Line #118 Main/ThatOneLevel


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5	[[quoteright:350:[[Webcomic/VGCats https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vgcatslevel.png]]]]
6	[[caption-width-right:350:Why did I [[RageQuit quit playing]] this game aga-? Oh. Right...[[note]]L - R: "Can't Wait To Be King" from ''VideoGame/TheLionKing'', "The High Road" from ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot1996'', "Meat Circus" from ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}''.[[/note]]]]
7
8	->'''Sivert Fjeldstad Madsen:''' Since you've made every game... Did you actually beat ''VideoGame/{{Battletoads}}''?\
9	'''[[VideoGame/BanjoKazooie Lord of Games]]:''' I assume you mean that tunnel level with the hoverbike. I, er... well, of course I beat it. It's not as if I or anyone else would release a game that couldn't be finished with standard human reaction times.
10	-->-- [[https://web.archive.org/web/20201105222910/https://www.dkvine.com/interactive/forums/index.php?showtopic=15277 Facebook Q&A]], ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooieNutsAndBolts''
11
12	There are times in video games where, instead of a [[ThatOneBoss boss]] becoming infamous for being frustrating and/or difficult, a level does. It could be that it is infested with GoddamnedBats or DemonicSpiders, is [[MarathonLevel really long]], [[DroughtLevelOfDoom lacks items]] [[CheckPointStarvation or checkpoints]], is home to ThatOneBoss, is home to ThatOnePuzzle (or at least one with a GuideDangIt), has you trying to outrun an AdvancingWallOfDoom or [[AutoScrollingLevel otherwise sticks you with auto scrolling]], [[EscortMission tasks you with keeping a NPC without]] [[TooDumbToLive any basic survival instincts alive]], has a different mechanic in play (often from a level-specific UnexpectedGameplayChange, such as a StealthBasedMission or ActionBasedMission), or is TheMaze level. If you experience frustration and anger at a level that may have one or more of these things, congratulations: you're playing [[TitleDrop That One Level]].
13
14	Sometimes, these levels are polarizing; a portion of players find it infuriatingly hard, while others don't have much of a problem with it. This can be a matter of general skill, familiarity with a particular control scheme or just plain luck, depending on the level. Game forums are literally packed with examples of this, which often results in discussions about said levels turning into flame wars.
15
16	Although it isn't a necessary requirement, it should be noted that many of these levels are hard on all difficulty settings. If a level is difficult on the highest difficult setting, it's to be expected. Chances are that one level is almost as infuriating on easy as it is on HarderThanHard.
17
18	These levels might not always have a [[VideoGame/CaveStory sign at the start that says]] "[[WelcomeToHell Welcome to Hell!]]," but [[NintendoHard they might]] [[PlatformHell as well]].
19
20	{{Escort Mission}}s, {{Slippy Slidey Ice World}}s, UnderTheSea and DownTheDrain-esque stages tend be more receptive to becoming these levels. For an optional level that is intentionally difficult, see BrutalBonusLevel.
21
22	See also ThatOneBoss, ThatOneSidequest and ThatOneComponent. Compare RidiculouslyDifficultRoute. Often contains the LastLousyPoint. If the level is difficult because of the enemies being in the way rather than them being a threat, you have a LevelOfTediousEnemies. Contrast BreatherLevel.
23
24	'''Please note that there is an emphasis on the "One" in "That One Level". If all or most levels in the game are difficult, then you have NintendoHard. The level has to stand out in difficulty compared to the other ones in the game to qualify as an example.'''
25
26	----
27	!!Example subpages:
28
29	[[index]]
30	* ThatOneLevel/ActionAdventure
31	** ''ThatOneLevel/TheLegendOfZelda''
32	* ThatOneLevel/{{Adventure}}
33	* ThatOneLevel/BeatEmUp
34	* ThatOneLevel/FightingGame
35	** ''ThatOneLevel/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'' (Spirit Battles)
36	* ThatOneLevel/FirstPersonShooter
37	** ''ThatOneLevel/Borderlands2''
38	** ''ThatOneLevel/Destiny2''
39	** ''ThatOneLevel/Payday2''
40	** ''ThatOneLevel/TeamFortress2''
41	** ''ThatOneLevel/{{Unreal}}''
42	* ThatOneLevel/GameShow
43	** ''ThatOneLevel/{{Survivor}}''
44	* ThatOneLevel/HackAndSlash
45	* ThatOneLevel/{{MMORPG}}
46	** ''ThatOneLevel/WorldOfWarcraft''
47	* ThatOneLevel/PartyGame
48	** ''ThatOneLevel/MarioParty''
49	* ThatOneLevel/PlatformGame
50	** ''ThatOneLevel/CrashBandicoot''
51	** ''ThatOneLevel/DonkeyKong''
52	** ''ThatOneLevel/GeometryDash''
53	** ''ThatOneLevel/JakAndDaxter''
54	** ''ThatOneLevel/MegaMan''
55	** ''ThatOneLevel/SonicTheHedgehog''
56	** ''ThatOneLevel/SuperMarioBros''
57	*** ''ThatOneLevel/SuperMarioSunshine''
58	** ''ThatOneLevel/SuperMonkeyBall''
59	* ThatOneLevel/PuzzleGame
60	** ''ThatOneLevel/AmateurSurgeon''
61	** ''ThatOneLevel/CrashFever''
62	** ''ThatOneLevel/{{Lemmings}}''
63	* ThatOneLevel/RacingGame
64	** ''ThatOneLevel/FZero''
65	** ''ThatOneLevel/GranTurismo''
66	* ThatOneLevel/RealTimeStrategy
67	** ''ThatOneLevel/AgeOfEmpires''
68	** ''ThatOneLevel/AgeOfEmpiresII''
69	** ''ThatOneLevel/{{Arknights}}''
70	** ''ThatOneLevel/TheBattleCats''
71	** ''ThatOneLevel/{{Warcraft}}''
72	* ThatOneLevel/RhythmGame
73	** ''ThatOneLevel/JustDance''
74	** ''ThatOneLevel/RhythmHeaven''
75	* ThatOneLevel/{{RPG}}
76	** ''ThatOneLevel/DarkSouls''
77	** ''ThatOneLevel/EldenRing''
78	** ''ThatOneLevel/EtrianOdyssey''
79	** ''ThatOneLevel/FinalFantasy''
80	** ''ThatOneLevel/MonsterHunter''
81	** ''ThatOneLevel/{{Pokemon}}''
82	** ''ThatOneLevel/TalesSeries''
83	* ThatOneLevel/ShootEmUps
84	* ThatOneLevel/SimulationGame
85	** ''ThatOneLevel/KanColle''
86	** ''ThatOneLevel/RollerCoasterTycoon''
87	* ThatOneLevel/SportsGame
88	* ThatOneLevel/StealthBasedGame
89	** ''ThatOneLevel/{{Hitman}}''
90	*** ''ThatOneLevel/WorldOfAssassinationTrilogy''
91	* ThatOneLevel/SurvivalHorror
92	** ''ThatOneLevel/ResidentEvil''
93	* ThatOneLevel/ThirdPersonShooter
94	** ''[[ThatOneLevel/SplatoonSalmonRun Splatoon (Salmon Run)]]''
95	* ThatOneLevel/TurnBasedStrategy
96	** ''ThatOneLevel/FireEmblem''
97	** ''ThatOneLevel/FireEmblemHeroes''
98	** ''ThatOneLevel/NintendoWars''
99	** ''ThatOneLevel/SuperRobotWars''
100	* ThatOneLevel/WideOpenSandbox
101	** ''ThatOneLevel/GrandTheftAuto''
102	*** ''ThatOneLevel/GrandTheftAutoV''
103	*** ''ThatOneLevel/GrandTheftAutoOnline''
104	* Other:
105	** ''ThatOneLevel/AmongUs''
106	** ''ThatOneLevel/TheBattleCats''
107	** ''ThatOneLevel/BloonsTowerDefense''
108	** ''ThatOneLevel/FateGrandOrder''
109	** ''ThatOneLevel/HotlineMiami''
110	** ''ThatOneLevel/HyruleWarriors''
111	** ''ThatOneLevel/{{Roblox}}''
112	** ''ThatOneLevel/SpaceSimulator''
113	** ''ThatOneLevel/StarWars''
114	** ''ThatOneLevel/WarioWare''
115	[[/index]]
116
117	----
118
119	[[foldercontrol]]
120
121	!!Other examples:
122
123	[[folder:Card Game]]
124	* ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombiesHeroes'' had the infamous mission 20, called "A Shadow Falls". It is all because of an [[MyRulesAreNotYourRules unfair special "rule"]] named Power to the Plants! [[note]]Which gave all plants +1/+1 for the rest of the game. Now it gives all plants +1/+1 for the current turn.[[/note]], so the opposing heroes can easily just play plants to overwhelm your weaker zombies. Green Shadow, a plant hero that relies on boosting plants, has many ways to hit you hard. Captain Combustible also can grow his allies huger thanks to the rule. However, Solar Flare, on the other hand, is a complete try hard with the rule. She simply rushes with weak plants, and thanks to the rule, they are now going to become a very large threat. [[ThatOneBoss The former boss mission even had Green Shadow with a complete advantage.]] She would've started with 3 Torchwoods and +15 health. What do you start with? Nothing. The fact that all lanes are heights as well makes it impossible to play a few ground lane cards and environments and makes Amphibous zombies more prone to being destroyed. It was too hard that even [=PopCap=] had to nerf the level to the point where the rule only affected the current turn and the Green Shadow boss now just starts with 6 cards.
125	[[/folder]]
126
127	[[folder:Digging Game]]
128	* ''[[VideoGame/DigDug Dig Dug Arrangement (1996)]]:''
129	** Round 39 (Area 6-9) is a [[TimedMission level that spells out "TIME UP"]]. Why? The given time before the "Hurry Up!" signal is set at exactly ''one second''. The fact that Taizo is slow as molasses ''does not help'', either.
130	** Round 49 (Area 6-18) is probably the single most painful stage in the entire game. It starts out deceptively simple, with it being a big open area with energy crates and two small crevices that, during the "Ready!" text, only have Taizo doppelgangers and Dodongadons. Then the doppelgangers start digging, and reveal that there's [[ZergRush an army of Pookas]] along with the aforementioned enemies, which [[DemonicSpiders are already a pain as-is!]] If the dopplegangers don't kill you, the Dodongadons will. If ''they'' don't kill you, the [[GoddamnedBats Blue Pookas]] will. And [[RuleOfThree if those don't kill you]], the [[StalkedByTheBell Ghost Pooka]] will come and mow you down, as despite how stressful the stage is, you're given '''only [[FakeDifficulty 25 seconds]] to beat it!''' Making matters worse is the fact that this is ''right'' before the final boss stage of the game, where you'll want as many lives as possible. If you're [[SelfImposedChallenge aiming for a 1-credit clear]], your run [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption likely ends here]]. Your only hope is to dig straight up and hope one of the Taizo doppelgangers drops a rock on themselves.
131	[[/folder]]
132
133	[[folder:Edutainment Game]]
134	* Not really That One ''Level'' per se, but the desert you must cross to get to California in ''[[VideoGame/TheOregonTrail Oregon Trail II]]'' gets on many people's nerves.
135	** Ditto for that game's river rafting minigame, which is ''much'' tougher than the original's and requires a lot of [[TrialAndErrorGameplay trial-and-error]] and [[SomeDexterityRequired dexterity with the mouse]] to pass, especially if you choose to shoot the rapids. And the Sublette Cutoff, which is unavoidable if you're a Greenhorn. If you forgot to bring canteens and/or water kegs, your party WILL die of thirst.
136	* ''VideoGame/BrainAge 2'':
137	** There are ''unskippable'' connect-the-dot images and acrostics. And when more than one person is using the same game card, drawing a picture of something the game tells you to. All of the above includes getting upstaged by the game proving it's better than you. [[JustifiedTrope Because you are facing a]] [[InsufferableGenius professor.]]
138	** For people with OCD/impatience, the number memorization game within the trademark Brain Age-checking system. Sure, it's supposed to help your memory, but many just restart their DS when they get to it then re-take the test until they get one without it, because it's too frustrating to complete, but too easy to cheat at by writing the numbers down somewhere.
139	* ''VideoGame/JumpStartAdventures3rdGradeMysteryMountain'':
140	** The biosphere is one of the longest challenges in the game - combine this with awkward tank controls along with 5 multiple-choice questions before you finally get to actually guess where the item is.
141	** The observatory minigame is easily the longest, especially when played the intended way. The final portion is a PixelHunt where you have to use the sentences to find out which constellation Polly hid the clue in. Fortunately, [[AntiFrustrationFeatures Botley tells you the answer if you just press enough.]]
142	* ''VideoGame/JumpStartAdventures4thGradeHauntedIsland'':
143	** The toad well, primarily because of the awkward controls, required multitasking, as well as any lack of in-game timer to tell how far you are/have left.
144	** The Mummy's tomb is a simple match minigame similar to Mahjong tiles. Unfortunately, there are four tiles of each, and only one way to match them. What's worst is that you hear some very ''very'' irritating sounds if you mess up!
145	* ''[[VideoGame/JumpStartAdventures5thGradeJoHammetKidDetective JumpStart 5th Grade]]'':
146	** The CrosswordPuzzle. You're ''supposed'' to go through the museum to find the answers, but this tends to take forever (And as many have said, it tends to be pretty well-hidden. Made worse by your parents who could have set a time-limit...making it unwinnable), since looking around the museum and reading ''takes time''.
147	*** Another reason why this is bad is because of the mandatory pixel hunt. For example, the player has to find Lake Eyre in Australia - but it's not visible on the map of the world and is ''only'' around a very small portion of Australia. Hogarth's painting is also very ''very'' hard to find.
148	** The locks. Sometimes it's addition and subtraction. But the other half of the time? It's multiplication and division... ''long'' division. (Meaning you can't just brute force it with a calculator - since you have to give the game remainders.)
149	* The line of Junior Arcades by Creator/HumongousEntertainment typically had at least one instance.
150	** ''VideoGame/FreddiFish & Luther's Maze Madness'' gave us Level 24, an incredibly long and tedious level composed of three rooms. One of the rooms in particular is filled with opening and closing leaves, that will only let you through when they feel like. This makes the level drag out for as long as possible.
151	** ''VideoGame/SpyFox in Cheese Chase'' includes Level 75, "Carnival of Clouds." You navigate through narrow passages of rollercoasters, ''all of which are one hit kills.'' If you do so much as touch the ''corner'' of one of the tracks, it's over. This is often the one level where people use the "Go slower" junior helper.
152	** ''Spy Fox in Hold the Mustard'' has the passageway levels. Compared to the rest of the game which gives you a sky to fly around, the passageways are narrow tubes, and thanks to the lack of MercyInvincibility, walls are almost always one hit kills, unless you get lucky and somehow manage to escape before your health drains (and even if you do, you'll still probably have only one hit left). The microscopic enemies certainly don't help matters, considering they also knock you far back, commonly into the walls. This is all bad enough; the fact that there are '''sixteen''' of these in succession instead of the usual eight, it's one heck of a ride. Sure, you can break up the action a bit by going to the secret Atlantis levels midway through, but they aren't much better.
153	** ''VideoGame/PuttPutt & Pep's Balloon-o-Rama'' has Level 108, which has balloons encased in a line of pinwheels and bumpers. For those who don't know, it plays like ''Breakout'', except there is gravity thrown into the mix. The bumpers will be sure to keep you out of there though, and the pinwheels are supposed to send you in a random direction, but more often than not they just act like the bumpers. This makes getting the balloons they are blocking dang near ''impossible''. You will be playing this level for a loooong time before you finish it.
154	** ''Putt-Putt & Pep's Dog on a Stick'' has a level toward the end where you are traveling along one-square wide paths, with ''four hedgehogs'' in your way. This is a Q*Bert styled game, and the hedgehogs are the fastest enemies in the game, so they are a giant pain to dodge. There are also switches all over the level that add additional squares to help you some, but often the hedgehogs will hog the buttons and just keep switching them on and off as if to taunt you. Getting through this level without the unlimited lives junior helper is a big pain, unless you [[GoodBadBug exploit a glitch that lets you jump through enemies with the proper timing.]] And even then, it hardly helps because you'll probably just land straight into the inevitable hedgehog that was trailing it.
155	* ''VideoGame/TheClueFinders'':
156	** In ''VideoGame/TheClueFinders3rdGradeAdventuresTheMysteryOfMathra'', the Rings of Fire. You must add, subtract, multiply, or divide the two numbers given to you, then fire your sneezeberries at the numbers in a grid similar to Battleship. The problem is that on challenge difficulty, you will not only ''not'' be told which function you should do, but all four possible solutions will appear. Fortunately, since the correct answers will always be adjacent to one another and spell out a word, you can cheese it by simply firing at "spaces" that are adjacent to a correct answer. [[DevelopersForesight the game will even acknowledge this and has dialogue for it]].
157	** ''VideoGame/TheClueFindersReadingAdventuresAges912MysteryOfTheMissingAmulet'' gives the Gates of Mount Valdrok. You must guess the password based upon being told how many correct letters are in the right place or correct but in the wrong place. It's not as easy as it sounds - unlike ''VideoGame/{{Wordle}}'', you don't get to ''see'' which letters are correct, only guess.
158	** ''Search and Solve'': The Vending Machine game - you have to figure out which shape and colour coordinates to which column or row. It's randomised every time - meaning sometimes you can be unlucky and waste all your guesses on the wrong row/column combinations. You also have fewer guesses at higher difficulty levels.
159	** ''Math 9-12'': The great hall minigame is very time-consuming and gives almost no indication as to your progress - whereas most other minigames are essentially only one question.
160	[[/folder]]
161
162	[[folder:Full-Motion Video]]
163	* ''VideoGame/BrainDead13'':
164	** Moose's entire scenario. It starts when you enter Moose's room and, immediately on entering it, you notice a stone football [[DinnerDeformation getting thrown into your mouth]] if you don't avoid it. Once you get past that football, you have to dodge another football, along with Moose's grabs, shoulder charges, [[BatterUp baseball bat attacks]], being flung by a basketball net as a catapult, and the grab from below his head, all in the first quarter of this scenario (followed by a lot of DeadlyDodging of the lightning rods in the second quarter; finding a way to destroy Moose in the third quarter; and dodging Fritz as usual in the final quarter)! Failure to avoid any of these attacks in the first quarter of this scenario will send you all the way back to where you entered the room in the split-second that the same stone football is getting thrown into your mouth again!
165	** TheMaze (which has many of these ''literal'' [[{{Pun}} dead]] ends if you don't go in the right direction, accompanied by deadly {{mushroom\|Man}}s, {{s\|caledUp}}nakes, [[ImAHumanitarian man-eating]] frogs, spike traps, and deadly vines); and the [[LivingStatue giant statue]] at the end of it, which can require a whole lot of situations where you can't just "press X to not die", but you LITERALLY have to make it more like a BIG "[[PressXToNotDie Mash the X Buttons a Whole Lot of Times to Not Fall or Get Doused in or Sprayed by Acid,]] [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice Impaled,]] [[SquashedFlat or Squashed Flat]]" situation.
166	** If you end up in Vivi's Salon and have the misfortune of accidentally picking 'manicure' for the treatment option you have to endure a very long minigame of having to avoid getting your hand lopped off by a meat cleaver. The tell for where Vivi is going to chop is unbelievably subtle and only appears for a split second. If you fail you watch as Lance's hand gets cut off and he collapses on the table from the shock.
167	[[/folder]]
168
169	[[folder:Match Three Game]]
170	* In level 152 of ''Snoopy's Sugar Drop: The Search for Belle'', there are five strawberries (which must fall through the bottom of the playfield), five eggs (which must not fall through the bottom) and five clovers (which may be moved freely, usually beneath an egg, but cannot fall through the bottom). The level starts with the strawberries above the clovers, and the clovers above the eggs. The object is to collect all five strawberries, but the level is lost if an egg falls through the bottom, no matter how many moves you have left.
171	[[/folder]]
172
173	[[folder:Maze Game]]
174	* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunterPC'', with over 200 levels, tends to have these:
175	** "Hopping Mad!", a stage which contains several witches (enemies who can TeleportSpam) and two Frankenstein's monsters, who needs two torches to kill and ''can'' recharge their lives by touching their spawner. Said level also drops giant frogs into the arena at random patterns, with the dropping frequency making them difficult to dodge.
176	** Literally any levels containing three or more {{mummy}} enemies - they are BossInMookClothing monsters who requires two zaps from a magic scepter to kill, where the first hit turns them into a fast-moving skeleton that chases you down. Add the fact that each weapon is good for single-use, you'll need to run like crazy to obtain another scepter while fleeing.
177	** "Attack of the B-Movies" combines BlackoutBasement with DeliberatelyMonochrome. Your vision is limited, there are five different monster types onscreen (at least one which is a vampire, EliteMooks who can FlashStep from your stake) and the monochrome filter makes locating a monster's regenerator ''before'' it recreates them a challenge.
178	** "Nightmare!", a level fought before the Count, lives up to it's name being a WolfpackBoss battle against the KingMook versions of a Lagoon creature, werewolf, ghost and Frankenstein's monster. While the first two are not much of a challenge, the ghost is already a DemonicSpiders-type enemy who can phase through walls (and now needs ''three'' doses of HolyWater to kill!) while the upgraded Frankenstein's monster, as mentioned above, can regenerate it's health by touching it's spawner.
179	[[/folder]]
180
181	[[folder:Mecha Game]]
182	* The first mission of the ''VideoGame/{{MechWarrior}} 3'' fourth campaign. This is the ''only'' TimedMission, in which you have to fight through a couple of enemy patrols and catch up a train. By this time, there is a good chance you have discarded the lighter Mechs in favor of the slow 100-tonners, the timing is very tight, and the enemy patrols have guns which can knock down even the heaviest Mech.
183	* ''VideoGame/{{Brigador}}'' has JOY BUS/HELL RIDE. Your mission: destroy a single ultraheavy tank located very near where you spawn in. The problem? You spawn without any ammo, the entire level is crawling with ActionBomb enemies that WILL one-hit-kill you, and the nearest ammo depots are across the entire map, past barriers that need to be demolished for you to get past, giving the aforementioned suicide enemies ample chances to kill you. To add insult to injury, you are not given any special weapon (active camo, EMP, smoke, cone-of-death) to give you any way to fight back or help you evade the enemies prior to getting ammo. Expect to retry this stage a LOT.
184	[[/folder]]
185
186	[[folder:Multiplayer Online Battle Arena]]
187	* ''VideoGame/HeroesOfTheStorm'': There are a handful of maps which are [[BrokenBase divisive]] in the community, but no map has as much unified hatred as the original version of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq5-18Vt-c0 Hanamura]]. It was a two-lane map with the unique gimmick that the cores couldn't be attacked, only damaged by escorting a payload or defeating the boss in map's center. The concept was okay, but the execution was ''horribly'' imbalanced.
188	** Both teams had a payload and it could never be destroyed, only delayed by the opposing team. This meant players had to constantly divide their attention between pushing their cart, stopping the enemy cart, stopping forts from falling (which gave a damage bonus to the other team), and checking the boss and other mercenaries. There was also no way to deny objectives since they were up forever, so turning in your payload when you're behind didn't slow the enemy down at all. This made the game very snowbally, since once one team got a payload in, they could commit their full force to delaying the other until theirs respawned.
189	** The map also alienated many Heroes. The low value of taking towers lowered the power of siege heroes; the drastic distance between lanes and tendency to group up for fights at carts made roamers and gankers less useful; the constant moving of carts made characters that took time to set up fights less useful; and the game being over so fast meant late-game heroes never came into their strength. All of this combined to ensure this map had the lowest roster of viable characters. This could be a bit annoying for a ranked game, but Quick Match is the most played mode and this tendency made it even more hated. Picking any hero that is not built for team fighting was dangerous when there was a chance of being thrown into Hanamura and forced to play a game as TheLoad.
190	** Originally, if a team managed to take both the Fort and Keep of a single lane down, they would get a Sapper minion in place of the usual Catapult. This generally spelled doom for the other team, as now they had to pay attention to their payloads, the enemy's payloads, the boss, and up to two lanes that no longer have any defenses. An update a couple months after the map's release removed the Sappers. While this removed the aspect of adding another thing to pay attention to, it also made it so the only way to win was pushing payloads or defeating the boss. This allowed particularly dickish teams to drag games out indefinitely by refusing to push their own payloads while also preventing the enemy team from pushing.
191	*** Hanamura was so despised, it was removed from all game modes (except Custom Matches) to receive a major overhaul a mere ''four months'' after its inclusion. Fortunately, the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48Xyjr5kCQk reworked version]] released a year later (cores are no longer protected, the map only spawns one payload for both teams to fight over, and captured payloads damage enemy structures akin to Blackheart's Bay rather than targeting the core directly) was much better received.
192	[[/folder]]
193
194	[[folder:Mini-Game Game]]
195	* Remix II, Stage 1 in ''VideoGame/NESRemix''. The first section is a simple "Enter the cave" scenario from ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaI'', and is easy to get past even with the blue Lynels and the constant screen blurring and unblurring. After you enter the cave, the second section [[UnexpectedGameplayChange unexpectedly changes]] to ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'', except instead of playing as Mario, you're still playing as Link, who can't jump or use his sword (or the two Hammers in the level). The barrels fall in such erratic patterns that it becomes a LuckBasedMission to get to the top.
196	* Each of the three Lazerblazer games in ''Super Scope 6'' has at least one of these.
197	** In level 29 of ''Intercept'', the enemy missiles fly in a high-density formation with clusters of small far-away missiles interspersed with the occasional faster and closer ones above them. You're limited to 3 shots on the screen at once, but there will be more missiles on the screen at one time than that especially near the end. With all the small far-away targets and the 3-shot limit, your base most likely will get hit a few times.
198	** Level 28 of ''Engage'' has the highest enemy count in the game with 35, as well as a constant neverending barrage of high-speed missiles heading straight for you. Not only that, but almost all of the enemy formations are very far away, leaving more room for a missile to block your shots and requiring more precise aim, and every enemy aircraft that you let escape will fire another missile on top of everything else. It is very likely that you will either run out of fuel trying to gun down all 35 enemies or get your aircraft destroyed by 5 of the 50+ enemy missiles that will bombard you throughout the mission.
199	** The foreground is your worst enemy in level 26 of ''Confront''. The enemies love to sneak in from behind the foreground obstacles and pick you off, and there are a lot of them out there.
200	* In ''VideoGame/RugratsRoyalRansom'', many, ''many'' levels on Rugrat Medium & Reptar Tough difficulty quality. Were the developers sadists indulging their fetish by wrapping it up in a licensed game aimed at children?
201	** ''Punting Papayas'' in Jungle World on Tough is one of the most frustrating levels in the whole game, with the insanely long and hard-to-navigate paths you have to follow, to the point where it's physically painful to play.
202	** ''Monkey Business'' is basically the same thing, just with papayas swapped out for monkeys.
203	** ''Acrobatty Dash'' on Medium & Tough is just cruel and inhumane. On Baby Easy you're given a nice, comfortable seven minutes to go through the acrobat course. On Medium & Tough? ''3 minutes 30 seconds'' and ''two minutes,'' respectively, even though the level itself is ''exactly the same''. Cue much swearing, ripping of hair, and gnashing of teeth.
204	** ''Meanie Genie'' on Medium & Tough difficulty is PlatformHell ''incarnate'', with jumps requiring precision presses of the A button, lack of depth perception making it hard to tell if you're gonna land on a platform or in the boiling lava, the fact that it goes on damn near ''forever'', [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and the background music is annoying to boot]].
205	** ''Temple Of The Lamp''. On Easy & Medium it's a nice, if boring "collect-the-rubies"-athon. On Tough? An exercise in frustration. For one thing, you have to collect a whopping total of ''70'' rubies. Yeah, that's right, I said ''70''. Secondly, those [[GoddamnedBats goddamn scarab beetles]] are all over the place, serving to make your job even ''harder'' [[FakeDifficulty for no real reason at all]]. Thirdly, most of the rubies are located high on the buildings, forcing you to make even ''more'' perfect A button presses. Thankfully, it's easy to avoid doing this level in favour of other, more fun ones, like ''Rugrat Rug Race''.
206	** ''Moon Buggy Madness'' is extremely difficult on ''all'' difficulty levels, not due to any intention of the programmers, but due to the [[FakeDifficulty floaty physics making it almost impossible to get a sense of control.]]
207	[[/folder]]
208
209	[[folder:Roguelike]]
210	* ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac'':
211	** Cellar-themed levels, as they appear in Chapter 1 and are ''overrun'' with spider-themed enemies which are all either DemonicSpiders, GoddamnedBats, {{Asteroids Monster}}s, {{Action Bomb}}s, or ''any possible combination of those''. While these enemies appear throughout the game, the early game is when they are very difficult to fight off as you don't have the health and attack power to deal with their bullshit as they swarm you and drain your health. It's actually common practice for players to reset their run until they roll Basement or Burning Basement instead, ''especially'' during Greed Mode.
212	** Sheol. A very dark level overrun with every variety of DemonicSpiders and GoddamnedBats, a lot of whom are dark-colored and easily blend into the environment long enough to score a cheap hit. It also happens to be a very large level, has tons of minibosses including [[ThatOneBoss The Adversary]] and his [[ThatOneAttack near-unavoidable blood laser]] and pitch-black-room dash attacks, and has a fierce three-part MarathonBoss at the end. It's actually considered to be considerably harder than Dark Room that comes after, as at least Dark Room provides tons of new powerups and has the much easier boss [[BreatherBoss The Lamb]] at the end.
213	[[/folder]]
214	[[folder:Trap-Em-Up]]
215	* ''VideoGame/TomAndJerryInHouseTrap'', a ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'', a "Trap-Em-Up" based on the ''ComicStrip/SpyVsSpy'' games, has the penultimate level, "Mechani-cat", widely considered to be the most difficult level in the game. For most of the game, the player plays as Jerry and goes up against Tom, who possesses the same abilities and attacks Jerry does. In "Mechani-cat" however, Tom is replaced with [[SNKBoss Mechano]] (from "Push-Button Kitty"), who possesses two incredibly powerful attacks: getting too close to it results in it biting Jerry, while trying to run from it results in it shooting at Jerry with cannonballs. Both attacks will shave off large portions of Jerry's health if they connect, and Mechano also runs faster than Jerry does, meaning it's very difficult to avoid taking damage. The only way to get it to stop chasing Jerry for any period of time is to distract it with mechanical mice, but you wouldn't know to activate them [[GuideDangIt unless you've watched the episode it's based on]]. It's so difficult that "Oodles for Toodles"[[note]]which brings Tom back as your opponent[[/note]], the ''actual'' final level of the game, is considered a BreatherLevel in comparison.
216	[[/folder]]
217
218	[[folder:Tower Defense Game]]
219	* Level 20 of ''[[VideoGame/CursedTreasure Cursed Treasure 2]]'' has two lighthouses (requiring seven cut-outs each to turn from {{Mook}}-aider to {{Mook}}-bane), two MookMaker pirate ships (requiring ten cut-outs each to sink), and only two tiles for ultra-powerful crypts (one of which needs the forest removed with cut-out and a nearby sacred stone removed with three cut-outs before you can build on it), and two waterlanes for flying and swimming foes (especially the unfrightenable [[HumongousMecha Iron Guards]] which you probably won't have enough {{Mana}} left to take out with a meteor because of all the cut-outs, unless [[LuckBasedMission slain foes dropped a lot of mana potions]]). And the original version had no mana pool.
220	[[/folder]]
221
222	[[folder:Visual Novels]]
223	* Yes, an example in a '''visual novel'''. Specifically, the beginning of ''VisualNovel/HatePlus'' Day 3 on Hyun-ae's route requires you to make a cake, whether it be a proper cake cooked in an oven for tens of minutes, or a cheap 5-minute cake like she offers. And we don't mean a cake in-game, we mean a [[BreakingTheFourthWall real-life cake]]. For those who have the ingredients and equipment on hand, or cook things regularly, this shouldn't be a problem. For those that ''don't'', this becomes a problem because your only other options are to either [[WeWait fake it, causing you to wait around]], or admit to not making a cake, which [[WhatTheHellPlayer Hyun-ae will chew you out on]]. You can TakeAThirdOption and buy a cake instead of making it, but you don't get to explain this to Hyun-ae until enough time passes that Hyun-ae thinks you've been making a cake.
224	* Being such a long-standing series, ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' has a few disliked cases among its many installments.
225	** "Turnabout Big Top" from ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyJusticeForAll'' is the least liked case in the entire Phoenix trilogy (and possibly the entire series). It barely connects to the main storyline, almost all the witnesses are unhelpful as well as downright rude to Phoenix, and a couple of the testimonies are tough to cross-examine; one witness is extremely chatty, causing Phoenix to be penalized if the witness goes into a random tangent (purely because the witness annoys the Judge), and this witness' last testimony will penalize you with an instant game over if you merely '''press''' the witness on the wrong statement, because the Judge is sick and tired of said witness. While there ''is'' a tell as to which statements will trigger a penalty[[note]]If Moe is smiling while a statement is highlighted, pressing that statement will set off the Judge[[/note]], it's extremely easy to miss and never made clear for the player. The fact that this case features one of the more convoluted murder methods and doesn't even have a satisfying breakdown animation for the culprit is just icing on the cake.
226	** Much like "Turnabout Big Top", "The Adventures of the Clouded Kokoro" from ''VisualNovel/TheGreatAceAttorney: Adventures'' is an equally absurd case. A mostly pointless investigation that only results in 2 pieces of evidence (in a game where you usually have at least 4 going into a trial), coupled with a trial where you spend most of the time frantically trying to come up with a plausible alternative murder method with some Closing Arguments that feel like they're only there to pad out the trial makes most of the case feel pointless. The case also suffers from a mediocre cast, 2 of which being noteworthy for having overly drawn-out animations and also the culprit being highly unlikeable and one of the worst in the series.
227	** "Turnabout Serenade" from ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'' is a close contender to "Turnabout Big Top" for worst ''Ace Attorney'' case thanks to one glaring flaw in the evidence that nobody in-universe acknowledges: [[spoiler:it is physically impossible for a small, slender 14-year-old boy to shoot a grown man with a '''.45 revolver''' without breaking both his arms (and that's even if he could land the shot with a gun he's never picked up), made even worse by everyone ignoring that the boy and his associates repeatedly asserting that ''he's blind'', with his relatively long career of being a [[BlindMusician blind pianist]] being a matter of public record]]. Despite this contradiction, the player has to endure the entire case while being forced to ignore that fact, proving the culprit's guilt via far more convoluted means. There's also an unskippable video the player must watch repeatedly throughout the case.
228	** From the same game, "Turnabout Succession" is one of the least-liked final cases in the series, along with "Ablaze" below. This is mostly due to the confusing and illogical MASON System gimmick used for its second investigation, requiring you to jump between the past and present... and all your evidence somehow comes with you, resulting in you breaking Psyche Locks in the past with evidence from the present that the character in question wouldn't have found in the point of time these take place in. After that you're taken to a final trial segment, which only has one testimony and a few presents in the middle of a lot of non-interactive dialogue. To add insult to injury, the final blow to the BigBad is delivered by Phoenix, not your PlayerCharacter Apollo, in an on-rails segment, leading to a lot of fans feeling like [[SpotlightStealingSquad Apollo was upstaged by Phoenix in his own game.]]
229	** "The Monstrous Turnabout" from ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies'' is one of the least liked cases in the entire second trilogy. It barely has any relevance to the main storyline, only introducing a couple of important characters. The case has absurd logic, such as claiming that the victim woke up after being impaled by a spear so that he could attack the defendant before dying. The murder method isn't much better, being overly convoluted with the culprit's actions not making any sense with his motive in mind (the reasoning behind his motive somehow being even worse). To round things off we have a poor selection of minor characters, most of which get old before the case is over and a rather dully written script which makes the case itself quite monotonous to play through.
230	** "Turnabout Ablaze" from ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigations'' for having the worst case of ThatOneBoss in the franchise. It takes two full gameplay segments (potentially spanning one to three ''hours'') just to even begin taking down the final suspect through cross-examinations. It is the last case of the game, but it still shouldn't take so long.
231	** "Rise from the Ashes", a bonus case in ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'', is known to be the longest case in the game and possibly the entire series. The case uses 3 days of investigations and trials, but unlike previous cases, this one is padded out as long as possible with tons of areas to explore and very long trials. On top of your usual methods of finding clues, you'll also have to deal with finding faded blood splatters and dusting for fingerprints. Not only that, there's a trial segment where you'll instantly get a guilty verdict if you present a certain piece of evidence sooner than you are supposed to. Your defendant in this case also refuses to help you and continues insisting her guilt, even if the facts are staring at her in the face. [[spoiler: This is justified by the fact she's also being blackmailed by the Chief of Police to take the fall, so her ratting him out isn't an option.]]
232	** ''VideoGame/ProfessorLaytonVsAceAttorney'' has the Vigilantes' testimony early in the final trial. In the trials in this game, multiple witnesses often testify at once, and you will have to listen to other witnesses' reactions during their testimony. In most cases, there's no more than five witnesses on the stand at the time, but when the Vigilantes testify, there's a whopping ''ten'' witnesses, resulting in ten pieces of testimony per cross examination segments, and nine other witnesses who could react to the given witness's testimony at any one time. Compared to that, the later cross-examinations with [[spoiler:Darklaw and Kira, and later, Darklaw, Espella and the Storyteller]], are relatively simple due to having fewer witnesses.
233	* ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'':
234	** ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'' has Chapter 4. The murder seems to make absolutely no sense since first, you have to figure out what is the secret of the Funhouse in order to be able to even understand how anything could have been done.
235	** The fifth trial in ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'' can easily qualify as the most frustrating trial in the game. [[spoiler:The murder victim is unrecognizable, the culprit of the case is stuck in an Exisal and continously alternates between themselves and the victim, and you have to change your opinion on who you think the victim is. Looks like Kokichi got his wish: he orchestrated a nearly-impossible murder case that stumped even ''Monokuma''.]]
236	[[/folder]]
237
238	[[folder:Mobile Games]]
239	* ''VideoGame/{{Ingress}}'': That one portal. The one located in the middle of nowhere. In that one valley where only one cell phone user in 100 is able to get a useful signal. That person is a member of the other faction and visits that one portal every other day to recharge it and to harvest more portal keys. Portal keys they eagerly and freely share with their opposition faction friends who all keep that portal remotely charged and linked with other cross-aligned portals.
240	[[/folder]]
241
242	!!Non-video game examples:
243
244	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
245	* ''Series/TheGreatBritishBakeOff'': The technical challenge is often this for the bakers, it being the one out of three they aren't allowed to practice for in advance. The subject is often an obscure and/or foreign recipe, pretty much guaranteeing that most of the contestants will have never even heard of it. Even when it's something relatively simple, they're still expected to carry it off on sheer baking knowledge and instincts, so the instructions for the recipes are often deliberately left very vague, e.g. "Make the pancake batter".
246	** This proved to be particularly true of Series 7's Rav, who finished bottom in the technical challenge three weeks running and started to openly bemoan his bad fortune; the third time his Bakewell tart was ranked lower than Andrew's, in spite of the fact that [[EpicFail Andrew had taken fifteen minutes to notice that his oven wasn't on]].
247	** Occasionally averted when a contestant turns out to specialise in making the particular recipe--as per James and jam doughnuts in series 3--or, in the memorable case of Chetna during series 5's Bread week, have ''just made the exact same recipe for the signature challenge''. Both easily cruise to victory.
248	** At different times during Series 6, all three of the eventual finalists struggled with puff pastry. What's the technical challenge for the final episode? A dessert made with puff pastry. Paul freely admitted that he picked it specifically to see whose puff pastry skills had improved, and the bakers recognized what was going on as well.
249	** Oh, how delightful the "Forgotten Bakes" episode of Season 8 was...
250	* The most dreaded challenge in ''Series/ForgedInFire'' is the first round for its sheer physicality. The Forge is generally quite a bit hotter than most home forges (since it has 4 gas forges going at once), you're hitting metal with a hammer for 3 straight hours, and that's not even considering various alternate locations with their own conditions. If a smith is going to be medically disqualified, it will be in the first round.
251	* ''Series/RuPaulsDragRace'':
252	** There are two particular recurring challenges that are dreaded by different sets of queens (those who excel in one usually dread the other). First is the "random scraps" challenge, where the queens are tasked with constructing an outfit out of unconventional materials such as dollar store junk, holiday decorations, ''organic vegetables'', etc. Sometimes it's its own challenge, other times it's part of the larger "____ Ball," where the queens have to present three looks based on a theme with one made of random scraps. Second is "The Snatch Game," a ''Series/MatchGame'' parody where the queens have to impersonate a celebrity and try their best at improv comedy. Queens whose wheelhouse is fashion and design almost always do well in the random scraps challenge, but are likely to bomb the Snatch Game because it requires lightning-fast comedy reflexes, while the reverse is true for comedic queens focused more on humor than their look. While more than one queen has won the season despite failing one of these challenges, queens who do well in both are almost certain to make it to the finale, as they posses the key skills [=RuPaul=] is looking for.[[note]]To date, the only contestant to actually ''win'' both challenges was US Season 6's [=BenDeLaCreme=], but she was eliminated right before the finale despite being a fan-favorite.[[/note]]
253	** A more general example is any physically demanding performance challenge, which tends to be despised by viewers and contestants alike. The major standouts are the professional wrestling challenge from Season 4, the cheerleading challenge from Season 9, and the Olympics challenge from Season 11. In all three cases, requiring queens to perform physically intensive routines in styles that are tricky even for professionals led to injuries (in Season 9's case, resulting in a NonGameplayElimination), and the final televised result was underwhelming thanks to very few of the queens being comfortable in their roles. It is no surprise that these kinds of challenges largely vanished after Season 11.
254	[[/folder]]
255
256	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
257	* ''TabletopGame/SentinelsOfTheMultiverse'' has the Rook City environment deck. While most environments are fairly neutral, Rook City is overtly player-hostile, with almost all of its cards hampering the heroes in one way or another. While there are two friendly cards that directly help the heroes, the villains or the rest of the deck are almost certain to destroy them before they can be of much use. And just to add some SchmuckBait to the mix, it comes in the same expansion as [[ThatOneBoss The Chairman]], and the theme tempts you to play the two together - something that is widely considered one of the hardest setups in the game.
258	* ''TabletopGame/TicketToRide'' generally has at least one city on the map that is difficult to reach, increasing the risk that any tickets requiring a connection to that city will be incomplete (scoring negative points instead of positive ones) at the end of the game.
259	* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''
260	** ''TabletopGame/TombOfHorrors'' is one of the most infamous ''D&D'' modules ever made, having been created for tournament play to see which parties could make it the furthest into the dungeon, but not necessarily ''beat'' it. The dungeon is stuffed to the gills with death traps and SchmuckBait that has ''just'' enough leeway to give particularly attentive (or just plain lucky) players a chance to proceed further in, but chances are better that your adventurers will die, and die, and ''die'' making the attempt. One particularly infamous example of the dungeon's dangers is the relief of a green devil [[spoiler:which contains a ''[[SphereOfDestruction sphere of annihilation]]'' ready to murder any player foolish enough to try to reach into the relief's gaping maw]], which is one of the ''earliest'' tribulations waiting for adventurers. It only gets ''more'' deadly from there.
261	** ''TabletopGame/TyrannyOfDragons'' has the opening stage in Greenest, said to be [[EarlyGameHell one of the hardest parts of the entire campaign]], if not ''the'' hardest. The roaming packs of kobolds and cultists are all weak enemies, but [[ZergRush there's just so many of them]] that all the damage adds up quickly, since everybody's at level 1 and likely don't have ways to mitigate damage or deal with large groups. The boss encounters with Lennithon the adult blue dragon and Langedrosa Cyanwrath the half-dragon fighter are meant to be {{Hopeless Boss Fight}}s, but they can still potentially kill the early-game characters with one bad roll of the dice. Things do get better after that in terms of difficulty, but it's a rough way to start. Later modules would be much better balanced in the opening stages by comparison, and many DM guide videos on [=YouTube=] about the module suggest toning down how hard it is in some way.
262	** ''TabletopGame/CurseOfStrahd'' has an emphasis on roleplay over combat, yet the module regularly throws the party into potentially lethal encounters. Ironically, players used to combat-heavy campaigns are more likely to die, as the module is notoriously unforgiving when it comes to entering combat without need. Strahd himself gets a FinalBossPreview at one point, and fighting him at this stage is not only [[HopelessBossFight all but impossible]], but it sets the players up for a really rough go of it in Barovia after he's gone should they try and fight him.
263	** The Elturel section of ''TabletopGame/BaldursGateDescentIntoAvernus'' is one of the most grueling parts of the entire module. Not only are you now in Avernus, but the amount of enemies you fight jumps considerably, ranging from lower level fiends to a few BossInMookClothing encounters, all while the city is filled with hazards and people needing help. It's easy for players to get exhausted before they can arrive at their destination, which itself has several reasonably difficult encounters as well. Mind you, players are generally around level 5, so they still are on the weaker end.
264	[[/folder]]
265
266	[[folder:Webcomics]]
267	* Referenced in the ''Webcomic/VGCats'' strip [[http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=389 "Repressed Nostalgia"]], where Aeris finds a box of her old beloved games... and soon realizes why she stopped playing them: because each of them has "[[VideoGame/TheLionKing this]]... [[VideoGame/CrashBandicoot fucking]]... [[VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}} level]]".
268	* The Water Temple in ''Webcomic/LatchkeyKingdom'', as a direct reference to ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda''. It's revealed to be a gigantic maze that's unmappable because the water washes away the ink.
269	[[/folder]]
270
271	[[folder:Web Videos]]
272	* ''WebVideo/TierZoo'', a web series that explains biology through gaming terms, has several cases.
273	** The African Savannah is consistently referred to as one of the most brutally competitive and dangerous servers thanks to the multitude of excellent builds available-- to the point that both the Secretary Bird and the African Wild Dog are S-Tier because they excel at thriving in it.
274	** The Arctic Server constantly deals cold damage to everyone in it, and has the Polar Night world event that removes sunlight for photosynthesis and solar heating entirely for months at a time. In addition, very little loot (i.e., plants) spawn there, meaning herbivore players must rely on loot like lichen to survive.
275	** The Deep Sea Meta on the Abyssal Server, is stated to have "by far, the most unorthodox, unintuitive, and unforgiving meta in the entire game".
276	* LetsPlay/WhoIsThisGit has a series called Worst Levels Ever, where he goes through these.
277	[[/folder]]

Context Main / ThatOneLevel