History ThatOneLevel / SportsGame

* ''NHL 11'' has the Vancouver Canucks. Roberto Luongo stops seemingly every shot you throw at him (the only way to beat him is on a deflection), the top line can score at will and make goalies look like idiots, and they seem to be faster than every other team in the game, stifling any breakaway chances. Even if you can get past the defense, Luongo stops you anyway. Ironically, the Canucks lost that year's Stanley Cup final series to the Boston Bruins (with Luongo's inconsistent performance coming in for particular criticism), though it was pretty close to TruthInTelevision during the far larger sample size of the entire season.
* In earlier editions of ''NCAA Football'', the replica of the 1994 "Miracle at Michigan" was this. The issue was that, in reality, Colorado QB Kordell Stewart threw a high, lofting floater pass 74 yards in the air that was tipped to his wide receiver. In the game, 1994 CU QB (they couldn't use his name) physically couldn't throw it that far. So your two options were to try to throw a quick pass out of bounds to get closer, with 6 seconds and no timeouts this was tough on its own, or to chuck it to about the 10 yard line and hope your WR could catch it (unlikely as it is) and break 2-3 tackles on the way into the endzone.

* ''Mario Golf World Tour'':

* The 1985 Creator/{{Epyx}} classic ''Winter Games'' was one of the company's biggest critical and commercial successes. However, ask almost anyone who has played it to name their least favourite events, and the near-universal answer will be the two figure skating events. The idea seems sound on paper; Figure Skating is comparable to the short programme in real figure skating, requiring the competitor to perform a set of seven required elements at least once each in the time limit, while Free Skating, as in reality, raises both the time limit (from one minute to two) and the number of times the required elements must be performed (from one to ''three'').[[note]] The required elements are four jumps (double and triple axel, double and triple lutz) and three spins (camel, sit, camel-into-sit); the game was released not long after the International Skating Union decided that skaters were going too far to the "performer" end of TechnicianVersusPerformer in their free skating routines and started requiring a "well-balanced" set of jumps and spins.[[/note]] However, the timing required is frustratingly unforgiving (which is a major problem in versions with unresponsive controls, such as the infamous NES and FDS ports), often leading to the skater spending more time falling flat on her backside than performing the various jumps and spins on the required list. Many players also find the rounds boring compared to the faster and/or speed-emphasising skiing, speed skating, and bobsled events.

* The ''Tiger Woods PGA Tour'' series has The Predator fantasy course - an absolutely fiendish nightmare of a course set in the Amazon Rainforest that is what happens when you let developers try and make you ''cry''. With extremely [[SarcasmMode generous]] out-of-bounds areas, completely diabolical greens that slope every single way but the hole, ridiculous elevation changes, incredibly tall trees to hit between and even a hole that resembles a labyrinth more than a coherent golf hole, it is difficult for a character with maxed stats to finish under par, let alone a normal character. And don't even ''try'' on Tour Pro difficulty... Fantasy courses were originally a chance for the developers to screw around and have fun torturing the players - [[LandDownUnder Wallaby Creek]], [[MysteriousAntarctica Penguin Falls]] and [[NonindicativeName Paradise Cove]] are mercifully extinct, but Emerald Dragon, Greek Isles, The Highlands and, of course, The Predator are still, sadly around.

** Rob Dyrdek's challenge requires you to do the trick onto a ledge, and not only that, but you also have to do a specific ''grind'' trick as well. There's plenty of ledge in comparison, but while getting the movements down, Big Black will traipse around in the middle of your line like an idiot for no reason, causing you to wait until he clears out to try again.

* The final mission for ''[[VideoGame/TonyHawkProSkater Tony Hawk's Underground]]''. In order to get back the tape with your ultimate stunt from [[TheScrappy Eric]] [[{{Jerkass}} Sparrow]], you have to do one last skate-off across your hometown. On the street, on the bridge, on fences, electric wires, the works. You have a 2-minute time limit and Eric throws down firebombs so that if you mess up even ''once'', there's a chance you won't be able to recover as your streak is ruined. The mission's only saving grace is that you only do it ''once''.

* Speaking of Sick difficulty missions, ''Tony Hawk's Proving Ground'' are just beyond mere mortals's capacity. Examples such as classic modes requiring you to do all goals ''in one sitting'', combo lines that not only are stupidly hard but also requires you to score one million points ''on the first one in Inner City Philly'' and specific tricks where the sick marker is always on ridiculous places.

* NHL 11 has the Vancouver Canucks. Roberto Luongo stops seemingly every shot you throw at him (the only way to beat him is on a deflection), the top line can score at will and make goalies look like idiots, and they seem to be faster than every other team in the game, stifling any breakaway chances. Even if you can get past the defense, Luongo stops you anyway. Ironic how they lost in the finals at the end of that season the game is released, though it was pretty close to TruthInTelevision during the far larger sample size of the season.

* Although ''Winter Games'' was one of the best-selling games released by Creator/{{Epyx}} in the 1980s, ask almost anyone who played it then or now to name their least favourite events, and the near-universal answer will be the two figure skating events. The idea seems sound on paper; Figure Skating is comparable to the short programme in real figure skating, requiring the competitor to perform a set of seven required elements at least once each in the time limit, while Free Skating, as in reality, raises both the time limit (from one minute to two) and the number of times the required elements must be performed (from one to ''three'').[[note]] The required elements are four jumps (double and triple axel, double and triple lutz) and three spins (camel, sit, camel-into-sit); the game was released not long after the International Skating Union decided that skaters were going too far to the "performer" end of TechnicianVersusPerformer in their free skating routines and started requiring a "well-balanced" set of jumps and spins.[[/note]] However, the timing required is frustratingly unforgiving (which is a major problem in versions with unresponsive controls, such as the NES and FDS ports), often leading to the skater spending more time falling flat on her backside than performing the various jumps and spins on the required list. Many players also find the rounds boring compared to the faster and/or speed-emphasising skiing, speed skating, and bobsled events.

* The final mission for [[VideoGame/TonyHawkProSkater Tony Hawk's Underground]]. In order to get back the tape with your ultimate stunt from [[TheScrappy Eric]] [[{{Jerkass}} Sparrow]], you have to do one last skate-off across your hometown. On the street, on the bridge, on fences, electric wires, the works. You have a 2-minute time limit and Eric throws down firebombs so that if you mess up even ''once'', there's a chance you won't be able to recover as your streak is ruined. The mission's only saving grace is that you only do it ''once''.

* Although ''Winter Games'' was one of the best-selling games released by Creator/{{Epyx}} in the 1980s, ask almost anyone who played it then or now to name their least favourite events, and the near-universal answer will be the two figure skating events. The idea seems sound on paper; Figure Skating is comparable to the short programme in real figure skating, requiring the competitor to perform a set of required elements at least once each in the time limit, while Free Skating, as in reality, raises both the time limit (from one minute to two) and the number of times the required elements must be performed (from one to ''three''). However, the timing required is frustratingly unforgiving, often leading to the skater spending more time falling flat on her backside than performing the various axels, lutzes, and spins on the required list. Many players also find the rounds boring compared to the faster and/or speed-emphasising skiing, speed skating, and bobsled events.

* From ''[[VideoGame/MaddenNFL Madden NFL 2004]]'', there's the Atlanta Falcons. Michael Vick has the honor of being the cover athlete for that year, so he's got a ridiculously high awareness, throw power, and throw accuracy stat. He can throw to Peerless Price and Brian Finneran (both vastly better in this game than reality), not to mention tight end Alge Crumpler. Warrick Dunn will run around you, and TJ Duckett will run through you - it's a given. And if that isn't quite enough, Vick has one of the highest speed ratings in the game, meaning he can call a Hail Mary, send all his wideouts down the field, and run upwards of 20 yards before you wrap him up. Brutal.
** This is especially funny because Vick has terrible awareness and throwing accuracy in real life.
* NHL 11 has the Vancouver Canucks. Roberto Luongo stops seemingly every shot you throw at him (the only way to beat him is on a deflection), the top line can score at will and make goalies look like idiots, and they seem to be faster than every other team in the game, stifling any breakaway chances. Even if you can get past the defense, Luongo stops you anyway.
** Ironic how they lose in the finals at the end of that season the game is released?
*** It was pretty close to TruthInTelevision during the far larger sample size of the season, however.

* The ''Tiger Woods PGA Tour'' series has The Predator fantasy course - an absolutely fiendish nightmare of a course set in the Amazon Rainforest that is what happens when you let developers try and make you ''cry''. With extremely [[SarcasmMode generous]] out-of-bounds areas, completely diabolical greens that slope every single way but the hole, ridiculous elevation changes, incredibly tall trees to hit between and even a hole that resembles a labyrinth more than a coherent golf hole, it is difficult for a character with maxed stats to finish under par, let alone a normal character. And don't even ''try'' on Tour Pro difficulty...
** Fantasy courses were originally a chance for the developers to screw around and have fun torturing the players - [[LandDownUnder Wallaby Creek]], [[MysteriousAntarctica Penguin Falls]] and [[NonindicativeName Paradise Cove]] are mercifully extinct, but Emerald Dragon, Greek Isles, The Highlands and, of course, The Predator are still, sadly around.
* ''Mario Golf World Tour'' has the One On, One Putt challenge for Sky Island, the game's par 3-only course. Sounds simple in practice - straight birdies/holes-in-one on the front 9, and the first shot must land on the green - but the greens are ''super'' small and hilly past the first few holes, and the wind is largely variable, requiring very careful aim. To put it in perspective, even landing on the very tip of the fringe is grounds for disqualification, and you have to keep this up for ''9 holes in a row''. Hole 6 in particular is the nastiest of the bunch - its minuscule green is ''completely surrounded by a huge bunker'' - depending on the strength of the wind, [[LuckBasedMission it's nearly impossible to get past this hole under certain circumstances]]. And, just to top it off, [[OneHundredPercentCompletion one of the unlockable outfits]] requires you to do the One On, One Putt challenge '''[[MarathonLevel on all 18 holes of Sky Island.]]''' Good luck.

* Swing Away Golf was a flawed game in many aspects and had its share of events that were a lot tougher than they should have been. The absolute worst, however, was the Mid-Amateur Competition. It ran on holes made by the game's clumsy, buggy course creator, often resulting in ridiculous slopes and pin placements. The result being that on many holes you'll have to shoot way uphill or way downhill, or over massive bunkers, or over massive rough, or otherwise have to make outrageous shots way beyond whatever abilities you have as an amateur. Even Jackpot Cup, which has some truly insane holes, isn't as bad as this.
* Paul Rodriguez's and Rob Dyrdek's Pro Challenges in the original {{VideoGame/Skate}} are very aggravating in their own ways, notably:

* The [[FanNickname Wind Hell]]--I mean, Wind Hill, in ''{{PangYa}}'' / ''[=Albatross18=]''. Unlike on other courses, the wind is not consistent across an entire hole; there are wind currents that differ from the rest of the course's wind, and you ''don't even know the speed of these currents''. Complicating matters is [[FakeDifficulty the alteration of the game's physics]]; slopes will affect your ball much more, rough is much thicker, and the ball has to take an extra bounce before backspinning. And you will now have to deal with a tree on nearly every hole, and the wind currents just love to hang out with the new trees.

* ''[[TecmoBowl Tecmo Super Bowl]]'' has the San Francisco 49ers as "That One Team." If Joe Montana-to-Jerry Rice doesn't work, no problem. John Taylor, Brent Jones, and Roger Craig will inevitably murder the player. If that was not enough, injuring Montana won't help; Steve Young is better than half the starting quarterbacks in the game. The Niners' defense is just as scary; Ronnie Lott and Dave Waymer are interception machines, Bill Romanowski and Michael Carter can stop a running game cold, and Matt Millen, Pierce Holt, and Charles Haley can rack sacks up in a ridiculous manner.
** The original ''TecmoBowl'' has [[BlandNameProduct Los Angeles]]. If you land on them as one of your final two opponents (assuming you have defenders strong enough not to simply [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard bounce off of Bo Jackson]], or "#34 Jackson" as the game calls him), if you punt, you lose.

* In earlier editions of ''NCAA Football'', the replica of the 1994 "Miracle at Michigan" was this. The issue was that, in reality, Colorado QB Kordell Stewart threw a high, lofting floater pass 70 yards in the air that deflected to his wide receiver. In the game, 1994 CU QB (they couldn't use his name) physically couldn't throw it that far. So your two options were to try to throw a quick pass out of bounds to get closer, with 6 seconds and no timeouts this was tough on its own, or to chuck it to about the 10 yard line and hope your WR could catch it (unlikely as it is) and break 2-3 tackles on the way into the endzone.

*** Especially considering that the top line was virtually useless in the Stanley Cup Finals and Luongo may as well have been running a Dunkin' Donuts for how many holes he had.

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<<|ThatOneLevel|>>

* From ''[[VideoGame/MaddenNFL Madden NFL 2004]]'', there's the Atlanta Falcons. Michael Vick has the honor of being the cover athlete for that year, so he's got a ridiculously high awareness, throw power, and throw accuracy stat. He can throw to Peerless Price and Brian Finneran (both vastly better in this game than the reality), not to mention tight end Alge Crumpler. Warrick Dunn will run around you, and TJ Duckett will run through you - it's a given. And if that isn't quite enough, Vick has one of the highest speed ratings in the game, meaning he can call a Hail Mary, send all his wideouts down the field, and run upwards of 20 yards before you wrap him up. Brutal.

* From ''[[VideoGame/MaddenNFL Madden NFL 2004]]'', there's the Atlanta Falcons. Michael Vick has the honor of being the cover athlete for that year, so he's got a ridiculously high awareness, throw power, and throw accuracy stat. He can throw to Peerless Price and Brian Finneran (both vastly better in the virtual world than the real one), and not to mention the tight end, Alge Crumpler. Warrick Dunn will run around you, and TJ Duckett will run through you - it's a given. And if that isn't quite enough, Vick has one of the highest speed ratings in the game, meaning he can call a Hail Mary, send all his wideouts down the field, and run upwards of 20 yards before you wrap him up. Brutal.

** Ironic how they lose in the finals at the end of that season the game is released?

** The original ''TecmoBowl'' has the Los Angeles Raiders. If you land on them as one of your final two opponents (assuming you have defenders strong enough not to simply [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard bounce off of Bo Jackson]]), if you punt, you lose.

Whether they be fields, teams, or players, these levels [[ThatOneLevel just don't play fair]].

* The [[FanNickname Wind Hell]]--I mean, Wind Hill, in ''[=PangYa=]'' / ''[=Albatross18=]''. Unlike on other courses, the wind is not consistent across an entire hole; there are wind currents that differ from the rest of the course's wind, and you ''don't even know the speed of these currents''. Complicating matters is [[FakeDifficulty the alteration of the game's physics]]; slopes will affect your ball much more, rough is much thicker, and the ball has to take an extra bounce before backspinning. And you will now have to deal with a tree on nearly every hole, and the wind currents just love to hang out with the new trees.
* ''Tecmo Super Bowl'' has the San Francisco 49ers as "That One Team." If Joe Montana-to-Jerry Rice doesn't work, no problem. John Taylor, Brent Jones, and Roger Craig will inevitably murder the player. If that was not enough, injuring Montana won't help; Steve Young is better than half the starting quarterbacks in the game. The Niners' defense is just as scary; Ronnie Lott and Dave Waymer are interception machines, Bill Romanowski and Michael Carter can stop a running game cold, and Matt Millen, Pierce Holt, and Charles Haley can rack sacks up in a ridiculous manner.
** The original ''TecmoBowl'' has Los Angeles. If you land on them as one of your final two opponents (assuming you have defenders strong enough not to simply [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard bounce off of Bo Jackson]]), if you punt, you lose.
* From ''[[VideoGame/MaddenNFL Madden NFL 2004]]'', there's the Atlanta Falcons. Michael Vick has the honor of being the cover athlete for that year, so he's got a ridiculously high awareness, throw power, and throw accuracy stat. He can throw to Peerless Price and Brian Finneran (both vastly better in the virtual world than the real one), and not to mention the tight end, Alge Crumpler. Warrick Dunn will run around you, and TJ Duckett will run through you - it's a given. And if that isn't quite enough, Vick has one of the highest speed ratings in the game, meaning he can call a Hail Mary, send all his wideouts down the field, and run upwards of 20 yards before you wrap him up. Brutal.
* NHL 11 has the Vancouver Canucks. Roberto Luongo stops seemingly every shot you throw at him (the only way to beat him is on a deflection), the top line can score at will and make goalies look like idiots, and they seem to be faster than every other team in the game, stifling any breakaway chances. Even if you can get past the defense, Luongo stops you anyway.
* In earlier editions of ''NCAA Football'', the replica of the 1994 "Miracle at Michigan" was this. The issue was that, in reality, Colorado QB Kordell Stewart threw a high, lofting floater pass 70 yards in the air that deflected to his wide receiver. In the game, 1994 CU QB (they couldn't use his name) physically couldn't throw it that far. So your two options were to try to throw a quick pass out of bounds to get closer, with 6 seconds and no timeouts this was tough on its own, or to chuck it to about the 10 yard line and hope your WR could catch it (unlikely as it is) and break 2-3 tackles on the way into the endzone.

* From ''[[JohnMaddenFootball Madden NFL 2004]]'', there's the Atlanta Falcons. Michael Vick has the honor of being the cover athlete for that year, so he's got a ridiculously high awareness, throw power, and throw accuracy stat. He can throw to Peerless Price and Brian Finneran (both vastly better in the virtual world than the real one), and not to mention the tight end, Alge Crumpler. Warrick Dunn will run around you, and TJ Duckett will run through you - it's a given. And if that isn't quite enough, Vick has one of the highest speed ratings in the game, meaning he can call a Hail Mary, send all his wideouts down the field, and run upwards of 20 yards before you wrap him up. Brutal.