The Hardest 1st Level Ever

[Gaia Gensouki | 1,072]

Undeadline on the Mega Drive is brutally difficult. I remember being very happy when I finally beat the game after weeks of trying and told my friends about this. They didn't know why I was so excited and when I showed them a longplay of the game they stated that it didn't look that difficult. Then I told them to try for themselves and some of them couldn't even make it to the first boss, let alone beat him. Then I told them that this was only the midboss and they seemed noticeably irritated.

So yeah, this game doesn't pull any punches and even though you have three hit points, which sounds like a luxury for a shoot 'em up, it still makes sure that you lose them quickly. Heck, some power ups can even drain one of your hit points or remove all of your existing power ups. So you have to be really careful and take care of many things simultaneously. It's also one of those games where you should learn the levels by heart. And since you're free to chose the order of the first six levels I even came up with my personal order for beating them, i.e. starting with the most difficult levels first.

Ikari warriors is another great pick here. Even with the cheat I couldn't be bothered to play through this. It's just a tedious, boring slog with an insane difficulty.

Edited January 16, 2021 by Gaia Gensouki

[Bearcat-Doug | 5,104]

Kid Icarus was the first game that came to mind for me. It's not so much that the first level itself is difficult as it is how underpowered you are at the beginning of the game. It reminds me of how Zelda II: Adventure of Link throws you into Death Mountain early in the game when the enemies are far stronger than you are.

[guitarzombie | 924]

On 1/15/2021 at 1:14 AM, Gloves said:

I've not played it but I've read that DOOM Eternal starts basically assuming you've beaten all of DOOM 2016, and immediately ramps up the difficulty compared to the toughest content in its predecessor. 

So if you play DOOM Eternal WITHOUT playing DOOM 2016, and do so on the hardest difficulty, I imagine that'd be quite the challenge. 

I will disagree because they are VERY different games in terms of combat.  Doom 2016 is just "Use the SSG and run" where as Doom Eternal is really using the right weapon for the right monster.  Its a combat puzzle.  The difficulty doesn't really ramp up but its very RPG like as when you start building your Slayer with upgrades and get all the weapons (by the 4th level) you're just about ready to roll.  So your underpoweredness is what makes it challenging.

But it would be silly to say DEs first level is the hardest because you're playing it on NM without any experience.  I started on UE and then went to NM so I could learn the game better.  I WILL say the first few levels are the hardest on NM only because you don't have many upgrades and weapons.  A couple of great things about the game, you can lower or raise the difficulty within the game at any time and even if you're stuck on a boss, you can choose to use 'sentinel armor' which gives you much more protection to try to finish.  Also even if you get cheats, you can use them and finish the game without penalty.  I really love they included so many different ways for you to play their game.  Wanna use cheats?  Sure!  Wanna play the game on Nightmare with no upgrades? Sure!

 

On 1/15/2021 at 3:14 AM, PII said:

Basically agree with everything here but this one part.  If I have it right you're referring to the 3rd stage of "Mephisto" which is the level that starts out with the ghosts in stage 1.  That third stage of Mephisto is a pain if you die and loose your power-ups, but is definitely possible from square one.  It's the one that has all the squiggly things that line up more or less from top to bottom and shoot at you.  The trick is to get as close up to them (toward the right of the screen) as safely possible just as they materialize and shoot as fast as possible in order to take out at least a couple right away in each wave in order to make a hole for surfer to pass through without being hit.  Total pain, but doable.  A lot of it is figuring how to get through all bare bones like this in any given stage when you happen to die and lose those power-ups.

Yeah that is the level.  I remember just dying there, I think in the middle and even using turbo (I dont use turbo all the time, I can beat it without), I could NOT get past some of the ghosts.  I lost all my lives and continues just in that one area.

[Californication | 1,477]

The trick for Silver Surfer in my opinion is learning which levels are easy and which are tough for you. After a while the beginning levels are all mostly easy. Then you have to find where the power ups are in each level.

Then when I start the game I go to an easy level with a bunch of power ups. After I beat it I go to a hard level. If I beat the hard level I go to  the next hardest level. If I die I go to an easier level with power ups.

[guitarzombie | 924]

I kinda do something similar, I actually start with the normal start stage, then work my way thru the hardest levels first.  The ghost one and the lava one.  Once thats out of the way its pretty much smooth sailing.  Id say the ghost one is the hardest because of the trajectory of all the enemies.  If you dont know their patterns you will probably fly right into them.  If you have a rough idea and fully powered, its not that hard.  This games requires as much memorization as Ninja Gaiden, which compared to others, isn't a lot.

[Andykin Skysk8r | 49]

Cliffhanger on SCD would be the right answer but the problem is Im not sure I would accept that as the first level even if the manual said so. Playing the game I always thought of it as level 2, its an entirely different playstyle and its like 15 mins long on its own. 

Barring that I would say the NES port of Ikari Warriors(no cheats no glitches). 

Also if we are accepting hard mode picks then you can find plenty of arcade games on difficulty 8 where the 1st level will brutally stomp you into submission.

Edited January 16, 2021 by Andykin Skysk8r

[PII | 1,884]

26 minutes ago, Andykin Skysk8r said:

Cliffhanger on SCD would be the right answer but the problem is Im not sure I would accept that as the first level even if the manual said so. Playing the game I always thought of it as level 2, its an entirely different playstyle and its like 15 mins long on its own. 

Barring that I would say the NES port of Ikari Warriors(no cheats no glitches). 

Also if we are accepting hard mode picks then you can find plenty of arcade games on difficulty 8 where the 1st level will brutally stomp you into submission.

The levels in Cliffhanger are further defined by the fact that they are all buttressed with cut scenes at both ends, so it doesn't come down to only relying on the manual.  Both game and manual indicate that the first snowboarding section is part of the first level.   Also, there is another level that begins as a beat 'em up and transitions to Snowboarding and has cutscenes at both ends like every other level.

I did not take hard modes into consideration, but I didn't really intend to establish any hard and fast rules for legitimacy of submission either; just wanted to have everybody who wants to, talk a bit about their own hardest 1st level experiences.  Not that hard and fast rules for such can't be fun too..

In the case of something like Castlevania, for example I'd argue that the hard mode is invalid because it requires a player to play through the whole game first thereby establishing the beginning of the game on hard mode as clearly - not the first level.

In the case of games that allow a preselection of difficulty levels at the option screen I'd probably argue that the hardest difficulty level is neither standard difficulty nor required when beginning the game and once again not suitable as 'the first level that one is required to play in order to play the game.'  

In the event that hard mode is a required selection in order to play the entire game (ie. Double Dragon II) it is still not a requirement to begin the game, but rather a requirement to finish the game.

Anyway, I wasn't really intending to make it a competition for whose 1st level example is truly the hardest (that sort of thing is remarkably subjective), just saying that I think Sega CD Cliffhanger is mine.

Ikari Warriors seems to be a popular choice.  Lotta folks talking about that one lately.  I'll have to give that one a shot some day for sure.

[bronzeshield | 293]

I agree with some of the picks here like Cliffhanger and Ikari Warriors -- but has anyone ever played Loadstar on the Sega CD? I spent a couple hours trying to beat the first level of that one and had no luck. Massive amounts of memorization required, on top of dealing with all the "pleasures" of FMV-based games.

[PII | 1,884]

5 hours ago, bronzeshield said:

I agree with some of the picks here like Cliffhanger and Ikari Warriors -- but has anyone ever played Loadstar on the Sega CD? I spent a couple hours trying to beat the first level of that one and had no luck. Massive amounts of memorization required, on top of dealing with all the "pleasures" of FMV-based games.

I was recently watching bits of just about every Sega CD game including Loadstar.  I remember being rather uncertain what to think of this one.  It was cool looking with cool music and it didn't look like it would be very hard, but I just watched it again and it seemed like it might require a lot of memorization and a quick twitch reflex. And the first level looked to last about 8 minutes...

[peg | 370]

Anyone ever played the NES shmup called "Destroyer"?  I'm guessing not.  That is my pick for not only the hardest first level in any game I've ever played, but also the hardest NES game ever made.  At least Ikari Warriors has some kind of level design behind it.  This pile of shit is just a random mess of awfulness.

[mbd39 | 2,020]

8 hours ago, peg said:

Anyone ever played the NES shmup called "Destroyer"?  I'm guessing not.  That is my pick for not only the hardest first level in any game I've ever played, but also the hardest NES game ever made.  At least Ikari Warriors has some kind of level design behind it.  This pile of shit is just a random mess of awfulness.

 

I googled and could only find an After Burner type game called Sky Destroyer for Famicom.

Edited January 22, 2021 by mbd39

[peg | 370]

Look up el destructor, which it was what it was released as under the gluk brand in Spain. Despite the box art and label of the cart, the title screen of the game just says destroyer, since it's actually just a repackaged unlicensed famicom game.

[BriGuy82 | 765]

On 1/13/2021 at 11:12 PM, PII said:

Post a commentary on the Toughest 1st Level that you've ever played in a Video Game.

So I was playing Cliffhanger for the Sega CD recently and it struck me somewhere during the snowboarding that this has to be the most insane first level of any game that I've ever played.  The level starts out as a beat-em-up which is not difficult but quickly changes things up to a 3rd person snowboarding-down-the-mountain-before-the-avalanche-catches-up-with-a-near-endless-onslaught-of-stuff-coming-at-you...     There are checkpoints every time you go through a cave and every time, you'll find yourself thinking 'that's it right?, this's gotta be the end', but no, it is not.  Every time you think the level couldn't possibly throw even more strenuous and awkward crap at you it manages to do just that.  The whole level (not counting the cut-scene intro) takes about 11 minutes and I can't think of anything else I've played that even compares.  Also, it's wicked cool and awesome fun provided you can keep from getting overly frustrated.

I've often wondered what percentage of people who purchased this game new in its heyday resold it without ever seeing the 2nd level.

For attention to detail, I've included a snap shot of the game's manual which clearly indicates that the first bout of snowboarding is in fact part of the first level.

 

My friend actually had this on sega CD when we were kids. The game was over once we started snow boarding. That's so funny you brought this up because I was just thinking about this game for Sega CD when @scaryice beat it for the NES. I can say I experienced its awfulness firsthand as a kid. Idk how many people can claim that! But let me tell you this, for the time, this game looked awesome. It's too bad we never got to experience most of it! 

[BriGuy82 | 765]

@PII I still have my original sega cdx. I haven't had any desire to play it in my adult life until now. The only thing I'm missing is the ac adapter plug, which I think is rather expensive. I'm feeling motivated to play some cliffhanger.

[PII | 1,884]

3 hours ago, BriGuy82 said:

 I still have my original sega cdx. I haven't had any desire to play it in my adult life until now. The only thing I'm missing is the ac adapter plug, which I think is rather expensive. I'm feeling motivated to play some cliffhanger.

¡Yeah, go for it!  That's what I like to hear!  I've never actually used or even been in the presence of a cdx, but it seems like an awesome thing to have.  Looks like the original power supply is about $35 but there're also some reproductions for more like $13...  As far as Cliffhanger is concerned there's not exactly a stampede to get the last one yet.  I picked up mine complete in case for about $12.  It still looks great today, I especially enjoy the combination of low-rez cut scenes with the cd quality soundtrack from the film, and normally I hate cut scenes...

[mbd39 | 2,020]

4 hours ago, peg said:

Look up el destructor, which it was what it was released as under the gluk brand in Spain. Despite the box art and label of the cart, the title screen of the game just says destroyer, since it's actually just a repackaged unlicensed famicom game.

I still can't find anything about it other than the ROM. Talk about a super obscure game.

EDIT: Never mind. Including Gluk in my search has helped.

Edited January 22, 2021 by mbd39

[peg | 370]

1 hour ago, mbd39 said:

I still can't find anything about it other than the ROM. Talk about a super obscure game.

EDIT: Never mind. Including Gluk in my search has helped.

As far as I can tell no playthroughs for it even exist, not even some fake "longplay"/tas.  I did play through it till the end using save states once, if I recall it's only 4 levels but good luck trying beat them legit.

[BriGuy82 | 765]

1 hour ago, PII said:

¡Yeah, go for it!  That's what I like to hear!  I've never actually used or even been in the presence of a cdx, but it seems like an awesome thing to have.  Looks like the original power supply is about $35 but there're also some reproductions for more like $13...  As far as Cliffhanger is concerned there's not exactly a stampede to get the last one yet.  I picked up mine complete in case for about $12.  It still looks great today, I especially enjoy the combination of low-rez cut scenes with the cd quality soundtrack from the film, and normally I hate cut scenes...

Yeah I got the CDX on clearance when I was I kid. I have the pleather travel case and about 5 sega cd games  If I recall it came out late in the life of the genesis and was kinda an afterthought. Similar in story to the nes toploader. You nailed it with the description of cliffhanger. My analogy would be to compare that snowboard stage to the turbo tunnels in battletoads... if it was the first level and also twice as long. For a 10 or 11 year old kid, that level was surely damn near impossible. 

[PII | 1,884]

5 hours ago, BriGuy82 said:

My analogy would be to compare that snowboard stage to the turbo tunnels in battletoads... if it was the first level and also twice as long. For a 10 or 11 year old kid, that level was surely damn near impossible. 

Yeah, it's amazing how many games were like that in those days.  I've never actually been on the turbo tunnel in Battletoads.  I've only popped the game in a couple of times and died somewhere in the 2nd level.  That one is definitely on my list of hard games to clear though.  I can only imagine how many friendships were ruined by that tunnel on 2-player mode...

[koifish | 555]

On 1/14/2021 at 2:23 AM, Webhead123 said:

The Adventures of Bayou Billy is notorious for most of its levels being near-impossible, including the first stage. I remember renting it back in the day and not being able to finish a single stage. Thankfully, the game designers apparently realized this and give you a level select options right out the gate. Sheesh.

Wasn't that game also made more difficult for release outside of Japan?

For me, I took a long time to understand Demon's Souls and it took me a long time to beat the first level. Also, based on what I heard about the infamous IGN review of God Hand, the reviewer of that game apparently couldn't finish the first level. I can somewhat understand, however, as the first time a demon burst out of a dude I was convinced I wouldn't finish it either! As it turned out, that wasn't so hard, especially compared to the rest of the game. I also got beat by the first level of Ninja Gaiden Black the one time I tried it. I think I'm not good at third person action games.

Seconding every makaimura game besides the one on wonderswan, which is kind of easy and not all that good IMO. I have maybe beaten super ghouls'n'ghosts level 1 but not gone much further. I've beaten NES makaimura level 2 or so. Overall my clearance rate for them is really low.

Finally, I can't do much but credit spam in games like Mars Matrix or Eschatos. I don't have the twitchiness training I think. Maybe someday though I will get into those genres.

I'll also submit Blues Brothers for Game Boy, that game is sloppy garbage and the first level makes you feel it!

[koifish | 555]

22 hours ago, PII said:

¡Yeah, go for it!  That's what I like to hear!  I've never actually used or even been in the presence of a cdx, but it seems like an awesome thing to have.  Looks like the original power supply is about $35 but there're also some reproductions for more like $13...  As far as Cliffhanger is concerned there's not exactly a stampede to get the last one yet.  I picked up mine complete in case for about $12.  It still looks great today, I especially enjoy the combination of low-rez cut scenes with the cd quality soundtrack from the film, and normally I hate cut scenes...

You can also burn a CD, no copy protection on those old CD units.

I like the CDX, but I sold mine because I didn't like the overpowering bass output. I had sold my model 1 + CD + 32X and had bought CDX to try it out, and my decision was that CDX had way too heavy bass output and wasn't well balanced in the sound. It just bugged me to play something like Castlevania Bloodlines and have the bassline overpower every other sound in the game. Alas, CD systems are still cool, I'm just a nomad now when it comes to MD. Maybe someday I'll return to CD, buy a laseractive or something

[sp1nz | 611]

On 1/22/2021 at 9:22 AM, peg said:

Anyone ever played the NES shmup called "Destroyer"?  I'm guessing not.  That is my pick for not only the hardest first level in any game I've ever played, but also the hardest NES game ever made.  At least Ikari Warriors has some kind of level design behind it.  This pile of shit is just a random mess of awfulness.

Tried this out of curiosity, beat the first level with 1 life left on my first try. I mostly died to the fast blue zig-zaggers cause I wasn't ready for them. Very long level with lots of repetition in enemy appearances and what they do but that repetition helps with the survival and you have 6 lives to start with. You can only have one bullet sprite of your own on the screen, so that makes shooting slow unless you do risky close quarters play. Enemies take more than 1 shot to die but their purple bullet patterns are quite easy to dodge even if they are sometimes dense, if you fail to kill enough of them fast enough. So the biggest difficulty here was the quick pop-in of multiple enemies around the screen and the erratic fast moving things, if you are not ready or know a safe-ish position in advance for them. The first boss was very easy but quite tanky. By no means is it an easy first level but that was my experience.

As for what I think is hardest first level, maybe The Three Dragon Story for MSX/SMS.

[peg | 370]

The shmup messiah has dawned upon us folks.

[PII | 1,884]

21 minutes ago, sp1nz said:

As for what I think is hardest first level, maybe The Three Dragon Story for MSX/SMS.

This looks very cool, like Dino Riki before there was Dino Riki minus the speed power ups and pits of doom.  Kinda hard to find a hard copy though...  I like how the Hero can cross from one edge of the screen to the other to avoid enemies and the availability for this tactic is gradually reduced as the levels progress.

[koifish | 555]

come to think of it, wizardry 4 is probably the hardest first level!