Brutal Bonus Level: Difference between revisions

** The extra levels in Yoshi's Island DS, the sequel, take the game's [[Sequel Difficulty Spike]], the game's tendency to border on a rare licensed example of [[Platform Hell]], and cranks it [[Up to 11]].

** World S in ''[[Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Video Game)|Super Mario Galaxy 2]]''.

** World 9 in ''[[New Super Mario Bros Wii (Video Game)|New Super Mario Bros Wii]]''. Especially [[That One Level/Super Mario Bros|9-7]].

** Worlds 9 through D in ''[[Super Mario Bros the Lost Levels (Video Game)|Super Mario Bros the Lost Levels]]''. As if the main game wasn't [[Nintendo Hard]] enough...

*** World 9 is the only bonus level (achieved by not going through warps), and is actually a subversion of this trope. The level designs allow you to bypass most [[Nintendo Hard]] obstacles. World A-3 is the only level of A-D that could count as a novelty level of any kind.

** Special Stage 2 in ''[[Kaizo Mario World]]'', which is already [[Platform Hell]] in its own right, descends into the ninth circle of hell.

* The third Bonus mission in ''[[Battalion Wars]]'' where you play as the Solar Empire, forced to fend off Bombers with no Anti-Air support for the majority of the mission, then finally given three fighters...[[One-Winged Angel|only for Xylvania to send a barrage of Bombers and Gunships.]]

** Some of the downloadable super-hard mode stages in ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog 2006 (Video Game)|Sonic the Hedgehog 2006]]'' are pretty brutal as well, especially the ones where you play through the level in reverse order.

* ''[[Jed]]'''s “Challenge”, complete with being set in a volcano. [[Hailfire Peaks|That has patches of ice.]]

* ''[[Super Monkey Ball]]''. To even reach the Extra stages, you must complete all of a difficulty's stages without continuing. Clear Expert Extra without continuing and you get to the Master stages. And if that wasn't enough, in ''Super Monkey Ball 2'', clear those without using a continue and you get the Master Extra stages. Good luck pulling that off on Deluxe, where you can only reach the Master stages via Ultimate mode, [[Marathon Level|where you have to play through all Beginner, Advanced & Extra stages]](there's a save feature for the mode, but it's only a slight solace).

* Although some bonus levels in ''Super [[Meat Boy (Video Game)|Meat Boy]]'' are manageable or even easy, the other ones can be very difficult, including [[Minus World]] parody levels, some of the retro levels and the bonus chapter, Cotton Alley: Enjoy your pink, colourful, cheery, disco, sawblade-covered death!

* ''[[Gauntlet]]: Dark Legacy'' has one bonus stage per world, that consists of trying to nab 25 coins in a maze before time runs out. Your reward for beating a bonus stage is a secret character; the secret characters have stat alignments similar to the base characters (Medusa excells at Magic like the Wizard and Sorceress, for example), but with more intriguing physical designs and overall higher stats. The problem? Said bonus stages range from antsy to teeth-grindingly brutal. Some of the more [[Egregious]] examples include: a two-in-one literal [[Bonus Level of Heaven]] and [[Bonus Level of Hell|Hell]] where you're locked into unintuitive control physics not used anywhere else in the game, and you cannot go back for any coins; a deliberately-confusing psychedelic maze; a space station where you must use teleporters that don't always work perfectly, all in time limits that can generously be called 'fatalistic'. Your punishment for losing is to re-appear in the stage where you found the bonus entrance, but the bonus door will be gone, and you'll need to replay the stage for it to appear again. Considering some of these bonus doors appear very close to the end of lengthy stages, the player is wedged between quite the rock and hard place.

* ''[[Wolfenstein 3D (Video Game)|Wolfenstein 3D]]'': The Episode 3 secret level is pretty brutal, but brilliant fun too, while the Episode 4 secret level is practically a death trap unless you know the exact route to the exit (or are just plain crazy!).

* ''[[Plants vs. Zombies (Video Game)|Plants vs. Zombies]]'': The Bobsled Bonanza minigame, where you face almost nothing but [[The Juggernaut|Zombonis]] and [[Demonic Spiders|Zombie Bobsled Teams]], with 4 ice tracks laid down so that the bobsleds can start swarming immediately. Zombonis crush all your plants instantly and you'll use up Spikeweeds (their one weakness) as quickly as you put them down. The bobsleds themselves are a pack of 4 zombies which move fast on ice (helpfully provided by the Zombonis), will quickly overwhelm your peashooters, will spawn if there's so much as an inch of ice laid down, and are difficult to bring down without expensive [[Smart Bomb|bomb plants]]. You can only clear the ice with Jalapenos, which have a cripplingly slow recharge rate. The [[Ditto Fighter|Imitater]] is almost a requirement for this level, or you simply won't have enough bombs to clear the level.

[[Category:Video Game Settings]]

[[Category:Brutal Bonus Level]]