I was once that first year compsci student. Hanoi kicked my ass, I had to go recruit help from my smarter friends. Though to be fair the teacher didn't explain it that well and just sort of threw it at us to see which of us would sink or swim. After we all complained about it he gave us a proper lesson on recursion and it was a little easier after that but I still struggled a lot on that project. We also implemented Conway's Game of Life that semester and I preferred that project by a lot.