I forget which platform it was, but one version of that TMNT game was literally impossible because someone fucked up the distance of a jump in one of the sewer levels, making it an impossible jump to make.
I had it on PC as a kid and it was hard enough just reading the codes out of the booklet using that piece of red cellophane to get the fucker to start up lol
Give me two months in Unity, and I can make a game that's "harder" than every game on any one of these lists. It would also be unplayable trash, that would prompt hundreds of "How the fuck are you supposed to XXX" responses due to obscurity. Part of what makes those listed games enjoyable is having a decent difficulty curve, compelling progression of skill demonstration, and a good feeling of reward. They're getting difficulty right.
Duck Hunt anyone ?. I think I got to middle 20s level. I hate that dog for mocking me on my last level before dying. I almost wish there was a game where I could shoot that dog instead of the ducks.
Some of those old games from the NES or even into the SNES era were just outright impossible. IIRC there was a Dennis The Menace game didn't have the final boss ready for the publishing deadline so they just put an impossible jump just before it so players couldn't get that far.
I completed TMNT as a kid... on Commodore 64. That version is admittedly a little bit easier than the NES version (some mechanics were missing, and an entire level is gone, as I recall). Still, I have no idea why people complain about the second level (river), it's actually pretty fun. Compared to what's to come later in the game.
To me, the definitive "hard" game is Metroid Prime 2: Echoes on GameCube. Dark Souls just makes me say "eeeeeehhhh this is probably doable, I'll play this after I'm done with MP2E."
(When I first played MP2E, I only got through the second to last boss. Then my MadCatz memory card died. Played through the game again, with the fury of million suns. 99% complete. Because I missed one optional scan. ...One of these days I replay this bastard.)
Silver Surfer for the NES is way harder than TMNT. It's possible, though I've never done it, to beat TMNT. AFAIK , Silver Surfer is actually possible to beat, but basically no one has done it.
Elden is fair if you grind, explore and prepare for the enemies. Other games are basically "rhythm games" in disguise, you have to memorize the exact series of moves, in the exact order, with the right timing.
R.C. PRO-AM brought it to a new level. It was really difficult, but super rewarding to progress to new phases of the later levels. They kept introducing new elements as you progressed. That was so much fun.
I grew up with nes and had no idea till I got older that this turtles level was so notorious. I first started playing when I was like 6 so I managed to get good even in the water level.
Also managed to beat the Battletoads speeder level a bunch of times.
My friends were encouraging me to play Dark Souls. I told them I'm not interested since it's hard and I no longer have time to persevere, now that I am an adult with little to no time. One of my friends commented that I'm just scared to play Dark Souls. To which I responded I've played harder games. Said friend never had video game consoles when we were kids, and missed out on the suffering of playing 90s and 00s games.
I found Bartman Meets Radioactive Man in Game Gear to be terribly difficult, mostly because of the controls. I think I got to the 3rd or 4th world once, but it was a struggle.
Solomon's Key was the OG escape room puzzle game. The creators must have had so much designing all those rooms while laughing at the future me dying and restarting over and over.
I hate hard games nowadays, but when I was a kid I had a high tolerance for them because that's pretty much all there was. I have a fondness for the Ghosts 'n Goblins series because it was part of my childhood, but I wouldn't give it the time of day if they came out now.
That turtles game wasnt even that fun there were better turtles games to play on the nes and snes
Battletoads on the other hand was quite fun but then that jump on the speeder level always made it near impossible. So you were always discouraged that you would get stuck on that level. Or like one time I made the jump but then had to go and my parents turned it off...like battletoads was not that difficult if you made that jump but man was it hard to.
This goes to Geometry Dash without a doubt in my mind if you include user-created levels, and I do as long as they're officially rated with stars, especially if they're e.g. in a Gauntlet (which a number of Easy and Medium Demons are).
If you allow in star-rated levels outside of Gauntlets, then I think it's safe to say that Tidal Wave on its own crushes the difficulty of basically any video game ever made that's ever been completed by a human. GD is an interesting case where you can make it as easy or as difficult as you want because there's no true "ending" to the game (getting to the Demon Gauntlet is part of an actual storyline, but when you beat it, it goes nowhere, so that's weird).
What still gives me PTSD is Shadow Of The Beast 2. I was utterly clueless on how to beat that game as a child, and as an adult I can literally watch someone beat it, know what to do, and still fuck it up.