5- Shinespark In Burenia – Metroid Dread
Hidden upgrades in Metroid Dread lurk behind seemingly impenetrable walls called "Speed Booster blocks." To break through these blocks, you need to press the downward button while running at maximum speed to enter Shinespark mode. If you then press the jump and direction buttons, you'll launch in the opposite direction, smashing through any Speed blocks in your path.
Because you can only enter Shinespark mode after building up sufficient momentum, puzzles involving these blocks are inherently complex. However, the toughest part is accessing the Missile+ upgrade in the Burenia area. With Speed blocks located next to a slope, running at maximum speed becomes impossible. To overcome this, you need to initiate Shinespark in the upper corridor, drop down, sprint up the slope, and then dash towards the blocks.
Yet, there’s another hurdle: Shinespark fades after three seconds. Navigating this area takes 15 seconds, making the only way to obtain this upgrade continually pressing the downward button to reset Shinespark while sprinting through the corridors. If you lose balance or hit a wall, Shinespark vanishes, forcing you to start over.
Even watching a video explaining this area isn't truly helpful because quick reflexes are essential to execute this feat.
4- The Goat – Broken Sword: The Shadow Of The Templars
The Goat section in the classic adventure game Broken Sword: The Shadow Of The Templars is so infamous that it has its own Wikipedia page.
Despite its terrifying reputation, the premise of this puzzle is quite straightforward. Playing as George, you need to get past the goat blocking the castle entrance. If you get too close, the animal will push you back.
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| Zork II |
So how does this tiny puzzle cause so much frustration and keyboard-smashing over the years? Well, the only way to bypass this devilish creature is to let it charge at you. When it returns to its original position, you must adjust the machine to the left. When the goat attacks you again, its rope will get tangled in the machine, allowing you to pass through.
Once you know the solution, this puzzle should be easy, right? However, the required precision is not to be underestimated. Clicking the machine too early or too late in a split second won’t work. So even after knowing what to do, expect to be headbutted by the goat multiple times. It’s not surprising that the puzzle was simplified in the game's remastered version.
3- Baseball – Zork II
Before games like Zelda, Donkey Kong, and Super Mario emerged, players had to make do with text-based adventures like Zork II. Released in 1981, access to guidance and solutions was almost non-existent, which is why so few managed to complete it.
Specifically, those who played Zork II often didn’t get past the "Oddly Angled Room." While this section resembles a maze, you might assume you can find the exit through trial and error. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work, as the game keeps sending you to random places.
But if you notice the bat near the diamond-shaped window, you might deduce that the solution is related to baseball. If you run through the maze as if you’re playing a baseball game, you should find the exit.
Few discovered this solution because why would anyone think that way? Even if you know everything about baseball, no one would think of this conclusion.
Unfortunately, even if you manage to link it to baseball, it won’t help because the game gives no hint about the direction you should go from the main base!
This puzzle is generally hated to the point where the designer, David Lebling, apologized for it... as he should have.
2- Twisting Maze – The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild
Unless you aim to complete all the Shrines in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, it's best to avoid the Myahm Agana location.
In this dungeon, you’ll notice a hanging ball inside a maze. By controlling the nearby gyroscopes, you can rotate the floating platform to guide the ball through the maze. Once the ball reaches the end, it will drop into a hole, allowing you to complete the site’s mission.
If that sounds easy, it's not! Every time it seems the ball is about to fall off the edge, you can only react by shaking the platform in the opposite direction. Doing so ensures the ball will fall into the abyss.
After failing fifty times, you may turn to the internet to find an easier way to bypass this maze. Luckily, there is a technique. By rotating the platform 180 degrees, you can skip the entire maze section. By guiding the platform at a specific angle, you can launch the ball into the hole as soon as it falls.
Unfortunately, this “easier” way... is not easy! The required precision is unfair to the point where this method is actually harder than the regular way.
1- The Challenge – The Witness
Every puzzle in The Witness follows a simple mechanism: you must draw a path through a grid-like maze to an exit. Among over 650 puzzles in the game, the hardest is... "The Challenge". (It may not be a creative name but it's very justified). If you choose to undertake this endeavor, you must complete twelve complex puzzles in seven minutes.
You might now think, “What’s stopping you from using a guide?”... and the answer is simple: these twelve puzzles are randomly generated by an algorithm. It’s impossible to search for solutions because they didn’t exist until the algorithm created them.
This doesn’t mean that "The Challenge" level is the hardest puzzle in gaming history, but because its randomness makes it immune to walkthroughs, it's easy to see why The Witness’s hardest level has maintained its reputation over the years.
While completing "The Challenge" is incredibly frustrating because you can’t use external help, if you’re among the very few who managed to overcome it, you know it was due to relying entirely on your own skills.