depending on where you live, all 3

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn is a Wii game, probably the best in the series

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon is a DS remake of the original Fire Emblem on the NES. It doesn't have a lot of story, but it does have the same great strategy gameplay.

There is also Fire Emblem and Fire Emblem: Sacred Stones for the GBA. I think Fire Emblem is better than Sacred Stones if you want to go the GBA route.

As for VC, only in Japan so far, as Fire Emblem for GBA was the first one released outside of Japan.

You can find all of the games at gamestop probably cheaper than anywhere else, but you'll have to turn on show games that are out of stock and then do local searches until one pops up.

oops, forgot about Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance for GC. Radiant Dawn is the sequel to PoR, but you can play them out of order if you can't find PoR

I just finished Bayonetta as well, and I absolutely loved it. I will say that Jubelius was pretty easy though. Kinda disappointed with her, but overall it was great.

I think games are getting easy today, and as much as I don't want to say this, it's really for the best.

Developers at the time used cheap tricks to get the most time out of their short games. Most of these cheap tricks had you restart the whole game because you wouldn't be fully powered up and it makes the later levels seem next to impossible (like in Gradius for example, especially to new players). Sometimes, they would make impossible spawn points at certain parts of a level after you die, and even worse...!

Now, games are built so you can at least try all the things the game has to offer. I think it's a good thing, and they're not filled with just some cheap ass design decisions. I've said it and I'll say it again, difficulty levels are great ways to satisfy many! I'm not talking about changing a few variables that make enemies throw more grenades in a minute or stuff like that. Things that actually change the gameplay, like in Bionic Commando Rearmed, where enemies get new move patterns and the levels change and you need to adapt your playstyle to all these innovative new things. One thing I like in some Konami games is that they make the game end at that one final boss... but when you play an harder difficulty level, there's always another extra form of the final boss that blows you away! That feeling is probably the best out there.

It's how developers stretched out their games. Cheap, but effective, even if annoying.

Due to the linear nature of almost every game developed back then, if it weren't for difficulty that depended upon wrote memorization in addition to perfect execution, most games would be finished a whole lot faster. Speed runs of any old 8-bit era games (or 16-bit) once memorized and mastered, more or less demonstrate this.

Limited save options (codes, check points, etc.), limited continues requiring players to start over from the Start menu, etc. all contributed to making games more difficult to finish without a healthy amount of memorization involved, which is not the best approach to game design by any measure.

nordlead said: For starters, galaxy isn't really "hard" like back in the NES/SNES days. It has it's challenging moments, but some levels are really easy too. If you want a list of challenging games, there are plenty on Wii. Here are some in no particular order. I can't really help much with PS3/X360 or even DS as I don't have any really hard games for those systems. * Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - not only is it hard, it's considered one of the best SRPG games. * Trauma Center (either one) - lots of fun, you can move to easy if you get stuck, but they are very hard games. * Mario Strikers Charged (on Expert) - best multiplayer game I own probably. There are a few "cheap" moments with the PC, but I never really feel cheated. If you liked Hitz or Blitz you'll love this even if you aren't a soccer fan. This is also one of the only games I play and actually yell really loudly about over a win/loss. * Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz - talk with Amp * Mercury Meltdown Revolution - I can't beat it, but if you like "marble" games this is a different take on the genre * Punch-Out!! - it really depends on how good you are at memorizing and recognizing moves. It'll kick your butt when you get to title defense. I'm sure there are some more that I'm missing. For DS * Professor Layton (either) - 100% not cheap, 100% mind bending * Fire Emblem - very much a strategy game. If you put it on 5-star difficulty it'll challenge you.

I can vouch for Mario Strikers Charged, that game was freakin hard in the tougher tournaments!

I kinda had cheated on that boss fight. I had so many invincibility items that he could never hit me.

it wasnt in terms of how hard a game was for me to get that great sense of accomplishment, i got it from : lost odyssey in terms of its complete package and how it made me love the rpg genre even more.

i would always have to die once to figure out how to beat the boss. But the ending was just ridonculous. Good game though, good game.

I felt the same way after Bayonetta. Great, great game, I think it is one of the few imo AAA games this generation that managed to not be very easy, yet still be great. A fantastic game.

The cool thing about the game was that if you died, it was on you, and then you tried again and you knew what to do. You sort of "power up" yourself.