History ThatOneLevel / Pokemon

* A [[UnlicensedGame SNES bootleg]] called ''VideoGame/PocketMonster'' (also titled "[[SpellMyNameWithAnS Picachu]]" in the box art) has the third stage, named "Jump Around". [[PortingDisaster Due to the bad programming compared to the Sega Genesis port]], it became UnintentionallyUnwinnable. It is composed of an [[BottomlessPits enormous hole]] that fills almost the entire stage and Pikachu needs to [[JustifiedTitle jump around]] small lifts to complete the stage (whose graphics and level sprites [[NewWorkRecycledGraphics were almost entirely ripped]] from a stage of the Genesis game ''VideoGame/{{Quackshot}}''). The problem? Many of those lifts sometimes simply disappear from the stage due to the [[ObviousBeta bad framerate of the sprites]] and the limitations of the console.

* Black Tower/White Treehollow. The first half is fine, but after Area 5, all the areas have multiple floors for you to search through to find the gate boss. And you can't use items from your bag (though your Pokémon can hold berries or herbs or battle items). There are nurses scattered about, but remembering where they are can be tricky. Also, by the end, everyone's using level 70 and above Pokémon, including the Legendary Bird trio. Since we all know TheComputerIsACheatingBastard, look out for their OHKO moves like Articuno's Sheer Cold. Thankfully though, it's open level and OlympusMons are allowed.

* ''Empoleon's Snow Slide'' in PokeParkWii, especially when you're trying to get all the bonuses by beating the required time limits. Your worst enemy isn't another Pokémon, but rather the ''wall''. That's right, walls are your worst enemy in this minigame. They slow you down, you will ''always'' hit them when you make a turn (Yes, even if you slow yourself down deliberately beforehand), and they are ''everywhere''. It's especially bad when you're using a particularly fast Pokémon such as Empoleon or Glaceon, who seem to be magnetically attracted to hit every single wall in existence.

** Blaziken's stage EX12 is also really hard. Blaziken has a really small time limit to beat it of only 30 seconds, and Blaziken really spams disruptions. You have to be lucky with combos and even then you will probably beat it with very little time to spare making catching it even harder.

* The muddy terrain around Pastoria and inside the Great Marsh. There's a good chance of getting stuck when walking into a marsh tile, in which case the player must press different directional buttons repeatedly to become unstuck. This has to be done at practically ''every single step''. As if that wasn't excruciatingly slow enough, each of those little wiggles to free oneself can result in a wild Pokémon encounter. And ''even worse'' is that, while ''Platinum'' took mercy on players by making the deep parts of the bog slightly darker, the were completely indistinguishable in ''Diamond'' and ''Pearl'', so players just had to blindly guess their way through the areas.

[[folder:Gen IV]]

* The muddy terrain around Pastoria and inside the Great Marsh. There's a good chance of getting stuck when walking into a marsh tile, in which case the player must press different directional buttons repeatedly to become unstuck. This has to be done at practically ''every single step''. As if that wasn't excruciatingly slow enough, each of those little wiggles to free oneself can result in a wild Pokémon encounter.

* Candice's Gym is just ridiculous. It's a big icy pit where you have to slide down towards the center while building up enough momentum to smash through the snowballs at the bottom. But there are trainers, snow patches, and stairs positioned just right to prevent you from just, y'know, ''sliding down normally''; instead you have to circle around the gym finding the most obtuse paths possible to get enough momentum. It's not unknown for first-time players to spend up to an ''hour'' solving this puzzle.

* The northern parts of Route 210 (and part of Mt. Coronet) that feature fog. Fog lowers the accuracy of every pokemon on the field, causing every battle to be extended by a good few minutes while you wait for your pokemon to actually land an attack. Add to this the fact that Defog is just about the most useless HM ever [[note]]This changes in the competitive scene in Generation VI after it stops being a Hidden Machine, as it was modified to disable entry hazards like Stealth Rock and Spikes on both sides of the field.[[/note]] (and only Pokémon with wings can learn it, preventing you from giving it to common HM slaves like Bibarel).

* The northern parts of Route 210 (and part of Mt. Coronet) that feature fog. Fog lowers your accuracy, making your Pokémon miss ''nearly every single time'' but has almost no effect on your opponent. Add to this the fact that Defog is just about the most useless HM ever [[note]]This changes in the competitive scene in Generation VI after it stops being a Hidden Machine, as it was modified to disable entry hazards like Stealth Rock and Spikes on both sides of the field.[[/note]] (and only Pokémon with wings can learn it, preventing you from giving it to common HM slaves like Bibarel).

* In ''[[VideoGame/PokemonStadium Pokémon Battle Revolution]]'', Sunset Colosseum. During the actual game, it's a rental matchup, with you and your opponent choosing four Pokémon from a pool of 12. It's hard to predict your opponent's choices and you may not always have the moves to beat them. The Colosseum boss usually uses Vigoroth, with Body Slam and Brick Break, and Gible with Dragon Rush. Then there's his Grovyle with Leaf Blade. And if you choose Gible, look out for Luxio with Ice Fang. Then, once you beat the game, this level turns into a several set survival challenge without a guarantee of healing at the end like usual. You spin a wheel that tells you if you'll get PP restored, HP restored, items restored,ect.

* [[spoiler:The Great Glacier (first visit)]] in ''Gates to Infinity''. It's especially brutal for being right in the mid-game. First off, it's got ''[[MarathonLevel 14]]'' floors. Second, some floors have Hail active, which not only disables passive healing but does slight but steady damage over time, and nobody you have is immune to it. Third, you're stuck with a limited selection of party members, one of which [[TheLoad isn't very strong]] (and newly-recruited members are sent right off to Paradise, so no additional team building). Fourth, if the hail wasn't bad enough, the place is infested with Yamask and Trubbish, which will burn and poison your team, sapping their health even more (and poison disables passive healing even on the floors without Hail). Trubbish is especially bad, as it's got lots of health and it can prevent you from attacking if you hit it. And finally, it's right after a 10-floor dungeon [[spoiler:(Telluric Path)]] filled with more annoying enemies. To make things worse, you can't leave the dungeon at any time. You better pray you find a Pure Seed (which warps you to the stairs) for those Hail floors...

[[folder: Gen VII]]

* The Giratina post game battle in ‘’VideoGame/PokemonLegendsArceus''. You first battle [[spoiler:Volo]] with a full team in the 60s. Not too bad by then. But then you face level 70 Giratina twice, once in Altered Forme and then Origin Form. All without healing. And Origin Form is stronger buff-wise than Altered Form.

* The Giratina post game battle in ‘’VideoGame/PokemonLegendsArceus''. You first battle [[Spoiler:Volo]] with a full team in the 60s. Not too bad by then. But then you face level 70 Giratina twice, once in Altered Forme and then Origin Form. All without healing. And Origin Form is stronger buff-wise than Altered Form.

* The Pokémon Mansion. A huge [[SurpriseDifficulty jump in wild Pokémon levels]], a storm of GoddamnedBats, and [[DemonicSpiders Raticate and Weezing or Muk await to make your life hell.]] [[YouWillNotEvadeMe Raticate's high speed will deny your escape]] and, despite their low defenses, they WILL ZergRush you, [[TakingYouWithMe whereas Weezing will constantly Selfdestruct]], likely taking away a large chunk of your party's health. [[StoneWall And Muk...good luck killing it]] if you don't have a [[GameBreaker high-leveled Psychic-type that knows Psybeam and/or Psychic.]] Even worse, the level [[RidiculouslyDifficultRoute is a FREAKIN' MAZE]] and is required to reach the Sevii Islands in the remakes.

* Johto Route 40-41. Most likely, it's the first time you'll be sailing/surfing on your Pokémon, as Cianwood City Gym would be your next gym after Ecruteak. On your way, you'll be facing Tentacools and Tentacruels, whose moves are likely to poison your Pokémon, requiring lots of antidotes and/or potions to be manageable. Repels may not necessarily work either, as there are Tentacruels which can go up to level 29, which is rather high for this stage in the game. [[note]]For reference, all of the swimmers' trainer battles on the way are mostly around 18-23. Eusine's Pokémon in the Cianwood City event battle is around 25 at the most. Chuck's Pokémon for the gym battle are 27-31.[[/note]] And this is in addition to any trainer battles you make along the way. At least, once you beat Chuck, you'll now have the option to fly straight back to Olivine City.
* Whirl Islands, for those who are trying to find and capture Lugia. If going in without a map or prior knowledge will likely get lost in the maze-like structure. It doesn't help that the islands have multiple entrances and only one of them takes you to Lugia.

* The northern parts of Route 210 (and part of Mt. Coronet) that features fog. Fog lowers your accuracy, making your Pokémon miss ''nearly every single time'' but has almost no effect on your opponent. Add to this the fact that Defog is just about the most useless HM ever [[note]]This changes in the competitive scene in Generation VI after it stops being a Hidden Machine, as it was modified to disable entry hazards like Stealth Rock and Spikes on both sides of the field.[[/note]] (and only Pokémon with wings can learn it, preventing you from giving it to common HM slaves like Bibarel).

* Routes 216 and 217, especially 217. Lots of ice types, long distances, perpetual hail, the necessity of pushing through Mt Coronet to even get there, and in the case of 217, a straightforward blizzard that makes it virtually impossible to see what you're doing or where you're going beyond "Snowpoint is ''up''". Then, just for giggles, remember that the first two games in this series had ''only one Fire type'' that could be caught in the wild prior to completing the main game.

* The higher ranks of the Colosseum games, (Rank 8, Level 50), where everyone uses [[OlympusMons legendaries.]]

* A [[UnlicensedGame SNES bootleg]] called ''VideoGame/PocketMonster'' (also titled "[[SpellMyNameWithAnS Picachu]]" in the box art) has the third stage, named "Jump Around". [[PortingDisaster Due to the bad programming compared to the Sega Genesis port]], it became UnwinnableByMistake. It is composed of an [[BottomlessPits enormous hole]] that fills almost the entire stage and Pikachu needs to [[JustifiedTitle jump around]] small lifts to complete the stage (whose graphics and level sprites [[NewWorkRecycledGraphics were almost entirely ripped]] from a stage of the Genesis game ''VideoGame/{{Quackshot}}''). The problem? Many of those lifts sometimes simply disappear from the stage due to the [[ObviousBeta bad framerate of the sprites]] and the limitations of the console.

* Silph Co., an enormous, 11-floor skyscraper with a maze-like layout, confusing teleporters, half the dungeon hidden behind locked doors, and no hint as to the location of the Card Key and the teleporter leading to Giovanni. Absolute hell for a first-time player.

* The scrappy level for Red/Blue Rescue Team would be Purity Forest, Celebi's domain. It's 99 floors long, you can only bring one Pokémon, said Pokémon is reduced to level 1, and all of your money and [[BagOfSharing toolbox]] contents are destroyed. You're pretty much at the random generator's mercy here. At least you don't have to ''fight'' Celebi at the end.

* Route 111's desert may not be ''difficult'', but it sure is frustrating. There's a permanent sandstorm, causing non-Rock, Ground, or Steel-type Pokémon to take chip damage every turn. Most of the Pokémon (wild and trained) have accuracy lowering moves, including Sandshrew and Sandslash, who have high Defense and ''also'' come with Sand Veil to make hitting them even more difficult. Additionally, if you encounter a wild Trapinch, it has a 50% chance of having the Arena Trap ability, meaning you're unable to run away and ''forced'' to make it faint.

* The route (and part of Mt. Coronet) that features fog. Fog lowers your accuracy, making your Pokémon miss ''nearly every single time'' but has almost no effect on your opponent. Add to this the fact that Defog is just about the most useless HM ever [[note]]This changes in the competitive scene in Generation VI after it stops being a Hidden Machine, as it was modified to disable entry hazards like Stealth Rock and Spikes on both sides of the field.[[/note]] (and only Pokémon with wings can learn it, preventing you from giving it to common HM slaves like Bibarel).

* Route 13 is this in SPADES. On the plus side, there are no random encounters. However, they're replaced by digging Pokémon that move in erratic fashions,follow you relentlessly and are immune to repels. Combine that with an easterly wind that slows you down to a crawl (regardless if you walk, run, or use the Roller Skates or Bicycle), and those diggers are nigh unavoidable. And for navigation...well, it's not bad if you're just traveling between Coumarine City and Lumiose City. But have fun finding the Kalos Power Plant, and may Arceus help you if you're brave (or foolish) enough to go hunting for items. And that's not all — it's the only place in the entire game where you can evolve Magneton and Nosepass, so if you want Magnezone and/or Probopass on your team or just want to complete your Pokédex, you'll HAVE to return. At least one player has wondered why the Kalos government hasn't just carpet-bombed the entire route. What doesn't make things any better is that the encounters are mostly Dugtrio and Trapinch, both of which sport the infamous Arena Trap ability. Better lead with a Ghost-type or a Flying-type when going through the route. Or catch a Pokémon that has the "Run Away" ability.

* Aegis Cave in ''[[VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon Pokémon Mystery Dungeon]] [[VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonExplorers Explorers of Time/Darkness]]''. It's not a hard dungeon-- there are ample oran berries and the Unown aren't that tough at all. But you have to find stones that Unown drop, of their own letter-shape, to spell out I-C-E, R-O-C-K, and S-T-E-E-L. Not every type appears, and even then, the stones are dropped maybe a quarter of the time. And you have to keep repeating a three-floor section until you get all the letters you need so you can go on and fight the appropriate Legendary Golem (who, thankfully, aren't that tough). And, you can't save in between, so you HAVE to do this all in one go. Fortunately, much of the annoyance can be simplified, thanks to an inherent quirk of the Legendary Golems. Simply put, bring a Fighting type.

** The Worldcore, in which you must play as your partner solo in the postgame in order to [[spoiler: get you to come back to the Pokémon World.]] It is basically every enemy similar to [[spoiler:Munna's gang]] in the dungeon. Whirlipede can and will eat your Reviver Seeds and Oran Berries with its Bug Bite. Munna (similar to the [[spoiler: Munna from the main storyline]]) can use Yawn and Psybeam on you to inflict Sleep and Confusion respectivley, and Salamence and Chandelure can seriously hit you hard in the face. And Arceus help you if your partner is a Grass type.

** Mega Gengar's stage is sheer madness and is very likely the first pay wall the player will hit unless he or she has jewels/a Complexity -1 on hand. Its board starts off absolutely littered with Eevee (which, thankfully, at least do some damage to it in this version, but still aren't effective at all), which makes starting combos almost impossible due to there being 5 different Pokémon (6 if you don't bring Haunter with you) on the board, but after 3 turns, it gets worse, with it sealing off movement between the middle 2 rows. Mega Gengar can potentially make supereffective matches against itself with Haunters, but its health pool is so ungodly massive that they're practically moot.
** Really, most Mega stages are notorious for being nerve-wrackingly frustrating and requiring either an optimized team setup or Item abuse.

* [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Mt._Mortar Mt. Mortar]] is the largest cave in the entire series. It's basically an enormous [[MalevolentArchitecture maze]], it's pitch-black inside, it has countless [[BlockPuzzle Strength puzzles]], and, to top it all off, it has the highest possible [[RandomEncounters Pokémon encounter rate]], so when you inevitably get lost you'll spend five times as long getting out as you would otherwise. What's especially annoying is the whole point of going into Mt. Mortar is to get a rare Pokémon, but if you have all six party spots full by the time you reach the end, you have to leave, ditch the extra Pokémon, then ''go through it again''. But the game doesn't tell you that until you actually get to the character who gives it to you. In fact, the game doesn't even tell you that you'll get a rare Pokémon by entering the mountain.

** One of the worst is the Kanto Leaders tournament. If you want to access all the other tournaments, you have to beat the first five regions' leaders, which turns them into brick walls. The worst part is that the Gen I (and the cross-generational evolutions of them) mons they use are ''strong.'' Lt. Surge's Electrode, Giovanni's Rhyperior, Misty's Starmie...they're all very nasty. And conveniently hold items that dampen your attacks or boost their one stat/move you were trying to use to get through them/don't want to be hit with. Unlike the other regions' Gym Leaders, their type specialties rarely share a common weakness, so your team would be more likely to be disadvantaged in either round. Yeesh.
** The less said about the Champions' Tournament...[[SNKBoss the better.]]

* Black Tower/White Treehollow. The first half is fine, but after Area 5, all the areas have multiple floors for you to search through to find the gate boss. And you can't use items from your bag (though your Pokémon can hold berries or herbs or battle items). There are nurses scattered about, but remembering where they are can be tricky. Also, by the end, everyone's using level 70 and above Pokémon, including the Legendary Bird trio. Since we all know TheComputerIsACheatingBastard, look out for their OHKO moves like Articuno's Sheer Cold.
** Thankfully though, it's open level and OlympusMons are allowed.
* Though most of the main game is light on these areas, Victory Road has one tricky area. The trainers there use Pokémon at Levels 54 and 55 (and on Challenge Mode, ''58 and 59''), which is higher than the levels Ghetsis and Colress had in the Plasma Frigate that you just harrowed through. And nearly all of them, especially Veterans and Ace Trainers, have very odd move sets on their Pokémon that often provide wide type coverage and can sneak up on you if you're not prepared for them. In addition, there are ''seven'' different areas that you can catch wild Pokémon in, and types including Ghost, Grass, Flying, Rock, Water, Fighting, Ground, Rock, and Dragon. And in the thick grass, they come out at Level 52-55, which tops at ''one level'' below what the Elite Four are packing. To put that in perspective, you could catch yourself at least half a team's worth and use that against the Elite Four. Finally, you have to fight your rival at the very end, and while he only has four Pokémon, they're four ''powerful'' Pokémon, especially his bulky new Bouffalant. This place may honestly be just as hard as the Elite Four and Champion themselves. The only mercy is that there's a Doctor not far in who will heal your Pokémon free of charge if you can beat his Clefable (that likes to be stupid with Minimize), although if you're deep in, it might be an unpleasant walk back to him unless you have Fly to return to the entrance.
* The Dream Radar. Nintendo lured people to plunk down money/trade in their old DS systems by making the game a DS game but the radar 3DS. Once you get it, you battle mons by chasing them with a RayGun, wishing they'd stay still because you have about 90 secs to zap them enough to catch them or they flee. It's nice when you get enough dream orbs to get the extensions that freeze 'em for a few seconds, makes your beam stronger and increases your time. Especially since every zap you get from a mon cuts your time. Oh and some mons, like Swablu,port and zip all over and are a pain to catch. Also annoying when what you get from all that isn't a mon but an item. And for the three legends, you need lots of patience. Tornadus comes at 400 orbs, which comes fast. But Thundurus comes at 1500 orbs and Landorus at 3000. By then, you'll be bored with the regular mons because you catch several of a few, like Munna, Swablu, Drifloon and Riolu. More come out with each genie you catch but you're still going to end up with a lot of repeats by the end.
** Those points outlined are not even the worst parts of it. The worst part about the dream radar is how it handles saves and sending Pokémon. When you send a Pokémon through dream radar to Black and white 2 in such a way soft resting is impossible. And you can only send one each legendary per save file on both games. Resetting Black and white 2 is easy and you can get to the point where transfer is possible in only a few minutes of play, but Dream Radar? Hope you like going through the whole thing again. Oh, and as an added bonus, once you get to the point where transfer is possible, Nintendo anticipated the possibility of you trying to back it up, so that means if you want to back up your data, you have to manually delete the software to get that backup file and then transfer it over to some other medium, because it will automatically be deleted when you reinstall the software.
* Match 14 of the Battle Subway, on the regular lines. Before, you've been fighting unevolved Pokémon with a few singly-evolved ones and maybe a couple of weaker fully-evolved ones. Suddenly, the Trainers start throwing [[DemonicSpiders the Elemental Monkeys and Basculin]] at you, and pack other strong fully-evolved mons. Considering this is right at the end of a good winning streak, it hurts even more to lose. Then if you somehow win, you have to go through even ''more'' of Trainers like these.
** Then once you somehow beat the Subway Boss, you unlock the Super ___ Train, which consists of nothing but fully-evolved Pokémon from all generations.

* The route (and part of Mt. Coronet) that features fog. Fog lowers your accuracy, making your Pokémon miss ''nearly every single time'' but has almost no effect on your opponent. Add to this the fact that Defog is just about the most useless HM ever [[note]]This changes in the competitive scene in Generation VI after it stops being a Hidden Machine, as it was modified to disable entry hazards like Stealth Rock and Spikes on both sides of the field.[[/note]] (and only Pokémon with wings can learn it, preventing you from giving it to a common Pokémon like Bibarel).

* Route 111's desert may not be ''difficult'', but it sure is frustrating. For starters, there's a permanent sandstorm, causing non-Rock, Ground, or Steel-type Pokémon to take chip damage every turn, dragging battles out. Then, [[GoddamnedBats the area is lousy with Pokémon (wild and trained) who come with accuracy lowering moves]], including Sandshrew and Sandslash, who have high Defense and ''also'' come with Sand Veil to make hitting them even more difficult. Naturally, each fight can drag on as it devolves into "[[LuckBasedMission Will the game decide your move actually struck this time before you keel over from sandstorm?]]". The kicker? In the originals, by this point you have the [[AlwaysAccurateAttack Shock Wave]] TM...and as an Electric move, it's practically useless here with all the Ground-types! Additionally, if you encounter a wild Trapinch, it has a 50% chance of having the Arena Trap ability, meaning you're unable to run away and ''forced'' to make it faint. If you're right about to lose all of your Pokémon, tough luck. The only mercy is that you don't have to step into the deeper sand (where the wild Pokémon are) if you're just passing through.
* Mirage Tower has a similar setup to Dewford Cave with trying to get across the cracked floors, though there are just a lot of Trapinch and Sandshrew in there, nothing serious. However, it's required to go through this tower to get a Fossil that can be revived/turned into a Pokémon.

* [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Mt._Mortar Mt. Mortar]] is the largest cave in the entire series. It's basically an enormous [[MalevolentArchitecture maze]], it's pitch-black inside, it has countless [[BlockPuzzle Strength puzzles]], and, to top it all off, it has the highest possible [[RandomEncounters Pokémon encounter rate]], so when you inevitably get lost you'll spend five times as long getting out as you would otherwise. Thankfully, it was made a little easier in Crystal and the VideoGameRemake, but it's still rather annoying.
** What's especially annoying is the whole point of going into Mt. Mortar is to get a rare Pokémon, and if you have all six party spots full you have to leave, ditch the extra Pokémon, then ''go through it again''. But the game doesn't tell you that until you actually get to the character who gives it to you. In fact, the game doesn't even tell you that you'll get a rare Pokémon by entering the mountain. Fortunately, you can also get that rare Pokémon by trading a Hitmonchan or Hitmonlee from R/B/Y and breeding it with a Ditto.
* Johto Route 40-41 can also be a contender. Most likely, it's the first time you'll be sailing/surfing on your Pokémon, as Cianwood City Gym would be your next gym after Ecruteak. On your way, you'll be facing Tentacools and Tentacruels. Problem is, due to their dual-Water/Poison-type, and their moves, your Pokémon will probably be poisoned, requiring lots of antidotes and/or potions and your Grass-type will mostly be useless. They are the only ones you'll be facing, and due to the nature of water terrain, you'll probably end up encountering more often. Repels may not necessarily work either, as there are Tentacruels which can go up to level 29, which is rather high for this stage in the game. [[note]]For reference, all of the swimmers' trainer battles on the way are mostly around 18-23. Eusine's Pokémon in the Cianwood City event battle is around 25 at the most. Chuck's Pokémon for the gym battle are 27-31.[[/note]] And this is in addition to any trainer battles you make along the way. At least, once you beat Chuck, you'll now have the option to fly straight back to Olivine City.

* Mt. Silver from HGSS is a major competitor too. The original version was a short cave with only three rooms, whereas this revamp takes inspiration from Mt. Coronet (see Gen IV below) and requires Rock Climb to ascend. While Rock Climb is a fairly decent move as far as [=HMs=] go, it still means that you have to face the TrueFinalBoss with an [[JokeCharacter HM Slave]] in your party unless one of your mainstays has it. Though it's still an improvement on the original games, where you needed one of your Pokémon to know ''Flash'' to make it through the first room.

* The Pokémon Mansion. A huge [[SurpriseDifficulty jump in wild Pokémon levels]], a storm of GoddamnedBats, and [[DemonicSpiders Raticate and Weezing or Muk await to make your life hell.]] [[YouWillNotEvadeMe Raticate's high speed will deny your escape]] and, despite their low defenses, they WILL ZergRush you, [[TakingYouWithMe whereas Weezing will constantly Selfdestruct]], likely taking away a large chunk of your party's health. [[StoneWall And Muk...good luck killing it]] if you don't have a [[GameBreaker high-leveled Psychic-type that knows Psybeam and/or Psychic.]] Oh, and did we mention that [[RidiculouslyDifficultRoute it is a FREAKIN' MAZE and is required to reach the]] [[BreatherLevel Sevii Islands in the remakes?]]
** In addition, it contains [[MetalSlime Ditto]], which is a pain in the ass to capture in order to fill your Pokedex unless you put it to sleep on the first turn thanks to [[MirrorMatch Transform]].

[[folder:General]]

* Any part which involves [[SlippySlideyIceWorld sliding around on ice.]]
* EVERY Victory Road is a pain in the backside, but the fourth generation one is the only one where some fat guy will [[NPCRoadblock just sit in front of a door, refusing to let you through]], until you beat the game. It's a pretty blatant BrokenBridge and quite a slap in the face. And Black 2 and White 2's is especially brutal, as mentioned below.
** Gold, Silver, and Crystal's Victory Road is the only exception. There are no trainers, meaning you simply just have to deal with level 45-average wild Pokémon along your way to the exit and fight your rival right before you get out.
** Thankfully, X and Y's Victory Road isn't too bad. If you pace yourself and plan your steps right, you can avoid a good amount of the trainers if you choose and the caves aren't too hard to navigate, even without a guidebook.
* One of the annoying bits of Pokémon is that the Fire starter tends to have lots of problems in its path - the Water Gym, the Rock Gym (hi Brock and Roxanne, ThatOneBoss) all do double damage to it and have your strongest moves halved or negated. Also, the early areas are either devoid of Water-Types or have Water-Types that need a bit of training before they can do well. There are three solutions. Get a Magikarp, level it up to a Gyarados, and give it some Water move. Get a Geodude/Diglett and let it learn Earthquake or Magnitude, which are super effective against Rock-types. Or, majorly level up your Fire Pokémon until it can take out every enemy in one hit (or teach it [=SolarBeam=] if it is compatible with the move).
** Generations 3 and 4 help alleviate this a bit since the Fire starter evolves early and into a part-fighting type, which is strong against Rock types. The Generation 1 remakes give Charmander the move Metal Claw for a similar purpose.
** This is fixed in the Black/White games, where the first two gyms ensure that you have the same advantage no matter what your starter is. Which is to say that no matter ''who'' you pick, you will be at a disadvantage in the first gym -- that's why you receive the Elemental Monkey in the Dreamyard.
*** Fixed even further in Black and White 2, where the first Leader is Normal-type. Though the fact he has a Lillipup and a Patrat sort of make it pointlessly easy anyway. However, they can utilize the move [[StatusBuff Work Up]] to increase their Attack, and the Lillipup is particularly fast and likely to get in a hit. It can sweep your party if you don't have an adequately prepared team.
* Not quite levels, but the Battle Frontier and Safari Zone could definitely count. The Safari Zone cranks the LuckBasedMission aspect of [[GottaCatchEmAll catching them all]] UpToEleven, and you'll easily spend quite a bit of time there trying to catch a specific {{Mon}} (it's worse in HGSS thanks to the objects system). And the Battle Frontier pretty much puts up Help Wanted ads that say "If you're [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard a God-damned cheating bastard]], come sign up for the Battle Tower/Hall/etc. challenges today!" And it's not bad enough that the Frontier is a difficult challenge on its own: it's actually ''vital'' to spend hours upon hours grinding up BP (Frontier currency) for the good items, especially the ones required to evolve certain Pokémon.
** In every game with BP it is possible to get one of almost all the rare evolution items through fully exploring each area.
** In ''Heart Gold'' and ''Soul Silver'': Those helpful Move Tutors that you had to work for but not too hard in the past games? Yeah, you need BP in order for your Pokémon to learn moves from them, too. You need to go through several cheating battles many times over before you have enough money to teach your bugs how to bite things.
[[/folder]]

* Mirage Tower has a similar setup to Dewford Cave with trying to get across the cracked floors, though there are just a lot of Trapinch and Sandshrew in there, nothing serious.

* The Sky Pillar, Rayquaza's roost. To navigate to where the dragon waits, you have to use the Mach Bike and do everything exactly right in regards to speed and sharp turns to get across the floor before you fall through it, and the resident Claydol, Altaria, Banette, and Sableye are no pushovers. It's completely optional in Ruby and Sapphire, and while Emerald makes it a required area, the wild Pokémon are much weaker and the required climb doesn't have any pitfalls in your way. In the remake, they remove this challenge and instead give you an InfoDump.

** There is also Oblivia Ruins in Guardian Signs, the level itself is OK. [[StealthBasedMission But there is a part, where you must try to get to the next room without the Claydols catching you to progress or you'll be sent back to the start of the room.]] The Claydols unlike the Dusclops in the forest, can't be captured to get them out the way as they have a 360' vision so you can't go behind them and the Claydols are rather hard to avoid. To make matters more frustrating, in the first visit there are places where you require Poké Assists for Target Clear in the middle of the Claydol room. Not to add, you have to go there more than once and the Claydols are still there.

* Route 111's desert may not be ''difficult'', but it sure is frustrating. For starters, there's a permanent sandstorm, causing non-Rock, Ground, or Steel-type Pokémon to take chip damage every turn, dragging battles out. Then, [[GoddamnedBats the area is lousy with Pokémon (wild and trained) who come with accuracy lowering moves]], including Sandshrew and Sandslash, who have high Defense and ''also'' come with Sand Veil to make hitting them even more difficult. Naturally, each fight can drag on as it devolves into "[[LuckBasedMission Will the game decide your move actually struck this time before you keel over from sandstorm?]]". The kicker? In the originals, by this point you have the [[AlwaysAccurateAttack Shock Wave]] TM...and as an Electric move, it's practically useless here with all the Ground-types! The only mercy is that you don't have to step into the deeper sand (where the wild Pokémon are) if you're just passing through.

* Wallace's cracked ice gym puzzle. Step on every tile to open the stairs to the next platform; step on the same tile twice and you fall through the floor. Fall through the floor and you have to repeat whatever puzzles you've already solved.
* The Sky Pillar, Rayquaza's roost. To navigate to where the dragon waits, you have to use the Mach Bike and do everything exactly right in regards to speed and sharp turns to get across the floor before you fall through it, and the resident Claydol, Altaria, Banette, and Sableye are no pushovers. It's completely optional in Ruby and Sapphire, and while Emerald makes it a required area, the wild Pokémon are much weaker and the required climb doesn't have any pitfalls in your way.
** In the remakes, there are no cracked floors, just a traditional climb up the tower, just with a rather long InfoDump.