Games, that are very difficult but not frustrating.

[Sonata]

So, I am playing the goode olde Pokemon Puzzle League again.

So many puzzles at the Puzzle University I still need to solve.
Also, singleplayer 1 vs. 1:
Well, I already need a few tries to beat Gary on very hard,
which just allows me to challenge Mewtwo, which is even harder and losing against it makes me having to beat Gary again,
so yeah, this is going to take forever.
And then there is even a higher difficulty. x..x;

So, all in all, my chances to actually ever beat the complete game are pretty low.
But yet, I don't lose my motivation...did anyone else experience this before?

 

[Tycho]

Yup. NetHack.

 

[Kuekuatsheu]

oh wow, memories

Puzzle League was great, I did beat it long time ago (yes every single part)

my Sis and I were pros D:

 

[Devious Bane]

Puzzle League, oh the memories...and seizures with hand spasms.

A hard game that's not frustrating? For me, Metroid Prime. Very challenging, but fun.

 

[Lukar]

Disgaea. ^^

 

[Sernion]

Monster Hunter series.
Dieing about 3-6 times for every new kind of enemy you will face is a must.
But you can feel that you are getting better every time you die so I never lost my motivation to try again.

 

[skulltoe]

EVE Online anyone?

 

[TehSean]

Q3A

 

[Dayken]

Contra 4
Mike Tyson's Punch Out (except for Tyson himself, what the fuck)
God Hand (yeah, it's a pain in the ass at first, but once it actually "clicks" it tends to shift towards a more enjoyable kind of hard)

 

[Tycho]

Contra 4
Mike Tyson's Punch Out (except for Tyson himself, what the fuck)
God Hand (yeah, it's a pain in the ass at first, but once it actually "clicks" it tends to shift towards a more enjoyable kind of hard)

You found that game genuinely difficult?

It's all about patterns and nothing more, really...

 

[Gar-Yulong]

You found that game genuinely difficult?

It's all about patterns and nothing more, really...

You find NetHack genuinely difficult? It's all about inventory management, luck and nothing more, really...

 

[Darth GW7]

STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl.
Pretty difficult, lots of redo's required.

 

[Absinthe]

A hard game that's not frustrating? For me, Metroid Prime. Very challenging, but fun.

Seconded. The boss fights are one of the best parts too, especially in Corruption.

 

[Kajet]

Mars Matrix
Audio Surf
Point Blank

Usually when I think of frustrating a general sense of cheapness/absurd unfairness and/or shit controls are to blame...

 

[Tycho]

You find NetHack genuinely difficult? It's all about inventory management, luck and nothing more, really...

...

What?

 

[Riptor]

R-Type 3, for the SNES. Most of the time, it feels like the deaths are YOUR fault, and not because the game was being cheap.

 

[Dayken]

You found that game genuinely difficult?

It's all about patterns and nothing more, really...

You do realize that you're basically forced to avoid his punches for TWO ENTIRE ROUNDS before you get much of any kind of chance to hurt him, right? Not to mention just about every one of those punches is a one-hit KO.

I can memorize patterns, but he's still bullshit compared to the rest of the game.

 

[Tycho]

When Mike starts off with the uppercuts, you can dodge and safely get in two high punches before you need to dodge the next one. Those are the ones that are INSTA-KO. The hooks he throws can be dodged and you can give him about 3-4 high punches before you have to back off. The (seemingly) randomly timed jabs he starts throwing after you knock him down the first time are a pain in the ass, and I did have trouble with them (though they weren't 1 hit KOs). Never use a "super" punch, he'll murder you while you wind up for the punch. You don't ever really have enough of a time window to use one in the Tyson/Mr. Dream fight.

Also, @ Gar-Yulong: NetHack is one of the few games that can and will consistently kick my ass. Having an awesome inventory and good fortune isn't enough.

 

[GarthTheWereWolf]

Ninja Gaiden Black on the upper difficulties. That game is so well balanced it'll completely rape you, but still leave u feeling like its your own fault for sucking if u lose.

 

[Estidel]

Disgaea. ^^

Seriously? You can clear almost every map in any of the games before the enemy even reacts.

As far as a personal response goes, I guess I'd go with the the Touhou games because at least I didn't lose to anything random.

 

[Digitalpotato]

A lot of self-imposed challenges can be difficult but not frustrated.

Examples would include:

-No-arena abuse and no-deaths in Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon.
-Low-Level challenges in games like Breath of Fire 2 that do not have level-scaling systems or automatic bonuses. (Kingdom Hearts 2, anyone?)
-No getting hit in Castlevania
-No damage-boss fights
-speedruns of platformer games

that said I wound up unintentionally doing a relatively-low-level run in my Breath of Fire file. How in the hell did I manage to beat any bosses with my party at level 27?!

 

[Bambi]

Operation Flashpoints' campaign.
Halos' original, legendary campaign.
Sudden Strike and Sudden Strike 2 on the hardest difficulty.
Dead Space on Impossible.

 

[Dragon-Commando]

Playing all of my old Dos FPS games on the hardest difficulty without respawning monsters.

Doom 1/2 and Final doom are very hard on Ultra-violence. But when you die its more of an OH SHIT! than a THATS NOT FAIR! I found myself more afraid of things in these games than Doom 3, which plays pretty much the same regardless of difficulty level, exept maybe Nightmare, which is pretty much the same for all of them.

Duke nukem was very hard on Come get some, I had alot of fun. I don't actualy get frustrated with any of the older games, because they where hard, but not cheap.

Blood was also realy hard on its second highest setting, I don't expect alot of people to remember this one though.

One thing they all had in common though was that if you played them on the hardest setting they all had endless hordes of monsters and not enough ammo. That was the only way I would not play them. Making a game hard is one thing, making it nearly impossible is something else.

 

[Yoshistar]

Let me just say that Ouendan 2 can be hellishly diifficult if one doesn't know the songs at first (and I thought Elite Beat Agents was hard... heh). But that still doesn't stop it from being so frickin' fun... XD

 

[Holsety]

Ninja Gaiden Black on the upper difficulties. That game is so well balanced it'll completely rape you, but still leave u feeling like its your own fault for sucking if u lose.

yesyesyesyes



As opposed to Ninja Gaiden 2, with it's ridiculous shuriken spamming ninjas -_-