History ThatOneLevel / Adventure

* ''VideoGame/KingsQuestVI'' has the Labyrinth, which comes close to V's desert in terms of sheer frustration. The maze is littered with instant-kill dead ends, has an infuriatingly annoying tile puzzle, and getting to the second floor requires you to [[GuideDangIt do something that got you killed every other time you tried it.]] Most of this was done for the sake of CopyProtection (the manual has solutions for the tile puzzle, for example)...but then there are a couple of items you need to get, or you're locked out of the [[MultipleEndings good ending]]. [[UnwinnableByDesign On top of that, if you enter without the right items, you can't leave to go get them.]] Fortunately, it's not nearly as bad as anything in ''King's Quest V'' for several reasons:
*** You're offered the option to return and search the place again, this time having an easier exit.
*** It doesn't have the perspective screw [=KQ5=] did.
*** Although the falling thing is cruel, an observant player will notice that the floor disappeared, whereas in the instant-death chambers it's gone from the start.
*** Getting stuck because of a missing item is annoying, but because the catacombs are self-contained you don't have to go back too far (unlike in [=KQ2=] where you can end up having to replay half the game if you crossed the bridge once too often).
*** Unlike with the [=KQ5=] Yeti custard pie example, you can actually figure out what you're missing ([[spoiler: if you get stuck in the dark, obviously you need the tinderbox from the pawn shop; and although the brick and the red scarf are slightly less obvious, you can make the connection once you find those items if you've been in the catacombs before]]).

** Any of the bike fights. They weren't well programmed to begin with, but they're actually unwinnable using [=ScummVM=] if you don't just cheat and use the instant win code. Made worse by the fact that the instant win code, in DOS, has this knack for ''not working properly'' and screwing you out of an item. Oh, and there's only 3 of one specific type of enemy which holds an item required to progress. And if you use the cheat, you'll not only [[PermanentlyMissableContent fail to get the item]] but [[{{Unwinnable}} be unable to cross a destroyed bridge]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Myst}}''[='s=] Selenitic Age deserves a special mention. First off, just to get there, you have to solve a tone-matching puzzle. Basically, one of Atrus's journals in the library shows a sequence of notes to be played on piano. You have to play these notes and adjust sliding switches in a ship so they match each note. The problem is that it not only takes an extreme level of precision, but this is nearly UnwinnableByMistake if you are tone deaf. And if you have any switch just a pixel off, you don't know which one you got wrong. So, is this all worth it just to see the plot unravel more? Heck no. The Selenitic Age is the most lifeless looking age in the game, and it's the only one where [[spoiler:Sirrus and Achenar have no rooms for you to learn more about them.]] Also, everything looks the same, making it very easy to get disoriented with the wonky movement control (alleviated if you're playing ''[=realMYST=]''). The one puzzle to solve here is at least an interesting one, but that all goes downhill when you need to exit this age. You have to pilot a subway car through a tedious underground maze puzzle, which has needlessly long transition scenes and takes nearly ten minutes to do even if you know how it works. Oh, and since it's required to leave the age, you have to do the maze ''twice'' to pick up both pages. Luckily the tone matching puzzle only has to be done once, but still.

* ''[[VideoGame/ChzoMythos 7 Days a Skeptic]]'' is particularly painful when the player is being chased about the space station and dies if the enemy gets within a few pixels of him (in a small windowed game). While the chasing is not ''too'' bad if you play things safe, the worst parts are the puzzles to defeat said assailant, usually involving doing things that are much more elaborate than would realistically be necessary. If that's not bad enough: during the chase, your assailant can pop out of any door in the ship. Including a ''locked door''. A locked door that you have to stand next to and unlock manually. While it's still locked.

* In the original version of ''VideoGame/SpaceQuestITheSarienEncounter'', you have to escape the Arcadia before it explodes. Yet you are not told ANYTHING about this other than "the Arcadia was boarded by unknown assailants". You can go to the main bridge, which is actually not too far away from the starting point, and read the console, which says the ship set to self destruct and has a timer counting down...but you also don't have to enter the bridge at all to continue, and you could easily bypass it completely without realizing it was even an option, and the timer is pretty lenient. The VGA remake displays a clear timer.
* In ''VideoGame/SpaceQuestIIVohaulsRevenge'', there's a maze that is a non-cursor version of a pixel hunt. If you touch the (pixel thick) walls with your (pixel sized) foot, that's it. Boom, dead, game over. Back in the day of playing on 512k floppies, this maze represented one of the most tedious things in the world. The maze isn't difficult - you can see the whole thing from the outside the whole time - but navigating it is incredibly tedious and frustrating. And then, having achieved this herculean task... you have to do it all over again. Backwards.
* A number of arcade sequences in the ''Space Quest'' series are rather hair-pulling, even by adventure game standards:
** The Zero-Gravity Skating sequence in ''VideoGame/SpaceQuestIVRogerWilcoAndTheTimeRippers''. Even on a system slow enough to work at the right speed, it's still damn near impossible since there's really no actual strategy beyond [[LuckBasedMission meandering about and hoping you don't get hit]]. Even twenty years later developer Mark Crowe [[OldShame refers to this as his greatest failure in that game]], expressing regret in an interview over how unfair they made the segment and how it prevented a lot of people from finishing the game.
** Rescuing Cliffy in ''VideoGame/SpaceQuestVTheNextMutation'' is really a LuckBasedMission, but the odds of your fuel running out are really, ''really'' against you.
** Astro-Chicken in ''VideoGame/SpaceQuestIIIThePiratesOfPestulon''. Sure, it's not required to beat the game, but anybody who cares about the plot enough wouldn't allow themselves to search for the Two Guys without playing it first. Otherwise, why are you even going to Pestulon in the first place?

* The microscope puzzle in ''VideoGame/TheSeventhGuest''. Probably 90% of the people who will tell you that they didn't have to skip this puzzle with the hint book are filthy liars. [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard And for good reason]]. As an unfortunate side note, the AI isn't random in the least--if you do the exact same movements every time, [[ArtificialStupidity the computer will do the same moves every time]], depending on your PC specifications. Even attempting to mimic a Website/YouTube solution video will cause you to lose if your PC is faster or slower. (Fortunately, most people that play DOS-Era games today do so with UsefulNotes/DOSBox, which allows you to specify a CPU speed. How people did it on the old machines is probably a bigger guide-dang-it than the puzzle itself.)

* ''VideoGame/TorinsPassage'' has the Slippery Slope: a steep slope with few viable handholds, which are totally invisible and only detectable when you mouse over it and the talking grass gives an affirmative. A variant of the PixelHunt.

* ''[[VideoGame/ChzoMythos 7 Days a Skeptic]]'' is particularly painful when the player is being chased about the space station and dies if the enemy gets within a few pixels of him (in a small windowed game). While the chasing is not ''too'' bad if you play things safe, the worst parts are the puzzles to defeat said assailant, usually involving doing things that are much more elaborate than would realistically be necessary. If that's not bad enough: during the chase, your assailant can pop out of any door in the ship. Including a ''locked door''. A locked door that you have to stand next to and unlock manually. While it's still locked.

* The parlor in ''VideoGame/DreamChronicles'', where you have to find seven pictures, some of which are ridiculously well-hidden. Then you have to put each of them in the correct spot on the wall, causing the piano to play a melody of varying length, during which you can't do anything. THEN you have to click on each picture and play back the melody on the piano. Oh, and did we mention that after you successfully play back the melody, it plays it back AGAIN and you can't do anything?
* ''VideoGame/YumeNikki'':
** The "Hell" maze. Not only does it glow red, giving it a very unsettling look and feel, it's also the largest area in the game, is extremely difficult to navigate, and there's a [[DemonicSpiders toriningen]] or two to avoid. But navigation of it is necessary to obtain a few effects.
** The teleport maze. Without a map, you ''will'' get lost.
* The stone room puzzle in ''VideoGame/{{Riven}}'' is one of the hardest puzzles in the game. You have to deduce the order in which to choose five symbols, from about thirty in total. This is accomplished by [[spoiler: 1. learning the D'ni numbers in the school; 2. noticing the five wooden spheres on the island with the village, one of which isn't reachable in its proper location and can only be found in a completely unrelated place; 3a. notice the sound they make (one of them doesn't make a sound, however) and find the relevant animals or 3b. notice that when observed from a certain angle, they form the "eye" in the symbol you're looking for (one of them doesn't have this, though). Although most players will get the sound-based clues, the shapes are hard to notice, so if you didn't, good luck solving the one that doesn't make a sound--especially since that's the one you can't reach, so its shape can only be observed through a telescope viewer in yet another unrelated location. And you can't really see the sphere through the telescope either.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Myst}}''[='s=] Selenitic Age deserves a special mention. First off, just to get there, you have to solve a tone-matching puzzle. Basically, one of Atrus's journals in the library shows a sequence of notes to be played on piano. You have to play these notes and adjust sliding switches in a ship so they match each note. The problem is that it not only takes an extreme level of precision, but this is nearly UnwinnableByMistake if you are tone deaf. And if you have any switch just a pixel off, you don't know which one you got wrong. So, is this all worth it just to see the plot unravel more? Heck no. The Selenitic Age is the most lifeless looking age in the game, and it's the only one where [[spoiler:Sirrus and Achenar have no rooms for you to learn more about them.]] Also, everything looks the same, making it very easy to get disoriented with the wonky movement control (alleviated if you're playing ''[=realMYST=]''). The one puzzle to solve here is at least an interesting one, but that all goes downhill when you need to exit this age. You have to pilot a subway car through a tedious underground maze puzzle, which has needlessly long transition scenes and takes nearly ten minutes to do even if you know how it works. Oh, and since it's required to leave the age, you have to do the maze ''twice'' to pick up both pages. Luckily the tone matching puzzle only has to be done once, but still.
* ''VideoGame/MystIIIExile'' has the Age of Edanna. Puzzles that offer only the slightest connection to [[MoonLogicPuzzle sanity]], [[ArtisticLicenseBiology biology]], or [[FollowThePlottedLine each other]], paths that in the worst of cases are [[PixelHunt indistinguishable from the walls that surround them]], and a conclusion that is more terrifying than exhilarating. Also, [[CrueltyIsTheOnlyOption cruelty to animals]] is never a plus.
* Late in the duration of ''VideoGame/EscapeFromMonkeyIsland'', there is a puzzle based around rolling rocks down a series of tunnels to make them eventually end up in a specific spot on the eponymous island. The tunnels themselves are ScoobyDoobyDoors, which means a lot of tedious trial and error is required to figure out where the rocks end up based on which tunnel you roll them down. On top of that, in order to get the rocks down the tunnel path you want them to go, you need to roll additional rocks down the other tunnels so they will collide and bounce off each other, which requires very precise timing. You're given very brief cues when to toss another rock so it's timed to bounce off another one, but if you haven't figured out which tunnel leads where, it won't help you at all.
** The only saving grace in this puzzle is that you have unlimited rocks in which to solve it.
* In ''VideoGame/IndianaJonesAndTheFateOfAtlantis'', you have to navigate the submarine and enter a cave. Sounds easy? Think again. In order to properly align the sub in the cave, you have to navigate in ''3D'' while your view of the screen remains in ''2D''.
* ''VideoGame/StrongBadsCoolGameForAttractivePeople'' has a few toughies. The Maps and Minions minigame at the end of ''Strong Badia the Free'' can be tough, even if you figure out [[spoiler: you can hide the King of Town in the Poopsmith's "fog of war", Homestar tends to prioritize going after Coach Z, and Strong Sad and Strong Mad can be neutralized with Homsar and The Cheat respectively]]. The final puzzle of ''Baddest of the Bands'', where you have to mess around with both the stage fixtures and Strong Bad's band-mates in order to reveal Strong Bad's much-vaunted "ultimate stage prop", is also annoyingly obscure at times.
* In ''[[VideoGame/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice Sam and Max Hit the Road]]'', there's a magnifying glass hidden very well in one of the tents at the carnival. In fact, it's hidden so well that you will mistake it as part of the background. Then when you have all of the equipment to modify the binoculars at the World's Largest Ball of Twine ''except'' for the magnifying glass, and try everything in your inventory, you will no doubt rage.
* ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead Episode 2'': Near the end, when [[spoiler: Brenda is holding Katjaa hostage,]] you have to advance on her very slowly and stop immediately when she points her gun at you, then talk to her. However, you must stop on a dime when she does, or she shoots you on the spot. And you have to do this ''three times''.
%%* Anyone who has ever played ''VideoGame/AmnesiaTheDarkDescent'' remembers and utterly loathes the Cellar Archives (also known as [[FanNickname the Water Part]]). Not because it's a particularly difficult puzzle compared to others in the game (though it's certainly not easy), but because it's INSANELY, PANTS-CRAPPINGLY TERRIFYING. In a game known for possibly being the most terrifying ever made, this section is the one most often singled out for being the scariest part. [just being scary doesn't count]
%% ** Ditto for the Storage and Prison, both of which are dark and have monsters spawning around to chase you around the mazelike area. Some people gave up on one of these parts because they just couldn't bring themselves to carry on.
%% ** Ditto for the Dungeon level in the free expansion pack, ''Justine'', which also happens to be filled with water. This part is often regarded as one of the ''scariest'' chase sequences in the entire game, since you have to rush through the item puzzles as fast as possible to get away from the monster behind you while (possibly) trying to save a helpless prisoner near the end (all while said monster is only seconds away from breaking down the doors you've shut to slow him down). Additionally, since ''Justine'' has no save points whatsoever, if you die here you have to restart all the way from the beginning!
* ''VideoGame/IndianaJonesAndHisDesktopAdventures'': Any location where you have to find your way through dense trees, with no indication whatsoever which tiles are pass-through and which are not. It's dull, unfun, and tends to take a lot of time.

** The Zero-Gravity Skating sequence in ''VideoGame/SpaceQuestIVRogerWilcoAndTheTimeRippers''. Even on a system slow enough to work at the right speed, it's still damn near impossible.

* Naturally, Creator/{{Sierra}} games are full of these:
** In the original version of ''VideoGame/SpaceQuestITheSarienEncounter'', you have to escape the Arcadia before it explodes. Yet you are not told ANYTHING about this other than "the Arcadia was boarded by unknown assailants".
*** Actually the game leaves it up to you to find this out. You can go to the main bridge, which is actually not too far away from the starting point, and read the console. It will say the ship is set to self destruct and has a time counting down. But you also don't have to enter the bridge at all to continue and you could easily bypass it completely without realizing it was even an option, and the timer is pretty lenient. The VGA remake displays a clear timer.
** In ''VideoGame/SpaceQuestIIVohaulsRevenge'', there was a maze that was a non-cursor version of a pixel hunt. If you touched the (pixel thick) walls with your (pixel sized) foot, that's it. Boom, dead, game over. Back in the day of playing on 512k floppies, this maze represented one of the most tedious things in the world. The maze isn't difficult - you can see the whole thing from the outside the whole time - but navigating it is incredibly tedious and frustrating. And then, having achieved this herculean task... you have to do it all over again. Backwards.
*** And for those of you who actually have feelings for Roger, the death described by the game during that area is probably the worst death possible for Roger (And given the myriad of deaths he could have, that is saying a lot.)
** And speaking of ''Space Quest'', a number of arcade sequences in the series are rather hair-pulling, even by adventure game standards:
*** The Zero-Gravity Skating sequence in ''VideoGame/SpaceQuestIVRogerWilcoAndTheTimeRippers''... even on a system slow enough to work at the right speed, it's still damn near impossible.
*** Rescuing Cliffy in ''VideoGame/SpaceQuestVTheNextMutation''... really a LuckBasedMission, but the odds of your fuel running out are really ''really'' against you.
*** Curse you, Astro-Chicken. You are the one thing standing in the way of ''VideoGame/SpaceQuestIIIThePiratesOfPestulon'' being the best of the series. Sure, it's not required to beat the game, but anybody who cares about the plot enough wouldn't allow themselves to search for the Two Guys without playing it first. Otherwise, why are you even going to Pestulon in the first place?
** The stupid cliff climbing section in VideoGame/KingsQuestIII -- you have to inch Gwydion down a cliff with no indication as to which pixels are the very, very small minority which will not send you plummeting to your death.
** Climbing the whale's tongue in VideoGame/KingsQuestIV. Need I say more?
*** A little-known feature [[GuideDangIt lets you walk diagonally by pushing Page Up or Home]]. Still pretty difficult, though.
** The Troll Cave in ''VideoGame/KingsQuestIV''. You have to navigate a series of screens [[LuckBasedMission with a troll that may or not show up to eat you]]. There's also [[BottomlessPits a crevice you have to watch out for]]. Oh and you have to cross the cave in the dark with only a lantern with poor light radius. Did we mention you need to navigate the cave twice?
*** Want to go up or down stairs in upper levels of the BigBad's castle? The stairs are on the near wall, so you can't see how the steps curve or how wide they are, and if you fall off, it's game over. Have fun!
** The desert in ''VideoGame/KingsQuestV''. Finding the oases and the bandit camp (and a certain item that you need to complete the game lest it become {{Unwinnable}}) is trial-and-error, unless you have a [[GuideDangIt map]]. And even after getting past that one, there's the catacombs of Mordack's dungeon late in the game, with a ''very'' confusing map system.
*** Let's not forget the infamous mountains of [=KQ5=], where [[EdgeGravity King Graham will gladly walk to his death at any and all available ledges]], [[HumanPopsicle he'll freeze to death instantly if he forgets his cloak]], [[FakeDifficulty you can screw yourself over if you eat the wrong food item or feed the wrong thing to an eagle]], and of course, [[StupidityIsTheOnlyOption you end up defeating a Yeti with a custard pie]]. Actually, pretty much the whole game is ThatOneLevel when you stop and think about it...
** VideoGame/KingsQuestVI has the Labyrinth, which comes close to V's desert in sheer frustration. The maze is littered with instant-kill dead ends, has an infuriatingly annoying tile puzzle, and getting to the second floor requires you to [[StupidityIsTheOnlyOption do something that got you killed every other time you tried it.]] Most of this was done for the sake of CopyProtection (the manual had solutions for the tile puzzle, for example)...but then there are a couple of items you need to get, or you're locked out of the [[MultipleEndings good ending]], [[UnwinnableByDesign and if you enter without the right items, you can't leave to go get them.]] Fortunately, you're offered the option to return and search the place again, this time having an easier exit. Also it didn't have the perspective skew [=KQ5=] did.
*** The Catacombs in [=KQ6=] aren't nearly as bad as anything in [=KQ5=]. Although the falling thing is cruel, an observant player will notice that the floor disappeared where in the instant-death chambers it's gone from the start. Getting stuck because of a missing item is annoying, but because the catacombs are self-contained you don't have to go back too far (unlike in [=KQ2=] where you can end up having to replay half the game if you crossed the bridge once too often). And unlike with the [=KQ5=] Yeti custard pie example, you can actually figure out what you're missing ([[spoiler: if you get stuck in the dark, obviously you need the tinderbox from the pawn shop; and although the brick and the red scarf are slightly less obvious, you can make the connection once you find those items if you've been in the catacombs before]]).
* The microscope puzzle in ''VideoGame/TheSeventhGuest''. Probably 90% of the people who will tell you that they didn't have to skip this puzzle with the hint book are filthy liars. [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard And for good reason]].
** Unfortunately, the AI isn't random in the least--if you do the exact same movements every time, [[ArtificialStupidity the computer will do the same moves every time]], depending on your PC specifications. Even attempting to mimic a Website/YouTube solution video will cause you to lose if your PC is faster or slower.
*** Fortunately, most people that play DOS-Era games today do so with UsefulNotes/DOSBox, which allows you to specify a CPU speed. How people did it on the old machines is probably a bigger guide-dang-it than the puzzle itself.
* Any of the bike fights in ''Videogame/FullThrottle''. They weren't well programmed to begin with, but they're actually unwinnable using [=ScummVM=] if you don't just cheat and use the instant win code.
** Made worse by the fact that the instant win code, in DOS, had this knack for NOT WORKING PROPERLY and screwing you out of an item. oh, and there's only 3 of one specific type of enemy which holds an item required to progress, and if you used the cheat, you'd not only [[PermanentlyMissableContent fail to get the item]] but [[{{Unwinnable}} be unable to cross a destroyed bridge]].
** Also the segment where you have to kick the wall to sneak into the Corley Motors factory. There is literally no indication of where to kick beyond an extremely vague clue that the kicking spot would have been short enough to be reached by a child. So, good luck pixel hunting!
*** HINT: You don't have to wait until the meters go black to test the spot. The spot will make a different sound when kicking it even if the meters aren't black.
* ''VideoGame/TorinsPassage'' had the Slippery Slope: a steep slope with few viable handholds, which were totally invisible and only detectable when you moused over it and the talking grass gave an affirmative. A variant of the PixelHunt.
* ''VideoGame/RunawayARoadAdventure''. Chapter One, Scene One. "Hmm, I should write over this board so that the killer after Gina mistakes her for someone else and leaves. Hey, I have a marker, but it's dry ! Hey, I have some alcohol ! But I'd need something pointy to refill it... a pointy container... in a hospital..." Well, good luck finding the 2-pixel-wide zone holding the freaking syringe now. Perfectly logical and sensible puzzle killed by PixelHunt again.
* ''[[VideoGame/ChzoMythos 7 Days a Skeptic]]'' was particularly painful when the player was being chased about the space station and died if the enemy got within a few pixels of him (in a small windowed game). While the chasing was not TOO bad if you played things safe, the worst parts were the puzzles to defeat said assailant, usually involving doing things that were much more elaborate than would realistically be necessary.
** Oh, come on; during the chase he can pop out of any door in the ship. Including a ''locked door''. A locked door that you had to stand next to and unlock manually. While it was still locked.
* ''VideoGame/ZackAndWikiQuestForBarbarosTreasure'': Barbosa's Island starts by making you pull a trap door that will kill you unless you grab a grate in a split-second (after getting the pointer on screen which was hidden during the previous sequence of course), and goes downhill from there. Especially frustrating is fighting the skeletons with a sword, and the controls are ''terrible''. And the level ends with [[spoiler: a minigame where you need to pull a rope just before Barbaros reaches you ... and yes, failing this minigame does count as death]].
** There's also the Frost Breath level, which is a very frustrating mirror puzzle where three incorrect fires of the cannon result in losing a life, or the Dragon Scales level, a long and intricate level with a lot of steps that requires a LOT of forethought or else the player renders the level {{Unwinnable}}. To complete it, you must [[spoiler: climb into the dragon statue at the start, pull the lever inside the head twice, (once to drop the bridge into place, the second to move the statue's claw into place,) cross the bridge and remove the claw from the dragon statue, put it into the flamethrower statue at the centre, use it to kill the two spiders on the other side, turn the sleeping pirate and one of the aforementioned spiders into a totem and tennis racket respectively, stand on a certain podium, use the tennis racket to hit one of the statue's fireballs back to hit a third spider, (a challenge in itself, and you lose points for every miss,) and turn another sleeping pirate into a second totem, before rolling one of these totems and the bridge down a ramp to form a see-saw at the bottom, put the other totem on the see-saw and jump on the other end to throw it across. Take a spider-racket, set the fire statue to push a nearby boulder onto one end of your see-saw while you go on the other end, then plug the nearby lava-drain thing with the totem when you're flung over, hop on the other podium, hit a fireball across with your racket to free the treasure chest and have it land on the see-saw, dislodge a second boulder to have the chest flung to you.]] Sound difficult and intricate already? Well, if you are to mistime just ''one'' step here, you will be unable to finish the stage. ...Yeah.

* ''VideoGame/YumeNikki'' has the "Hell" maze. Not only does it glow red, giving it a very unsettling look and feel, it's also the largest area in the game, is extremely difficult to navigate, and there's a [[DemonicSpiders toriningen]] or two to avoid. But navigation of it is necessary to obtain a few effects.

* The stone room puzzle in ''Riven'' is one of the hardest puzzles in the game. You have to deduce the order in which to choose five symbols (from about thirty in total). This is accomplished by [[spoiler: 1. learning the D'ni numbers in the school; 2. noticing the five wooden spheres on the island with the village (note: one isn't reachable in its proper location and can only be found in a completely unrelated place); 3a. notice the sound they make (one of them doesn't make a sound however) and find the relevant animals or 3b. notice that when observed from a certain angle, they form the "eye" in the symbol you're looking for (one of them doesn't have this, though). Although most players will get the sound-based clues, the shapes are hard to notice so if you didn't, tough luck solving the one that doesn't make a sound, especially since that's the one you can't reach so its shape can only be observed through a telescope viewer in yet another unrelated location (and you can't really see the sphere through the telescope either).]]
** The Selentic Age from the first game deserves a special mention. First off, just to get there, you have to solve a tone matching puzzle. Basically, one of Atrus's journals in the library shows a sequence of notes to be played on piano. You have to play these notes and adjust sliding switches in a ship so they match each note. The problem is that it not only takes an extreme level of precision, but this is nearly UnwinnableByMistake if you are tone deaf. And if you have any switch just a pixel off, you don't know which one you got wrong. So, is this all worth it just to see the plot unravel more? Heck no. The Selentic Age is the most lifeless looking age in the game, and it's the only one where [[spoiler:Sirrus and Achenar have no rooms for you to learn more about them.]] Also, everything looks the same, making it very easy to get disoriented with the wonky movement control (though this is alleviated if you are play the full 3D remake). The one puzzle to solve here is at least an interesting one, but that all goes downhill when you need to exit this age. You have to pilot a subway through a tedious underground maze puzzle, which has needlessly long transition scenes and takes nearly ten minutes to do even if you know how it works. Oh, and since it's required to leave the age, you have to do the maze TWICE to pick up both pages. Luckily the tone matching puzzle only has to be done once, but still.
** Also worth mentioning: the Age of Edanna from the third game, ''Exile''. Puzzles that offer only the slightest connection to [[MoonLogicPuzzle sanity]], [[ArtisticLicenseBiology biology]], or [[FollowThePlottedLine each other]], paths that in the worst of cases are [[PixelHunt indistinguishable from the walls that surround them]], and a conclusion that is more terrifying than exhilarating. Also, [[CrueltyIsTheOnlyOption cruelty to animals]] is never a plus.
* Late in the duration of ''VideoGame/EscapeFromMonkeyIsland'' there is a puzzle based around rolling rocks down a series of tunnels to make them eventually end up in a specific spot on the titular island. The tunnels themselves are ScoobyDoobyDoors, which means a lot of tedious trial and error is required to figure out where the rocks end up based on which tunnel you roll them down. On top of that, in order to get the rocks down the tunnel path you want them to go you need to roll additional rocks down the other tunnels so they will collide and bounce off each other, which requires very precise timing. You're given very brief cues when to toss another rock (So it's timed to bounce off another one) but if you haven't figured out which tunnel leads where it won't help you at all.
* In ''VideoGame/IndianaJonesAndTheFateOfAtlantis'', you have to navigate the submarine and enter a cave. Sounds easy? Think again. In order to properly align the sub in the cave, you have to navigate in ''3D'' while your view of the screen remain in ''2D''.
* ''VideoGame/StrongBadsCoolGameForAttractivePeople'' has a few toughies. The Maps and Minions minigame at the end of ''Strong Badia the Free'' can be tough even if you figure out [[spoiler: you can hide the King of Town in the Poopsmith's "fog of war", Homestar tends to prioritize going after Coach Z, and Strong Sad and Strong Mad can be neutralized with Homsar and The Cheat respectively]]. The final puzzle of ''Baddest of the Bands'', where you have to mess around with both the stage fixtures and Strong Bad's band-mates in order to reveal Strong Bad's much-vaunted "ultimate stage prop", is also annoyingly obscure at times.
* In ''[[VideoGame/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice Sam and Max Hit the Road]]'', there's a magnifying glass hidden very well in one of the tents at the carnival, it's hidden so well that you will mistake it as part of the background. Then when you have all of the equipment to modify the binoculars at the World's Largest Ball of Twine ''except'' for the magnifying glass, and try everything in your inventory, you will no doubt rage.
* ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead'': Episode 2 has one. Near the end, when [[spoiler: Brenda is holding Katjaa hostage,]] you have to advance on her very slowly and stop immediately when she points her gun at you, then talk to her. However, you must stop on a dime when she does, or she shoots you on the spot. And you have to do this THREE TIMES.
* Anyone who has ever played ''VideoGame/AmnesiaTheDarkDescent'' remembers and utterly loathes the Cellar Archives (also known as [[FanNickname the Water Part]]). Not because it's a particularly difficult puzzle compared to others in the game (though it's certainly not easy), but because it's INSANELY, PANTS-CRAPPINGLY TERRIFYING. In a game known for possibly being the most terrifying ever made, this section is the one most often singled out for being the scariest part.
** Ditto for the Storage and Prison, both of which are dark and have monsters spawning around to chase you around the mazelike area. Some people gave up on one of these parts because they just couldn't bring themselves to carry on.
** Ditto for the Dungeon level in the free expansion pack, ''Justine'', which also happens to be filled with water. This part is often regarded as one of the ''scariest'' chase sequences in the entire game, since you have to rush through the item puzzles as fast as possible to get away from the monster behind you while (possibly) trying to save a helpless prisoner near the end (all while said monster is only seconds away from breaking down the doors you've shut to slow him down). Additionally, since ''Justine'' has no save points whatsoever, if you die here you have to restart all the way from the beginning!

** The Troll Cave in ''VideoGame/KingsQuestIV''. You have to navigate a series of screens [[LuckBasedMission with a troll that may or not show up to eat you]]. There's also [[BottomlessPits a crevice you have to watch out for]]. Oh and you have to cross the cave in the dark with only a lantern with poor light radius. Did I mention you need to navigate the cave twice?

** There's also the Frost Breath level, which is a very frustrating mirror puzzle where three incorrect fires of the cannon result in losing a life, or the Dragon Scales level, a long and intricate level with a lot of steps that requires a LOT of forethought or else the player renders the level {{Unwinnable}}.
*** Meh, I didn't really mind Frost Breath. However I feel Dragon Scales needs to be expanded on. What you said doesn't even begin to describe how easy it is to make it {{unwinnable}}. To complete it, you must [[spoiler: climb into the dragon statue at the start, pull the lever inside the head twice, (once to drop the bridge into place, the second to move the statue's claw into place,) cross the bridge and remove the claw from the dragon statue, put it into the flamethrower statue at the centre, use it to kill the two spiders on the other side, turn the sleeping pirate and one of the aforementioned spiders into a totem and tennis racket respectively, stand on a certain podium, use the tennis racket to hit one of the statue's fireballs back to hit a third spider, (a challenge in itself, and you lose points for every miss,) and turn another sleeping piate into a second totem, before rolling one of these totems and the bridge down a ramp to form a see-saw at the bottom, put the other totem on the see-saw and jump on the other end to throw it across. Take a spider-racket, set the fire statue to push a nearby boulder onto one end of your see-saw while you go on the other end, then plug the nearby lava-drain thing with the totem when you're flung over, hop on the other podium, hit a fireball across with your racket to free the treasure chest and have it land on the see-saw, dislodge a second boulder to have the chest flung to you.]] Sound difficult and intricate already? Well, if you are to mistime just ''one'' step here, you will be unable to finish the stage. ...Yeah.
* The parlor in ''VideoGame/DreamChronicles'', where you have to find seven pictures, some of which are ridiculously well-hidden. Then you have to put each of them in the correct spot on the wall, causing the piano to play a melody of varying length, during which you can't do anything. THEN you have to click on each picture and play back the melody on the piano. Oh, and did I mention that after you successfully play back the melody, it plays it back AGAIN and you can't do anything?

* The stone room puzzle in ''Riven'' is one of the hardest puzzles in the game. You have to deduce the order in which to choose five symbols (from about thirty in total). This is accomplished by [[spoiler: 1. learning the D'ni numbers in the school; 2. noticing the five wooden spheres on the island with the village (note: one isn't reachable in its proper location and can only be found in a completely unrelated place); 3a. notice the sound they make (one of them doesn't make a sound however) and find the relevant animals or 3b. notice that when observed from a certain angle, they form the "eye" in the symbol you're looking for (one of them doesn't have this, though). Although most players will get the sound-based clues, the shapes are hard to notice so if you didn't, tough luck solving the one that doesn't make a sound, especially since that's the one you can't reach so its shape can only be observed through a telescope viewer in yet another unrelated location (and you can't really see the sphere through the telescope either). I've yet to hear of anyone who noticed that shape without hints; those who solved the puzzle without hints either just tried all symbols for the missing sphere, or reasoned that since the sphere was in the water, it should be a fish.]]

** In the original version of ''VideoGame/SpaceQuestITheSarienEncounter'', you have to escape the Arcadia before it explodes. Yet you are not explained ANYTHING about this other than "the Arcadia was boarded by unknown assailants".

** In ''VideoGame/SpaceQuestIIVohaulsRevenge'', there was a maze that was a non-cursor version of a pixel hunt. If you touched the (pixel thick) walls with your (pixel sized) foot, that's it. Boom, dead, game over. Back in the day of playing on 512k floppies, this maze represented one of the most tedious things in the world. The maze isn't difficult - you can see the whole thing from the outside the whole time - but navigating it is incredibly tedious and frustrating. And then, having achieved all this herculean task... you have to do it all over again. Backwards.

** The Troll Cave in ''VideoGame/KingsQuestIV''. You have to navigate a series of screens [[LuckBasedMission with a Troll that may or not show up to eat you]]. There's also [[BottomlessPits a crevice you have to watch out for]]. Oh and you have to cross the cave in the dark with only a lantern with poor light radius. Did I mentioned you need to navigate the cave twice?

** The desert in ''VideoGame/KingsQuestV''. Finding the oases and the bandit camp (and a certain item that you need to complete the game lest it becomes {{Unwinnable}}) is trial-and-error, unless you have a [[GuideDangIt map]]. And even after getting past that one, there's the catacombs of Mordack's dungeon late in the game, with a ''very'' confusing map system.

*** The Catacombs in [=KQ6=] aren't nearly as bad as anything in [=KQ5=]. Although the falling thing is cruel, an observant player will notice that the floor disappeared where in the instead-death chambers it's gone from the start. Getting stuck because of a missing item is annoying, but because the catacombs are self-contained you don't have to go back too far (unlike in [=KQ2=] where you can end up having to replay half the game if you crossed the bridge once too often). And unlike with the [=KQ5=] Yeti custard pie example, you can actually figure out what you're missing ([[spoiler: if you get stuck in the dark, obviously you need the tinderbox from the pawn shop; and although the brick and the red scarf are slightly less obvious, you can make the connection once you find those items if you've been in the catacombs before]]).
* Microscope Puzzle in ''VideoGame/TheSeventhGuest''. Probably 90% of the people who will tell you that they didn't have to skip this puzzle with the hint book are filthy liars. [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard And for good reason]].