The games that bite back.
Sean Martin, Guides Writer: Malenia is the toughest boss FromSoftware has ever devised; worse than Ornstein and Smough, and even those gargoyles in Dark Souls 2, which is the closest I've come to rage-snapping a game disc.
Rich Stanton, Senior Editor: "The difficulty curve just became an impassable wall that was nothing to do with skill. Even now I'm getting angry thinking about it."
Chris Livingston, Features Producer: "My muscle memory has amnesia, and that's never been more evident than in the Spelunky games. In the original I think I only got to Olmec a couple times."
Lauren Morton, Associate Editor: "Steam says I played boss battler Jotun for 15.7 hours, and I'm sure at least four of those were spent on its last fight against the All-Father himself."
Andy Chalk, NA News Lead: "The Witness is maybe not "hard" in the conventional videogame sense of dodging bullets and defeating bosses, but brain stuff is hard too, god dammit!"
Wes Fenlon, Senior Editor: "I'm a big dum-dum too impatient to finish a reflective puzzle game. I played a few hours of Riven 15 years ago and it kicked my ass so thoroughly I've been scared of Rand Miller ever since."
Tyler Colp, Associate Editor: "It was tradition to play every Halo game on Legendary difficulty with my buddies. I remember getting instantly killed by Jackals sporadically throughout its brutal encounters."