The World’s Hardest Game
It’s all in the title, or almost. Created in 2008 by Stephen ‘Snubby’ Critoph, this little Flash game quickly gained a reputation among gamers for its very high level of difficulty.
The mechanics of the game are extremely simple. You take on the role of a red square, who must use the arrow keys to cross zones populated by blue balls moving at different speeds and following different paths. Once you reach the green zone opposite the one you started in, the level is over.
The only downside is that each death takes you back to the start of the level, and you have to complete all 30 levels to have any hope of appearing on the scoreboard.
It’s enough to make you spend long nights hammering away at your keyboard, especially as the game has since been followed by two sequels, each harder than the last.
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Since the release of Demon’s Souls on Playstation 3 in 2009, Japanese studio FromSoftware has built up an international reputation, not least for the extremely high difficulty levels of its RPGs such as Dark Souls, Bloodborne and, more recently, Elden Ring on Playstation 5.
But perhaps the most difficult of all is Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
Released in 2019, the year in which it also won the Game Awards for Best Game, this action-adventure title set in the medieval world of Japan offers players the chance to take on the role of a fallen samurai ninja on a quest for revenge. Sekiro has quickly become one of the most popular games in the FromSoftware community.
It’s based on a parry system and differs from its predecessors in that its progression mechanics are centred on the acquisition of skills rather than levels. It also introduces a new generation of tryhard players.
Cuphead
Developed by Canadians Chad and Jared Moldenhauer, founders of the MDHR studio, Cuphead is a single-player or two-player platform game set in a world reminiscent of 1930s cartoons and the aesthetics of Walt Disney’s first animated shorts.
But that’s where the good-natured side of the project ends. In increasingly complex levels, where every action must be precisely calibrated to avoid hordes of enemies as zany as they are terrifying, the solo player (or team) must manage to overcome this ordeal in order to reach the final boss.
A battle that, if lost, inevitably leads back to… the very beginning of the level.
In other words, the frustration level can rise very quickly.
This is especially true when you consider that some of the bosses have multiple phases, in the style of Dark Souls or Elden Ring, making these confrontations, which take place to the rhythm of frantic, anxiety-inducing music, even more epic.
League of Legends
In a completely different style, the League of Legends video game (like its predecessor DOTA 2) doesn’t pose any real challenges in itself. Although the learning curve is steep, and the mechanics of the game take some time to assimilate, the principle remains relatively simple. Two teams of five players battle it out in a MOBA mode, and the winner is the one who manages to wipe out the opposing base.
But beyond this mechanic, the difficulty of LoL lies in the level of the players you’ll be up against, and the impossibility of reproducing the same strategies from game to game in often different contexts.
It’s not for nothing that professional League of Legends teams are among the most closely followed in eSports. For those who are interested in this universe and understand the intricacies of this infinitely complex game, attending world-class competitive matches is a real spectacle.
Ori and the Blind Forest
We could have chosen Hollow Knight, another independent video game with perhaps even greater challenges. But Ori and the Blind Forest, developed by the Austrian teams at Moon Studios, is a deceptively simple game (as well as being splendid) behind which lie some of the most difficult platform sequences of recent years.
Don’t be fooled by its endearing aesthetic and the cuteness of the protagonist you play as: this odyssey can turn out to be very brutal, especially if you try your hand at the more difficult game modes.
For purists, speedrunners or anyone looking for an adrenaline boost, the ‘single life’ mode is undoubtedly the one that will offer the most thrills. A game with a gentler learning curve than those mentioned above, but one that can still give even the most experienced players a run for their money.
The criteria that define a difficult game
For a game to be defined as difficult, there are a number of parameters, taking into account both the level of involvement required of players and the dexterity and skill needed to succeed in the challenges presented to them. It is this balance that will be emphasised first and foremost in a game design school, to train developers to make the best possible judgement of their project’s ability to win over the target audience.
At the same time, the level of complexity of the game mechanics, the finesse of the AI encountered and the levels covered are all elements that can make a game both extremely difficult and extremely satisfying for the player who manages to complete it.
Defeating a boss in Elden Ring, at the cost of many attempts and several hours of arduous levelling, has a completely different flavour to defeating a boss in Elder Scrolls, even if these games have similar universes.
Which video game do gamers consider to be the hardest?
Even though it’s almost 40 years since it was first revealed to the general public, Capcom’s arcade game Ghosts’n Goblins is still considered the toughest by the gaming community. In this game, you take on the role of a knight called Arthur, who must rescue his princess who has been kidnapped by the demon Astaroth. Through seven levels, each more complex than the last, Arthur must reach the boss to rescue his princess, using only spears thrown in front of him as weapons and armour that he loses with the first blow. Then, with the second blow, he dies.
With three sequels, spin-offs and numerous ports to more recent console generations, Ghosts’n Goblins remains a must-have for those looking for a challenge.
Its ruthless level design, extremely punishing nature and the sheer number and speed of the enemies it encounters make it one of the most difficult platform games ever created, especially as (spoiler alert) the final boss, once defeated, sends you back to the beginning of the game, forcing you to replay all seven levels to discover the true ending!
A level of complexity on the part of the game designers that is rarely equalled, making this arcade game one of the hardest video games of all time.