That One Level/That One Boss

[DaemonDD]

That one boss:
The Rathalos and Gigginox from Monster Hunter Tri. Sure, the Lagiacrus is tough, but he is at least slow enough for you to evade his worst attacks (such as the barrier of lightning and his full-bodymass tackle), while the Rathalos has a homing attack that you have to perfectly dodge while running, or you'll get poisoned and stunned. And don't get me started on the Barioth (goddamn walljumps). e_e

 

[Dachs]

That One Boss:

Rollout. Need I say more?

Yeah, Whitney and her friggin Miltank.

Benezia in Mass Effect before you figure out how to avoid the Stasis bug. Works best with Soldiers because you're doing stupid run-and-gun Immunity tanking anyway.

France in Europa Universalis III, before HttT. Alternatively, in Asia, the Ming or Timurids.

The Space Jump spider in Metroid Fusion. To a lesser degree, the second appearance of the Security Robot, and "Nightmare".

Mobius One -the player-character from Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies - in Gauntlet mode in Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War.

That One Level:

Anything involving krogan on Insanity in Mass Effect. Anything involving Collectors (or Husks, depending on your class) on Insanity in Mass Effect 2. The final fight around the locked door on the exterior of the Shadow Broker's ship in Mass Effect 2 DLC.

Every stealth level in every James Bond game ever.

Xen. technically not "a" level, but whatever

Yoshi's Canyon in Mario Kart 64.

Fighting on the Moon as the USSR in Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge. Serious case of Xen Syndrome with most of the USSR missions in that campaign in general. Slightly less so with the Allies, who have the supreme advantage of prism tanks.

"We Don't Go to Ravenholm..." in Half-Life 2. On harder difficulty levels, Entanglement also applies.

The last few levels of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Especially annoying after the first couple of levels in the final chapter, which were arguably some of the best in the game.

On a similar note, the Reichstag interior in Call of Duty: World at War. Actually, all Call of Duty campaigns on high difficulty levels, because they just end up being stupid grenadefests.

The Library in Halo: CE, Sacred Icon in Halo 2, and Cortana in Halo 3. Essentially the same level, reincarnated. The Library in particular killed all of my enthusiasm for the first game. Sacred Icon and its younger brother High Charity had the supreme advantage of being short like all of the Halo 2 levels.

All levels with Stonehenge (Safe Return, Tango Line, Stonehenge Offensive) in Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies. And Megalith, too, for good measure.

 

[Tarkhan]

Every stealth level in every non-stealth action game ever.

If I want to stealth, I'll go play bloody Metal Gear.

 

[schlaufuchs]

Every stealth level in every James Bond game ever.

YES! Especially if it's the kind of level in which discovery=auto-fail

The last few levels of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Especially annoying after the first couple of levels in the final chapter, which were arguably some of the best in the game.

This. Entering the silo (with smoke and the BMPs) and the silo (completely surrounded with grenades flying freely) are two very annoying levels.

On a similar note, the Reichstag interior in Call of Duty: World at War. Actually, all Call of Duty campaigns on high difficulty levels, because they just end up being stupid grenadefests.

That. It's the main reason why I so thoroughly despise WaW. Even on lower levels Reichstag is a pain in the butt.

Every stealth level in every non-stealth action game ever.

If I want to stealth, I'll go play bloody Metal Gear.

That: see above.

 

[PreLynMax]

That One Level:
God. So many fusterating levels, so little time, so little memory.
The Shopping Maul (Saints Row 2). In early difficulties, this would be fun. But I was playing it on Insane... using a female character. Poor girl. Must've killer her 60-75 times on that mission alone. Bascially, you go in a mall full of Sons of Semedi and track down The General in a armed jeep using friggen golf carts. What's worse... you have an infinite waves of Semedi in cars coming after you.
Level 8-2 & 3 (Super Mario Bros).
Yes, I'm going wayyyyyyyy back on this one. And when it's your first time playing this level, it is extremely intimiating.I'm talking about long gaps, ground level Hammer Bros, Bullet Bills, and that ungodly jump challenge in the end of 8-3. When you're 6 years old and you finally reached the last three single-block starcase at the end of the level, you heart freezes when you overjump and fall under the last gap of that level.

That One Boss:
O2 (Kirby 64)
Now, the Kirby series is known to have some really REALLY easy bosses, so this one was a huge shock when I found out I had to grab some balls and lead my pink hero to victory. So many morpheses I have subjected Kirby to, and finally I have had completed 100% of the regular game, and I had to face down O2. This reminds me of another boss I had to dishonor of meeting...
Skull Kid/Majora's Mask (The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask)
With the Fierce Diety mask, this boss is a joke. But to get that mask, you have to get the other 23 masks in this crappy Zelda game (Majora's Mask is probably the same tier as the two CD-i Zelda games). Without it, and you will fight without it, because getting that mask is near damn impossible, you have a uphill battle to face. MM's final form, Majora's Wrath, you have to stun that monsterosty with a light arrow then put it down with your sword, and you will either run out of arrows, magic, and both, and you are standing there looking like an idiot until MM puts you down.
Jasmine (Pokemon Silver/Gold/Crystal/Soul Silver/Heart Gold)
Effing Magemite Thunder Waving you.
Effing Shock Wave.
Effing Steelix.
Effing fire Pokemon being TOO FRIGGEN RARE in that game.
Effing Earthquake OHKOing my poor Qualava/Typhosion.
Now I'm just getting angry... moving on.
Vaati (The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap)
This freak throws his eyes, ands and probably the kitchen sink at you when you face him down. This boss fight wasn't really fusterating, but probably the most memorable beacause of the overlading number of tasks you have to pull out just to take Vaati out. He reminds me of Agronim (Link to the Past) and Gannon(dorf) (Zelda classic, Ocarina of Time) but not as itimiating.
All the bosses (Metroid Prime)
This is probably why I don't play Prime that much anymore. It also has to do with the game being frusterating and hard to keep track of where to go next! But that unholy plant (Flaaagaaa or something like that) was the worse of them all. I beat her, but it tramalized me for the rest of my natural life.

 

[Azale]

Skull Kid/Majora's Mask (The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask)
With the Fierce Diety mask, this boss is a joke. But to get that mask, you have to get the other 23 masks in this crappy Zelda game (Majora's Mask is probably the same tier as the two CD-i Zelda games).

You have invalidated your opinion on everything for all time.

 

[rhawn]

The hardest boss that comes to mind is the Grim Reaper in the second to last level in the original Castlevania. He's wicked cheap, Simon Belmont's controls suck, and after the level of losing tons of life to medusas and igors you never face him with full health.

The hardest level is getting the hammer in death mountain in Zelda 2. Even if you know the correct path this is an exercise in futility.

Really almost all the games since n64/playstation aren't that challenging compared to old games.

 

[LightSpectra]

The hardest boss that comes to mind is the Grim Reaper in the second to last level in the original Castlevania. He's wicked cheap, Simon Belmont's controls suck, and after the level of losing tons of life to medusas and igors you never face him with full health.

This. I beat the game on an emulator, so I just save state loaded instead of having to replay the full level, but Death still took me 20+ minutes to beat.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

That one level
No one mentioned the dam level from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for the NES yet ? I think I only beat it once or twice. Never finished that damn game. I also found the last undead mission in Warcraft 3 extremely hard and annoying. The one where you have to protect the Lich. It's the hardes mission in the whole game including Frozen Throne.

That one Boss
The butcher from the original Diablo, unless you use a cheap trick: go through a dore, close it and slowly kill him with arrows.
Duriel in Diablo 2 with any character not optimised for melee combat. Also every Diablo boss with a Necromancer because bosses can one-hit-kill summonned creatures.
The boss in Cyan's nightmare from final Fantasy 6 whose name I forgot. The thing that is only vulnerable shortly after one of your party members dies. One of the most infuriating figths in my gamer life.

 

[Omega124]

The one level: The biggest offender to me is the Japan level in HAWX. Its easy at first, but then the bombers start outnumbering you and your allies, and it just becomes a multi-missle spamfest. Thank god they have horrible dodge rates and don't carry any flares. But the main reason the level is so hard is the end. Destroying the enemy fleet is just horrible. The cruisers have one-hit kill SAMs, the destroyers have hundreds of machine guns, and the Aircraft Carrier "boss" has both (execpt I don't think its SAMs are a one-hit kill), but they are much weaker than the dedicatied ships. but has waaaaaay more health. The USS George Washington just sits there. The Japanese pilots just sit there. Your wingmates Leeroy Jenkins the first Destroyer for you (although they don't completely destroy it, so you have to finish it off), but they just sit around for the rest of the mission, drawing away fire. So you have to do it yourself. I couldn't beat the mission without using an exploit, and it was tedious using it (It was swooping up until you're way out of range, then going right down, firing as much missles and machine gun bullets you can, and repeat until the entire fleet is destroyed, one ship at a time. The speed and the angle prevents the SAMs from getting a lock on you, but the machine guns still hit you quite fine, and it takes an unholy amount of time to finish this way). Operation: Twilight was also hard, but once you know the MiG's patterns, it gets easier. Not saying the mission becomes easy, though.

That One Boss: Great Tiger from the NES version of Punch-Out. It took me forever to get the pattern for the Tiger Punch down. And yes, that's right, I found Mike Tyson, with one-hit kill uppercuts, to be easier than Great Tiger. Seriously.

 

[PreLynMax]

You have invalidated your opinion on everything for all time.

Have I? I agree the idea was valid, but the fursterating puzzle-style temples + time limit for each temple + having to start some things over and over gave MM a non-CDI black sheep of Zelda games (The Castlevania II of Zelda games, as you will). When you were expecting the high bar as OOT, and you get that, any same gamer will be slightly disappointed.

But don't dispair. They actually did it right when they made The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. Those games still aren't in the high level as OOC, but they aren't as unplayable as MM.

Edit: Majora's Mask is the Civ 5 of the Zelda franchise. Think about it, they came after the greatest games from thier respective franchises, and the end product did not meet expertations.

 

[LightSpectra]

Majora's Mask was the best game in the Zelda franchise. The day-based puzzle system was intuitive, and there was only one instance I can think of when I even came close to going over the time limit. Maybe you were just bad at the game.

The one thing I could fault it on is the lack of dungeons, though given that the dungeons increased quadratically in complexity, it was appropriate.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

That one Boss:

In Diablo II, Bremm Sparkfist on Hell (Conviction Aura, Lightning Enchanted, Cold Enchanted, Multiple Shots, Immune to Lightning)

In Final Fantasy 7, Emerald Weapon.

That one Level:

In Medieval: Total War, in the Joan of Arc campaign, the Battle of Patay.

In Goldeneye, The Cradle.

In TIE Fighter, the Treachery at Ottega campaign.

In Call of Duty 2, the American level assaulting the bombed-out hill defended by pre-sighted mortars. Also, the Soviet level where you must repair the damaged phone cable.

In Stronghold, Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? Also, The Ransom.

In Stronghold Crusader, any level after the 10th or so.

In Medal of Honor Allied Assault, the one passing through the bombed out city in a driving rainstorm, rife with German snipers.

 

[Rub'Rum]

In Diablo II, Bremm Sparkfist on Hell (Conviction Aura, Lightning Enchanted, Cold Enchanted, Multiple Shots, Immune to Lightning)

Hardcore character killer. That and some of the bosses with the aura that returns your damage to you...

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

In Goldeneye, The Cradle.

I always hated Control more than any other level.

 

[remake20]

That one level:
The last level of BWII, I actually really enjoyed that game.

That one boss:
Dark Bowser at the end of M&L: Bowser's inside story.

EDIT: I actually can't think of any others.

 

[DaemonDD]

That one boss:
Dark Bowser at the end of M&L: Bowser's inside story.

Dark Bowser wasn't that hard. The only thing I could find tedious about the fight was when you had to swallow Dark Fawful, since you'd have to mash the button so much it'd hurt.
The rest was pretty much easy to figure out eventually.

 

[remake20]

Yeah, everything else was easy, it was fawful that bugged the crap out of me.

 

[(Pro)Peanut_P]

Ruby/emerald weapon- FF7-These 2 are Still a challenge
Ozma-FF9
Nemesis-FFX
Ganon-Zelda: A link to the past
Level 4 on battletoads for the snes- i still find this annoying

Can't think of anymore atm

 

[(Pro)Peanut_P]

Oh... Double dragon on the N.E.S. This has to be the hardest game ever, 1 Life and no continues then it's back to the start