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00:06Welcome to Mojo Plays and today we're counting down our picks for the video game levels that
00:11frustrate us beyond belief, whether through their difficulty, port controls and design,
00:16or both. We won't be including any levels that solely consist of a boss fight.
00:36Path of Hades, God of War
00:48At a certain point in Kratos' first adventure, he'll be sent to the underworld, and his only means of escape
00:54is through an agonizing platform section.
00:56In between groups of enemies, players must jump between tiny platforms and walk precariously along spinning cylinders with giant blades
01:03sticking out of them.
01:04With one misstep, or a brush against a blade, Kratos falls to his death, which is going to happen a
01:10lot.
01:20Throwing in an obstacle course like this, with little to no platforming in previous levels, annoyed a lot of players.
01:26The very worst part comes in at the end, where you must make a long climb up one of those
01:30rotating blade cylinders.
01:32Getting knocked down to the bottom is enough to make you rage.
01:43Fair play, Mafia.
01:52When Hangar 13 chose to remake Mafia, director Alex Koss stated one of the most prominent questions from players was
01:59whether they fixed this mission.
02:00That alone should tell you just how infamous it has grown over the years.
02:04The problem comes at the end of the mission, where you must win a race.
02:08Something about the physics and handling of the 1930s cars just doesn't mesh well,
02:12and the sharp turns only add to the supreme annoyance in anyone trying to come out on top.
02:23It seems so simple, right? We've all played racing games before.
02:27Well, this isn't that, and every loading screen after every fail just let us stew in our anger.
02:38Parking Garage Tutorial, Driver.
02:47Tutorials are a necessary feature for games to teach players the basics.
02:50Some may be boring, but they're usually helpful.
02:53That is, except for the case of Driver.
02:55Before you get into the story about an undercover cop in a criminal organisation,
03:00you have to pass a test to prove you can be a getaway driver.
03:03Said test takes place in a parking garage, where you must perform a series of manoeuvres in an extremely short
03:09time frame.
03:17Some are simple, while others are more complex.
03:20Unless you're a fan of skiing, you probably won't know what a slalom is.
03:23Plus, if you damage the other cars around you too much, you have to start over.
03:30A cold day in hell. Max Payne.
03:40In theory, confronting your severely damaged protagonist with haunting dream sequences of
03:45his family's demise is a fantastic idea. In execution though, it's a test in patience.
03:51Max finds himself in a nightmare where he must relive some of his troubled past,
03:55and the developers seemingly wanted to make it just as hard on us.
04:06At a certain point, you'll have to navigate a maze in a pitch black room with only a thin red
04:11line as your path.
04:13It is very easy to get turned around in here, or fall off the side and have to start over.
04:17Oh, and there's a baby crying the entire time, which doesn't exactly help your focus.
04:23No, no, please God, no.
04:27The underwater base, Earthworm Jim.
04:36Time limits are a natural stress causer in any video game.
04:40This level in Earthworm Jim gets frustrating when players climb into a small submarine to
04:44navigate narrow paths. There are two things that make this a pain.
04:48One is that Jim has 30 seconds of oxygen, and must stop to refill at specific spots.
04:59Another is that running into walls causes the glass to crack, putting you at further risk of death.
05:04The second section is worse. While you start with 100 seconds of air,
05:09the path is significantly longer, with a hidden refill station that's easy to miss.
05:13As the time ticks down and the sub cracks at every collision, it's hard not to tense up.
05:26Mugged. Conker's Bad Fur Day.
05:35When it comes to Conker's Bad Fur Day,
05:37most are quick to praise it for its over-the-top humour and violence.
05:40What can be frustrating, however, is how it switches gameplay styles or mechanics for individual sections.
05:46During the prehistoric level, Conker will be mugged by a group of cavemen.
05:50In order to reclaim his hard-earned cash, they'll have to chase after them on a hoverboard.
05:54This race can be infuriating, primarily because you have to hit each individual racer to get some money back.
06:06There's also a dinosaur crossing the track that's easy to run into, and on top of them being fast,
06:11knocking out a couple of racers causes the track to change. Get ready to crash a lot.
06:23Path of Pain. Hollow Knight.
06:34Pretty accurate name, that one. In general, Hollow Knight is a challenging game, but the Path of Pain
06:39will make you miss the rest of it. Added in the Grim Troop DLC, this level can be found in
06:44the White
06:44Palace, itself infamous among players for its difficulty.
06:55It requires the most precise platforming you can muster. There are a ton of spinning blades,
07:01and most walls and floors are covered in prickly vines. You'll also have to dash through several
07:05tricky spots, and bounce off enemies and spikes using your weapon. Simply put, there's no way
07:10to make it through this without a lot of trial, error, and anger.
07:21The Alchemist. Spyro 2, Ripto's Rage.
07:31Ask any player their least favourite type of level, and there's a good chance Escort Mission will be
07:36their answer. Spyro 2 may be a wonderful sequel, but it still features one of gaming's most enraging
07:42Escort Missions. In Fracture Hills, Hunter will ask Spyro to bring in the Alchemist who accidentally
07:47encased his feet in stone. Said Alchemist actually isn't that far away, yet he takes the longest
07:52possible path, and one that's filled with enemies. Will you escort me past those earth shapers?
08:00They'll run straight into them too, instead of just letting you handle them until the coast is clear.
08:05It only takes a single hit before you have to start over, easily making it the worst part of the
08:10game.
08:17The Impossible Lair. Ukulele and the Impossible Lair.
08:28It may not be as famous as other levels on our list, but trust us that it deserves its inclusion.
08:33The plot of this platformer has you freeing members of the Beta line in every level,
08:38each of which give you an extra hit point for use in the Impossible Lair,
08:41available to take on whenever you want.
08:50We know the name should tip us off, but the difficulty spike here is so far beyond anything
08:55the rest of the game prepares you for. Even with every single B, there are no checkpoints,
09:00and it goes on for an absurdly long time. Plus, a lot of the traps require perfect timing that you
09:05have to wait for, adding tedium to an already maddening level.
09:15Wrong side of the tracks. Grand Theft Auto, San Andreas.
09:27All we had to do was follow the train. But sometimes, things aren't so easy, Big Smoke.
09:33In this mission, CJ must chase after a train in which a group of Vagos members are riding on top
09:38of.
09:39Unfortunately, you have to do it on a dirt bike, and rely on Big Smoke's aim in order to take
09:44them out.
09:44You have to balance your distance from the train car so that smoke can actually hit them,
09:48made harder by later turns and obstacles like cars and other trains.
10:01If you fail, which many of us did, frequently, the mission isn't reloaded. Unless you have the
10:07foresight to save right beforehand, you have to backtrack all the way across town in order to try again.
10:15All we had to do was follow the damn train, CJ.
10:19The guy. Super Meat Boy.
10:32There are understandably a lot of rage inducing levels in Super Meat Boy. That's kind of the point.
10:38However, the one that will make you feel more anger than most is a hidden level in Chapter 5,
10:43inspired by the near impossible freeware game, I Wanna Be The Guy. These spike filled sections,
10:48three in total, are sure to up your blood pressure.
10:59They seem so simple to look at, but actually playing through them is a nightmare. If one of your jumps
11:04is
11:04even a hair off at its precision, you'll go careering straight into a spike and have to start that part
11:10of the level over. The third section is obviously the toughest. Those high-speed spike walls are brutal.
11:24Blighttown Dark Souls
11:25Along with most of FromSoftware's catalogue, there are a lot of sections in Dark Souls that are going to
11:36cause frustration. The one that scarred players the most was Blighttown, a gigantic poisonous swamp.
11:42The upper area can be confusing with its multitude of moving bridges easily turning you around.
11:47The actual swamp lower down, on the other hand, is even worse.
11:57There are plenty of tough enemies prowling around, many of which will inflict poison damage,
12:02and some of which will be able to do so from afar. Traversing this hellhole eventually leads you to
12:07Queelag's domain, where you'll have to fight the titular witch. Just like every other enemy in this game,
12:12that isn't exactly easy.
12:22Labyrinth Zone
12:23Sonic the Hedgehog
12:30Water levels are usually some of the most notoriously frustrating stages developers can include in their games.
12:36Sonic can't swim, so his immense speed doesn't help him when it comes to the Labyrinth Zone,
12:41the fourth level in the game. Even if you're managing things, you won't be able to escape the infamous
12:46drowning theme, which originated here and can cause stress in even the surest of players.
12:55Combined with traps and enemies, the slowed movement and panic-inducing music will ensure
13:00Sonic's watery grave at least a few times. The level's third act is naturally the hardest.
13:05On top of worrying about drowning, the game throws seemingly endless spikes and exploding enemies at you.
13:11The level's third act is also the hardest part of the game.
13:13The level's third act is also the hardest part of the game.
13:17The level's third act is the hardest part of the game.
13:18The level's third act is the hardest part of the game.
13:19Waterfall. Contra.
13:25This classic action platformer epitomised the phrase,
13:29Nintendo hard, by flooding your screen with enemies and giving you a single hit health bar.
13:34It likely caused many players to memorise the Konami code and start with 30 lives rather than 3.
13:39However, that probably still didn't help much when it came to the third level,
13:43as the only stage in the game that scrolls vertically, you have to ascend through a hail of gunfire.
13:55The layout certainly takes some getting used to, but it's far harder in co-op.
14:00If one player moves up too quickly, it will cause the screen to move and kill the other.
14:04It makes you communicate about movement,
14:06but that's a lot easier without a horde of enemies trying to murder you.
14:14The Library. Combat Evolved.
14:20Of all the enemies in Halo, the Flood still terrifies us.
14:24But being trapped in a restrictive library while they're swarming all over the place will do that to you.
14:29During the campaign's seventh mission, Master Chief is confronted by the aptly named Parasites
14:33on a near constant basis. What makes the level so frustrating is how quickly they move,
14:38and how slowly you're forced to progress.
14:50You'll be following 343 Guilty Spark around, who isn't exactly nimble,
14:55and who must pause to slowly override locked doors. And at every one of them,
14:59players will have to unload all their weapons just to keep the flood at bay.
15:02The ones with rocket launchers are a particular pain.
15:13The Snowstorm. Resident Evil 6.
15:16Huh? Come on, Supergirl. Let's get looking.
15:21There are a lot of frustrating things about Resident Evil 6, but in terms of gameplay,
15:26Chapter 2 in the story of new protagonist Jake takes the cake. It sees him and ally Sherry beset by
15:31several types of enemies at once.
15:33But what makes it unbearably difficult is the fact it all takes place in the middle of a blizzard.
15:47Good luck trying to line your shots up with constant snowfall covering the screen.
15:51The enemies themselves are, of course, more annoying because of this.
15:55Some of them are quick moving flyers, while others take potshots with sniper rifles. And the snow doesn't seem to
16:01hinder their sight. It's all an annoying mess.
16:11The High Road. Crash Bandicoot.
16:21One of the hardest 3D platforming stages in existence,
16:24The High Road from Crash Bandicoot can make you want to snap a controller in two.
16:28The late game level features all the worst types of platforms.
16:32Narrow ones with little space to stand.
16:34Ones that break after just a moment of standing on them.
16:37And ones made of ice that sends you sliding over the edge.
16:46Some of its jumps are excruciating as well, requiring Crash to hop onto a turtle to gain enough momentum.
16:53It was made even more frustrating in the remake since, while physics and controls were updated,
16:57stage layout wasn't. There's no room for errors, and The High Road eats more lives than any other in the
17:04game.
17:13Welcome to the machine, Echo the Dolphin.
17:22One might expect a game where you play as a dolphin to be pleasant, but that is definitely not the
17:26case with Echo.
17:27Players must combat an invasive alien army throughout the game, culminating when Echo visits their home planet.
17:41Welcome to the machine is an auto-scroller with an abundance of paths, giving it a maze-like quality,
17:46as well as a plethora of ways to kill you. Unless you're able to memorise the exact routes, Echo is
17:52going to get crushed.
17:53If he's not, it'll be the drones that dive in from off-screen that do you in.
17:57All of this is plenty awful, but it's compounded by the fact that there are no checkpoints!
18:08Can't wait to be king. The Lion King.
18:16Even if you haven't played this tie-in, there's a good chance you've heard about its ridiculously high
18:21difficulty for a children's game. The second level, which recreates the I just can't wait to be king
18:27sequence, is far less enjoyable to play through than it is to watch. Simba uses a variety of animals
18:32to get through different platforming sections. Riding an ostrich and jumping over quick incoming hazards
18:37is certainly tricky.
18:47However, the most irksome sections deal with monkeys that toss Simba between them.
18:52You can roar to make pink monkeys change their directions, but with most hidden off-screen,
18:56there's still no telling where you'll end up without a lot of trial and error.
19:00It takes the utmost patience to make it through.
19:08The Great Maze. Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
19:17Super Smash Bros. Brawl is often considered one of the weaker entries. Something it has above all
19:22others though, is the Subspace Emissary. A grand story mode that brings in all characters. However,
19:28right before you reach the final boss, you're hit with a level that is both boring and frustrating.
19:40Not only does The Great Maze recycle all the level environments you've already played through,
19:44but also many of the boss and mini-boss fights. The layout is exceptionally annoying, since you'll
19:49often reach a dead end and have to work your way back. It's meant to act as a penultimate challenge,
19:54but all it manages to do is suck out all the fun the story mode had managed to build up.
20:03Elphiel. Brace of the Hallig Tree. Elden Ring.
20:12It's good to see that From Software has never lost its edge amidst the pleas for an easy mode,
20:16but that doesn't mean we can't get frustrated when its games pummel us into the ground.
20:20As an optional dungeon found during the end game, Elphiel is reserved for the most hearty of players.
20:26It's a massive castle filled with plenty of branching paths, so there's a lot to uncover here.
20:40Unfortunately, exploring means encountering the toughest enemies the game has to offer. Given the
20:45studio's reputation, that's saying a lot. It's an onslaught of damage that you'll likely be unprepared
20:50for no matter what. It ends with a fight against Villainia, who quickly became known as the most
20:55gruelling boss in the game. The Great Palace. Zelda 2 The Adventure of Link.
21:10The second Zelda game is probably the hardest in the whole series, so it shouldn't come as a surprise
21:15to learn that its final level is a doozy. The Great Palace has a lot of factors that can cause
21:20irritation. There are a literal ton of enemies, most of which are excessively powerful, some of which
21:26shoot fireballs from afar, and others that are so intimidating, they only show up here.
21:37Add on an absurd amount of floors to backtrack through, and plenty of traps to fall into,
21:41and navigating this gauntlet is sure to make you suffer. That's not to mention two bosses instead of
21:46one. The Thunderbird and Dark Link, both of which are naturally pretty tough.
21:57Stage 6-2 Ninja Gaiden.
22:04Ninja Gaiden shows players how deadly the life of a ninja can be, especially in this infamous level.
22:10The objective here is as simple as it is in all the rest. Reach the end without dying too much.
22:15What makes this near impossible, however, is the onslaught of enemies.
22:27Some of them are placed in cheap locations, while others dive bomb you from the side of the screen.
22:32And since any step in either direction, no matter how slight, causes those off-screen enemies to
22:37respawn, you'll have your work cut out for you. It's also a pretty lengthy stage. Considering each
22:42level has a time limit, there will be no moments of peace here.
22:52Aztec. GoldenEye 007.
22:59We all have fond memories of pouring hours into GoldenEye, whether it be the iconic multiplayer,
23:04or the campaign recreated from the movie. But none of our fond memories are of this place.
23:09The Aztec level is unlocked after completing the story on normal difficulty, and it is much harder
23:15than the game will have prepared you for. Every enemy, including the powerful jaws, will have
23:20high powered weapons on top of improved accuracy and reaction time. Which is to say they're going
23:25to hit you, and it is going to hurt. If you die, sorry, when you die, you'll be forced to
23:38start the
23:38level over. This is where your skills as an agent are really put to the test.
23:46The Meat Circus. Psychonauts.
23:49How did you get in my happy meadow? Nobody's supposed to know about it.
23:54You know things are bad when later releases have to fix a level's difficulty. Psychonauts task players
23:59with platforming through the minds of its various zany characters. The final level, Meat Circus, is the
24:05product of two psyches brought together. However, it also brings elements that are exceedingly maddening.
24:11One section has you escort a character with little health, while others are comprised of unforgiving
24:16platforming. You have little lives, very few checkpoints, and some of your objectives are simply
24:29unclear. It has a reputation for its massive spike in difficulty, making it an unbalanced nightmare in
24:35an otherwise extremely enjoyable game. We're grateful it was scaled back so that future players could
24:40actually end on a positive note.
24:48Farewell, Celeste.
24:55Even some of the most beautiful, emotionally fulfilling games can have levels that make
25:00you want to rip your hair out. Celeste is one of those games. Following its release,
25:05the developers issued a free DLC titled Farewell. To say it made every other level look like a cakewalk
25:10would be an understatement. Which is saying a lot considering how tough the majority of the game is.
25:24Farewell was designed with the hardcore in mind. It's incredibly long, and some areas are mostly
25:29hazards with a small safe path, and with no spots to rest. It also enforces techniques you'd really
25:35only need beforehand if you were speedrunning. The temptation to turn on any of its assist modes will be strong.
25:48Through the fire and flames, Guitar Hero 3, Legends of Rock.
25:58You may scoff to find a Guitar Hero track so high, but that must mean you've never tried to make
26:03it
26:03through Dragon Forces Through the Fire and the Flames. One of the shreddiest metal songs in existence,
26:08this track will have your fingers stumbling all over the keys, even on the lowest difficulty. You won't
26:14even have time to register what's happening before you're at least another dozen notes behind,
26:17and at that point, you might as well start over.
26:30That was the pain many of us felt when attempting to conquer this track. Only those who practiced over
26:36and over could perfect the timing. With songs like this, Legends of Rock was a suitable name.
26:48The Dam. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
26:55In the late 80s, the Ninja Turtles were everywhere. Kids may have been excited to get an NES game with
27:01the heroes in a half shell, but that excitement turned sour almost immediately, with one of the
27:06most famously unfair levels in gaming history. This underwater section has you defuse 8 bombs as one
27:12of the Turtles. The swimming controls are pretty poor, but that's not the worst part. There's also
27:17electric seaweed surrounding pretty much everything, leaving you little room for error.
27:31Still, maybe players could have done this slowly, if not for the time limit of 2 minutes and 20 seconds.
27:37It basically forces you to act quickly, ensuring you'll get killed in the process.
27:46Super Mario Galaxy 2's Grand Master Galaxy is a gauntlet, bringing together many of the mechanics,
28:00enemies and platforming elements seen across the game. It's the final level you unlock, so it naturally poses a
28:05pretty big challenge. But after you've beaten it, you then have the option to do it again. Only this time,
28:12you die in one hit, and there are no checkpoints. With so many different ways to die here, it's
28:18probable you'll experience all of them during the perfect run.
28:29It'll take everything in you not to snap your Wiimote in half once you reach the double digits. Anyone can
28:35play Mario,
28:35but only the strongest can reach this level's end.
28:41Turbo Tunnel, Battletoads.
28:48Battletoads is one of the most challenging, frustrating games ever created. It's even harder in
28:53co-op, since there's no way to turn off friendly fire. It reaches peak difficulty, and as a result,
28:59iconism during the Turbo Tunnel level.
29:08Following some standard beat em up gameplay, you'll be forced to make it the rest of the way on bike.
29:13The bike speed is so immense, you'll barely have time to think before you crash into one of the many,
29:19many walls. But that's only the first section. As it goes on, you'll also need to hit ramps,
29:25dodge holes and other hazards, all of which come at you with lightning fast speed.
29:29This level will likely remain in infamy for all time.
29:38What's the most frustrating level you've ever conquered? How about one that made you give up
29:42completely? Share your thoughts in the comments, and be sure to subscribe for more great videos
29:46every day.
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