Wizardry IV: The return of Werdna. Basically every Wizardry Game of the Llylgamyn era was hard as fuck, but that one really took the cake. I never managed to get even up to the cosmic cube (a 3D Labyrinth designed to completly kill your mapping), let alone out of it and get one of the 7 endings. That game's first level alone is more difficult than many games on impossible difficulty settings. It went so hard that the second edition of the game had a sealed letter in it's box with the solution of the very first riddle: how to get out of your 2x2 prison cell. And that one is by far the easiest trial in the entire game, and most upcoming ones have cryptic riddles inside of riddles and hints in the form of cryptic riddles. And a golden ending which would back then probably nobody think of as to how to achieve it (first, you need to finish an insane continuation of fetch quests, changed your alignement, choose none of the final weapons when prompted to, walk on thin air above the final level without any hint about this being possible in just that single square, teleporting back all the way down to the starting level in the dungeon, find the square which lets you teleport below the lowest level, and then ascend the tree of life, of which you must know the whole mythology around it (not included in the game) to even start to climb it - and realise from it's cryptic delivery that this is the tree of life in the first place!) Phew, that was long.

As right as you are I hate including games like that. It's just insanely brutal for no necessary reason. It's almost to the point where the game is unbeatable for 99.9999% of people.

Something like Battletoads on the NES had an insane amount of challenge, but every level was definitely beatable without being too unfair.

Silver Surfer touching a wall and then bringing you to the end screen where he's keeling over is just sad :(

Vanquish!

For me, it's Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels. I was never able to finish that part of Super Mario Bros. Deluxe.

That can be said about ANY game. Ive been playing Dark Souls 2 PS4 and its funny how I very rarely die anymore. But once you have memorized any game it will be easy

Hear, hear. Making those turns at break-neck speed in Wipeout is sooo satisfying. Sigh, I wish we could get a new Wipeout game. I adored 2048.

@OP: As difficult as games like Ninja Gaiden (2004) and Demon's Souls are, they're beatable. I cannot, for the life of me, finish Ghosts 'n Goblins, Ninja Gaiden (1989), Top Gun, and Castlevania III.

Castlevania on NES.

I just can't stand that game, lol

Star Wars on the NES is pretty brutal, and Ninja Gaiden is simply unfair once you get to the last levels.

It's one of the best games ever D:

And that's what I was gonna say. Or at least want to say. Can't think of any other.

I think COD 4 on Veteran difficulty, and Halo 2 on legendary in co op.