History Main / ThatOneLevel

* Other

* ''Series/RuPaulsDragRace'' has two particular recurring challenges that are dreaded by different sets of queens (those who excel in one usually dread the other). First is the "random scraps" challenge, where the queens are tasked with constructing an outfit out of unconventional materials such as dollar store junk, holiday decorations, ''organic vegetables'', etc. Sometimes it's its own challenge, other times it's part of the larger "____ Ball," where the queens have to present three looks based on a theme with one made of random scraps. Second is "The Snatch Game," a ''Series/MatchGame'' parody where the queens have to impersonate a celebrity and try their best at improv comedy. Queens whose wheelhouse is fashion and design almost always do well in the random scraps challenge, but are likely to bomb the Snatch Game because it requires lightning-fast comedy reflexes, while the reverse is true for comedic queens focused more on humor than their look. While more than one queen has won the season despite failing one of these challenges, queens who do well in both are almost certain to make it to the finale, as they posses the key skills [=RuPaul=] is looking for.[[note]]To date, the only contestant to actually ''win'' both challenges was US Season 6's [=BenDeLaCreme=], but she was eliminated right before the finale despite being a fan-favorite.[[/note]]

[-[[caption-width-right:350:''Aeris is reminded why she stopped playing these games.''[[note]]L - R: "Can't Wait To Be King" from ''VideoGame/TheLionKing'', "The High Road" from ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot1996'', "Meat Circus" from ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}''.[[/note]]]]-]

[[folder:Stealth-Based Game]]
* ''VideoGame/Hitman2SilentAssassin'' has a level called Hidden Valley, where the sole objective is to get from one end of a valley to the other, evading swarms of ninja guards. This isn't actually all that hard in itself. However, the highly trained ninjas apparently do not have the slightest understanding of basic road safety and have a habit of getting themselves run over by the truck convoys going through the underground tunnel. This would invariably result in the body being discovered and the alarm being raised, ruining the player's chances of getting the top mission ranking of [[HundredPercentCompletion Silent Assassin]] through no fault of their own. This would happen about four times out of five and could happen at any point in the mission, even when you were just seconds from reaching the exit. The only solution was to just keep trying again and again and hoping you got lucky.
** The Motorcade Interception mission of ''Hitman 2'' is an exercise in hair-pulling because of the way the civilians are handled. Their starting positions and walking routes are randomized, and they run to get the nearest guard immediately if they see you with a weapon. This is mitigated somewhat by the fact that without a weapon, they don't even notice you exist. Unfortunately, this is a sniping mission, so you have to carry a rifle from either the start of the level or your contact elsewhere to the nest. AND you're liable to get noticed while you're waiting in the nest for the motorcade to pass by, AND it's quite possible to go through all of this and then miss the shot anyway. This is especially annoying if you're trying for Silent Assassin rating.
* ''VideoGame/Hitman2016'''s "Freedom Fighters". All the [=NPCs=], excluding the targets and hackers, are armed and the entire map is hostile. There are 4 targets, who, along with being bland compared to the previous targets, are spaced out, forcing you to run from one point of the map to the other. If that was not bad enough, the game forces you to infiltrate a house and break into the basement to leave.
* ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' series:
** Building 2 in ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' was a pretty creative, if difficult, level in itself, with various types of gameplay depending on what floor you're in (straight-up stealth, running away from pursuers, shooting, a maze, and so on), but was ruined by one piece of bad level design which makes the whole thing like pulling teeth. This is that one of the elevators will only go up, and the other elevator will only go down. It doesn't help that the radio gets jammed, so you can't even send or receive calls until getting antenna.
** There's a lot of hate for the passageway between the Zanzibar Building and the Tower Building in ''VideoGame/MetalGear2''. First of all, the obstacles range from boring, to annoying, to boring and annoying. It doesn't help that the boss in the area is the Running Man, who is also really boring - you don't even get to shoot him, and you beat him by running in a circle quickly enough to lay mines before your O2 meter runs out.
** The very [[OverlyLongGag insanely, long stairway]] in the communications tower of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid''. [[CutsceneIncompetence You CAN'T avoid getting spotted]] by a security camera, even when the "Throw a chaff grenade before entering new doors" worked before, forcing Snake to run up an insanely long flight of stairs, being chased by a shitload of enemies--in a game where it's usually suicide to take on more then three or four enemies at a time. Oh yes, there's also the GuideDangIt that if you ran out of the room with the camera instead of rushing for the stairs, you're stuck in an infinitely respawning chamber with no way out (it's probably a glitch, but {{unwinnable}} until you reload). Even after mowing all the enemies down, the towers are still irritating for the insanely long time it takes to go up and down it, even when Snake's running.
*** Made even worse in the Gamecube remake, ''The Twin Snakes''. Try making a "no kill" run while being chased up the stairs by an endless swarm of mooks. At least it averts CutsceneIncompetence by forcing you to go through an unavoidable laser detector instead of using chaff-proof cameras.
** In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'', the worst part of the game is when Raiden gets his clothes taken away and has to sneak through Arsenal Gear while avoiding Arsenal Tengu (who are ten times more alert and dangerous than the Gurlukovich mercs).
** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'' has Act 3, an Eastern European level that focuses on the player tailing a resistance member. Instead of a normal sneaking mission, it plays like an EscortMission where the escortee will run away and spend a good while hiding if he sees the player but will gladly approach any [=PMCs=] just to make sure the player stays busy. The resistance member tends to take a strange route in any case, and will resort to backtracking or running in circles if disturbed by anything. The entire process is going to take a while.
*** Averted if you use any of the masks other than Young Snake with the civilian outfit. The resistance members won't regard Snake as hostile, and if you let any of the [=PMCs=] pat you down without weapons equipped, they'll ignore you as well, which makes that part of the level loads easier.
*** While the aforementioned escort segment is frustrating, on The Boss Extreme it pales in comparison to the bike chase that follows it -- especially when going for a no-kill Big Boss Emblem run. It requires an absurd combination of precision, memorization, timing, and luck.
** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVGroundZeroes'' has one side-mission that pretty much stands above them all in terms of sheer difficulty and that is the "Destroy the Anti-Air Emplacements" mission. At the beginning, it starts with the normal phase, but right as you walk further through the map or wait a few moments Miller triggers an announcement to you that results in a '''permanent''' Caution Phase throughout the mission, and while it isn't too taxing on Normal difficulty, on Hard difficulty it gets [[UpToEleven amped up to absurd levels]] with the addition of the aforementioned perma-caution. Enemy soldiers can practically spot you from a ludicrous range, even when crouch-walking which fortunately normally just makes them suspicious-spot you, but that's '''still''' from a fairly far distance as they can easily "'''!'''" spot you even when crouch-walking due to their increased sight range coupled with the perma-caution, so throughout most of the mission you'll be crawling/rolling to avoid triggering the Alert Phase. If that wasn't enough, even after eliminating three Anti-Air Emplacements you're suddenly given the additional task of eliminating a fully-functioning autocannon-equipped [[AwesomePersonnelCarrier APC]] vehicle before you can leave the area so if you don't have enough C4 to either set up a potent-enough trap to destroy it or enough recoilless rifle rounds to finish it off after triggering the trap then you'll have to do it '''[[HereWeGoAgain all over again]]''' when attempting to S-Rank the mission, which is a '''gargantuan pain in the ass''' and you'll most likely have to extract all prisoners, '''including''' the one held deep in the Admin Building interior where [[spoiler: Paz]] is located during the main story mission, which can spell doom for the slightest error if an enemy soldier around the tight-knit corners manages to successfully spot you and trigger the Alert Phase. All-in-all, it's the most potent test of hair-pulling frustration in this chapter when attempting to S-Rank it on Hard difficulty, for '''damn good reason'''.
** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'' has a few.
** Mission 16. You have to extract a truck from a convoy. Sounds pretty simple. With two armored vehicles protecting it, plus an escort jeep. Still not too bad. But sneak around the vehicles or reach the target before they arrive? The [[spoiler: Skulls]] show up the moment you get close to the truck. Their attacks can easily ruin your Fulton extraction attempts, and they will not hesitate to smash and shoot up their own truck trying to reach you, resulting in mission failure. And even if you do manage to Fulton the truck out, have fun dealing with them or escaping from what you thought would be just a quick mission involving a couple of vehicles.
** Mission 45. You have to go to Afghanistan to retrieve [[spoiler:Quiet after she leaves your base and is captured by the Soviet soldiers]]. Normally you'd think this would be a mission that would emphasize stealth and equip yourself accordingly. You'd be completely wrong. Instead you get hit by wave after wave of soldiers, gunships, and tanks, while being equipped with a weak Grom the game forces on you, forced to survive long enough for supplies to be dropped in. And if you didn't bother researching more powerful weapons and body armor? The game won't let you quit and start over from your ACC to do so, not unless you fulton yourself out on top of a container, which is neither easy to do under those circumstances nor something the game makes clear to you. It becomes a bit easier if you have forewarning and the right equipment, but you'll still have to face those waves of increasingly accurate armor.
* ''VideoGame/{{Thief}}'' had "The Haunted Cathedral". You're exploring ruins of an abandoned section of town filled with irritating undead, and any valuables worth stealing are ''very'' well hidden and difficult to find. You're likely to finish the main objectives within twenty minutes, and then spend the next hour or two searching every nook and cranny of the quite large level for enough loot to trigger the end, while constantly having to deal with zombies (which are not nearly as fun to work around as human guards). In general, any level in which you're dodging undead tends to be annoying, but at least loot is generally easier to find in them.
* ''VideoGame/SecondSight'' has Entrapped. Part [[DownTheDrain Sewer level]], part EscortMission, all painful, especially if you are trying to do it stealthily and with no kills. Checkpoints are few and far between, the enemies are heavily armed soldiers that come in large groups and tend to spawn in behind you, the level is linear with very few hiding spots and full of water puddles that will make you leave footprints and give away your position if you are invisible, and you have to escort Jayne the whole way through, who, unlike the other escorts in the game, is completely unarmed. At least she doesn't have to be calmed down every time she is saved, unlike the previous escort mission with her.
* ''VideoGame/SplinterCell'' series:
** ''Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow'' has Jerusalem. For most of the level, you aren't allowed to be seen or kill anybody AT ALL. If a civilian or police officer so much as catches a glimpse of you, it's a instant game over, and the level is also full of light sources which make getting through it a nightmare. Even once you get to the part where you are allowed to be seen and kill enemies, three of them are waiting right outside the elevator for you as soon it opens and will quickly ventilate you if you don't knock out or kill them immediately. Even once you get past that, depending on if [[spoiler: you kill Dahlia or not]], you have to deal with either snipers who can kill you in 2 or 3 hits and alert very quickly, or more police officers you aren't allowed to kill or be seen by.
** ''Pandora Tomorrow'' also has the following level, Kundang Camp. It starts out in the daytime, which naturally makes it much harder to remain unnoticed. It doesn't help that the vast majority of the level is spent outdoors in wide-open areas with sparse cover, placed in such a way that you have to be ''perfect'' with how you time your movements between the shadows. No less than two minutes after the level begins, you're also faced with a section where you must use your thermal vision to navigate around ''incredibly fine'' tripwires hidden by the grass that are hooked up to instant-kill landmines, while simultaneously avoiding more guards. Then the entire second section of the level has you following the BigBad all over a mazelike compound, and like Jerusalem, you're not allowed to be seen by ''anyone''. The level ''seems'' to get easier once you head into an underground bunker, but once you get back outside it ratchets back up again as you are faced with ''more'' wide-open areas, now with lasers all over the place. On top of all that, the level [[MarathonLevel goes on for an eternity]], with [[CheckpointStarvation checkpoints few and far between]], so any mistake is liable to make you re-do up to five or ten minutes of gameplay.
** The third part of the penultimate level of ''Chaos Theory'', the Bathhouse, is particularly difficult, even when compared to the rest of that level. The entire level has a confusing layout with well-lit rooms connected by narrow hallways, but as soon as [[spoiler: [[BigBad Shetland]] and the ISDF]] betray each other, the level gets much harder, as he's accompanied by EliteMooks with thermal vision goggles that renders stealth pretty much useless around them. At first, they're occupied enough to bypass them, but you eventually come across a room full of them and you cannot sneak around them - and while you could just run past them instead, there's a wall mine that'll kill you if you rush through the hall you have to go through - but you can't slow down either, or else the mooks will shoot you in the back. After this exchange, there's a TimedMission with bombs you have to defuse. They're difficult to find, and after you've finished that, there's more EliteMooks to fight.
** The level immediately preceding the above, Seoul, is no slouch either. The entire level takes place in a warzone, meaning that all the enemies are automatically on high alert and will start shooting if they so much as see your shadow, and there is no alert music, so you won't know when they've seen you until they are actively shooting you. The first part of the level is actually fairly easy, but then it pulls a BaitAndSwitch and unexpectedly segues into a whole second part. Here you are introduced to [=UAVs=], floating death machines with chainguns which are likely to blindside a first-time player, though mercifully they're not that hard to avoid - destroying them outright requires precision aiming, but they fly in easily-predictable fixed patterns and can be temporarily disabled with your OCP attachment. The level gets ''really'' hard once you run into soldiers shooting each other across a street, with the enemy side boasting a tank with a machine gun that can snipe you from a mile away, and sneaking along the ledges to the other end of the street without being noticed by it seems to be a LuckBasedMission. Furthermore, the only way to permanently disable them and complete a bonus objective for doing so is to chuck a frag grenade down the gunner's hatch, which requires a surprising amount of accuracy and is likely to provoke at least one reload, though fortunately you don't ''have'' to disable them - yes, ''them''. There's ''another'' one right at the very end.
** The PC/360/[=PS3=] version of ''Double Agent'' has the Sea of Okhotsk, especially when going for 100% stealth. Even though you are in a blizzard and can barely see anything five feet in front of you, due to the the enemy AI not factoring in the blizzard, it acts as if you are running around in broad daylight and so the enemies can see you at ranges you can barely even see them at, if you can see them at all. One objective requires you to hack and activate a brightly lit detonator in the middle of a camp to open the way up to the next portion of the level, and another forces you to knock out or kill a certain amount of enemies once you get aboard the ship. Also, once you get to the Captain and have to knock him out or kill him, he wanders around with a flare on a metal catwalk above a ton of oil and tends to turn suddenly, and you have to grab him from behind without making him even so much as suspicious. If he catches even a glimpse of you or you eliminate him without grabbing him from behind, he will throw the flare into the oil and kill you instantly in a huge explosion.
** The same game also has its own penultimate level, Kinshasa. The first section of the level at the hotel is doable if challenging, but once that's done you leave the hotel and enter the warzones outside. The rest of the mission plays out like a rehash of Seoul mentioned above, except it takes place in broad daylight and nearly ''every part of the level'' is mired in heavy fighting, forcing you to rush from cover to cover - and specifically-placed cover at that - lest you get slapped in the face by an enemy that just ran in from out of nowhere. You can skip a fair amount by hitching a ride on an army truck, [[GuideDangIt but the game gives no indication you can actually do that]]. Then you wind up in a government camp where going completely unnoticed is pretty much impossible. Finally, if you choose to [[spoiler: save Hisham rather than shoot him]], you have to slog through another section of the level that you would have skipped otherwise - and [[spoiler: saving Hisham]] is mandatory if you want the GoldenEnding but are running low on NSA trust [[spoiler: or you blew up the cruise ship in the last mission.]]
** The Gamecube/Wii/[=PS2=]/Xbox version of ''Double Agent'' has JBA HQ Part 2. Most of the mission consists of exploring a bunker full of narrow, well-lit tunnels with guards patrolling through them. This is already tough enough to get through, but the Red Mercury room in the Xbox version is by far the hardest part of the game to do 100% stealth. There are two guards patrolling the room in really tight patterns, one in Emile's office, which you have to sneak into, is well lit, and the cabinet is against the window which the other guard can see you through, and another on the ground level who sometimes go up a left ramp. You have to get a sample of Red Mercury from the center of the room, which requires first either hacking the keypad or using a password from the computers up the left ramp, then actually going up to it and scanning it. The problem? The ENTIRE CENTER OF THE ROOM IS FULLY LIT WITH NO COVER EXCEPT A THIN CABINET ON THE LEFT SIDE and the scanning takes a good 7 seconds to do, during which you are standing still and are fully exposed to the two guards in the room, and you have to quickly escape the room through an air vent on the right side as the front door closes and the room fills with gas. If you don't have the reflexes and timing of a god, you WILL get seen there. And it's not over after that if you are going for the good ending, as you'll have to defuse two bombs under a time limit. The one on the roof is easy to deal with, but the one in the docks has 4 guards patrolling the area who get suspicious really quickly, and the area is rather well lit and has some security cameras to deal with. Also, chances are that after you defuse the first bomb, your NSA trust will go completely to the right and will force you to report to Emile at the beginning of the level, wasting some of the precious time on the bomb timer. Good luck beating this mission with nobody knocked out.
** ''Blacklist'' has Swiss Embassy, Charlie's second mission. Unlike the other Charlie missions which are at least decently large, open and have some good hiding spots, Swiss Embassy is small, linear, and has very few hiding spots, so enemies will quickly detect you. Enemies also tend to come in larger groups earlier in this mission than other Charlie missions, and the later waves are a absolute nightmare to get through, with [[DemonicSpiders Dogs and Heavy Infantry]] everywhere in small, well-lit and enclosed spaces, which even includes Heavy Infantry [=HVTs=] with riot shields. Even worse, the enemies tend to spawn on opposite sides of the map from each other in this mission, so if you want to get a mastery in the first five waves through comboing (Possible in each of Charlie's missions) before all the painful stuff comes in, you better have some good reflexes and luck.
* ''[[VideoGame/{{Tenchu}} Tenchu 2]]'':
** There are two mandatory stealth missions, one with Ayame and one with Tatsumaru. While stealth is an important aspect of the series as a whole, a skilled player can still hack and slash their way through most levels. Not these ones : if a guard spots you, he will blow a whistle and it's an instant GameOver for you. [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard Even if he notices you right as you bury your sword in their throat]].
** Tatsumaru's final mission: you are on a ''huge'' warship, and your objective is to kill every single enemy soldier aboard. Problem is, ''you have absolutely no way to know how many enemies there are'', which means you will spend a ''lot'' of time running around looking for them, hoping with every throat sliced to ''finally'' see the next cutscene after the body drops. But that's not the end of it! Once the ship is cleared, you get to the FinalBoss: a fully armored, DualWielding samurai who hits like a truck and has more health than every other final boss in the game. And if he kills you, ''you need to start the whole level over again!'' And since there is no way to restock on healing items once the level is started, hopefully you didn't get hit too much clearing out the enemy soldiers on the boat.

[[folder:Survival Horror]]
* ''VideoGame/AlienIsolation'':
** Mission 5, The Quarantine. As the first serious confrontation with a xenomorph that will relentlessly stalk you everywhere, the insidious layout means that many players met an impressive spike in difficulty the first time they played it. The level is divided in two areas: the first one has very few hideouts, most of them have an exposed side, there are wide pathways where the alien can easily see you, you are forced to move and turn around corners and spend time digiting a passcode; the second areas on the contrary has a lot of good spots for hiding, but it's really narrow and claustrophobic, and you can't easily see where the alien is going or how much it's close, chances are that if you slow down you will trap yourself because you hide in a point where it's difficult to get out without crossing the alien. There are however one EasyLevelTrick and a shortcut for more advanced players.
** Mission 9, not for its difficulty but because it's an interactive flashback without action or enemies, it's long, you can't skip it during a full run and it becomes boring after you replay it for the umpteenth time.
** Mission 15 is probably one of the most, if not ''the'' most nerve-racking moment in the game. [[spoiler:Although the xenomorph is gone, you have to make your way to the reactor core of the [[SpaceStation Sevastopol Station]] to find out what's wrong with it, on various paths that are crawling with either [[DemonicSpiders Working Joes]], [[GoddamnedBats hostile humans]], or [[ThisIsGonnaSuck both]]. At one point, you have to leave your firearms behind, practically leaving you defenseless, and most if not all the Working Joes you'll encounter then wear hazmat suits, making them immune to EMP grenades and the stun baton. You eventually get your weapons back, plus a new one that can dispatch even the hazmat Joes in one shot, but then you get to the base of the reactor. The base is ''crawling'' with hazmat Joes and, depending on the difficulty, you'll might not have enough resources to dispatch each of them. Things go FromBadToWorse when you finally actually get to the reactor core itself, in which it turns out there's a whole ''hive'' of xenomorphs down there]].
* ''VideoGame/ObsCure: The Aftermath'' sort of does this with Mei's sister, Jun. It's almost painful enough [[spoiler:to just let her die before she goes into it.]]
* ''VideoGame/OutlastII'' has the notorious school segments. In a game that's already difficult thanks to its TrialAndErrorGameplay, the school segments are the absolute worst since they're very directionless in spite of the more linear setting. Your objective is literally just finding a way out of the school, with no clues as to ''how''. Plus, it's easy to go through a lot of batteries since the school is largely in complete darkness. Things go FromBadToWorse in later segments when the [[HumanoidAbomination Stalker]] starts making appearances, who can only be evaded by literally just running away from it.
* ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'':
** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilZero'' has the segment where you must rescue Rebecca after she's left dangling above a BottomlessPit from a zombie monkey attack. You have to run through an area you've never explored before, fight your way through a pair of the monkeys who you've yet to fight (which are DemonicSpiders to boot), and spot the well-camouflaged path to the right that's difficult to see in favor of a door right in front of you that leads to a dead-end. It doesn't help either that it's a TimedMission (which, admittedly, you probably wouldn't know about since the time limit is pretty generous).
** In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilCodeVeronica'', there is a sequence where you're forced to run away from a giant mutant zombie chasing you down a hallway while swinging a giant axe. It's extremely difficult to avoid getting hit, and if you're low on herbs/first aid sprays, it's practically impossible to pass this part since one hit knocks your health from "Fine" to "Danger", and you move slower as you get hurt. Restarting the game is painful as well since this sequence happens late in the game.
** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' has several of them:
*** The pathway towards the village, and by extension the village itself, can be this to inexperienced players. All you have is a basic pistol and a knife[[note]]Easy mode allows the player to have a shotgun as well, however[[/note]], and you'll find yourself being attacked by whole groups of enemies for most of the level (two of which have chainsaws that can OneHitKill you). Did we mention this is also the ''[[EarlyGameHell very first level]]''?
*** The cabin fight. You're bombarded by an endless horde of enemies coming from six different directions in a tightly spaced cabin, and the battle will literally only end once ''forty'' enemies are killed. You have Luis to provide some backup, but that, unfortunately, won't be enough.
*** The chapter immediately following the cabin fight is a pain as well, since you'll likely be drained of all your ammo. You're given the option of trekking between two areas: one area is absolutely ''crawling'' with enemies and includes a mini-boss fight with the chainsaw-wielding Bella Sisters. The other area is just one single pathway with little huts full of ammo and money. The catch, however, is that you'll have to deal with [[GiantMook El Gigante]][[note]]if you can grab the key to unlock the door on the other end fast enough, he can be skipped[[/note]]. Lastly, to get out of the village, you must battle [[LightningBruiser Bitores Mendez]] to obtain his glass eye.
*** You get the "Water Room", a water-themed, three-part PlatformHell which you must navigate from one end to another while [[BrokenBridge fixing a bridge you shouldn't have to in the first place]] and [[SnipingMission sniping respawning enemies from afar]] who will otherwise provide you with a [[GameOver sudden game over]] should you fail to [[EscortMission protect the president's daughter]], which you have to do at all costs, at all times. Oh, there's also the Ganado cultists throwing [[SuddenDeath instant death]] at you. [[EverythingTryingToKillYou Everything is quite literally trying to kill you]]. The fact that the level is water-themed may qualify as an UnderTheSea level, considering how infamously difficult ''those'' are.
*** There's also the first fight against Jack Krauser, which is one big QuickTimeEvent that results in instant death should you press the wrong button combination at the wrong second. Although you frequently deal with these throughout the game, this fight strings so many of them together that the result is an arduous UnexpectedGameplayChange. The fact that the buttons are randomly generated each time doesn't help much.
*** The wrecking ball room. You must use a wrecking ball to destroy a wall that's blocking the exit. However, while doing so, you must face up against a seemingly endless horde of enemies that either wear armor, having crossbows, [[DemonicSpiders are the ones who can spawn the plagas]], or a combination thereof. Combine that with having to protect Ashley the entire time and the room itself being slightly cramped.
** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5'':
*** From the ending of chapter 5 onwards, changes from "Majini" to "Majini with assault rifles". Which is especially horrible since you can't run with a gun ''but the enemy can''. Good luck.
*** There's lots of difficult parts in this game that can cause you to get stuck for an hour or two. One part that stands out is a section near the end of the game, where you have to fight two Reapers that attack at the same time. They both have instakill attacks and require you to aim at specific body parts to kill them. And a few moments after the giant insects appear, two Gatling Majini (who have massive hitpoints) and a huge amount of melee Majini come to attack you, and it's mandatory to kill the two Gatling Majini. Better kill the Reapers quickly or you'll have to face all of them at the same time.
*** You are required at one point to navigate through underground tunnels, and if playing single player and you don't know you can have the AI partner carry the lantern, you get stuck with it instead. You will find enemies in these tunnels and you will need the lantern to see them, but to kill them, you need to put down that lantern to use your weapon.
** In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil6'', you not only see zombies, but also gun-wielding enemies, without being able to run and shoot. The highly irritating J'avo form the main enemies of two campaigns, and most of Ada's campaign -- plus, they have AdaptiveAbility to make them even more of a threat.
*** The second mission in Jake's campaign. First, you have to find three data chips in a snowstorm where, guess what? The visibility will frequently drop out due to the swirling snow. Some of the enemies faced include very stealthy flying enemies, who don't need the snowstorm to hide from you before attacking. This gives way to a retread of the siege from ''4'' that then triggers a tricky downhill snowbike race ahead of an avalanche. And then there's the ParanoiaFuel chapter, where you have to find your way through caves filled with tracker-bugs that will summon the [[ImplacableMan Ustanak]] for an instant-kill game over if they spot you or an asshole/idiotic player-controlled partner uses their firearm instead of stealth-killing the tracker-bugs, then ultimately fail to hide in the dumpster before Ustanak arrives to the last place a tracker-bug/firearm went off, and even then hiding won't always save you if you exploit it too much as Ustanak connects the dots after hiding three or more times in the same dumpster in the same area...
*** Then there's the infamous "Catwalk Escape from Haos" event during Chris' campaign which seems that the one ahead of another partner seems to heavily influence the rate at which Haos uproots sections of the catwalks you'll be running on. Hope you're good to race against a ''very mean'' ai-controlled/player-controlled partner, otherwise you'll be dying ''a lot''.
** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil7Biohazard'' has the segments where you [[spoiler:play as Mia]], thanks to encountering enemies before you can even find a weapon, the lack of plentiful health items, and having no absolute way to tell how much damage you've taken. The flashback sequences aren't too bad since you actually start off with weapons, but said weapons aren't particularly strong and you'll be encountering perpetual waves of enemies along the way.
** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilVillage'' has several, depending on the difficulty:
*** The first segment of the game where you get bombarded by Lycans isn't terribly difficult on lower difficulties, but is an absolute nightmare on higher difficulties where Lycans are ''much'' more stronger, faster, and durable. Depending on whether or not you're playing on a NewGamePlus, all the player gets throughout the whole attack is a weak knife, a basic pistol, and a shotgun with minimum ammo. Not even blocking the Lycans' attacks are guaranteed to keep you from going down in two-to-three hits, and the Lycans will only stop showing up until a certain amount of time has passed.
*** The stronghold is a short level, but you will get hit by a ''literally'' neverending swarm of Lycans until the level is completed. There's also the fight with [[KingMook Uriaș]], who is a hard-hitting DamageSpongeBoss who will sometimes summon Lycans as backup.
*** [[spoiler:Chris' section]] can be annoying since, [[RunningGag once again]], you're bombarded with swarms of Lycans and your weapons only have a limited amount of ammo to take care of them without the high possibility of getting cornered. It's far worse on harder difficulties, due to the Lycans' increased health.
* ''[[VideoGame/SilentHill4 Silent Hill 4: The Room]]'' famously leaves players stuck in the "Water Prison" level because of ThatOnePuzzle, which is [[LightAndMirrorsPuzzle light-based]] and requires [[MoonLogicPuzzle the use of improbable logic to solve it]]. Throw in an EscortMission, a PuzzleBoss and [[ImplacableMan the invincible ghost of an undead vicious serial killer]] during a revisit and it nicely sums up the appeal of the "Water Prison". The fact that half of it seems to be buried underwater grants it an UnderTheSea difficulty setting.
* ''VideoGame/TheThing2002'' has a stage almost identical to ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'''s staircase sequence, except you're going down, there are automatic turrets on every level (that can take up to five grenade hits to destroy), scalding steam vents, seemingly endless streams of [[GoddamnBats scuttling creatures]] that pop out of dead bodies (and attack you from front and behind), and the medic, your only hope of surviving the stage, turns into a monster at random points. If you don't have enough health packs on you, or enough firepower, it's [[UnintentionallyUnwinnable impossible]] to get through the stage. And at the end of this stage there's a bomb that kills all of your squadmates, and destroys their gear. If you don't have a flamethrower at the end of the level, you will [[NintendoHard NOT be able to complete the game]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Penumbra}}'' has Chemical Storage in ''Overture.'' It's not just because you'll be chased by a worm through doors you'll have to shut behind you, through barriers that will make you stop and take time to break them down, and over pools of deadly acid that require jumping and box pushing to avoid injury. [[spoiler: It's that there's Schmuck Bait in the form of a metal barrier that tempts you into thinking it can hide you from the worm. Worse, at the end of the area you might think it's possible to have enough time to turn the valve and open the steel door, but in reality you're supposed to cause a cave-in.]]
* ''VideoGame/AmnesiaTheDarkDescent'':
** The infamous Water Part, mostly because it's the first area of the game where something is relentlessly pursuing you and where you could most likely die your first time. Other than that, it involves platforming on boxes to prevent the monster from chasing you, using a lever that will open a gate for a limited time that you have to rush through. And a mad dash through multiple flooded hallways, shutting doors behind you to stall the monster for a few seconds.
** Also the prison has annoyed some people due to it being full of intersecting dark hallways where a Servant can ambush you. Also there are multiple Servants in this area.
** For first time players who made it past the first two Suitors, Amnesia: Justine has the Dungeon, and it will mostly likely be the place in which they die. Remember how easy it was to sneak around before due to the Suitors being blind? Guess what? The area is completely water-logged, so good luck trying to be quiet! The game forces you to move quickly as well due to the timing required, and there's literally no room for error, especially if the player wants to save the hostage. What makes it even worse is that the game's official ending is ''literally minutes away'' at that stage and that '''dying will mean starting over since there's no saving the game'''.
* ''VideoGame/ZombiesAteMyNeighbors'' has several. Not levels, but level ''types:''
** The water levels (Look Who's Coming To Dinner, Creatures Of The Blue Lagoon, etc,) after level 18 is when The Fishmen start getting fast, able to catch Zeke/Julie ''easily'' when they swim, and NO, you can't use weapons while swimming. Oh, and The Fishmen can kill The Pool Guy, ''with ease.''
** Levels with only one victim to save. This turns the level into a savage game of tug-a-war between TimedMission and LuckBasedMission, since if that victim happens to die it's an instant game over and it's not only possible but ''likely'' that an enemy will happen to kill them before you get there even if you make a beeline toward them the second the level begins. Worse, is that since the number of victims in a stage depends on how many you saved in the last one (letting two die in the last level means the next one has two less victims to save), it's entirely possible to have to deal with the water levels above with ''[[NintendoHard only one victim to save]].'' While you can reset the number of victims to save by loading from a password, this also [[ContinuingIsPainful costs you all of your weapons and items]] save for the starting level load-out of 300 water pistol shots, 2 first-aid kits, and 5 decoys. [[MortonsFork Pick your poison]].
* ''VideoGame/DeadSpace'': Chapters 3 and 4 both have stages where you will ''wish'' you could just be throwing down with a swarm of Leapers. In 3, there's the gravity centrifuge, which when engaged means you need to run through it - and if you're out of a niche when the blade comes along you're reduced to a red smear on the ground. In 4, at one point, there's an objective where you need to run from cover to cover in hard vacuum and zero-gravity to avoid an inconvenient meteor shower. The hint you get for this is vague and unhelpful - it talks about "the walls" but it's not actually the walls that save you - and being caught out in the open means you get a warning about meteor impacts about, ooh, one second before you get torn apart by one.
* For a game that is already NintendoHard if you have no idea what you're doing, part IV of ''Videogame/LakeviewCabinCollection'' is by far the most difficult of the levels. First off, the rooms in the house are randomized (but not crazily so). Secondly, while the enemies are weaker than most of the other levels, they make up for it by having alarm switches and traps. And last, any room with a vent has a likely chance for a giant rat to pop out, which move quickly and severely damage any survivor just shy of being a OneHitKill.
* ''VideoGame/CorpseParty'': [[spoiler:The one where you, as Yuka, have to run from Kizami.]]
* ''VideoGame/AloneInTheDark2008'':
** The insanely frustrating driving level down 59th Street in , because the steering is lousy. Though some believe the look and sound of that level make up for it.
** The driving section with the bats, coming soon afterwards, where they drag your car up (possibly to your doom) and/or stop sticking to it completely at random; the black goo, which might or might not react to your flashlight, eating you up; and that final driving section, timed, where it's plenty possible to miss the right turn at the end.
** Fixed in the [=PS3=] ''Inferno'' port. While the 59th Street driving section is still unlikely to be beat at first try, the improved controls, Sarah's giving you directions as well as there being checkpoints along the way actually render the whole sequence somewhat fun if still challenging.
* ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddysVRHelpWanted'' has the Plushbaby level, where you're tucked in the Prize Corner and have to fend off the eponymous murderous plushie with your flashlight. The problem? Oh, there's a number of them.
** There are multiple Plushbabies going after you, sometimes at the same time.
** There are over a dozen places they can spawn, and the only indicator that a new one had appeared is a sound that doesn't necessarily come from their direction.
** The Prize Corner is filled with toys they're hiding behind.
** The flashlight - the only source of light in the level - has limited battery life. Let it run out in full, and you have to wait precious seconds for it to recharge before you can use it again.
** And that's not to mention the Hard Mode version of the level, where [[spoiler:all the toys in the Prize Corner are Plushbabies, and you have to look for the ones with no iris in their eyes, as they're the only ones going after you.]]
* ''VideoGame/TheEvilWithin'' has three of them ''in a row'' no less:
** Chapter 9, though regarded as the best level in the game, is notorious for the fact that that's the chapter where [[BigBad Ruvik]] actively hunts the player down. Though Ruvik is slow, any contact with him is instant death and his AI is smart enough to teleport instantly towards you depending on the occasion. The worst part? His encounters are ''completely randomized''; there's absolutely no indication when or where he'll appear outside the screen turning blue and the background music changing.
** The following chapter, Chapter 10, has you slog through a dark maze-like setting that feels like a combination of all the worst parts of the game. Death traps are everywhere, enemies can get the jump on you when you least expect it, you'll have a few encounters with the [[BossInMookClothing Traumas]] (including a [[DuelBoss pair of them simultaneously]]), and eventually fight not one but ''two'' bosses that both extremely difficult due to their fast attacks and [[OneHitKill instant kills]].
** And the chapter following ''that'', though not as long, is absolutely annoying since there are enemies just about everywhere you go. Many of them are armed with melee weapons, crossbows, molotovs, dynamite, guns and some of them wear bulletproof armor. Then you'll have to face enemies where you can't necessarily fight back, such as dealing with a fish-like monster who will kill you the second it comes in contact with you.

[[folder:Trap-Em-Up]]
* ''VideoGame/TomAndJerryInHouseTrap'', a ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'', a "Trap-Em-Up" based on the ''ComicStrip/SpyVsSpy'' games, has the penultimate level, "Mechani-cat", widely considered to be the most difficult level in the game. For most of the game, the player plays as Jerry and goes up against Tom, who possesses the same abilities and attacks Jerry does. In "Mechani-cat" however, Tom is replaced with [[SNKBoss Mechano]] (from "Push-Button Kitty"), who possesses two incredibly powerful attacks: getting too close to it results in it biting Jerry, while trying to run from it results in it shooting at Jerry with cannonballs. Both attacks will shave off large portions of Jerry's health if they connect, and Mechano also runs faster than Jerry does, meaning it's very difficult to avoid taking damage. The only way to get it to stop chasing Jerry for any period of time is to distract it with mechanical mice, but you wouldn't know to activate them [[GuideDangIt unless you've watched the episode it's based on]]. It's so difficult that "Oodles for Toodles"[[note]]which brings Tom back as your opponent[[/note]], the ''actual'' final level of the game, is considered a BreatherLevel in comparison.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tower Defense Game]]
* Level 20 of ''[[VideoGame/CursedTreasure Cursed Treasure 2]]'' has two lighthouses (requiring seven cut-outs each to turn from {{Mook}}-aider to {{Mook}}-bane), two MookMaker pirate ships (requiring ten cut-outs each to sink), and only two tiles for ultra-powerful crypts (one of which needs the forest removed with cut-out and a nearby sacred stone removed with three cut-outs before you can build on it), and two waterlanes for flying and swimming foes (especially the unfrightenable [[HumongousMecha Iron Guards]] which you probably won't have enough {{Mana}} left to take out with a meteor because of all the cut-outs, unless [[LuckBasedMission slain foes dropped a lot of mana potions]]). And the original version had no mana pool.
[[/folder]]

[[AC:StealthBasedGame]]

[[AC:SurvivalHorror]]

[[AC:Trap-Em-Up]]

[[AC:TowerDefence Games]]
* ''VideoGame/BloonsTowerDefense'' has its [[ThatOneLevel/BloonsTowerDefense own article]]. Ninja Kiwi loves themselves a challenge.

[[AC:VisualNovel]]

[[AC:Mobile Games]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Ingress}}'': That one portal. The one located in the middle of nowhere. In that one valley where only one cell phone user in 100 is able to get a useful signal. That person is a member of the other faction and visits that one portal every other day to recharge it and to harvest more portal keys. Portal keys they eagerly and freely share with their opposition faction friends who all keep that portal remotely charged and linked with other cross-aligned portals.

!! Non-Video Game Examples

[[AC:Live-Action TV]]

[[AC:TabletopGame]]

[[AC:Webcomic]]

[[AC:Web Video]]

!!Other video game examples

[[AC:CardGame]]

[[AC:DiggingGame]]

[[AC:EdutainmentGame]]

[[AC:FullMotionVideo]]

[[AC:MatchThreeGame]]

[[AC:MechaGame]]

[[AC:MultiplayerOnlineBattleArena]]

[[AC:MiniGameGame]]

[[AC:Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse]]
* The level in every other Star Wars game that forces you to play the "Snowspeeder wrapping up the legs of the AT-AT" level.
** Notable Features of this Level: You must defeat all [=AT-ATs=] to complete the level. You must use the speeder on this stage (and/or [=AT-ATs=] can ONLY be defeated by snowspeeders). You cannot just shoot them. There are lots of other enemies you can accidentally run into (and die from) while looping. A time limit of some type, while not mandatory, is encouraged.
*** Various examples: Rogue Squadron 1 through 3 (N64/GC/PC), it depends on the exact game/level, but it hits practically ALL of the above.
*** Rogue Squadron 1 took the cake with its Corellia Mission. You only had to take down one AT-AT, but it was at night, with the target walking along a cliff face, leaving you with a much reduced safe lane on one side. And since the mission is dark, it's hard to see the cliff. Have fun.
*** The Empire Strikes Back (NES/Gameboy), while the speeder part wasn't too bad, if you crashed you had to continue very slowly on foot.
*** Shadows of the Empire (N64), you 'can' shoot them to death in this one, but it took forever.
*** Lego Star Wars II (various), in Freeplay mode you could fly a different craft, but the only one that could defeat an AT-AT was the speeder. One of the less annoying examples the looping was fairly quick and easy to control (the infinite lives nature of the Lego-(something) games also helps).
*** The Battlefront games are at least nice enough to let you kill [=AT-ATs=] with [[BoringButPractical sustained rocket/turret fire]], as opposed to the speeder trick, but it also opens the door for GenreSavvy human players on the Empire's side to drive the AT-AT and knock out the turrets before Rebel players can use them. And may the Force help you if the Empire decides to rush in and capture the Echo Base hangar right away, depriving you of snowspeeders.
*** ''VideoGame/StarWarsTrilogyArcade''[='=]s Battle of Hoth stage skips the cables and has you shooting the AT-[=ATs=]' heads off by the neck.
** Adding FridgeLogic is the fact that the Rebels have canonically taken out [=AT-ATs=] without cables, InsertGrenadeHere, ''or'' ramming[[note]]Hobbie Klivian did this in the novelization of ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack''[[/note]]. In ''[[Literature/XWingSeries Isard's Revenge]]'' four of the Rogues take out four walkers in about five minutes. Of course the difference is, that time they were using dedicated combat vehicles (X-Wings) instead of glorified pickup trucks with popguns. And it's not just the EU: in ''the actual movie'', after tripping the one walker a snowspeeder finishes it off with a laser shot to the joint between the neck and the body.
* Play a ''Franchise/StarWars'' space simulator. You will hate the Gallofree Yards Medium Transport. And to think, the Battle of Hoth had that ''just after'' the [[BossInMookClothing AT-ATs]].
* ''Star Wars Rogue Leader'' has the Razor Rendezvous level, where you have to take down an entire Star Destroyer ''by yourself.'' With dozens of ''very accurate'' laser cannons ripping you to shreds the whole time.
** Razor Rendezvous is usurped by the game's other That One Level: the Battle of Endor. In this level you have to destroy ''two'' Star Destroyers ''at the same time... with a strict and very short time limit!''
*** Both aren't nearly as bad as the final Story mission: Strike at the Core. You have to protect Lando (or Wedge, if you're playing as the Millennium Falcon) from being shot down by TIE Fighters, and it is no exaggeration that you can get an instant Game Over in ''under ten seconds''.
*** Prisons of the Maw is also one of the top contestants with you navigating through the asteroid belt to rescue some rebel prisoners. As if trying to sail through a rock pile isn't hard enough, you have TIE fighters and three shuttles securing the area, then you have to disable three shield generators (in the middle of a mine field mind you) with your ion canon ''while the fighters keep chasing you'' (doing it quick or the rebel ships you're supposed to escort will be blown apart by the imperial ships), then you have to protect the rebel prisoners in their train by shooting at guard towers and destroying communication relays while TIE fighters chase you ''again''. Finally, you have to protect the prisoners as they escape in an imperial shuttle.

* Play a ''Franchise/StarWars'' space simulator. You will hate the Gallofree Yards Medium Transport. And to think, the Battle of Hoth had that ''just after'' the [[BossInMooksClothing AT-ATs]].

** The following chapter, Chapter 10, has you slog through a dark maze-like setting that feels like a combination of all the worst parts of the game. Death traps are everywhere, enemies can get the jump on you when you least expect it, you'll have a few encounters with the [[BossInMooksClothing Traumas]] (including a [[DuelBoss pair of them simultaneously]]), and eventually fight not one but ''two'' bosses that both extremely difficult due to their fast attacks and [[OneHitKill instant kills]].

** The Elturel section of ''TabletopGame/BaldursGateDescentIntoAvernus'' is one of the most grueling parts of the entire module. Not only are you now in Avernus, but the amount of enemies you fight jumps considerably, ranging from lower level fiends to a few Boss in Mook Clothing encounters, all while the city is filled with hazards and people needing help. It's easy for players to get exhausted before they can arrive at their destination, which itself has several reasonably difficult encounters as well. Mind you, players are generally around level 5, so they still are on the weaker end.

* ''TabletopGame/TombOfHorrors'' is one of the most infamous ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' modules ever made, having been created for tournament play to see which parties could make it the furthest into the dungeon, but not necessarily ''beat'' it. The dungeon is stuffed to the gills with death traps and SchmuckBait that has ''just'' enough leeway to give particularly attentive (or just plain lucky) players a chance to proceed further in, but chances are better that your adventurers will die, and die, and ''die'' making the attempt. One particularly infamous example of the dungeon's dangers is the relief of a green devil [[spoiler:which contains a ''[[SphereOfDestruction sphere of annihilation]]'' ready to murder any player foolish enough to try to reach into the relief's gaping maw]], which is one of the ''earliest'' tribulations waiting for adventurers. It only gets ''more'' deadly from there...

-->-- Facebook Q&A, ''[[VideoGame/BanjoKazooie Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts]]''

** "Turnabout Big Top" from ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyJusticeForAll'' is the least liked case in the entire Phoenix trilogy (and possibly the entire series). It barely connects to the main storyline, almost all the witnesses are unhelpful as well as downright rude to Phoenix, and a couple of the testimonies are tough to cross-examine; one witness is extremely chatty, causing Phoenix to be penalized if the witness goes into a random tangent, and this witness' last testimony will penalize you with an instant game over if you merely '''press''' the witness on the wrong statement. The fact that this case features one of the more convoluted murder methods and doesn't even have a satisfying breakdown animation for the culprit is just icing on the cake.
** Much like Turnabout Big Top, "The Adventures of the Clouded Kokoro" from ''VisualNovel/TheGreatAceAttorney: Adventures'' is an equally absurd case. A mostly pointless investigation that only results in 2 pieces of evidence, coupled with a trial where you spend most of the time frantically trying to come up with a plausible alternative murder method with some Closing Arguments that feel like they're only there to pad out the trial makes most of the case feel pointless. The case also suffers from a mediocre cast, 2 of which being noteworthy for having overly drawn out animations and also the culprit being highly unlikeable and one of the worst in the series.
** "Turnabout Serenade" from ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'' is a close contender to "Turnabout Big Top" for worst ''Ace Attorney'' case thanks to one glaring flaw that nobody in-universe acknowledges: [[spoiler:it is physically impossible for a small, slender 14-year-old boy to shoot a grown man with a '''.45 revolver''' without breaking both his arms, made even worse by everyone ignoring that the boy and his associates assert that ''he's blind'']]. Despite this contradiction, the player has to endure the entire case out while ignoring that fact, proving the culprit's guilt via more convoluted means. There's also an unskippable video the player must watch repeatedly throughout the case.
** From the same game, "Turnabout Succession" is one of the least-liked final cases in the series, along with "Ablaze" below. This is mostly due to the confusing and illogical MASON System gimmick used for its second investigation, requiring you to jump between the past and present... and all your evidence comes with you, resulting in you breaking Psyche Locks in the past with evidence from the present. After that you're taken to a final trial segment, which only has one testimony and a few presents in the middle of a lot of non-interactive dialogue. To add insult to injury, the final blow to the BigBad is delivered by Phoenix, not your PlayerCharacter Apollo, in an on-rails segment, leading to a lot of fans feeling like [[SpotlightStealingSquad Apollo was upstaged by Phoenix in his own game.]]

** "Rise from the Ashes", a bonus case in ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'', is known to be the longest case in the game and possibly the entire series. The case uses 3 days of investigations and trials, but unlike previous cases, this one is padded out as long as possible with tons of areas to explore and very long trials. On top of your usual methods of finding clues, you'll also have to deal with finding faded blood splatters and dusting for fingerprints. Not only that, there's a trial segment where you'll instantly get a guilty verdict if you present a certain piece of evidence sooner than you were supposed to. Your defendant in this case also refuses to help you and continues insisting her guilt, even if the facts are staring at her in the face. [[spoiler: This is justified by the fact she's also being blackmailed by the Chief of Police to take the fall, so her ratting him out isn't an option.]]

* VideoGame/SplinterCell series:

* ''Series/RuPaulsDragRace'' has two particular recurring challenges that are dreaded by different sets of queens (those who excel in one usually dread the other). First is the "random scraps" challenge, where the queens are tasked with constructing an outfit out of unconventional materials such as dollar store junk, holiday decorations, ''organic vegetables'', etc. Sometimes it's its own challenge, other times it's part of the larger "____ Ball," where the queens have to present three looks based on a theme with one made of random scraps. Second is "The Snatch Game," a ''Series/MatchGame'' parody where the queens have to impersonate a celebrity and try their best at improv comedy. Queens whose wheelhouse is fashion and design almost always do well in the random scraps challenge, but are likely to bomb the Snatch Game because it requires lightning-fast comedy reflexes, while the reverse is true for comedic queens focused more on humor than their look. While more than one queen has won the season despite failing one of these challenges, queens who do well in both are almost certain to make it to the finale, as they posses the key skills [=RuPaul=] is looking for.[[note]]To date, the only contestant to actually ''win'' both challenges was US Season 6's [=BenDeLaCreme=], but she was eliminated right before the finale despite being a fan-favorite.[[/note]].

* ''Series/RuPaulsDragRace'' has two particular recurring challenges that are dreaded by different sets of queens (those who excel in one usually dread the other). First is the "random scraps" challenge, where the queens are tasked with constructing an outfit out of unconventional materials such as dollar store junk, holiday decorations, ''organic vegetables'', etc. Sometimes it's its own challenge, other times it's part of the larger "____ Ball," here the queens have to present three looks based on a theme with one made of random scraps. Second is "The Snatch Game," where the queens have to impersonate a celebrity and try their best at improv comedy for a ''Series/MatchGame'' parody. Queens whose wheelhouse is fashion and design almost always do well in the random scraps challenge, but are likely to bomb the Snatch Game because it requires a lightning wit, while the reverse is true for comedic queens focused more on campy comedy than their look. While more than one queen has won the season despite failing one of these challenges, queens who do well in both are almost certain to make it to the finale, as they posses the key skills [=RuPaul=] is looking for.[[note]]To date, the only queen to actually ''win'' both challenges was US Season 6's [=BenDeLaCreme=], but she was eliminated right before the finale despite being a fan-favorite.[[/note]].

'''Please note that there is an emphasis on the "One" in "That One Level". If every, or at least most levels in the game are difficult, then you have NintendoHard. The level has to stand out in difficulty compared to the other ones in the game to qualify as an example.'''

* Play a ''StarWars'' space simulator. You will hate the Gallofree Yards Medium Transport. And to think, the Battle of Hoth had that ''just after'' the [[BossInMooksClothing AT-ATs]].

** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVGroundZeroes'' has one side-mission that pretty much stands above them all in terms of sheer difficulty and that is the "Destroy the Anti-Air Emplacements" mission. At the beginning, it starts with the normal phase, but right as you walk further through the map or wait a few moments Miller triggers an announcement to you that results in a '''permanent''' Caution Phase throughout the mission, and while it isn't too taxing on Normal difficulty, on Hard difficulty it gets [[UpToEleven amped up to absurd levels]] with the addition of the aforementioned perma-caution. Enemy soldiers can practically spot you from a ludicrous range, even when crouch-walking which fortunately normally just makes them suspicious-spot you, but that's '''still''' from a fairly far distance as they can easily "'''!'''" spot you even when crouch-walking due to their increased sight range coupled with the perma-caution, so throughout most of the mission you'll be crawling/rolling to avoid triggering the Alert Phase. If that wasn't enough, even after eliminating three Anti-Air Emplacements you're suddenly given the additional task of eliminating a fully-functioning autocannon-equipped [[AwesomePersonnelCarrier APC]] vehicle before you can leave the area so if you don't have enough C4 to either set up a potent-enough trap to destroy it or enough recoilless rifle rounds to finish it off after trigger the trap then you'll have to do it '''[[HereWeGoAgain all over again]]''' when attempting to S-Rank the mission, which is a '''gargantuan pain in the ass''' and you'll most likely have to extract all prisoners, '''including''' the one held deep in the Admin Building interior where [[spoiler: Paz]] is located during the main story mission, which can spell doom for the slightest error if an enemy soldier around the tight-knit corners manages to successfully spot you and trigger the Alert Phase. All-in-all, it's the most potent test of hair-pulling frustration in this chapter when attempting to S-Rank it on Hard difficulty, for '''damn good reason'''.

** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVGroundZeroes'' has one side-mission that pretty much stands above them all in terms of sheer difficulty and that is the "Destroy the Anti-Air Emplacements" mission. At the beginning, it starts with the normal phase, but right as you walk further through the map or wait a few moments Miller triggers an announcement to you that results in a '''permanent''' Caution Phase throughout the mission, and while it isn't too taxing on Normal difficulty, on Hard difficulty it gets [[UpToEleven amped up to absurd levels]] with the addition of the aforementioned perma-caution. Enemy soldiers can practically spot you from a ludicrous range, even when crouch-walking which fortunately normally just makes them suspicious-spot you, but that's '''still''' from a fairly far distance as they can easily "'''!'''" spot you even when crouch-walking due to their increased sight range coupled with the perma-caution, so throughout most of the mission you'll be crawling/rolling to avoid triggering the Alert Phase. If that wasn't enough, even after eliminating three Anti-Air Emplacements you're suddenly given the additional task of eliminating a fully-functioning autocannon-equipped [[AwesomePersonnelCarrier APC]] vehicle before you can leave the area so if you don't have enough C4 to either set up a potent-enough trap to destroy it or enough recoiless rifle rounds to finish it off after trigger the trap then you'll have to do it '''[[HereWeGoAgain all over again]]''' when attempting to S-Rank the mission, which is a '''gargantuan pain in the ass''' and you'll most likely have to extract all prisoners, '''including''' the one held deep in the Admin Building interior where [[spoiler: Paz]] is located during the main story mission, which can spell doom for the slightest error if an enemy soldier around the tight-knit corners manages to successfully spot you and trigger the Alert Phase. All-in-all, it's the most potent test of hair-pulling frustration in this chapter when attempting to S-Rank it on Hard difficulty, for '''damn good reason'''.

** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVGroundZeroes'' has one side-mission that pretty much stands above them all in terms of sheer difficulty and that is the "Destroy the Anti-Air Emplacements" mission. At the beginning, it starts with the normal phase, but right as you walk further through the map or wait a few moments Miller triggers an announcement to you that results in a '''permanent''' Caution Phase throughout the mission, and while it isn't too taxing on Normal difficulty, on Hard difficulty it gets [[UpToEleven amped up to absurd levels]] with the addition of the aforementioned perma-caution. Enemy soldiers can practically spot you from a ludicrous range, even when crouch-walking which fortunately normally just makes them suspicious-spot you, but that's '''still''' from a fairly far distance as they can easily "'''!'''" spot you even when crouch-walking due to their increased sight range coupled with the perma-caution, so throughout most of the mission you'll be crawling/rolling to avoid triggering the Alert Phase. If that wasn't enough, even after eliminating three Anti-Air Emplacements you're suddenly given the additional task of eliminating a fully-functioning autocannon-equipped [[AwesomePersonnelCarrier APC]] vehicle before you can leave the area so if you don't have enough explosive to either set up a potent-enough trap to destroy it then you'll have to do it '''[[HereWeGoAgain all over again]]''' when attempting to S-Rank the mission, which is a '''gargantuan pain in the ass''' and you'll most likely have to extract all prisoners, '''including''' the one held deep in the Admin Building interior where [[spoiler: Paz]] is located during the main story mission, which can spell doom for the slightest error if an enemy soldier around the tight-knit corners manages to successfully spot you and trigger the Alert Phase. All-in-all, it's the most potent test of hair-pulling frustration in this chapter when attempting to S-Rank it on Hard difficulty, for '''damn good reason'''.

** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVGroundZeroes'' has one side-mission that pretty much stands above them all in terms of sheer difficulty and that is the "Destroy the Anti-Air Emplacements" mission. At the beginning, it starts with the normal phase, but right as you walk further through the map or wait a few moments Miller triggers an announcement to you that results in a '''permanent''' Caution Phase throughout the mission, and while it isn't too taxing on Normal difficulty, on Hard difficulty it gets [[UpToEleven amped up to absurd levels]] with the addition of the aforementioned perma-caution. Enemy soldiers can practically spot you from a ludicrous range, even when crouch-walking which fortunately normally just makes them suspicious-spot you, but that's '''still''' from a fairly far distance as they can easily "'''!'''" spot you even when crouch-walking due to their increased sight range coupled with the perma-caution, so most of the mission you'll be crawling/rolling to avoid triggering the Alert Phase. If that wasn't enough, even after eliminating three Anti-Air Emplacements you're suddenly given the additional task of eliminating a fully-functioning autocannon-equipped [[AwesomePersonnelCarrier APC]] vehicle before you can leave the area so if you don't have enough explosive to either set up a potent-enough trap to destroy it then you'll have to do it '''[[HereWeGoAgain all over again]]''' when attempting to S-Rank the mission, which is a '''gargantuan pain in the ass''' and you'll most likely have to extract all prisoners, '''including''' the one held deep in the Admin Building interior where [[spoiler: Paz]] is located during the main story mission, which can spell doom for the slightest error if an enemy soldier around the tight-knit corners manages to successfully spot you and trigger the Alert Phase. All-in-all, it's the most potent test of hair-pulling frustration in this chapter when attempting to S-Rank it on Hard difficulty, for '''damn good reason'''.

** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVGroundZeroes'' has one side-mission that pretty much stands above them all in terms of sheer difficulty and that is the "Destroy the Anti-Air Emplacements" mission. At the beginning, it starts with the normal phase, but right as you walk further through the map or wait a few moments Miller triggers an announcement to you that results in a '''permanent''' Caution Phase throughout the mission, and while it isn't too taxing on Normal difficulty, on Hard difficulty it gets [[UpToEleven amped up to absurd levels]] with the addition of the aforementioned perma-caution. Enemy soldiers can practically spot you from a ludicrous range, even when crouch-walking which fortunately normally just makes them suspicious-spot you, but that's from a fairly far distance as they can still "'''!'''" spot you even when crouch-walking due to their increased sight range, so most of the mission you'll be crawling/rolling to avoid triggering the Alert Phase. If that wasn't enough, even after eliminating three Anti-Air Emplacements you're suddenly given the additional task of eliminating a fully-functioning autocannon-equipped [[AwesomePersonnelCarrier APC]] vehicle before you can leave the area so if you don't have enough explosive to either set up a potent-enough trap to destroy it then you'll have to do it '''[[HereWeGoAgain all over again]]''' when attempting to S-Rank the mission, which is a '''gargantuan pain in the ass''' and you'll most likely have to extract all prisoners, '''including''' the one held deep in the Admin Building interior where [[spoiler: Paz]] is located during the main story mission, which can spell doom for the slightest error if an enemy soldier around the tight-knit corners manages to successfully spot you and trigger the Alert Phase. All-in-all, it's the most potent test of hair-pulling frustration in this chapter when attempting to S-Rank it on Hard difficulty, for '''damn good reason'''.

** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVGroundZeroes'' has one side-mission that pretty much stands above them all in terms of sheer difficulty and that is the "Destroy the Anti-Air Emplacements" mission. At the beginning, it starts with the normal phase, but right as you walk further through the map or wait a few moments Miller triggers an announcement to you that results in a '''permanent''' Caution Phase throughout the mission, and while it isn't too taxing on Normal difficulty, on Hard difficulty it gets [[UpToEleven amped up to absurd levels]] with the addition of the aforementioned perma-caution. Enemy soldiers can practically spot you from a ludicrous range, even when crouch-walking which fortunately normally just makes them suspicious-spot you, but that's from a fairly far distance as they can still "'''!'''" spot you even when crouch-walking due to their increased sight range, so most of the mission you'll be crawling/rolling to avoid triggering the Alert Phase. If that wasn't enough, even after eliminating three Anti-Air Emplacements you're suddenly given the additional task of eliminating a fully-functioning autocannon-equipped [[AwesomePersonnelCarrier APC]] vehicle before you can leave the area so if you don't have enough explosive to either set up a potent-enough trap to destroy it then you'll have to do it '''[[HereWeGoAgain all over again]]''' when attempting to S-Rank the mission, which is a '''gargantuan pain in the ass''' and you'll most likely have to extract all prisoners, '''including''' the one held deep in the Admin Building interior where [[spoiler: Paz]] is located during the main story mission, which can spell doom for the slightest error if an enemy soldier around the tight-knit interiors manages to successfully spot you. All-in-all, it's the most potent test of hair-pulling frustration in this chapter when attempting to S-Rank it on Hard difficulty, for '''damn good reason'''.

** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVGroundZeroes'' has one side-mission that pretty much stands above them all in terms of sheer difficulty and that is the "Destroy the Anti-Air Emplacements" mission. At the beginning, it starts with the normal phase, but right as you walk further through the map or wait a few moments Miller triggers an announcement to you that results in a '''permanent''' Caution Phase throughout the mission, and while it isn't too taxing on Normal difficulty, on Hard difficulty it gets [[UpToEleven amped up to absurd levels]] with the addition of the aforementioned perma-caution. Enemy soldiers can practically spot you from a ludicrous range, even when crouch-walking which fortunately normally just makes them suspicious-spot you, but that's from a fairly far distance as they can still "'''!'''" spot you even when crouch-walking due to their increased sight range, so most of the mission you'll be crawling/rolling to avoid triggering the Alert Phase. If that wasn't enough, even after eliminating three Anti-Air Emplacements you're suddenly given the additional task of eliminating a fully-functioning Autocannon-equipped [[AwesomePersonnelCarrier APC]] vehicle before you can leave the area so if you don't have enough explosive to either set up a potent-enough trap to destroy it then you'll have to do it '''[[HereWeGoAgain all over again]]''' when attempting to S-Rank the mission, which is a '''gargantuan pain in the ass''' and you'll most likely have to extract all prisoners, '''including''' the one held deep in the Admin Building interior where [[spoiler: Paz]] is located during the main story mission, which can spell doom for the slightest error if an enemy soldier around the tight-knit interiors manages to successfully spot you. All-in-all, it's the most potent test of hair-pulling frustration in this chapter when attempting to S-Rank it on Hard difficulty, for '''damn good reason'''.