Worst video game levels?


Citrus-Chickadee's avatar
What is your LEAST favorite level in a video game? Whether it's genuinely hard, or obnoxious for all of the wrong reasons, rant about it here. B-)

I just got done playing Chapter 10 of the Revelation branch of Fire Emblem: Fates. Having to snow shovel your ENTIRE LEVEL in order to see your enemies will never stop being annoying, yo :stare:
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Scorching-Whirlwind's avatar
Area 6 in Bionic Commando
AuronTsubaki1985's avatar
The Desert in Breath of Fire III comes to my mind.
Polar--Tang's avatar
Yeah, even if the time limit is very generous and gives you more time than you really need to complete the task, the panic and haste the timer causes makes you mess up.

Urgh, yeah crappy AI is never fun to deal with. Even if they don't get themselves killed, it means you waste a lot of valuable time or take extra damage yourself to protect them and end up failing the task due to running out of time (if it's a timed escort) or dying that way instead.

Thankfully Spyro's annoying flying levels are skippable, you get enough collectables from the other levels to advance through the game to the final boss so you don't have to do them unless you're aiming to 100% complete the game and unlock the post credits bonus level.
Citrus-Chickadee's avatar
Oh Lord, putting timed AND escort missions together just sounds like a prime nightmare experience. :crying:

But yeah, having to run back for 'em constantly isn't fun either way.

So, at least the game (sort of) has mercy on you, then? Well, that's something... Although I'm the kind of player who just Has to get everything, so I'd probably end up doing them anyway. :lol:
Polar--Tang's avatar
I hate any level (or mission if the game doesn't have levels) that involves racing, escorting someone/something or time limits. The Jak and Daxter series, well games 2 and 3 anyway, are awful for these types of things.

The flying levels in the original/reignited Spyro games are horrible too because of the time limits and the extra race challenges in the 2nd and 3rd game.
Citrus-Chickadee's avatar
Ugh, timed missions are so stressful :stare: Even if the mission itself isn't even that bad, the timer just stresses me out anyway.

Also agreed on escort missions. The only games I've really played with those in them are the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games, but I have Bad Flashbacks(tm) of the escort clients wandering off on me and getting themselves killed. Like, why do you do this, AI... :crying:

Never played any of the Spyro games, but putting two annoying features into a level does sound pretty bad.
Planet-i-Studios's avatar
Stage 48 of Insane difficulty in Kirby's Star Stacker for the Gameboy.
Here's a basic rundown.
You sandwich blocks between two of the same animal to clear them. Your game peices are always in pairs. You have a 6 x 9 game board. if either of the two middle columns (3rd and 4th) fill to the top, you lose. In insane difficulty, you have to deal with metal blocks that need to be cleared twice. New random animals and blocks also rise up from the bottom every 3 moves

Imagine that the Coulms 1,2,5, and 6 are completley filled with these metal blocks, and the middle two are filled over halfway with regular blocks and a Racoon and Owl. The first set of blocks you get is always the same (which in this case, is two normal blocks.) but all the other ones aftwerward are randomized. This can include two metal blocks or two regular blocks.

Basically, you have a 3x2 space to work with at the start, which quickly becomes a 2x2 space due to starting with useless filler, and then its RNG whether or not you get one of the animals you need to make enough space to survive the next turn when everything gets rasied.

The animals that rise from bottom are also random, but at the very least, if there is no animal in the column, one will always appear when the blocks rise, so if luck lets you dig your way to the bottom, you can clear those out and have space to deal with all the garbage at the sides.

Would you beleive it took me 73 tries? This is a level I came back to now and then over the past 3 months. Stage 49 was really easy, basically put the thing where it goes and watch the 14 part chain happen. 50  started with some room to the right for a chance to clear the garbage on the right and the first move always gave you more room in the center, so that one only took me 3 tries
Citrus-Chickadee's avatar
Would you beleive it took me 73 tries?

Absolutely. That sounds horrific :noes:

Randomized levels are never fun. It just turns everything into a huge luck-based slog. You COULD get it within the first five tries... or it could take you... well, over 70. :B

Also, I find it kind of weird that it's only those two specific columns that work like that. All of the others are fine, but those two filling up makes you lose? :confused: That's just strange...
Planet-i-Studios's avatar
Its those two coulmns where the peices acutally come from, so if there is nowhere on the board for the peices to fall upon them spawning, that's when you lose.
Same with Puyo Puyo and Dr Mario now that I think about it, you can have as many blobs and pills fill the screen as you want, so long as there is enough room for your next peice to spawn.
Some tetris games (not all, but I know The New Tetris for N64 and that Tetris Gaint arcade game) have this rule where your blocks can go off the  top of the screen without you losing, so long as there is room for the next peice to spawn in.

Honorary mention is any Match 3 or Bubble Popping game that has that one level that is made for you to use a powerup to progress, meaning if you haven't kept it from when it gave it you you to show you waht it does (I hate how it almost always uses one of the 3 they give you for the sake of forced tutorial) or don't want to spend the 50 cents to buy one, it's complete luck. My mom plays Cand crush casually, and it took her 3 months to beat one of those levels because she didn't pay for a powerup and the RNG was really stacked that heavily against you..
Secondary Honorary mention is Angry Birds pPop and Super Puzzle Fighter Turbo for the GBA. due to my Colorblindness, I can't play those games. AB Pop has no tuxtures on the bubbles, just solid colors, and I cannot tell the Lime/Orange apart form the Yellow/Orange. I can't even tell exactly what color they were supposed to be. Puzzle Fighter has a simmilar issue with its orange and green blocks, which I cannot tell apart at a simple glance.
Citrus-Chickadee's avatar
Ah, okay. Now that I know that, that part at least makes sense.
I don't recall having that problem with Dr. Mario... then again it's been years since I've played it, so who knows. :lol:

And, oh dang. That also sounds annoying. :o
I usually like using stuff right away, so having to save it for later would trip me up, too.
Planet-i-Studios's avatar
I try to never use those powerups unless there is a way to earn them in game.
Bejeweled Stars has a few of those kinds of levels where you're expected to use a power-up, but if you don't have it, you can go back to previous levels or Daily Challenges to obtain more Super Gems that you use to craft your items and power-ups, and while your at it, try to get better scores for more stars which makes more constelations which can alos often give you those super Gems and Power-ups. It mihgt take a while, but there is at least a way to actually get those things without paying.
ALiteralcactus's avatar
"Converge" from midnight club 3. ranking as one of the longest races in the game the race has a special place in my heart for it's pure difficulty

for context: converge is the second race of the u.s. champion rematch of ceasar. who drives the best car in the game (meaning you can't brute force it with a faster car as a cheap way to win)

so the race with some of the best cars in the game will take up to 4-5 minutes with very little room for error.

it's a basic tour around detroit going through some of the worst places to race in the city.

and the second you screw up there's no recovering from it seeing how every car is just about evenly matched.

so having to restart this race over and over again due to the smallest mistakes become monumental problems due to the layout of the race can be quite awful.
Citrus-Chickadee's avatar
That sounds incredibly tedious and luck-based. :noes:

Especially considering the length of it. It would still be annoying if it was shorter, but if you screw up towards the end, welp, there's 4 minutes you're throwing away. Over. And over. And over...
Angel-Lynne's avatar
For me it was definitely Eggman Land in Sonic Unleashed (the xbox 360 version). Having to be forced to constantly be switched from Sonic to the Werehog was very annoying. Plus the level took me over 70 minutes to complete! No Sonic level should take that long. :P
Citrus-Chickadee's avatar
I haven't really played much in the way of Sonic games, but having to switch back and forth all the time does sound tedious. :O_o:
Nighteba's avatar
Can't wait to be a king - Lion King (Snes)

If I can use the cheat code to skip it, I will the cheat code to skip it...
Rose-Em's avatar
Hahaha! I had that one on the Genesis and I remember that level was HORRIBLE.
calistamonkey's avatar
Haha!!! Good shout! That level was soooo frustrating!  Bloody monkeys!
The Stampede level was my favourite level, but getting there, aaaaaaagh!
Citrus-Chickadee's avatar
Oh Lord, I've heard there are so many levels in the Lion King game that are awful :noes:
calistamonkey's avatar
Haha, as a child, I'd have definitely said basically the whole game of Another World on the Sega Genesis.  Only for the nostalgic reasons of us not having an instruction manual [it was a second hand game, cartridge only], and essentially having no idea what we were doing! We didn't know how to attack or jump or anything, so it was a case of mashing buttons until we found things that worked. It was so incredibly harsh, as you can basically die in so many unexpected ways if you don't do a very particular thing.  It's one of those learn the obstacles and exact moves you need to avoid them as you go along games.  It's actually quite clever and well made in hindsight, but as a child, it quickly got super frustrating!  We never got past the first level, so I guess that would be my least favourite level XD
Citrus-Chickadee's avatar
Oh, no :lol: #SecondhandGameProblems, am I right?!

Very specific puzzles like that, and enemies that can easily kill you, are definitely annoying, though. :dead:
Streled's avatar
Sky High Caper from Donkey Kong Land.
The "calm" music makes it worst.

Citrus-Chickadee's avatar
Ah, yes. Soundtrack dissonance. It makes you feel even worse about how annoying the level is. :stare: