You Can't Do It! 10 Video Games You Could Not Beat as a Kid (no Matter How Hard You Tried)

Or an adult, for that matter.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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There was something great about retro games. Then again, there was also something awful about them: they were often nearly impossible to beat.

In the '90s games were still coming off the arcade high, when they were designed to be hard so they'd eat up quarters. It wasn't until later that games were designed so that most players would actually be able to see their endings.

Of course, you could argue that that slippery slope led to the hand-holding cake walks of modern games, but it's inevitable that for every action there's a reaction. The point is games used to be hard as shit.

There are plenty of challenging retro games, and you could spend the rest of your life trying to beat some of them. But these ten stick out because we loved them back in the day—even though we couldn't see them through to the end no matter how hard we tried.

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Sonic the Hedgehog 2

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The Lion King

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Super Castlevania IV

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time

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Comix Zone

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Mike Tyson's Punch-Out

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Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts

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Ninja Gaiden

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Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels

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The Legend of Zelda

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