My favorite image of Marcel Cerdan, this photo was taken on June 2, 1939 in Milan, on the eve of his match against Saverio Turiello. It's just an awesome image of Cerdan training on a balcony with the Milan Cathedral looming in the background.
I love stories like this, they're just fascinating to me.
CNET
Rare, Sealed ‘Super Mario Bros. 3’ Variant Breaks Record For World’s Most Expensive Video Game
Heritage Auctions sold the game Friday for $156,000, just four months after setting the previous high score
Super Mario Bros. 3 world record price Heritage Auctions
DALLAS, Texas (Nov. 20, 2020) — For the second time in 2020, the Super Mario Bros. have set a world's record for the highest price paid for a video game at auction.
Friday morning, Heritage Auctions sold a sealed copy of 1990's Super Mario Bros. 3 for $156,000, shattering the previous record set in July when its 1985 predecessor Super Mario Bros. sold for $114,000.
The lot opened bidding at $62,500 — already an impressive sum for the game graded Wata 9.2 A+. But 20 bidders got in the game, sending the final price soaring toward the world record during what would become the world's first-ever million-dollar video-game auction.
"We couldn't be more pleased about breaking the world record for the second time in the same year," says Valarie McLeckie, Heritage Auctions' Director of Video Games. "That said, it's no surprise that another Mario game, which so many of us grew up with, would set the new bar."
While the condition of the game is remarkable, what makes this copy even more singular is the layout of the packaging itself: Exceedingly rare are sealed copies with the word "Bros." formatted to the left, covering one of Mario's signature white gloves. Collectors have spent years looking for such a version — the earliest in the Super Mario Bros. 3 production history – and usually come up empty-handed.
Until Friday. Until the world's first-ever million-dollar video-game auction.
The Dallas-based auction house did sell one sealed Wata 9.0 A copy of this variant in July — for the all-in price of $38,400. What a difference a slightly better grade, and four months, can make.
Super Mario Bros. 3 wasn't the only record-setter in Friday's video-game auction, the largest such sale ever held.
A sealed copy of the "Red Version" of 1998's Pokémon for Nintendo's GameBoy, graded Wata 9.8 A++, sold for $84,000 — the highest price ever paid for a Pokémon title. That final price was more than four times its pre-sale estimate.
More rare video games will be available Sunday at 1 p.m., during the seventh session of Heritage's Nov. 19-22 Comics & Comic Art event. Gotta catch 'em all.
Heritage Auctions is the largest fine art and collectibles auction house founded in the United States, and the world's largest collectibles auctioneer. Heritage maintains offices in New York, Dallas, Beverly Hills, San Francisco, Chicago, Palm Beach, London, Paris, Geneva, Amsterdam and Hong Kong.
Heritage also enjoys the highest Online traffic and dollar volume of any auction house on earth (source: SimilarWeb and Hiscox Report). The Internet's most popular auction-house website, HA.com, has more than 1,250,000 registered bidder-members and searchable free archives of five million past auction records with prices realized, descriptions and enlargeable photos. Reproduction rights routinely granted to media for photo credit.
I bring up Super Mario Bros because it's my favorite video game franchise of all-time, I grew up playing it. I can still remember the first time I ever encountered Mario Bros, I was at my cousin's house, Brandon and Adam, back in the mid 80s and they had a Nintendo Entertainment System, the original NES, I didn't have one....yet. As a young kid, seeing a NES system for the first time was an exhilarating experience, I would imagine it would be like witnessing a UFO or something of the sort, I couldn't take my eyes off of it. He turned it on and there was Mario, in his plumbers outfit running and jumping about the screen. It was the 1985 Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt game that came with the NES. We played for about thirty minutes before my mom came in and said it was time to go, but I was hooked immediately and would be hooked for the rest of my life.
After the infamous 1983 video game collapse, the launch of the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) literally saved video games and launched the future. The 1983 video game collapse was a massive economic downturn in the North American home console market, driven by market oversaturation, a flood of low-quality games, and intense competition from home computers. Industry revenues plunged by roughly 97%, dropping from about $3.2 billion in 1982 down to $100 million by 1985. Causes of the crash were oversaturation of Consoles and Software. Too many competing hardware systems flooded the market, accompanied by a massive surplus of rushed, poorly made cartridge games ("shovelware") from inexperienced third-party companies. Another cause was the loss of quality control, original platform holders like Atari lost legal control over third-party software development, allowing anyone to manufacture and ship terrible games that destroyed consumer trust. Infamous failures like Atari's rushed E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial game resulted in millions of unsold game cartridges being returned or dumped in a New Mexico landfill (more on that in a minute). The rise of affordable home computers also contributed to the collapse, a fierce price war led by companies like Commodore made personal computers roughly as cheap as game consoles, offering broader utility like word processing alongside gaming. Major market players like Atari suffered hundreds of millions in losses, while companies like Magnavox abandoned the video game industry entirely. Retailers completely lost faith in the medium, clearing their shelves of game cartridges and treating home consoles as a dead fad. The market eventually rebounded starting in 1985 with the North American launch of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), which restored strict quality control and the "Seal of Quality" gatekeeping model used by modern consoles today. You know, it's fascinating, in September 1983, Atari crushed and buried truckloads of surplus game cartridges, boxes, and systems at the city landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico. It's a legendary and famous event in video game history. Even more fascinating, in 2014 archaeologists actually went out to the Alamogordo landfill in New Mexico and excavated it, finding artifacts from the event.
Archaeology Magazine
The Video Game Graveyard
Digs & Discoveries July/August 2014
By: Andrew Reinhard
Just as ancient cultures have founding myths, so does today’s multibillion-dollar global video game industry. The first titan of video games was Atari, which, in the early 1980s, put their 2600 video game system in millions of homes—a first “computer” for many American households. The industry crashed in 1983, in part because of substandard games, including a notorious flop based on Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster E.T., thought by many to be the worst video game ever made. (It was bad. Very bad.) Legend has it that Atari buried millions of unsold and returned copies of E.T., and perhaps other titles, in a New Mexico dump as the company struggled to stay afloat. Thirty years was long enough for the dump site—and the truth behind the story—to be lost.
In 2013, media companies Fuel Entertainment and Lightbox acquired the rights to create a documentary about the video game crash of the early 1980s and to dig the Atari dump site, if it could be found. As both an archaeologist (and Director of Publications at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens) and a child of that early video game boom, I contacted Fuel to ask about how the archaeology—excavation, documentation, reporting—would be handled. They invited me to take part, and I assembled a team that included Richard Rothaus of Trefoil Cultural and Environmental and Bill Caraher of the University of North Dakota, veterans of excavations in the Mediterranean and the Americas, as well as casino video game historian Raiford Guins of Stony Brook University and historian Bret Weber of the University of North Dakota.
Atari-Graveyard-Controller
In April 2014, the archaeological team, filmmakers, and curious locals converged on an Alamogordo landfill. The legend soon burst to life. In “Basket 5,” Rothaus recovered a boxed copy of E.T., complete with instructions, catalogue, and Raiders of the Lost Ark insert. Like digging in a pottery dump, coin hoard, or shell midden, each turn of the shovel or bucket loader exposed more games and hardware—thousands of cartridges representing dozens of titles. The year’s worst sandstorm stopped the excavation, but the game-filled trench was photographed and thousands of artifacts were bagged for analysis and cataloguing.
While many may think that the recent past isn’t an appropriate target for serious archaeologists, University of Arizona archaeologist William Rathje once said that archaeology seeks to find items that have cultural value—value that he found in the Tucson Garbage Project, a decades-long effort to study trends in modern trash. The Atari project is in that tradition, and regardless of the attention it received, the dig established that material produced in the 1980s, and even more recently, can have archaeological value. Further research will examine the composition of the deposit of games and hardware in conjunction with the surrounding levels of garbage to understand what happened, from both business and cultural perspectives, when Atari dumped its dead weight in the desert. Some of the finds have already been sent to museums for display and conservation, and the archaeological team is now writing a preliminary report and a peer-reviewed journal article.
Atari-Graveyard-Ms-Pacman
These Atari games are part of my generation’s cultural heritage, and mark a tipping point in the history of technology. Two years after the crash, Nintendo released its own American game system, starting a second boom that continues today. It is significant that the documentary, Atari: Game Over, will debut on Microsoft’s Xbox, a direct descendant of the “ancient” culture that created this video game midden. Potentially millions more cartridges, along with other artifacts such as Atari computers, prototypes, and corporate documents, remain at the dump site. Future archaeologists will have their work cut out for them.
Reading that article in the above post, something jumped out at me and rubs me the wrong way, the part where he said that many people think that digging through a landfill to find artifacts from the 1983 Atari game dump isn't appropriate for archaeologists. What a load of crap. When you break it down, an archaeologists job is to dig for magic, to find things that fascinate and capture our imagination, whether that artifact is a Neanderthal fossil or an Atari game makes no difference, magic is magic. Yes, ancient history is fascinating and captures the imagination, but video games take a backseat to nothing. Ask anyone who's sat in front of Super Mario Bros. 3 and spent four days and gone through 99 lives trying to beat the fortress in Pipeland, or spent days trying to make that one jump in World 8 stage 2 of the original Mario Bros., the feeling you get when you finally land on the other side of that gap, there's nothing like it, it's an emotional orgasm.
The 1983 Atari dumping event is a legendary event in gaming history,
I have a lot of fond memories of playing the Atari back in the 80s, it was a great experience and I miss those days.
I'm bringing up all of this because I just finished a run of revisiting the Super Mario Bros. games, I went through all of them, Super Mario Bros. (1985), Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels (1986), Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988), Super Mario Bros. 3 (1990) and Super Mario World (1991) for the Super Nintendo (SNES). It took me about three months to beat them all. I haven't played them since I was in high school, over twenty years ago, so it felt like I was playing them for the first time. The experience is one of the most satisfying I've ever had, it was a phenomenal adventure. But hard as hell. I mean brutal. Nintendo did not make these games easy to beat, and that's what's so great about them, it's what makes video games so great, the absolute hellish challenge. At one point during my run, I was holed up in a dark room for days trying to beat some of the stages in these games, that's how brutal they get. I was so into them, so consumed by the challenge, so obsessed with it that it felt like I wasn't even on this planet, it was as if I were in another realm. I was living off of Lance peanut butter crackers and Coca-Cola. When I finished my run, when it was all over, I felt like an astronaut must feel when they return to Earth after living in space for months. I had to get readjusted back to normal life. It's one of the greatest experiences and adventures of my life and it will stick with me forever. Ask any hardcore gamer and they'll tell you, Super Mario Bros. is a legendary franchise and probably the most important video game franchise of all-time. Check this out, this sealed and graded copy of the original Super Mario Bros. (1985) for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) recently sold for $3 million.
Media@ha.com
Press Release - June 12, 2026
Highest-Graded Super Mario Bros. Sells for Record $3 Million at Heritage Auctions
The PSA 9.6 A++ copy of ‘the Honus Wagner of video game collecting’ hammers the previous record by $1 million in historic June 12 bidding session
Super Mario Bros. - PSA 9.6 A++ Sealed [Gloss Sticker, Second Production], with Control Deck, NES Nintendo 1985 USA
DALLAS, Texas (June 12, 2026) — The highest-graded copy of the earliest sealed edition of Super Mario Bros., the iconic game whose popularity established Nintendo’s dominance in home console gaming in the 1980s, sold for $3 million on Friday afternoon in the first session of Heritage Auctions’ June 12–13 Video Games Signature® Auction, hammering the previous $2 million record set in a 2021 private sale.
“It is only appropriate that the most significant video game in the world should bring the more impressive result in the history of the hobby,” says Evan Masingill, Heritage’s Consignment Director for Video Games. “The remarkable back story — it was just discovered a few months ago inside a brand-new Control Deck NES console bundle, meaning it has not been touched for nearly 40 years — makes the result even more impressive.”
Bearing the coveted gloss sticker adopted in early 1986, it is the earliest confirmed sealed copy of the most important game cartridge in history. It is one of only three known sealed copies from this second-production run — a variant that has never appeared in a public auction in sealed condition. Of the three known sealed copies, this is the finest, with a PSA 9.6 A++ grade. The others are VGA 80 and Wata 9.4 A++.
Let's get a photo of Super Mario Bros. 2 in here, the oddball of the franchise. It isn't like any of the other Super Mario Bros. games, you cannot defeat enemies by jumping on their heads; instead, you pull up vegetables from the ground and throw them at enemies, you can also pick up the enemies themselves and throw them at enemies. You can pick between four characters to play with—Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Princess Peach—and each one moves and jumps in a unique way. The game uses a heart meter for health instead of just using power-up mushrooms that make you grow or shrink. It wasn't even supposed to be a Super Mario Bros. game. It was originally a completely different game called Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic in Japan. Nintendo of America changed the characters into Mario, Luigi, Toad ,and Princess Peach, because they thought the true Japanese sequel to the original Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels, was too hard and unfair for players in the West.
This was supposed to be the sequel to the original Super Mario Bros. (1985) NES game, Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels. It was originally released in Japan on June 3, 1986 for the Family Computer Disk System (Famicom Disk System) as a floppy disk add-on for the Famicom, released on rewritable magnetic floppy disks (Disk Cards). The reason for that format was because standard ROM cartridges at the time were more expensive and lacked the extra storage capacity and cost-effective rewritability needed for the game. Known in Japan as Super Mario Bros. 2, this sequel was considered too difficult for Western audiences at the time, so it stayed in Japan for years. When players finally got it, they discovered one of the toughest Mario games ever made. The game is absolutely brutal difficult. The game looked similar to the first Super Mario Bros., but enemies were faster, jumps were trickier, and levels were filled with punishing hazards. It was designed for players who had already mastered the original. A new item, the Poison Mushroom, looked like a regular power-up but actually harmed Mario. It was one of Nintendo’s earliest examples of a “trap” item. The game featured hidden bonus worlds and even secret warp zones that could send you backward instead of forward. Exploring carried as much risk as reward. While it reused sprites from the first game, the stage designs were far more devious. It proved how much challenge could come from level design alone. Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels remains a badge of honor for hardcore fans. Its unforgiving design made it one of the most infamous entries in Mario history.
In North America, players first experienced The Lost Levels years later in Super Mario All-Stars on the SNES, rebranded as The Lost Levels to avoid confusion with the U.S. version of Super Mario Bros. 2.
I'll never forget the first time I played Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels, I was killed not seconds into it. I was moving along and I jumped up and hit a question mark block, and a dark, funny looking mushroom popped out and began to roll along, I was naturally curious about it so I chased it down and got it. It killed me instantly. I had encountered the infamous poisonous mushroom.
And with it came this masterpiece. Super Mario World is a blast to play, the 16-bit graphics are off the hook, and there are plenty of unforgiving stages that gave me nightmares.
Now, you're probably wondering about Super Mario 64 for the Nintendo 64 console, I couldn't ever get into the 3-D platform for some reason, I much prefer the 2-D platform. This is an awesome game as well, Super Mario Bros. All-Stars, release in the United States in August 11, 1993. Super Mario All-Stars, it features remastered 16-bit versions of Super Mario Bros. (1985), Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988), Super Mario Bros. 3 (1990), and the original Japanese Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels (1986), this was the first time gamers in the United States could ever play the notoriously difficult Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels.
Mario made his video game debut in the arcade classic Donkey Kong (1981). Donkey Kong is a platform-action game that has Mario scale four different industrial themed levels (construction zone, cement factory, an elevator-themed level, and removing rivets from girders) in an attempt to save the damsel in distress, Pauline, from the big ape before the timer runs out. Once the rivets are removed from the final level, Donkey Kong falls, and the two lovers are reunited. From there, the levels start over at a higher difficulty. Mario made his first appearance in American homes in 1982, arriving via early home console ports of the arcade game Donkey Kong for systems like the Atari 2600, Intellivision, and ColecoVision.
Next came Mario Bros. (1983). Mario Bros. is a classic 1983 arcade platform game developed by Nintendo that established the plumber profession, and featured cooperative two-player gameplay. The game is set in a multi-platform single-screen layout representing the New York City sewers. Players punch platforms from below to flip turtles, crabs, and flies on their backs, then kick them away. A special mechanic clears the screen of all grounded enemies when hit. This game marked the first appearance of Mario's brother Luigi as player two. It also changed Mario's identity from a carpenter (in Donkey Kong) to a plumber. The game laid the groundwork for power-ups, coin collecting, and pipe systems used later in Super Mario Bros.
The 1983 arcade game Mario Bros. was released on Atari. It was ported and published for several Atari systems, most notably the Atari 2600 in December 1983, followed by the Atari 5200, Atari 7800, and Atari 8-bit computers.
Another thing I forgot to mention, the legendary video game character Super Mario was named after a real-life real estate developer named Mario Segale. Before he was the world’s most famous plumber, the character was simply known as "Jumpman" in the 1981 game Donkey Kong. At the time, Nintendo of America was operating out of a warehouse in Washington state owned by Segale. The name change happened after Segale reportedly confronted Nintendo’s staff about late rent payments. Following the encounter, the developers decided to rename their main character "Mario" as a nod to their landlord. Segale’s own physical appearance—described as short and stocky—also happened to mirror the character's design. Although Segale mostly stayed out of the spotlight and never received royalties for the use of his name, he remained a permanent part of pop culture history until his death in 2018.
This was Mario's first appearance in North American homes, Donkey Kong (1982) made by ColecoVision. ColecoVision had the first home version of Donkey Kong in August 1982 as a packed-in game with it's console. Coleco also published the ports for the Atari 2600 and Intellivision consoles later that same year.
Super Mario Bros. is my favorite video game franchise, I grew up on it and just recently reunited with it. I love the adventure it takes you on, but I really love the brutally difficult challenges it throws at you. It has some levels that are pure chaos — whether it's tricky enemy placement, tight platforming, auto-scrolling nightmares, or impossible jumps, the franchise really tries to rip your heart out and eat it. Each game in the franchise has different moving and jumping physics for the character you're using, so each game has a different feel to it and you're forced to adapt to the physics, which makes it even more difficult. Super Mario Bros. is widely considered the best and most important NES game franchise of all-time, it created level layouts that all subsequent side-scrollers measure themselves against. Let's take a look at some of the ridiculously difficult levels in the franchise.
CBR.com
The 10 Hardest 2D Mario Levels, Ranked
Mario through the years
By: Kirsten Schultz
Sep 22, 2022, 7:00 PM EDT
Super Mario Bros. is a beloved franchise with some of the most challenging game levels of all time. While the 3D formats of the series have some truly infuriating levels, they have nothing on the 2D levels. It's not always easy to look at 2D landscapes and control characters. Getting from point A to point B under a time limit sometimes takes a few tries.
Gamers will take a few breaks or rage-quit altogether when they reach certain game levels. Surprisingly, the most challenging levels aren't always the final bosses or the game's last course. Instead, these courses are occasionally thrown in at the beginning of a world or remain a special level.
10
7-4 In Super Mario Bros 3 Includes
Swimming Through Jelectros
Mario swimming around jelectros
Swimming always makes a Mario level harder. Swimming through this level, in particular, is frustratingly difficult for most players. After grabbing a power-up suit just for the slightest bit of an advantage in the water, Mario will have to navigate through the water with creatures who are always faster than him trailing close behind.
Once Mario makes it past the Porcupuffers, he'll need to abandon hope and conquer the hoard of Jelectros with other enemies swimming toward him. Once through, of course, another wave of enemies of all kinds will be there at the end to welcome him by the finish line.
9
8-1 In Super Mario Bros 3 Requires Expert Dodging
Mario dodges bullets in Level 8-1 in Super Mario Bros. 3
With the sheer abundance of enemies in this level, players need to equip a power-up suit to make it through. So while it seemingly starts out semi-simple, Mario has to jump his way over and around some Piranha plants that pop out of tempting pipes.
Of course, developers can't release a challenging course without a Koopa Troopa flying down toward the player. After making it thus far, Mario arrives in the area teeming with Bullet Bills. A Boo, more Koopas, and Bullet Bills pack on the projectiles to trigger the player.
8
Soda Lake In Super Mario World Includes Swimming And Dodging
Mario swimming past torpedos
"Soda Lake" is a bonus level in Super Mario World to make things more challenging for Mario fans. So, before players even have a chance to get through the difficult level, they must find it. As with any level, a power-up suit will help, particularly in this one, as it's a swimming level.
After making it past an obscene amount of Blurps and Torpedo Teds, Mario will have to dodge his way around an unfairly significant wave of more enemies. The level becomes more frustrating if gamers aim to achieve the total coin count.
7
Feathers Are A Must In Super Mario World's Tubular
Mario floating past koopas and fireballs
Like Super Mario World's "Soda Lake," "Tubular" is a certain level that only increases frustration with the number of tries it takes to complete. While some have managed to make it through the level with Yoshi's help and balloons alone, a few feathers can help ease the challenge.
Feathers can help bypass most obstacles and enemies, but they won't give players an immediate pass. The vast amount of enemies, from Koopas to Chargin Chucks, and the lack of ground make the level unbelievably tricky.
6
7-7 In Super Mario Bros 3 Is About Speed
Mario jumping past the plants
7-7 is a reasonably easy-looking level for how flat the ground is until gamers realize the landscape is built entirely of Piranha plants and Munchers. The only way to get through the level is by making sure to have a star power-up equipped the entire time.
The challenge is that the stars are few and far between, and getting them out of their blocks will take time out of the run. Players must ensure to keep Mario's speed up throughout the level while also grabbing each available star to get to the next one. Gamers are bound just barely to make it through.
5
New Super Mario Bros 6-6 On The Wii Utilizes Expert Use Of The Wii Controller
Mario holding the box on the raft
Wii's New Super Mario Bros allowed gamers to relive some of the best 2D Mario moments and some frustration. After sliding into a dark cavern, players must hop onto a floating raft and trust their control of both Mario and the light enough to make it to the end.
The Wii remotes were exciting and new, but it takes practice and precision to use them efficiently. While the raft moves through the cave, players must light the way and hop up and down floating platforms, and hope no enemies are lurking in the dark they might have missed.
4
8-Airship In Super Mario Bros 3 Takes Precision
Mario jumping platform to platform avoiding wrenches
Ensuring that fans will never want to go through another airship level again, World 8's airship level is beyond frustrating. Of course, airship levels are never manageable, but this one certainly takes the award for being possibly the most challenging airship level of all time.
The ridiculous amount of Rocky Wrenches, long gaps, and fire being blown are nearly unfair. Players must navigate through a field of these enemies and obstacles while the screen is unforgivable in scrolling past. Only to be met by an angry Boom Boom; hope and a good power-up are the only way to get through this level.
3
5-1 In Super Mario Bros 2 Can Be Easier Depending On The Character
Luigi jumping up the falling logs
After being given a chance to choose a character, players must choose wisely to make it through the level. Some expert players have stated the level is somewhat easier with Princess Toadstool or Luigi. Shy Guy's are there at the start to welcome gamers in their onward endeavor.
Players can grab some extra coins after finding and opening the right door, then move through the rest of the level, which consists of long jumps up falling logs and jumping fish. In the end, Mario will have to beat Birdo to make it through and defeat the level.
2
World C-3 In Super Mario Bros Lost Levels Makes Wind The Arch Nemesis
Mario fighting the wind and lakitu
Super Mario Bros. Lost Levels utilize the concept of wind in World C-3. Said wind makes the already challenging level all the more difficult for no reason other than the developers wanting to infuriate players. Despite fighting the pressing winds, there's only one way to get from platform to platform.
Mario has to hop up onto springs that must work and avoid an obnoxiously rude Lakitu, Piranha Plant, and Koopa Troopas. Then, after taking several more leaps of faith through the harsh wind, fire bars will spin around to pack on the difficulty.
1
New Super Mario Bros 2's Impossible Pack Is Beyond Impossible
Mario dodging poison and fire
Though the Impossible Pack in New Super Mario 2 is a set of courses rather than a singular one, they are short run-throughs that take their name to heart. With time never being on the players' side, these levels take the utmost patience and practice to beat.
The first is a fast-paced swim around Porcupuffers, then hopping over relentless Crowbers, Bob-ombs, aggressive Hammer Bros, and Chain Chomps to the end. The second is a near unfeasible fire level full of fire bars and moving platforms. The last is a run-through with a mass of Dry Bones, rising poison, Fire Bros, and more that seem the trudge to the end impossible.
That's a great list of difficult Super Mario Bros. stages, and I want to add some to that list. We'll start off with the original Super Mario Bros. (1985) game. In World 8, level 1, this jump right here is a real a$$ kicker. What makes it even worse is, they put it at the end of the stage so if you don't make the jump then all of the work it took to get through the stage is for nothing. On top of that, they give you a limited amount of continues to start the stage over, you're racing the clock, and you only get a handful of cracks at it, if you fail they send you packing back to the beginning of the game. It's video game cruelty at it's finest and honest to god, it's awesome. The unforgiving ruthlessness of the game designers is what makes video games so great. If it were easy, then what's the point of bothering with it? This jump drove me crazy, yelling, throwing things against the wall, but when you finally conquer something like this, the rush you get is unbelievable, I'm honestly still riding the high from my Mario Bros. run. I'm not going to give any tips on how to conquer these obstacles, I don't want to ruin the experience for any potential future gamers out there!
Super Mario Bros. 1985, world 8, level 2, (8-2). As if the jump in 8-1 isn't bad enough, in the very next stage, they hit you with a jump that's just as bad if not worse. This one took me a few days to conquer as well.
Super Mario Bros. (1985) world 8, level 4 (8-4), the final level of the entire game. First of all, it's a maze, you have to figure out the correct sequence of pipes to go down, if you pick the wrong pipe, you get zapped backwards and have to try to figure it all out again. This is the real kicker, once you get to the end of the level, right before the final confrontation with Bowser, aka King Koopa, the legendary arch nemesis and final boss of the Super Mario Bros. games, they stick this little guy right in front of the entrance to Bowser's bridge. He's called a "Hammer Brother" one of the most notoriously frustrating enemies of the Super Mario Bros. franchise. He jumps up and down while simultaneously chucking hammers at you, it's hell getting past them without getting tagged by a hammer or getting touched by them. You have to stand there and try to figure out a way to get past him or kill him, but if you stand there too long, he'll straight up advance on you and start marching toward to you hellbent on taking you out. These guys are a beast of an obstacle in every Mario game, and I can't count how many times they did me in. And believe me, others gamers can sympathize.
Once you finally make it past that Hammer Brother, you have to jump a pretty big gap over a lava pit, the pit is spitting up a fireball so you have to make the jump and not get tagged by the fireball, and then you face bowser on the bridge. Let me tell you, unless you have a fireball suit and can gun him down with fireballs, or are big and can afford to get hit and run through him, you're in for a struggle. He's no picnic, he chucks hammers at you like a raving lunatic and is spitting fireballs at you simultaneously, the hammers are coming over the top and the fireballs are going low so he's got you covered from all angles. If you're small like I was when I encountered him, it can be a frustrating fight. I couldn't get to him with a fireball suit, or big, the previous stages were so punishing that they robbed me of power-ups, so I had to go at him small, which means if you get hit or touched once, you get killed instantly. He probably took me out at least 20 times before I finally made it past him.
Next up, let's look at some difficult stages from Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988). This is one of my all-time favorite video games, it's completely different from every other Mario game ever made, and the story behind that is fascinating. Super Mario Bros. 2 in the West is famous for not actually being a Mario game at all, but rather a reskinned version of a Japanese game called Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic. Nintendo of America needed a follow-up to the original Super Mario Bros. (1985), but rejected the true Japanese sequel Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels, for being too brutally difficult, Nintendo of America executive Minoru Arakawa felt it would frustrate and alienate casual players in the United States. Nintendo of America replaced the original four Arabic-themed characters of Doki Doki Panic with Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Princess Peach, adjusting physics and adding a run button to match the Mario brand, retitled it Super Mario Bros. 2 and the rest is history. It's honestly one of the funnest games I've ever played and one of my favorites. This is a copy of the Japanese game Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic.
Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988) is one of my all-time favorite video games, it's ridiculously fun. Players can choose between Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Princess Peach, each character features distinct physics, jump heights, and speed, each character has different strengths and weaknesses, so depending upon which character you choose to play with, you're in for a different experience with each. The game also features different enemies and bosses from the other games in the franchise, the bosses are particularly cool, let's take a look at them, shall we? The boss of worlds 1 and 3 is "Mouser", a mouse that wears shades and chucks lit bombs at you.
The boss of world 4 is Fryguy, a flame that flies around the screen shooting fire at you. Boy, he's a real pain in the a$$ to beat, after you initially beat him he breaks apart and turns into four little separate flames that behave like heat-seeking missiles trying to get at you. He took me out quite a few times.
Comments
Marcel reading Joe Palooka comic.
The brutal power of Marcel Cerdan.
Awesome image of Marcel Cerdan posing in the suit.
My favorite image of Marcel Cerdan, this photo was taken on June 2, 1939 in Milan, on the eve of his match against Saverio Turiello. It's just an awesome image of Cerdan training on a balcony with the Milan Cathedral looming in the background.
I love stories like this, they're just fascinating to me.
CNET
Rare, Sealed ‘Super Mario Bros. 3’ Variant Breaks Record For World’s Most Expensive Video Game
Heritage Auctions sold the game Friday for $156,000, just four months after setting the previous high score
Super Mario Bros. 3 world record price Heritage Auctions
DALLAS, Texas (Nov. 20, 2020) — For the second time in 2020, the Super Mario Bros. have set a world's record for the highest price paid for a video game at auction.
Friday morning, Heritage Auctions sold a sealed copy of 1990's Super Mario Bros. 3 for $156,000, shattering the previous record set in July when its 1985 predecessor Super Mario Bros. sold for $114,000.
The lot opened bidding at $62,500 — already an impressive sum for the game graded Wata 9.2 A+. But 20 bidders got in the game, sending the final price soaring toward the world record during what would become the world's first-ever million-dollar video-game auction.
"We couldn't be more pleased about breaking the world record for the second time in the same year," says Valarie McLeckie, Heritage Auctions' Director of Video Games. "That said, it's no surprise that another Mario game, which so many of us grew up with, would set the new bar."
While the condition of the game is remarkable, what makes this copy even more singular is the layout of the packaging itself: Exceedingly rare are sealed copies with the word "Bros." formatted to the left, covering one of Mario's signature white gloves. Collectors have spent years looking for such a version — the earliest in the Super Mario Bros. 3 production history – and usually come up empty-handed.
Until Friday. Until the world's first-ever million-dollar video-game auction.
The Dallas-based auction house did sell one sealed Wata 9.0 A copy of this variant in July — for the all-in price of $38,400. What a difference a slightly better grade, and four months, can make.
Super Mario Bros. 3 wasn't the only record-setter in Friday's video-game auction, the largest such sale ever held.
A sealed copy of the "Red Version" of 1998's Pokémon for Nintendo's GameBoy, graded Wata 9.8 A++, sold for $84,000 — the highest price ever paid for a Pokémon title. That final price was more than four times its pre-sale estimate.
More rare video games will be available Sunday at 1 p.m., during the seventh session of Heritage's Nov. 19-22 Comics & Comic Art event. Gotta catch 'em all.
Heritage Auctions is the largest fine art and collectibles auction house founded in the United States, and the world's largest collectibles auctioneer. Heritage maintains offices in New York, Dallas, Beverly Hills, San Francisco, Chicago, Palm Beach, London, Paris, Geneva, Amsterdam and Hong Kong.
Heritage also enjoys the highest Online traffic and dollar volume of any auction house on earth (source: SimilarWeb and Hiscox Report). The Internet's most popular auction-house website, HA.com, has more than 1,250,000 registered bidder-members and searchable free archives of five million past auction records with prices realized, descriptions and enlargeable photos. Reproduction rights routinely granted to media for photo credit.
I bring up Super Mario Bros because it's my favorite video game franchise of all-time, I grew up playing it. I can still remember the first time I ever encountered Mario Bros, I was at my cousin's house, Brandon and Adam, back in the mid 80s and they had a Nintendo Entertainment System, the original NES, I didn't have one....yet. As a young kid, seeing a NES system for the first time was an exhilarating experience, I would imagine it would be like witnessing a UFO or something of the sort, I couldn't take my eyes off of it. He turned it on and there was Mario, in his plumbers outfit running and jumping about the screen. It was the 1985 Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt game that came with the NES. We played for about thirty minutes before my mom came in and said it was time to go, but I was hooked immediately and would be hooked for the rest of my life.
The good stuff.
This is the first ever advertisement for the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) circa 1984.
As a gamer, this advertisement just sends chills up your spine. The evolution of a species.
After the infamous 1983 video game collapse, the launch of the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) literally saved video games and launched the future. The 1983 video game collapse was a massive economic downturn in the North American home console market, driven by market oversaturation, a flood of low-quality games, and intense competition from home computers. Industry revenues plunged by roughly 97%, dropping from about $3.2 billion in 1982 down to $100 million by 1985. Causes of the crash were oversaturation of Consoles and Software. Too many competing hardware systems flooded the market, accompanied by a massive surplus of rushed, poorly made cartridge games ("shovelware") from inexperienced third-party companies. Another cause was the loss of quality control, original platform holders like Atari lost legal control over third-party software development, allowing anyone to manufacture and ship terrible games that destroyed consumer trust. Infamous failures like Atari's rushed E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial game resulted in millions of unsold game cartridges being returned or dumped in a New Mexico landfill (more on that in a minute). The rise of affordable home computers also contributed to the collapse, a fierce price war led by companies like Commodore made personal computers roughly as cheap as game consoles, offering broader utility like word processing alongside gaming. Major market players like Atari suffered hundreds of millions in losses, while companies like Magnavox abandoned the video game industry entirely. Retailers completely lost faith in the medium, clearing their shelves of game cartridges and treating home consoles as a dead fad. The market eventually rebounded starting in 1985 with the North American launch of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), which restored strict quality control and the "Seal of Quality" gatekeeping model used by modern consoles today. You know, it's fascinating, in September 1983, Atari crushed and buried truckloads of surplus game cartridges, boxes, and systems at the city landfill in Alamogordo, New Mexico. It's a legendary and famous event in video game history. Even more fascinating, in 2014 archaeologists actually went out to the Alamogordo landfill in New Mexico and excavated it, finding artifacts from the event.
Archaeology Magazine
The Video Game Graveyard
Digs & Discoveries July/August 2014
By: Andrew Reinhard
Just as ancient cultures have founding myths, so does today’s multibillion-dollar global video game industry. The first titan of video games was Atari, which, in the early 1980s, put their 2600 video game system in millions of homes—a first “computer” for many American households. The industry crashed in 1983, in part because of substandard games, including a notorious flop based on Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster E.T., thought by many to be the worst video game ever made. (It was bad. Very bad.) Legend has it that Atari buried millions of unsold and returned copies of E.T., and perhaps other titles, in a New Mexico dump as the company struggled to stay afloat. Thirty years was long enough for the dump site—and the truth behind the story—to be lost.
In 2013, media companies Fuel Entertainment and Lightbox acquired the rights to create a documentary about the video game crash of the early 1980s and to dig the Atari dump site, if it could be found. As both an archaeologist (and Director of Publications at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens) and a child of that early video game boom, I contacted Fuel to ask about how the archaeology—excavation, documentation, reporting—would be handled. They invited me to take part, and I assembled a team that included Richard Rothaus of Trefoil Cultural and Environmental and Bill Caraher of the University of North Dakota, veterans of excavations in the Mediterranean and the Americas, as well as casino video game historian Raiford Guins of Stony Brook University and historian Bret Weber of the University of North Dakota.
Atari-Graveyard-Controller
In April 2014, the archaeological team, filmmakers, and curious locals converged on an Alamogordo landfill. The legend soon burst to life. In “Basket 5,” Rothaus recovered a boxed copy of E.T., complete with instructions, catalogue, and Raiders of the Lost Ark insert. Like digging in a pottery dump, coin hoard, or shell midden, each turn of the shovel or bucket loader exposed more games and hardware—thousands of cartridges representing dozens of titles. The year’s worst sandstorm stopped the excavation, but the game-filled trench was photographed and thousands of artifacts were bagged for analysis and cataloguing.
While many may think that the recent past isn’t an appropriate target for serious archaeologists, University of Arizona archaeologist William Rathje once said that archaeology seeks to find items that have cultural value—value that he found in the Tucson Garbage Project, a decades-long effort to study trends in modern trash. The Atari project is in that tradition, and regardless of the attention it received, the dig established that material produced in the 1980s, and even more recently, can have archaeological value. Further research will examine the composition of the deposit of games and hardware in conjunction with the surrounding levels of garbage to understand what happened, from both business and cultural perspectives, when Atari dumped its dead weight in the desert. Some of the finds have already been sent to museums for display and conservation, and the archaeological team is now writing a preliminary report and a peer-reviewed journal article.
Atari-Graveyard-Ms-Pacman
These Atari games are part of my generation’s cultural heritage, and mark a tipping point in the history of technology. Two years after the crash, Nintendo released its own American game system, starting a second boom that continues today. It is significant that the documentary, Atari: Game Over, will debut on Microsoft’s Xbox, a direct descendant of the “ancient” culture that created this video game midden. Potentially millions more cartridges, along with other artifacts such as Atari computers, prototypes, and corporate documents, remain at the dump site. Future archaeologists will have their work cut out for them.
Reading that article in the above post, something jumped out at me and rubs me the wrong way, the part where he said that many people think that digging through a landfill to find artifacts from the 1983 Atari game dump isn't appropriate for archaeologists. What a load of crap. When you break it down, an archaeologists job is to dig for magic, to find things that fascinate and capture our imagination, whether that artifact is a Neanderthal fossil or an Atari game makes no difference, magic is magic. Yes, ancient history is fascinating and captures the imagination, but video games take a backseat to nothing. Ask anyone who's sat in front of Super Mario Bros. 3 and spent four days and gone through 99 lives trying to beat the fortress in Pipeland, or spent days trying to make that one jump in World 8 stage 2 of the original Mario Bros., the feeling you get when you finally land on the other side of that gap, there's nothing like it, it's an emotional orgasm.
The 1983 Atari dumping event is a legendary event in gaming history,
I have a lot of fond memories of playing the Atari back in the 80s, it was a great experience and I miss those days.
An original copy of E.T. the Extra Terrestrial game for the Atari.
I'm bringing up all of this because I just finished a run of revisiting the Super Mario Bros. games, I went through all of them, Super Mario Bros. (1985), Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels (1986), Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988), Super Mario Bros. 3 (1990) and Super Mario World (1991) for the Super Nintendo (SNES). It took me about three months to beat them all. I haven't played them since I was in high school, over twenty years ago, so it felt like I was playing them for the first time. The experience is one of the most satisfying I've ever had, it was a phenomenal adventure. But hard as hell. I mean brutal. Nintendo did not make these games easy to beat, and that's what's so great about them, it's what makes video games so great, the absolute hellish challenge. At one point during my run, I was holed up in a dark room for days trying to beat some of the stages in these games, that's how brutal they get. I was so into them, so consumed by the challenge, so obsessed with it that it felt like I wasn't even on this planet, it was as if I were in another realm. I was living off of Lance peanut butter crackers and Coca-Cola. When I finished my run, when it was all over, I felt like an astronaut must feel when they return to Earth after living in space for months. I had to get readjusted back to normal life. It's one of the greatest experiences and adventures of my life and it will stick with me forever. Ask any hardcore gamer and they'll tell you, Super Mario Bros. is a legendary franchise and probably the most important video game franchise of all-time. Check this out, this sealed and graded copy of the original Super Mario Bros. (1985) for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) recently sold for $3 million.
Media@ha.com
Press Release - June 12, 2026
Highest-Graded Super Mario Bros. Sells for Record $3 Million at Heritage Auctions
The PSA 9.6 A++ copy of ‘the Honus Wagner of video game collecting’ hammers the previous record by $1 million in historic June 12 bidding session
Super Mario Bros. - PSA 9.6 A++ Sealed [Gloss Sticker, Second Production], with Control Deck, NES Nintendo 1985 USA
DALLAS, Texas (June 12, 2026) — The highest-graded copy of the earliest sealed edition of Super Mario Bros., the iconic game whose popularity established Nintendo’s dominance in home console gaming in the 1980s, sold for $3 million on Friday afternoon in the first session of Heritage Auctions’ June 12–13 Video Games Signature® Auction, hammering the previous $2 million record set in a 2021 private sale.
“It is only appropriate that the most significant video game in the world should bring the more impressive result in the history of the hobby,” says Evan Masingill, Heritage’s Consignment Director for Video Games. “The remarkable back story — it was just discovered a few months ago inside a brand-new Control Deck NES console bundle, meaning it has not been touched for nearly 40 years — makes the result even more impressive.”
Bearing the coveted gloss sticker adopted in early 1986, it is the earliest confirmed sealed copy of the most important game cartridge in history. It is one of only three known sealed copies from this second-production run — a variant that has never appeared in a public auction in sealed condition. Of the three known sealed copies, this is the finest, with a PSA 9.6 A++ grade. The others are VGA 80 and Wata 9.4 A++.
Let's get a photo of Super Mario Bros. 2 in here, the oddball of the franchise. It isn't like any of the other Super Mario Bros. games, you cannot defeat enemies by jumping on their heads; instead, you pull up vegetables from the ground and throw them at enemies, you can also pick up the enemies themselves and throw them at enemies. You can pick between four characters to play with—Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Princess Peach—and each one moves and jumps in a unique way. The game uses a heart meter for health instead of just using power-up mushrooms that make you grow or shrink. It wasn't even supposed to be a Super Mario Bros. game. It was originally a completely different game called Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic in Japan. Nintendo of America changed the characters into Mario, Luigi, Toad ,and Princess Peach, because they thought the true Japanese sequel to the original Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels, was too hard and unfair for players in the West.
This was supposed to be the sequel to the original Super Mario Bros. (1985) NES game, Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels. It was originally released in Japan on June 3, 1986 for the Family Computer Disk System (Famicom Disk System) as a floppy disk add-on for the Famicom, released on rewritable magnetic floppy disks (Disk Cards). The reason for that format was because standard ROM cartridges at the time were more expensive and lacked the extra storage capacity and cost-effective rewritability needed for the game. Known in Japan as Super Mario Bros. 2, this sequel was considered too difficult for Western audiences at the time, so it stayed in Japan for years. When players finally got it, they discovered one of the toughest Mario games ever made. The game is absolutely brutal difficult. The game looked similar to the first Super Mario Bros., but enemies were faster, jumps were trickier, and levels were filled with punishing hazards. It was designed for players who had already mastered the original. A new item, the Poison Mushroom, looked like a regular power-up but actually harmed Mario. It was one of Nintendo’s earliest examples of a “trap” item. The game featured hidden bonus worlds and even secret warp zones that could send you backward instead of forward. Exploring carried as much risk as reward. While it reused sprites from the first game, the stage designs were far more devious. It proved how much challenge could come from level design alone. Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels remains a badge of honor for hardcore fans. Its unforgiving design made it one of the most infamous entries in Mario history.
In North America, players first experienced The Lost Levels years later in Super Mario All-Stars on the SNES, rebranded as The Lost Levels to avoid confusion with the U.S. version of Super Mario Bros. 2.
I'll never forget the first time I played Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels, I was killed not seconds into it. I was moving along and I jumped up and hit a question mark block, and a dark, funny looking mushroom popped out and began to roll along, I was naturally curious about it so I chased it down and got it. It killed me instantly. I had encountered the infamous poisonous mushroom.
Then this puppy was released in the United States on August 23, 1991.
And with it came this masterpiece. Super Mario World is a blast to play, the 16-bit graphics are off the hook, and there are plenty of unforgiving stages that gave me nightmares.
Now, you're probably wondering about Super Mario 64 for the Nintendo 64 console, I couldn't ever get into the 3-D platform for some reason, I much prefer the 2-D platform. This is an awesome game as well, Super Mario Bros. All-Stars, release in the United States in August 11, 1993. Super Mario All-Stars, it features remastered 16-bit versions of Super Mario Bros. (1985), Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988), Super Mario Bros. 3 (1990), and the original Japanese Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels (1986), this was the first time gamers in the United States could ever play the notoriously difficult Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels.
Mario made his video game debut in the arcade classic Donkey Kong (1981). Donkey Kong is a platform-action game that has Mario scale four different industrial themed levels (construction zone, cement factory, an elevator-themed level, and removing rivets from girders) in an attempt to save the damsel in distress, Pauline, from the big ape before the timer runs out. Once the rivets are removed from the final level, Donkey Kong falls, and the two lovers are reunited. From there, the levels start over at a higher difficulty. Mario made his first appearance in American homes in 1982, arriving via early home console ports of the arcade game Donkey Kong for systems like the Atari 2600, Intellivision, and ColecoVision.
Next came Mario Bros. (1983). Mario Bros. is a classic 1983 arcade platform game developed by Nintendo that established the plumber profession, and featured cooperative two-player gameplay. The game is set in a multi-platform single-screen layout representing the New York City sewers. Players punch platforms from below to flip turtles, crabs, and flies on their backs, then kick them away. A special mechanic clears the screen of all grounded enemies when hit. This game marked the first appearance of Mario's brother Luigi as player two. It also changed Mario's identity from a carpenter (in Donkey Kong) to a plumber. The game laid the groundwork for power-ups, coin collecting, and pipe systems used later in Super Mario Bros.
Here is an original Japanese "how to play" flyer for the Mario Bros. 1983 arcade game.
The 1983 arcade game Mario Bros. was released on Atari. It was ported and published for several Atari systems, most notably the Atari 2600 in December 1983, followed by the Atari 5200, Atari 7800, and Atari 8-bit computers.
An original Atari flyer advertisement for Mario Bros. (1983).
Another thing I forgot to mention, the legendary video game character Super Mario was named after a real-life real estate developer named Mario Segale. Before he was the world’s most famous plumber, the character was simply known as "Jumpman" in the 1981 game Donkey Kong. At the time, Nintendo of America was operating out of a warehouse in Washington state owned by Segale. The name change happened after Segale reportedly confronted Nintendo’s staff about late rent payments. Following the encounter, the developers decided to rename their main character "Mario" as a nod to their landlord. Segale’s own physical appearance—described as short and stocky—also happened to mirror the character's design. Although Segale mostly stayed out of the spotlight and never received royalties for the use of his name, he remained a permanent part of pop culture history until his death in 2018.
This was Mario's first appearance in North American homes, Donkey Kong (1982) made by ColecoVision. ColecoVision had the first home version of Donkey Kong in August 1982 as a packed-in game with it's console. Coleco also published the ports for the Atari 2600 and Intellivision consoles later that same year.
The ColecoVision console.
This is really cool, a tabletop mini-arcade Donkey Kong game made by Coleco in 1982.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/EKPIr11Ysaw
I don't know why the YouTube "Short" videos don't play like their longer videos when you post their URL......
"When they can't find anything wrong with you, they create it!"
That guy doesn't look like much but man he can fight, awesome video! 👍
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Absolutely - that Black Dude was huffing and puffing - he was DONE!
"When they can't find anything wrong with you, they create it!"
And it's always fun to watch a bully get put in his place. 😂
Super Mario Bros. is my favorite video game franchise, I grew up on it and just recently reunited with it. I love the adventure it takes you on, but I really love the brutally difficult challenges it throws at you. It has some levels that are pure chaos — whether it's tricky enemy placement, tight platforming, auto-scrolling nightmares, or impossible jumps, the franchise really tries to rip your heart out and eat it. Each game in the franchise has different moving and jumping physics for the character you're using, so each game has a different feel to it and you're forced to adapt to the physics, which makes it even more difficult. Super Mario Bros. is widely considered the best and most important NES game franchise of all-time, it created level layouts that all subsequent side-scrollers measure themselves against. Let's take a look at some of the ridiculously difficult levels in the franchise.
CBR.com
The 10 Hardest 2D Mario Levels, Ranked
Mario through the years
By: Kirsten Schultz
Sep 22, 2022, 7:00 PM EDT
Super Mario Bros. is a beloved franchise with some of the most challenging game levels of all time. While the 3D formats of the series have some truly infuriating levels, they have nothing on the 2D levels. It's not always easy to look at 2D landscapes and control characters. Getting from point A to point B under a time limit sometimes takes a few tries.
Gamers will take a few breaks or rage-quit altogether when they reach certain game levels. Surprisingly, the most challenging levels aren't always the final bosses or the game's last course. Instead, these courses are occasionally thrown in at the beginning of a world or remain a special level.
10
7-4 In Super Mario Bros 3 Includes
Swimming Through Jelectros
Mario swimming around jelectros
Swimming always makes a Mario level harder. Swimming through this level, in particular, is frustratingly difficult for most players. After grabbing a power-up suit just for the slightest bit of an advantage in the water, Mario will have to navigate through the water with creatures who are always faster than him trailing close behind.
Once Mario makes it past the Porcupuffers, he'll need to abandon hope and conquer the hoard of Jelectros with other enemies swimming toward him. Once through, of course, another wave of enemies of all kinds will be there at the end to welcome him by the finish line.
9
8-1 In Super Mario Bros 3 Requires Expert Dodging
Mario dodges bullets in Level 8-1 in Super Mario Bros. 3
With the sheer abundance of enemies in this level, players need to equip a power-up suit to make it through. So while it seemingly starts out semi-simple, Mario has to jump his way over and around some Piranha plants that pop out of tempting pipes.
Of course, developers can't release a challenging course without a Koopa Troopa flying down toward the player. After making it thus far, Mario arrives in the area teeming with Bullet Bills. A Boo, more Koopas, and Bullet Bills pack on the projectiles to trigger the player.
8
Soda Lake In Super Mario World Includes Swimming And Dodging
Mario swimming past torpedos
"Soda Lake" is a bonus level in Super Mario World to make things more challenging for Mario fans. So, before players even have a chance to get through the difficult level, they must find it. As with any level, a power-up suit will help, particularly in this one, as it's a swimming level.
After making it past an obscene amount of Blurps and Torpedo Teds, Mario will have to dodge his way around an unfairly significant wave of more enemies. The level becomes more frustrating if gamers aim to achieve the total coin count.
7
Feathers Are A Must In Super Mario World's Tubular
Mario floating past koopas and fireballs
Like Super Mario World's "Soda Lake," "Tubular" is a certain level that only increases frustration with the number of tries it takes to complete. While some have managed to make it through the level with Yoshi's help and balloons alone, a few feathers can help ease the challenge.
Feathers can help bypass most obstacles and enemies, but they won't give players an immediate pass. The vast amount of enemies, from Koopas to Chargin Chucks, and the lack of ground make the level unbelievably tricky.
6
7-7 In Super Mario Bros 3 Is About Speed
Mario jumping past the plants
7-7 is a reasonably easy-looking level for how flat the ground is until gamers realize the landscape is built entirely of Piranha plants and Munchers. The only way to get through the level is by making sure to have a star power-up equipped the entire time.
The challenge is that the stars are few and far between, and getting them out of their blocks will take time out of the run. Players must ensure to keep Mario's speed up throughout the level while also grabbing each available star to get to the next one. Gamers are bound just barely to make it through.
5
New Super Mario Bros 6-6 On The Wii Utilizes Expert Use Of The Wii Controller
Mario holding the box on the raft
Wii's New Super Mario Bros allowed gamers to relive some of the best 2D Mario moments and some frustration. After sliding into a dark cavern, players must hop onto a floating raft and trust their control of both Mario and the light enough to make it to the end.
The Wii remotes were exciting and new, but it takes practice and precision to use them efficiently. While the raft moves through the cave, players must light the way and hop up and down floating platforms, and hope no enemies are lurking in the dark they might have missed.
4
8-Airship In Super Mario Bros 3 Takes Precision
Mario jumping platform to platform avoiding wrenches
Ensuring that fans will never want to go through another airship level again, World 8's airship level is beyond frustrating. Of course, airship levels are never manageable, but this one certainly takes the award for being possibly the most challenging airship level of all time.
The ridiculous amount of Rocky Wrenches, long gaps, and fire being blown are nearly unfair. Players must navigate through a field of these enemies and obstacles while the screen is unforgivable in scrolling past. Only to be met by an angry Boom Boom; hope and a good power-up are the only way to get through this level.
3
5-1 In Super Mario Bros 2 Can Be Easier Depending On The Character
Luigi jumping up the falling logs
After being given a chance to choose a character, players must choose wisely to make it through the level. Some expert players have stated the level is somewhat easier with Princess Toadstool or Luigi. Shy Guy's are there at the start to welcome gamers in their onward endeavor.
Players can grab some extra coins after finding and opening the right door, then move through the rest of the level, which consists of long jumps up falling logs and jumping fish. In the end, Mario will have to beat Birdo to make it through and defeat the level.
2
World C-3 In Super Mario Bros Lost Levels Makes Wind The Arch Nemesis
Mario fighting the wind and lakitu
Super Mario Bros. Lost Levels utilize the concept of wind in World C-3. Said wind makes the already challenging level all the more difficult for no reason other than the developers wanting to infuriate players. Despite fighting the pressing winds, there's only one way to get from platform to platform.
Mario has to hop up onto springs that must work and avoid an obnoxiously rude Lakitu, Piranha Plant, and Koopa Troopas. Then, after taking several more leaps of faith through the harsh wind, fire bars will spin around to pack on the difficulty.
1
New Super Mario Bros 2's Impossible Pack Is Beyond Impossible
Mario dodging poison and fire
Though the Impossible Pack in New Super Mario 2 is a set of courses rather than a singular one, they are short run-throughs that take their name to heart. With time never being on the players' side, these levels take the utmost patience and practice to beat.
The first is a fast-paced swim around Porcupuffers, then hopping over relentless Crowbers, Bob-ombs, aggressive Hammer Bros, and Chain Chomps to the end. The second is a near unfeasible fire level full of fire bars and moving platforms. The last is a run-through with a mass of Dry Bones, rising poison, Fire Bros, and more that seem the trudge to the end impossible.
That's a great list of difficult Super Mario Bros. stages, and I want to add some to that list. We'll start off with the original Super Mario Bros. (1985) game. In World 8, level 1, this jump right here is a real a$$ kicker. What makes it even worse is, they put it at the end of the stage so if you don't make the jump then all of the work it took to get through the stage is for nothing. On top of that, they give you a limited amount of continues to start the stage over, you're racing the clock, and you only get a handful of cracks at it, if you fail they send you packing back to the beginning of the game. It's video game cruelty at it's finest and honest to god, it's awesome. The unforgiving ruthlessness of the game designers is what makes video games so great. If it were easy, then what's the point of bothering with it? This jump drove me crazy, yelling, throwing things against the wall, but when you finally conquer something like this, the rush you get is unbelievable, I'm honestly still riding the high from my Mario Bros. run. I'm not going to give any tips on how to conquer these obstacles, I don't want to ruin the experience for any potential future gamers out there!
Here's a meme someone made dedicated to the world 8, level 1, (8-1) jump in Super Mario Bros. (1985).
Super Mario Bros. 1985, world 8, level 2, (8-2). As if the jump in 8-1 isn't bad enough, in the very next stage, they hit you with a jump that's just as bad if not worse. This one took me a few days to conquer as well.
I posted this meme earlier, it's dedicated to the jump in 8-2.
Super Mario Bros. (1985) world 8, level 4 (8-4), the final level of the entire game. First of all, it's a maze, you have to figure out the correct sequence of pipes to go down, if you pick the wrong pipe, you get zapped backwards and have to try to figure it all out again. This is the real kicker, once you get to the end of the level, right before the final confrontation with Bowser, aka King Koopa, the legendary arch nemesis and final boss of the Super Mario Bros. games, they stick this little guy right in front of the entrance to Bowser's bridge. He's called a "Hammer Brother" one of the most notoriously frustrating enemies of the Super Mario Bros. franchise. He jumps up and down while simultaneously chucking hammers at you, it's hell getting past them without getting tagged by a hammer or getting touched by them. You have to stand there and try to figure out a way to get past him or kill him, but if you stand there too long, he'll straight up advance on you and start marching toward to you hellbent on taking you out. These guys are a beast of an obstacle in every Mario game, and I can't count how many times they did me in. And believe me, others gamers can sympathize.
Once you finally make it past that Hammer Brother, you have to jump a pretty big gap over a lava pit, the pit is spitting up a fireball so you have to make the jump and not get tagged by the fireball, and then you face bowser on the bridge. Let me tell you, unless you have a fireball suit and can gun him down with fireballs, or are big and can afford to get hit and run through him, you're in for a struggle. He's no picnic, he chucks hammers at you like a raving lunatic and is spitting fireballs at you simultaneously, the hammers are coming over the top and the fireballs are going low so he's got you covered from all angles. If you're small like I was when I encountered him, it can be a frustrating fight. I couldn't get to him with a fireball suit, or big, the previous stages were so punishing that they robbed me of power-ups, so I had to go at him small, which means if you get hit or touched once, you get killed instantly. He probably took me out at least 20 times before I finally made it past him.
Next up, let's look at some difficult stages from Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988). This is one of my all-time favorite video games, it's completely different from every other Mario game ever made, and the story behind that is fascinating. Super Mario Bros. 2 in the West is famous for not actually being a Mario game at all, but rather a reskinned version of a Japanese game called Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic. Nintendo of America needed a follow-up to the original Super Mario Bros. (1985), but rejected the true Japanese sequel Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels, for being too brutally difficult, Nintendo of America executive Minoru Arakawa felt it would frustrate and alienate casual players in the United States. Nintendo of America replaced the original four Arabic-themed characters of Doki Doki Panic with Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Princess Peach, adjusting physics and adding a run button to match the Mario brand, retitled it Super Mario Bros. 2 and the rest is history. It's honestly one of the funnest games I've ever played and one of my favorites. This is a copy of the Japanese game Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic.
Here is a side-by-side comparison of Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic (1987) and Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988).
The characters in Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic (1987) and the characters in Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988).
A lot of the items the characters use and a few of the enemies were adjusted as well.
Super Mario Bros. 2 (1988) is one of my all-time favorite video games, it's ridiculously fun. Players can choose between Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Princess Peach, each character features distinct physics, jump heights, and speed, each character has different strengths and weaknesses, so depending upon which character you choose to play with, you're in for a different experience with each. The game also features different enemies and bosses from the other games in the franchise, the bosses are particularly cool, let's take a look at them, shall we? The boss of worlds 1 and 3 is "Mouser", a mouse that wears shades and chucks lit bombs at you.
The boss of worlds 2 and 6 is Tryclyde, a three-headed Cobra that shoots fire out of his mouth at you.
The boss of world 4 is Fryguy, a flame that flies around the screen shooting fire at you. Boy, he's a real pain in the a$$ to beat, after you initially beat him he breaks apart and turns into four little separate flames that behave like heat-seeking missiles trying to get at you. He took me out quite a few times.