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It Really Is That Hard, Embrace Frustration

Some games hold your hand and lead you forward with respect for your time and ability. This is lovely. There are some other games, though, that intentionally make the going tough.

These tough masters aren't afraid to let us lose progress, waste our time, or feel frustrated. In fact, they revel in their ability to take us to the very edge of throwing something.

This list includes 43 games from the last 21 years, with 413 likes. They come from a range of different genres and play-styles and are all good games if you want to deal with frustration.

List Details

PEGI Ratings: PEGI 3 to PEGI 18
ESRB Ratings: ESRB EVERYONE to ESRB MATURE 17+
Australian Ratings: G to MA 15+
Genres: Action, Adventure, Battle, Brain Game, Collecting, Communication, Creative, Fighting, Narrative, Physically Active, Platform, Point-and-Click, Puzzle, Rhythm, Role-Play, Sequencing, Shooting, Simulation, Sports, Stealth, Strategy, Traversal and World Building
Total Likes: 413

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Drink More Glurp

Release Date: 06/08/2020

Out Now: PC and Switch

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Cartoon

Drink More Glurp is a wacky sports game where you take turns to play athletic challenges. The twist is that you have to control your over-long arms with a separate joystick and your body is a wheel you can roll along on if you lift your arms right up....

Elden Ring

Release Date: 25/02/2022

Out Now: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person, Day and Night, Open World and Weather

Elden Ring is a role-play game set in a fictional world created by fantasy novelist George R. R. Martin, with a focus on combat similar to Demon's Souls and an open world with real time and weather like Zelda Breath of the Wild.

Chariot

Release Date: 30/09/2014, updated in 2018

Out Now: PS3, PS4, Switch, Wii U and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 6+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On

Chariot is a co-op platform game where you haul around a wheeled Chariot to the end of each level. Pushing, pulling or dragging with ropes, you need to use the real physics of the game to solve puzzles and time jumps to get the heavy objects to their...

Crawl

Release Date: 11/04/2017, updated in 2017

Out Now: Mac, PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Pixels

Crawl is a dungeon fighting game where your friends control the monsters and traps. The hero player moves around, break boxes and attack enemies while the ghost players try and stop him. Once the hero dies they become another ghost and the next player...

Baby Steps

Release Date: Coming soon

Coming Soon: PC

Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person, Day and Night and Open World

Baby Steps is a tongue-in-cheek traversal game where you play Nate, an unemployed failing son who sets out on a journey of putting one foot in front of the other. The twist is that you must control and place each foot individually while ensuring you...

Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy

Release Date: 06/11/2017

Out Now: Android, Mac, PC and iOS

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On

Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy is a strange game about movement and momentum. You are tasked with climbing a mountain. However, your only means of locomotion is a hammer that can stick to objects and drag you forwards.

There Is No Game

Release Date: 06/10/2020

Out Now: Android, Mac, PC, Switch and iOS

Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Pixels

There Is No Game is a comedic adventure with a strange twist. From the outset, the game’s narrator insists that there is no game to play. As you inevitably ignore his instruction you go on a journey through silly and unexpected video game universes.

Demon's Souls

Release Date: 05/02/2009

Out Now: PS3 and PS5

Skill Rating: 13+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person

Demon's Souls is a fighting and exploration game where you take on monstrous enemies in tough-as-nails combat. You navigate interconnected locations while fighting enemies with weapons and magic, timing your attacks, dodges, and parries exactly. It...

Bayonetta 3

Release Date: 28/10/2022

Out Now: Switch

Skill Rating: 13+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person

Bayonetta 3 is the latest fighting game in the Bayonetta franchise, where you use fantastical guns and outlandish attacks to defeat monsters and hordes of enemies in fast-paced combat. As you move through the stages, you attack enemies with your wide...

Bayonetta

Release Date: 29/10/2009, updated in 2018

Out Now: PC, PS3, PS4, Switch, Wii U, Xbox 360 and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person

Bayonetta is a fighting game where you use fantastical guns and outlandish attacks to defeat hordes of enemies in bombastic combat. As you play, you attack enemies with oversized weapons and supernatural powers. It stands out for how outrageous outfits,...

Bayonetta 2

Release Date: 20/09/2014, updated in 2018

Out Now: Switch and Wii U

Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person

Bayonetta 2 is a fighting game where you use fantastical guns and attacks to defeat hordes of enemies in over-the-top and dramatic combat. You attack enemies with extreme weapons and magical powers and, in a new addition for this second entry, can...

The Professional

Release Date: 31/12/2022

Out Now: Mac and PC

Skill Rating: 11+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On

The Professional is a traversal game where you attempt to steal a diamond from the museum with a wacky twist: you control each of your character's limbs individually. This makes even the simple goal of moving forward a challenging (and hilarious) task....

Octodad: Dadliest Catch

Release Date: 30/01/2014, updated in 2017

Out Now: Android, Mac, PC, PS Vita, PS4, Switch, Wii U, Xbox One and iOS

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person

Octodad: Dadliest Catch is a traversal game where you try and control an octopus masquerading as a human as he goes about his day-to-day life. Using a combination of sticks and buttons, it creates an awkward, stomach-churning feeling of having too many...

Jump King

Release Date: 03/05/2019

Out Now: PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels

Jump King is a high-stakes jumping game, where you control a character ascending a series of increasingly spread-out platforms. You can control how high each jump is by the length of your button press. This enables you to judge difficult and long jumps...

Silly Walks

Release Date: 07/08/2017

Out Now: Android and iOS

Components: 3D Third-Person, Cartoon and Hand-Made

Silly Walks is an adventure where you control household objects by tapping the screen to get them to walk. Each tap switches legs so you can control their direction as well as their speed. It sounds simple but takes some considerable skill. The...

Phogs

Release Date: 01/06/2020

Out Now: Mac, PC, PS4, Stadia, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Cartoon

Phogs is a game where you control a stretchy dog that has a head at both ends of its body. It sounds a little strange but is actually an endearing adventure where, on your own or with another person, you control each end of the dog separately to explore...

Biped

Release Date: 01/07/2020

Out Now: PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Cartoon

Biped is an adventure game where two players closely collaboration to walk through levels, solve problems. It has unusual controls and friendly cute characters that make it great to share in the family.

QWOP

Release Date: 21/12/2010

Out Now: Mac, PC and Web

Skill Rating: 9+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Hand-Made

QWOP is a sports game with a difference. You have to control each limb of your virtual athlete. This changes it from a challenge of hitting buttons to using the touch screen or keyboard to deftly coordinate movement to gain forward motion. It's really...

Exhausted Man

Release Date: Coming soon

Coming Soon: PC

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Blocks

Exhausted Man is a puzzle game where you play an ordinary, but clinically exhausted, person who must complete everyday challenges, and earn a better life. The twist is that you have to do all this with your character lying down.

Pony Island

Release Date: 04/01/2016

Out Now: Mac and PC

Components: 2D Side-On

Pony Island is an adventure game where you are trapped in a computer by the Devil. You need to crash the computer to escape and stumble upon the Pony Island game that appears unstable. As you hack away at the game you uncover its corrupted code and your...

Innocence Island

Release Date: 10/12/2022

Out Now: PC, PS4, PS5 and Switch

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person and Open World

Innocence Island is an adventure game where find yourself in a strange land without even the memory of how to walk. You explore the world by observing and learning skills from the creatures around you. It stands out as a journey through a world where...

Salt and Sacrifice

Salt and Sacrifice (Series)

Release Date: 10/05/2022

Out Now: PC, PS Vita, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 14+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead and Hand-Made

Salt and Sacrifice (and its prequel Salt and Sanctuary) is an fighting adventure game that's intentionally difficult and dark. You play by exploring the side-on world, fighting enemies with swords and other weapons. It's a strange combination of cartoon...

Spooky Chase

Release Date: 23/10/2020, updated in 2021

Out Now: PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels

Spooky Chase is a running, jumping game where you play a ghost collecting a series of flags. However, each route you take to a flag is then followed by enemies when you go after the next one. You play each level multiple times to collect each flag, but...

Tied Together

Release Date: 19/10/2018

Out Now: Switch

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On

Tied Together is a platform game for two to four players tied together. Like a three-legged-race you have to co-ordinate how you move. But here you are negotiating jumps and enemies too. Any player can grab the ground and act as a fixed point for...

Goop Loop

Release Date: 21/07/2021

Out Now: PC

Skill Rating: 11+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Cartoon

Goop Loop is a traversal game where you control a sticky lump of goo stuck inside a concrete loop. You can use the momentum of your goo and the world's gravity to get the loop to roll through the level. In this way you face all sorts of physics...

Hacknet

Release Date: 12/08/2015, updated in 2015

Out Now: Mac and PC

Skill Rating: 16+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Text

Hacknet is a simulation where you play a hacker completing missions and hacking into systems just by typing. Designed to be as close to real hacking as possible, you use actual commands and hacking tools to explore servers, chat rooms, and gain access...

Trombone Champ

Release Date: 16/09/2022, updated in 2023

Out Now: Mac, PC and Switch

Skill Rating: 6+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On, Cartoon and Grid

Trombone Champ is a rhythm-action game where you play a trombone in time to on-screen directions. Play is unlike other music games, because you can play a trombone note at any time and the focus is on fun musicality rather than accuracy. It stands out...

I Am Fish

Release Date: 16/09/2021

Out Now: PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person

I Am Fish is a physics-based traversal game where you help four fish get back to the ocean from their tanks. You wrestle with the purposefully awkward controls, fighting against your own momentum and the multitude of hazards as you search for paths to...

Dark Souls II

Release Date: 11/03/2014

Out Now: PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 14+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person

Dark Souls II is a fighting game with an emphasis on precise timing and extreme difficulty. You navigate through labyrinthine ruins and ancient kingdoms, defeating monsters with your weapons and magic. It pairs immense difficulty with a grand story and...

Risk of Rain

Risk of Rain (Series)

Release Date: 08/11/2014, updated in 2018

Out Now: Mac, PC, PS Vita, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels

Risk of Rain is a running, jumping and fighting game where you defeat hordes of monsters and the difficulty steadily increases the longer you survive as you try to scavenge the parts to make a way back home. When you die, you start over but do keep some...

Robotry

Release Date: 26/10/2022

Out Now: PC, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 10+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On

Robotry is an unusual platform game where you don't have a jump button. Instead you use two analog sticks to control each leg of your robot and in this way you take on a range of puzzles and challenges.

Star Wars: Bounty Hunter

Release Date: 19/11/2002, updated in 2015

Out Now: GameCube, PS2, PS3 and PS4

Skill Rating: 12+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person

Star Wars: Bounty Hunter is a running, jumping and shooting game where you play a ruthless bounty hunter on a galaxy-spanning mission to track down and capture a rogue force-wielder. As you infiltrate secret bases, factories, and prisons you must fight...

Tharsis

Release Date: 12/01/2016, updated in 2020

Out Now: Mac, PC, PS4 and Switch

Skill Rating: 11+ year-olds

Components: 2D Overhead, Dice and Grid

Tharsis is a tough strategy-simulation game where you must survive a doomed mission to Mars. You roll dice whose outcome can either help repair the ship or make things worse by injuring crew mates or causing further damage. The dice foreground the...

Dark Souls

Release Date: 22/09/2011, updated in 2018

Out Now: PC, PS3 and Xbox 360

Skill Rating: 14+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person

Dark Souls is a fighting game with an emphasis on precise timing and extreme difficulty. You navigate through labyrinthine ruins and ancient kingdoms, defeating monsters with your weapons and magic. A spiritual successor to [link to game/Demons+Souls...

Soundodger 2

Soundodger 2 (Series)

Release Date: 11/10/2013, updated in 2021

Out Now: PC

Skill Rating: 8+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On

Soundodger 2 is a rhythm game where you move a small circle to avoid obstacles to the rhythm of the music. While it's a simple concept, the variety of deadly obstacles, the speed, and the precision needed (not to mention the extra game modes and...

Super Pole Riders

Release Date: 11/06/2013

Out Now: Mac, PC, PS3 and PS4

Skill Rating: 6+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On

Super Pole Riders is a cross between the high jump, jousting and basketball. It's a simple game where four players must get a ball hanging from a wire to the opponent’s goal using long poles. It’s the controls that make this game so much of a giggle...

The Gardener and the Wild Vines

Release Date: 09/09/2021

Out Now: PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 11+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels

The Gardener and the Wild Vines is a running, jumping and climbing game where you use flowers growing and vines to propel yourself to the top of a tower. It's a tough game with a focus on skill, but keeps things visually light and breezy. A game that...

Battle Princess Madelyn

Release Date: 05/12/2018, updated in 2020

Out Now: PC, PS Vita, PS4, Switch, Wii U and Xbox One

Skill Rating: 13+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels

Battle Princess Madelyn is a running and jumping game where you defeat hordes of enemies like the classic arcade game Ghosts 'n' Goblins. It's similarly fast-paced and difficult, here though you have to pick your way through labyrinthine levels, and use...

360 Degrees

Release Date: 13/03/2022

Out Now: PC and Web

Skill Rating: 7+ year-olds

Components: 2D Side-On and Pixels

360 Degrees is a sports game where you play a skateboarding bunny. Using only the mouse, you perform tricks, grinds, and jumps as you knock over bins to cause havoc and score points in the streets of Melbourne. It combines these unique controls with...

Bloodborne

Release Date: 24/03/2015

Out Now: PS4

Skill Rating: 14+ year-olds

Components: 3D Third-Person

Bloodborne is a fighting game where you defeat monsters in demanding combat. As you navigate the labyrinthine levels, you use weapons, which can transform between fast-paced and weak and slower but more powerful forms, to attack, dodge, and parry...

Curated lists:
Game genre:
Style of Play:
Components:

How long to play:
User-generated content:	No
Accessibility features:	Yes

Controls
Gamepad:
Mouse And Keyboard:
Touchscreen:
Motion:	Motion Aiming Motion Pointing Motion Tilting Motion Gesture Motion Camera
Remap Controls:
Button Combinations:	Holding Down Buttons Optional Rapid Repeated Pressing Optional No Simultaneous Buttons
Controller Vibration:
Sensitivity:

Getting Started
Onboarding Before Play:
Assistance Getting Starting:	Tutorials Practice Area View Control Mapping Assistance With Controls Reaction-Time Not Critical Low Pressure Adjust Speed No Jump Scares
Assistance For Progressing:	Guaranteed Progress With God Mode Bank Progress With Frequent Checkpoints Assisted Progress With Boosts Assisted Progress With Hints Assisted Recall for Characters Assisted Recall for Narrative and Dialogue Save Progress Anytime

Reading
Reading Level:
Text Visibility:	Large Clear Text High Contrast Text
Subtitles:
Captions:
Voice Acted:

Navigation
Clarity:
Head-Up Display:
Menu Navigation:

Visual
Contrast:
Interactive Elements:
Visual Distractions:
Audio Cues for Visual Events:
Narration for Visual Elements:
	Motion Sickness Friendly
Colour Options:
Play Without Sight:
Violence:

Audio
	Balance Audio Levels
Audio Events:
	Play Without Hearing

Communication
Player-to-Player Online Communication:
Online Communication Assistance:

Difficulty
Difficulty Options:	Simple and Full Version No Memorisation Advantage No Hidden Information No Deceit Advantage No Colour Advantage No Mathematics Advantage No Weighing Decisions

Getting Started
Assistance Getting Started:	Clear Manual Electronic Version of Manual Electronic Version of Manual for Screen Readers Getting Started Video Digital Version Reference Aid
Assistance Progressing:	Play Order Tokens (Or play order doesn’t change) Reaction-Time Not Critical Low Pressure Low Impact Catch Up Rule

Reading
Reading Level:
Necessary Text Visibility:	Large Clear Text on Board (Or no text required) Large Clear Text on Cards (Or no text required) High Contrast Text (Or no text required) QR Code For Text (Or no text required) Primary and Secondary Text Distinguishable (Or no text required) Information Orientation Clear Icons

Physical
Pieces:	Components are Distinguishable by Touch Components are Replaceable No Non-Standard Dice (Or No Dice) No Tiny Pieces No Paper Money No Sprawl
Cards:	Large Card Size Standard Card Shape Limited Hand Management No Excessive Card Shuffling No Right-Handed Advantage
Placement:	No Unbound Placement Player Components Not Shared No Fiddly Placement Easily Verbalised Actions

Visual
Printed Visibility:	Colour Blind Friendly Design Double-Coding Colour High Contrast Colours
Component Identifiability:	Outline Key Elements No Busy Backgrounds Easily Verbalised Game State No Close Inspection Disadvantage Playable Without Sight

Audio
Communication:	Audio Cues Mirrored Visually (Or no critical audio signals) No Pressured Reveals No Pressured Communication Playable Without Hearing

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It Really Is That Hard, Embrace Frustration

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