Summary
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.
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 July 10, 2025 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.
Though it isn’t available on all platforms,Bread & Fredis 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 inBread & Fredcomes 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.
2Only Up
Bringing Climbing Rage Into 3D
A game that has recently gained a lot of popularity with streamers and YouTubers,Only Upis another climbing game that has more recently picked up the style of games likeGetting Over Itand built an open-world 3D game that works similarly. A young boy from the Favela begins toclimb up a strange assortment of objects, with a bizarre and philosophical sequence of narration occurring throughout.
The real rage ofOnly Upis 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 Upspeedruns have become a huge deal for many streamers as they attempt to find different ways to skip parts of the game.
3Jump King
Continuously Climbing & Falling
Jump Kingis another game about simply moving upwards, and in a similar vein toPogostuckorOnly 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.
ThoughJump Kingis 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 avariety of Twitch Streamers in particular.
4Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy
The Most Well-Known Rage Climber
It is difficult to begin talking about rage games without speaking about the masterpiece of upsetting players.Getting Over It With Bennett Foddywas 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 ofGetting 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.
5Pogostuck
Constant Uncontrollable Movement
Pogostuckis another climbing game but with the most horrible sort of twist. Instead of a game such asGetting 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,Pogostuckputs players on a pogo stick and forces them to find a way up even more chilling obstacles.
The difficulty ofPogostuckis 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.
Another platforming game,Spelunkyis known for using randomized levels to create a unique and highly challenging experience. Mixing roguelike elements with the most general platforming style,Spelunkymade 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,Spelunkyhas caused a huge volume of rage quitting from players over the years.Spelunkyis 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.
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 Dashis 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.
One of the most notable platform games for being horrifying from start to finish in difficulty terms,Super Meat Boyis 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 Boyis filled with over 300 levels as well as player-created ones, so the frustration never ends inthis 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 Boyis still a brutally tough game that has enraged many players into quitting over the years.
Driverput 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.
Driveris 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.
Another roguelike game, which includes various strategic and management elements,FTLwas a Kickstarter project which was done correctly. Gathering crowdfunding to create something unique in the gaming sphere,FTLis 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,FTLis credited alongside games likeSpelunkyfor this challenging genre. Gamers will surely find themselves struggling with the challenges presented byFTL, but they will likely love it if they are into similar games such asThe Binding Of Isaac.
