Games that made you a glutton for punishment and playing every game on Max difficulty

[Overloaded_Wolf]

Growing up, I was never that great at beating difficult bosses, dealing with large hordes of enemies, or even having the strategy to come out of an encounter barely alive (I was dead every time). I would always go over to my best friends place or he would come to mine and he would beat the encounter for me. It wasn't until I got to around late in my High School years that I got into difficult games like Dark Souls, XCOM, and even going back to older Mario & Luigi titles (Yes, the Mario & Luigi games were difficult for me as a kid). Hell even Zelda gave me a lickin' every time I went into Majora's Mask or Wind Waker. Now-a-days I've beaten all the Dark Souls games + Bloodborne, XCOM + DLC is still a challenge because it's XCOM, the Witcher titles, and even going back to a childhood favorite of Kingdom Hearts 1 + 2 Final Mix. With Kingdom Hearts 3 right around the corner and Anthem lining up after it, you well should know I'm going to be beating my head against a brick wall wanting to beat them on their hardest, because I believe when you play a game on its most challenging difficulty, it brings out the true potential of the game and utilize all the systems and sub-systems it has to offer.

Now for the question. What game in your childhood to now has made you bash your head against a wall but still went going despite the pain and suffering it caused? Basically put, what game made you a masochist for difficult games.

(Extra: still need to beat Wings of VI. Holy hell is that game hard.)

[Cat]

I grew up in the days of early consoles, when every game was a grind and the try-die-restart cycle was just the way you played games. I made my bones beating dozens or hundreds of such titles. Now that I'm older, I want to relax and just play games on casual, so I can avoid all that frustration and still get to have a good time. I have nothing left to prove to myself, as a gamer, so I've no need to punish myself with frustratingly difficult gameplay.

More power to those who do, though - everyone should have the option of playing the way they want, particularly in solo games, as the goal of any hobby should be to share the thing you love with others.

Well it also depends on the style of games - older games had lives and often made you repeat very large segments which must have been tiring. Given that some new games will turn off auto-save in the "Very brutal" settings I think the auto-respawn and very forgivable health recharging that games in general have gotten much easier or at least less monotonous (e.g. I am calling you out xD jk).

I do feel you though in that if the story is REALLY good I often find myself wanting to skip the game parts just to watch the cut-scenes (thinking hl2, observer, etc).

[JackofTears]

I grew up in the days of early consoles, when every game was a grind and the try-die-restart cycle was just the way you played games. I made my bones beating dozens or hundreds of such titles. Now that I'm older, I want to relax and just play games on casual, so I can avoid all that frustration and still get to have a good time. I have nothing left to prove to myself, as a gamer, so I've no need to punish myself with frustratingly difficult gameplay.

More power to those who do, though - everyone should have the option of playing the way they want, particularly in solo games, as the goal of any hobby should be to share the thing you love with others.

[Good Apollo]

Pretty much the Megaman games, especially 1 - 3. I played 2 so much that I can still beat it and only die maybe 1 or 2 time total. I've been addicted to that rush of beating something difficult ever since. I like a good challenge in my games

[Lackrobat]

Killzone game on psp top down shooter,can't remember the exact title. Absolute bastard of a game, I had visions of my psp hurtling towards a wall. Beat it in the end though.

[Overloaded_Wolf]

Ha ha ha... That took a while *wipes forehead*... Same thing with getting under 10 seconds on the Gulag spec ops mission in MW2

[Hopeless Wombat]

Ha ha ha no. Not after Call of Duty World at War.

[Juan-ton_Soup]

Halo 2 on Legendary.

[isturbo1984]

Never really was a fan of the "Hardest Difficulty" School of Gaming. Very few games have difficulty sliders that make sense. The only way I would play a game on hard mode if, honestly, it wasn't that hard. I'd much rather play naturally difficult games like Cuphead, Super Meat Boy, Dark Souls and Dead Cells.

[Valkenr]

The Lion King. Sega Genesis. Took me forever to beat Scar, I always gave up thinking I was doing something wrong, nope, just keep throwing him off the cliff...

Fallout 4 survival mode was the last "challenge" I enjoyed, but it wasn't balanced well, so the "survival" part of it was pointless after establishing myself with a farm and water supply. I couldn't get into Dark Souls games, except 3, (I didn't play them when they launched and I can't go from fluid modern action games to clunky old rigid animation games) and it was turned down for mass appeal.

Difficulty has been falling off a cliff or getting really lazy this past decade, so I haven't cared much for it. In PVE systems, you get health and damage boosts, no real AI improvements, most of the time you can just gimmick them into defeat (after over a decade playing videogames I know all the tricks, 90% of the time its just kiting around obstacles and taking advantage of hitbox size).

[ethansito]

When I heard that there was an extra cutscene for people who beat Halo 3 on legendary mode, I knew I had to do it. Also, I loved enabling the catch and cowbell skulls.