Video Games used to have really hard level designs. We don’t get to see that much in the era of modern gaming, as most of the gaming design has moved on to the culture of making things easy with handholding.
We have hand-picked a bunch of games in the list below for you to check out if you want to test your skills in some of the titles with the hardest level designs in history.
Hadest Level Designs in Video Games
Hollow Knight
Metroidvania is a 2D platforming genre that has been getting really popular over the years, and the main focus of these games is the incredible level designs. Though not all of them rely on difficulty, Team Cherry, the developers of Hollow Knight, had other plans in mind.
The game was designed with platforming challenges in mind, on top of having difficulty in combat. The developers doubled down on the idea with the Path of Pain section in the ‘Grimme Troupe’ DLC, and it’s not for the faint of heart.
Very few people are known to actually tread beyond the main quests and complete the ‘Grimme Troupe’ DLC fully because of how notorious it is.
Battletoads
Battletoads is one of the oldest NES platformers that very few talk about, as most don’t have good memories of the game. It is one of the hardest games to play through fully for various its difficulty curves encompass all aspects, but especially the level design.
Levels in the game, such as the turbo tunnel, make players react to breakneck speed with impossible obstacles, all the while having to deal with enemies. If you miss a beat, you will immediately be knocked out and will have to restart.
A remake of the game was also released years later and is available on modern platforms such as Steam, and it is equally hard. The new title was released in 2020 and published by Xbox Studios.
Celeste
If we are to talk about games with hard level designs in the modern era, then definitely Celeste comes to mind. This wonderful game has given a lot of players anxiety with its tricky platforming. Some of the levels have made people give up on the game.
The good part about the difficulty is that it has a purpose. Overcoming Celeste’s challenges is really rewarding, and it ties in with the game’s themes and overarching plot. The DLC levels are especially notorious as players will have to go an extra mile, technically, to go through the game.
Super Meat Boy
It’s only natural that we followed up a discussion on Celeste with Super Meat Boy, because both of the games are modern 2D platformers that are known to cause anxiety for players. Super Meat Boy is notorious for its level design difficulty.
But it’s not the first game in the franchise. In 2008, designers Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes made the original game Meat Boy as a web-based Flash game. Eventually, it turned into its own IP, and now we have multiple games, with the most recent one releasing in 2026.
Super Meat Boy developers were well aware of how hard the level designs were in their game, and it is pretty prevalent if you’ve played enough to come across the hidden level called ‘The Guy’.
Cuphead
What is there to say about Cuphead that people don’t know already? It is the single most notorious 2D game that has been compared with Dark Souls multiple times, just because some people think that the difficulty makes them equal.
Even though Cuphead is far from a Souls-like game. If anything it’s difficulty in level design is far more akin to the games of the older generation. Brutal side-scrolling bullet hell platforming cupped with beautiful animation that is a throwback to cartoons from the 1930s.
Crash Bandicoot
We have been talking about 2D side-scrolling games that have hard level designs for too long, so now it is time to check out some of the notorious 3D platformers. The first one to grace our list is, of course, PlayStation’s classic Crash Bandicoot.
Released in 1996 and developed by Naughty Dog, Crash Bandicoot had linear moving levels with no control over the camera, which was popularized by Super Mario 64 later. To top it off, the controls were specifically designed to make platforming challenging.
The more players progressed in the game, the worse the experience got with impossible platforming and obstacles. Most notorious of all was the high road, which reduced the scope of wiggling around and made things harder with narrow level designs.
Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy
Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy, or also Getting Over It as people call it, is one of the most-streamed modern platforming games. The funny thing about this title is that even though it is known for its hard level designs, it’s a game that a lot of people have completed.
Developed by the man himself, Bennett Foddy, Getting Over It is a short platformer that has a very weird premise. Players find themselves in a large cauldron, controlling a character named Diogenes, who has to climb to the top of the level, and the only gear in his possession is a Yosemite hammer.
Jump King
On the topic of platformers that are notorious among streamers but make for a great challenge run. Jump King is another modern title with really hard level designs. It presents to the players a goal very similar to Getting Over It.
Which is to reach the top of the level, which is an extremely tall tower. Players get various movement abilities to climb up there, including, of course, jumping.
The most punishing thing about these games is that if players make a single mistake while platforming, they will come crashing down to the lower platforms, thus losing progress. This is why completing Jump King is considered one of the most satisfying experiences.
Super Mario Galaxy 2
We could not have gone on with this list any longer without mentioning a single Super Mario game; these are pretty much the king of platformers when it comes to video games. Though there are not many Mario games that are notoriously challenging in level design, most of them are hard.
Leaving one out, Super Mario Galaxy 2, which was originally released for the Nintendo Wii. This game presents to the players a Grandmaster Galaxy challenge with incredibly difficult level design.
But what makes it bone-crushingly hard is the second mission, The Perfect Run, with conditions to complete, including no checkpoints and a single health bar.
The Lion King
Disney used to have a grand repertoire of video game line-ups back in the day. Using almost all of the IPs and turning them into platformers. Most people have a childhood filled with memories of playing at least one Disney platformer.
Except for The Lion King fans, they had it the hardest. Without access to the internet and only limited game guides that kids needed to purchase separately, developer Westwood Studios found the perfect grounds to create the most devious levels ever thought of in a platformer.
The Lion King at first looks like a simple platformer that goes through the life of Simba as it is in the movies, until he becomes a king. But no kid back in the day saw the end of it in the video games because some of the levels were intentionally developed to be hard.
