The Game: Star Wars: Dark Forces (PSone, PC)
The Level: Mission VI - Crix Madine’s Fate
The Brick Wall: Liberating a political prisoner from the clutches of the Empire sounds like a worthy pastime. What they fail to tell you is that the Imperial Detention Facility is a ludicrously convoluted maze of lifts, key cards and switches that broke many a brain with its brazen manipulations of conventional elevator shaft design.
Stuck-o-meter: High; it took forever to solve without cheating, but once you had it figured out it was a work of art (by mid-90s standards, at least.)
The Game: LEGO Star Wars (PS2, Xbox, GC, PC)
The Level: Ruin of the Jedi
The Brick Wall: You must Force-pull a platform out of the wall and jump up onto it. Then, before it retracts back into the wall, you must quickly Force-pull another, higher platform and jump onto it in order to reach a switch. Repeat three times. A simple concept, but made miserably difficult by poor camera angles and screwy controls.
Stuck-o-meter: Medium-low; the game is almost over at this point, so getting stuck on such a petty obstacle really sucks.
The Game: Gears of War (360, PC)
The Level: Coalition Cargo
The Brick Wall: A mine cart rushes through tunnels infested with Locust, like a harrowing Disneyland ride into hell. This on-rails level is made more difficult by the hordes of monsters dropping onto you from the ceiling. It becomes absolutely savage on Hardcore or Insane difficulty.
Stuck-o-meter: Medium; turn down the difficulty to get through with minimal problems. You really only get stuck here with higher difficulty settings, which is all for the glory of beating something that’s stupidly impossible anyway.
