Stage Fright
Not all video-game levels are created easily.
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Video games are natural predators.
The modern home console-based games industry is almost unrecognizable compared to those early days.
And yet, even now, gamers have a grudging appreciation for a really tough level.
Were here to celebrate the tradition and hopefully get some closure on our collective anguish.
There are so many different ways to create a hard level.
We reserve the right to add it at a later date.)
)The 90s Disney Games Rule:Intended audience matters.
If a game was targeting young kids, how difficult was this level to that particular cohort?
Thats a question we could spend another 20,000 words trying to answer.
Enjoy the list, and hey tread carefully and stay hydrated if you tackle any of these levels yourself.
100.Lavender Town
100.
Some matchups are fairly intuitive: Water, as you might expect, beats Fire.
Others, such as Bug beating Psychic, relied entirely on trial and error.
It was in this information vacuum that Lavender Town proved to be such a huge challenge.
Then, once you are able to battle them, its still notably difficult.
Would-be Pokemon masters used up all their potions while battling their way up a maze-like tower.
And then you had to fight your hated rival,again, at the top.
But our desperate memories will haunt us forever.
99.No Russian
99.
Plenty of mainstream games ask you to make difficult, emotionally devastating choices.
(See alsoValkyria Chronicles 4s Mission 16 below.)
But in No Russian, you have no agency.
No matter what you do, you cant stop the devastation.
All of that death and sacrifice was for nothing.
It might be the most apt statementCall of Dutyhas ever made about war.
98.The Club
98.
How many other second levels can lay claim to having driven away the majority of its player base?
97.Landing on the Aircraft Carrier
97.
Problem is the directions are frenetic and require precision that is at odds with the NES controllers capabilities.
It turns out that the secret is ignoring the games urgent directives and making only small course corrections.
96.Central Square Shopping Center: Shakespeare Puzzle on Hard
96.
On easier difficulties, its a straightforward mission you dont even get a riddle to decipher.
But on Hard, you need both an ear for wordplay and working knowledge of Shakespeare.
One line reads, The first words at thy left hand: a false lunacy, amadly dancing man.
Hearingunhearable words, drawn to abeloveds graveand there, mayhap, true madness at last.
95.Meat Circus
95.
The result is a horrifying mash-up of flesh and clowns for you to navigate.
94.Warehouse Infiltration
94.
If thats all it involved, that would be just fine.
But one level in particular presents a wrinkle that distinguishesCrisis Corein the decades-long franchise.
Compounding the difficulty is the fact that every time Zack gets busted, you have to start over.
In that moment, it briefly ceases to be enjoyable and instead becomes a chore.
93.Maridia
93.
Its a reputation that Maridia, the penultimate level ofSuper Metroid, certainly helped reinforce.
92.Olympus Heights
92.
However, once you find the antidote to restore Jacks strength, your Plasmids go haywire.
Shoot em with electricity.
Big Daddy roaming around getting in the way?
Hypnotize him to fight for you.
(How helpful is a swarm of bees, really?)
Seems frustrating and unfair?
91.Chapter 10: End of Days
91.
Theyre huge and regenerate limbs, making them exhausting to fight.
The pressure is on as you traverse the level, hoping to stay out of the monsters way.
90.Golgorand Execution Site
90.
Its considered one of the games most difficult battles, largely because of how outnumbered you are.
The smart play is to have a thief steal Gafgarions sword; hes useless without it.
Even if you pull this off, you still need to watch your ass.
89.Mission 16
89.
88.Make Taurus and Make Ursa Major
88.
But, a pair of levels, Make Taurus and Make Ursa Major, are outright frustrating.
Its incredibly tricky to perfect, since the level is, naturally, populated with tons of cow-adjacent materials.
87.Chasing Lee (Sequence 12, Mission 2)
87.
The chase was so aggravating that it waslater patchedto tone down its difficulty.
86.Chapter 10 / Unhappy Reunion
86.
Their attack is powerful, but thankfully the docks create natural bottlenecks that help you manage the assault.
85.Argent DNur
85.
84.Hydrocity Zone
84.
83.Blacks Dice Palace
83.
Gunstar Heroes(1993; Sega Genesis)
WhenCuphead(seeNo.
In this stage, players arrive at the palace and encounter a giantMonopoly-ish game board.
82.Doing Things The Hard Way
82.
VVVVVV(2010; Mac, Windows)
VVVVVVis a platformer without any jumping.
Get too close to the side and youre dead.
81.Thunder Plains
81.
If it hits you, itll push you back and damage your health.
80.Command Deck
80.
79.Train
79.
GoldenEye 007(1997; Nintendo 64)
You dont need one of Qs gadgets to makeGoldenEyesTrain stage manageable.
You just need something more nimble than a Nintendo 64 controller.
78.Route 666
78.
Named Route 666, that stage suddenly requires you to drive … while still being bombarded by enemies.
Its an abrupt shift in gameplay, one that feels bizarrely out of place.
77.Unfortunate Development
77.
76.Ghost
76.
75.Star Forge
75.
Even the games finale is satisfyingly challenging, putting a fun spin on several classic tropes.
74.Stage 8-1: Death Shudder
74.
This stage puts that skill right at the forefront with room after room of multiple enemies.
It gets overwhelming fast.
73.Return to Shadow Moses
73.
Youll need all three if you wish to survive the raving, carnivorous mechs patrolling the campus.
72.Funhouse Frazzle
72.
Our hero must bounce between hallucinatory gravity wells to dodge a cavalcade of eccentric enemies.
71.World 4-4 Hunt
71.
Its a nifty innovation that the game builds on, introducing new time-based mechanics in each world.
No level illustrates their potential for maddeningly simple challenges better than World 4-4: Hunt!
70.Valkyrie Dimension
70.
The difficulty spike would be hilarious if there was time to catch your breath.
Its at this point where mostDance Dance Revolutionplayers tap out and select something more agreeable.
(Castles in the Sky is a lovely time.)
69.Dead Wind Cavern
69.
The Dead Wind Cavern location inFallout: New Vegasmight as well be a Deathclaw resort.
Or it may come across you, since it can attack without warning.
68.Nova Prospekt and Entanglement
68.
Its a complete inversion from the rest of the games mechanics.
67.Gobis Valley
67.
Banjo-Kazooie(1998; Nintendo 64)
Few platforming environments are more pernicious than the dreaded desert level.
Now that were used to cameras in 3-D games that actually function as intended,Banjo-Kazooies feels even worse.
Gobis Valley might have frustrated you as a child, but it will absolutely enrage you as an adult.
66.Crumbling Farum Azula
66.
65.Stranded on Eventide
65.
64.Celestial Resort
64.
But even with mode turned on, getting past Celestial Resort is a real challenge.
Set in a ghostly hotel, the games third level represents a significant difficulty jump from the first two.
63.Cool, Cool Mountain
63.
Whoever decided that races should be a staple of ice levels is a sadist.
62.Tower of Babel
62.
61.Arcatraz
61.
And thats even before the last boss spawns!
The lesson: Never instigate a jailbreak in theWarcraftuniverse, no matter how good the loot might be.
60.Bloody Swamp
60.
59.Self-Reflection
59.
It boils down to a puzzle and a boss battle, and both are out-and-out tough.
How long this takes you depends entirely on your spatial reasoning skills.
Shell use your own weapons and abilities against you only shes better, stronger, and faster.
Defeating her requires taking the time to figure out your own weaknesses.
58.Blue Creek Apartments: Coin Puzzle on Hard
58.
Sometimes the puzzles are trickier to contend with than the monsters.
We noted above (No.
- that theSilent Hillfranchises adjustable puzzle difficulties can change the course of a playthrough.
On easier difficulties, the game basically tells you what to do.
(To the right is the lady.
To the left is the old one.
In the center crawls the other.)
Those challenges are best left to only the most committed of puzzle solvers.
57.Cavern of Remembrance
57.
Kingdom Hearts 2: Final Mix(2005; PlayStation 2)
TheKingdom Heartsseries is a strange beast.
Usually, the remixes were loads more difficult than the base game.
Kingdom Hearts 2: Final Mixis the prime example of this spike.
56.Downhill Jam
56.
One of those maps is infinitely more aggravating than the rest: Downhill Jam.
Some players appreciated the challenge, while others couldnt wait to return to the (much flatter) mall.
55.Deepnest
55.
Success inHollow Knightrides on paying close attention to your environment and timing your actions accordingly.
54.Zone 1
54.
53.Rainbow Road
53.
While no iteration of Rainbow Road iseasy, the original endures for a reason.
52.High Road
52.
High Road is a pain for a few reasons.
It changes up the basic gameplay format, moving from the games typical side-scrolling to a third-person view.
51.Cant Wait to Be King
51.
The Lion King(1994; Sega Genesis, SNES)
Oh look, a tie-in forThe Lion King!
Nope, not in the SNES days.
Hesitate a millisecond, and your lion cub will go crashing to the ground.
This will happen to you over, and over, and over.
50.Temple Ship
50.
Here, your elite Earth defense force must contend with the most powerful enemies in the game.
If a sniper bolt hits, thats a victory.
Then youre in a world of pain.
But players ofEnemy Unknown?
49.Hard Rain
49.
But unlike other enemies in the game, the Witch doesnt sneak up on you.
Rather, she sings a sorrowful song to let you know shes near.
That might sound like a useful warning, but it just instills a growing sense of dread.
Once you hear her coming, shes almost unavoidable.
48.The Battle of Hoth
48.
Its noteworthy, then, that this widely detested levelalmost kept the game from shippingowing to its absurd difficulty.
In the games opening level, your protagonist, Dash Rendar, joins the defense of Hoth.
It turns out thats a lot more difficult when youre not an actual Jedi.
47.Out of the Frying Pan
47.
You have to continuously collect health pickups just to survive the proximity.
46.Killer Crocs Lair
46.
45.Clockwork Mansion
- you’ve got the option to also choose not to kill him, instead wiping his memory.
But either way youll have to find him first within the mansions shifting architecture.
His estate is guarded by hulking, plated-steel automatons.
As soon as one of those machines is on your tail, its a swift game over.
44.Stealing the Hamster
44.
(Or you always have the option tostick that hamster in the microwave.)
43.Water Temple
43.
In this case, youre tasked with raising and lowering the water level so you can access different areas.
42.8-3: World 8 Fortress
42.
The stage is a marvel of complex design.
But the real challenge is the levels maze structure its essentially a giant door puzzle.
Its tough, but owing to the consistent mechanics and enemy patterns, it never seems unfair.
41.Toxic Sewers
41.
Then the games first unlockable alternative level, the Toxic Sewers, brings that momentum to an abrupt halt.
Long, open straightaways are replaced with labyrinthine verticality and tight tunnels.
40.Destroy Ship at Drill Platform
40.
Jak 2(2003; PlayStation 2)
Knock out that ship!
It has gun turrets of its own, by the way.
39.Kings Fall
39.
A fireteam that isnt perfectly in sync has no hope of triumphing.
The raid is so beloved, it was recently added toDestiny 2inone of the sequels expansions.
38.Fishing Hamlet
38.
37.Great Palace
37.
That makesAdventure of Linka cult favorite or an acquired taste.
Good luck in particular against the relentless, dagger-chucking Blue Knight.
36.Cultist Tower
36.
This earns him a detail of fans, which your party encounters in the Cultist Tower.
And if you dont have Ultima, the non-elemental nuke spell that evades the Reflect status, you die.
And if you dont have Reraise, the crucial automatic-revival spell, you die.
35.Library
35.
The Flood is the shorthand name given to an infectious parasite that threatens to swallow up the universe.
34.Night Six
34.
Balance is key as you listen for distinct noises, learn the characters patterns, and manage your anxiety.
33.Lightning Lookout
33.
Its simple enough in concept, but completing the level requires highly precise timing.
Lightning Lookouts signature weather hazard, though, is unpredictable.
You cant rely on muscle memory to help you.
You just have to slow down and pay attention.
32.Wrong Side of the Tracks
32.
31.Tutorial
- in a parking garage.
With a comically short time limit and without hitting any of the garages columns or other cars.
All together, the tutorial generated all the joy of an actual drivers test.
30.Burnt Rubber
30.
But the originalGears, released in 2006, didnt completely stick to this format.
It featured one level that deviated meaningfully from the core gameplay.
And just as withRoute 666above, its a driving level shoehorned into an otherwise combat-focused game.
Its tedious, frustrating, and, on higher difficulties, takes a lot of patience to complete.
29.Allegro Presto
29.
But shortly after, the limbless hero reaches the second world, Band Land, and suddenly things aredifferent.
28.Path of Hades
28.
God of War(2005; PlayStation 2)
The originalGod of Waris mostly a hack-and-slash adventure.
27.Final Level
27.
That reality is at its bleakest in the closing chapter of the campaign.
Youll be bound, broken, and out of ammo by the final turn; hopefully youre also ahead.
26.Tubular
26.
But those challenges have nothing on the fraught airway of Tubular.
After jumping your way across a series of pipes, the level is one long stretch of sky.
If I wanted to be pelted with sports equipment, I would go outside.
25.Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy
25.
Its just one long, hard slog up a mountain.
Using only a hammer to hoist yourself up….
While sitting naked in a cauldron.
For the first ten minutes or so, youll be greeted by oddly soothing commentary from Foddy himself.
But after that its just you, and the mountain, and physics.
Foddy said hecreated this gamefor a certain kind of person.
The rest of us will give it 45 minutes before deciding,Okay, fuck this.
24.Mile-High Club
24.
It also delivered one of the most daunting levels in the series.
23.Carpet Ride
23.
Disneys Aladdin(1993; SNES)
An experienced player can finish Super NintendosAladdinplatform game in a couple hours.
In the movie, Aladdin and his carpet made it look so easy.
Not the case when were at the controls.
Disney movies encouraged us to dream; Disney games demanded that we suffer.
22.Hyper-Hexagonest
22.
21.Invisible
21.
20.Dam
20.
The goal is to find and defuse a connection of hidden bombs in under two minutes and 20 seconds.
Hey, that counts as a legacy.
19.Stage 1
19.
18.Rosetta Stone Room
18.
The experience is colorful and interesting, but it seems shallow at first blush.
Few games put so much trust in a players intuition.
Its easy to finish your time withFezwithout ever comprehending the finer recesses of the Rosetta Stone Room.
Thats what makes it a classic.
17.Champions Road
17.
It requires mastery of the games moveset with precision timing that can take hours of practice.
Outside of fan-made gimmick levels, conquering Champions Road is the ultimate Mario challenge.
16.Heightened Security
16.
After finally killing Hades and unlocking the endgame, you emerge again in the underworld.
The most frustratingly punishing of those conditions is Heightened Security.
15.Graveyard
15.
14.Return to Hirata Estate
14.
Is that good design?
Well, that depends on your own masochism.
13.Circles of Hell
13.
Its a torture chamber masquerading as a motocross park, the most sadistically challenging level in the series.
12.Assault
12.
From the moment you step into one ofHotline Miamisrobberies-gone-wrong, you know youre on borrowed time.
The most audacious stunt, by far, is the 13th chapter of the game.
Every Mann heist movie has at least one robbery gone wrong;Hotline Miamipays it forward.
11.The Darkest Dungeon
11.
And youve also had to prepare emotionally.
TheDarkest Dungeontests just how far youre willing to push your adventurers.
Scouting doesnt work here.
Oh, and should you abandon the dungeon, a random party member will be killed.
10.Invading Hell
10.
In it, Dante has a rematch with the bosses hed previously encountered and defeated.
If you thought they were tough the first time, try facing them back-to-back (or back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back).
9.Aliens Lair
9.
Complicating matters is the fact that in the arcade version, there are no power-ups to be found.
(The NES version kindly added a few.)
The sight of that heart exploding, somehow, into flames is one that successful players would treasure.
8.Chamber 15
8.
The stages and tests preceding Chamber 15 were relatively short, largely functioning as showcases for specific gameplay elements.
Its not only a test of your newly acquired skills, but also endurance.
And once you complete it?
7.Castle Water Hall
7.
As you might expect, she does so at an excruciatingly slow speed.
6.Through the Fire and Flames
6.
Theres no easing into the song, no standard difficulty ramp.
5.Jungle
5.
In the games second biome, known as the Jungle, youll have to avoid hitting practically anything.
All of these elements prey on the sparest moment of absent-mindedness.
The quintessential Jungle experience is to be riding high at max health and full munitions with a wrongheaded hubris.
One errant jump later, youre impaled on a bed of spikes and reloading from scratch.
4.Anor Londo
4.
The game arrived in 2011 just as the video-game industry was pivoting to a free-to-play, microtransaction-laden business model.
More than a decade later, its still difficult to articulate the games elusive magic.
Somehow, the game only gets more punishing from there.
3.The Kid
3.
(Shes known as Bandage Girl.)
No wonder its so hard.
2.The Mountain
- of a man sitting next to an unplugged puzzle on the ground.
1.Turbo Tunnel
1.
But gamers didnt call it quits onBattletoadsbecause they were out of money.
Turbo Tunnel finds theBattletoadsnavigating what comes off as the cavernous bowels of a giant creature.
