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The Top 7... toughest opening levels

Oooh. It's a bit hard, isn't it?

Words: Dave Meikleham, GamesRadar UK

Handing you your ass in: Mega Man 9

We may have run a feature Nine little things we love about Mega Man 9 a few weeks ago, but it might just easily have read ‘Nine little things about Mega Man 9 that make you want to stick your head in an oven.’Make no mistake, you can’t fully appreciate the aneurism-baiting bastard hard challenge of this game until you've tasted trunk-based death again and again.

The excruciating equation:

The first level throws a herd of elephants at you so evil, you’ll seriously start to consider a career in the ivory industry. The dastardly Dumbos have some murderous moves at their disposal, like blowing balls of destruction at you or trying to suck you to your doom in a level punctuated with hardcore platforming. Stopping yourself from becoming an elephant-sponsored soufflé requires deft fingers, nerves of granite and a masochistic streak that would shame most A-listers. And this is all still set against a backdrop of the purest pixel-perfect leaps you’ll find in gaming. Punishing, uncompromising and utterly nails.

Inexplicably harder than: Downing an army of 100 foot Olyphants in Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.

Want to avoid oven-based suicide? Then why not check out our Mega Man 9 - complete video guide?

Hear more about this article in TalkRadar.

Oct 13, 2008



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71 Comments
Order Comments: Newest First | Oldest First
Krispee31  - 1 year 29 days ago 
Wow, I wasn't the only one to be condemned by THOSE DAMNED ELEPHANTS!!!
Sash  - 1 year 29 days ago 
Lol, interesting article!
oreomonkey  - 1 year 29 days ago 
hahaha great one that was funny
drprofessor  - 1 year 29 days ago 
great article but come on. the elephants are cake. but you should see my friend king try them. he hasnt made it passed them lol. that 3rd one gets him everytime.
iluvmyDS  - 1 year 29 days ago 
I really hate the opening level of Alien Hominid. It took me 20 times to beat the level completely.
DELTA8558  - 1 year 29 days ago 
The driver tutorial was actually preetty easy, its just that it offers no explanation as to what the slalom is. I spent ages trying to figure it out.
Jimmyjammy  - 1 year 29 days ago 
Anyone ever play Stuntman?
It wasn't just that the first level (and all levels following it) was so hard, it's that each time you restarted it, it took about 30 seconds to load. Altogether I think I spent more time waiting for it to load than playing
Brainspike367  - 1 year 29 days ago 
What about Contra?
Brro-Dii  - 1 year 29 days ago 
I agree with the Driver tutorial, but the elephants in Mega Man 9 were easy. And you can see that they edited out the ladder above Mega Man on the last picture.
Thequestion 121  - 1 year 29 days ago 
Great article.
kaythanksbye2  - 1 year 29 days ago 
I remember that horrible tutorial from Driver! I couldn't beat it for the life of me and had to use a gameshark to bypass the level so I could actually play the game!
SOLIDSNAKE1983  - 1 year 29 days ago 
LOVED the driver opening!!! Remember the toughest part of a game i've ever played was in black, the last level was near impossible as it had practically no save points!
foarthelulz  - 1 year 29 days ago 
the opening level in Alien Hominid was SO EASY
GoldenMe  - 1 year 29 days ago 
Watch the paintwork! Watch the paintwork!!
YOU HIT THAT CAR!!! The car's wrecked, get out of my sight!

Hilarious GR, great article as always!!!!!!!
Y2Ken  - 1 year 29 days ago 
Yeah, I remember when Driver first came out, I was pretty young and that first level was so challenging. You feel so great when you beat it though, especially with 1 second left.

I would also say "I Wanna Be The Guy", but then I guess that's obvious by now. It's just how whichever way you go from the start, you will almost certainly die within 5 seconds the first time you play.
infinite doo  - 1 year 29 days ago 
I dont find any of the games on this list to be fun. You can say I'm not hardcore, but you'd be lying. I spend (nearly) 12 or more hours a day on CoD4 and others, but I'm not masochistic. Games with that kind of difficulty dropped dead for a reason (unless you count a few exceptions like MM9). I am liable to throw a controller through a window after playing halo 3 matchmaking (I HATE HALO 3 BTW), so playing these games makes me question the kind of asshole who would make something like that.
PS I played alien homonid, but that damn first level stopped me and my little bro from advancing. It's like the creators dont want you to play, or that they only want soulless losers to see the end...
BoondockSaint54  - 1 year 29 days ago 
That's actually about as far as I got in Driver. I hated that stupid tutorial and never played it again. On the Simpsons, though, I don't recall the skateboard part. Just spraypainting stuff. I haven't played that game in years.....
Ninja-KiLLR  - 1 year 29 days ago 
i remember watching two of my friends take about 1 or 2 hours to beat that one dude in ninja gaiden.
TheTrooper424  - 1 year 29 days ago 
Wow, you guys who wrote the artical are hilarious!! Even if you didnt come up with most of the stuff. Mega man has to be one of the best of classic video games
Amnesiac  - 1 year 29 days ago 
Not to brag or anything, but I honestly didn't have much trouble with the elephants. Still, awesome article.
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