What is THAT level for you?

Halo: CE, The Library. It's just floor after floor of corridors with endless waves of zombies charging you down. For the most part, there's not even much variation in the gameplay. Once you acquire a shotgun, you just make sure you don't run out of ammo for it, which was not difficult since the shotgun in Halo CE could carry something like 60 rounds in reserve and had a clip/magazine of 12. Sometimes Spark would leave to go unlock a door and you'd have to stand in one spot and kill waves of enemies instead of moving down a hallway killing waves of enemies. There were only like three types of hallways too. I've still never done that level solo on Legendary, though I did do it co-op with my brother this year.

Psychonauts - Meat Circus

So difficult that they actually replaced a good deal of it when they brought it to Steam.

It's been 20 years and I'm still haunted by the stampede level from the 16 bit Lion King game.

Also, any underwater level in a game where it's otherwise not the primary mechanic.

The tedious forced intro for Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas make me not want to bother.

In Rayman 2 : The Great Escape, there is a section where you have to ride a flying rocket through the ship. The difficulty spike is insane. There are no save points throughout the whole section and the controls are extremely finicky. I wouldn't know what the ending looks like without youtube and cheats.

In Pokemon GSC, there's a small bit at the end that I could never be bothered to do. I'm unsure if it fits "that level", as it is at the end of the game, but Mt Silver and Red is damn hard. I've never entered Mt. Silver, but might do it if I pick up Crystal on VC, or find my cart of Heart Gold. There's also Ice Path, although that might just be because I'm bad at ice puzzles. Same with Pryce's gym.

Dragon Age Origins, the Fade level.

It’s not even that hard but it’s so tedious that many DA:O players installed a mod on PC so they could skip the entire sequence.

It’s honestly been long enough that I can’t remember most of the details but after my third or fourth playthrough, I went PC strictly for the mod that let me skip it

In Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga, there's a really, really, really, tedious bit. Actually, 2.

Neon Eggs. Man, how I hated getting these, even when I used the wiki, it still took a damn long time to get them. It's no better in the remakes, and is by a fair bit, the longest bean star piece if you don't know what you're doing. It's horrible, although it made sense with the GBA's limited hardware, as a long, tedious fetch quest. At least the excellent dialogue is still there.

There's also this little bit in Woohoo Hooniversity, which is a statue puzzle that I have no clue on how to do without the guide. There are probably hints somewhere, but I can't find them in game, so it's unfortunate. It's a shame, as the game really picks up pace after Woohoo Hooniversity, which is a bit of a slog.

I can definitely think of a few TV series with episodes or seasons worth of that haha.

I don't really replay non-multiplayer games. I think the only time I replayed an old game and hit that wall was in Diablo 2. A game from a different era… I remember it being insanely fun, but man was it grindy. And single-player sucked so much because the pacing was so off. Act 2 is "that level" for me, I hated the environment as a whole.

Any level locked by collectables is almost certainly not worth it.

Excluding mario-like games where you only need to collect a small portion of them to proceed.

The toy helicopter mission in GTA Vice City. Some people say it's easy but I had troubles even when using health cheat code when I was a kid

I adore VVVVVV. It's one of only a few games I've replayed from start to finish multiple times, and I think I've ended up buying it at least four or five different times across different systems.

I love it because it's short enough to get through in an evening or two but substantial enough to not feel like fluff. I also think it's brilliantly made and has a great soundtrack.

But there's definitely one part that I simply hate: The Gravitron. It's a minigame that interrupts your regularly scheduled gameplay, and, once you're in it, you can't exit. You have to beat it before you move on.

The goal is to survive for 60 seconds while dodging projectiles as you bounce back and forth between two gravity lines. The game gives you a checkpoint every five seconds, but somehow this doesn't make the segment any less tedious. It is beyond frustrating and completely destroys the game's otherwise crisp pacing. The game is (in)famous for its sadistic Veni Vidi Vici sequence, but I would much rather spend ten minutes trying to land that than bouncing endlessly between frustration and boredom in the Gravitron.

Super Mario Bros 8-3, this is the only game that has caused me to rage quit literally.

Cloud Cuckooland from Banjo-Tooie. Grunty Industries got the most flak for level design in probably the whole series, but in my opinion CC deserved it way more. GI was at least organized in a sensible fashion. CC is the last level in the game so it's going to be difficult, but the layout is nonsensical, the minigames are at best unforgiving, and the environmental puzzles are a big ol' "fuck you" for the sake of surrealism.