6 Hardest GameCube Levels Ever

During its early days as a console manufacturer, Nintendo was all about making ridiculously difficult games. There’s a reason players coined the phrase “Nintendo Hard” during the NES and SNES era. However, by the time the GameCube came around, Nintendo started to turn that difficulty down, making games that were much more family-friendly. Still, there were quite a few tough games on the system, a few of which had levels that punished players who weren’t ready for the challenge.

Here are the six hardest levels on the Nintendo GameCube.

6) The Magnificent Five – Viewtiful Joe

Viewtiful Joe is a stylish action game from Capcom that dazzled players with fun visuals and inventive gameplay. It’s also one of the hardest games on the GameCube, thanks in part to its frustrating bosses. Plus, you can make it even more difficult by cranking the difficulty nob to Ultra V-Rated.

That all comes to a head in Episode 5: The Magnificent 5. This stage features a lengthy boss rush that’ll give everyone trouble, especially on higher difficulty levels. Not only do you have to go up against several of the more difficult bosses from the rest of the game, but it culminates with a fight against Fire Leo. This guy is no joke. He’d be hard enough on his own, but having to fight through a gauntlet to even get to him puts this level on the list.

5) Master 3 – Super Monkey Ball

Super Monkey Ball is filled with tough levels. Mastering this one will take dozens of hours because of how hard it is to manage those monkeys. However, my pick for the toughest level in the first SMB is Master 3. There are ways to cheese it, but if you play this level as intended, it’s going to be a slog.

Not only do you have to navigate razor-thin pathways, but the moving platforms will stop most players in their tracks. It’s not because they move quickly or erratically. Instead, they mess with the camera in frustrating ways, making it nearly impossible to make the precise corrections needed to make it through the level. You’re much better off just learning the skip.

4) Chapter 4 – Ikaruga

Ikaruga is a shoot ’em up, so it’s filled with tough-as-nails levels. There are quite a few contenders in this one, including Chapter 3: The Faith and Chapter 5: The Metempsychosis, but for my money, Chapter 4: The Test has to take this spot.

The path to success is paper-thin, thanks to tight corridors filled with hundreds of enemies. All of them are constantly raining shots toward you, but there’s almost no room to dodge. Eventually, you’ll start to learn its tricks and be able to get through with relative ease. However, those first few attempts are daunting.

3) Prisoners of the Maw – Star Wars: Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader

Rogue Leader is one of the best-looking GameCube games, featuring the most film-like Star Wars ships players had seen to that point. The space sim also controlled like a dream, letting you relive some of your favorite moments from the mega-popular franchise. That said, a few of those levels were sneakily difficult.

Prisoners of the Maw takes the top slot for most. You’re put inside a Y-Wing, which is a little more durable than your standard X-Wing. However, that also means it moves through space like a sloth, which isn’t great when you have to navigate an asteroid field to rescue prisoners from an Imperial prison. It also doesn’t help that it’s almost impossible to see anything because of all the asteroids.

2) Cylinders – Super Monkey Ball 2

Like Master 3 in the first Super Monkey Ball, Cylinders in the sequel has a skip that makes it relatively easy. However, if you play it as intended, it’s one of the most challenging levels in the entire series. Interestingly, it’s also the third level in SMB2‘s Master stages. I’m not sure if that’s by design, but the developers seem to have something for the number three.

This stage features a few small, rotating cylinders. Finding the right timing to get past the cylinders, while staying on top of them, makes this one a true challenge. Thankfully, you can use a bounce to skip the most difficult sections, but anyone playing normally is going to fail dozens of times before mastering the timing and touch.

1) Slim-Line Slits – F-Zero GX

Most GameCube fans will agree that F-Zero GX is the toughest game on the system. Nintendo did not hold back on the difficulty for this lightning-fast racer. If you thought 150cc mode in Mario Kart: Double Dash was hard to keep up with, you haven’t seen anything. GX laughs at that sluggish racer as it blitzes past it on the track.

It’s tougher to decide the hardest level in F-Zero GX. There are plenty of candidates, but I’m going with Slim-Line Slits in Master GP. Sure, the actual layout isn’t that bad; however, your fellow racers are always looking to knock you off the narrow paths, ruining the race before it ever really starts. Plus, the whole thing finishes with one last big corner that you physically can’t take as fast as the AI. It’s one last big cheat from the CPU that you have to overcome by playing perfectly up to that point.

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