Contra: Hard Corps
Contra was an instant classic when it debuted in 1987, and it has since been remembered as a seminal run and gun game, a genre utterly synonymous with retro arcade titles of that era. Unsurprisingly for a game of the late 1980s, it’s stupidly hard with a near vertical learning curve right from the start.
Almost unbelievably, in standard mode Contra only grants three lives to beat its myriad of hugely difficult levels. Seriously, if you’ve played Contra then you’ll know that this is about as feasible as taking trying to take Hamburger Hill solo with a single clip of ammunition. For that reason, the game made popular the concept of cheat codes; the infamous Konami code bumping restarts to 30 when inputted, which made the game much more palatable, but still immensely tough.
As hard as Contra was, we’ve decided to list the game’s sequel, Hard Corps. Despite the original’s almost impossible difficulty level, Hard Corps didn’t dumb down the Contra formula, but rather added to its excruciating difficulty by ramping things up another notch with even more boss fights. During some levels, players were faced with up to six boss encounters in one stage. To beat Contra: Hard Corps requires work, perseverance and patience on a level not seen anymore in modern gaming.