Games Few People Have Beaten

Some video games are fun from start to finish. Others seem to leave out the "finish" part and remain unbeaten forever. Here's a selection of games that, for whatever reason, haven't been beaten by very many people. Maybe you'd like to try?

Takashi no Chousenjou, otherwise known as Takeshi's Challenge, gave fits to Japanese NES fans. The "Takeshi" in question was actor/director Takeshi Kitano, a man who holds the distinction of being one of the first celebrities to get involved with the world of gaming. Sadly, his efforts produced a title widely considered one of the worst games of all time. Why all the scorn? Takeshi's Challenge is nearly unbeatable, owing to gameplay that largely depends on trial and error. There's even one section that requires the use of the second controller's microphone to sing some karaoke. What? While the game could be beaten by slogging through the confusing gameplay, you could have also thrown 30,720 punches on the opening screen to get to the ending. Say goodbye to your thumbs.

As we mentioned, Super Meat Boy is an homage to the tight, challenging games of yesteryear. But for every Metroid or Super Mario Bros., there are lots of other old games that were hard not because they were good, but because they were bad. Very, very bad. Case in point: Friday the 13th for the original Nintendo Entertainment System. In 2009, Game Informer magazine included this on its list of the worst horror video games. Other magazines, like GamePro and Nintendo Power, have gone a step further by calling Friday the 13th one of the worst games ever made, period. Friday the 13th is very nearly impossible to beat...but mostly because it's so crappy that most players would simply throw their controllers through the TV before getting anywhere close to completing it. That still counts, right?

Do Not Believe His Lies is a bit strange because it's a mobile game that's played kind of cooperatively. It was released in 2014 by theM Dev on Android and iOS, and since then, it's caused many sleepless nights. Each part of the game features cryptic puzzles and riddles that create a story when solved, but it's incredibly hard, and plenty of players have dropped out along the way. Luckily for those who remain, a Reddit community was created to crowdsource solutions.

Many hardcore video gamers consider Radiant Silvergun for the Sega Saturn to be one of the best shoot'-em-ups of all time. At first glance, the game doesn't appear to be significantly different from its brethren: it's a 2D vertical shooter in which you pilot a spaceship and destroy enemies set to a suitably epic soundtrack. What about this premise warrants a $200 asking price on eBay?

What makes Radiant Silvergun stand out is its gameplay mechanics. Unlike most shooters, you don't collect new weapons through the course of the game. Instead you have access to all seven of your ship's armaments—including a sword—from the beginning. Who knew wielding a blade could be so effective in dispatching rival spaceships? Luke should have strapped his lightsaber to his X-Wing. It's not enough to be skilled at dodging enemies' attacks, either: to truly succeed in Radiant Silvergun, you need to know when to use each weapon at the proper time. This means you must either possess split-second reflexes or memorize every level. Sure, if you play the arcade version then you can just spend $20 to finish the game, but where's the skill in that?

For the longest time, the most difficult aspect of Radiant Silvergun was purchasing a copy without forgoing food that month. Its developer, Treasure, only released it for the Saturn in Japan. This thankfully changed in 2011, when the game came to Xbox Live with enhanced visuals.

Ninja Gaiden likely resulted in extra profits for Nintendo, since players had to replace their NES controllers after throwing them against the wall in frustration. Nearly all the games in the Ninja Gaiden series are known for their difficulty, including the NES trilogy and the more recent Xbox and Playstation reboots. The first game on the NES, however, is arguably the most memorable.

Players control a ninja named Ryu Hayabusa on his quest to defeat evil. Like many side-scrolling action platformers of the 1980s (e.g. Castlevania) Ryu gets knocked back several feet whenever he takes a hit. This means that 90 percent of the time, you'll die from getting hit and falling off a cliff. This wouldn't be a huge problem by itself, but it seems that every creature big and small has it out for Ryu's blood: rival ninjas, soldiers, dogs, and even hawks all want Ryu dead. The amount of enemies on screen can be obscene. Oh yes, and these baddies also respawn. To top this all off, if you manage to make it to the end of the game, you must face three bosses in a row without dying. Becoming a ninja in real life and taking out actual criminals may be easier than finishing Ninja Gaiden.

You can't beat Tetris. You can't beat Bejeweled. So why would anyone assume that you can beat Threes? Games like Sirvo's tile-based timewaster are usually about racking up high scores, not reaching an ending. For most puzzle games, bragging rights are the only reward you need.

And yet, as the minds behind the Threes Porn Twitter account discovered, Threes does end. It just takes a long time to get there. In Threes, players start with pieces worth one and two points. By swiping the screen, they can merge the tiles, making pieces that are worth three points, then six, then twelve, and so on. Creating the biggest tile in the game, which is worth 6,144 points, takes a long time. Making two and fusing them together takes even longer, and requires quite a bit of patience, a careful strategy, and a whole lot of luck.

In fact, reaching the conclusion of Threes is so difficult that its developers didn't originally put an ending in the game, figuring that nobody would ever actually get there. They were wrong. Three and a third years after Threes made its debut debut (yes, seriously) someone finally discovered the game's hidden ending, quite possibly becoming the first person to do so — at least without cheating.

Super Hexagon couldn't look more simple. You control a small triangle caught in the middle of a hexagon, pentagon, or square. Each side of the polygon has an opening, and all you have to do is guide your piece to the exit while the shape shrinks around you. Succeed, and you'll find yourself in the middle of another hexagon. Survive for 60 seconds to unlock the next difficulty, and keep going until you've successfully outlasted each level.

That shouldn't be difficult. In practice, it's almost impossible. Maybe it's the way that the Super Hexagon levels rotate while you're rotating yourself, making it hard to keep your sense of direction straight. Maybe it's how the shapes in the middle of the screen pulse in time to the music, giving the entire experience a psychedelic vibe. Perhaps it's the way that the shapes change as they get closer to your avatar, requiring split-second reactions and sudden changes of strategy. Whatever the cause, only 3.6% of PC players have managed to last for a full minute on the Hyper Hexagonest stage and witnessed the ending. But, sure, it looks simple.

Many role-playing games send a group of adventurers into a dungeon to search for treasures. Very few delve into the psychological trauma that results from spending an extended amount of time in the monster-filled darkness. Darkest Dungeon does. Like usual, characters can be killed by skeletons, necromancers, ghost pirates, and pig men. But they'll also get increasingly stressed as they head deeper underground, forming neurotic quirks and, in extreme cases, going full-on crazy.

Oh, and by the way, once characters are gone, they're gone for good, meaning that you'll need to train replacements, and the dungeon layouts change every time you head inside. That means that you never quite know what to expect, and given how important pre-quest preparation is to the game, you'll often find yourself in deep, deep trouble before you even really get started.

That's probably why Darkest Dungeon is so darn tough. Since its release in early 2016, less than 2% of Steam players have finished the game — and that's on the regular setting. The extra-hard "Stygian" mode only has a 0.3% completion rate. Or, to put it another way: if Darkest Dungeon's underground slog doesn't drive you mad, its near-impossible difficulty level probably will.

Everybody loves Spelunky. The open-source original quickly became a favorite with gamers and amateur developers, who lovingly expanded the game with all kinds of fan-made modifications. The HD remaster won a number of Game of the Year awards. Spelunky's plucky little main character, also known as Spelunky, is the closest thing we have to a modern-day gaming icon, and has appeared on toy shelves, t-shirts, and even other video games.

And yet, according to Steam, only about 7% of people have beaten Spelunky. If you throw out people who took shortcuts, that number falls to just under 6%. So, what gives? Obviously, the procedurally-generated levels play a big part — no two Spelunky runs are going to be exactly the same, meaning that memorizing stage layouts won't help you like they do in Spelunky's peer, Super Meat Boy. Spelunky also forces you to move fast. Not only are the game's caverns crammed full of monsters that want you dead, but if you dawdle, an (almost) invincible ghost appears and hunts you down. Spelunky never explains what its various items do or how its devious traps work, either. You have to figure it out for yourself — usually by dying until you get the hang of it.

Spelunky is a game for masochists, but somehow, it never gets old. While 93% of players will never see the final screen, every playthrough gets you a little bit closer to the credits — and that's just enough encouragement to keep most people heading back again and again and again for one more round.