You'll Never Finish Alive! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Castlevania

A standard side-scroller for NES gamers, "Castlevania" was a horror-themed game featuring Frankenstein's monster, the Grim Reaper, and Dracula as the final boss-- you traveled in and around castles and dungeons to reach the end of the level culminating in a boss battle, but along the way enemies would hack at health mercilessly with single hits, precise movements would be needed to go up stairs or jump over small gaps, and you'd be marred at every turn by an inability to jump forward (only up and down). Nonetheless, "Castlevania" was popular enough to warrant sequels, leading up to releases on later Nintendo and Sony consoles.

It was a bestseller and many of the later games in the series continued with critical praise.

Answer: The Lost Levels

While "The Lost Levels" was technically the second "Super Mario Bros." game in Japan (released in 1986), it never saw the light of day as an NES title in North America due to fears that it would deter people from the already-popular side-scrolling franchise. Aside from introducing poisonous mushrooms and bringing fish out of water (and Goombas into water), the game is basically a ramped-up version of the original "Super Mario Bros.", virtually continuing with the same story (Princess Toadstool. Bowser. Capturing. You know...) but increasing the difficulty through level design.

It finally saw the light of day in North America as part of "Super Mario All-Stars" on the SNES, released seven years later. Despite this it was the best-selling Famicom game ever sold in Japan.

Answer: Contra

The 30-man code is perhaps better known to gamers as the Konami Code (up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A) and while "Contra" wasn't the first game to use it ("Gladius" was, a year earlier), it was probably the most famous case of it. "Contra" as released in the arcades before it showed on the NES console, but both were equally difficult-- with straightforward, but brutal levels and too-few extra lives, "Contra" lived up to be cruel. Nonetheless, there were several sequels, all of which perpetuated the difficulty level well into the later generations. IGN once called it the 'toughest game'.

Answer: Battletoads

Although Rare (earlier known as Rareware) later found fame creating games like "Goldeneye", "Perfect Dark", "Banjo-Kazooie", and "Donkey Kong Country" (amongst several others), many of their earliest hits, dating back to the mid-1980s, appeared on the first Nintendo console; Nintendo later inked a deal with them in 1994 before they became a Microsoft subsidiary.

The beat 'em up "Battletoads" was a hit for the company and, in subsequent decades, became a bit of a funny story because it was praised by gamers for its high difficulty and tendency to be a tough find in terms of used copies.

The player gets only three lives, and in between side-scrolling levels they're faced with high-speed race levels, most of which require precise memorization. Or, you know...death.

Answer: Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts

"Super Ghouls and Ghosts" has a special place in my collection where I don't play it because I get too frustrated. In this side-scroller, the third game in the "Ghouls 'N' Goblins" series, you play as a knight heading out to save a princess from the evil Sardius. Between you and there, you face off against enemies whose hits are the equivalent of being shot in the leg.

The first hit knocks off your armour; the second hit kills you. This general mechanic continues throughout the game, even when you upgrade your armour (upgrading armour actually gives you more powerful weapons). Unsurprisingly, the other games in the series are just as difficult.

Answer: F-Zero GX

"F-Zero GX", the fourth game in the already high-velocity, futuristic racing series, brought exactly what players would expect of cars driving ten times the speed limit in space. While earlier games in the series put you in the driver's seat through an increasingly difficult circuit of tracks, each one with a different quirk, this game eliminated all scaling from the get-go, offering up deadly courses almost immediately and killing all chance of a learning curve.

Not that this was a bad thing-- it just meant falling off the course in the first lap...or wrecking your space-car.

The game was highly-praised by critics despite this.

Answer: Donkey Kong Country Returns

After wrapping up the "Metroid Prime" series, Retro Studios was called in to helm the reboot of the popular "Donkey Kong Country" platforming series last seen on the Super Nintendo. What they brought was not only a faithful update and addition to the series, but a test of patience.

As much as it was praised for nostalgic value (oh, the mine carts!), it was also quite difficult to complete (oh, the mine carts!). Aside from difficult level designs, there was the introduction of rocket-barrel stages, which could prove quite temperamental, especially in narrower stages. You'd do best to stock up on extra lives. Maybe we just missed Dixie Kong's helicopter hair...

Answer: Super Meat Boy

"Super Meat Boy", and indie darling for XBLA, featured a cube of meat as the main character in several hundred side-scrolling stages of death-- and you would die. One of the more challenging platformers released in video gaming's seventh generation, it was a love-letter to fans of hard games. Aside from retro music and side-scroll styling, it required very careful handling of the character and, to an extent, either lightning reflexes or impeccable memorization of timing.

This is the "Battletoads" of 2010.

The game was a critical hit and one of the most popular XBLA games released though many critics did admit that the game, at its very core, was frustrating (but fun!)

Answer: Catherine

"Catherine" is certainly a unique game. You play as Vincent Brooks, a twenty-something trying to live life and maintain a relationship with Katherine, your girlfriend. That's when the seductive Catherine comes along and you start having these nightmares that you're a sheep in a world filled with block puzzles. You need to ascend to the top of each one by shifting the puzzles as you go.

As the game progresses it does get insanely difficult, not only to move the blocks, but to fight enemies, navigate tricky obstacles, and even battle intense bosses en route to the top. All the while, the game psychologically profiles you. Every action in waking life and every question answered in your psyche affects your relationship. Powerful stuff, those dreams. "Catherine" appeared on the PS3 and Xbox 360; it was a huge success despite the mature rating.

Answer: Dark Souls

Let me preface by saying that "Demon's Souls" is hellishly difficult. While many were taken aback by the game's immense difficulty and learning curve, others praised the game's unrelenting approach; the fact that they were dying (and a lot) didn't matter.

Not only that-- the game was starkly lonely; as the main character you traveled through otherwise empty, almost overbearing locations fighting enemies much stronger than yourself; the game was about your skill and perseverance, and that made the victory all-the-sweeter. "Dark Souls" was released a couple years later-- this sequel was very similar; a lack of plot didn't matter because survivability took the wheel.

In regards to the sequel, "Dark Souls 2", the developers stated that they would not make an easier game because the challenge is the core aspect of gameplay. True that.

It's been considered one of the hardest games of the seventh-generation systems.