History ThatOneLevel / RhythmGame

** [[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.

* ''Just Dance 4'' has unlockable extreme versions of various songs. One of these, an extreme version of the One direction hit, "You Don't Know You're Beautiful" is particularly cruel, even if you like the song. It requires rapid move transitions the pictograms don't make readily apparent, as well as a great deal of technical skill. it also likes to pop up in the otherwise simple Just Sweat mode.

* 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.

** The [[GaidenGame spinoff]], ''VideoGame/UmJammerLammy'', also has a notoriously disliked level as its sixth and, again, penultimate level, where Lammy is sent to Hell and must perform on-stage in a concert to come back to life (in the Japanese and European versions, at least; in the American version, [[{{Bowdlerisation}} she gets caught on a door and is slingshotted to an island instead]]). This song features some ''extremely'' long and cruel button patterns, where it's not uncommon that you'll have to both press all six possible buttons and alternate back and forth between the face/shoulder buttons in a single line. If that's not intimidating enough, the rhythm for Yoko's lyrics is very specific and finicky, only worsened by the rapid tempo - and like many other stages, you'll suddenly have to jump in mid-line during the home stretch. Depending on who you ask, the most grave sin that this [[{{Pun}} hellish]] stage commits is how forgettable its song is compared to the rest of the game's otherwise stellar soundtrack. Not even Easy mode can save you, as beating this stage on Easy [[NoFinalBossForYou will cut you off from moving on to the seventh and final stage]]. [[note]]Parappa's version is just as difficult, if not moreso, but since it's only unlocked after beating the game once, it falls into the category of a BrutalBonusLevel.[[/note]]

* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsMelodyOfMemory'': All for One. Between the impossibly fast tempo to the uneven measure throwing off any muscle memory you may have developed, there's a good chance you'll succumb to the darkness yourself after this level. It gets even worse if you try to beat the challenge that can only be beaten on Proud Mode.

** Stage 5 is generally agreed to be the most difficult in the game, where [=PaRappa=], his [[PottyEmergency intestines nearly ready to burst]], has to out-rap all four of his previous teachers to get ahead of them in a line to the bathroom before [[PottyFailure disaster strikes]]. This essentially makes the level into a BossRush, as their input patterns are directly inspired by their stages of origin. The second half of the stage deserves special mention, as it's the first time in the game where a line can have two rows, making them twice as long and the requirement for successfully pulling them off twice as strict. Additionally, the second half is also home to both Prince Fleaswallow and Cheap Cheap Chicken's verses, the former having rapid-fire single inputs and the latter having an extremely specific rhythm. The [[InterfaceScrew distracting]] and [[EpilepticFlashingLights potentially dangerous]] lightning strikes that occasionally happen while at the "Awful" ranking don't help matters. Stage 5 has caused many players to give up hope on ever reaching the GrandFinale that is Stage 6.
** The [[GaidenGame spinoff]], ''VideoGame/UmJammerLammy'', also has a notoriously disliked level as its sixth and, again, penultimate level, where Lammy 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 (in the Japanese and European versions, at least; in the American version, [[{{Bowdlerisation}} she gets caught on a door and is slingshotted to a deserted island instead]]). This song features some tricky button patterns as well, even moreso than in the previous examples, but its crippling flaw is how awful the level's background music is in comparison to that of the rest of the game.

* Stage 5 in ''VideoGame/ParappaTheRapper'' is generally agreed to be the most loathed in the game, where the protagonist, his [[PottyEmergency intestines 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.

* At least these songs, if you're required to do them, are at or near the end of the songlist. Not so Rocks The 80's with Because It's Midnite, which is the encore song of the ''second'' venue. Actually, it's pretty managable...on Hard. On Expert, however, the solo has over a hundred notes crammed into the middle section, meaning that unless you have ''extremely'' fast fingers, you're going to see the meter plunge in a hurry. Worse, it's so long that even a full star power meter (which I most definitely recommend) might not be enough to save you. If you can get past this monstrosity, I guarantee that nothing in the next TWO venues will come close to threatening you.

* ''RAVON'' doesn't have difficulty ratings for its charts, but nonetheless some charts still catch players off-guard. "We Alive" on Core difficulty, for example, has a note density of only 3.30, which is less than many other high-end charts, but it throws off many players with its tricky note rhythms.

** "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 2, 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.

** On guitar, the solo requires you to strum extremely fast for extended periods of time, which can actually cause strong physical pain and require you to pause several times. The live version of the AC/DC Track Pack is not only longer and faster, but also throws trills as fast as Satch Boogie mentioned above at the beginning of the final guitar solo.

** On guitar, the solo requires you to strum extremely fast for extended periods of time, which can actually cause strong physical pain and require you to pause several times.

* "MAX 300" is That One Level in ''IIDX'' for the [[FakeDifficulty wrong reasons]]. It starts off at 50 BPM before shooting up to its actual BPM of 300, causing problems for players who use the "green number" (a number showing how long notes are visible for, influenced by the Hi-Speed and Sudden+ settings) feature since they have to mess around with modifiers ''just'' for this track.

* 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.

* ''Arcaea''[='=]s "Anokumene" on Future difficulty was originally rated an 8 and most players strongly disagreed, with the chart having such fast patterns consisting of ground note + sky note chords that come so quickly at the player. Thankfully, it was rerated a 9 in the version 1.5 update.
** Imagine casually playing Axium Crisis on Future with the partner being Tairitsu. Halfway through the chart the screen glitches, the audio distorts. You wonder what's going on and then... "Grievous Lady". My god, as of writing this it's the only 10 in the entire game; and it sure is hard.

* 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.

* Guitar Hero emulator Clone Hero has pretty much made anyone capable of making this kind of level, but the one most infamous is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVnWsRHJRf4& Soulless 4]]. How hard is it? It was released in 2015 and STILL HASN'T BEEN BEATEN.

* The US version of ''VideoGame/DonkeyKonga 2'' has "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUYu5vvGFK0 Pieces]]" by Hoobastank, which featured a huge departure in handling claps. It gained infamy in ''Website/DKVine''[='=]s "The Slush Fun'd" due to Slush getting stuck on the song for nine months (during which he slowly lost his drive to actually play the game) until finally moving on to completing the rest of the songs before returning to "Pieces".

* 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.

* "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.

* "[[Music/{{Slipknot}} Before I Forget]]" is considered one of the most annoying, as most of its difficulty comes from the chorus, a mess of three-note chords that probably shouldn't have been charted like that, making a large number of fans accuse it of FakeDifficulty.
** On real guitar, the chorus is by far the easiest part as the song is played in a Drop Tuning, meaning that those three note chords are actually played with just one finger and therefore are just as easy as single notes. However, the pre-chorus had pinch harmonics, a technique that is very difficult and can't be simulated on a Guitar Hero controller, so the chorus kinda makes up for it.
** ''Guitar Hero 2'' had similar songs, like "Freya," which was a repetitive hand-cramping chordfest, or "Psychobilly Freakout," which was very quick and random and could confuse the heck out of inexperienced players (or even veteran ones). And let's not even talk about "[[Music/{{Megadeth}} Hangar 18]]"...
** "Before I Forget" is charted considerably differently in ''Rock Band 3'' so this is definitely an example of Neversoft jerking the player around.

** You'll notice the original ''Guitar Hero'' has no mention yet. It's because people are still trying to forget "[[Music/QueensOfTheStoneAge No One Knows]]" and "[[Music/{{Pantera}} Cowboys From Hell]]".
*** And "[[Music/{{Megadeth}} Symphony of Destruction]]". Yeah, thank you for tossing us our first solo with an impossibly bad HO/PO system, Harmonix. THANK YOU!
*** For the record, "No One Knows" was so difficult because of an odd triplet rhythm combined with some very awkward chords, just before a solo. Usually not a problem with the assistance of star power, but due to it happening two or three times, it took constant repetition.

** "[[Music/{{JoeSatriani}} Satch Boogie]]," anyone?

** "Dyer's Eve" on bass also deserves special mention. While this song does give the guitarist short breaks in the verses, the bass line never lets up from its insanely fast pace, and the verses all have different rhythms with an abundance of open notes, constantly switching things up and keeping you on your toes. This song is a true testament to Jason Newsted's wasted talent on the "...And Justice For All" album, and your strumming arm will hurt at the end of it all if you manage to survive.

** Speaking of Music/{{Megadeth}} and ''Warriors of Rock'', "This Day We Fight!" is also ridiculous on guitar with insane solos all over the place and a main riff that will cause all but the best players to fail on their first try.
** "[[Music/{{DragonForce}} Fury of the Storm]]": Think of it as "Through the Fire and Flames" turned UpToEleven. If you can beat this song, then you can surely beat anything else in the entire series.
** "[[Music/ChildrenOfBodom If You Want Peace... Prepare for War]]" isn't too bad on guitar. That is, if you survive the insanely fast HO/PO runs that are thrown at you during the first 20 seconds of the song.
*** "Speeding" also has a ridiculously fast intro. At least in the intro to this song, the notes can be tapped.
** "Black Widow of [=LaPorte=]" can easily be summed up as seven and a half minutes of nonstop shredding. It's so hard that you even get an achievement for beating the song on expert, which is appropriately called "Hand Mutilator".

** There's no real challenge on bass, it's just the same note [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment over and over and over]] keeping your finger on the green fret till it goes numb.
** 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, [[Music/{{Abnormality}} "Visions."]] Which is widely hated by most people, you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who actually likes it.
** The Live rendition of "Let There Be Rock" on the AC/DC track pack is worse: it's much the same as its on-disc version, except it goes much faster (meaning that "boring beat" will now kill your main arm... and it'll still be boring) and it goes for over 8 minutes (not including a 1 1/2-minute Big Rock Ending).

* There's actually a SubduedSection long enough on "Jailbreak" for the guitarist to take a little bathroom break, with enough time left to wash his hands.
* "Green Grass And High Tides" by the Outlaws, 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.
* "[[Music/{{L7}} Pretend We're Dead]]" on Vocals. The end of the song is simply singing 'Dead' in the same tone, 3-5 seconds long, a total of 16 times. Not hard, but more than once you ask yourself "Will this song END already?"
* "[[Music/TalkingHeads Psycho Killer]]," too. "Fuh-fuh-fuh-FAH fuh-fuh-fuh-fuh-fuh-FAAH-fuuh"
** "Psycho Killer" is also incredibly boring on drums. Really easy, but incredibly boring.
* And "[[Music/FaithNoMore Epic.]]" What is it, indeed.

* Inverted in "[[Music/RageAgainstTheMachine Testify]]". The song is a Tier 5 for vocals, but has zero pitches.

** There's also "Dead Black (Heart of Ice)", which is slow and easy for the first two minutes until, out of nowhere, it throws fast blasts at you which can drain your health bar instantly if you're not prepared. It's even worse about four minutes in, when you go from dead silence directly into a long blast section ''at a new tempo''... and if you ever lose the beat, it's back to four minutes of boringness to try again.