History Main / ThatOneLevel

* In ''Crash Bandicoot 2'', there is a level called Cold Hard Crash, and while passing the stage is not much of a challenge, getting the first gem (by breaking all boxes) is hard as hell and confusing, let alone getting both gems and the crystal in one run. To get the box gem, you must not die until the death route pad. But, you do NOT use the checkpoint that is next to it. You destroy every box that there is in the death route, hit the Metal ! Box at the end of the route (getting the death route gem will put you ahead of the boxes you haven't got before the death route, and even if you do get the boxes before the route, you can't get back there), then return back to the death route pad you came from to get back to the regular stage, and then just get along with the rest of the stage. Oh, did I forget to mention there is a hidden box in the Bonus area? That is cruel if you have done the hardest part, only to be missing one box which has been cleverly hidden.

** Stage 8 -- Two horizontal U-shaped structures that have gems on their longer sides. In addition to that, the X-Ray item, which renders the playgield invisible save for a line that sweeps horizontally across the field activates every other piece.

* Several of the gimmick levels for the ''Jewel Quest'' games can arguably be this, but there is no denying the monkey challenges. Here, not only do you have to turn all of the squares on the board gold, but you also have to put monkey relics in all of the available cages. The catch? Match up any three or more monkey relics, and whatever gold spaces they occupy are turned back to brown (meaning you'll have to turn them back, again), and they can be matched up with monkeys already in the cages, undoing all your hard work.

* From ''[[JohnMaddenFootball Madden NFL 2004]]'', there's the Atlanta Falcons. Michael Vick has the honor of being the cover athlete for that year, so he's got a ridiculously high awareness, throw power, and throw accuracy stat. He can throw to Peerless Price and Brian Finneran (both vastly better in the virtual world than the real one), and not to mention the tight end, Alge Crumpler. Warrick Dunn will run around you, and TJ Duckett will run through you - it's a given. And if that isn't quite enough, Vick has one of the highest speed ratings in the game, meaning he can call a Hail Mary, send all his wideouts down the field, and run upwards of 20 yards before you wrap him up. SoYeah...brutal.

* From ''[[JohnMaddenFootball Madden NFL 2004]]'', there's the Atlanta Falcons. Michael Vick has the honor of being the cover athlete for that year, so he's got a ridiculously high awareness, throw power, and throw accuracy stat. He can throw to Peerless Price and Brian Finneran (both vastly better in the virtual world than the real one), and not to mention the tight end, Alge Crumpler. Warrick Dunn will run around you, and TJ Duckett will run through you - it's a given. And if that isn't quite enough, Vick has one of the highest speed ratings in the game, meaning he can call a Hail Mary, send all his wideouts down the field, and run upwards of 20 yards before you wrap him up. SoYeah...brutal.

* LittleBigPlanet has the Bunker level, which features an obstacle often referred to as the "Wheel of Death". The final boss level actually seeming easier than the Bunker probably says a lot.

** Level 5-2. You know it's going to be a pain, since it's called "[[TitleDrop Under The Knife]]", which implies a certain epic climax. Your enemy is the parasite Kyriaki, who is annoying, but usually pretty striaghtforward. This time, however, you have to treat ''five'' patients in a single mission, with only ten minutes on the timer. Making matters worse is the fact that getting through a Kyriaki mission requires nothing so much as skill with suturing. The stylus motion for suturing is not only undetected by the game half the time, but it's the first thing you start screwing up when your hands start to get tired. The final insult? That ticking ten minute timer hanging over your head ''[[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard is a god damned lie]]''. When it hits zero, you don't fail the operation- your assistant just announces that backup has arrived and you can finish this patient and take a rest.
** Also, while not unfairly difficult, the last chapter of the game is simply uncreative. Having defeated (or, actually, [[spoiler: redeemed through a version of [[WarriorTherapist Combat Therapy]]]]) the BigBad, you have to fight through a BossRush to get to TheManBehindTheMan- the same seven strains of GUILT you've been fighting for half the game, just requiring faster action. A shameless retread which is made more aggrevating by losing what forgiveness these missions had previously.

** "Awakening" is almost evil in its difficulty, especially since it's still in the game's early chapters. Basically a patient has a whole bunch of aneurysms in his intestines, five of which all decided to try and burst at the same time.

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** That sounds more like the game-show equivalent to the VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon. This show's That One Level (or, in this context, That One Game) belongs to Don't Blow the Joker. It's a game so hard that it was the first one for NBC to provide official hints for. It doesn't help that this game is typically found in the level 4-6 range, usually resulting in a ''major'' DifficultySpike. God help you if you get it on Level 5...

* The "Coin Drop" game on ''MinuteToWinIt''. Since it's the million-dollar game, and the show doesn't change games until someone has won it, it's unlikely the top prize will be won (barring ExecutiveMeddling).

** And even that didn't help in the later levels where they took away the green-letter trick. That's when you write down all the clues, exit the game and hit the internet.

* The "Coin Drop" game on ''Minute To Win It". Since it's the million-dollar game, and the show doesn't change games until someone has won it, it's unlikely the top prize will be won (barring ExecutiveMeddling).

* ''EdEddNEddy the mis-[=EDventures=]'' (at least the non-GBA version) has [[strike:scam]] level three. the scam would not have been so bad if it was not for this. after you get past the first, yes the '''first''' obstacle, you get a cut scene where it turns out that some stupid birds put Jimmy's dolls up in some trees, so you have to get them out using the tower of Eddy and put them in the sandbox. now when you drop something, it comes back where it was before you got it. not here. instead, you have to ''[[NoJustNo start the whole task all over]]'' that does not seem so bad, but [[MoralEventHorizon the programmers put in these squirrels (yes, animals are your enemies) that come out of the trees and attack you.]] but if they attack you, you ''drop the freaking doll that you were trying to get in the sandbox and you have to start the thing all over''.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/That_One_Level_4414.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Welcome to hell. Enjoy your stay.]]

[[quoteright:350:[[KaizoMarioWorld http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Kaizolevel_6603.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The blocks look safe, but they're probably programmed to give Mario radon poisoning or something.]]

*** What makes it even MORE annoying is that unlike other objects in the relevant stages, the cow and bear items WON'T vanish when they get too small to affect your Katamari's size. This means that it's possible to have an 8M Katamari poke against a tiny windup bear or bottle of milk that is small enough as to be invisible, and have the level instantly end.

***** In BK the Roller Roaster level is doubly hard if you're going for HundredPercentComplation, in which case this level has some unique items that you have to be pretty large to get. So you have to balance your temperature with what you pick up and as soon as you get the item you need to make sure you have enough stuff around to finish the stage. Also, the last level where you need to stay away from the black hole until you're large enough to pick it up rather than get sucked into it is like this. Once again, not needed to beat the game but for achievements.

* The four words that can make any good ''{{Lemmings}}'' player pull their hair out down to the last follicle: [[IronicNurseryTune We All Fall Down]]. Four levels of the same thing, one in each skill tier. One long, high platform that the lemmings start on (with twenty more lemmings added for each skill tier), one long platform below leading to the ship. And all you need to do is dig. It seems simple, until you realize that ''every single lemming '''must dig''''' or else they will fall to the lower platform and splatter horridly. If they are even ''one pixel'' above the very bottom of the upper platform when they fall, they splat. This puts space to dig at a premium. Oh, and to top off this wonderful tribute to utter masochism, you must save ''every lemming'', or else you can't go on. On Fun? Pretty easy and quick. You will maybe fail twice. On Mayhem, try 80. Without missing one or running out of dig space.
** Mm, that's overstating things a tad... rather than the lemmings dying if they fall from even one pixel above the bottom of the platform, in most versions they will actually ''live'' if they fall from one pixel ''below the top'' of the platform. Thus a popular shortcut through the later versions of the level in Taxing (60 lemmings) and Mayhem (80 lemmings) is to crank the release rate (which needs to be done anyway due to time restrictions - as with many candidates for ThatOneLevel in Lemmings, the clock can be your worst enemy even when you know how to solve the level) and have every second lemming dig, so that the non-diggers will reach the diggers at the moment they break through and fall down with them.
** Also, on several versions (such as the Mac), one digger can release another if its horizontal position is one pixel away. Use this to make a little step, and the level is solved with two diggers! And on the Windows version, it's even easier: [[GoodBadBugs the fall isn't high enough to kill the lemmings, so you don't need to do anything]]!
** However, the Mac version has its own ThatOneLevel, "The Steel Mines of Kessel". Bombers are your only terrain-removing skill, and you need to save 90%. The Mac version has a limit of 80 lemmings instead of 100, and on this level they forgot to adjust the percentage to correspond, so the result is you can lose only eight instead of the intended ten. The kicker? Three "thorns" in the terrain that weren't intended to block the lemmings actually will on the Mac version, so you have to use bombers to bypass them and get through the rest with ''even fewer''.
** The penultimate level is also pretty bad. You have to build the instant you hit the ground a few times in a row. The lemming drops off the ledge onto one pixel. and you must click with frame perfect timing or lose the level. It's one thing to have a difficult level, but this one just throws in a couple of cheap shots at the end. it's obvious what do do, but nearly impossible to actually do it.
** There's also Mayhem Level 21, "With a twist of lemming please". In the level's original version as Tricky Level 12, "Bitter Lemming", you have enough Builders that it is easy to stop the initial fall from being fatal to non-Floaters in fairly short order. But in the second version, you had just enough Builders to create the path to the exit, so all 50 lemmings must be turned into Floaters straight out of the gate. Miss one, and you have to start the level over. But that's not the end... once you send a lemming on ahead to build the bridges to the exit, you must bash through the wall of the pit under the entrance to reach the bridges - and you only have one Basher. Click on a lemming facing away from the wall instead of toward it - which is very easy to do in a pit of 49 lemmings with no way of selecting a specific one (or, for that matter, seeing which way any of them are facing) - and you have to start the level over.
** Most players have their own personal Waterloo with that game... little surprise that a common pastime for fans of the game is to gather as many Lemmings as they can in a tiny space and activate the [[KillEmAll Nuke]] button.
** There are a number of levels specific to the Genesis version of ''Lemmings'' (which has ''six'' difficulty settings instead of just four for a total of 180 levels) which could qualify as That One Level. Just to name a few:
*** Present Level 29, "Private room available". Two lemmings forge the path through the level while the other eighteen must be separated into individual chambers and each must then dig through the very centre of the chamber floor - too far off centre and either they will fall to their deaths or they will dig through their neighbour's wall creating another fatal fall.
*** SUNSOFT Level 23, "Move on in two separate groups". This requires a series of quickfire bashing and building manoeuvres within the first few seconds to set everything up properly.
*** SUNSOFT Level 27, "Two heads are better". Three bombers must be activated so that they blow through three platforms in such a way that a fourth Lemming can fall through the holes and walk to the exit - get the positioning slightly wrong and either the later bombers will fall to their deaths before they blow up or one or more of the lemmings will walk into a spinning incinerator.
*** SUNSOFT Level 29, "I am A.T". This essentially requires creating a diagonal staircase of Diggers to allow Lemmings to climb out of a pit and walk to the exit - except that as they reach the top, they must be turned into Diggers to keep the staircase climbable, and even if you get the pattern down, you might not quite save enough Lemmings by the time the top of the staircase dips below the top of the final platform.

[[caption-width-right:350:The blocks look safe, but they're probably programmed to give Mario radiation poisoning or something.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:The blocks look safe, but they're probably programmed to give Mario radon poisoning or something.]]

* ''Incredible Crisis'', a [[MinigameGame minigame compilation]]/[[WidgetSeries widget game]] on the PS1, featured a very annoying level just before its halfway point where the player character has to match the weight of a golden piggy bank with the contents of her shopping bag, Indiana Jones style. Even worse, the player is given less and less time to solve the problem after each subsequent failure, and seriously, who the hell wants to do ''math'' in a ''party game''?!