so that little could hurt me. Then I found out you can stand on top of the turtle on the east coast and slash it forever, raising bravery quickly while it took no damage. Tape the fire button down, come back half an hour later and you'd have a bravery of 500, making you invincible.
I remember that bastard of a game- it would have driven me to drugs if I wasn't on them already.
Loved that atmosphere of that game though, and the music..! ...i also may have saved over my older brother's progress in that game, putting my life in peril. lol
oh yeah, I remember nice music and colors / graphics, but I never figured out how to do anything lol.
Shadowrun. But it was my favorite Genesis game of all time.
You never miss a chance to shade Chakan, haha
Loving your content Shadow Dancer is one of my all time favorites along with E-swat
X-men was definitely better with game genie codes. I remember being so annoyed that wolverine having his claws out alone used up your power meter.
yeah that annoyed me, plus I thought it was going to be the arcade brawler, which it's definitely not lol.
I loved how nightcrawler really broke the system by teleporting. Even nostalgically looking up him versus apocalypse. PS of course when you're a kid with a handful of games, as long as it's beatable, you'd tough through it
Target Earth was the first game that I discovered an invincibility code for... And boy did I need it
Contra hard corps !!!!!!
either the hardest or easiest Contra depending which regional version you get. so crazy good though
This game is a blast, I was playing it co-op with my cousin back in 98 and getting it done in every single playthrough each weekend including get every ending... I barely pass 1st stages without losing lots of lives nowadays...
I finished it recently for the first time with my buddy and damn this game is a gem, to me is on par with III on SNES is hard but is so good and fun and the sound and FX explosions everything is great.
No... This game is far too easy when you recognize the enemy patterns. Mindlessly easy.
@@afistfulofpimples1745 You can say that for pretty much every game, e.g. ninja gaiden (NES), etc, of course it becomes easy once you learn the patterns, but that doesn't mean it's easy.
Xmen was the hardest game for me. And then to turn around and tell me to reset is like emoting before a finisher! Awesome episode SLX!
The Jumping red Ninjas from Shadow Dancer are rage incarnate.
play in non-shuriken mode. that overhead slash hits jumping ninjas so easy.
Si,son un dolor de cabeza porque tienes que pegarle 2 veces para matarlos, imaginate con los ninjas grises que estan mas dificiles y tienes que pegarles cuatro veces para que se mueran, y en el modo sin shurikens se complica mas por que tienes que esquivarlos y pegarles con tu espada por lo que eso hace mas dificil el juego.
Green monkeys were worse. On the hardest level.
The hardest Genesis game I've ever played, is also one of the very worst. Last Battle aka Hokuto no Ken. Which was basically the sequel to Black Belt/HNK on the Master System. Except while Black Belt was the good kind of challenging, Last Battle was difficult due to the fact that every aspect of the gameplay was poorly designed. You get enemies and hazards that can easily juggle you to death, there are these really awful dungeon levels where you have to navigate same-y looking rooms to find the exit, boss battles where one screw up will gobble up most of your health, and there are no continues. It also isn't helped by the fact that you are basically useless unless you power up. Doing so requires grinding. If you manage to defeat the boss of the area, you don't stay powered up and have to grind all over again. The original Japanese version is exactly as terrible, but has some blood and gore not present in the Western release.
Last Battle was definitely difficult. I remember getting killed a lot trying to figure out what I was suppose to do.
It's terrible but I like it. I used to play it a lot. Eventually you learn there's an optimal way to traverse the map to gain the power ups in a certain order to make the cheap boss fights a little easier. It does have a cheat code that starts you at the beginning of the last chapter you made it to, at least.
I wish they'd kept the gore. Enemies flying off the screen just looks really dumb.
yeah hard indeed, but I loved that game.
Last Battle, awesome awesome game. And black belt. Beat both with no problem. Its crazy every game on the list of the video. I've beat and owned. And I never threw my controller and I was laugh but never gave up and beat every single game that I played and enjoyed all of them.
Last Battle is a very mediocre game but doesnt seem too hard when you know what to do. My good friend beat the game, but it is very boring and the levels have mazes that you need to know which order of doors to enter, etc, from what I remember.
Fatal Labyrinth is pretty tough dungeon crawler.
The monsters that make you drop weapons...
Fantastic list, bro. I felt the exact same way about most of the titles you mentioned
Red Zone was a tough Mega Drive/Genesis game and I've heard that the Mega Drive/Genesis version of Contra is said to be very tough.
Reina Watt Contra is waaaaaaay top hard. Red Zone has the best Genesis graphics
Reina Watt Contra is waaaaaaay too hard. Red Zone has the best Genesis graphics
Contra and Red Zone would be quite the challenge for anyone who's eager for a couple of tough games to beat.
Subterranea (also by Zyrinx) is pretty hard too, especially if you play with the fully physics enabled.
Thanks! I always thought I sucked at games, but I completed Road Rash 2 so I can feel pretty satisfied about that! I thinbk I stuck it out because the game is well designed, it gets progressively harder. Games that start out hard don't really encourage you to keep playing because they stifle your progress.
Western games of these eras were difficult due to bad design,japanese ones difficult by purpose.
A lot of Japanese versions were actually easier than the North American ones.
@@subzero8679 Thats very true,but I am talking about something else.
I was talking about westerrn-japanese companies,not same game region differences.
I think you could be talking about the same thing. The Japanese versions probably fixed / tweaked the broken mechanics and made the games easier.
@@JackXombi no, dummy, he`s saying that Japanese developed games were better than 99% of western developed games. And he`s 100% right.
In Japanese games when you died it was mostly your fault most of their games are challenging without being cheap or because of clunky controls as opposed to most older western releases
Man I thought comix zone was hard because I was too young and trash, but watching this gave me relief
Kid Chameleon on the Genesis is pretty brutal after a few levels. Every time I revisit it, I rage quit half way through.
Lol same
As a kid I never raged at the game I just tried again and again the Furthist I got was the first city level.
I agree on Chakan's stupid difficulty, and when I first rented it, I barely got to some bosses, but I will defend that game with twin swords from here to kingdom come.
Shadow Dancer on the other hand was one of my first games, and I played SO MUCH that at a point I knew exactly where every enemy was supposed to be, and obviously beat the game.
For me to name a few. Never beat them to this day:
Tatsujin/Truxxton (especially on Hard)
Undead Line
Slapfight MD
Zero Wing (on Hard difficulty)
Gaiares
...
Hi Mel
Tom from Germany
basically all shmups and the likes! but they are all awesome!
Yes it is. Even harder than the Arcade version
Indeed. They are all awesome
I beat them long time ago,not the hardest ones but better gameplay and visibility in action,collisions,pattern...Hellfire(hidden hardest mode)&Phelios(better then arcade for my part,not simple portage,all revisited stages for genesis).
Yeah.
The Boss (Dont know which level it was/ guessing the 4th on hard) with those rockets which fly towards you while moving. Very hard as I am in the morning to dodge for me ;)
One thing I noticed during my years playing video games is that the Sega Genesis is one of those consoles that have very tough games to beat and they require a lot of practice.
Target Earth or Assault Suit Leynos
Man Leynos was so good. That and Arrow Flash. Good times.
beat it with invicibility cheat code
Target Earth IS Assault Suit Leynos
@@jrapocalypse I think that's what they were trying to imply. They should have used an AKA there obviously.
I absolutely LOVE Comix Zone! I could not beat it in its original form but got so close... Beat it on a collection disk with save states many years later. One of my favs to this day.
Shadow Dancer has one of the sickest soundtracks ever to this day, that midi slap bass man...
Comix Zone is on my list for sure, taking damage while punching stuff also made things tougher. I also felt Maximum Carnage was tough but eventually beat it, as well as Mickey Mania; The Revenge of Shinobi; Golden Axe 3; Streets of Rage 3. Beat all of them eventually but they weren't so easy.
I am just starting to watch the episode so I have no idea if it will come up, but The Terminator was totally insane on the Genesis. Back when I had to rent a Genesis (My parents were against us having consoles for the longest time) this was one of the few selections available. You start off armed only with grenades that fly in a high arc and if you manage to get past the first two very hard enemies without dying you are then forced underground... where your grenades explode directly over your head on impact thus forcing you to crouch and soak up bullets. Safe to say I never got past the first level and still didn't when I streamed it myself about a month or so ago.
Once you get past that brutal first level, the game actually gets way easier. It's really short too. I played way too much of that game as a kid lol.
The level with the jeep and airplane was tough. I think its the 3rd level. Once you get past the future stuff its pretty easy. Still a fun game
Really enjoyed the vid SLX.
But man - I feel the same way about Chakan the Forever man as you do m'friend.
Wow, I thought I was the only person who had trouble with TFII.
Budhakon is tough, deep, and fustrating., but when u finally "get it" ..... its good. The timing is extreme.
ecco, as much as I love it, I admit to never finishing it.
The first road rash is still my favorite but imo u need to grind early and then just master the courses. Easily worth it, incredible timeless game
I remember I would have been fine in Budhakon if I wouldn't have run out of nunchaku or bo-staff uses. When I'd get down to Karate or Kendo, game over...
So I'm not making this up. I always felt like Comix Zone kicked my ass so much more than anyone else's. Damn that game is hard.
About Budokan, it’s not you. The game sucks :p
Music is nice though. I actually got quite good at it, acing the training sections, but I never got past the 4th guy in the tournament.
I remember trying that one too. Yeah, very lame controls and tottaly unplayable.
Anyone know why the game is only compatible with model 1?
Zombies Ate My Neighbors. I found that game to be extremely hard because certain household projectiles and weapons are more effective than others (The water gun works on zombies, but not on chainsaw-wielding maniacs.). Oh, and the whole pressure of rescuing all the neighbors before the monsters get them. 😵
I still play this game often. Nowadays I can save all the neighbors until I get to like level 30, still cant get a perfect run T_T those damn Water Creatures are a nightmare for the neighbors, popping up just ahead of me pulling a cheap kill!
I think i might be the only person that loved Chakan! Haha
Definitely not the only one. The game has a lot of challenges and can be extremely confusing, but if you treat death as a learning tool instead of a barrier it's totally beatable and insanely rewarding if you finish it. Gotta git gud casuls.
@@JackXombi Yes Chakan is a great game that mostly is not appreciated. The method is to focus on getting through one stage, each time you play. Probably once each day. And leave the Genesis on, the whole time. Plus there's a trick to warp to the halfway point of the whole game.
I LOVE Chakan!!!
As a kid it was always Dragon Crystal on the Sega Master System that I was never able to beat. It was a randomly generated maze type game much like Fatal Labyrinth on the Mega Drive/Genesis where it always had you looking for the exit picking up items and weapons along the way and having to fight monsters that you had to defeat in order to progress. Sometimes i'd be doing so well after about 11 stages and then boom! The next level loads you up in a large room with phantoms, witches and monsters all throwing things at you from all directions and you'd be dead in seconds. Even avoiding their fire was equally as punishing as they often make you dizzy and light headed where the controls wouldn't respond properly for several seconds leaving you open to more of a bashing from the monsters. Oh man I could go on but yeah it wasn't a Mega Drive game but I thought i'd share that experience none the less.
Thank you for another video SegalordX.
2 games from this that I had were Shadow Dancer and Chakan. However, I did like both of them. Shadow Dancer I would play on the highest difficulty and without Shurikens (it's mostly memorization of where enemies spawn, or where to stand and move - since some of the enemies were the ninjas that appear out of nowhere and pounce on you).
As for Chakan... I can see why people wouldn't like it. Just like you said - the difficulty was the main factor. Some of the enemies were easier to fight if you had the right weapon. And the potions / alchemy were what made the game easier. It had a system, but you just had to work with it to get through most of the stages. While the games story was pretty good (imo) the atmosphere was one of the best in any game I've ever played. I think the closest any games comes to in terms of atmosphere are the Legacy of Kain games.
Did you have the sword at least? I think revenge of shinobi you had the sword if you powered up.
With Shurikens disabled your attack would always be a sword slash, or kick (when jumping). The Power-Ups caused you to punch or kick with a bright blue power-wave (or whatever). Enemy proximity usually determined what you used as an attack. The only time Shurikens were available was when you were fighting a boss.
No stars? Are you serious
@@frankiegee6135 Yes! I can hardly believe it myself. But back then, there wasn't much else to do but play video games all day. And if anyone plays a game that much - of course they're going to get that good at it. :-D
Fantasia and bubsy the cat drove me to the depths of insanity in 1993.
Chakan was a favorite of mine. You had to get into it young to enjoy it.
Still is a favourite of mine, and I didn't play it until I was 18. It either grabs you, or it doesn't.
I think one of the hardest games for me on Genesis was Eternal Champions. Jesus and Mary! I could make it past the first three fights just fine, but then? Brick wall. Trident was always the bastard that got me. I remember my cousin Aprilyn would come stay weekends at my house, and we would stay up all night trying to beat it. Vectorman, too. 💜
Me and a cousin I think in 1993 used to rent the entire SNES and Super Black Bass for the weekend from some mom and pop video store. (Called GA Video) I recall we once pulled Friday to Monday morning straight no sleep playing it. Got the shit kicked out of me and grounded for missing school that day. The ass kickin is probably why I remember this.
@@an0therdimensi0n99 You spent an entire weekend playing a fishing game? Lmiao. Must be a good one. Was never an SNES girl.
Comix Zone is by far the best Geneis beat em up I have ever played, but for it to be that hard makes me cry
Streets of Rage?
Easy peasy man.
X-men was impossible. You were a beast getting through two stages with using up lives.
What about Ghosts 'n' Ghouls and Streets of Rage 3?
Ghouls n Ghost was definitely challenging. I would say troublesome but I was able to beat it without too much pain. Now the SMS version was a different story. Streets of Rage 3 was definitely the hardest of those games, but I often played that in co-op multiplayer, so it usually wasn't as terrible as some of these here.
I still haven't beat the 3rd streets of rage :) . But I don't mind because it's fun and keeps me coming back for more every now and then. I almost wish there wasn't playthroughs on UA-cam. Spoiled the ending for me.
Bare knuckle 3 was a lot easier and better in my opinion. I'd suggest playing it instead of SoR3. only drawback is that story is in japanese.
@@HeavensBladeTM
Bare Knuckle 3 is better in a number of ways. Sega of America did a lot of terrible, nonsensical things to that game. By the way, there's a great fan translation for BK3 on RomHacks.
@@SegaLordX I never beat any Ghoul's and Ghost game.
Great to see the Ecco game getting some love. I think the second one was more difficult though imo.
I beat Comix Zone when I was 12 and playing it every year at least once.. difficulty was just perfect for such a wonderfull game, one of the best of the 16 bit era
Another great video! Subscribed, your channel has a lot of interesting content! Interesting you mentioned Road Rash, I like all of them, but have still not managed to get all the way through (aside from Road Rash 3D on PS1, which while cool graphics updates, cooler tracks and fighting mechanics and duels, made it really fun, it was beatable....Much easier than all the other games which were on Genesis and Sega CD, games on the Genesis, SNES, NES were extra challenging with many seeming dang near unbeatable unless you find a way to cheat. Newer systems might be better graphically but they seem to be easy compared to those older consoles which I still play today, including the Genesis Road Rash games.) Great video!
Video game publishers combating video game rentals in the late 80's/early 90's were to blame for a lot of it. There are quite a few Japanese games which have been made much more difficult for this reason. A few examples of games made harder due to the publisher requesting it be that way so they couldn't be beaten during a rental... Contra Hard Corps, The Lion King (the monkey puzzles were made much longer), Castlevania Bloodlines, Adventures of Bayou Billy, Super Star Wars (all 3 games), just to name few.
Bayou Billy... fuck that game. I mean, I was able to beat Bionic Commando and that game was a challenge but I would consider Bayou Billy broken in how difficult it was.
It goes to show just how ridiculously stupid publishers were during the era. Damaging the intricate balance of a game (Contra HC perfect ex), effectively lowering the games quality overall, reducing the fun factor. Unbalanced, non-developer intended difficulty is not and was not going to incentivize me to buy a game!
Instead, a game that I enjoyed so much that I want to continue replaying it after a rental period is what would drive sales. Seriously, how was this not understood?
Virtually everything was done wrong during this period regarding Sega's business. SOR3 is another victim, pretty sure Comix Zone has the same design ethos, as well as Adventures of Batman &R.
thats correct, but it was a good thing IMO
@@retrosoul8770 reality was...if you beat the game during rental, you weren't buying it. And if you dont beat the game, youd probably rent it again since you already invested and it was there AND you got some patterns down AND it's cheaper to rent than buy.
Especially if you're just a kid and your parent is really the one who's making that decision.
Why would they buy you the game when they could rent it for another night..or in my case, the next weekend, for 1 or 2 dollars..compared to $40+ buying
So if that was the case for most people then the problem isn't solved regardless. If you didn't beat the game and you rent it again (which maybe you wouldn't because of frustrating difficulty I know SOR3 was this way for alot of people, it was modified to be so hard and tedious that it wasn't fun anymore), that still doesn't drive sales and thus doesn't serve the intended purpose, making artificial, unbalanced/unintended difficulty completely meaningless.
Might as well have left the games from Japan as they were and design balanced games, doesn't change my argument.
Road rash is so fun. In road rash 2 I’m at the 3rd stage and I’ve found that the lightweight bikes are working really well for me ! The physics are so hard but so good. Some other really hard games are Ranger X and Elemental Master. Also I totally have to try Immortal because of this video ! Thanks for this content, and happy 2024 to you.
Let me tell you a story about The Immortal. My brother, 5 years older than me, had a friend when I was 11-12ish, WaY back in the 90s, that would come over and basically shit talk my Genesis collection. My games were too childish and so easy(well if you're a girl you throw like one) He thought ONLY one game I had, which I think my brother might have stole, Shinning Force(maybe part 2?) was just ok. He kept bragging about The Immortal this and that and how it was the best game ever in the history of 16-bit gaming. Well screw me if our local rental store either never had it or just didn't stock it, I think they only bought the bargain bin KB toys sales for rentals, so I would beg him to borrow it. No biggie his friends brother asking to borrow a game he had beat multiple times. I thought this dude was an ass and said no( when I "Borrow" I give it back no excuses). I think I told him he could have shinning force if I could just "borrow" the immortal until I beat it. Pretty sure now looking back that he would have never got his copy back. He eventually agreed to come hang out on a Saturday with me and I could play it awesome guy looking back, that shit was so hard. He came and put in the code for the last boss or maybe a save file so I could watch him beat it. I own 4 physical Gen carts today and this is one.
If anybody beat that game without any strategy guides back in the day is full of shit. As if you were meant to read the runes on the dragon ffs
@@2chickenbone I beat it when I was about 14. There were no strategy guides or internet back then. I had a lot of time on my hands and not that many games to play. The game is really hard to figure out, but you have unlimited continues and eventually you try everything until you find the solution. I love that game.
@@LaborHours fair play, i just didnt havent the patience back then, i did have patience for the combat system tho, loved figuring out how to dodge enemy attacks making them tired then counterattacking.
He was just jealous of all your games. He probably only had one game.
Shadow dancer is definitely the hardest to me esp that stage w the shadows!
In my opinion:
Splatterhouse Games II+III
Shadow of the Beast
Indiana Jones
Back to the Future 3
are extrem hard games.
Splatterhouse 1 wasn't on Genesis, only 2 and 3.
@@tehValorin Thanks for the hint. I corrected it :-)
Shadow of the beast was rough lol
Yo Sega Lord X, love what you've been doing! Keep it up. I'm also a diehard Sega fan myself! Cheers.
Some of my earliest rage quit memories are from Flashback.
A pretty easy game until that final level... so frustrating.
@@happyspaceinvader508 I wouldn't say easy. You needed to know what to do. Even getting past the first level required some thinking.
Good Stuff Man! The final boss of Sonic 2, BioHazard and Contra Hard Corps. Subscribed.
I always found Beavis & Butthead very hard.
😂🤣 I actually had that game.i beat it but it wasn't easy. Ecco the dolphin was hard to me, sad but never beat that game. Always got stuck and didn't know where to go next.
Definitely
X Men was just about the only game that required you to actually hit the reset button to clear the game.
Maximum Carnage was very hard when I was younger but the X-Men just straight-up pissed me off
That's funny. As a kid I could not get past the second level in Maximum Carnage where you had to climb up the buildings while being shot at by Shriek. I did beat both Xmen games though.
@@Gatorade69 yeah I made it quite a bit further than that but never beat it I had the handheld I believe it's called nomad where it took full size cartridges remember taking a trip to Florida from Michigan please all the way there and all the way back I do remember getting quite mad at that other game forever man but only put Maybe 10 hours in it in total
@@jamievmssuv35c15 yeah, the Nomad. I had one too. I finally beat Maximum Carnage years later on an emulator using save states. The sequel Separation Anxiety was pretty challenging too, especially the later stages.
@@Gatorade69 I bought a modded og xbox off a buddy it had like 10000+ games on it and just a few months ago I played that separation anxiety game I only played it like 5 minutes before moving on to checking out other games thanks for the reminder ill try to get it out in the next few days and play it
I think the key to beating that game was finding EVERY secret room where you could refill your health.
Not gonna lie, I was so happy you put Chakan on this list. So many people dont even know this game exists, and it is by far, in my opinion, one of the toughest games I've played to date. I'm gonna give this list a whirl, should be fun (or absolutely infuriating lol)
Oh man, I was a big X-Men fan when I found that first Genesis game and it was SUCH A LETDOWN.
This was a cool vid. Brought back some memories! You must of never played, "Shadow of the Beast". Graphics were awesome... Enemies were 🤨🤔🤔🤔 "odd"...Gameplay was like... WTF do I do, but it was addicting AF!!! Annoying AF!!! But we kept playing it because we wanted to see what was next! 😂
Had every one of those moments back in the day.
Although once you develop a rhythm for this game - it becomes very manageable.
Especially when you start memorizing enemies.
Superman. The yellow box one. For being Superman everything kills you and anything you touch. You can jump to punch enemies and also land on them but... They made Superman very touchy. Let's see if Batman fairs better. One game I always seen was the death and return of superman. Never rented it or did try the game. I think I shall tho.
I'd agree on Superman. It was quite hard. More so than Batman from Sunsoft by quite a stretch.
@@SegaLordX shame it is good but I wasn't expecting superman to be difficult
I had the game and could never survive de metro section
Shadow Dancer is a great game. Yes you need to practice, but after you get enough hours in you memorize everything. It's a very satisfying feeling to go through a level in record time. The last level is quite hard, though, almost impossible.
I agree, the last level is really what makes Shadow Dancer tough.
I find it easier with no shuriken, managed to Speedrun it relatively fast, around 13 mins. The cave is the most annoying part. The last level can be rushed, only one screen need you to be cautious.
I'm gonna need some type of comix zone nextgen remake or something. It's soo much more they can expand, on a already great concept. Too bad sega isn't really interested in reviving any of they OG IP's.
Comix Zone is ripe for a full adventure/RPG treatment. Different paths and story outcomes. Sega could make a hell of a franchise out of it.
Sega Lord X I agree 100%
Comic zone came out for the gba it's a remake
Comix Zone was hell of a game it love to kick my ass in the 90s
My God, that Double Dragon music is like having your nagging wife whose on her period yell in one ear while jamming an icepick in the other ear Moe from The Three Stooges style
I can't believe some producer/musician actually signed off on that crap. "Yeah, good enough, now sign my paycheck!".
In my childhood I had trouble with a lot of my sega games but two games that stood out to me as incredibly difficult were The Lion King and Shadow of the Beast, the latter especially. Having acquired all of my games secondhand, I had no manual to help me make sense of it and no internet to rely on. That game left me frustratedly scratching my head so many times. I eventually got to a point where I believed the game was designed to be unwinnable as a commetary on the bleakness of life or something
U haven't even shown me the video and yet u already asking me for money?
Don't work for me
Seriously. Especially this guy. He doesn't do any content that warrants him to beg people for money
lol comiczone is my childhood,looks like it teaches life the hard way before the peaceful.