I didn't have the luxury of owning this game as child, nor do I remember ever renting or playing it, but I'm going to go out a limb here and say that Silver Surfer isn't that hard.

I heard a lot about how impossible this game was from the retrogame community, AVGN, and watching no damage runs, but it wasn't until I embarked on the NES MEGAMIX that I had to try it for myself.

After a bit of trial an errors, I found success. It wasn't as tough as I had antipated and the quality of the gameplay exceded my expectations. Understanding what is a wall and what isn't a wall takes some time getting used to, but once you've crossed that barrier, the game becomes a fairly competent and impressive shooter with a handful of gimmicks that give Silver Surfer the upper hand, like the ability to bomb a screen and the highly effective weapon upgrades. I really like how you can choose which level you wanna play, kinda like Mega Man. And they mix up horizontal shooting with, get this-- vertical shooting. It's brilliant. I don't know which stage I like best. Maybe the one with all the faces screaming at you.

Did Silver Surfer give you a hard time as a kid? How about now? Does it make a suitable punishment tool if your son or daughter doens't clean their room? Let us know by starting a dialogue in the comments section.