The 8 Most Annoying Types of Video Game Levels

Castle Crashers, Turtles in Time, Battletoads, ANY LEVEL WITH A TRAIN... Few things are worse (well, apparently, 5 things are worse) than a moving level. What exactly do we mean by moving level?

Well, check this video out. Any level (usually in a beat-em-up or a side scroller) where you have to board some kind of vehicle and the level keeps you moving, rendering your power to move useless.

You must ALWAYS go forward. Even if there are walls, you must ALWAYS move forward.

Are ALL video game characters always in THAT much of a hurry that they'll sacrifice their lives by constantly running into walls?

Also, the depth perception on these levels is usually impossible unless you're some kind of freak.

Here's a great example of a moving level that sucks purely because of the kind of level it is.

Lava levels are often the last levels or the most intense levels in the game. For example, the last part of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 is has a lava background. Dante's Inferno, and Apocalypse starring Bruce Willis (just checking to see if you're still paying attention) also has one.

Lava in video games basically means that whatever world you're inhabiting has gone to s**t. Complete and utter s**t. The walls are coming down around you and everything is all melty.

Either that or you're in a castle that was somehow constructed on a BASE of lava and any missing parts of the floor lead to your sudden, inevitable death.

Lava levels are probably the least annoying out of all of these, but they belong on this list because pretty much any level designed so that the WALLS can cause you to lose health is intrinsically obnoxious.

The Resident Evil 5 final boss (Spoiler Alert!) is annoying because you can't just square off against Wesker, a guy you've been going back and forth with the whole game, no, you have to face monster Whesker and LAVA.

Also, if you see the video to the left, these levels involve so many moving parts, they can have glitches that can ruin all your hard work.

Lava only ever makes things harder, but it often does make things cooler and more intense.

04:00 into this clip.

Car chase levels, be they finding someone with a way point on top of them or going a million miles an hour evading someone else are always obnoxious if you don't know where the people chasing you are.

For example, when you're running from the cops in any GTA game, you're often driving to the safest, most closed-up and far away spot you can find. It's a GREAT hide-and-seek style function that makes you feel a sense of danger and wonderment when you actually get away.

But realistically helicopters would be able to find you. There's no "range", they wouldn't just "stop". Also, most chases happen in 3rd person games where what you have in the foreground isn't what's important, but who you are.

You can't see who's chasing you without switching and toggling between multiple views, which just adds an unneeded difficulty to the game, when it should just be fun and a ride.

Also, a lot of these levels are in games that aren't BUILT for driving specifically, so the driving controls are always a little like the first time you ever tried to drive in a GTA game (remember that frustrating, frustrating experience?).

True Crime Streets of LA is an absolutely amazing game, but also has the most difficult and frustrating chase missions.

Any 007 Game will put you through a chase experience, but often in underequipped vehicles that are going more for realism than they are for fun.

Car chase levels are great. Even just "chase" levels.

The last level of Star Fox 64 is still one of the most engaging and intense moments in my gaming career, but since it's not often done THAT well and in that context (but more so in the context of a useless mission, or a tacked on "get here following these arrows before this cut scene" sense), it is one of the most annoying video game level cliches around.

Still, though, that Starfox level was perfect.