For some hardy souls, game difficulty is all part of the thrill – practice makes perfect after all, and what a feeling when you finally crack it! High five!

Others, however, will see the dreaded game over screen and scream “I’M NEVER PLAYING THIS STUPID GAME EVER AGAIN”.

So, for those of you who enjoy a stiff challenge, these five games are for you.

A different kind of puzzle
Okay, we dare you to try and finish Blackbox without using the hints system once.

This is a puzzle game unlike any other, one that takes all of the things your iPhone and iPad can do and makes puzzles out of them; the volume buttons, mic, tilt, even Airplane Mode and the brightness settings.

It’s properly ingenious stuff, and really showcases creator Ryan McLeod’s remarkable talent.

Take it step by step
Walking’s just putting one foot in front of the other, right? Well yes, but nonetheless in Daddy Long Legs it takes a skilled player to even make it past 10 steps without falling over.

Unlike the floaty fellows you might find in the shed, the daddy long legs in this high score game is a biped, and you’re in charge of each leg. Thing is, this critter is a tad top-heavy, so you’re constantly fighting a losing battle against our old nemesis, gravity.

Every failure is still very much your fault, but at least there’s slapstick fun to be had along the way.

Pure platforming perfected
There are few audiovisual bells and whistles in Mr Jump, because it’s all about platforming in its purest form; a real test of timing, precision and your ability to learn from your mistakes.

You will need ninja-like skills to get to the end, but rather like Getting Over It, it feels like you’re mastering the game a little more with every attempt – a sure sign of excellent game design.

The impossible climb
In Getting Over It you’re some guy in a cauldron trying to climb a mountain by using only a big ol’ hammer.

It’s as hard as it sounds, but it is testament to the flexibility of this game’s unusual controls that you soon become surprisingly proficient at flinging yourself about using just a hammer and your own momentum.

With a lot of practice, sections of the mountain that at first seemed completely impossible can soon be passed with ease. But it just keeps going up and up – and only a handful of people have ever seen the summit. Maybe you could be the next? Give it a go.

Move and fire
It’s hard to think of a more intense or stylish shooter than Atomik. As your intrepid bounty hunter barrels through gauntlet-like tunnels packed with hazards, you can boost upwards with careful use of the left side of the screen, and fire with the right – though you might as well hold down shoot throughout, really.

The complication here is that when you’re boosting, you fire downwards, meaning you not only have to manoeuvre yourself between the (many!) spikes and hazards coming at you, you have to be sure to blast any obstructions out of the way at the same time.