The 10 HARDEST Levels in Video Game Remakes

10 Hardest Levels in Video Game Remakes

Welcome to MojoPlays, and today we are not just tackling the hardest levels in video games, we’re tackling them again, but prettier. These are the 10 Hardest Levels in Video Game Remakes. Not all of these are exclusively levels. Some are just stages, or quests, missions, and it's my list AND I’LL DO WHAT I WANT! Okay, please watch.

Fair Play

“Mafia: Definitive Edition” (2020)

Collective suffering has become a bonding ritual for all “Mafia” fans thanks to “Fair Play,” the infamous mission where Tommy Angelo has to quietly sabotage a rival’s car and then immediately pretend he’s a professional racer at the Lost Heaven Grand Prix, a task that was already legendary for breaking controllers in the original game and has somehow returned even angrier in the remake. With modern players discovering that time has healed nothing and actually made it worse, Redditors trade war stories about spending multiple hours on Classic difficulty while their sanity slowly leaves their body, with comments ranging from furious vents about being “f****** bothered” after three hours to solemn declarations that this is genuinely the hardest mission they’ve ever attempted in any game, ever. Fair Play isn’t just a hard mission, it’s a test of anger management.

Eagle’s Tower

“The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening” (2019)

Ask anyone who’s played “The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening” and they’ll probably agree that Eagle’s Tower isn’t as cute as the rest of the game, it’s just mean. Between juggling red and blue switches, smashing pillars with the Iron Ball, and dealing with platforming that feels designed to punish impatience, the dungeon turns into a full-blown endurance trial, all leading up to the fight with Evil Eagle who tops things by making sure your nerves are already shot. While Turtle Rock and Face Shrine definitely get honorable mentions for being tough in their own sadistic ways, Eagle’s Tower consistently stands out as the dungeon most likely to make players stop, not just this game, but gaming altogether. I nearly went outside and threw a ball! And honest to god BALL you guys, what the hell?

The Fury

“Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater” (2025)

Extreme bosses in “Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater” are where the game stops being sneaky-cool and starts asking whether you’ve memorised the engine’s soul, because on Extreme difficulty the rules quietly change from “play well” to “play perfectly”. For The Pain, the fight is basically an endurance puzzle disguised as chaos, where thermal goggles are mandatory, grenades and stun grenades are your real damage dealers, and the goal isn’t to outshoot him but to constantly knock him out of the air. But The Fury? That guy makes this game feel like a real life torture sequence. His attacks hit WAY too hard, and his fire fills the floor till you can barely move. Don’t even get me started on trying to do it non-lethal... God help you.

Toluca Prison

“Silent Hill 2” (2024)

A lot of players seem to rank Toluca Prison near the bottom of their list, usually arguing it doesn’t quite match the original. But honestly the real reason it rubs people the wrong way is because it’s absolutely, unrelentingly brutal, since this is where “Silent Hill 2” starts squeezing you for every last nerve. The weight system unlocks the animal wards and turns basic progression into a slow, oppressive guessing game, while monsters crawling across the walls in near total darkness deliver what is easily the scariest sustained stretch in the entire game. The classic “free the innocent man” puzzle also returns in the form of the gallows puzzle, once again forcing you to pick the correct victim or get swarmed by enemies, and while it’s definitely more forgiving than the original brain-melter, it still sneaks in one nasty trick on standard puzzle difficulty. But we’ll let you see that for yourself.

Hospital Fight

“Resident Evil 3” (2020)

We got a lovely expansion on Carlos in the RE3 remake, and he has one particularly difficult section because it suddenly becomes a proper shooter, especially in hardcore mode. The hospital fight feels so punishing because it deliberately strips away every comfort the game has taught you to rely on and replaces it with pressure, limited ammo, barely any room to dodge, and waves of enemies that refuse to give you a breather, all while the game expects near-perfect movement and decision-making. The pacing is relentless, and this is particularly rough when none of these elements have been particularly present throughout the rest of the experience.

Whitney

“Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver” (2009)

Arguing over the hardest Gym Leader is basically a rite of passage, but two names almost always end up in the conversation, because “Pokémon Gold and Silver” and their remakes somehow thought emotional damage was a valid design choice, with Whitney from Goldenrod City, whose Miltank exists solely to teach players that cows are apex predators. If you wander in unprepared for this encounter, you’re gonna walk away feeling reeeeeally rough. Whitney’s fight is so infamous because it shows up early in and immediately punishes you for not knowing things the game has barely explained yet. Miltank hits like a truck, stacks rollout, and uses Milk Drink to undo all your progress. Skillcheck? Sure. Mean? Yep.

Jedah

“Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia” (2017)

When doing research for this list, I found a Reddit post that perfectly sums up this boss fight from “Fire Emblem Echoes.” It said “I Mean Seriously, Can We Talk About How Ludicrous Jedah Is As a Boss?” This fight feels downright sadistic. The game stacks every possible disadvantage on top of each other. Jedah waddles into battle with absurdly high DEF and RES, and you can only land damage on every fourth attack - not turn, attack - meaning you’re lucky to land meaningful damage while he parks himself in a swamp that slows you down just to really rub it in. The result is brutal combat where every turn feels like you’re losing ground, which isn’t difficult especially when the ground is made of MUD!

Zone 4: Citadel of Fire

“Ghosts 'n Goblins Resurrection” (2021)

At least in this entry the levels are MEANT to be incredibly hard. Zone 4, Citadel of Fire in “Ghosts ’n Goblins Resurrection” is unfair, plain and simple. Unfair. It tests your reactions, your memory, your patience, and your personal resistance. Enemy placement becomes deliberately hostile, with fire-spewing traps, flying demons, and resurrecting threats layered so that dodging one hazard almost always lines you up perfectly for another. Platforms crumble, lava limits safe movement, and vertical sections demand precise jumps while enemies attack from off-screen, which feels less like a challenge and more like a sadistic game dev is just trying to send you to one of those padded rooms at the hospital.

Mission 9-6-6

“Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Reunion” (2007)

Are you a bit of an achievement hunter? Are you a Final Fantasy fan? Remember Divine Rule Broken from Crisis Core? You don’t? Yeah, because NOBODY COULD GET IT! Earning Divine Rule Broken is less an achievement and more a test of your sanity, because it requires defeating Minerva, the secret boss which you can only even attempt by playing mission 9-6-6. Minerva isn’t difficult in the flashy, chaotic sense so much as she’s punishingly methodical, turning the entire fight into a long, exhausting exercise in patience where most of your time is spent dodging her relentless attacks rather than actually hitting her. Perfect timing isn’t optional here, it’s the bare minimum, and every mistake is immediately corrected by Minerva in the most violent way possible. In a game where you have to beat 1000 soldiers back to back to get an achievement, it's shocking that an achievement could get worse, and the only way to get this one is by smashing out this mind bending mission.

Stage 5-2

“Demon's Souls” (2020)

For a lot of players, world 5-2 feels like the absolute breaking point of “Demon’s Souls,” to the extent that many people don’t even try to play it properly and instead sprint past as much of it as possible just to escape with their sanity intact... But I don’t know who’d do that? Who’d follow a sprinting through YouTube guide beat for beat? Who on Earth would do that? (I did). It’s not that the area is badly designed, because almost nothing in this game truly is, but it is easily the least enjoyable stretch thanks to a swamp that permanently poisons you, slows your movement to a crawl, and somehow gives the local trolls zero mobility penalties at all, creating a deeply unfair slog where every step is punishment and every fight feels stacked against you. No thanks, I’ll just hammer a nail through my finger webbing.