20 (Very) Difficult Games

When I was younger, I had a bad habit where I would get so frustrated with a game, that I’d wind up throwing the gamepad across the room. Ironically, some of the games that pushed me over the edge are on Gamasutra’s list of “20 Difficult Games”. This is not a list for the most difficult games of all time, but are rather just a few games that happen to be difficult, and ones that new game designers can learn from. Oh Cobra Triangle, how I loathed thee.

Nothing attracts the ire of those fickle game bloggers quite like them getting their asses handed to them by a game. And it is possible to make a game arbitrarily difficult without too much effort. Increase monster attack strength, decrease player health, remove resources and/or add more foes — these are just the most obvious ways a game can be made harder, and it doesn’t take any great skill to add them.

Source: Gamesutra