15 Brutally Difficult Video Games That Totally Broke You

12. Ikaruga (2001)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGNSdcy-apU Ikaruga is one of, if not the, hardest vertical shooters of all time. With just five chapters to play through and originally being released on arcade, this hidden gem will test the patience and repetition of the strongest minded gamers. The game has a simple premise. See, the player can change their ship between white and black, so if your ship is white you could absorb white bullets as black will kill you, and vice versa. This is fine for the first couple of levels, but once the difficulty jumps by about a thousand percent and you're flying into a constant barrage of endless bullets and waves of projectiles, then you understand the problem. Lightning reflexes are a must have if you want to master Ikaruga and it's eye-splitting pace - an ask that only a handful of us have managed to get through whilst retaining a full head of hair.