Bastard Hard Moments in Sonic

[Abominal SnowTaz]

Also, Sonic 06 on a whole because that game was so buggy and glitchy there was no way that you could play that game without getting irritated. Especially those damned Mach zones.

Those Mach zones are a load of bull crap! Sonic moves so damn fast, you're too surprised to know what to do/avoid next. It took me half a month just to clear the last one.

[JezMM]

I think the most offensive one was Crisis City. I still havn't quite worked out what debris from the exploding cars hurts you and what doesn't.

[Glenn]

I think the most offensive one was Crisis City. I still havn't quite worked out what debris from the exploding cars hurts you and what doesn't.

The game simply picks whatever debris is JUST ABOUT TO HIT YOU IN THE FACE, and makes it a bit that hurts you.

Most people have listed most of the nightmarish moments and I'm in full agreement. Often, I find the worst moments come from returning and trying to perfect a zone, rather than a zone itself. So many people have talked about trying to S-Rank this zone, or Time Attack that zone. Mostly, on a first runthrough regardless of rank, I have little to grumble about.

Except Iblis (Phase #2) as Sonic and/or Shadow, in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006). It wasn't the difficulty of the rhythmic attack pattern that annoyed me. It was the sheer length of the boss, forced into a time of almost seven minutes because of the endless retreating and waiting of Iblis himself. Not only that, but the final attack (where Iblis goes into a blind rage and exposes himself for one last homing attack) is always an insanely stressful moment because the camera suggests you watch Iblis to avoid him, yet also move Sonic and/or Shadow away from Iblis... which makes you look entirely the other way. I died twice before I killed him, third time lucky.

It took nearly half an hour, all told. Not hard to play, perhaps, but certainly hard to endure!

[Vertekins]

I forgot to mention some Sonic 4's Special Stages. I recall free-falling through the areas and turning very sharply in order to avoid being locked behind those walls, spending a lot of very precious time navigating around the trick walls because I didn't turn hard enough. Or navigating through the maze-like layout gathering time and enough rings to open the barriers towards the emerald. I recall very late into the 7th Special Stage how you get the maximum required rings and the games plays an almost cruel trick on you by making you backtrack all the way to the beginning to get through the barrier and get the emerald.

Also, anyone else find the extremely short amount of time that you get to jump and hit Erazor in Secret Rings insane? Hands down, there's no room for even slight mistiming or accuracy there.

[Blue Blood]

I think the most offensive one was Crisis City. I still havn't quite worked out what debris from the exploding cars hurts you and what doesn't.

I don't get it, really I don't. First time I did that section I was like "What's everyone complaining about? It's piss easy!". Cause it was. I didn't get hit once. Second time and onwards it always makes me want to impale the controller in my controller into my head. Beginners luck, much?

Who remembers the Twinkle Snow boss from Advance 3? That bastard thing was a fucking nightmare. Eggman is climbing up a bottomless pit and the only way to damage him is to make floating platforms fall and land on him. Tap the jump button twice and you're pretty much guaranteed death. Ouch.

For a bit of self-induced insane difficulty, go try Radiant Emerald set to the hardest difficulty on a 100% save file as Tails Doll. Getting 1st is nigh-impossible (for me at least), but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a great deal of fun. In fact, it's genuinely awesome.

Unleashed HD, Arid Sand Night Act 1, that rooftop where you don't ever need to go. And this one deserves no further explanation.

Edited December 8, 2010 by Blue Blood

[JezMM]

Also, anyone else find the extremely short amount of time that you get to jump and hit Erazor in Secret Rings insane? Hands down, there's no room for even slight mistiming or accuracy there.

You're meant to use time break - the tricky thing is waiting the right amount of time. If you activate it too soon after the view switches to side-on, it can sometimes run out before he charges.

It is possible without time break but... I've maybe hit him once or twice like that in all my plays of that boss total.

[Yong]

Sonic 06 in its entirety is rage fuel. But there's one particular part in the game I'd like to point out.

It's in Shadow's Kingdom Valley where you have to cross the water using his hovercraft. The hovercraft is as fragile as paper and controls like molasses, so getting around the boxes and spiked balls can be a little tricky. But it's perfectly doable.

Except when a building falls on top of you.

*throws controller across the room*

[Vertekins]

What confuses me about SatSR is that a while ago, I'd be getting Gold Medals on Alf-Layla-Wa-Layla no problem. But now I hardly ever accomplish them despite using the exact same tactics. I noticed that there's occasions where Alf-Layla will lose 4 rings at once after Darkspine attacks him and therefore can be beaten in two attacks rather than three but most of the time he'll only lose 3 rings at once on the second attack. Is there some kind of specific tactic that must be utilised in order to make Alf-Layla give up more of his World Rings than usual? Is it something to do with having the Soul Gauge charged to maximum on every attack? Or is it something to do with Wii Remote input when Darkspine is laying the smackdown on his heart?

[JonoD]

Sonic 2 GG

-Everyone has said it. The stage 1 boss was enough to make me forget the game when I was playing it. Heck, even playing it on a console re-release where you can actually see stuff happening I found it nigh impossible to beat >.<

Sonic and the Secret Rings

-The control scheme. I hated everything about it and made the game unplayable for me. Especially in some of the later 'Collect no Rings' missions where control over sonic was virtually minimal.

Sonic Unleashed

-The Gaia Club Guardian atop the building in Empire City... This guy made me want to murder small kittens and like it... After 30 lives, and two sets of "Game Over" scenes I finally beat this guy and his STUPID Knock-you-over-then-insta-kill-you-by-throwing-you-off-the-building-into-a-bottomless-pit-shockwave move...

-The mission "Save Yasmin". Some level designer at sega was evidently out to vent his frustrations of life to the world in the shape of this mission... It was like the "Super Mario Frustration" level of Sonic Unleashed. A brutal time limit which couldn't be met unless you boosted virtually all the stage coupled with hazards in every concievable location. Pure... EVIL

[JezMM]

Sonic 2 GG

-Everyone has said it. The stage 1 boss was enough to make me forget the game when I was playing it. Heck, even playing it on a console re-release where you can actually see stuff happening I found it nigh impossible to beat >.<

When you say console re-release was it the Game Gear version in Gems/SADX? Coz if so you don't see anything more than the original game in those. The Master System version not only gives you a wider view, but every rock falls at the same, easily jump over-able height (and Eggman waits until the last rock has gone before he charges you).

-The Gaia Club Guardian atop the building in Empire City... This guy made me want to murder small kittens and like it... After 30 lives, and two sets of "Game Over" scenes I finally beat this guy and his STUPID Knock-you-over-then-insta-kill-you-by-throwing-you-off-the-building-into-a-bottomless-pit-shockwave move...

The trick to these guys is to NOT mash A to get back up until the shockwave has passed over you. When Sonic is on the floor you won't take damage a second time.

Like many of Unleashed's frustrations, they really could have benefitted from telling the player this in a hint bubble...

Edited December 8, 2010 by JezMM

[-Mark-]

Also, anyone else find the extremely short amount of time that you get to jump and hit Erazor in Secret Rings insane? Hands down, there's no room for even slight mistiming or accuracy there.

Oh god yes. Both of the final bosses in Secret Rings are hellishly difficult, even for me to go back to today. King Arthur in Black Knight is pretty damn hard, too.

Regarding the Sonic 4 special stages, the iPod versions are about fifty times harder due to crappy controls. After a week on the iPod version, the console version special stages seemed relatively easy.

Edited December 8, 2010 by Mahzes

[JonoD]

When you say console re-release was it the Game Gear version in Gems/SADX? Coz if so you don't see anything more than the original game in those. The Master System version not only gives you a wider view, but every rock falls at the same, easily jump over-able height (and Eggman waits until the last rock has gone before he charges you).

Yeah, That's right. I know the field of view is the same, but I originally played on a tiny and poorly contrasted game gear screen.

The trick to these guys is to NOT mash A to get back up until the shockwave has passed over you. When Sonic is on the floor you won't take damage a second time.

Like many of Unleashed's frustrations, they really could have benefitted from telling the player this in a hint bubble...

I eventually learnt this after a few times and I still ended up getting thrown off It was just the odd moments when I would just be caught off by it. Was VERY frustrating when I didn't know though.

[Ebby]

Guys, Eggmanland is cake. Hell it's fun. After some practice an A rank is easily possible. The hardest thing about the stage is NOT dying. I still haven't done that!

Sonic 1:

Labyrinth Zone: I've never beaten the boss. I just can't do it! You don't have to hit the stupid thing, you just have to make it to the top! Did I mention the rest of the level is designed to not be friendly and kill you even though it's only level four? Scrap Brain is the last level, it's supposed to be hard. However level four isn't damnit! Thank God water levels got better in Sonic games!

Sonic 2:

Special Stages: Hard as hell and simply boring.

Death Egg Zone: Boss without rings? Oh screw you SEGA!

Sonic 2 (GG)

The first boss.... that's all I have to say.

Sonic 3:

Level Select cheat: I can't do it!!! I can't move that fast! Well thank goodness Sonic 3 is on the easy side minus...

THE CARNIVAL NIGHT CIRCUS BARREL. Why did I waste two perfectly good lives on that?!?!? It took me twenty minutes to figure out that all I had to do was move up and down! In fact, I wasted three lives! I died before I could defeat the boss! Carnival Night is rather large after all.

Sonic Adventure:

Sky Deck: 29 minutes and many... many... MANY lives lost.

Sonic Adventure 2:

The following:

Crazy Gadget (The colored block room was not my friend)

Eternal Engine (This level hates me. Stupid Chaos Monsters...)

Mad Space (The lowest place is the highest place and I'm stuck on some planet due to gravity?? UHHH... I'm CONFUSED.)

Defeating Eggman/Tails the second time (Lazor of doom)

Final Rush/Chase (The first time I did these levels, Sonic and Shadow burned a many of times. Now they're awesome though =D)

Cannon's Core (Eggmanland is easy compared to Cannon's core. After 9 years I still fear this level)

Biolizard (Do I need to explain this?)

Sonic Unleashed:

The Bees. The Bees. The Bees. They were more proof that bees are always evil in video games... as well as over sized hands. XD

The DLC levels (especially in Holoska), most of them were just unfair.

Chun-nan Road Night Act 2: WHY? WHY? WHY? Why must I tightrope while holding crap!!! Why is this level circular?! I like werehog but this level had to go!!

Sonic Colors.

Terminal Velocity Act 1: Quickstepping hated me... and so did jumping.

[turbojet]

-The mission "Save Yasmin". Some level designer at sega was evidently out to vent his frustrations of life to the world in the shape of this mission... It was like the "Super Mario Frustration" level of Sonic Unleashed. A brutal time limit which couldn't be met unless you boosted virtually all the stage coupled with hazards in every concievable location. Pure... EVIL

This stage made me pretty much an expert at the game. Fuck Yasmine and her fascination with being a badass. I was thinking the bitch could rot in desert for all I care.

And Silver! Oh god, I remember having to push a ball into a hole to get by! Fuck that stage and fuck the idiot who couldn't make the Psy powers reminiscent of Portal. Fucking asshole.

[Rusty Spy]

Sonic CD: Activating those split second cheat codes at the Title Screen. I HATE IT SO MUCH! Sega, I just want to listen to the music you have made for us. Why do you have to make it so hard to do that?

That also also reminds me, accomplishing anything in CD aside from getting to the ending. Time Travel, Badnik Generators, Good Futures, Time Stones, this game is brimming with bastard hard moments everywhere.

[Steelers2056]

Sonic 1

Labyrinth Zone (Especially the boss): That zone is brutal. I had to practice at it like crazy and memorize the whole thing just so I could beat it without dying.

Scrap Brain Act 3: Even worse than labyrinth if you don't know the shortcut.

Sonic 2

Chemical Plant Act 2: The underwater moving blocks and flipping platforms (Especially the the boss) make me rage.

Metropolis Zone: The whole thing makes me rage, I have a worse time with it than labyrinth.

Final Boss. I always get owned by this boss, Mostly because I keep trying to jump over the claws.

Sonic 3&Knuckles:

Marble Zone boss, Especially as tails.

The Barrel of doom in CNZ: I got at least two time overs on it. Then I found out all I had to do was press up and down. FFFFFUUU-

Sonic Adventure:

Sky Deck: I HATE this level, The camera always screw up badly and makes it frustratingly hard to see where I'm going.

Fishing levels: Actually I can't say much about these since I always rage quit on the first one.

Egg Viper: Because I suck at it. I can't even get more than 2 hits in before falling in the pit.

Sonic Adventure 2:

Death Chamber: I think I died about 4 times before I beat it.

Egg Golem (As sonic): For some reason I got stuck on this for a while. I just could not time the bounce attack to get up those platforms.

Security Hall: I HATE this level. I think I failed this like 15 times before I even passed it and nerd raged pretty hard the whole time. I actually have all A ranks on it now and I'm not sure how I did it.

Final Chase And Final Rush: I always suck at rail grinding levels. The first time I played final rush, I had about 29 Lives when I started. I had 17 when I finished.

Sonic Heroes:

The first 4 levels(Because I never got any farther): I hate this game. The whole thing is just pure nerd rage for me. I just couldn't get use to the controls, So I spent most of my time mashing buttons and hoping it worked. After I tried to play rail canyon I rage quit because of the damn bottomless pits.

Also, All of the special stages make me rage. The only game I've beat %100 is sonic 1.

[Glenn]

Who remembers the Twinkle Snow boss from Advance 3? That bastard thing was a fucking nightmare. Eggman is climbing up a bottomless pit and the only way to damage him is to make floating platforms fall and land on him. Tap the jump button twice and you're pretty much guaranteed death. Ouch.

I gave your post +1 for the Radiant Emerald bit, but I'm also in total agreement with you over the Twinkle Snow boss above! *rage* I think I'd forgotten about it, blocked it from my memory, but as soon as I read that... it all flooded back. I almost crushed my Nintendo DS in the palm of my hand thanks to that abysmal nightmare!

What made it worse was that, just beforehand, I'd aced one of those push-the-button challenges and got a truckload of extra lives. Wasted them all, over and over. Eggman isn't supposed to build machines THAT WORK, damn it!

[Abominal SnowTaz]

And Silver! Oh god, I remember having to push a ball into a hole to get by! Fuck that stage and fuck the idiot who couldn't make the Psy powers reminiscent of Portal. Fucking asshole.

Yes! What the hell were they thinking. I wasted hours of anger and Brain power trying to get the friggin' ball in the hole. Why did I need to push it? Why can't Silver pick the damn thing up with psychic powers? Who comes up with stuff?

[Glenn]

The post arrived this morning and I've got a new entry for this topic.

Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis, on GameBoy Advance.

All of it.

Seriously, what the heck?! I've tried three times to clear Marble Zone and I physically can't, not even with seven lives and a continue?! Since my earliest videogaming memories I've been playing this beloved classic, and now here's a version that is so undeniably broken that I find it actually impossible... like I said, what the heck?!

Green Hill Zone was okay. Buggy, but playable, especially with the spin dash allowing me to zip nicely along. When the framerate crawled to a halt, so did the timer, and so my scores were still nicely rounded. I cleared Act Two in twenty-six seconds. Not bad going, I was thinking, maybe this isn't so horrible after all! And then came Marble Zone. When platforms routinely disappear in midair, in a zone that revolves around standing on platforms, that's bad enough. But towards the end of Act Three, there's a place in the wall where, if Sonic jumps past it, he will die instantly. No spikes, no platform... a brick. In the wall. Kills him. A BRICK IN THE WALL.

It doesn't help that Sonic is running on ice the entire time. If you thought Shadow slipped all over the place with his rocket sneakers, think again: hop up onto a platform and Sonic simply won't stop, instead barrelling off the other end and into some lava. Jumping is also twice as high as the original, making sections either ridiculously easy to clear in a single bound or impossibly tricky to navigate. That is, if Sonic even jumps straight. Sometimes he'll jump backwards. For the sheer hell of it.

Thankfully the box is pretty and there's a cool retro vibe about the whole thing, so I'll stick with it until I've completed Anniversary Mode. By thunder, though... Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis, without question, is absolutely bastard hard.

[Satar]

My personal worst moment of Sonic other then the pedo chip showing up was the freaking Carnival zone with the freaking barrels of doom that is so easy to get by if you know how to us the freaking things.

[JezMM]

My personal worst moment of Sonic other then the pedo chip showing up

[Badnik Mechanic]

Has anyone said this yet. Because to this day I cannot get this to work, regardless as to if I use a game gear or a port.

Sonic 2 Game Gear: Trying to fly the handglider... for more than 2 seconds.

[Unholy Sonic]

Haha so you hated Chip (who didn't affect the gameplay until the final boss) over the werehog system that could have been easily replaced by Knuckles?

High Five!! ... NOT.

Has anyone said this yet. Because to this day I cannot get this to work, regardless as to if I use a game gear or a port.

Sonic 2 Game Gear: Trying to fly the handglider... for more than 2 seconds.

Edited December 10, 2010 by Unholy Sønic

[Sean]

Replacing the Werehog with Knuckles wouldn't have solved how it's just a terrible thing to play in the first place. And it wouldn't have solved how stupidly the Werehog's levels were designed, either. Or the bad controls. Or anything.

[Unholy Sonic]

Well if you replace the werehog by Knuckle, you replace the stretching by this one marvelous thing...

Gliding

That alone will make Abadat Stage/Mission/Challenge/whatchamacallit piss-easy.

Was I the only one who wished to glide over this endless territory of pits?