Most Rage Inducing Games Of All Time

There are a lot of ways in which games can frustrate gamers. From being excessively difficult to providing challenging puzzles or a lack of direction about where to go next, gamers love to play, but sometimes it inspires a lot of anger.

Related

7 Games That Have Too Much Combat

Many games are all about combat but there are several which shouldn’t be as their focus lies elsewhere.

While many games want to give players a challenge, and thus become frustrating as a side effect of that hardship, some games are actually out to enrage players, making them particularly unfriendly, but ones that feel unusually incredible to defeat. Such titles are just the sort of thing for gamers who love particularly difficult challenges.

Updated April 24, 2024 by Chris Harkin: Gaming will always be an activity that can inspire every sort of emotion in players. From games that are supposed to invoke emotions through story or character arcs to ones that are simply enraging, the gaming industry is growing ever larger.

This means that more rage-inducing games will continue getting released, and players will find themselves continuing to scream in frustration at everything from attempting to climb a mountain to defeating hordes of enemies in a challenging setting. Rest assured that more will always be available to add in future updates.

1 Bread & Fred

Co-Op Climbing Ruins Friendships

Though it isn’t available on all platforms, Bread & Fred is a fascinating and brutal game that players can attempt in cooperative mode. A pair of penguins are tied together and have to climb a mountain while cooperating effectively, swinging across to new platforms and struggling as they can easily fall at any time.

Though the mountain climbing concept has already been famously used in several rage games, the real difficulty in Bread & Fred comes from attempting to complete it in co-op instead of using an AI companion. This makes the game brutal; it certainly qualifies as a “friendship ruiner.” It is difficult enough to complete a game where huge progress can be lost any time in single-player mode, but accepting the mistakes of a friend as well as one’s own leads to even more rage quitting.

2 Only Up

Bringing Climbing Rage Into 3D

• Platforms: Microsoft Windows
• Released: 2023-05-24
• Developer: SCKR Games

A game that has recently gained a lot of popularity with streamers and YouTubers, Only Up is another climbing game that has more recently picked up the style of games like Getting Over It and built an open-world 3D game that works similarly. A young boy from the Favela begins to climb up a strange assortment of objects, with a bizarre and philosophical sequence of narration occurring throughout.

The real rage of Only Up is that many of the objects players have to jump between on their way up are extremely tricky and make it very easy to fall. Worse still, if players fall they can easily land at the very beginning of the game again, and there are no checkpoints along the way, players can’t even leave the game without their progress being erased. Only Up speedruns have become a huge deal for many streamers as they attempt to find different ways to skip parts of the game.

3 Jump King

Continuously Climbing & Falling

• Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows
• Released: 2019-05-03
• Developer: Nexile & Ukiyo Publishing Ltd

Jump King is another game about simply moving upwards, and in a similar vein to Pogostuck or Only Up, it is all too easy to fall backward when attempting to get further up. Jump King has simple controls, but the precise nature of many jumps that have to be made helps to make the whole game very difficult to ever complete.

Related

5 Games That Are Hard To Get Into (But Pay Off)

These games are complex, which might turn off a lot of players. That said, those who take the time to learn them will enjoy the payoff.

Though Jump King is considered by many to be a little easier than some of the other infamous rage-inducing climbing games, it has always produced a lot of rage when gamers fail to hit the toughest jumps, making for a lot of painful experiences taken from this one for a variety of Twitch Streamers in particular.

4 Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy

The Most Well-Known Rage Climber

• Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Android, iOS, macOS, Linux
• Released: 2017-12-06
• Developer: Bennett Foddy

It is difficult to begin talking about rage games without speaking about the masterpiece of upsetting players. Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy was developed as an indie game about a man inside a cauldron, who is tasked with climbing a mountain of strange objects using nothing but a hammer to propel him and his cauldron upwards.

The game is narrated by Bennett Foddy, who talks about many things, including the gaming industry and how it has changed. He also references inspirations like the classic “B-game” Sexy Hiking. The punishment of Getting Over It, including the many rage-inducing challenges and steep cliffs that must be navigated, is significant and has caused many gamers to rage over the years.

5 Pogostuck

Constant Uncontrollable Movement

• Platforms: Microsoft Windows, Android, iOS, macOS, Linux
• Released: 2017-12-06
• Developer: Bennett Foddy

Pogostuck is another climbing game but with the most horrible sort of twist. Instead of a game such as Getting Over It, which requires players to get up a mountain while trapped in a cauldron but with a solid level of control over their hammer, Pogostuck puts players on a pogo stick and forces them to find a way up even more chilling obstacles.

The difficulty of Pogostuck is enormous, but before even getting to the horrible obstacles that players have to find a way past, they first have to learn the very challenging controls of the pogo stick, leaving them with various levels of perfection they have to achieve over the controls before they can even have a hope of defeating the game.

6 Spelunky

Classic Platforming Utilized For Rage

Another platforming game, Spelunky is known for using randomized levels to create a unique and highly challenging experience. Mixing roguelike elements with the most general platforming style, Spelunky made a name for itself by providing gamers with some of the hardest challenges ever seen in the gaming industry.

Successfully garnering itself a sequel and considered by fans to be a much harder version of popular games like the Mario franchise, Spelunky has caused a huge volume of rage quitting from players over the years. Spelunky is easy to hate and almost as easy to love and produces a great atmosphere that will find players angrily attempting the same levels over and over again.

7 Geometry Dash

Rhythm Games Turned To Eleven

One of the most recognizable rhythm games ever, Geometry Dash, has been around for over ten years, and in that time, it has been beloved by many but has managed to enrage and frustrate many more. A simple premise, Geometry Dash is about a square block that players can make jump, having to do so at precise times to survive the many different obstacles on each course.

Beyond the high level of difficulty that can be found in the game’s levels, there is a thriving community of player-created levels that provide even more ridiculous levels of difficulty. Players will find themselves rage quitting after only making it through 2% of a level on some of the most challenging levels, named “demon” levels and known for being almost impossible to complete.

8 Super Meat Boy

The Most Unforgiving Platformer

One of the most notable platform games for being horrifying from start to finish in difficulty terms, Super Meat Boy is another indie game made to be frustrating for players. However, there is a lot more to the content, instead of merely trying to climb a mountain, Super Meat Boy is filled with over 300 levels as well as player-created ones, so the frustration never ends in this hugely important indie game.

While it is split more with less of the possibility of horrific falls that steal back precious progress than some of the other most rage-inducing games available, Super Meat Boy is still a brutally tough game that has enraged many players into quitting over the years.

9 Driver

One Of The Hardest Tutorials On The PS1

Driver put players in the position of a wheelman, along with all the rage-inducing challenges involved in such a position. This meant that players had to deal with some of the most difficult driving challenges that the world of gaming has ever seen, not even getting any chance to immerse themselves in the game before the aggressive difficulty ramps up.

Driver is known for having some of the hardest games in PlayStation history. Even the first level is notorious for being too difficult for many players to finish. The game itself is built for difficulty, and thus many players who try this retro game will find their blood pressure rising and rage setting in quickly.

10 FTL: Faster Than Light

Roguelike Difficulty Can Drive Players Up A Wall

Another roguelike game, which includes various strategic and management elements, FTL was a Kickstarter project which was done correctly. Gathering crowdfunding to create something unique in the gaming sphere, FTL is a mixture of genres which, despite the lower focus on graphics, managed to be so successful it has helped create a new genre.

Popularizing the idea of a “roguelite” game which includes some, but not all, the aspects of a roguelike, FTL is credited alongside games like Spelunky for this challenging genre. Gamers will surely find themselves struggling with the challenges presented by FTL, but they will likely love it if they are into similar games such as The Binding Of Isaac.

11 Cuphead

Constant Boss Fights In Rage-Inducing Style

For many gamers, the most rage-inducing moments of their gaming lives will come in platformers against a boss that they just can’t quite figure out. Dying continuously against powerful platform bosses is one of the most frustrating ideas that many gamers will experience. However, Cuphead takes that idea to a completely different level in one of the hardest co-op games ever made.

Related

18 Platformers That Are Actually Harder Than Cuphead

Cuphead set the standard for difficulty in a platformer, but these other platforming titles exceed it in how hard they are to complete.

In Cuphead, one or two players must work together to tackle a series of levels, mostly all featuring tricky bosses, which require incredible precision to defeat. By the time players have gotten past just a couple of these levels, they will already be feeling incredible levels of frustration at the predicament in which they find themselves, and the DLC is even harder.

12 The Soulsborne Franchise

The Ultimate Death Counting Series

• Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch & Microsoft Windows
• Released: 2011-09-22
• Developer: FromSoftware Inc.

Though it is difficult to pin down one particular entry in the electrifying difficult Soulslike series, this franchise induces the most rage thanks to the games made by FromSoftware, where all their games are built to have an old-school gaming level of difficulty that few games can beat.

The entire list from Demon’s Souls through to Elden Ring has a long list of hugely challenging bosses that take players a huge number of attempts to beat. The challenge behind this franchise and the way it angers gamers is unlike any other major gaming franchise in history.

8:33

More

Best Soulslike Games On Xbox Game Pass (April 2024)

Whether it’s the punishing difficulty or epic boss encounters, these are the best Soulslike games available on Xbox Game Pass.