Ok so I feel a little embarresed by this topic but I feel it warrents a few replies to see if anyone has this issue as well.

Back in the day when I was able to get a Nintendo Entertainment System there was this game. I loved this game, I played it all night, I played it all day but it was so hard that I couldn't beat it for some reason. Fast forward to earlier this month. I am one of those players that hate letting games beat me. I thought about games I was never ever able to beat in the past, some on game gear, some on SNES and a few on Nintendo. So I took it on to challange myself and start beating old games.

After revisiting some old classics I was able to conquer them. Except for one. To this day I still as a child and an adult cannot pass the Ninja Turtles game for the NES. I have tried everything in my power, spent countless hours and still manage to die in the underwater level to the point that when its time to move on in the game I don't have enough lives to continue with the game.

Please tell me someone else has been through this...

battle toad.

nuff said. the racing part is hard even with save state emulator!!!!!! i'm better off doing something productive than practicing that one

It took me until 2002 to beat Super Mario 3. I also finally managed to beat the original X-Com on the easiest setting somewhere around 12 years after its release. I'm not sure there are any hard-to-beat games still outstanding on my queue, though.

It took me until 2002 to beat Super Mario 3. I also finally managed to beat the original X-Com on the easiest setting somewhere around 12 years after its release. I'm not sure there are any hard-to-beat games still outstanding on my queue, though.

Really?? What is hanging you up in Super Mario 3? I always thought that one was pretty easy. If I warp I can beat it in half an hour.

Ninja turtles was pretty tough, I never really tried to beat it, after the third world I usually got bored and stopped trying.

Battletoads was hard but a different kind of hard. Like you had to just repeat and repeat until you memorized what to do and be perfect, to me it wasn't about raw gaming skill.

Choplifter was always one of the hardest games for me. Dodging bullets in a cave while trying to blow up tanks and not kill civilians....I'm not sure if anyone ever beat that game but if they did I'd like to see it.

Really?? What is hanging you up in Super Mario 3? I always thought that one was pretty easy. If I warp I can beat it in half an hour.

I suck at platformers, and didn't have anyone telling me where the whistles are.

I think the Angry Video Game Nerd, has an episode about this:
http://cinemassacre.com/2006/06/29/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles/

I started with all of the old NES games I couldn't beat or always wanted to play recently, too.

I must be one of the few people who had no problems with the water level in TMNT.
Aside from Battletoads, already mentioned, my NES gaming kryptonite was Ghosts and Goblins. Wow did that game suck. It was one of those where you'd finally get all the way to the end(still haven't done it without either save states or level select) and you'd get the "our princess is in another castle" deal. It was totally a game that was difficult for the sake of being difficult.

Ninja Gaiden games were really hard. I only beat them like once.

I remember playing Doom when I was like 4 or 5. I remember that game being challenging on the hardest difficulty and when I played it later on the hardest difficulty I didn't realize how hard it actually was. That is nearly impossible.

Spiderman/X-Men and Aero the Acrobat, both for SNES.

I spent countless hours wandering around in the same areas, trying to convince myself that they were fun enough on their own to justify my owning the games and playing them as much as I did.

Years later, I beat Spiderman/X-Men. It wasn't worth it. I have yet to beat Aero, though I finally got to the last boss.