 Hi there, let's all take a moment to indulge in the internet's favorite pastime, complaining about how hard video games used to be. So I've made a list of what I consider the 13 hardest Super Nintendo games. Why 13? I don't know, I just like uneven numbers. I'm sure there's a ton of games out there that I won't be mentioning that I am no doubt deliberately leaving off this list just to make you mad. No, no seriousness, if there's a game you think that deserves to be on here, leave a comment below and explain why. One other thing, no broken, unplayable gameplay. These games have to actually be playable and beatable. And yeah, I'm actually gonna do the internet clickbait thing by doing an actual list. 13. Donkey Kong Country 3. All I gotta do is mention one level, lightning lookout. There are pseudo random lightning strikes that are practically instantaneous and almost impossible to dodge. And if you're in the water when the lightning strikes, you're dead. And that's just getting started. There's poisonous pipeline which flips your controls or swoopy salvo where you have to fly up these trees as that damn parrot. I could go on and on, but I really want to stress how brutal lightning lookout is. I guess if anything, it taught me to stay out of the water during a thunderstorm. 12. Castlevania Dracula X, the spiritual successor to Castlevania III for NES in terms of gameplay anyway. Super Castlevania IV was a bit easier because Simon had a lot more functionality, but Richter in Dracula X is back to just whipping in two directions and as a result this game returns to its NES roots in terms of difficulty. The final boss fight against Dracula is laughable. I have no chance here. Come on. Anyway, the Super Nintendo version may not be the best port, but if you're looking for a challenge, Dracula X delivers in spades. 11. Gradius III. I don't want to overload this list with shoot-em-ups. I could very easily do that and nobody would blame me. So many of these games are so tough. But Gradius III in particular has a couple sections that make you just want to tear your hair out. I have to point out this one where the level keeps accelerating and you have to keep dodging to avoid instant death. No power-ups can help you here except pure speed and quick reflexes. The biggest problem here though is that if you die, you start with nothing. You're some sorry slow-ass ship again. So you have no chance to get past this part. You might as well just start over. It's usually beneficial to have checkpoints, but in this case it almost works against the game. The two token power-ups you get just barely give you enough speed to get past this part and that's if you're lucky. 10. 12. Earthworm Gym 2. Yeah, as if the first Earthworm Gym wasn't hard enough, the sequel puts it to shame. And to give you one example of how ridiculous this game is, here you are flying around as a blind salamander navigating your way through an intestinal tract. And it's hard! Your typical platforming stuff is here as well, even more insane than its predecessor. And yeah, there's quite a few checkpoints at least, but I actually think this game's insane and surreal nature makes Earthworm Gym 2 even harder if that makes any sense. And if it doesn't, then well, you'll just have to play this and find out. 9. 10. Disney's The Lion King Hey wait a second, what's a Disney game doing on this list? Well, anyone who grew up playing Lion King is nodding their head right now. There are certain areas in this game that will make you tear your hair out. Like swinging across here, you have to be absurdly precise, down to the pixel, or you'll fall and you'll die. And of course there's these damn monkeys. Yeah, this game looks happy and bouncy and all Disney and whatever, but certain jumps and enemy patterns are infuriating. 8. 9. Contra 3 The Alien Wars Yeah, you know all about Contra, so I don't have to go into too much detail here. The normal difficulty setting here isn't that bad. But to get to the game's true ending, you gotta beat the game on hard. And man, there's so much stuff flying all over the place. Right from the get go. I mean, this is seriously within the first 15 seconds of the first level. Long time viewers will remember when I tried playing this drunk and I died three times within a minute. Not my finest moment among many poor moments. But yeah, you want to challenge Crank through Contra 3 three times on all three difficulty levels, and if you beat it on hard, you are legit. 7. 7. Battletoads and Battle Maniacs The only beat em up on this list, but hey, you gotta have Battletoads feature in a video like this, it just wouldn't be right otherwise. Anyway, this is almost the exact same kind of difficulty you'd expect from this franchise, with two continues, no passwords, and that's it. And of course there's the Turbo Tunnel, just brutal, and the snake level that demands perfect placement with your jumping. And this part where you avoid the spikes, yeah, this is Battletoads alright. 6. Actraiser 2 Kind of a disappointing game, but hey if you want to challenge, this is one of the hardest side scrollers you'll ever play. Try not to get hypnotized by how gorgeous Actraiser 2 looks, because all sorts of enemies in all shapes and sizes come at you non-stop from every direction at any direction at any time. Some patterns here just aren't consistent or even discernible, and that makes this game really frustrating. No, there's no simulation or city building here like the first Actraiser, it's just side-scrolling action and flailing away and hoping you get a little bit further on this life than you did the last time you died in an embarrassingly quick fashion. 5. Super R-Type, here again we have your classic horizontal shoot-em-up experience. Die and lose all your weapons, but unlike Gradius III there's no checkpoints anywhere, you have to start all the way back at the beginning. Again the hardest thing about losing everything is losing your speed, especially if you're further into the game. Everything is so much faster than you, that you're better off just starting over. So yeah, the same problems as Gradius III, but in this instance you start at the beginning of every long ass level. That is ridiculous, but that leads me to... 4. R-Type III. This is a much better game than Super R-Type because there are actual checkpoints here, but the enemy design and the level layouts make the difficulty more organic in old fashion. This game is just plain tough. The test here isn't just on your patience as you die and die some more, like with Super R-Type, it's with your reflexes, reaction time and hand-eye coordination. This is my pick for the hardest shoot-em-up on the Super Nintendo and not because of the stupid reasons like Super R-Type. As R-Type III is very simple, just survive as long as you can, that's easy enough, right? Yeah. 3. Super Ghouls and Ghosts. The difficulty in this game is kind of twofold. First, you have to understand that there's a particular way to play this game. If you try and play it like a run-and-gun game like Contra or a platformer like Mario, then you'll probably consider this game to be broken and won't even get to the first checkpoint at the first level. Super Ghouls and Ghosts is a puzzle platformer that takes a lot of patience, a watchful eye and a knack for good timing. So once you get over that hump, then you can get to the game's real difficulty, so prepare to die again, again and again. But this game is beatable, I swear. Stuff like this sequence here, it takes a long time to memorize. And this brutal stretch here, I mean just look at all the crap flying at you, good lord. This game is doable, really it is, but man, it is unforgiving. 2. The Super Star Wars games. Yes, I'm including all three here because they're all insane. I don't understand why these games bother labeling their difficulty levels because even on easy, the Super Star Wars games are just, wow. To me, these games are even more frustrating because you do see that you eventually get to play as Chewbacca and Han Solo and I just want to get even that far. What's funny is that even with cheat codes like Invincibility and Unlimited Health, these games are still freaking impossible. If I had to pick one, the hardest of the three is probably Empire Strikes Back. And the Darth Vader battle is just laughable. I mean, what am I supposed to do here? 1. And the number one toughest Super Nintendo game, Hagane. I love this game because every button on the controller does an attack of some kind and you're gonna need every single one because this game is relentless. It does not stop, it will haunt your dreams. It is fast as hell and it takes every ounce of concentration to keep up. Hagane is totally worth it though. There's some remarkably clever level design and I love this level where you're getting chased by the flames. But yeah, as you can see it is hard as balls from this first segment of the first level onward. The thing is though, this game is so well made that I think it's absolutely worth the challenge. Hagane is one of those games you just have to play for yourself. It's all about feel and if it agrees with you then you'll find the challenge pretty appealing. And again, I can't overstate how awesome it is to have so many different attacks but what makes Hagane stand out is that usually when your character is this overpowered you're able to just bulldoze your way through the game like say Sky Blazer or Sparkster or something like that. But in Hagane, the enemies and level design match your abilities. It's fun, it's smooth, it's intuitive and it's just on the edge of being so hard that it's unfair but it doesn't quite cross over. That's what makes Hagane the hardest game on the Super Nintendo. All right, that's all for now. Thanks for watching and have a great rest of your day.