Arcade games arrived at a time when it wasn’t clear if they would be huge money makers, but they quickly proved quite capable. As a result, there are tons of games that were developed to eat a ton of quarters, and many of them were made especially difficult to make that possible. We took a look at some of the hardest games ever developed and chose the ten we think are the most difficult arcade games ever made. We’ve outlined them below, and they’re not arranged in any particular order, as they’re all equally challenging.
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1) Gravitar
Gravitar is a multidirectional shooter developed and published by Atari in 1982, and by today’s standards, it’s a simple vector-based game. It features the same control scheme as Asteroids, employing a rotate-and-thrust mechanic. Calling Gravitar “difficult” doesn’t really do it justice because it’s an incredibly hard game to play even remotely well. It requires a great deal of skill to operate, which might be why it wasn’t a huge success, as most players fed the cabinet a quarter, died almost immediately, and decided it wasn’t worth the challenge to try again. Despite this, Atari released a port on the Atari 2600 the year after Gravitar’s release.
2) Tempest
Another Atari classic, Tempest, was released the same year as Gravitar and features similar vector graphics. It’s a tube shooter that creates a sense of depth via forced perspective, and the player controls a blaster on the outer edge of the tube’s surface. The goal is to shoot at enemies and obstacles as they approach, using a spinner to navigate around the tube. Unlike Gravitar, Tempest was a huge success, though it is quite challenging as well. One thing it had going for it was Atari’s SkillStep, which allowed players to choose their starting level. This enabled players to develop their skills over time, making the difficulty curve a fun challenge.
3) Zaxxon
Zaxxon is a scrolling shooter, but unlike typical titles, it’s set at a 45-degree angle. This creates a 3D landscape that overhead games couldn’t achieve to the same level of complexity, making Zaxxon a pioneer of early isometric projection in gaming. The goal is to pilot a ship through a space fortress, which is filled with enemies, obstacles, and more. Zaxxon was a hit upon release, generating plenty of cash for Sega, though that didn’t mean that it was easy. The game is incredibly challenging, as gameplay requires avoiding everything thrown at the player while fighting against an ever-diminishing fuel gauge. It can be brutal, but it’s also a fun game that was well worth a quarter in 1981.
4) Dance Dance Revolution
The first Dance Dance Revolution arrived in Japanese arcades in 1998 and in North America the following year. The game was a massive hit, establishing a franchise that saw expansion to home video game consoles with special accessories. DDR became the biggest music video game, keeping people in arcades at a time when arcades were waning in popularity. It’s also ridiculously difficult to learn to play (for most rhythmically challenged people), and mastering it requires skill and exceptional timing. It’s also a rare example of a video game that requires someone to be in relatively good health and shape to play, as it can be physically demanding at higher difficulty levels.
5) Missile Command
Missile Command emerged at the height of the Cold War and embodies that mentality by letting players defend six cities against intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). The game was developed by Atari and released in 1980; it’s incredibly easy … at the beginning. Difficulty scales significantly higher the longer you play, and it can become a giant mess of nightmarish bullet hell before long. Still, Missile Command is a popular retro game, as it requires a great deal of skill. It also employs a trackball, which isn’t common in arcade cabinets, making it an interesting addition to any early ‘80s arcade.
6) Defender
Defender is another 1981 title with a great deal of difficulty, as it’s pretty easy to die if you don’t pay close attention to every threat on the screen. The scrolling shooter sees the player fight off waves of invading aliens while also protecting astronauts from their attacks. Defender is one of the most successful scrolling shooters of the Golden Age of Arcade Video Games, and it was a huge hit. It established the horizontal-scrolling shoot-’em-up genre and was highly influential in the development of many games that followed. It’s both painfully challenging and fun to play, which explains its success.
7) Terminator 2: Judgment Day
While most movie tie-in games generally suck, that cannot be said of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The game was released in 1991 and is a one- or two-player light-gun shooter that pits the player(s) against waves of Terminators and other threats sent by Skynet. The game was developed to be difficult, as the intention was to keep players entertained while continuously feeding quarters into it. To that end, it’s frustratingly hard to play for long without dying, which didn’t hurt its sales in any way. Most players enjoyed it, as T2 closely follows the film and the lightgun mechanics are exceptionally well-made, resulting in a fun experience.
8) Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
In every Mortal Kombat arcade game, players could develop their skills and progress to beat the game or challenge other players. That’s true of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3, but the game is exceptionally difficult, thanks to its AI that reads the player’s inputs and instantly reacts. This means it detects what the player is doing without delay and responds immediately, using increased aggression to take down players, forcing them to keep feeding quarters into the cabinet to continue playing. While brutal, it’s a fantastic entry in the franchise, and it’s more realistic in its enemy movements and responses, which many players appreciate.
9) Dragon’s Lair
In 1983, gamers were stunned at the technical marvel that was Dragon’s Lair, an early LaserDisc video game that used full-motion video for gameplay. Players would move or attack when prompted by a highlighted area on the screen, and it’s so easy to miss the timing of these commands that death isn’t a bug; it’s a feature. There are so many ways to die in Dragon’s Lair, and each one has its own animation, but that didn’t stop it from becoming immensely popular. It has since been ported to almost everything, and it stands as a classic early ‘80s title that remains a favorite of retro gamers to this day.
10) Ghosts ‘n Goblins
If you want to enjoy the most painful video game experience of your life, then Ghosts ‘n Goblins is the game for you. The 1985 platformer is one of the most notoriously difficult games ever made, and it’s absolutely brutal. The player controls Sir Arthur, who has to fight his way across a landscape filled with all manner of horrific and fantasy creatures to save Princess Prin-Prin. Once you accomplish this feat, the game resets to an even harder level, and you have to do it all over again. It’s a brilliant game that became incredibly successful, but it’s one of the most difficult video games ever made.
What’s the hardest arcade game you’ve ever played? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
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Courtesy of Bones Film
