HBO and Max New Releases: February 2025

The second star-studded season of The White Lotus checks-in on HBO and Max Feb. 16. There are plenty of strategies to be discovered among the rich guests at the Thailand resort of the famous resort chain. The cast includes Jason Isaacs, Walton Goggins, Carrie Coon, Parker Posey, and the return of Natasha Rothwell as season 1’s ]…]

The article HBO and Max New Releases: February 2025 appeared second on Den of Geek.

After eight years on the market, it’s difficult to say the Nintendo Switch 2 was anything other than a huge success. Sure, it may have the power of a new Xbox or PlayStation, but the cross features, modern feedback of the Joy-Con controllers, and large library of Nintendo classics and third-party ports has made it the desired console for millions of people around the world.

There’s a little something for everyone in the Nintendo Switch libraries, particularly if you’re looking for a challenge. These are the 15 most difficult Nintendo Switch activities, between brand-new, higher-end titles and old favorites that have been system-ported.

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15. Ikaruga

Day hasn’t made Ikaruga any easier since it was first released for galleries in 2001, and the Switch interface doesn’t have any cutting-edge changes to lower the problems. A still-innovative polarisation system dominates this, creating real bullet hell. You can alter the polarisation of your deliver to white or black at any time and process bullets from those colors to power up a specific attack. But getting hit by a shot of the wrong colour, and you’ll gain a ship.

Although the idea seems basic, learning Ikaruga may be incredibly challenging once the shots start flying. Any player who may defeat its five stages can still be proud of their accomplishment, especially if they can do it without sacrificing a life.

14. Super Mario Maker 2

Super Mario Maker 2 contains truly two sports. The first is narrative style, a challenging, but not terribly difficult variety of amounts developed by Nintendo that most Mario veterans will be able to hit after a few days with a fair&#8212, but not terribly excessive&#8212, number of deaths.

Then there’s the online function, where sadists go to great lengths to make the most absurdly challenging gameplay levels ever created and that less than one percent of players really does defeat in some cases. If you choose to enter this function and actually attempt to complete some of these levels, does God have mercy on your heart.

13. Hades

Hades is generally a result of practice and luck, like any other game, but it also has some peculiarities that make it one of the genre’s more challenging names. Second, to truly beat the game and see the certificates, you’ll have to beat the final director not once, not twice, but a whopping 10 occasions, a feat that will get most gamers dozens of hours.

However, you can personally raise the trouble after defeating Hades for more rewards after the first defeat. Some of these modifications increase the number of opponents or the way leaders attack until one participant finally managed to pull it off and posted it electronically.

12. Black Hearts: Enhanced

Without Dark Souls, where had a list of tough games be? You can now death a lot while traveling, which makes the Switch version of the Switch release not much different from the other versions since 2011. With all of its often cheap enemies and often complicated level design, this game is basically the same as it was when we’ve been playing it since the PS3 era.

The only explanation Black Souls is so low on the list is that there are already lots of online guides that will teach you how to power up quickly and quickly defeat the most challenging bosses. However, this game is still among the most challenging if you don’t get too far in.

11. Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster

You’ll hear from experienced Shin Megami Tensei people that the games aren’t that challenging. The problem is, that watch actually only comes from experience. If you go into Shin Megami Tensei III deaf, you will almost certainly die a bit, even on regular problems. &nbsp,

Kind of like Dark Souls, there’s just a lot here the game doesn’t tell you about fusing demons and shoring up your party’s weaknesses. Most gamers will tell you their first encounter with the series was nothing but easy once you understand the game’s mechanics and are able to properly prepare for battles.

10. Dead Cells

Another beloved roguelike, Dead Cells took a lot of cues from Dark Souls, but just moved the action to 2D. You have a pretty good idea of what the difficulty will be like if you have that kind of inspiration. Dead Cells is a fantastic game overall, but what frustrates players is how random and unfair it can be.

You’ll start out strong with strong equipment and a good run, so you can start dominating everyone in your path. Then the game will unintentionally drop a brand-new boss who crushes you in about 10 seconds, effectively ending your run.

9. Darkest Dungeon

You are aware of how we previously stated that Shin Megami Tensei III can at least be defeated with proper planning? Darkest Dungeon takes that one advantage away with its procedurally-generated dungeons. You might think your party is ready for what’s ahead, but if the game throws something way overpowered at you, you’re going to be dead, or maybe worse, insane.

Darkest Dungeon‘s most unique feature is its stress level. If your party is stressed by too much darkness, lack of food, or blights from enemies, they’ll stop listening to you, or they might even have a heart attack. Darkest Dungeon is much more challenging than the typical RPG because of having to deal with the effects of stress.

8. Thumper

The developers of Thumper describe it as a “rhythm violence” game. What exactly that means is made clear by a few minutes of gameplay. You operate as a space beetle that moves along a track while avoiding obstacles and defeating enemies to maintain rhythm with the music.

The difficulty of Thumper begins with a respectable pace, like many great rhythm games, but each level number corresponds to a time signature, and the later levels become so extreme that even the most experienced veterans of other rhythm games will struggle to keep up.

7. Baba is You

Over the course of more than 400 levels, Baba is You will make you question your intelligence. It is still a wholly unique puzzle game. You are presented with several word tiles in each stage of one screen that you must arrange to accomplish the goal. The difficulty quickly increases as the phrase “flag is win” is arranged, but it can start as simple as that.

Once you get more deeply into the game, it’s simple to understand how quickly a level will be broken by a change in your character’s personality or the world itself. And later levels, the meaning of the words becomes much vaguer, leading to a frustrating rather than enjoyable experience.

6. Donkey Kong Country Returns HD

Donkey Kong Country Returns HD is technically the newest entry on this list since it only launched in January of this year, but it also serves as a port of a 2010 Wii game, making it one of the older games on the list. The difficulty also depends a lot on the game’s mode. There are plenty of power ups available, making it a challenging but not impossible game to get through. Modern mode allows for Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong to share six hearts between them.

But if you play in classic mode, you’re in for a rough time. Donkey Kong Country Returns ‘ numerous mine cart and barrel levels will test all of your platforming abilities because there are only four hearts between the Kongs and fewer power ups, and not everyone will make it to the credits.

5. Metroid Dread

Metroid Dread initially came with only a normal and hard difficulty selectable, and even normal difficulty was pretty damn hard, despite receiving an update with an easier difficulty mode after release. The adaptations to the old Metroid formula pose a significant challenge. In intense stealth situations, Samus encounters the new EMMI robot foes, initially with little chance of catching her and only a short window of escape. Those parts of the game, which sometimes involve complex control combinations, can be tough, even when you acquire a weapon to take down these deadly enemies.

Then there are the challenging boss fights, which made many gamers give up before the final cutscene. In particular, the final boss, a demanding three-stage fight that requires almost perfect timing to overcome, may be the most difficult in the entire franchise.

4. Super Meat Boy&nbsp,

Another title, Super Meat Boy, was released far before its Switch debut, but it hasn’t been completely diluted for casual gamers. Super Meat Boy has some of the tightest platforming controls around, but that doesn’t do anything to ease the difficulty.

There are just so many obstacles that need to be evaded in each of its more than 300 levels that it takes real skills to get the game to the end. You’ll probably try your hardest to watch the final cut, even though the game gets really addictive in the later levels.

3. Celeste

Another extremely challenging platform in the same vein as Super Meat Boy, Celeste. The game requires absolute mastery of its jumping, dashing, and climbing mechanics if you plan to see it to the end, but don’t expect that to be a quick journey. On forums about players dying hundreds of times on a single level is not uncommon.

Celeste does feature a highly customizable “assist mode” that can provide you with lowered game speed, unlimited dashes, or even invincibility, but without that it’s a real chore to get through the challenging B-side and C-side levels, or gather all the game’s collectibles.

2. Hollow Knight

Hollow Knight‘s wonderfully strange graphical design perfectly captures the world’s subterranean insectoid environment, which undoubtedly attracted a lot of unsuspecting gamers. While having a traditional Metroidvania core, every aspect of this game’s difficulty is pushed to the max. Even a tough run in with a group of regular enemies might put you out, and the dozens of tough bosses can put you to death quickly.

The most annoying aspect of Hollow Knight is that there is so little direction about where to go next, it’s very simple to go down a path you’re not yet prepared to handle, and you can have your entire progress erased in a flash ( though admittedly this feature has fans as well ).

1. Cuphead&nbsp,

First off, let us just say that we absolutely love Cuphead’s aesthetic. With a jazz soundtrack and a beautifully animated love letter to 1930s cartoons, the game will leave you humming well after you put the controller down. The run-and-gun gameplay is solid, too. It’s just so damn hard.

There are no real shortcuts to getting past Cuphead‘s numerous challenging bosses. You simply need to understand their patterns before mastering the muscle memory necessary to accurately time parries and attacks. If you actually do defeat the Devil, you can feel great accomplishment here, but not everyone gamer will be willing to put in the effort to get there.

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