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00:00Welcome to Mojo Plays, and today we're counting down our picks for the Top 20 Hardest First
00:13Levels in Video Games.
00:20For this list, we'll be looking at games that immediately threw you in the deep end
00:24with a harsh opening difficulty curve.
00:27Which of these did you power through?
00:29Are there any we missed?
00:31Share your painful memories in the comments below!
00:44Hoth – Super Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back
00:55Just like the movie on which it's based, the second Super Star Wars opens on the frozen,
01:00unforgiving planet of Hoth.
01:02And in case the movie didn't properly showcase its danger for you, the SNES game surely does.
01:09Whether you're riding around on your Tauntaun on the surface or exploring Hoth's caves,
01:15the opening level never ceases its bombardment of things wanting to kill you.
01:21Enemies dive-bomb you from all directions.
01:23Deadly fauna tries to catch you off-guard.
01:26And ice crystals form on the very ground you're walking on.
01:30Honestly, it's easier just to barrel through rather than contend with that constant stream.
01:35At least the boss is easy, as nothing else is.
01:40Angry Villagers – Resident Evil 4
01:52Both you and Leon Kennedy are in for quite the rude awakening when you first arrive in
01:57Spain.
01:58Leon's search for the president's missing daughter takes him to a quiet, rural village.
02:03Or at least, that's what it should be.
02:06But none of the villagers are particularly pleased to see you.
02:10They'll all begin to rush and attack Leon as soon as he gets close.
02:15Try to fight them outside, and you might be swarmed by their numbers.
02:19Try to hide inside, and they'll break through the windows and doors.
02:23The intensity is increased significantly by the fact that you don't have a lot to defend
02:28yourself with.
02:29And did we forget to mention the massive, chainsaw-wielding enemy that'll kill you
02:34in one hit?
02:36A Lengthy Battle – Nier Automata
02:46Nier Automata is one of the most acclaimed games of the last generation, but its opening
02:51level is definitely a doozy.
02:53It's a gauntlet of the game's various genres, including hack-and-slash action and
02:58top-down shoot-'em-up.
03:00It makes sense for the opening to be harrowing considering its importance to the plot.
03:05However, this is just plain ridiculous.
03:08Not only is it a long level that ends with a grueling boss fight, but there are no checkpoints
03:15and no way to save.
03:16So if you die, which is entirely possible, you'll have to start the entire sequence
03:21over.
03:22You can always lower the difficulty, but kicking a game off with this level of annoyance was
03:27certainly a bold choice.
03:30Temple of Trials – Fallout 2 Tutorial sections can be hit-or-miss, though
03:42the Temple of Trials is definitely a miss.
03:46Developer Black Isle was forced to include a tutorial section by publisher Interplay,
03:50and it still brings up bad memories.
03:53Basically, it acts as a test to see if you as the chosen one are capable enough to be
03:58a leader.
03:59How it does this is by seeing how you equip, use, and increase certain skills.
04:05Unfortunately, if you choose to increase the wrong ones, it can actually lead to you getting
04:10stuck.
04:11So you have to increase the right ones to make it out.
04:14These days, there are plenty of guides telling you which skills to focus on, but it was a
04:19major disappointment initially.
04:22The Prologue – The Witcher 2 – Assassins of Kings
04:39The opening of CD Projekt Red's second Witcher game sees Geralt of Rivia wrongfully
04:45imprisoned for killing a king.
04:47The prologue covers everything from how he got there to his escape, with cutscenes, dialogue
04:52choices, and combat in between.
04:54It's this last bit that made the first level so difficult, though.
04:59Players were only given a page of text to read through before having to deal with multiple
05:05enemies at a time.
05:06It was a pretty poor way to explain the mechanics, and it led to many players dying many times.
05:13This may have placed higher if CD Projekt Red didn't issue a patch, fixing all the
05:19issues and offering a much more manageable way to learn the controls.
05:25The Death Star – Star Wars Rogue Squadron 2 – Rogue Leader
05:36The blowing up of the Death Star is an iconic moment in Star Wars.
05:40However, when it was recreated in Factor 5's Rogue Leader, the developers really made you
05:46work for it.
05:47Although you get a brief tutorial on controls, it doesn't help with the onslaught of the
05:53first level.
05:54Destroying the towers as a first goal isn't too bad, but then swarms of TIE fighters start
06:00coming after you.
06:01After destroying all of them, you'll get to the trench sequence, where Vader, who you
06:06can't shoot down, starts chasing you.
06:09All in all, it's a lot to manage without having time to get used to the controls.
06:14You also earn medals based on your time, and props to anyone who earned gold.
06:20Not Skating By – Jet Set Radio
06:29Jet Set Radio is an early example of an open-world game.
06:33It's just a shame the tutorial has stopped so many from seeing it.
06:37Players control a skating, graffiti-spraying gang member in Tokyo.
06:42The first level issues prompts to get you used to the controls, and surprisingly, there
06:47are 21 tasks to finish before you can move on.
06:51Many of them are simple, but a handful of them have you perform a certain number of
06:55tricks in a row.
06:57The final challenge is an insane request of 50 tricks, all of which have to be performed
07:04while grinding.
07:06This actually requires you to know the level's layout well enough to keep going, because
07:11if you stop, it's an automatic fail.
07:14Polarity – Ikaruga
07:22Some tough opening levels stand out as odd, while others prepare you for what's to come.
07:29Ikaruga is a shoot-em-up with a unique polarity mechanic.
07:33Switching your ship's barrier between black and white has you absorb one bullet color
07:37and get destroyed by the other.
07:40Similarly, firing the right bullets at the right enemy deals twice as much damage.
07:46One might think it would ease you into this, and one would be wrong.
07:51The screen is almost immediately filled with enemies, who fire so many bullets that the
07:56simple choice between black and white becomes exceptionally tough.
08:01It's still the easiest level in the game, but only because the rest of it is so crushingly
08:07difficult.
08:08The Drawbridge – Dragon's Lair
08:16Dragon's Lair became an arcade hit thanks to gorgeous animation and high difficulty
08:21that kept people coughing up quarters.
08:23When it was ported to the NES, it lost the animation but kept the challenge.
08:28That much is apparent from the opening screen, in which hero Dirk must make it across a drawbridge.
08:34The sequence has become infamous for the pixel-perfect accuracy required to move through the obstacles.
08:41In the North American version of the game, your movement is incredibly stiff, adding
08:46to the frustration is the placement of the dragon enemy and your knife projectile, useless
08:52unless you're standing in the exact right spot.
08:56For added fun, everything except the bats kill you in one hit, even touching the door.
09:03Death Everywhere – Another World
09:10Surpassing even Dragon's Lair's first level in how many things can instantly kill you
09:16is Another World.
09:18In this PC adventure game, you play as a scientist who is teleported to an alien planet.
09:24Just how hostile the local wildlife is becomes obvious instantaneously.
09:30When you land in a pool of water, tentacles will pull you down unless you immediately
09:35start swimming.
09:36From there, the trial by fire only gets tougher.
09:40Leeches will be sliding around above and below, and a beast will chase you across several
09:46screens.
09:47There are no hints in how to survive, so everyone spends their initial playthroughs dying left
09:52and right.
09:53That's actually how the whole game is.
09:57Forest Follies – Cuphead
10:04Cuphead is a hard game through and through, but at least it makes things clear to you
10:08from the get-go.
10:09Unlike the majority of levels in Cuphead, Forest Follies is a run-and-gun stage.
10:13It forces you to adjust to the game's high difficulty or die trying.
10:18And die you will.
10:20There will be hordes of enemies barreling your way from every direction, many of which
10:25have unique, though equally annoying, qualities.
10:28From the tulips that can shoot homing projectiles to the acorns that can dive-bomb you, it's
10:33a wave of death that's a lot to take in.
10:37You might even fall into one of the many pits, just trying to avoid everything.
10:42Plus, it's not as if the game is nice enough to give you checkpoints.
10:47The Streets of Springfield – The Simpsons – Bart Vs. the Space Mutants
10:52We'd hope that a Bart-centric video game would get us into some wacky shenanigans,
11:02but when it comes to this side-scroller, it's a bit more trouble than it's worth.
11:07As Bart, you're in charge of foiling an alien invasion.
11:10In the first level, you do this by spray-painting purple objects, since the aliens need them
11:16for their ship.
11:17Of course, making this harder are a bunch of tiny aliens that will kill you on contact.
11:23Further adding to the difficulty is the fact that you're given no prompts to go into
11:27shops nor how to use the items you can buy there.
11:31Unless you know exactly what you're doing, you'll spend a lot of time wandering around.
11:38Rescuing Clara – Back to the Future Part 3
11:48This movie tie-in only has four levels, but good luck making it past the first one.
11:54It recreates the moment in which Doc must rescue Clara before her wagon crashes into
11:59a ravine.
12:01While it's a short but thrilling scene in the movie, it's an absolute chore here.
12:06As Doc, you must race across the desert, avoiding obstacles and enemies, so you can make it
12:12in time.
12:13Pits, cowboys from behind, birds, and bouncing boulders are all the things you must contend
12:19with.
12:20Every time Doc gets hit, which will happen a lot, he falls to the ground before continuing
12:24the chase.
12:25It only takes a couple of hits until it's impossible for you to catch up.
12:30It's a jungle out here – Contra
12:43If one of the most famous things about a video game is a code that gives you 30 lives, you
12:49can bet it's hard enough to need it.
12:52The opening jungle level of Contra is iconic, but a big part of that legacy is because we
12:58all kept dying on it.
13:00In typical old-school fashion, you have a one-hit health bar.
13:05Contra wastes no time mounting an assault against you, with bullets whizzing past from
13:10all directions.
13:11It's hard enough contending with regular enemies, but the level ends with a boss fight
13:17against a heavily fortified door.
13:19And of course, there's never a pause in the gunfire.
13:23It's a matter of memorization to know when not to get hit.
13:28The Rings – Superman
13:36Often considered one of the worst superhero games of all time, Superman on the N64 has
13:42an infamous opening level.
13:44With his allies trapped in a virtual version of Metropolis, Superman must meet Lex Luthor's
13:50demands to save them.
13:52This begins by forcing Superman to fly through a bunch of rings around the city.
13:57Why?
13:58Who knows, but the combination of extremely poor controls and a very short time limit
14:03has made it the most well-known section of the game.
14:08If you complete the rings, you then have to stop two cars from crashing, again with a
14:12very short time limit.
14:14On a failure, you go back to the rings, and if you succeed, it's on to a different set
14:21of rings.
14:23The Village of Cursed Blossoms – Nioh 2
14:34And here we thought the first Nioh was hard.
14:36The Village of Cursed Blossoms, once thriving, is home to a bunch of pissed-off humans and
14:42deadly yokai all waiting to rip you to shreds.
14:46One of the yokai is the boss, Gozuki, which you'll encounter before you have any good
14:51weapons or armor.
14:52It's best to come back to it later, but not knowing that resulted in multiple quick
14:57deaths.
14:58However, even the non-boss enemies can overwhelm you, like the nimble but powerful Enkai.
15:04To make matters worse, you'll also cross over to the Dark Realm, where even more powerful
15:10yokai are waiting.
15:11Needless to say, you'll be dying an awful lot.
15:23The Beginning of the Hunt – Bloodborne
15:31To be fair, every one of FromSoftware's Souls-likes is extremely difficult, a fact
15:37made aware to you during the opening of each entry.
15:40But there are a handful of factors that makes Bloodborne's a bit tougher.
15:45The focus on horror works wonders for enemy design, making them far more intimidating
15:50than enemies found in other opening levels.
15:53Additionally, while there is magic in Bloodborne, you have far fewer tricks to rely on during
15:59your initial encounter with Yharnam.
16:02Twisted humans and nasty beasts wait around every dimly-lit corner.
16:07And if they don't get you, one of the two bosses will.
16:10Not only does it look like you're trapped in a nightmare, but it feels like one too.
16:17The Graveyard – Super Ghouls N' Ghosts
16:26Several games in this Capcom series open with a haunted graveyard, but we're giving love
16:31to one of the Super Nintendo's most punishing releases.
16:35With an increase in graphical power came an increase in how many enemies could fit on
16:40one screen.
16:41Therefore, it's best to constantly keep attacking, lest you be overrun by zombies,
16:47werewolves, or other spooky enemies.
16:49While this did introduce a double-jump, it doesn't help as much as you'd think.
16:54The landscape shifts unexpectedly, and enemies are almost always popping out of the ground.
17:00Meaning, you'll likely double-jump straight into damage anyway.
17:04Plus, you die in two hits unless you find golden armor, which increases it to three.
17:11The Way of the Ninja – Ninja Gaiden
17:20Ninja Gaiden was always an ultra-hard series, which is why the opening of Teen Ninja's
17:25revival was so impressively challenging.
17:28The Way of the Ninja sees Hero Ryu traversing a mountainside fortress full of other ninjas.
17:34There is no tutorial, which isn't so bad with the initial trickling in of enemies.
17:39That doesn't last long, though, as your palms will soon grow sweaty with how many
17:44blocks, rolls, and attacks you must perform to stay alive.
17:48On a first try, or realistically far more, you'll struggle to learn the mechanics.
17:54These ninjas are out for blood, even on normal mode, topping it all off as a nunchaku-wielding
18:01boss with a tendency to perform unblockable grabs.
18:10Parking Garage Tutorials – Driver
18:12You'd think a driving game would have a pretty straightforward tutorial.
18:21Unfortunately for many gamers in the late 90s, the developers behind Driver thought
18:25otherwise.
18:27It gives you a list of techniques to pull off in a parking garage, including a 360 turn,
18:33a reverse 180, and whatever the hell a slalom is.
18:38Being in a parking garage, you don't have a lot of room to maneuver in, and if you damage
18:43your car or others around you too much, you have to start over.
18:47The kicker is that you only have 60 seconds to complete the list.
18:52This ridiculous opening section is now what most of us remember Driver for, hence those
18:57memories are obviously not very fond.