Achievements are a great way to show off what you’ve accomplished in games, but some games offer up achievements that are so daunting, they’re nearly impossible. Maybe they need a perfect run through the game, or an insane amount of dedication and time invested. Whatever makes them so hard, these eight examples demonstrate just how difficult videogame achievements can be.
Nothing Special – Left 4 Dead
If you were achievement hunting while dodging the undead, “Nothing Special” was a tough nut to crack. Not only did you have to complete a campaign, you had to do it with out any of the survivors taking damage from the special infected, including the common zombies that come when a boomer pukes on you. Everyone who worked on getting this one has a horror story of how they got grabbed by a smoker or hit by a tank’s boulder as they were escaping the final level.
Impossible Boy (and others) – Super Meat Boy
Each level in Super Meat Boy offers up an achievement for completing it without dying, and none of them are easy to obtain. In fact, perusing the game’s achievement list on Steam reveals that while only 0.8 percent of players have the “Impossible Boy” achievement (awarded for beating The Cotton Alley Dark World without dying), the highest percentage on any of these “don’t die” achievements is a minuscule 1.2 percent. If you’re planning to add them to your collection, we can only wish you luck.
7 Day Survivor – Dead Rising
The Infinity Mode in Dead Rising can be a fun little diversion after you’ve beaten the game. In this mode, your health continually drops. You lose one block every one minute and 40 seconds, meaning your health will be completely gone in 20 minutes. To prolong your life, you have to run around the mall eating and drinking whatever you can find. To get this achievement, you have to stay alive in this mode for 14 hours. Did we mention that the food and drink don’t respawn? Oh, and saves are disabled as well. Just how you wanted to spend your day, right?
My Kung Fu Is Stronger – Mortal Kombat
Almost every game has a 100 percent achievement, but Netherrealm’s 2011 Mortal Kombat takes it to new heights. The game feature 28 fighters, and to earn this achievement, you’ll have to win 100 fights, complete 100 fatalities, perform 150 x-rays, and spill 10,000 liters of blood with each and every one of them. You’ll also need to play as each fighter for 24 hours, which means you’ll be playing a minimum of 672 hours to grab this achievement.
The Bladder of Steel Award – Rock Band 2
Rock Band 2 featured a track list of 84 songs, and the “Endless Setlist 2” tasks you with playing every one of them back-to-back. Of course, you could always pause and take a break, right? Well, not if you want The Bladder of Steel Award. To earn this rare achievement, you have to complete all 84 songs without pausing or failing a song. You also can’t cheese it by disconnecting a controller or hitting the PS/Xbox button. Nope, it’s about six or seven hours of constant playing and trying to time a bathroom break in there somewhere.
Mr. Perfect – Mega Man 10
This is one of those you need to make sure and read the whole achievement text. First you see “Beat Mega Man 10,” and you think, “That’s not so bad.” But then you read the rest of it, and you see the bad part: “Without getting hit.” Sure, it can be done on Easy difficulty, but you’re basically committing to a perfect run of the entire game, and starting over if you fail. One bad jump, or one accidental button press, and you’ve failed.
The Shadows Rushed Me – Max Payne 3
This is yet another achievement that sounds like torture. All you need to do is beat Max Payne 3 in one sitting, within a pretty tight time limit, and do it without saving or dying one time. As if that’s not bad enough, you can’t even attempt this until your third playthrough of the game, and all you’ll get for pulling it off is either 10 gamerscore on your Xbox profile, or a silver trophy on your PS3.
Seriously 3.0 – Gears of War 3
Part challenging, part time-consuming, and all about dedication – that’s the “Seriously 3.0” achievement in Gears of War 3. To get it you, first have to reach rank 100. That’s not too bad, but then you need to earn all the Onyx medals, which is a daunting task, requiring 6,000 kills each with numerous weapons. Then you need all sorts of multiplayer matches with specific achievements, a ton of points in the campaign mode, and a mountain of other requirements. Here’s a full list of the what’s needed. Suffice to say that if you have this achievement, you may have a Gears of War 3 addiction problem.
