World's Hardest Games

Everyone has those games on their list that they consider to be the world’s hardest games, but there are only a select few that have driven even the best gamers to utter madness. These are not the games that are unplayably hard because of mechanics or poor design. No, these are the game that will keep you trying because they are so good but so sadistically difficult you may not finish before your throw that controller through your TV.

1. "Contra" You get only three lives to make it through this classic shoot ‘em up, but you may be asking yourself why this made the list. If you are, it may slip your mind that you used the classic Konami code to add 30 lives, lowering the difficulty significantly. Without it, heaven help you if you lost your ammo spray gun, which you would with just one hit, making finishing some levels not just hard but near impossible.
2. "Gradius" The main difficulty in any flying game is dodging whatever is being fired at you, but most of these games, especially from the NES era, can be defeated by simply memorizing the shot pattern over a few playthroughs. In an age before dynamic AI, "Gradius" decided to get around that pesky memorization by simply filling the screen with so many lasers you may wonder how anyone could traverse space in that environment. This was a game so hard that the designer had to insert a cheat code just to finish testing the game. You can thank "Gradius" for the invention of the Konami code. 
3. "Demon's Souls" An action RPG filled with traps, ambushes and plain old tough enemies, this game is not only hard, but downright paranoia inducing. Pre-designated save areas are the only save points available and there is only one save slot, meaning you cannot go back any earlier. When you do resurrect you find yourself in the Nexus, an area in the center of the map with your max life halved, which is only restored once you've reached the point where you died. Although developers did allow online play,and a function where other players could help each other in boss fights and write hints about what's to come, they also allowed players to become "Black Phantoms" and invade other people games to fight them.
4. "MegaMan" All the games in this beloved series are difficult, but none so much as the first. Not only are there no passwords to access previously beaten levels, energy pills are sparse and pixel perfect jumps if you don't want to touch the spikes. Remember to pick this game up in your golden years if you're worried your memory is going. If you can make it through this title, your brain is just fine.
5. "Ghosts and Goblins" Someone at Capcom wasn't hugged enough as a child to release this game on unsuspecting kids everywhere. Not only does the game punish you for getting armor by slowing you down, said armor falls off in one hit, meaning you die with a second hit and are pitted against a timer of death on each level. Just when you think you've beaten the game, you're treated to the meanest surprise ever. Surprise! It was all a dream cooked up by Satan, go back to the beginning and beat it again. Do not pass go, do not collect $200 and try not to throw your Nintendo out the window.