Favorite dungeon/level/puzzle?

[regi]

Choose 1-3 games and go!

Some examples off the top of my head:

1. LoZ Twilight Princess- Snowpeak Ruins. Probably the most creative Zelda dungeon ever made. Not quite the greatest in terms of gameplay, but the entire concept was really cool (rather than kill dark-mutated bosses you got friendly yetis to lead you to your goal). And each step rewarded you with some nice, warm soup.

2. Super Mario Galaxy- Freezeflame Galaxy. Damn those levels were fun, running around with powerups trying to light a torch or freeze enough water before it ran out. Getting the purple coins was pretty damn challenging (one slip and you gotta start all over) but it was fun enough (didn't expect that final leap from the top!)

 

[Anski]

Dungeon: Forest Temple from OOT. Even though you don't have a ton of cool items to solve puzzles with, the entire atmosphere, building design, and especially the music just flowed so well together.

Level: Stage 4 from Super Castlevania IV. On top of being my favorite game, it also pushed the SNES to its technical capabilities, many of which its fellow games on the system did not. The first half of the stage, before the Stone Ediface sub-boss is pretty normal, but the entire level begins to spin as you sit still, and it continues to go on to a huge stone sliding room where split second decisions are the core to survival. You're moving up at a grossly fast pace and must leap and dodge around stones or be crushed. (Edit: Not to mention it has my all time favorite VG music track, Rotating Room.)

Puzzle: The Coin Puzzle from Silent Hill 2. Using the strung out text around the area to figure out which place the coins were in on the desk challenged my mind when I was younger, and if I didn't know it by heart now i'd probably still be stumped by it, and I love playing puzzle games.

 

[moog]

I love the dungeons on wild arms 2 because they are full of puzzles and annoying shit that makes you want to rage but you feel compelled to figure it out because you arent gonna let a game you paid 39.99 for fuck you over

 

[moog]

Level: Stage 4 from Super Castlevania IV

also holy shit this is like THE LEVEL d

 

[Venetia]

first thing that came to mind was the very very very first area in Ecco the Dolphin. You had no direction or anything, you just appeared on the screen.
It was just: "fuck yeah i'm a dolphin! yeah look at my dolphin buddies yeah! look at me swim yeah! look there's this dumb shell thing that hurts me but i can charge-attack it yeah! look i can talk at the dolphins when i push this button yeah!" and then one dolphin goes "how high can you jump bro?" and i'm like "real high!!!!! :shades: " so i jump and jump and porpoise and flip and then---

-----whaaaaaaaaaaat no stop no no stop! stop-------
---i'm sorry for showboating i won't do it again !!!!!-------

and then all of my buddies were gone and evil music started playing and everything felt cold and alone and horrible and all i could do was swim to the right

for some reason that little prologue stage always stuck with me. it was so simple and yet elicited all these emotions in my little 8-year-old brain.

 

[moxie]

Ecco the Dolphin

oh my god that game is scary as fuck to a little kid. In most games where you play as cute little animals you're up against equally cute/goofy looking badguys. In Ecco you were fighting some straight-up Giger shit.

Two areas immediately come to mind for me. One is the haunted mansion in Silent Hill 3 - the entire game was intense for me and you get to this cheesy little haunted tour, and it's almost like a break from everything. Then you realize whatever force is controlling it is toying with you and it throws you out into that mazelike hallway, being chased by a mass of indistinguishable nothing and you're fighting mounting panic (and terrible controls :x) while you're trying to navigate the tight turns and escape. Idk, most people hate that area but it's always stuck with me because it was so unexpected.

The second one is the final level in Braid. It was just really neat and well-designed - I won't say anymore in case there's someone who hasn't played it, but I thought the final "twist" or whatever worked really well.

 

[Venetia]

Two areas immediately come to mind for me. One is the haunted mansion in Silent Hill 3 - the entire game was intense for me and you get to this cheesy little haunted tour, and it's almost like a break from everything. Then you realize whatever force is controlling it is toying with you and it throws you out into that mazelike hallway, being chased by a mass of indistinguishable nothing and you're fighting mounting panic (and terrible controls :x) while you're trying to navigate the tight turns and escape. Idk, most people hate that area but it's always stuck with me because it was so unexpected.

aaa i looovveed that area
it was like how the haunted mansion at disney SHOULD be (er, except for the things that outright MAIM you)
and at the end the ceiling dropped and you had to basically remember that the girl kind of ducks slightly when carrying a weapon or something because there was no formal duck button.
that game had some really amazing "wtf o_O holyfuck" moments too, like the bathtub/mirror room and the mannequin-decapitation room.

 

[Chalupa]

The Great Bay dungeon in Major'a Mask. This is as far as I got in Majora's Mask, but I'm never going to forget it. It was challenging, but fun and original.

 

[dadevvtsvre]

most of my familiarity with dungeons comes from zelda games. gonna echo regi's choice of snowpeak as being a fantastic dungeon overall (except for the ICE KEESE ARGH) and the fact that you play the whole thing in what is essentially a giant house is pretty cool. the whole journey just getting to snowpeak is imo one of the best parts of the game and sets you up perfectly for the kind of tone/atmosphere there.

the shadow and forest temple from OoT are also great dungeons. the forest temple brought in some really unique puzzles and gameplay (twisting hallways!) and the shadow temple is probably the creepiest from any zelda game so far. the earth temple in wind waker was also pretty cool in terms of design and style though it isn't all that memorable.

not sure if this counts as a 'level' per se but the train sequence in uncharted 2 is easily one of the best parts of any video game i've ever played. not only is the fighting fantastic and incredibly cinematic, but the environment and sheer scope of the level is perfect. you're racing through forests, caves, and high up in the himalayas, fighting off soliders, commandos and helicopters. i can't remember the last time a game was just as fun to watch as it was to play.

 

[Guest]

;D

 

[Twirly]

The forest temple in zelda is great man, also GOLDEN SUN man.
Golden Sun has GREAT dungeons and the best one man idk... probably the magma rock or the jupiter lighthouse which both appeared in Golden Sun TLA

 

[moog]

you all like dungeons and puzzles? then you should all play the adventures of lolo series, it has two in one. it's a fun game too. they start off generally easy but get harder as the game progresses.

god i used to rage so hard over this game as a child but it was really fun

also solomon's key and legacy of the wizard have good puzzles/mazes

 

[Anski]

Young Merlin had some crazy ass puzzles on the SNES.

 

[Jason]

not sure if this counts as a 'level' per se but the train sequence in uncharted 2 is easily one of the best parts of any video game i've ever played. not only is the fighting fantastic and incredibly cinematic, but the environment and sheer scope of the level is perfect. you're racing through forests, caves, and high up in the himalayas, fighting off soliders, commandos and helicopters. i can't remember the last time a game was just as fun to watch as it was to play.

You win a gold star for reading my mind, this has got to be my favourite gameplay segment of any game ever made... along with the village, even though you do nothing but follow Tenzin straight forward up a few steps, but shit I just loved walking around and looking at how beautiful the place was...

 

[Chalupa]

I really enjoyed playing some of the parts where you had to get the assassin plates in Assassin's Creed II. It mixed Assassin's Creed's platforming style with some pretty fun puzzles... They were simple, but damn were they fun.

 

[Venetia]

oh oh the steel ball puzzle in Myst: Exile.

it was actually one of the easier puzzles in the series but the area was so interesting and the path to the solution was an incredibly fun take on rolling physics.