When it started making consoles back in the ’80s, Nintendo cultivated an image among players for games that were “Nintendo Hard.” That meant fans could expect most Nintendo games to hit them hard with difficulty. It was almost like Nintendo thought it was making quarter-eaters for the arcades, which were difficult, so you had to spend more money to beat them. That trend continued into the Super Nintendo era. Nintendo and its partners were slowly starting to drop the difficulty, but there are still dozens of nearly impossible games on the SNES.
Here are the seven hardest games on the Super Nintendo.
7) The 7th Saga
There are plenty of great RPGs on the Super Nintendo, thanks in large part to Nintendo’s relationship with Square. However, if you were looking for a real challenge, The 7th Saga is the role-playing game for you. What’s wild is that the developers took the Japanese version and decided it wasn’t hard enough for players in the West, upping the difficulty before bringing it over.
The enemies in The 7th Saga hit like a truck and have a ridiculous health pool. If you want to survive its challenges, you’ll need to spend an ungodly amount of time grinding out experience. Toss in a few particularly challenging puzzles, and you have one of the toughest RPGs of all time.
6) Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest
Image courtesy of Rare
All of the Donkey Kong Country games have their tough moments. Rare’s masterpiece of a platformer does not hold your hand, despite looking like a Saturday morning cartoon. What sets the second game apart is the variety of stages you’ll encounter.
See, Diddy’s Kong Quest isn’t simply a strict platformer. You’ll need to consistently learn new mechanics, which Rare keeps building upon until you get to the latter levels and wonder how any of this is possible. Plus, it’ll introduce something in an early level, and then take it away for a few hours before hitting you with a more difficult version. By that point, you’ll need to re-learn the mechanic on the fly, making for a frustrating experience.
5) Super Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
The SNES trilogy of Star Wars games was gorgeous, and with the hype around the franchise, it’s no surprise that these games sold well. However, once you actually put the cartridge in your Super Nintendo, you quickly realized this wasn’t going to be a picnic.
See, all three Super Star Wars games have a mix of platforming, box battles, and vehicle stages. The Empire Strikes Back uses that formula, but ups the difficulty because the constantly spawning normal enemies will instantly overwhelm you, using the level geography to make your life a living nightmare. The bosses aren’t so tough, giving you a nice release when you reach one. However, you might toss the cart aside before ever reaching one.
4) Contra III: The Alien Wars
Contra games and difficulty go hand-in-hand, so it’s no surprise to see Alien Wars on this list. The third game in the hit series looks phenomenal and controls like a dream. You might think that would make the series’ trademark difficulty fade into the background. Unfortunately, you would be wrong.
The developers decided to double down. Levels are filled with environmental hazards to throw you off your game, and the top-down segments switch up gameplay just enough to keep you on your toes. The difficulty fits the series, but that doesn’t make it any easier to get through.
3) Hagane: The Final Conflict
Image courtesy of Hudson Soft
Hagane is a joy to play. The developers did an excellent job of giving players generous controls and a well-designed suite of tools to tackle its challenges. Don’t take that to mean Hagane isn’t tough-as-nails.
The team gave you all of those tools for a reason. Hagane is packed with obstacles and enemies. It almost feels like a bullet hell game with how many things you need to keep track of. That said, unlike a few games on this list, you’ll have a blast doing so, making the challenge more than worth it.
2) Zombies Ate My Neighbors
Zombies Ate My Neighbors is filled with creative, colorful monsters and wacky gameplay. It’s easy to see why so many young gamers picked this up at the rental store, unaware of what waited for them.
Here’s the thing: the moment-to-moment gameplay isn’t too difficult. Instead, the challenge comes from how exacting Zombies Ate My Neighbors is if you want to finish it. You have to play nearly perfectly to overcome the limited resources. Otherwise, you’ll find yourself stuck on later levels, with no realistic way to progress.
1) Castlevania: Dracula X
Image courtesy of Konami
Super Castlevania IV was a step back in terms of difficulty. Konami wanted to give players an easier on-ramp to the legendary series, and they mostly succeeded. Don’t get me wrong, it was still challenging, but it was much more accessible than the earlier games.
Dracula X was a throwback. It ditched the expanded controls of Super Castlevania IV and added even more obstacles in your path. Many fans see this as the “true” successor to Castlevania III, and some will tell you that it’s the hardest game in the long-running series that’s often known for difficulty.
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