When theSuper Nintendo Entertainment Systemwas released in the United States in 1991, American gamers were unsure if it’d live up to the hype of being the successor to the originalNintendoEntertainment System. Quickly that worry disappeared as the system launched with games likeSuper Mario World,F-Zero, andSimCitythat remain must-play titles even today.
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The SNES was also home to a collection of devilishly designed games focused on delivering difficult experiences to players looking for a real challenge. Some of these games did it with meaningful and thoughtful design, while other developers used cheap tricks and tactics to elevate the blood pressure and anxiety of their player base. The statement that a game is impossible to beat can come off as quite hyperbolic, but in many cases, there are certain SNES games that make it as true as any statement can be.
8Jurassic Park
One of the best evolutions in overall game design since the days of the classic gaming consoles is that intuitive level design is almost mandatory at this point.Jurassic Parkon the SNES is a glowing example of how a game having an obtuse layout that doesn’t properly communicate to the player how to play the actual game can ruin the experience.
It’s a shame too, considering how big of a propertyJurassic Parkwas when the game was originally released. Not only were players expected to memorize a labyrinthine path of corridors, but they were also expected to be pinpoint accurate with their weapons as a giant prehistoric creature charged at them seemingly out of nowhere.
7Castlevania: Dracula X
Castlevaniais one ofKonami’s most beloved seriesand has had its fair share of challenging entries throughout the years. It’s rather fitting thatCastlevania: Dracula Xis deemed the most impossible game to beat in the series and has the name of its central antagonist in the title.
As with most SNES games considered extremely difficult,Castlevania: Dracula Xdemands perfection from the player throughout its entire experience. At its culmination, it rewards players who manage to make it to the final confrontation with Dracula with a set of platforming challenges that requires a level of precision that makes it almost impossible.
6Prince Of Persia
Timing is a part of game design that rarely gets talked about in the modern era of gaming, but was almost a core aspect of development in the times of the SNES.Prince of Persiafrom Ubisoft was released in 1989 and infused said timing in terms of platforming, combat, and overall movement as a core part of its design philosophy.
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That wasn’t even what players considered to be the most difficult aspect of the game, though. The real kicker is that the game featured a 120-minute timer that forced people to beat it in under two hours. Its cruel twist was that death wasn’t the primary enemy of completion, it was time itself.
5Hagane: The Final Conflict
When looking at the SNES library and its dozens of hair-pulling games, most people might not rememberHagane: The Final Conflict.It’s hard to blame people when it was released in 1994, a year jampacked with many of the most well-revered video games of all time. It didn’t help that anyone brave enough to pick up the game would quickly realize they were in for a battle of wills and fortitude.
It fell into this weird space where players were simply presented with an overwhelming amount of conflict, rather than having to fight obtuse controls or poorly designed moment-to-moment gameplay. It’s the type of experience gamers would respect for its difficulty, rather than factoring it as a game hampered by the era in which it was developed.
4Contra III: The Alien Wars
Contraas a seriesis known for being rather difficult, so for a game in the series to stand as one of the most impossible games to beat on an entire platform like the SNES, it’s rather telling. Arcade-like games in general tend to keep the player’s attention with constant pressure from all angles andContra III: The Alien Warsups the ante very much in that way.
Not only are players dealing with an awful number of enemies spawning, but the designers of the game felt tons of environmental traps and obstacles were needed. In the modern era of the medium, gamers can’t help but gush over tough bosses in games likeElden Ring, but it’s unclear if they’d feel the same admiration towards the tough-as-nails boss lineup featured in the third iteration of the belovedContraseries.
3Super Ghouls ‘N Ghosts
Most people know thatGhost’s ‘N Goblinsis considered one ofthe hardest games of all time, which makes the fact that its sequel for the SNES was just as difficult, super frustrating. One could argue it’s harder due toSuper Ghouls ‘N Ghostsspawning more enemies and pitfalls for the player.
However, this is balanced out a bit thanks to improved controls that make the game much more playable for general gamers picking up the game with no prior series experience. It’s not the type of classic game where the player can power through with invulnerability frames thanks to tanking an enemy hit since the game gets exponentially more impossible the moment the player gets hit for the first time.
2Zombies Ate My Neighbors
One could be forgiven for thinking that a game with a name as goofy asZombies Ate My Neighborswould be a kid-friendly good time that doesn’t take itself too seriously. This game came out before the zombie zeitgeist really took a stranglehold on the gaming industry.
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Little did anyone know that this SNES game would test the patience of the human psyche thanks to its insane reliance on resource management and its marathon-like collection of 50 levels. With as many zombie-centric video games as there are these days, it might be in everyone’s best interest if they simply avoid playingZombies Ate My Neighbors, if only to spare their own sanity.
1The Lion King
Kids these days will never understand the struggle of trying to beat a game and not understanding that it was designed for the sole purpose of not being completable. That’s where the licensedThe Lion Kinggame which was released for the SNES in 1994 comes in.
Back in an era where games could be rented, developers and publishers understood that if someone couldn’t beat the game they’d be forced to continually rent it.The Lion Kinghas an endearing aesthetic design that feels authentic to thebeloved Disney classic, but the awful controls and unclear platform design make progressing through what appear to be even the most simplistic challenges almost impossible.
