Sticky Wicket Trivia Quiz

Answer: UFO: Enemy Unknown

This game introduced the concept of the "fog of war" to video games, if the player didn't explore the entire map, they might lose serious portions of their army.

Add in that the aliens were a very advanced for its time artificial intelligence, it made making the right choices imperative to players who wanted to win and save the human race.

It was initially released as a DOS-based computer game, and later ported to other systems.

Answer: Ghosts 'n Goblins

What made this game tough is that it only took two hits to kill the player. I was always impressed by people who got farther than the second level.

Even tougher, players who reached the final level either were told they didn't have the holy cross, or that they did and it was a trick from Satan. If they didn't bring the cross they had to play the last two levels over, if they did they had to start again from the beginning with the difficulty increased.

It was first released as an arcade game, and later ported to several consoles.

Answer: NARC

Players used either Hit Man or Max Force as their avatar and worked to get past a bunch of drug addled foes in their search for Mr. Big.

The game was very tough to get through, especially on a single quarter at the arcade.

Answer: The Simpsons

"The Simpsons" game was originally released as an arcade game and later ported over to other systems.

The game used the same engine as several other Konami licenses of the time. It was stunning visually, with a poor story. The difficulty, much like the other licensed games, was very hard at times, seemingly designed to just eat up quarters.

Answer: Rogue

"Rogue" which was released on nearly every platform available in 1980, was also one of the hardest games of its era.

Simple enough in concept, just navigate through the dungeons. But each dungeon was a random build at the start of the level, they didn't repeat even on multiple playthroughs and to make it harder, potions and other drops were random as to if they helped or hurt.

Answer: TMNT Legends

"TMNT Legends" also known as "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Legends" was released as a cell phone game.

While a good way to waste time, the difficulty on the game made many players quit early on. The game itself is simple to master, simply select a move and an opponent to use it on. User-based characters however level slowly, forcing players to replay levels over and over (Or spend real-world money to advance quickly) in order to move past one new level.

Answer: Time Crisis

The game was released as an arcade game in 1995, and later ported to the original Playstation and other systems.

Not insanely difficult on consoles, playing through on a single credit was nearly impossible in the arcade though. The early versions of the game left our the hit meter, leaving players without a clue as to their health, and included some levels that were timed and took great shooting to get through in a single try.

Answer: Hotline Miami

Released on PC, Playstation Vita, Playstation 3 and 4, this game is designed to look like it's from an older generation.

The only saving grace to the difficulty here is that there are checkpoints that allow re-spawning to not lose too much progress. The game kills players quickly and often. Mostly one-hit kills, it can take dozens of tries to beat a single level as the AI is adaptive.

Answer: Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

Released on the Wii U, this game is more challenging than it seems. Levels are highly adaptive, which makes it much more challenging. Misjudging a jump, missing the wrong step or touching a single enemy all spell doom here.

Answer: Myst

One of the first truly mentally challenging games I ever played through, it was originally a PC game and eventually was ported over to some consoles.
The puzzle solving game took hundreds of hours, and caused many grey hairs, on it's way to being mastered.

The game is seen through the eyes of the "stranger" who is on the island of Myst. It's a non-linear game that adapts to the player and choices they make.