10 Most Brutally Difficult NES Games EVER

3. Ninja Gaiden

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Team Ninja

Ninja Gaiden is widely revered as one of the best ever, especially on retro consoles such as the NES, and rightfully so.

It's a truly great game, even if it and its sequels were soul-destroying in difficulty. This entire entry could easily just be dedicated to Ninja Gaiden I, II, and III, but the original is where it started, and that's what we're going to highlight.

Playing as Ryu Hayabusa, a ninja on the revenge trail following the murder of his father, you have to platform your way through 20 levels of deftly crafted action, enemies, and jumping.

In a rare case for Nintendo Hard games, the NES version of Ninja Gaiden had a fair use of continues in the very likely event you failed on one of those levels (unlike the Arcade game that wanted you to fail miserably).

Playing Ninja Gaiden is essential for any gamer out there, but if you want to play it and never have before, for the love of God, time your jumps.

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Avid writer of nonsense. Can often be seen in his natural habitat watching far too many films and not enough TV. Occasionally plays on the Xbox and Megadrive whilst chastising himself for not writing more.