Nintendo Hard/Computer Games

• Nintendo Hard pales compared to Spectrum Hard. The ZX Spectrum was a budget-priced computer that was extremely popular in Great Britain, with hundreds upon hundreds of games available for it. Nearly all of them were murderously difficult. Many offered the player no means of defense; and a few limited the character to a single life. Treasure Island Dizzy did both. Add a color-deficient graphics processor that often hides characters inside background details and you've got games that are challenging in every way you can imagine, along with a few you hadn't even considered. Heaven help anyone in the 1980s who tried to beat the Spectrum conversion of Ghosts 'n Goblins without cheats.
• Many of the early Wizardry games are known for their ruthless difficulty. Many of the puzzles are nearly intractable without a guide. In battles, you are often hugely outnumbered and can easily be incapacitated in a single turn. The worst offender is probably Wizardry IV, in which levelling was literally impossible -- you had to complete the dungeon level to increase your abilities; it featured many maddening puzzles. Even getting out of the first room of the first level requires a degree of off-the-wall intuition. Wizardry IV is often considered to be one of the most difficult CRPGs ever made.
  • This game was difficult by design. Wizardry IV (in which you play the orignal Wizardry's Big Bad) was unashamedly touted right on the box as "For Expert Players Only". It also featured elements of Trial and Error Gameplay.
• The Colony for the Macintosh SE. In this first-person shooter/puzzle game, your ship crash-lands on a mysterious planet after receiving a distress call from a colony of inhabitants there. Upon awakening, your first order of business is turning on the lights in the ship. Unfortunately, the buttons on your console aren't labeled. Hit the wrong one, and you blow up your ship. The game gets harder from there. Good luck figuring out how to get out of your ship and onto the planet without blowing up.
• A Nickelodeon game called Unfairy oddparents! Traps are everywhere, but they can't be seen in advance.