Castlevania III
Cryptic, ambient and featuring scintillating platform gameplay, the original Castlevania has been lauded by critics as a seminal title in the adventure-platforming genre. It sparked a franchise that still remains intact, albeit not quite with the same presence as in its heyday. The first three Castlevania games are beloved NES titles, but you won’t find many gamers that have actually beaten any of them.
Castlevania first launched in 1986 and arguably set the benchmark for punishingly difficult games with its sharp learning curve, but the series third installment probably takes the cake as the hardest overall experience.
Castlevania III is an unforgiving game in which even simple platforming maneuver is made difficult by unpredictable enemy movement. Most notorious is the dreaded recoil mechanic, in which a single hit from an enemy causes a knock-back effect that can quite easily bump you off a platform. It essentially meant that players were never safe from impending doom, no matter what scale of enemy they were facing.
To beat Castlevania III, every controller input has to be perfectly executed and each jump perfectly timed. It’s a true monster of a game that we imagine most people would have extreme difficulty with.