History ThatOneLevel / RhythmGame

* The Sanbone Trio level on Master mode in ''GitarooMan''. Sweet Jesus. You start the level with very low health, are forced to watch a rather lengthy scene, and are given a very complex guard phase before you can start hurting them. Additionally, the game randomly gives you a different version of some parts of the song every time you play it, and [[LuckBasedMission one of the versions of said guard phase is much more difficult than the other.]]

** The Hard chart for "Thrash Beat" is ''very'' dense and demands intimate familiarity with the track to clear, let alone score well on.

* "[[Music/{{Dragonforce}} Through the Fire and Flames]]" is easily regarded as the hardest song in ''III''. At least that song is [[SelfImposedChallenge OPTIONAL.]]

* [[PumpItUp Bee]]. They managed to condense every awkward, painful pattern they could think of into a minute thirty.
* Project Diva has the near impossible "Dissapearance of Hatsune Miku." The second game took it to a whole new level with "The Passion of Hatsune Miku".

** "Hello, Ladies...": At eight stages in a row[[note]]Fan Club, The Dazzles, Cheer Readers, Pajama Party, Exhibition Match, Hole in One 2, Jungle Gymnast, and Ringside[[/note]], all of them at double speed, it requires incredible consistency and accuracy to clear. They also have stricter requirements than normal for their types of goals, such as fewer allowed missed inputs or a higher minimum score in order to pass.

** "Extreme Sports"[[note]]Appropriately labeled "Super Hard!"[[/note]]: Despite its location at roughly the middle of the game's set of challenges, this is one of the hardest challenges in the entire game. Playing Air Rally at double speed is insane enough, but there's Exhibition Match at the end. It's set under Monster conditions, meaning the stage [[InterfaceScrew slowly shrinks]] until it's small enough for the monster to eat (which is an automatic failure), but getting perfect timing on an input increases the size of the screen. Exhibition Match has the second fewest inputs of any stage in the game[[note]]after this game's version of The Clappy Trio, which has one fewer input[[/note]], and so you have the fewest chances to prevent the monster from eating the stage. "Extreme Sports" is also seven stages long[[note]]Spaceball, Rhythm Rally, Hole in One, Air Rally, Fruit Basket, Figure Fighter 2, and Exhibition Match, all of them at double speed[[/note]], so it's a huge uphill climb just to get to Exhibition Match.

** "Copycats"[[note]]Appropriately labeled "Super Hard!"[[/note]] has you play Rhythm Tweezers, First Contact, and Working Dough, along with their sequels, without missing at all (you get 1 miss on Working Dough). You'll have tempo up to deal with too. All these games have a lot of inputs, particularly Working Dough, so this one can be a pain to complete.

** "Lockstep Lockdown"[[note]]Appropriately labeled "Super Hard!" and known as "Lockstep ''Hell''" in the Japanese version, fittingly enough[[/note]]: See the description for Lockstep above? Try playing it four times in a row, and you only get to miss a beat 3 times total before you're eliminated. Also, each iteration of Lockstep is sped up more than the previous one.

** "Copycats" has you play Rhythm Tweezers, First Contact, and Working Dough, along with their sequels, without missing at all (you get 1 miss on Working Dough). You'll have tempo up to deal with too. All these games have a lot of inputs, particularly Working Dough, so this one can be a pain to complete.

** "Extreme Sports": Despite its location at roughly the middle of the game's set of challenges, this is one of the hardest challenges in the entire game. Playing Air Rally at double speed is insane enough, but there's Exhibition Match at the end. It's set under Monster conditions, meaning the stage [[InterfaceScrew slowly shrinks]] until it's small enough for the monster to eat (which is an automatic failure), but getting perfect timing on an input increases the size of the screen. Exhibition Match has the second fewest inputs of any stage in the game[[note]]after this game's version of The Clappy Trio, which has one fewer input[[/note]], and so you have the fewest chances to prevent the monster from eating the stage. "Extreme Sports" is also seven stages long[[note]]Spaceball, Rhythm Rally, Hole in One, Air Rally, Fruit Basket, Figure Fighter 2, and Exhibition Match, all of them at double speed[[/note]], so it's a huge uphill climb just to get to Exhibition Match.
** "Lockstep Lockdown"[[note]]known as "Lockstep ''Hell''" in the Japanese version, fittingly enough[[/note]]: See the description for Lockstep above? Try playing it four times in a row, and you only get to miss a beat 3 times total before you're eliminated. Also, each iteration of Lockstep is sped up more than the previous one.

* If you thought any of the above stages was hard, try some of the beatmaps in the freeware PC game based on the series, ''VideoGame{{osu}}!''. You've got some of the Insane/Expert beatmaps that users have made. To play in an advanced level, the time you take to move the cursor from one corner of the screen to the other shouldn't be more than about 200 milliseconds, and you should have total control of it to play on the beat. Also, some maps require aiming complex patterns rather quickly (for example, a 5-point star that covers the whole screen, with each circle about 125ms apart from each other; and then doing the same star but backwards and at an angle) . Also, maps where you have to press about 800 circles per minute are rather common, with some maps with 20-second parts that require pressing about 18.67 times per second. Needless to say, the only people who even have a chance of beating these types of levels are those with special (and usually [[CrackIsCheaper extremely pricy]]) equipment, which is exactly why ''osu!'' is not for everyone.

* If you thought any of the above stages was hard, try some of the beatmaps in the freeware PC game based on the series, ''{{osu}}!''. You've got some of the Insane/Expert beatmaps that users have made. To play in an advanced level, the time you take to move the cursor from one corner of the screen to the other shouldn't be more than about 200 milliseconds, and you should have total control of it to play on the beat. Also, some maps require aiming complex patterns rather quickly (for example, a 5-point star that covers the whole screen, with each circle about 125ms apart from each other; and then doing the same star but backwards and at an angle) . Also, maps where you have to press about 800 circles per minute are rather common, with some maps with 20-second parts that require pressing about 18.67 times per second. Needless to say, the only people who even have a chance of beating these types of levels are those with special (and usually [[CrackIsCheaper extremely pricy]]) equipment, which is exactly why ''osu!'' is not for everyone.

* "[[Music/{{Dragonforce}} Through the Fire and Flames]]" is easily regarded as the hardest song in ''III'' (if not in Guitar Hero ''history''), and is also the longest. At least that song is [[SelfImposedChallenge OPTIONAL.]]

* The [[JapaneseHolidays Bon Odori]] stage is equally unpopular with many of those playing the game on an emulator. In fact, the Bon Odori gets worse with its revisit, the Bon Dance. The clap patterns are much more complex and the beat is generally faster.

* ''Arcaea'' has "Anokumene" on Future difficulty, which despite being rated an 8 has fast patterns that mix up both ground and Sky notes resulting in a chart that many players feel is more like a level 9. Thankfully, [[https://twitter.com/arcaea_en/status/924559271924297728 it is one of the songs getting rerated in the 1.5 update]].

* ''Arcaea'' has "Anokumene" on Future difficulty, which despite being rated an 8 has fast patterns that mix up both ground and Sky notes resulting in a chart that many players feel is more like a level 9.

* ''[[BitTrip BIT.TRIP RUNNER]]'''s 1-11 Odyssey, the final level before the first zone's boss, is notorious for being significantly more difficult and frustrating than the majority of the entire second zone, due to it being literally the longest level in the game (and by a fairly large margin). Simply completing the level earns a Steam Achievement. Check [[http://steamcommunity.com/stats/BitTripRunner/achievements/ the stats page]] for the game and note how few people ''have'' that achievement.

** "Rhythm Safari": At seven stages long, this is one of the longer challenges. But what elevates this one to That One Stage status is that it is entirely at double speed and contains stages that are already incredibly up-tempo and have short cues at normal speed, rendering some of them, like Bunny Hop and Rat Race, near-unplayable.

** "Hello, Ladies...": At 8 stages in a row, all of them at double speed, it requires incredible consistency and accuracy to clear. They also have stricter requirements than normal for their types of goals, such as fewer allowed missed inputs or a higher minimum score in order to pass.

* ''Guitar Hero 2'' had "Institutionalized" by Suicidal Tendencies on Expert. This song was a nightmare simply because there are vicious guitar solos over the verses, all of which change in speed while you're playing them. The song itself actually does not have a normal speed that it settles on, the song widely fluctuates whenever it feels like it and it does it to a more insane and unpredictable degree than even "Psychobilly Freakout."

* Of course, for those of us who've played On Tour for the DS, there was "[[Music/{{OzzyOzborn}} I Don't Wanna Stop]]". If you thought a normal Ozzy chart was a good challenge, it's a nightmare with only 4 buttons & touch controls. This combined with a solo that is so long & hectic that not even Star Power will save you makes for quite the intro to the final venue.

** On drums, you get the most boring beat ever, for a LONG TIME. But, more importantly, we must remember the true scrappy song. The one, the only, "Visions." Which is widely hated by most people, you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who actually likes it.

* "Green Grass And High Tides" from the first ''Rock Band''. Oh, a 10 minute long songs. Only it doesn't even get hard until the second solo where it gets ridiculous. And the drums throughout the second solo is one horrible repeated beat. And the vocals stop once it hits the second solo.

* The fireworks stage of ''Rhythm Tengoku'' is unpopular with fans of the game for many reasons: the music isn't that great, there are no quirky characters or strange scenes, and the timing is rather difficult. The [[JapaneseHolidays Bon Odori]] stage is equally unpopular with many of those playing the game on an emulator. In fact, the Bon Odori gets worse with its revisit, the Bon Dance. The clap patterns are much more complex and the beat is generally faster.

[[AC: ''VideoGame/{{beatmania}} IIDX'' and ''VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution''.]]

[[AC:Other]]
* ''VideoGame/SpaceChannel5 Part 2''. Report 4. In the Core, besides the game's usual cruel timing, you're subjected to a 'let's play in reverse' mini 'if you get this wrong you're dead meat'. That, and, if you played averagely on the other sections of the report, you have only four lives. Let's not even mention the 'Escape' part, which has odd beats and the robot-shooting is pure hell.
** The game treats you to ANOTHER one of these in Extra Report 6. The report itself is hard enough normally, but now? You only get TWO, count em' TWO lives for the part before the finale. This makes Purge the Great hellish now, especially when he throws you off with ".....down!" The game was kind enough to give you three lives for the finale.
* ''VideoGame/EliteBeatAgents'', another rhythm game, requires you to tap on-screen symbols in time to the beat. Except on Canned Heat, where this is nigh-impossible due to the fact that the song as a swing feel and the notes are only displayed when you almost have to tap the note. It's impossible on harder difficulty settings without memorizing the patterns.
** There's also [[Music/DavidBowie Let's Dance,]] which doesn't have an unintuitive beatmap or punishing timing. What it ''does'' have (on hard mode) is the first life bar that drops so quickly that you can hit every beat and still fail the level if your timing isn't spot-on. And pairs it with some very long pauses in the action where the bar ''will' drop because there are no beats to hit and restore it.
** [[Music/TheRollingStones Jumping Jack Flash]], which is bad enough as it is, but in the harder difficulties you practically have to get every beat perfect, just to keep the [[GoshDangItToHeck darn]] meter in the 'Yes' zone.
*** The tougher difficulties are also fond of switching between [[ScrappyMechanic Spinners]] and the regular beat markers ''very rapidly'', and repeating this trick several times.
* The second [[VideoGame/OsuTatakaeOuendan Ouendan]] game has the 12th stage, "Believe", which is pretty much impossible on higher difficulties unless you get almost only perfects, since it's a rather slow song where the meter drops quickly. People have put up videos of themselves S-ranking the song ''and failing every cutscene''.
** The original OTO gave us "Koi no Dance Site", which on higher difficulties puts markers all over the place and gives you very little time to keep up with them.
** "Neraiuchi" gets flak for having a ''lot'' of [[ScrappyMechanic spinners]], and occasionally throws in beat sequences right after a long one.
** The final stages of either Ouendan game combine long complex sequences of beats with a rapidly draining lifebar. "Ready Steady Go" from the first game is infamous for its third segment that has three spinners followed by rapid tapping sequences after you've tired out. "Sekai wa Sore wo Ai to Yobundaze" from the second game trips players up in its final segment, tossing in double-beats during the final chorus. Miss a few beats and chances are the damage is too much to recover from.
* If you thought any of the above stages was hard, try some of the beatmaps in the freeware PC game based on the series, ''{{osu}}!''. You've got some of the Insane/Expert beatmaps that users have made. To play in an advanced level, the time you take to move the cursor from one corner of the screen to the other shouldn't be more than about 200 milliseconds, and you should have total control of it to play on the beat. Also, some maps require aiming complex patterns rather quickly (for example, a 5-point star that covers the whole screen, with each circle about 125ms apart from each other; and then doing the same star but backwards and at an angle) . Also, maps where you have to press about 800 circles per minute are rather common, with some maps with 20-second parts that require pressing about 18.67 times per second. Needless to say, the only people who even have a chance of beating these types of levels are those with special (and usually [[CrackIsCheaper extremely pricy]]) equipment, which is exactly why ''osu!'' is not for everyone.
* Many mission in ''VideoGame/{{DJMAX}} Portable Black Square'', starting at the Rocker Rocker club in Area 5. Missions include getting a lot of points on a song while trying to chain together upwards of 7 or 8 [[LimitBreak Fever]]s and high accuracy on very hard songs.
** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMwR0DQ3m-w "Area 7"]] in ''DJMAX Technika'' has many repeat notes that follow a rhythm that is very awkward and irregular unless you are familiar with the song.
** "Color" in ''Technika'', on all difficulties. On [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgqJ1E3mpVE Popular]] and [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feMt3SbNlQM Technical]], the chart is rated a 5. That rating is a '''[[BlatantLies lie.]]''' Halfway through the song on all difficulties, you start facing annoying fast repeat notes reminiscent of "jackhammer" notes from ''VideoGame/BeatmaniaIIDX'', and on Technical, there's another set near the end, which can easily cause you to have a last-second GameOver.
* Stage 5 in ''VideoGame/ParappaTheRapper'' is generally agreed to be the most loathed in the game, where the protagonist, his [[PottyEmergency bladder nearly ready to burst]], has to out-rap all his previous senseis to get ahead of them in line before he wets himself. Some brutally difficult note patterns, combined with the game's weird take on timing, particularly during the Cheep Cheep part, has caused many players to give up hope on ever reaching the sixth and final stage.
** Stage 4 is agreed to be the second most loathed in the game, where [=PaRappa=] has to make a seafood cake at Cheep Cheep's cooking show because Joe Chin, who has a very tall cake for the party, pushes the protagonist, making him fall and ruining the cheapest cake he could afford. While the note patterns aren't as bad as the following stage, the timing is really off, causing the player to do awfully, even if he pressed all the buttons on time.
** The spinoff, ''VideoGame/UmJammerLammy'', also has a scrappy level as its sixth and, again, penultimate level, where the player character slips on a banana peel, breaks her skull and is sent to Hell, where she has to perform on-stage in a concert if she hopes to return to the realm of the living. This song features some tricky button patterns as well, even moreso than in the previous example, but its crippling flaw is how awful the level's background music is in comparison to that of the rest of the game.
* In ''VideoGame/FreQuency'', Tony Trippi's Motomatic, Orbital's Weekend Ravers Mix, anything made by Komputer Kontroller or Symbion Project, and finally the last song, Robotkid vs. Intersekt with a punishing synth track that only masters could attempt.

** Also, many of the later boss charts in the DDR series are particularly scrappy. The [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY3iOBe1-Qg American [=PS2=] Challenge chart for "Horatio"]] is pretty much known for being an example in bad charting. The Shock Arrows used throughout the song, when hit, not only break your combo, but also lower your life AND make the arrows temporarily invisible for a split second. This was simplified in both the arcade and the Japanese versions of the game, fortunately.
** Would you believe that an ''easy'' song can also qualify as scrappy? In the [=PS2=] port of ''beatmania IIDX 3rd Style'', there are any number of songs whose timing is off, many of which are easier songs. The result: easy clears, but horribly low scores. The most infamous example of such a song is "Gambol," which came to (in)fame when it was revived on ''9th Style''...but didn't have its timing fixed. Konami acknowledged this and gave its Normal chart fixed timing in ''IIDX 12'', but left the Hyper chart as is. Finally, in the [=PS2=] port of ''IIDX 11'', Konami decided to take Gambol's bad timing a step further: it gets a new, Another chart (unlocked from Expert Mode) with the exact same notes as its Normal and Hyper charts...but the timing is rigged such that you can only get Just Greats, the extremely rare Great, and Bads, with anything more than 1 frame outside of the timing window for a Just Great resulting in a Bad. For additional fun, play this chart with the Hard modifier, which swaps out the Groove Gauge for a more traditional LifeMeter in which running out of life will instantly eject you from the song.
*** As of ''IIDX 15'' for the [=PS2=] and ''IIDX 16'' in the arcade, cheat codes allow you to apply Gambol Hyper/Another timing to ''every song in the game''
** The song "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGqcRJ-Uw1I gigadelic]]" is another major offender in the end-of-song DifficultySpike department. It's particularly annoying because Konami LOVES to use it as the last song in the [[KyuAndDanRanks 8th Dan]] course, meaning you're likely to fail in the last 5 seconds of an 8-minute course.
*** Speaking of difficulty spikes, there's Healing-D-Vision that throws a massive 8th note stream at you at 360 BPM.
** Pluto. Just... friggin [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtWqfWxQMmY Pluto]]. Count how many times the arrows randomly stop and start without warning. In fact, somebody at Konami decided that they loved this song so much that they thought it would be a good idea to carry it over to [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJQlBSOgLX4 IIDX]] as well, where BPM antics like these are far harder for the player to deal with. This song is a Scrappy Level incarnate.
*** Just wait til you try Pluto The First. Random tempo changes and stops up the wazoo that make the original Pluto look like a cute little puppy. And while Hottest Party 3 was lucky to miss out on the [[ScrappyMechanic Shock Arrows]], the Boss Song stage makes the arrows REAL hard at the 440 BPM sections to see if you have them set to "Rainbow" or "Note". Hell, it's so bright, they're hard to see at all, no matter your arrow color. Shame the stage is so [[AwesomeYetImpractical beautiful by itself]].
*** [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrAORhHq6nM Fascination MAXX]] is another major offender in IIDX's BPM antics department.
** Overcrush: it's your typical BossRush, except it's condensed into one song. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPShbS5f19A Let this video speak for itself.]]
** In DDR Universe 1, some of the missions qualify as this. One such example is the Vanity Angel mission. Triple speed, boosted arrows, a low health bar that doesn't recover, and a mission that requires you to break a combo if you're about to hit the same note twice. The game itself is infamous for its bad timing, so have fun. That isn't the only bad mission, though; the Brightness Darkness mission is also insanely hard; [[DamnYouMuscleMemory Shuffled arrows]], the arrows scroll from top to bottom (as opposed to bottom to top), you can't see the bar that you have to hit the arrows with, and the chart's timing is off by a half a beat. That last alteration is a LOT harder to get used to than it sounds. The mission? Full combo on the last third of the song. The chart is a 9 out of 10 difficulty wise, and for good reason too. Enjoy.
** Some of the shit Universe 3's Quest Mode puts you through. The 3rd challenge on Pictor Street is Concertino In Blue on Oni, with the arrows sped up 2-and-a-half times and shuffled arrows. Your job is to get 4/5 of the chart perfect. Thank GOD it's only 6 measures. Club Tucana has you getting all Marvelouses on the last two measures of Absolute, slowdown included, with the Dark modifier. And then there's the Club Pyxis challenge. Kimochi Expert. Full combo, get NG for freezes, and you can't hit 8th notes or the same note twice. That doesn't sound hard, but here's the catch; '''A modifier is in place so that you can't tell the timing of the notes apart.''' Oof.
** DDR [=X2's=] Dice Master mode is chock-full of missions that require you to be an expert at the game, but the last area is full of Scrappies. Jenny's mission is genuinely impossible, and Ruby's is almost as bad. Julio's mission requires you to do Pluto The First ''with a speed mod'', and let me tell you about the final mission. Roppongi Evolved. '''SEVEN. TIMES. IN. A. ROW.''' That is all.
*** That mission in Yuni's area that requires an MFC on Love Is Orange, or Louis' last (solo) mission that requires you to clear Sacred Oath with a fucked-up arrow placement ''with Boost turned on'' that only gives you a few chances to miss. For that matter, any mission whose requirement is "Get X Marvelous" and involves playing on Basic difficulty or lower is going to be impossible unless you're a robot, because of how few steps you're allowed to get less than Marvelous on.
** DDR Universe 2's Challenge Mode has several Scrappies, exhibit A being Catastrophic 4. Synergy, Expert difficulty, on Hidden. You start with low health. In addition, start with anything that isn't perfect and you fail instantly, which segues into its first requirement; your Perfect total must ALWAYS be higher than your total of Great, Good and Almost combined. To add insult to injury, your second objective requires you to have 60 Perfects, 60 Greats, AND 60 Goods. The only requirement that isn't borderline impossible is to end with low health.
*** Apocalyptic 5. That is all. Eternus on Expert. With a few poison arrows (that you're not allowed to hit). Can't get a combo greater than 10 or step on the same direction twice. The kicker? Whilst dodging all this, ''you have to step 80% of the song perfectly.'' But wait, there's more! '''''IT'S NOT RUNNING THE RIGHT CHART!''''' It's running the Expert chart for Dead End instead, which is an even harder and faster song!
** DDR Supernova's "Boss Rush episode IV". As if ten-footers weren't bad enough on their own (''especially'' the ones in Supernova), try doing SIX OF THEM in a row! To make matters worse, the really hard ones are right at the end, when you're exhausted... AND your health bar becomes MUCH more sensitive to misses! For anyone insane enough to try this, here's what you're up against:
*** 1. MAX 300 (Super-Max-Me Mix) -- Expert. While not too bad for a ten-footer, the fact that it's the ''opener'' is basically a final warning that there is no way in hell you will make it through this course alive.
*** 2. Chaos -- Expert. Again, not too bad... ''assuming'' that you've memorized all FORTY-TWO times when the song stops and starts again for no reason other than to piss you off.
*** 3. Fascination MAXX -- Expert. The purpose of this one is to tire you out, so the second half of the course is just that much more brutal.
*** 4. Xepher -- Challenge. Wait, what? Isn't this that pathetic excuse for a ten-footer? Yeah, but it's still tiring, especially since you just got done with [=FaXX=].
*** 5. Healing-D-Vision -- Challenge. You just KNEW this one was coming. This song teases you with a steppable, but off the beat, first half... then all hell breaks loose when you launch into 360 BPM and are faced with relentless 8th note runs. And about that last one... hoo boy. To full combo it, you have to perform insanely fast crossovers, requiring you to turn your body a full 180 degrees THREE TIMES A SECOND without falling on your face. If you don't have a handbar, you're screwed.
*** 6. Fascination (eternal love mix) -- Challenge. By this point, you will be close to passing out, and the final song's relatively tame intro (featuring steps with a maximum density of 400 per minute) will feel like a chore, but since HDV just did a hell of a number on your health meter, you'll NEED to hit every step to avoid failure. After the Chaos-esque middle section, it's all downhill, because you'll be faced with quarter-note streams at 400 BPM with jumps thrown EVERYWHERE. In the final stretch you'll be rapidly alternating between jumping three times in a row and complicated 8th-note patterns at 400 BPM. As you hear the end of the song starting, you get more and more anxious and afraid to screw up as you push yourself through those brutal jumps and onto that final freeze-jump, and... you forgot that there's a stop at the very end, so you get an NG and lose your last ounce of health.
*** Oh yeah, and if you somehow manage to make it through all of that, try it on Challenge mode, which means you can't miss more than three steps per song... or the arcade version, which gives you a slightly easier song list (the first song is only a nine-footer, albeit a high-end nine), but the three-miss requirement goes for the WHOLE COURSE, not each individual song.
* The fireworks stage of ''[[VideoGame/RhythmHeaven Rhythm Tengoku]]'' is unpopular with fans of the game for many reasons: the music isn't that great, there are no quirky characters or strange scenes, and the timing is rather difficult. The [[JapaneseHolidays Bon Odori]] stage is equally unpopular with many of those playing the game on an emulator. The DS sequel's Scrappy seems to be Fillbots, which requires precise timing and, in the second version, lasts for nearly ''three minutes.''
** The Bon Odori gets worse with its revisit, the Bon Dance. The clap patterns are much more complex and the beat is generally faster.
** Rhythm Rally is the same ordeal. The first is just generally hard, but the revisit, Rhythm Rally 2, is faster, has a new queue that's basically one fast swing after another, and a Camera Screw.
** Moai Doo wop 2. Along with the screwy detection, you have barely any patterns. In rhythm games, you kinda need patterns.
** The Dazzles also has its share of hate, mostly because it requires very precise timing to get a "Superb", as in getting everything isn't enough, you also need to be precise.
** Rockers 1 & 2: In a game defined by memorizing and following regimented patterns, this one is so freeform it will trip you up. And the second game adds in a ScrappyMechanic in which you have to use the R button in addition having harder patterns.
*** Even worse are the Guitar Lessons, which are just Rockers performing to other Rhythm Heaven songs. These songs require fast flick-hold combos that don't follow the same notes as the original games, plus the more insulting fact that Guitar Lessons (and its spin-off, Battle Of The Bands) take up about a third of the unlockable content, meaning if you don't like Rockers, [[DisappointingLastLevel there's not much motivation to get all the Medals.]]
** Lockstep is incredibly tricky because it constantly switches between the on-beat and off-beat. As it goes on, it becomes much harder to determine timing visually. For those with poor sense of the beat, this can be a brick wall.
** In ''Fever'', both Love Rap games will trip up many a player with its extremely odd timings, such that trying to play it by ear frequently yields ''worse'' results than trying to figure out some kind of visual cue.
** "Monkey Watch" in Fever is a a stopping point for anyone new. Not only is there a TON of inputs, but you're constantly losing the beat because of the offbeat pink-monkey patterns. Of note is that this is the 9th stage in the game out of 50, so if you can't overcome this, most of the game will be locked off from you. ''Megamix'' seems to have acknowledged its out-of-place difficulty, as "Monkey Watch" is the very last ''Rhythm Heaven Fever'' stage.
** "Tap Troupe" has a very weird triplet pattern and brutal beat changes which will prove a major hazard to any new players.
** "Shrimp Shuffle"'s tight timing and nasty pauses in the rhythm (1,2,3! 3,2.....1!) can prove irritating, especially since the game counts it out for you. And the 2 offbeat patterns in the game trip up even veterans of the series.
** Catch Of The Day. Timing never got so precise. [[InterfaceScrew Interface Screw]] was never so frequent.
** Working Dough is not only repetitive and with precise timing, but it is LONG. Despite being just a simple follow-the-leader game, its length, timing, and speedy patterns make most people hate it.
*** And don't forget its sequel, which trades off the fast patterns for unforgiving offbeat patterns and music that constantly quiets and sometimes even disappears.
*** Did we mention that [[ThisIsGonnaSuck both Working Doughs came back in Megamix?]]
** Drummer Duel is hated by most. It's blazing fast, has a miniscule margin of error, and it is VERY hard to get a superb on.
** "Love Lizards" tends to get a lot of flack not only because it's one of the most repetitive and monotonous games in the series, but the touch detection is extremely wonky, meaning it either won't register your slide at all, or it'll register a minute movement at the end of your last slide as another slide. Thankfully, outside of its own tier's Remix and [[FinalExamBoss Remix 10]], it doesn't show up anywhere else in the game.
** ''Rhythm Heaven Megamix'' introduces a Challenge Mode, in which you must complete a set of stages with additional conditions on top. Some of the most complained-about are:
*** "Copycats" has you play Rhythm Tweezers, First Contact, and Working Dough, along with their sequels, without missing at all (you get 1 miss on Working Dough). You'll have tempo up to deal with too. All these games have a lot of inputs, particularly Working Dough, so this one can be a pain to complete.
*** "Round-Object Fan Club": One of the conditions is to clear Flipper-Flop 2 with 3 or fewer missed inputs. There are 230 inputs in Flipper-Flop 2, and it is one of the most demanding stages with timing. It's also sped up. It's not as grueling as "Lockstep Lockdown," but it is located much earlier in the challenge list.
*** "Extreme Sports": Despite its location at roughly the middle of the game's set of challenges, this is one of the hardest challenges in the entire game. Playing Air Rally at double speed is insane enough, but there's Exhibition Match at the end. It's set under Monster conditions, meaning the stage [[InterfaceScrew slowly shrinks]] until it's small enough for the monster to eat (which is an automatic failure), but getting perfect timing on an input increases the size of the screen. Exhibition Match has the second fewest inputs of any stage in the game[[note]]after this game's version of The Clappy Trio, which has one fewer input[[/note]], and so you have the fewest chances to prevent the monster from eating the stage. "Extreme Sports" is also seven stages long[[note]]Spaceball, Rhythm Rally, Hole in One, Air Rally, Fruit Basket, Figure Fighter 2, and Exhibition Match, all of them at double speed[[/note]], so it's a huge uphill climb just to get to Exhibition Match.
*** "Lockstep Lockdown"[[note]]known as "Lockstep ''Hell''" in the Japanese version, fittingly enough[[/note]]: See the description for Lockstep above? Try playing it four times in a row, and you only get to miss a beat 3 times total before you're eliminated. Also, each iteration of Lockstep is sped up more than the previous one.
*** "Rhythm Safari": At seven stages long, this is one of the longer challenges. But what elevates this one to That One Stage status is that it is entirely at double speed and contains stages that are already incredibly up-tempo and have short cues at normal speed, rendering some of them, like Bunny Hop and Rat Race, near-unplayable.
*** "Hello, Ladies...": At 8 stages in a row, all of them at double speed, it requires incredible consistency and accuracy to clear. They also have stricter requirements than normal for their types of goals, such as fewer allowed missed inputs or a higher minimum score in order to pass.

** ''VideoGame/GrooveCoaster'' collaboration event song "LINK LINK FEVER!!!" isn't particularly standout in terms of charts, but the main problem for [[MostGamersAreMale a certain large gaming demographic]] is that at 200 combo[[note]]For songs without music videos, the background changes at 100 combo and again at 200 combo, and the background resets when combo is broken above either threshold.[[/note]], players are treated to a FanService illustration of ''GC'' mascot Linka and can potentially [[DistractedByTheSexy break their combos as a result]].

* ''Arcaea'' has "Anokumene" on Future difficulty, which despite being rated an 8 has complex patterns that mix up both ground and Sky notes resulting in a chart that many players feel is more like a level 9 or even a ''9+''.

* "Holic" from ''{{beatmania}} IIDX'' and ''VideoGame/DanceDanceRevolution''. The song (for the most part) does not follow the standard 4/4 time signature of most music, which trips up many first-timers, and in ''beatmania IIDX'', its Another chart has one of the series' first examples of DifficultySpike--at the very end of the song, you're greeted with a clusterfuck of 250 or so notes, which are enough to make you fail easily. This has resulted in many players [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY1FCqU5VVg getting as high as an AAA on the song...but having 2-10% less life than needed for a clear]].