Top 10 HARDEST Indie Games

“Hollow Knight” can be a bit frustrating for new players. Be honest - we were all struggling when the game first came out. It always felt like you needed to invade beyond the enemy’s personal space just to land a hit with your tiny pick. Of course, you will power up your abilities more and more as you explore the dismal and somewhat adorable bug world. However, boss fights are going to crank things up to eleven and beyond. You will need to hone in your skills quickly if you wanna get through all of "Hollow Knight", and we all know "Silksong" is going to take everything several steps further.

The thing about "Furi" is that you have a top-down hack-&-slash that features elements of a bullet hell game. Oh, and the game is one massive boss gauntlet. Your biggest challenge will be keeping your health in check. The only way to heal is by parrying bullets, meaning your survival depends entirely on how good your timing is. As expected, this is a lot easier said than done for some players. Even though the game only features ten levels, be prepared to die a handful of times, and many more if you want to see every ending.

When looking for the poster child of hard indie games, you cannot go wrong with "Super Meat Boy". Though it boasts a cute appearance, this game will push the limits of your thyroid. Meat Boy is a fast little bugger, and for some, his diminutive stature can make it tough to avoid hazards. What's more stressful is the sheer scope of the game. You will need to trek across more than three hundred levels, each proving to be more stressful than the last. Sure, you can do the bare minimum to get to the next chapter, but if you truly want to conquer the game, show us what you got!

We promise this list isn’t loaded with difficult platformers (we’ve already covered that kind of a list, anyway). However, “Cuphead” is definitely worthy of being here. Though every level only lasts a couple of minutes, those minutes can feel like an eternity. Every boss has a handful of phases to endure, and their patterns can change so drastically that you will suddenly have to change your approach. Even with the dash ability and meaty selection of abilities to swap between, “Cuphead’s” gallery of villains will put your platforming and shooting skills to the ultimate test. And good luck if you try to go for the Expert versions of the bosses!

In all honesty, “Hotline Miami” is one of those games that will make or break you. One person might see this game as a riveting challenge that demands you memorize enemy placement and shoot with great accuracy. Another might describe “Hotline Miami” as borderline unfair with its one-hit kills, incessant need for perfect performance, and how enemies can kill you from off-screen. No matter which way you look at it, “Hotline Miami” can be incredibly intense with its challenges. So, it is very much a “play at your own risk” kind of game.

(It’s the last platformer on the list, we promise.) “Celeste” sees you climbing a mountain as a young woman battles her own mental struggles. Though the main story itself is arduous at times, that isn’t the biggest hurdle you’ll face. If you want to fully complete the game, you will need to go for every strawberry in every level. Many of these require super precise movements and quick reflexes. Plus, you have the Farewell expansion that adds all sorts of new mechanics and features. “Celeste” - beautiful name, brutal game.

Whereas the other games we’ve seen so far are gunning for fast reactions and a deep understanding of the mechanics, “The Witness” opts for a mental challenge…for better or worse. Throughout this lengthy game, you will engage with several different puzzles without any instructions on what to do, where to go or if there’s even an order to the different collections of puzzles you need to solve. You basically have to mess around with things and hope that something clicks in your brain. Of course, you can always just look up a guide for all of the solutions, but the lack of any direction here makes “The Witness” incredibly difficult.

If you love management games like “Cities: Skylines” but want something more grueling (for whatever reason), have you tried “Frostpunk”? This is, indeed, the toughest management game we’ve ever played! There will be many times where resources are frustratingly scarce, and the most unexpected environmental events can result in catastrophe. On top of that, you will also have to govern your society and enforce new laws that could potentially turn your people against you or even doom the whole civilization. In other words, you’re a politician in a frozen apocalypse, a position no one would ever want to be in.

If there was one word we could use to describe “Darkest Dungeon”, it would be “oppressive”. “Darkest Dungeon” is a game that will feel like it is actively playing against you in every way. Even the most minute things like low light in dark caves can inflict stress on party members, as if the monsters didn’t spam stress-infliction moves enough. And should a party member reach maximum stress, they can either gain a blessing or an affliction. Nine times out of ten, it’s an affliction, and they can be costly to get rid of. If it’s your first time, we recommend playing on the easiest difficulty for this one.

In case you have never played this gem from the makers of “FTL: Faster Than Light” (which is also a notoriously hard game), well, you’re kind of missing out. “Into the Breach” is a turn-based strategy game where you must use three units to exterminate an invading alien race. Each unit can move only once and attack once each turn, meaning you will have to carefully think about every move you make and the order in which you perform your actions. One reckless decision can decimate a city, thus damaging your power and/or units. Whether you’re defending an object or just trying to survive the onslaught, “Into the Breach” will be the most challenging indie game you have ever played.


What’s the hardest indie game you’ve played? Did it make our list? Let us know down in the comments, and don’t forget to subscribe to WatchMojo for more great videos everyday!