4. Knife – Ghosts ‘N Goblins

I believe the Angry Video Game Nerd, James Rolfe said it best: “Ghosts ‘N Goblins is harder than fossilized triceratops turds”. This game gave me nightmares as and kid and it wasn’t because of the monsters Arthur must slay to save the princess, but rather the damn difficulty the game possesses. After dying hundreds of times in one sitting, my 6-year-old self would clutch my knees to my chest while humming “Yesterday” by the Beatles as my mom would tell me to play something else that was easier. I refused to give up though, and eventually learned that obtaining the knife, and only the knife, would help me finally reach The Devil. That is until I found out that you couldn’t even get to The Devil without getting the shield, which caused Arthur to lose the knife, but at least up until that point I used the knife and the knife only. It was the only weapon in the game that had speed, and in a game like Ghosts ‘N Goblins, speed is key to defeating the numerous Red Devils flying around the stages. If I somehow lost the knife, I wouldn’t progress any further until an enemy dropped it at random. It’s that important.