Support NeoGAF

[Sir_Crocodile]

There is a level in the special world in SMW on the snes which I found extra-difficult.

Don't remember much except that there wasn't much ground, so precision jumping was very much needed, and I had a lot of difficulty getting it just so. Maybe a forest background? nope, just check youtube and it was "Tubular".

I never found lost levels hard at all, but I was playing the snes version of it, which I hear was made easier.

 

[Anth0ny]

I haven't got to the end of 3D World yet, but the final stage of 3D Land is fucking ridiculous, especially without a tanooki suit. Took me at least 50 tries, not even the final stage of Galaxy 2 (which was also hard as balls), took me that long.

 

[maxcriden]

I don't know, but for anyone who doesn't understand the appeal of trophies and achievements or why Nintendo should get in on them, here you go. I want to beat every damn thing listed in this thread, and I want a row of sparkly Mario platinums so everyone knows it.

NSMBU Challenge Mode, all of it?

It's seriously impressive to beat any of these levels, let alone most of them, though!

 

[Onion_Relish]

Haven't played 3D World....

So my choice is The Perfect Run

I ONLY FINISHED IT ONCE AND I WILL NEVER PLAY IT AGAIN!

Is this what passes for hard in a Mario game? This looks really easy. Is there something I'm missing that makes the levels harder than they have to be? Like all of the sudden you have resident evil tank controls?

 

[taybul]

I haven't got to the end of 3D World yet, but the final stage of 3D Land is fucking ridiculous, especially without a tanooki suit. Took me at least 50 tries, not even the final stage of Galaxy 2 (which was also hard as balls), took me that long.

3D Land's final stage pales in comparison to Champion's Road. I've got each section down to a science but that last section...the circles, the circles...

 

[Stormbringer]

I'll say, New Super Luigi U, world 9-6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IM985sKOyKg

Well...maybe not THE hardest, but deserves a mention. So many lives wasted... Yet that video makes it look so smooth and easy.

On my way to Champion's Road now...Something tells me it'll be painful.

 

[FunkyPajamas]

The hardest single task I've ever had to clear is Don't. Touch. Anything. from NSMBU. Just... watch it.

This is the definition of "hardcore".

 

[themagicalkitsune]

If Yoshi's Island counts, I wanna nominate Endless World of Yoshis. Fast autoscrolling, falling down a pit with INSTA kill spikes everywhere, giant mazes, confusing, stupidly long, you name it. I don't think I ever beat this as a kid, let alone collect all the red coins / star points / flowers.

A tool assisted speedrun of this is ~ 10 mins. 10 mins for a freakin 2d mario level.

 

[tkscz]

Tubular, always Tubular

Nope, get a blue yoshi and a cape. Hit the P. Make it to the ParaTroopas, you're home free.

The Pachinko secret in Mario Sunshine. Hell, ALL MARIO SUNSHINE SECRETS.

 

[daakusedo]

Gonna go with nsmb2 last dlc, three levels in a row, no mushroom and the last level is the hardest, I wasn't too far from finishing it when I quit.

 

[Hakai]

Champion's road form Mario 3D World, if we consider just the levels.

Otherwise I think is the NSMBU Challenges

 

[Gardex]

Is this what passes for hard in a Mario game? This looks really easy. Is there something I'm missing that makes the levels harder than they have to be? Like all of the sudden you have resident evil tank controls?

Don't knock it 'til you try it.
It looks fairly easy when completed, but it's by no means a walk in the park at all.
I think the only thing that they should've done is to add water that you have to go through after the cloud-segment, so that you don't get the longer jumps from the cloud-suit

 

[Moon Patrol Pilot]

Hands down Champion's Road in 3DW. I kept losing lives that I just started to become numb to it. Frustration was long gone, just numbness. I finally beat it with Mario, and that's after I had the entire level memorized and played without thinking... It was all instinct. Then I tried again with Toad and had to deprogram myself from Mario's mechanics because my timing was way off.

I've never played Galaxy 2 so I haven't had the opportunity to try The Perfect Run, but I've seen numerous Miiverse postings upon completion of Champion's Road stating things along the lines that The Perfect Run was training mode in comparison. Pretty sure that's exaggeration but maybe Champion's Road made TPR seem like a regular level.


Edit: watched a video of The Perfect Run, and it looked pretty freaking nuts to me. Damn, I gotta get my hands on Galaxy 2 so I can be LTTP.

 

[TTSupra]

I can't stand timers and collecting coins to 100. Plus you had to run back to start point after star spawns at 100 so your missing tiles and crap. God this level gave me high blood pressure.

 

[LiveFromKyoto]

Looking at that list, it's shocking to see how little we got between SMW and Galaxy. Especially in this day and age of annualized franchises.

Also mind-blowing is absolutely nothing on GBA, given how massive that platform was for Nintendo at the time.

Surprised to see SML2 getting mentions. I remember that game being fantastic, but dead easy.

I'm also guessing that relatively few have played Super Luigi U, because that game is bitch-ass hard from beginning to end, I should be seeing a lot more mentions of that. I was only able to finish it in multi-player (thanks, boost mode) using warp pipes.

 

[TUSR]

Dire Dire Docks 100 coin/8 red coins. The lag in the sub room is unbearable and makes executing movement incredibly difficult.

 

[Sixfortyfive]

I'm also guessing that relatively few have played Super Luigi U, because that game is bitch-ass hard from beginning to end, I should be seeing a lot more mentions of that. I was only able to finish it in multi-player (thanks, boost mode) using warp pipes.

NSLU starts out harder than NSMBU but plateaus at close to the same level, so I'm not surprised. There isn't much in that game that stands out as a sheer brick wall like some of the others being mentioned. It's just a Super Mario Bros game without the typical first 4-to-6 worlds of introductory levels.

 

[RealDeadOne]

Unfortunately the true answer is probably one of the poorly designed, glitchy, and untested levels from Sunshine instead of one that's actually challenging because of clever design

 

[LiveFromKyoto]

I'll say, New Super Luigi U, world 9-6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IM985sKOyKg

THIS is what 'i'm talking about. Everything from 20 seconds *shudder*

 

[Deleted member 126221]

I'll say, New Super Luigi U, world 9-6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IM985sKOyKg

Well...maybe not THE hardest, but deserves a mention. So many lives wasted... Yet that video makes it look so smooth and easy.

On my way to Champion's Road now...Something tells me it'll be painful.

That level is really not as bad as it looks. You just have to start running at exactly the right moment, and never stop. I was sure I would never be able to 100% Luigi U, but once I discovered that I managed to beat that level and got my 5-stars Luigi U save file!

 

[ebullientprism]

SMB3: Parabeetle level (World 6)

Probably the only level outside of a couple in World 8 that I would purposely skip over thanks to the Cloud powerup. I have of course played through it cheesily using a P-Wing, but the amount of times Ive gotten the balls to go rawdog with zero powerups and pure skill to just jump from small beetle to small beetle? I can count those on one hand.

Yep.

Its bad enough that it requires ridiculously precise jumping onto small moving targets but the fact that you cant even stay where you land for more than a second or two pushes it well into bullshit territory.

 

[King_Moc]

I've literally just unlocked Champions Road in 3D World. It is brutal. and i've only getten to the disappearing timed block section. I hear it gets much worse afterwards. So it could well be this one for me, but i'm not sure yet.

The very last level from Super Mario Land 2 was rock hard as well. There's a moving platform section that's a complete pain in it, though my memory is a little fuzzy. And also, the Galaxy level with the purple coins on top of the collapsing Mario tile picture. That one's no fun at all. Especially when you have to start jumping off of the level and spin jumping back on.

I never though Tubular was that bad personally. Sure, you'll probably lose 10 lives on it, but there's far worse than that.

Some of the one-off challenges without FLUDD could be up there as well, but i don't recall them individually, unfortunately.

 

[trilobyte]

Not the hardest, but probably the most unfair. Last Bowser level in Sunshine. That fucking boat

Oh yeah and the Pachinko level was a real bitch too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZnEdAC9IHI

 

[CoffeeJanitor]

The Perfect Run was pretty ridiculous.

I haven't played 3D World though so idk.

 

[qq more]

Maybe not the toughest but worth mentioning:

I forgot which level was this in 3D World but it was in one of the special worlds. It was a level where the giant red and blue blocks changes without any beeping sounds, so it was harder to predict when they change since there isn't much rhythm to it. It's absolute hell in multiplayer because people tend to not to stick together enough, and what makes it worse are the dang dry bones flying around! They won't leave us alone!

And the toughest part is that LONGGGGG slide at the end of the stage. You have to be in near perfect sync with everyone else (due to camera) if you want to slide down to safety (you'll have to constantly change lanes since the slide is made of changing blocks from before). I think you had to change lanes about 10 times (and there's a freaking green star in the middle of this!). Thanks to the camera in multiplayer, we've lost SO many freaking lives until one of us is left alive and even then that was freaking close. Couldn't believe we've managed to get through that. lol

 

[Otakumegane]

that 3D world level, I haven't played it myself yet but just look at this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV8iKNtSVwc

its insane, seriusly I'll be buying that game asap as I beat w101, NSMBU and Rayman

Wait you can Aerial somersault in 3Dworld?

OT:Goddamn 3Dland crown. The stick doesn't help.

 

[endresults]

Pretty much everything after World 3 or so. The arcade version of SMB was a BEAST.

 

[Sixfortyfive]

http://www.spyhunter007.com/Images2/triforce_vs_super_mario_bros_3054150_wr.jpg

Pretty much everything after World 3 or so. The arcade version of SMB was a BEAST.

This one is worth bringing up, actually. The real kick in the nuts is that it throws some SMB2J stages at you but uses SMB1 physics for the whole game. This is a mix that I feel wasn't really playtested much, considering that it leaves zero room for error in some of the jumps.

 

[Zing]

I don't know how anyone who's played Champion's Road could vote for anything other than it. I've been playing Mario games since the original Mario Bros. arcade. I've played them all completely. Champion's Road is likely the only Mario stage in my entire life that I may never actually complete. There is no contest.

 

[Like the hat?]

For me, that I've played, any swimming level in Mario 64. I am bad at Mario 64 to begin with, but something about the swimming levels makes the already hard for me controls ridiculous. M64 in general is way too tough for me, which is weird, because I'm fine at literally every other official Mario game.

I never made it to the final secret levels in the 3d world games or the galaxy games, though.

 

[BassForever]

Not sure if it's Perfect Run or Champions Run (from Galaxy 2 and 3D World respectively). I think the former is the easier stage, but having to do it perfectly is really difficult. Champions Run without a power up or Peach/Rosalina is controller throwing frustration with the beat blocks section. Seriously I like beat blocks but I wanted to fly to Japan and punch everyone at EAD for that second section of beat blocks.

 

[theechrisfox]

I find the hardest Mario level to be The Lost Levels C-3. I feel like this level is why the game was considered too hard to be released in North America. The Lost Levels is pretty hard from the jump but once you get to the lettered worlds, you deal with underwater fire balls, flying fish, tons of bullets, and annoying wind. Every jump is difficult. I think its best played with a few other people, handing the controller back and forth after epic deaths with the flag in sight.

 

[Jezan]

Tubular, always Tubular

This, I only completed that level once and never again

Another stage (or should I say Star) I had a lot of problems to get was in Mario Galaxy, a mini-game where you have to throw bombs to clean up a platform, the time limit is so strict that you have to just enough time to pick up all the necessary bombs and throw them in the exact place, if you miss one mission fail.

EDIT: There are two clean up mini-games, I'm talking about the second one.

 

[Starfish Hero]

Surprised to see SML2 getting mentions. I remember that game being fantastic, but dead easy.

The worst thing about Wario's Castle was how piss easy just about every level leading up to it was.

 

[Silver_DNA]

I never managed to beat the Perfect Run level, even with someone helping me with a second controller. There was another level where you had to be rock Mario and bounce around a stage without falling down. I fell down so much I took a bronze star until I forced myself to beat it.

I beat the last level in 3D Land with Mario and I don't want to do it again, and looking at Champion's Road makes me want to skip that level.

Recent Mario games have started really easy and end with really hard bits.

 

[Regiruler]

The Perfect Run. It is the one level of any game ever (bar Castlevania) that I have attempted and not beaten.

Dire Dire Docks 100 coin/8 red coins. The lag in the sub room is unbearable and makes executing movement incredibly difficult.

I'm guessing this is the original?

The DS remake didn't have that issue by any means.

 

[Rezbit]

Grumblump Inferno in 3D World gave me WAY too many problems. Those damn blocks! Found it hard to judge the jumps correctly between the rolls.

Luigi's Purple Coins was also pretty difficult, felt really rewarding to finish that though. That was more a case of just figuring out the optimal route though.

 

[Salmonax]

Grumblump Inferno in 3D World gave me WAY too many problems. Those damn blocks! Found it hard to judge the jumps correctly between the rolls.

It's much easier to just run up the sides of the cube as it rolls rather than to jump. Tough level either way, though.

 

[alf717]

Mario 3D World - Champion's Road

My explanation is that it if you stutter in your momentum, you are fucked. Don't time the jump on the block section? You're fucked. Hell, the game actively tries fucking with your timing too. They have you do wall jumps with spiked enemies ON those walls. Don't keep up with the moving water section? You're dead. And hell, I haven't even gotten to the dash section yet and that looks like a goddamn nightmare.

I just completed the level but I couldn't do it without the raccoon suit. Everything in that level is don't blink action. Still with how frustrating it is getting to the end was worth it. Wanted to look up at the screen so many times but I glued my eyes to the gamepad and got it done.

3D World: Champion's Road
Galaxy 2: The perfect run
Sunshine: Those sand level where you are flying on the back of the sand bird collecting red coins.

 

[The Technomancer]

Just watched a video of Champions Road

Awesome remake of the Galaxy music in tone with 3DWorld

 

[neohwa]

The last level in SMB. Because I could never beat it.

 

[xandaca]

Champion Road is probably the hardest I can remember playing, although only two sections in the level (beat box and boost pads) are actually difficult, everything around them is fairly straightforward. Unfortunately, when I say 'difficult', I mean 'beastly to deepest hell'. Super Luigi U was fairly straightforward and while The Perfect Run was definitely challenging, it didn't contain any areas as utterly murderous as the two mentioned above for Champions' Road - it was a fairly balanced high level of challenge throughout, but never as tough as CR's worst. Some of the Star Road levels in SMW were pretty tough, but I re-beat that game fairly recently (when it was released on Wii U VC) and they weren't quite as hard as remembered.

 

[mohsinkhan]

Tubular.
Edit: Beaten.

 

[SuperAngelo64]

Anyone who isn't saying Champions Road hasn't played Champions Road.

 

[Sixfortyfive]

Anyone who isn't saying Champions Road hasn't played Champions Road.

It isn't even the hardest Mario stage on Wii U.

With enough practice, you can tame it easily enough. I'd say I probably have about a 90% consistency rate on the blast blocks and upwards of 50% on the boost pads now. Through either enough trial and error or observation of other people's methods, you can get the timing down for the trickier parts. Once you have a gameplan, it's not too hard to execute.

Don't Touch Anything will never be easy. Threading the needle in a few sections requires knowing not only exactly when to jump, but for exactly how long. After beating Champion's Road, I felt like I actually learned how to do something. Getting gold on Don't Touch Anything was at least partly a stroke of luck.

 

[RustyO]

SMB3, World 8. The Fortress and Airship levels. Thats what the P-Wings are for.

Just a massive pain to do, mutli-tiered, different speed, moving levels, cannons and spanners going everywhere, ugh. Fr me the hardest levels in SMB3 along with the Beetle level (Parabettle?) in World 6, and anything with the boot.

 

[gaugebozo]

My vote is Tubular. Don't think I beat it.

Clearly doesn't count for the OP, but my favorite hard Mario levels: Super Mario Frustration

 

[Frost_Ace]

Yep, it's tubular.

 

[Sixfortyfive]

Tubular only seems difficult because most of the rest of SMW is baby steps. It really doesn't stack up to most of the other notable levels from other games being brought up.

SMB3, World 8. The Fortress and Airship levels. Thats what the P-Wings are for.

Just a massive pain to do, mutli-tiered, different speed, moving levels, cannons and spanners going everywhere, ugh. Fr me the hardest levels in SMB3 along with the Beetle level (Parabettle?) in World 6, and anything with the boot.

The World 8 airship is the only auto-scroller stage in that game that I like because it's the only one that doesn't move at a snail's pace.

 

[GaimeGuy]

I absolutely love what EAD Tokyo is doing by putting these difficult gauntlet stages at the end of their Mario platformers (The Perfect Run, S8-Crown, Champions Road), and I hope they become a staple of all mario games.