There are two types of video game players in the world, generally speaking. The first group just want to put their feet up and relax, enjoying the escapism of the virtual world in which they are immersed.
The second group are masochists, relishing the challenge of playing the most difficult games possible. If you count yourself among that second group then boy howdy do we have a list of games for you!
Whether you prefer to play games on your PC, your console or simply to whip out your smartphone and tap away, this is a collection of fantastic games that will make you tear your hair out with rage – but which will also provide a feeling of satisfaction like no other when you finally conquer them!
QWOP
The objective is simple: you are an elite sprinter, and all you have to do is run in a straight line down the track. How infuriating, frustrating, annoying and difficult could that possibly be? If you’re asking that question, you haven’t played QWOP: welcome to addictively enraging video game hell!
QWOP sounds deceptively simple but it is fiendishly difficult with hilarious results. Rather than controlling the athlete in any standard way, you control the individual muscles of the leg: press Q and W to contract the thighs and O and P to work the calves. If you get a rhythm going you can run, but if you mistime things then you could end up in a crumpled heap.
Super Meat Boy
Super Meat Boy is the quintessential indie game, almost literally, thanks to its starring role in the hit documentary Indie Game. This documentary chronicled the struggles of Team Meat as they sought to develop and release the game, but (spoiler alert) it all paid off.
Super Meat Boy was an instant hit despite being a frustratingly challenging experience over all 300 plus levels. You control Meat Boy in his quest to save his girlfriend from the evil Doctor Fetus, and you will die in the attempt. A lot. When you do complete the level, the game will replay all your humiliating deaths, just to rub it in!
Prominence Poker
Poker is a challenging game, whether you play it online or in real life and the many poker guides like OnlineCasino.ca have made the game has become readily available to everyone. It can be a frustrating game though; you can make every correct decision, read your opponent like a book, determine that they are bluffing with scientific precision and make the call for all your chips as a 95 per cent favourite to win the hand – and then lose, because they hit a six on the river.
Well, Prominence Poker is a marriage of high-stakes card gaming and high-tech role-playing gaming in the town of Prominence, a dark criminal utopia built around a hierarchy of evil that you must climb and conquer with your card skills. Great fun, great gameplay and a unique character creator makes this one a must-play for gaming fans.
Dark Souls & Dark Souls II
The Dark Souls series of games has a reputation as being the most impossible video games ever released. A lot of people enjoy playing video games on difficult mode and relish the challenge of completing quests when one false move means certain death. Those same people find Dark Souls so tough that they cry.
The regular enemies are extremely overpowered, with nearly all of them boasting one-hit kill attacks. The bosses are obviously worse. There aren’t a lot of helpful tips or health items, and levels must be completed a certain way with precise timing in order to progress. It’s a game with a learning curve that can only be described as sadistic.
Dark Souls III
Yeah, all of the above applies.
This one is just as ridiculous as its forebears, if not more so.
Flappy Bird
This mobile app, developed by Vietnamese independent game creator Dong Nguyen from Vietnam, was the breakout hit of 2014 despite a release in the summer of 2013. A sudden surge of popularity saw massively polarising reviews, with gamers loving its addictive difficulty and critics blasting the learning curve and alleged plagiarism.
This clearly had an effect on the creator and Nguyen, despite making $50,000 each day from sales and in-app advertising, removed the game from both the iPhone’s App Store and the Google Play Store. He felt guilty for its addictive nature and subsequent overuse – so of course, a game so frustrating that the creator disowned it has to take the top spot on this list!