Last but not least is World 6, Ice Land, one of the most brutally difficult Worlds in Super Mario Bros. 3. This world kicked the crap out of me. The name says it all, everything in Ice Land is covered with ice and frost, the physics of trying to control Mario on ice are a nightmare, you slip and slide on every platform. This is the complete map of Ice Land.
They waste no time getting down to business in Ice Land, level 6-1 is littered with Ptooie plant enemies walking all over the place. I like trying to beat levels as small Mario, it really puts your skills to the test, and playing as small Mario, this level was rough.
Level 6-3 is a brutal to get through as small Mario, the level is filled with big jumps and small ice covered platforms, as soon as you land on a platform you're going to slide because of the ice. The physics of controlling Mario are a nightmare and this level cost me quite a few lives. Check out the last two photos, a jump from a thin icy platform over two Koopa Paratroopas.
The first Fortress in Ice Land is brutal, you start off having pride a tiny moving platform over a lava pit with fireballs spitting up and trying to hit you.
The moving platform takes you across a bed of spikes a down a shaft with laser orbs floating around, this highly-skilled player got tagged by the orbs.
A difficult sequence before you leave the first Fortress in Ice Land, past a column with two laser orbs and then underneath a column with a laser orb floating around it.
6-4 is another brutal level in Ice Land. This is the first jump of the level and look what the game designers did, they strategically placed a donut platform right above the start of the jump, knowing darn good and well that players would misjudge the jump, hit the platform with the top of their head, and get knocked into the pit. It happened to me a few times, very tricky jump.
After you get past that jump, it's onto the madness of level 6-4. The level is filled with these helicopter platforms that will be straight one second, then start spinning around the next. You have to time your landing on them perfectly and get off of them or the platforms will knock you right into the abyss below. What makes it even worse is that you have to jump from the helicopter platforms onto ice covered platforms, one extreme to the next.
Check this out, a real human performer is literally living inside a furnished, air-conditioned billboard 30 feet above Sunset Boulevard and Selma Avenue in Los Angeles. The stunt was organized by Netflix to promote the horror/sci-fi thriller "The Last House." The film follows a family of four mysteriously sealed inside their home as an apocalyptic global event unfolds outside.
Anyway, getting back to level 6-4 in Super Mario Bros 3., this is the next sequence they put in front of you, a jump over an icy platform onto a moving platform and then more jumps onto moving platforms. This section got me a few times, the physics of the jumps are difficult to time.
Level 6-4 finishes with this nasty little sequence, you have to make your way across icy platforms and through helicopter platforms that are spinning and trying to knock you all over the place. If you aren't careful about getting over them, they will knock you right down into the small pits. The Fire Chomp enemy showing up near the end makes it even more of a headache. The very last part pictured in the third and fourth photos is where I met my doom a few times, they won't let you leave the level until you get through that one last helicopter platform with a small pit below it, I got knocked into that pit multiple times, a sinister little trap.
The second Fortress in Ice Land is a nightmare trying to get through, the whole level is basically Thwomp hell. Every platform is saturated in slippery ice, you can't get any friction or traction, you have to continuously bait the Thwomps and try to slide into and under tiny openings in the ice.
Look at this sequence of obstacles, laser orbs, a Thwomp, and a Boo enemy chasing you. It's why I love Super Mario Bros., they really put you through a meat grinder.
Yes, Bob Backlund’s 2013 WWE Hall of Fame induction speech at Madison Square Garden was widely considered one of the wildest and most bizarre speeches in the event's history. Staying fully in his unhinged, high-strung wrestling persona, he paced the stage, yelled incoherently, ranted about childhood outhouses, put his nephew in a sudden headlock, and shouted at Sgt. Slaughter about past match injuries.
But don't let the insane WWE HOF induction speech fool you, Bob Backlund was an elite, world-class technical wrestler and one of the most successful anchors in WWE history, holding the WWF Heavyweight Championship for an incredible 2,135 days (the second-longest single reign in company history).
Anyway, getting back to Super Mario Bros. 3, Fortress 3 in Ice Land is one of the hardest levels in the game. Most if not all Super Mario Bros. players will use power-ups to get through difficult levels, rarely do you see players really test themselves and their skills and try to get through difficult levels as small Mario, meaning one hit from an enemy and your done. I went at this level as small Mario and it kicked me up and down the block. I can't count how many lives this level cost me, but I eventually got through it as small Mario and the adrenaline rush was incredible. This level throws some brutal obstacles at you, laser orbs, Thwomps, spike pits, Boo Stretches, and conveyor belts trying to push toward enemies and hazards. It starts off with a jump onto a ball platform with two laser orbs circling it, and then a jump over a spike pit and onto a moving conveyor belt, a jump over a spike pit and onto a ball platform with two laser orbs circling it, and a jump over a spike pit and onto another moving conveyor belt with two Boo enemies guarding it. A nasty sequence and you can see that this highly-skilled player started out as big Mario, got tagged, and then killed trying to make it through this section. The player started over using a Fireball Suit and Invincible Star power-ups to get through it, that's how tough this level is.
Boo Stretches, the white platforms with Boo enemies that move back and forth in them, are everywhere in Fortress 3, if you have a Hammer Suit you can take them out, but if you are small Mario they're a nightmare.
This section of Fortress 3 is very difficult to get through, a jump over a ball platform with a laser orb circling around it, onto a conveyor belt with a Thwomp waiting on you. This is a ridiculously tough challenge because the conveyor belt is pushing you away from the Thwomp, and the laser orb is continuously circling around. You have to push against the conveyor belt, bait the Thwomp into dropping, wait on it to raise back up while dodging the laser orb. It's difficult as heck to get through this section without being hit or outright killed.
This is the final section in Fortress 3 of Ice Land before you reach the door, you have to get past two Boo Stretches, both with a laser orb circling around them, followed by a long jump over a spike pit. This is just a nasty little monstrosity of an obstacle that put the brakes on me multiple times.
The boss of World 6, Ice Land, is Lemmy Koopa, he is widely considered the hardest boss in Super Mario Bros. 3. He is difficult because he introduces a unique projectile mechanic that permanently clutters the tiny arena. Unlike other Koopalings who shoot predictable magic blasts that fly off the screen, Lemmy balances on a magical circus ball and throws bouncy green balls that never disappear during the fight. Every rubber ball Lemmy spawns with his wand stays on the screen, bouncing erratically off the walls and floor. As the fight drags on, the room fills with up to three bouncing balls. This severely limits your safe landing zones, making it almost impossible to dodge both Lemmy and his projectiles. At the start of the battle, Lemmy balances in place on the right side, giving you a clean window to stomp him. Once you hit him, he retreats into his shell. After emerging, he stops standing still and begins running erratically back and forth across the room. This unpredictable AI pathing forces panic jumps into him or his arsenal. You're basically playing a deadly game of 4-on-1 dodgeball against him and his three projectiles. What's worse is that you have to get through his airship to get to him, if you take any damage on his airship, you're really screwed by the time you face him.
Hey, let's take a few seconds to wish MTV a happy birthday. MTV didn't just play music videos in the ’80s. It could hijack an entire afternoon. You'd sit through songs you didn't care about because the next video might be the one you were waiting for. No skipping. No searching. No pulling up your favorite song whenever you wanted. And somehow, that made finally seeing it feel like an event. Then MTV slowly discovered something strange: apparently a channel called Music Television didn't actually need much music. The videos got pushed aside. The reality shows arrived. And an entire generation started wondering what the hell happened to the channel they used to leave on for hours. MTV turned 45 this week. For those first years, though, it didn't just show us the music. It showed us what the music looked like. Thanks for the memories MTV.
Up next, Super Mario World released in 1991 for Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). I'm not going to go through everything, just going to point out some of the most difficult levels in the game. Gosh, I don't even know where to begin with this one, such a fun, fun game. This was Mario's first appearance on a 16-bit format, it introduced his iconic Dinosaur sidekick Yoshi, had the perfect package of tight controls, beautiful graphics and animation, fantastic level design, amazing progression, good amount of content that doesn’t overstay its welcome, good scaling difficulty, and enough secrets to make you want to keep exploring. Just a masterpiece of a video game.
There are Seven Worlds in Super Mario World and two secret worlds, Star Road and Special World, the game is filled with secret exits and areas. The world map is a beautiful work of art.
The most difficult levels in Super Mario World are heavily concentrated in the late-game Special Zone and specific late-game secret stages. The absolute hardest include Tubular (infamous for its unforgiving Power Balloon flight), Outrageous (dense enemy spam), Soda Lake (a brutal underwater twitch-swim), and Forest of Illusion 2 (confusing maze mechanics). But there are a few others and I'll start with the Castle in World 3, Vanilla Dome, also known as Lemmy Koopas Castle. First off, any level featuring the dreaded "Magikoopa" enemy is going to be difficult, they are bespectacled Koopas that can cast spells. Magikoopas made their debut in Super Mario World. They wear blue robes and hats resembling the garb of a wizard. They attack by teleporting onto platforms, aiming at Mario or Luigi, and firing a magic spell blast from their wand. These glowing projectiles damage Mario on contact and can transform blocks they hit into other items such as coins, or enemies like Koopa Troopas. After shooting a spell, they instantly vanish and reappear in a new spot, making them hard to pin down. They are not easy to kill, they are immune to fireballs but you can kill them by jumping on their head or spinning around and hitting them with your cape if you have the cape power-up, the problem with that is you have to get close to them to kill them and they're constantly firing off those spell blasts and you run the risk of getting hit by the projectile. Even if you do manage to kill them, they respawn ten seconds later. The castle in world 3, Vanilla Dome, was an absolute nightmare. The Magikoopa in this level wreaks savage havoc. Again, I like to conquer the most difficult challenges available so I played as many levels as I could using small Mario. This level took me to the woodshed and it's because of that one damn Magikoopa. I don't think I've ever come across a more tormenting enemy. This level starts off in a lava room with two brick platforms suspended above it. The Magikoopa all over you from the start, shooting his spell blasts at you, disappearing and reappearing. He's difficult because he's totally unpredictable, you can't tell where he's going to reappear, he can reappear behind you, above you, in front of you, way across the screen or right in your face, he opens fire on you the second he reappears and his spell blast is like a heat-seeking missile, it can travel in any direction. You have to be extremely careful because when his spell blasts hit the bricks, they vaporize the bricks and the bricks can turn into Koopa Troopas and it leaves an open gap over the lava that you can easily fall into. After you get through the lava section you come upon a water section with little wooden platforms, with the Magikoopa still stuck to you like Gorilla tape. After you get through the water section, it's onto a sequence of jumps over lava pits that spit fireballs up and he's still there. This is genuinely a one of the most difficult levels in the franchise and it's due to the presence of the dreaded Magikoopa. This enemy is a headache on steroids, but as a hardcore Super Mario Bros. fan and player, we love the difficult challenges and the game designers really delivered, the Magikoopa is a stroke of genius enemy. Look at the last photo of this sequence, the Magikoopa standing right at the exit door, still there blasting away at you, my God what a phenomenal enemy.
I need a music break after dealing with the stress of seeing that Magikoopa again. I love the sound of Eddie Van Halen's guitar on this 1988 Van Halen track. The tone jumps out because he plugged a Fender Stratocaster directly into the studio mixing console for a raw, ultra-clean, and highly "spanky" direct-input sound without a traditional guitar amplifier.
Back to Lemmy Koopas Castle in World 3, after you get past the lava floor and the Magikoopa, you enter another lava floor, the entire floor is made up of platforms that move up and down into the lava and you have you make your way across them while dodging fireballs that spit up from the lava and Dry Bones enemies. Every move you make in this place is a tight squeeze and your timing has to be perfect or you will end up running right into an enemy or like the bottom photo demonstrates, in the lava.
Next I want to talk about some of the levels in the Special Zone, these are some of the most difficult levels in the entire franchise. The levels in the Special Zone are have cool names, like "Gnarly" and "Funky", and I want to talk about the second level "Tubular" one of the most brutal levels I've ever played. P-Balloon physics, Chargin' Chucks, and the Volcano Lotus make this level a nightmare. A P-Balloon (or Power Balloon) is a rare power-up item in Super Mario World. When Mario or Luigi touches it, they inflate into a round, yellow balloon form that lets them float freely through the air to cross wide gaps or reach high places. A Chargin' Chuck is a large, tough enemy resembling a Koopa dressed in American football gear, debuting in Super Mario World. They are much stronger than standard enemies, requiring three hits to defeat, and use sports-themed attacks like charging, throwing baseballs, or kicking footballs. A Volcano Lotus is a stationary, plant-like enemy in the Mario series that debuted in Super Mario World. It is the land-based counterpart to the underwater Lava Lotus, standing on solid ground and regularly spewing a flurry of fireballs that arc into the air and rain down around it. Tubular is so difficult because it forces you to navigate a massive bottomless pit using clunky P-Balloon physics while dodging relentless projectiles with zero room for error. The P-Balloon physics lack smooth directional control, making precise movement frustratingly difficult. The duration of each P-Balloon cuts very close, meaning you must chain them together by hitting hidden or enemy-guarded question blocks with extreme precision. There is no midway gate, a halfway checkpoint that allows you to start from that point if you get killed. If you take a single hit or run out of air, you're going into the abyss below and you must restart the entire stage from the very beginning. Chargin' Chucks throw footballs and Volcano Lotuses fill the air with fireballs, actively hunting you down while you are vulnerable and floating. When you get the P-Balloon power-up and you're floating, you cannot attack in anyway, all you can do is try to float around, over, or under enemies, you're almost completely helpless. The Chargin' Chucks are a serious headache to deal with, they will jump in the air and clap their hands and charge you, some of them stand stationary and chuck baseballs and kick footballs at you. This level features both varieties. They start the level off with this nasty little spot, pipes with two Chargin' Chucks and a Pirahna Plant. Playing this level as small Mario, this is a very difficult spot to get past.
And here's where it starts getting really brutal. You have to jump down on that little spring and hit the question mark block, it will activate the P-Balloon and then the chaos ensues. The jump down to the spring itself is difficult as small Mario, this player is using a cape power-up so he can float down to the spring, with small Mario, there is no room for error or you will end up in the abyss below.
Once you hit the question mark block the P-Balloon will activate and start floating away, you have to jump from the spring and grab the P-Balloon before it floats out of reach, this is challenging itself because you have to make sure you jump off the spring and touch that moving P-Balloon, if you miss that balloon by a hair, you're taking the plunge.
Once you get the P-Balloon, Mario will blow up like a balloon and slowly begin to float, he looks like he's full of Helium. The momentum from the jump to retrieve the P-Balloon will force you right down into enemy fire, it's a nightmare trying to avoid the Chargin' Chuck standing on the pipe chucking baseballs at you, and as you can see in the photos below, this player got hit and killed.
Once you avoid the projectiles and make it past that first Chargin' Chuck, there's another one waiting to devour you, and as you can see in the photos, this player got caught by the second Chuck and bought the farm. It's just a brutally difficult level.
After that, you don't have much time until the P-Balloon wears off, you have to dodge the enemies and their incoming fire and get to the next question mark block and get the next P-Balloon.
After you retrieve the second P-Balloon, the gates of hell really open up on you, enemies and projectiles come from everywhere, and all it takes is one hit to kill you. Three Koopa Paratroopas flying up and down, and two Lava Lotus' spitting fire, the place is a mid-air minefield.
Comments
Last but not least is World 6, Ice Land, one of the most brutally difficult Worlds in Super Mario Bros. 3. This world kicked the crap out of me. The name says it all, everything in Ice Land is covered with ice and frost, the physics of trying to control Mario on ice are a nightmare, you slip and slide on every platform. This is the complete map of Ice Land.
They waste no time getting down to business in Ice Land, level 6-1 is littered with Ptooie plant enemies walking all over the place. I like trying to beat levels as small Mario, it really puts your skills to the test, and playing as small Mario, this level was rough.
Level 6-3 is a brutal to get through as small Mario, the level is filled with big jumps and small ice covered platforms, as soon as you land on a platform you're going to slide because of the ice. The physics of controlling Mario are a nightmare and this level cost me quite a few lives. Check out the last two photos, a jump from a thin icy platform over two Koopa Paratroopas.
The first Fortress in Ice Land is brutal, you start off having pride a tiny moving platform over a lava pit with fireballs spitting up and trying to hit you.
The moving platform takes you across a bed of spikes a down a shaft with laser orbs floating around, this highly-skilled player got tagged by the orbs.
A difficult sequence before you leave the first Fortress in Ice Land, past a column with two laser orbs and then underneath a column with a laser orb floating around it.
6-4 is another brutal level in Ice Land. This is the first jump of the level and look what the game designers did, they strategically placed a donut platform right above the start of the jump, knowing darn good and well that players would misjudge the jump, hit the platform with the top of their head, and get knocked into the pit. It happened to me a few times, very tricky jump.
After you get past that jump, it's onto the madness of level 6-4. The level is filled with these helicopter platforms that will be straight one second, then start spinning around the next. You have to time your landing on them perfectly and get off of them or the platforms will knock you right into the abyss below. What makes it even worse is that you have to jump from the helicopter platforms onto ice covered platforms, one extreme to the next.
Check this out, a real human performer is literally living inside a furnished, air-conditioned billboard 30 feet above Sunset Boulevard and Selma Avenue in Los Angeles. The stunt was organized by Netflix to promote the horror/sci-fi thriller "The Last House." The film follows a family of four mysteriously sealed inside their home as an apocalyptic global event unfolds outside.
Wicked poster for the film.
Anyway, getting back to level 6-4 in Super Mario Bros 3., this is the next sequence they put in front of you, a jump over an icy platform onto a moving platform and then more jumps onto moving platforms. This section got me a few times, the physics of the jumps are difficult to time.
Level 6-4 finishes with this nasty little sequence, you have to make your way across icy platforms and through helicopter platforms that are spinning and trying to knock you all over the place. If you aren't careful about getting over them, they will knock you right down into the small pits. The Fire Chomp enemy showing up near the end makes it even more of a headache. The very last part pictured in the third and fourth photos is where I met my doom a few times, they won't let you leave the level until you get through that one last helicopter platform with a small pit below it, I got knocked into that pit multiple times, a sinister little trap.
The second Fortress in Ice Land is a nightmare trying to get through, the whole level is basically Thwomp hell. Every platform is saturated in slippery ice, you can't get any friction or traction, you have to continuously bait the Thwomps and try to slide into and under tiny openings in the ice.
Then they start throwing the laser orbs at you, which are difficult to avoid when you're sliding all over the place.
Look at this sequence of obstacles, laser orbs, a Thwomp, and a Boo enemy chasing you. It's why I love Super Mario Bros., they really put you through a meat grinder.
Yes, Bob Backlund’s 2013 WWE Hall of Fame induction speech at Madison Square Garden was widely considered one of the wildest and most bizarre speeches in the event's history. Staying fully in his unhinged, high-strung wrestling persona, he paced the stage, yelled incoherently, ranted about childhood outhouses, put his nephew in a sudden headlock, and shouted at Sgt. Slaughter about past match injuries.
But don't let the insane WWE HOF induction speech fool you, Bob Backlund was an elite, world-class technical wrestler and one of the most successful anchors in WWE history, holding the WWF Heavyweight Championship for an incredible 2,135 days (the second-longest single reign in company history).
Anyway, getting back to Super Mario Bros. 3, Fortress 3 in Ice Land is one of the hardest levels in the game. Most if not all Super Mario Bros. players will use power-ups to get through difficult levels, rarely do you see players really test themselves and their skills and try to get through difficult levels as small Mario, meaning one hit from an enemy and your done. I went at this level as small Mario and it kicked me up and down the block. I can't count how many lives this level cost me, but I eventually got through it as small Mario and the adrenaline rush was incredible. This level throws some brutal obstacles at you, laser orbs, Thwomps, spike pits, Boo Stretches, and conveyor belts trying to push toward enemies and hazards. It starts off with a jump onto a ball platform with two laser orbs circling it, and then a jump over a spike pit and onto a moving conveyor belt, a jump over a spike pit and onto a ball platform with two laser orbs circling it, and a jump over a spike pit and onto another moving conveyor belt with two Boo enemies guarding it. A nasty sequence and you can see that this highly-skilled player started out as big Mario, got tagged, and then killed trying to make it through this section. The player started over using a Fireball Suit and Invincible Star power-ups to get through it, that's how tough this level is.
Boo Stretches, the white platforms with Boo enemies that move back and forth in them, are everywhere in Fortress 3, if you have a Hammer Suit you can take them out, but if you are small Mario they're a nightmare.
This section of Fortress 3 is very difficult to get through, a jump over a ball platform with a laser orb circling around it, onto a conveyor belt with a Thwomp waiting on you. This is a ridiculously tough challenge because the conveyor belt is pushing you away from the Thwomp, and the laser orb is continuously circling around. You have to push against the conveyor belt, bait the Thwomp into dropping, wait on it to raise back up while dodging the laser orb. It's difficult as heck to get through this section without being hit or outright killed.
This is the final section in Fortress 3 of Ice Land before you reach the door, you have to get past two Boo Stretches, both with a laser orb circling around them, followed by a long jump over a spike pit. This is just a nasty little monstrosity of an obstacle that put the brakes on me multiple times.
The boss of World 6, Ice Land, is Lemmy Koopa, he is widely considered the hardest boss in Super Mario Bros. 3. He is difficult because he introduces a unique projectile mechanic that permanently clutters the tiny arena. Unlike other Koopalings who shoot predictable magic blasts that fly off the screen, Lemmy balances on a magical circus ball and throws bouncy green balls that never disappear during the fight. Every rubber ball Lemmy spawns with his wand stays on the screen, bouncing erratically off the walls and floor. As the fight drags on, the room fills with up to three bouncing balls. This severely limits your safe landing zones, making it almost impossible to dodge both Lemmy and his projectiles. At the start of the battle, Lemmy balances in place on the right side, giving you a clean window to stomp him. Once you hit him, he retreats into his shell. After emerging, he stops standing still and begins running erratically back and forth across the room. This unpredictable AI pathing forces panic jumps into him or his arsenal. You're basically playing a deadly game of 4-on-1 dodgeball against him and his three projectiles. What's worse is that you have to get through his airship to get to him, if you take any damage on his airship, you're really screwed by the time you face him.
Hey, let's take a few seconds to wish MTV a happy birthday. MTV didn't just play music videos in the ’80s. It could hijack an entire afternoon. You'd sit through songs you didn't care about because the next video might be the one you were waiting for. No skipping. No searching. No pulling up your favorite song whenever you wanted. And somehow, that made finally seeing it feel like an event. Then MTV slowly discovered something strange: apparently a channel called Music Television didn't actually need much music. The videos got pushed aside. The reality shows arrived. And an entire generation started wondering what the hell happened to the channel they used to leave on for hours. MTV turned 45 this week. For those first years, though, it didn't just show us the music. It showed us what the music looked like. Thanks for the memories MTV.
I guess that's about it for Super Mario Bros. 3, great game, one of my all-time favorites.
Up next, Super Mario World released in 1991 for Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). I'm not going to go through everything, just going to point out some of the most difficult levels in the game. Gosh, I don't even know where to begin with this one, such a fun, fun game. This was Mario's first appearance on a 16-bit format, it introduced his iconic Dinosaur sidekick Yoshi, had the perfect package of tight controls, beautiful graphics and animation, fantastic level design, amazing progression, good amount of content that doesn’t overstay its welcome, good scaling difficulty, and enough secrets to make you want to keep exploring. Just a masterpiece of a video game.
There are Seven Worlds in Super Mario World and two secret worlds, Star Road and Special World, the game is filled with secret exits and areas. The world map is a beautiful work of art.
World 1: Yoshi's Island
World 2: Donut Plains
World 3: Vanilla Dome
World 4: Twin Bridges
World 5: Forest of Illusion
World 6: Chocolate Island
World 7: Valley of Bowser
Star Road (Secret World)
Special Zone (Secret World)
The most difficult levels in Super Mario World are heavily concentrated in the late-game Special Zone and specific late-game secret stages. The absolute hardest include Tubular (infamous for its unforgiving Power Balloon flight), Outrageous (dense enemy spam), Soda Lake (a brutal underwater twitch-swim), and Forest of Illusion 2 (confusing maze mechanics). But there are a few others and I'll start with the Castle in World 3, Vanilla Dome, also known as Lemmy Koopas Castle. First off, any level featuring the dreaded "Magikoopa" enemy is going to be difficult, they are bespectacled Koopas that can cast spells. Magikoopas made their debut in Super Mario World. They wear blue robes and hats resembling the garb of a wizard. They attack by teleporting onto platforms, aiming at Mario or Luigi, and firing a magic spell blast from their wand. These glowing projectiles damage Mario on contact and can transform blocks they hit into other items such as coins, or enemies like Koopa Troopas. After shooting a spell, they instantly vanish and reappear in a new spot, making them hard to pin down. They are not easy to kill, they are immune to fireballs but you can kill them by jumping on their head or spinning around and hitting them with your cape if you have the cape power-up, the problem with that is you have to get close to them to kill them and they're constantly firing off those spell blasts and you run the risk of getting hit by the projectile. Even if you do manage to kill them, they respawn ten seconds later. The castle in world 3, Vanilla Dome, was an absolute nightmare. The Magikoopa in this level wreaks savage havoc. Again, I like to conquer the most difficult challenges available so I played as many levels as I could using small Mario. This level took me to the woodshed and it's because of that one damn Magikoopa. I don't think I've ever come across a more tormenting enemy. This level starts off in a lava room with two brick platforms suspended above it. The Magikoopa all over you from the start, shooting his spell blasts at you, disappearing and reappearing. He's difficult because he's totally unpredictable, you can't tell where he's going to reappear, he can reappear behind you, above you, in front of you, way across the screen or right in your face, he opens fire on you the second he reappears and his spell blast is like a heat-seeking missile, it can travel in any direction. You have to be extremely careful because when his spell blasts hit the bricks, they vaporize the bricks and the bricks can turn into Koopa Troopas and it leaves an open gap over the lava that you can easily fall into. After you get through the lava section you come upon a water section with little wooden platforms, with the Magikoopa still stuck to you like Gorilla tape. After you get through the water section, it's onto a sequence of jumps over lava pits that spit fireballs up and he's still there. This is genuinely a one of the most difficult levels in the franchise and it's due to the presence of the dreaded Magikoopa. This enemy is a headache on steroids, but as a hardcore Super Mario Bros. fan and player, we love the difficult challenges and the game designers really delivered, the Magikoopa is a stroke of genius enemy. Look at the last photo of this sequence, the Magikoopa standing right at the exit door, still there blasting away at you, my God what a phenomenal enemy.
I need a music break after dealing with the stress of seeing that Magikoopa again. I love the sound of Eddie Van Halen's guitar on this 1988 Van Halen track. The tone jumps out because he plugged a Fender Stratocaster directly into the studio mixing console for a raw, ultra-clean, and highly "spanky" direct-input sound without a traditional guitar amplifier.
Back to Lemmy Koopas Castle in World 3, after you get past the lava floor and the Magikoopa, you enter another lava floor, the entire floor is made up of platforms that move up and down into the lava and you have you make your way across them while dodging fireballs that spit up from the lava and Dry Bones enemies. Every move you make in this place is a tight squeeze and your timing has to be perfect or you will end up running right into an enemy or like the bottom photo demonstrates, in the lava.
Next I want to talk about some of the levels in the Special Zone, these are some of the most difficult levels in the entire franchise. The levels in the Special Zone are have cool names, like "Gnarly" and "Funky", and I want to talk about the second level "Tubular" one of the most brutal levels I've ever played. P-Balloon physics, Chargin' Chucks, and the Volcano Lotus make this level a nightmare. A P-Balloon (or Power Balloon) is a rare power-up item in Super Mario World. When Mario or Luigi touches it, they inflate into a round, yellow balloon form that lets them float freely through the air to cross wide gaps or reach high places. A Chargin' Chuck is a large, tough enemy resembling a Koopa dressed in American football gear, debuting in Super Mario World. They are much stronger than standard enemies, requiring three hits to defeat, and use sports-themed attacks like charging, throwing baseballs, or kicking footballs. A Volcano Lotus is a stationary, plant-like enemy in the Mario series that debuted in Super Mario World. It is the land-based counterpart to the underwater Lava Lotus, standing on solid ground and regularly spewing a flurry of fireballs that arc into the air and rain down around it. Tubular is so difficult because it forces you to navigate a massive bottomless pit using clunky P-Balloon physics while dodging relentless projectiles with zero room for error. The P-Balloon physics lack smooth directional control, making precise movement frustratingly difficult. The duration of each P-Balloon cuts very close, meaning you must chain them together by hitting hidden or enemy-guarded question blocks with extreme precision. There is no midway gate, a halfway checkpoint that allows you to start from that point if you get killed. If you take a single hit or run out of air, you're going into the abyss below and you must restart the entire stage from the very beginning. Chargin' Chucks throw footballs and Volcano Lotuses fill the air with fireballs, actively hunting you down while you are vulnerable and floating. When you get the P-Balloon power-up and you're floating, you cannot attack in anyway, all you can do is try to float around, over, or under enemies, you're almost completely helpless. The Chargin' Chucks are a serious headache to deal with, they will jump in the air and clap their hands and charge you, some of them stand stationary and chuck baseballs and kick footballs at you. This level features both varieties. They start the level off with this nasty little spot, pipes with two Chargin' Chucks and a Pirahna Plant. Playing this level as small Mario, this is a very difficult spot to get past.
And here's where it starts getting really brutal. You have to jump down on that little spring and hit the question mark block, it will activate the P-Balloon and then the chaos ensues. The jump down to the spring itself is difficult as small Mario, this player is using a cape power-up so he can float down to the spring, with small Mario, there is no room for error or you will end up in the abyss below.
Once you hit the question mark block the P-Balloon will activate and start floating away, you have to jump from the spring and grab the P-Balloon before it floats out of reach, this is challenging itself because you have to make sure you jump off the spring and touch that moving P-Balloon, if you miss that balloon by a hair, you're taking the plunge.
Once you get the P-Balloon, Mario will blow up like a balloon and slowly begin to float, he looks like he's full of Helium. The momentum from the jump to retrieve the P-Balloon will force you right down into enemy fire, it's a nightmare trying to avoid the Chargin' Chuck standing on the pipe chucking baseballs at you, and as you can see in the photos below, this player got hit and killed.
Once you avoid the projectiles and make it past that first Chargin' Chuck, there's another one waiting to devour you, and as you can see in the photos, this player got caught by the second Chuck and bought the farm. It's just a brutally difficult level.
After that, you don't have much time until the P-Balloon wears off, you have to dodge the enemies and their incoming fire and get to the next question mark block and get the next P-Balloon.
After you retrieve the second P-Balloon, the gates of hell really open up on you, enemies and projectiles come from everywhere, and all it takes is one hit to kill you. Three Koopa Paratroopas flying up and down, and two Lava Lotus' spitting fire, the place is a mid-air minefield.