10 games you’ll never finish because they’re too hard

Sometimes, the time comes when you give up

Tarryn van der BylAugust 17, 2012

The thing is, some games are just not meant to be finished. Instead, they exist simply to remind you that you’re not as good at games as you thought you were.

They also remind you that your controller or keyboard and mouse will break into a lot more pieces than you’d expect when you hurl it at the wall. Remember, there’s no shame in ragequitting if it’ll save your hardware from meeting the floor.

Contra: Hard Corps (Mega Drive)

Obligatory.

By Konami, for people who hate themselves.

Spelunky (PC, XBLA)

Remember when games were really, really, really hard? Of course you do, because it was just last month. Derek Yu’s platformer / death-simulator looks totally cute, but that’s just part of the deception. What deception? That you’ll ever get out of this mine alive.

Then suddenly, spiders.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PC, Xbox 360, PS3)

Just when you think you’ve made it through Veteran difficulty, say hellooooo to the Mile High Club epilogue mission. The “ooooo” is silent.

An artist’s impression of what the last part might look like.

Ikaruga (Dreamcast, Gamecube, XBLA)

And speaking of Hell, welcome to Bullet Hell. It’s called Bullet Hell because that’s exactly what it is. Hell, with lots of bullets.

It’s black, it’s white / It’s tough for you to get by / It’s black, it’s white, whooooo! / GAME OVER.

Metal Slug 3 (Neo Geo, PS2, Wii Virtual Console, XBLA)

The good news is that enemies will die with a single shot.

The bad news is, so will you.

Sin & Punishment (Nintendo 64)

Your sin was buying the game. Your punishment is the game. It’s right there in the name, people. You were warned.

Run awaaaaaaaaay!

Dark Souls (PS3, Xbox 360)

“Oh, no,” they said. “No. No, no, no. You don’t want to go that way. You don’t ever want to go that way, ever, LOL.”. After I’d gone that way. Which way was that? Oh, you know which way. Because it’s every way.

“Look, I think we’ve gotten off to a bad start here. Let’s just… let’s just calm down and talk this out.”

Borderlands’ Crawmerax the Invincible (PC, Xbox 360, PS3)

Okay, so technically you can finish Borderlands without finishing Crawmerax, but an unfinished achievement list is the same thing as an unfinished game, and nobody has this achievement. Nobody. Not even the people who do because Crawmerax is invincible, and he’s just pretending to be dead so you’ll stop tickling him with your silly bangsticks. Don’t believe me? Restart the game.