1. oh man good question. i think that ff3 WAS a hard game,but etrian odyseey was a lot harder.

i enjoyed ff3 though, but etrian o was just too hard hehe.

Posted at 11:03AM on Oct 20th 2007 by chris.-

2. I agree with Etrian Oddyssey. I remember reviewing it on my show (shameless plug, http://www.ultimatequest.net), and I couldn't get past the 2nd floor. It was excruciatingly painful. Of course there are other games that might be "painful", but they are annoying at times. Case in point, Tingle's Rosy Rupeeland. While the game is easy, trying to figure out how much money to give EVERY SINGLE PERSON is really really frustrating. There's no hints, no logic. It's guessing. And considering rupees are also your life in that game, you can see how it can get very very frustrating.

And last, but not least, in the frustrating games we have Touch Detective, with puzzles that make no sense whatsoever - this coming from a guy that prays to St. Guybrush Threepwood and goes visit Manny Calavera on a certain mexican holiday, riding Ben's motorcycle. So if I'm saying some puzzles are just plain stupid, I really mean it.

Other than that, you can't really say the DS has "hard" games. After all, it's not in Nintendo's best interest to have too many games on their system that would not benefit their core audience: the non-gamer.

Posted at 11:31AM on Oct 20th 2007 by Foodie_Monster

3. Sorry. Definately Trauma Centre!

Posted at 11:33AM on Oct 20th 2007 by Bretticus86

4. Izuna, The Legend of the Unemployed Ninja. Now THERE'S a game that was unbelievably hard.

Posted at 11:57AM on Oct 20th 2007 by neuralien

5. Yeah, I'm going to have to go with "Trauma Center." I still never beat it all. It's a shame, too, because I love the premise and the controls. It's just when I have to have reaction times of fractions of seconds, I'm not exactly the best.

Posted at 12:11PM on Oct 20th 2007 by Archibold

6. Elite Beat Agents, Hard ROCK!! mode. I swear, they did that just to annoy people. In all difficulties, Canned Heat seems to be intentionally misleading as well, following an obscure part of the music as opposed to the vocals or lead.

Posted at 12:14PM on Oct 20th 2007 by Kool_Kid_Joe

7. most definitely the Klingon campaign in Star Trek: Tactical Assault, I can't get past the first few missions, took several tries on the first alone

Posted at 12:25PM on Oct 20th 2007 by Russell

8. i agree completely with foodie monster : )

tingle's rosy rupeeland is a cool game, however, its frustrating as well. you need rupees to beat the whole game, but if you complete a quest for a certain person and you're beeing asked how much money you want, you only have about five chances to get your rupees. if you're too greedy, you get absolutely nothing. but if you're to kind, you get too little money to advance in the story. or you'll have to gather ingredients, mix some stuff and sell it. but that takes forever, trust me ; )

and yes, touch detective is not more logical at all : D
it took forever until i figured out that you need the spider web from the upper left corner of the hot dog shack to fix your net. and, how can you make people tired? of course, catch a beautiful butterfly with your net that was fixed with a spider web and show it to the people around you. THAT'S how you get people bleary-eyed. trust me : D

Posted at 12:28PM on Oct 20th 2007 by chris.-

9. Oh, that image. I lol'd.

Posted at 12:42PM on Oct 20th 2007 by Alisha Karabinus

10. Etrian Oddysey man more rock hard game Ive played damn Atlus.

Posted at 1:09PM on Oct 20th 2007 by Centy

11. For me it was Lost Magic, for control reasons. That is not normally a problem for me but I'm not kidding when I say I could not make it past the 2nd real battle. After trying for 30 minutes or so I decided it wasn't any fun and I might as well sell it back to the store, so I did.

Posted at 2:13PM on Oct 20th 2007 by Kristi

12. I actually sold trauma center because *mild spoilers* of the "diffuse the bomb" level. NO ES POSSIBLE!

Also, the last song on Elite Beat Agents is a complete pain on "Sweatin'" and "Hard ROCK" difficulties. I just unlocked the song for the latter after finally beating "The Anthem", and I am completely stuck.

Finally, any part of Resident Evil: Deadly Silence's classic control mode. I know fans of the original games are going to hate me for saying this, but the tank controls for those games are an abomination. I have not gotten more than 2 seconds past killing the first zombie in that game without putting it aside in disgust. Why can't they all be like RE4?

Posted at 3:10PM on Oct 20th 2007 by Croove55

13. Phoenix Wright. Some of the leaps of logic you're required to make are obtuse to the point of obscurity.

But, hardest? Without a doubt, Planet Puzzle League online multiplayer. I felt like everyone else in the world knew something I didn't. They probably did.

Posted at 3:18PM on Oct 20th 2007 by Jonman

14. Etrian Odyssey is a very special kind of hell. Enough has been said about that.

Touch Detective is just ridiculous. The puzzles make very little sense and you get no clues from anyone. It's the first time in years I've had to use a walkthrough- not for difficulty, but bad game design.

Posted at 3:57PM on Oct 20th 2007 by CJC

15. I have to say Yoshi's Island. The difficulty of the game was almost perfect but then they had to make the babies sound so obnoxious. It totally ruined the game and as I've said before made it feel too much like work.

I'm excited for Contra 4 though, it seems like I'll finally own a DS game that won't be able to be completed in a few days.

Posted at 4:57PM on Oct 20th 2007 by Pizza Pasta

16. I loved Etrian and found it challenging but not too difficult. Izuna was crazy difficult, but the award ultimately goes to Trauma Center. TC was hard and the stress of the game combined with my uncomfortably hunched posture while playing it earn the award.

Posted at 5:24PM on Oct 20th 2007 by nil

17. i've beaten all of elite beat up to "jumpin' jack flash" on hard rock. canned heat was a blast- if you can get into the syncopation, it's a breeze. it's the only song on hard rock that i've gotten flawlessly!

as for the hardest game on the ds, how has nobody remembered advance wars?! that game kicks my ass everytime i turn it on, regardless of how much i train in free play mode and open up abilities.

maybe i shouldn't use colin all the time.

Posted at 7:47PM on Oct 20th 2007 by tonedef

18. Advance Wars DS - Why can I not get past about mission 7 on any single Advance Wars game? I'm not that into stategy games, but I am able to complete Fire Emblem. I just don't get it. How can you beat an enemy that doesn't die?!?! It seems absolutely impossible to me.

Trauma Center - For the same reasons others have given. Managed to get to the last level, but it is ridiculously hard. Nearly threw my DS out the window in frustration. Not an enjoyable experience.

Elite Beat Agents - The later difficulty levels are insanely hard. Though you amaze yourself at how you're managing to keep up.

Metroid Prime Hunters - Mainly the second time you visit the 'Alimbic Cluster'. The bit with all those different portals and doors. Unbelievably confusing. But I could write for hours about how much I hate that game.

Posted at 8:49PM on Oct 20th 2007 by Hame

19. Ha, apparently I'm not the one getting my face kicked by Lost Magic.

I'm with Kristi, all the way. For some reason, Lost Magic has just been really bloody hard from the get-go. There are points where I've done better than others, but for the most part, it is a very hard game.

I spent days grinding my way through it, loving it, and now, I just can't win. I'm stuck, and just can't get past the battles I need to. It's seriously making me crazy.

Posted at 10:20PM on Oct 20th 2007 by Matdredalia

20. trauma centre - got to the las level and just gave up haha. i stoppedplaying and there was no way i was getting back into it at that stage

FF3 wins the most fucking annoying game design award, with its stupid "its random who goes first" system so you either have to rely on luck or over leveling.

Posted at 8:07AM on Oct 21st 2007 by ojste