What's the one game you can think of that you were never able to beat?

For me, it's probably Xenon. It's a vertical scrolling shooter where you can switch between being a tank and a plane, the first game by the Bitmap Brothers. It's been haunting me since I was a boy and I loaded it up on an Atari emulator a few days ago.

My god, it's brutal. You get 3 lives to do the whole game with no saves. There are points in level 2 where, if you lose that first life, you are pretty much guaranteed to lose the other 2, because the level is practically impossible once you've lost all the weapon upgrades and gone back to the basic blaster. I got to level 3 once and it's merciless. Those little ground bastards ambush you from all sides ...

But it's a fantastic game and I love it. Especially the music, omg ...

Did anyone ever beat it? Seriously, if you want a challenge these days, go back to the '80s, lol

(P.S. Man, what is up with the url links in this forum?)

speaking of shmups from that era, R-Type. I know, my arms have their roots somewhere near my second 90, but man, this game is unforgivable as well.

Yeah, that one is tough as well and a classic. I remember beating it on the Game Boy, but I don't know how faithful that is to the original.

It used to be Paladin's Quest. The game, as a whole, isn't too difficult (with a mid-game peak when the enemies are quite strong, but you don't yet have the healing to keep up with it or powerful spells like Bury/LStorm), but then there's the final boss, who is much harder than the rest of the game. It doesn't help that you need to go back through the final dungeon again for every attempt.

I ended up beating the boss by using an unconventional strategy, using ATBack to reflect damage back and not actually using the Spirit spell; however, this was *way* after the game's release, and not on one of my first few playthroughs.

>Starts laughing histerically before breaking into tears<

I have given up a lot of stuff, like Puss! I don't know if I will ever complete Downwell or Super Hexagon, even if I like them. I'm quite terrible even at Bit.Trip. games, I'm actually a very bad and unskillfull player, that's why i like emulation and instasaves and hate checkpoints.
Even in games that I'm happy to have formally completed, like Escape Goat 2, or Celeste, I haven't finished all secret levels or game+ and so.

Ha ha! Well, I guess I mean to say "What is the one game that particularly sticks in your mind as being a bastard."

There have obviously been other games I haven't been able to beat, besides just that one. I'm not that much of a gaming badass ... lol ;-)

heard a joke that those who beat it are able to catch a fly with chopsticks.

Oh, plenty, but I wasn't trying that hard if things got nasty when I was little.
First one that comes to mind somewhat more recently (as in played in 2009, so over a decade ago, but still) is Final Fantasy 8, getting to that final area with characters that couldn't beat the first boss after losing all skills, there was just no way, and I didn't care to go back and grind, so banged my head against that one several times, then just watched the ending on YT.

I heard Tetris the Grand Master (arcade only, unfortunately) and its sequels (again, arcade only) are perhaps even more difficult.

When I was a kid, I would keep renting Lion King for the Genesis, hoping to finally get to the levels where you play as adult Simba.

Never made it past "Just Can't Wait to be King" and I've hated platformers ever since.

you've reminded me of another joke.
don't forgive mistakes: women, and Tetris at its 9th speed.

The game that immediately springs to mind is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the NES. I did try to beat it, but I'm not sure I ever made it inside the Technodrome. If I did, I didn't get far. It's a really good game though. I vividly remember getting it as a kid, I loved TMNT a lot.

Crime Patrol and Drug Wars.

I beat it.

Twice.

On Android.

And on PC.

(I understand though, it's a very brutal and unforgiving game, and it took several nights to wrap up all six levels of the game).