Puzzle games are meant to be challenging, but these titles are just too difficult for players to figure out on their own.

Generally speaking, the difficulty of video games has been on a downward curve since the days of arcade machines. Coin-operated arcade games were designed to ensure that most players would only last one or two minutes before getting a game over. This level of difficulty continued into the days of the Atari 2600 and early PC titles. Not only because it’s what gamers were used to, but because many people only owned a couple of games and wanted them to last long.

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Today, constant Steam deals and Microsoft’s Game Pass service mean that most people own far more games than before and are therefore willing to chop and change games if they get stuck. Furthermore, the dawn of internet forums has bought with it online guides. These guides provide a problem for puzzle game developers, as they can spend months creating a fantastically designed puzzle game with intellectual puzzles, only for someone to beat it in an hour with a walkthrough open on another screen.

Unfortunately, this has caused the puzzle genre to somewhat die out, and new puzzle games are hard to come by. Thankfully, many of the games released in the 80s and 90s, when the genre was booming, have been re-released on places like Steam and GOG. For those looking to test themselves, there aren’t many tougher challenges in gaming than beating these games without a guide.

Updated on September 19, 2021, by Jack Pursey: Although the puzzle genre of gaming has had a drop in prominence over the last couple of decades, there is no shortage of classic puzzle adventures to play.

Classics will always remain among the best and toughest. For those who like a challenge, many of these classic games have high levels of difficulty, offering a tricky challenge for those who want to beat them without a guide.

15/15

Grim Fandango

Available Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Linux, OS X, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One

Grim Fandangois considered to be the game that marks the end of the golden age of graphic adventures. The game offers fantastic visuals for 1998, an excellent concept, and high-quality voice acting that was ahead of its time. The game also has a very well-constructed story, though progressing from scene to scene is easier said than done. That’s because of the game’s numerous tricky puzzles, that occasionally delve into the genre’s infamous moon logic.

Grim Fandango was remastered in 2015 and is currently available on Game Pass.

14/15

King’s Quest 1

Available Platforms: IBM PCjr, Tandy 1000, Apple IIe, Apple IIGS, Atari ST, Amiga, Macintosh, MS-DOS, Master System

The first entry into the classic King’s Quest series was released all the way back in 1984. Consequently, the technical performances and visuals are a far cry from other entries on this list, though they still have a nice nostalgic charm to them and the game’s puzzles largely retain their quality.

Unfortunately, the puzzles also retain their testing difficulty. The game’s toughest moment comes from the infamous “gnome puzzle” that requires players to figure out a character’s name, then work out that they have to write it backward after finding a note that says “sometimes it’s better to think backward” in another location. That’s not all though, as the correct solution isn’t to simply write the name backward as one might expect, it’s to write out the alphabet in reverse and then work out the corresponding letters, i.e. A=Z, B=X, etc.

13/15

Toki Tori

Available Platforms: Game Boy Color, Android, Linux, iOS, OS X, Microsoft Windows, Windows Mobile, PlayStation 3, Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo Switch

When looking at images of Toki Tori or seeing its wholesome front cover on a shelf, many people will expect that it’s a simple puzzle game aimed solely at young children. The game starts off this way, with simple to understand puzzles and straightforward solutions, though it quickly has a sharp rise in difficulty. Before they know it, players will have gone from questioning whether they’ve wasted money on a puzzle game that’s too easy to straining on what the correct route for their chirpy protagonist is, often with written diagrams littering their sofa.

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To make matters worse, the cartoony Toki Tori levels are often short, making them appear easy to solve – further frustrating players as they surpass an hour of being stuck on one level.

12/15

Braid

Available Platforms: Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, PlayStation 3

Like Toki Tori, Braidmay initially seem like a simplistic puzzle-platformer that can be breezed through, though the challenge quickly ramps up. Interestingly, almost all of Braid’s level can be beaten in around 10-20 seconds, by simply running from one end of the screen to the other, with minimal obstacles or enemies in the way. This will provide players with a very underwhelming ending though, encouraging players to collect puzzle pieces.

Collecting these puzzle pieces require players to master the game’s time manipulation mechanics, which throw up some mind-bending difficult challenges.

11/15

The Secret of Monkey Island

Available Platforms: Amiga, Atari ST, FM Towns, Classic Mac OS, MS-DOS, Sega CD, iOS, Microsoft Windows, OS X, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

The Secret of Monkey Island is the second, but not the last game from LucasArts to appear on this list. Released in October 1990, The Secret of Monkey Island introduced the world to the struggling pirate Guybrush Threepwood and raised the bar for comedy writing in video games.

The Secret of Monkey Island makes this list because, like many of the other entries, it has a fair few moon logic puzzles. Still, the game is a certified classic that is still thoroughly enjoyable to play today.

10/15

King’s Quest III: To Heir Is Human

Available Platforms: MS-DOS, Apple II, Apple IIGS, Amiga, Atari ST, Mac, Tandy Color Computer 3

The King’s Quest series is one of the most recognizable names in the puzzle genre. The series was developed by Sierra Entertainment, known as Sierra On-line, at the time of King’s Quest 3’s release. Sierra’s King’s Quest series, along with its other puzzle series’ like Leisure Suit Larry, were notorious for their difficulty.

The games were so difficult, in fact, that Sierra sold hint books alongside their games. These hint books were sold separately, implying that Sierra intentionally made their games too difficult to encourage players to buy one. Any of the classic King’s Quest or Leisure Suit Larry games could have made it to this list, but King’s Quest III narrowly edges them as the toughest of the lot.

9/15

The Witness

Available Platforms: Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nvidia Shield, macOS, iOS

The Witness is one of the only games on this list that wasn’t released when mullets were still cool. The 2016 game was heavily inspired by the genre-defining Myst, with its large, beautiful island that players are free to roam around and explore.

The island doesn’t just have pretty trees and ponds though, it’s filled to the brim with complex line puzzles that are far more convoluted than they may initially seem. Moreover, Jonathan Blow’s game is filled to the brim with numerous hidden secrets around every corner, that help make The Witness one of the most well-designed puzzle experiences of all time.

8/15

Myst

Available Platforms: Mac OS, Saturn, PlayStation, 3DO, Microsoft Windows, Atari Jaguar CD, CD-i, AmigaOS, Pocket PC, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS, iOS, Nintendo 3DS, Android, Oculus Quest, Oculus Quest 2, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

The aforementioned Myst appearing on this list will come as no surprise to anyone that has even a casual interest in the puzzle genre. The game had very little hype behind it before release but smashed sales records left, right, and center. Cyan’s 1993 title was the highest-selling PC game ever until The Sims and is impressively still the third-highest today.

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Myst is the first game in the Myst series that featured many other tricky puzzles games like Riven, Myst III: Exile, and Uru: Ages Beyond Myst.

7/15

Riven

Available Platforms: Mac OS, Windows, PlayStation, Saturn, Pocket PC, iOS, Android

Speaking of Riven, this list wouldn’t be complete without it. When unknown developer Cyan, Inc. burst into the forefront of the gaming industry with Myst, a sequel was at the top of most gamer’s wish lists. Thankfully, the nearly four-year wait for Riven was worth it. Cyan didn’t try to re-invent the wheel, and stuck to the same point and click, free-roam puzzle-solving as in Myst. Along with,of course, the devilishly difficult puzzles.

Although the game is every bit as good as Myst to play retrospectively today, it didn’t score quite as well critically at the time of release. It’s understandable why, as the gaming industry went through a significant change between Myst and Riven. Both the Nintendo 64 and PS1 were released, and games like Super Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time made the point and click adventure feel outdated.

6/15

Discworld

Available Platforms: MS-DOS, Mac OS, PlayStation, Sega Saturn

Discworld is based on a book series of the same name and was developed by Perfect 10 Productions & Teeny Weeny Games. It was released, like most games on this list, on Windows and Mac. Uniquely though, it was also released on the PS1, where players could use the oft-forgotten PlayStation Mouse.

Game reviewers are usually wary of criticizing a game for being too difficult, as many fans often either dismiss it as a moot point or say that the reviewer is simply bad at the game. This didn’t stop reviewers in 1995 though, as many deducted points from the game for its excessive difficulty. One such review was from Adventure Gamers, who placed the difficulty in their ‘The Bad’ section and said that the game “stops short of being a classic simply due to its sheer difficulty”.

5/15

SpaceChem

Available Platforms: Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, iOS, Android

SpaceChem differentiated itself from other entries on this list, in the sense that it isn’t a graphic adventure. Instead, the game offers a series of increasingly complicated chemical bonding and automation puzzles.

Quintin Smith from Rock, Paper, Shotgun wrote an extremely complimentary short review of the game in 2011, stating “I’ll be brief: this game is incredible. I think we might have just received one of the year’s best indie games in the first week of 2011”.

4/15

Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge

Available Platforms: Amiga, FM Towns, Mac OS, MS-DOS, iOS, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Xbox One

LucasArts managed to catch lightning in a bottle for a second time when they followed the iconic The Secret of Monkey Island with Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge. Similarly to Sierra, LucasArt’s adventure games were some of the most difficult of the era, likely to sell hints, as LucasArts had a hotline that confused gamers could call for a fee.

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The game was infamous outside of America for its ‘Monkey Wrench’ puzzle. The puzzle is solved by hypnotizing a monkey and literally using it as a wrench. The issue is, that the term monkey wrench is unheard of in most countries, causing hours upon hours of hopeless confusion for many players.

3/15

Indiana Jones In The Lost Kingdom

Available Platforms: Commodore 64

Indiana Jones In The Lost Kingdomis infamous for providing players with no information, or general rules of how to solve its puzzles. This was a conscious design choice supported by the game’s tagline “Nobody told Indiana Jones the rules. And no one will tell you.”

Although there were no in-game hints, a hotline was available with pre-recorded messages. Furthermore, the game came with glasses that could read hieroglyphic clues on the instruction manual.

2/15

Dark Seed

Available Platforms: MS-DOS, Amiga, Macintosh, Amiga CD32, Sega Saturn, PlayStation

Dark Seed is a unique entry on this list as it is a psychological horror, meaning that the game’s puzzles aren’t the only thing giving players nightmares.

The game is notorious for forcing players to complete events within certain time-scales, or in a certain order, without giving them any real hint that they’re on the right track.

1/15

Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars

Available Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, PlayStation, Game Boy Advance, Palm OS, Windows Mobile

Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars has one of the most infamous puzzles in all of gaming. The monkey wrench puzzle in Monkey Island 2 comes close, especially for gamers outside of the US, but it still doesn’t match up to Broken Sword’s goat puzzle.

An old goat may not seem like the most threatening enemy, but it probably caused more game overs than any intimidating Resident Evil boss. For those wanting to know about the puzzle, fear not, as an entire Wikipedia page is dedicated to it.

The game itself is the first in the Broken Sword series. It was critically acclaimed upon release, with praise being directed to its voice-acting and impressive visuals, especially in cutscenes.

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