A few days ago I decided to start a game of Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex. It was one of my first games, probably among the first 10 on my PS2. But I could never get past the second boss... and I learned something else. Apparently I'm not the only one, that memory and timing made it one of the toughest boss fights in the series. So I was tempted to try. 25 lives later, I finally won and got to see the rest or the game with ease.

It got me some good thread material too, anyone ever had a really tough part in a video game that you could never win until recently?

Mecha Leo :

Bomberman 64, although this was a while ago.

Although Bobmerman is thought of as more of a happyland kirby kind of Game, Bobmerman 64 was fairly mature, I mean, with great characters, their individual voices and cool environments and story.

But anyways, other than it's a great gem that you should play, I was taking on the third level of the last world, and no matter how hard I tried, I could never bounce off the bombs right.

I tried again about a Year later, and finally got to beat the level and move on to. . . .

The Final Boss. . . and let me tell you. . . .

IT WAS SO EPIC!!!

It was such a neat addition what the designers did for that battle, who knew that they would do that? Ugh, I want to tell you, but I don't want to give it away.

But unfortunately, I didn't do that recently, that was a few years ago when I finally conquered that childhood show stopper. :3

Gamin'Gal :

It was epic wasn't it?

Hehe, yeah~.
As for the question... Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic Adventure 2 Battle are both games that I've only beaten recently.
For Shadow the Hedgehog, I was always terrified of Black Bull and I could never beat the boss in Iron Jungle, and so I never got anywhere near the end of the game until fairly recently when I completed it so that I could review it fairly.
As for Sonic Adventure 2 Battle, I was always terrified of King Boom Boo so I never got any further in Hero Story and for Dark Story I had troubles with Rouge's Eggman Chamber mission because of the scout robots. I recently beat that game as well, though I still had troubles with Meteor Herd and Final Rush...

No, and for some odd reason, it seems like the games of my childhood have gotten more difficult, not easier. Probably because many of the games these days have things to guide you along the way that I lost my old touch to actually search and figure things out. 

Wasn't very recent, but I'm inactively replaying it for a third time, Golden Sun. I couldn't ever really figure out how to use the djinns when I was younger. Too much for my small mind to handle, I suppose. But after I played it here it turns out it's not as hard a game as I considered it when I was younger. I feel that way about most games I replay now though, I know better than to just goof around and actually do what I need to do now. I guess I didn't appreciate games as much as I do now.