9. Ghosts ‘n Goblins

Bringing your significant other to an obviously haunted cemetery for your date is just asking for trouble, but that is exactly what the knight Arthur does in Ghosts ‘n Goblins.

Released in 1985, this sidescrolling platformer had you controlling Arthur in his quest to save Princess Prin Prin. And man, was it one heck of a difficult game.

Barring your way were hundreds of zombies, demons, ogres, and other monsters who killed you by simply touching you. Getting touched once cost you your armor. Twice, and you ended up a pile of bones. You had an array of ranged weapons at your disposal, but the enemy’s sheer numbers, speed, and unpredictable patterns always meant you were spending more time outside your skin than inside.

Like Flappy Bird nearly three decades later, however, there was something about Ghosts ‘n Goblins that made it ridiculously difficult to put down. And so you kept on dying, and the machine just kept swallowing those coins. One of the best – and toughest – classic arcade games you can play right now, thanks to sites such as Internet Arcade and Classic Games Arcade.