If you’re a certain age, you might read the word “Arcade” and wonder what the hell that is. Well, we’re here to tell you a story. A story about advanced video game machines that rose above their players. With games that were so ahead of their time that most of them are truly beautiful to this day. But it’s not all grandeur. These majestic video game obelisks had a seedy side. They had to take your dirty little quarters.
And so some of these arcade games are built from the ground up to be fiendishly hard to get you to empty your pockets. And how that difficulty arose is interesting in itself. Some of these games achieved greatness partly because of their difficulty; other titles were just twisted and bad, and that difficulty held them back. But while we aimed to present a wide variety of unique titles here, one thing unites them all. These games are excruciatingly difficult!
9 X-Men: The Arcade
X-Men: The Arcade Game is a beloved beat ’em up. It’s remarkable how much chaos there is on screen at the same time. But boy, trying to play that game without backup is RAW. Hitstun barely exists in X-Men: The Arcade Game and enemies strike like a truck. More worryingly, using your strength means giving up your health. Oh, and there are armies of goons to fight. They just keep coming and they fill the screen. If the machine is on the expert difficulty setting, you will die. A lot.
We put this classic at the bottom of the list for a reason. Technically, if you bring enough quarters, anyone can beat X-Men: The Arcade. Even on the hardest difficulty. But wouldn’t you rather use that money for a down payment on a house?
8 Dragon’s Lair
Dragon’s Lair is a Machiavellian arcade game that is simply brutal, unfair and largely a matter of remembering. You know those infamous quick-time events that took gaming by storm for a minute? The ones that everyone decided they actually don’t like anymore? Well, Dragon’s Lair is a series of QTEs… but without prompts. You have five buttons, corresponding to four directions and a sword swing. You will have to decipher which button is most likely to get you through a given situation.
Some of these make sense, but many of them feel like they depend on you taking a guess. The timing can be tight here, and again, you don’t really get a clear indication of when to react to a particular obstacle. Fortunately, the animation is a joy, and dying is part of the fun. To beat this thing in the arcades, however, you would have had to take out a second mortgage.
7 Donkey Kong
There is a reason why Donkey Kong is still a competitive active game to this day. That’s because Donkey Kong has a incredible difficult game to master. Most people can cycle through the four stages at least once, but to get to the kill screen, you’ll need to cycle through it another twenty times. Every time you turn around, the enemies get faster and faster. And yes, that includes that hair-raising spring.
It will take hours of continuous play, without the luxury of continuing, to read the kill screen. Beating Donkey Kong is not for the faint of heart. To put things in perspective, despite being the most popular arcade game of its time, an era when arcades exploded in popularity, it took a year and a half for anyone to hit the killscreen. Yowza!
6 Gunbird 2
You know, one thing you must love about Gunbird 2 is that it’s a game with a lot of charm, that has a lot of tools for the player to use, yet it’s infinitely, relentlessly, tirelessly brutal. This game does not take it easy with you. If you’ve played games in this genre before, you obviously know exactly what you’re getting into. They don’t call them bullet hell shooters for nothing.
But here’s the thing: Gunbird 2 is considered difficult among bullet-hell shooter enthusiasts. If you’ve got the masochists of the video game world saying something is pretty hard, you know you’re dealing with a game that’s downright diabolical. It has remained relevant in those circles because of how well-made and charming it is, but it’s the difficulty that makes it legendary.
5 Ghosts N’ Goblins
Ghosts N’ Goblins is an absolute legend. If you’ve been in the area, you know the score. You beat the game, and then, as a treat, you have to beat it one more time. But you know, the second time it’s harder. This series is absolutely brutal. It requires a degree of mastery that at first glance will feel almost unfair. Especially if you get to the later stages. It is manageable so if you are good enough you will absolutely be able to beat it but it will take a lot of time and money.
If you want to experience this game in all its glory, we recommend that you pick up the excellent remake. It offers a million ways to decrease the difficulty in fun ways, while also letting you indulge your masochism and play the game in a state close to the original title. God help you if you go for the full experience.
4 haunted castle
Castlevania is a series known for being pretty heavy. Rightly so! The titles in that legendary franchise are legitimately difficult. But compared to Haunted Castle – the first game in the Castlevania franchise – they are all an absolute joke. The game gives you three lives, and we guarantee that unless you’ve pumped hundreds of quarters into the machine, they won’t be enough.
Maybe you think we’re exaggerating. Well, this game has been released on all modern consoles, so we recommend that you check it out. Haunted Castle is a game that requires repeated playthroughs to master. You have to remember the stage layout and come up with the tricks to beat the bosses to progress. Play, die and learn. That’s how you beat Haunted Castle. The difficulty here is absolutely twisted.
3 Dance Dance Revolution Franchise
![[Panel 1] An L-Tek EX Pro Metal Dance Pad controller. [Panel 2] Lady dancing in front of a colorful heart background in Dance Dance Revolution: Ultramix](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/aYhN59ZeUgKcpeZP8-fxNVSaAv1Su09hcR0GW7T2iofXoslbnhrHhNeUCwbQLuQQ8BZUjDKrX_hFSDWNCIVtxySO7DRX4_tnjzlyBMqJg_zVBUS0EYEtNU_1STsw3MD4GtKJBt4sc-2-vkIfOWQc-Qc?q=50&fit=crop&dpr=1.5)
Of all the titles on this list, DDR is the only one that requires physical stamina and real agility. Getting good at DDR doesn’t just require pattern recognition and memorization. You have to physically train your body to complete numbers on the hardest difficulty.
While it’s conceivable that some of the most difficult games ever made could be practiced and completed in a short space of time, we don’t think the same can be said about DDR. You will have physical limitations that you must overcome. Most hardcore games require you to be a dedicated gamer to complete; the DDR franchise requires you to be a fucking athlete.
2 Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
Hey, you know what’s really fun in a fighting game? When the AI magically uses the best counter attack possible, a single frame after you use yours. PLEASURE!Many of the games on this list are great, but just push the player. That’s not the case with Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. That’s right, you heard it here first. Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 is a fucking cheater.
The game reads your input flagrantly. Playing Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 is an exercise in learned helplessness. You will win rounds, but it won’t feel like you did anything else to win them. When you take a match, it’s almost like the CPU just decided to let you have it. Otherwise, it’s a series of eruption losses. Pump the rooms and pray. That’s your only hope.
1 Tetris: The Grand Master 3 Terror Instinct
Tetris: The Grand Masters 3 takes Tetris to a whole new level. This game does have credits and achieving it is no easy feat, but the Real challenge comes from finishing the game with the highest honor. If you want to earn the credit of ever finishing the game with a Grand Master ranking, you’ll need to play Tetris at a blinding speed while scoring multiple Tetrises.
That’s not so bad, is it? Well… the blocks are invisible once you put them down. No, you didn’t read that wrong; at some point, if you’re chasing the Grand Master rankings, the last piece will end up with the blocks becoming invisible. On its own, Tetris: The Grand Master 3 Terror Instinct is already extremely ruthless, but the pursuit of the Grand Master rankings makes things so, so, so much more brutal. Oh, sorry, we forgot to mention that you have to do this MULTIPLE TIME on the same account to reach the Grand Master rankings.
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