Then they send in the artillery, cannons, in bunches, the whole level is saturated with them, Bullet Bills constantly coming at you, and more Fire Snakes in your path. This level is absolutely brutal. This highly-skilled player had multiple power-ups and it didn't take long to lose them.
To finish the level off, they put this god-awful minefield in front of you, enemies everywhere, Cheep-Cheeps bouncing around on the ground, Goombas, Fire Snakes. It finished the aforementioned player off.
Let's take a look at something interesting, I love posting interesting things, it's a break from the norm of the forums, arguing about stats and stuff like that. In 1992, I went on a summer vacation from school, I was 12 years old at the time and my grandparents took me to Paris, France. While there, we visited the most famous museum on this planet, the Louvre, and I got to stand in front of the most famous painting on this planet, the Mona Lisa, painted by the greatest genius that ever lived, Leonardo Da Vinci, and if you don't believe that he's the greatest genius that ever lived, pour over his notebooks sometime, including the Codex Atlanticus, Codex Arundel, Codex Forster, Codex Leicester, Codex Madrid, Codex Trivulzianus, and the Codex on the Flight of Birds. The man's mind was on another level from anyone I've ever seen. Anyway, getting back to the Mona Lisa, as I stood in front of the famous painting in the summer of 92', I had no idea that Mona Lisa was a real person. Her name was Lisa Gherardini (later Lisa del Giocondo), an Italian noblewoman born in Florence, Italy, in 1479. She was the wife of a wealthy silk merchant named Francesco del Giocondo, who commissioned Leonardo da Vinci to paint her portrait around 1503. I also had no idea why the painting was so famous. The Mona Lisa is famous due to a mix of artistic genius by Leonardo da Vinci, royal ownership by figures like Napoleon, and a massive global media sensation sparked by its 1911 theft from the Louvre Museum. Leonardo used fine, hazy shading instead of sharp lines to soften edges and blend colors. The background uses atmospheric perspective to create a realistic, sweeping illusion of space. The subtle, shifting shadows around the subject's mouth make her expression seem alive and mysterious. French kings bought and displayed the portrait in their palaces long before it entered the public eye. The French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte once hung the painting on his private wall, increasing its elite mystique. In 1911, a Louvre employee stole the artwork, turning its two-year disappearance into a massive international front-page news story that made the face a household icon. Today, endless parodies, advertisements, and mass reproductions cemented its status as the ultimate global symbol of art. I actually just finished reading a book about the famous 1911 theft of the masterpiece. This is the painting today, it is protected inside the Louvre Museum in Paris by a custom, airtight, bulletproof, and climate-controlled glass case backed by high-resistance steel armor. This enclosure regulates temperature and humidity to protect the fragile wood panel, while security guards and crowd barriers manage visitors.
Getting back to the theft of the Mona Lisa, it was famously stolen on August 21, 1911, by Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian handyman and former employee of the Louvre Museum in Paris. Peruggia hid inside a utility closet in the museum on Sunday night and waited until the Louvre was closed on Monday. He walked into the Salon Carré, took the painting off the wall, and carried it to a back stairwell. He removed the wooden frame, hid the canvas under his white smock or coat, and walked right out of the building. Nobody noticed the artwork was missing for over 24 hours. Peruggia believed Napoleon Bonaparte had stolen the painting from Italy, and his stated goal was to return the masterpiece to its "rightful home". He kept the painting hidden in his Paris apartment for more than two years. He was eventually caught in December 1913 after writing to an art dealer in Florence, Italy, offering to sell it. The painting was recovered, and Peruggia served a short prison sentence, being viewed by some in Italy as a patriot. Phenomenal book, highly recommended.
You know, it's fascinating, the 1911 theft actually drew more crowds than the painting ever had—people lined up just to see the empty wall where it once hung. The masterpiece was recovered two years later in Italy and returned to the Louvre, but the heist played a major role in catapulting the Mona Lisa to worldwide fame. These are photos of the painting being returned to the Louvre in 1914.
The empty spot left by the Mona Lisa in the Salon Carré of the Louvre Museum following its theft in 1911. Positioned above the vacant area is Veronese’s The Feast at the House of Simon (currently in the Château de Versailles Museum), with Titian’s Allegory for Alfonso d’Avalos on one side and Correggio’s Betrothal of St. Catherine of Alexandria on the other.
Back to Leonardo Da Vinci for a moment. If I could see an actual photograph of anyone from past history, from the days before photography, it would be Da Vinci. I would absolutely love to see the man responsible for the things in those notebooks, the mind of the greatest genius the world has ever known. The closest we have to an actual photo of Da Vinci is Portrait of a Man in Red Chalk (c. 1510), a drawing currently in the collection of the Royal Library of Turin. It is widely, though not universally, accepted as a self-portrait of Leonardo da Vinci. It is thought that Leonardo drew this self-portrait at about the age of 60. The portrait has been extensively reproduced and has become an iconic representation of him as a polymath or "Renaissance man". Despite this, some historians and scholars disagree as to the true identity of the sitter. The inscription at the bottom of the portrait, added by a later hand, reads: "Leonardo da Vinci, portrait of himself as an old man."
Leonardo da Vinci is the ultimate genius because he was the quintessential "Renaissance Man"—a polymath who combined unmatched artistic mastery with deep, scientific curiosity. He seamlessly blended art, anatomy, engineering, and nature. He had a drive to know everything about life, everything, it was almost as if he wanted the knowledge of God. He had an unmatched, burning desire to understand how everything in the world worked. He viewed art, science, and nature as connected parts of a single grand puzzle, driven by a lifelong habit of relentless questioning and meticulous observation. He studied how birds fly, how water flows in rivers, and how light hits curved surfaces. He dissected corpses to map muscles, bones, the heart, and the vascular system. He filled thousands of notebook pages with notes on everything from the mechanics of a woodpecker's tongue to why people yawn. His surviving notebooks contain over 300 distinct inventive sketches and technical designs. Because his remaining notes are spread across roughly 4,000 to 7,000 surviving pages, historians classify these ideas into a few major categories of engineering. Flight and Aeronautics: His famous "aerial screw" (an ancestor to the helicopter), a parachute sketch, and mechanical wings modeled after bats. Military Engineering: Designs for a giant crossbow, a turtle-shaped armored tank, and rapid-fire multi-barrel cannons. Hydraulics and Water Systems: Water-pumping machines, an underwater breathing apparatus, and a highly efficient "mitre lock" system still used in modern canals like the Panama Canal. Automata and Mechanics: Early programmable machines, a robotic knight operated by pulleys, and thousands of complex gear configurations. Scholars at platforms like Discovering Da Vinci point out that he rarely built these ideas into physical objects. They served primarily as conceptual thought experiments ahead of their time. Anyone who puts Da Vinci under a serious microscope can't help but come to the conclusion that he is the greatest genius the world has ever known. I would highly recommend this book, 1184 pages. Take a deep dive into his mind for yourself.
Back to Super Mario World, I think Leonardo Da Vinci would have appreciated the difficulty of the Super Mario Bros. franchise and the challenges presented to him. I could easily picture Leo sitting in front of his Nintendo, shouting at the wall because he can't make the jump in 8-1 of the original 1985 classic. Anyway, up next is the Wendy Koopa castle, or Wendy's Castle, in World 6, Chocolate Island. You can see the castle located next to the number 6 on the map.
Wendy's Castle is an unforgiving, punishing level. It starts off with this ugly contraption, two springs underneath a Skewer (also known as Spike Pillar). This level is littered with Skewers, they hang from the ceiling, hover briefly, and then slam down rapidly to crush you. They are also placed in the ground and shoot up. A vicious and feared obstacle. In this section, you must use the springs to jump up onto the elevated platform without getting caught by the Skewer and crushed.
This section of the castle is brutal, you must make you way past a string of Skewers with moving buzzsaws all around. You really have to be on your toes here.
Then this. In this section, they break out the ground Skewers, they shoot up from the floor. The pace of the Skewers pick up steam in this section as well, they slam up and down faster.
Thr final section of Wendy's Castle is a nightmare of moving platforms with Spark enemies crawling all over them, good luck getting through this without getting touched or knocked into the pit below.
The next difficult level in Super Mario World that I want to mention is "Soda Lake." Soda Lake is a secret underwater area reached by entering the secret Giant Gate of the Cheese Bridge Area in Super Mario World. This level is located in the Twin Bridges area.
The difficulty in the Soda Lake level is due to the relentless "Torpedo Teds", underwater Bullet Bill relatives that are exclusive to this level. They are dropped from torpedo tubes and can travel through walls and are always deployed in Mario's (or Luigi's) direction. It doesn't help matters that Blurps are constantly swimming towards you, some of them in packs. This level is absolute madness, there's so much crap coming at you, you're trying to dodge one thing after another.
The next difficult level in Super Mario World that was a serious thorn in my side is the Fortress in the Valley of Bowser. You can see the Fortress here on the map, just above Mario.
Look at this comment about Lemmy's Castle from a gamer on YouTube, this says it all about how difficult this level is, he died 51 times before he got through it. I feel his pain, this level torched me for about that.
Lemmy's Castle is brutally difficult because of the Skewers (Spike Pillars). This level is Skewer Hell. They start off dropping at the normal speed, and then they start dropping fast. The Skewers are positioned next to spike and lava pits and if you're timing is off by a hair, the Skewers will force you right in.
The lava is where it gets really ugly, the Skewers are dropping at breakneck speed and getting past them without being forced into the lava or being crushed is a nightmare. At least you get a second chance with spike pits but not lava, if you go in, you're done. This section chewed me up and spit me out.
Reznors are the bosses of all the Fortresses in Super Mario World, you never look forward to fighting them. They are Four dinosaurs that stand on rotating platforms. They spit fireballs at you constantly. During the fight, the wooden floor blocks beneath you slowly break away. You must jump on their heads from above or hit their platforms from below while trying to avoid falling in the lava below.
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Then they send in the artillery, cannons, in bunches, the whole level is saturated with them, Bullet Bills constantly coming at you, and more Fire Snakes in your path. This level is absolutely brutal. This highly-skilled player had multiple power-ups and it didn't take long to lose them.
To finish the level off, they put this god-awful minefield in front of you, enemies everywhere, Cheep-Cheeps bouncing around on the ground, Goombas, Fire Snakes. It finished the aforementioned player off.
Music break. Such a beautiful song, and even more beautiful when you know the meaning of it.
Let's take a look at something interesting, I love posting interesting things, it's a break from the norm of the forums, arguing about stats and stuff like that. In 1992, I went on a summer vacation from school, I was 12 years old at the time and my grandparents took me to Paris, France. While there, we visited the most famous museum on this planet, the Louvre, and I got to stand in front of the most famous painting on this planet, the Mona Lisa, painted by the greatest genius that ever lived, Leonardo Da Vinci, and if you don't believe that he's the greatest genius that ever lived, pour over his notebooks sometime, including the Codex Atlanticus, Codex Arundel, Codex Forster, Codex Leicester, Codex Madrid, Codex Trivulzianus, and the Codex on the Flight of Birds. The man's mind was on another level from anyone I've ever seen. Anyway, getting back to the Mona Lisa, as I stood in front of the famous painting in the summer of 92', I had no idea that Mona Lisa was a real person. Her name was Lisa Gherardini (later Lisa del Giocondo), an Italian noblewoman born in Florence, Italy, in 1479. She was the wife of a wealthy silk merchant named Francesco del Giocondo, who commissioned Leonardo da Vinci to paint her portrait around 1503. I also had no idea why the painting was so famous. The Mona Lisa is famous due to a mix of artistic genius by Leonardo da Vinci, royal ownership by figures like Napoleon, and a massive global media sensation sparked by its 1911 theft from the Louvre Museum. Leonardo used fine, hazy shading instead of sharp lines to soften edges and blend colors. The background uses atmospheric perspective to create a realistic, sweeping illusion of space. The subtle, shifting shadows around the subject's mouth make her expression seem alive and mysterious. French kings bought and displayed the portrait in their palaces long before it entered the public eye. The French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte once hung the painting on his private wall, increasing its elite mystique. In 1911, a Louvre employee stole the artwork, turning its two-year disappearance into a massive international front-page news story that made the face a household icon. Today, endless parodies, advertisements, and mass reproductions cemented its status as the ultimate global symbol of art. I actually just finished reading a book about the famous 1911 theft of the masterpiece. This is the painting today, it is protected inside the Louvre Museum in Paris by a custom, airtight, bulletproof, and climate-controlled glass case backed by high-resistance steel armor. This enclosure regulates temperature and humidity to protect the fragile wood panel, while security guards and crowd barriers manage visitors.
Getting back to the theft of the Mona Lisa, it was famously stolen on August 21, 1911, by Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian handyman and former employee of the Louvre Museum in Paris. Peruggia hid inside a utility closet in the museum on Sunday night and waited until the Louvre was closed on Monday. He walked into the Salon Carré, took the painting off the wall, and carried it to a back stairwell. He removed the wooden frame, hid the canvas under his white smock or coat, and walked right out of the building. Nobody noticed the artwork was missing for over 24 hours. Peruggia believed Napoleon Bonaparte had stolen the painting from Italy, and his stated goal was to return the masterpiece to its "rightful home". He kept the painting hidden in his Paris apartment for more than two years. He was eventually caught in December 1913 after writing to an art dealer in Florence, Italy, offering to sell it. The painting was recovered, and Peruggia served a short prison sentence, being viewed by some in Italy as a patriot. Phenomenal book, highly recommended.
You know, it's fascinating, the 1911 theft actually drew more crowds than the painting ever had—people lined up just to see the empty wall where it once hung. The masterpiece was recovered two years later in Italy and returned to the Louvre, but the heist played a major role in catapulting the Mona Lisa to worldwide fame. These are photos of the painting being returned to the Louvre in 1914.
The empty spot left by the Mona Lisa in the Salon Carré of the Louvre Museum following its theft in 1911. Positioned above the vacant area is Veronese’s The Feast at the House of Simon (currently in the Château de Versailles Museum), with Titian’s Allegory for Alfonso d’Avalos on one side and Correggio’s Betrothal of St. Catherine of Alexandria on the other.
The mugshot of Vincenzo Peruggia, the man who stole The Mona Lisa in 1911.
Vincenzo Peruggia during the trial for the theft of the Mona Lisa.
In case you're wondering, this is what Mona Lisa is believed to have looked like in real life.
Back to Leonardo Da Vinci for a moment. If I could see an actual photograph of anyone from past history, from the days before photography, it would be Da Vinci. I would absolutely love to see the man responsible for the things in those notebooks, the mind of the greatest genius the world has ever known. The closest we have to an actual photo of Da Vinci is Portrait of a Man in Red Chalk (c. 1510), a drawing currently in the collection of the Royal Library of Turin. It is widely, though not universally, accepted as a self-portrait of Leonardo da Vinci. It is thought that Leonardo drew this self-portrait at about the age of 60. The portrait has been extensively reproduced and has become an iconic representation of him as a polymath or "Renaissance man". Despite this, some historians and scholars disagree as to the true identity of the sitter. The inscription at the bottom of the portrait, added by a later hand, reads: "Leonardo da Vinci, portrait of himself as an old man."
Leonardo da Vinci is the ultimate genius because he was the quintessential "Renaissance Man"—a polymath who combined unmatched artistic mastery with deep, scientific curiosity. He seamlessly blended art, anatomy, engineering, and nature. He had a drive to know everything about life, everything, it was almost as if he wanted the knowledge of God. He had an unmatched, burning desire to understand how everything in the world worked. He viewed art, science, and nature as connected parts of a single grand puzzle, driven by a lifelong habit of relentless questioning and meticulous observation. He studied how birds fly, how water flows in rivers, and how light hits curved surfaces. He dissected corpses to map muscles, bones, the heart, and the vascular system. He filled thousands of notebook pages with notes on everything from the mechanics of a woodpecker's tongue to why people yawn. His surviving notebooks contain over 300 distinct inventive sketches and technical designs. Because his remaining notes are spread across roughly 4,000 to 7,000 surviving pages, historians classify these ideas into a few major categories of engineering. Flight and Aeronautics: His famous "aerial screw" (an ancestor to the helicopter), a parachute sketch, and mechanical wings modeled after bats. Military Engineering: Designs for a giant crossbow, a turtle-shaped armored tank, and rapid-fire multi-barrel cannons. Hydraulics and Water Systems: Water-pumping machines, an underwater breathing apparatus, and a highly efficient "mitre lock" system still used in modern canals like the Panama Canal. Automata and Mechanics: Early programmable machines, a robotic knight operated by pulleys, and thousands of complex gear configurations. Scholars at platforms like Discovering Da Vinci point out that he rarely built these ideas into physical objects. They served primarily as conceptual thought experiments ahead of their time. Anyone who puts Da Vinci under a serious microscope can't help but come to the conclusion that he is the greatest genius the world has ever known. I would highly recommend this book, 1184 pages. Take a deep dive into his mind for yourself.
Back to Super Mario World, I think Leonardo Da Vinci would have appreciated the difficulty of the Super Mario Bros. franchise and the challenges presented to him. I could easily picture Leo sitting in front of his Nintendo, shouting at the wall because he can't make the jump in 8-1 of the original 1985 classic. Anyway, up next is the Wendy Koopa castle, or Wendy's Castle, in World 6, Chocolate Island. You can see the castle located next to the number 6 on the map.
Wendy's Castle is an unforgiving, punishing level. It starts off with this ugly contraption, two springs underneath a Skewer (also known as Spike Pillar). This level is littered with Skewers, they hang from the ceiling, hover briefly, and then slam down rapidly to crush you. They are also placed in the ground and shoot up. A vicious and feared obstacle. In this section, you must use the springs to jump up onto the elevated platform without getting caught by the Skewer and crushed.
This section of the castle is brutal, you must make you way past a string of Skewers with moving buzzsaws all around. You really have to be on your toes here.
The next area is buzzsaw hell.
Then this. In this section, they break out the ground Skewers, they shoot up from the floor. The pace of the Skewers pick up steam in this section as well, they slam up and down faster.
Thr final section of Wendy's Castle is a nightmare of moving platforms with Spark enemies crawling all over them, good luck getting through this without getting touched or knocked into the pit below.
This comment on YouTube about Wendy's Castle says it all.
Music break. This one goes out to all good women. It is truly your world.
Man, Peter Cetera can flat-out sing, how about another one?
The next difficult level in Super Mario World that I want to mention is "Soda Lake." Soda Lake is a secret underwater area reached by entering the secret Giant Gate of the Cheese Bridge Area in Super Mario World. This level is located in the Twin Bridges area.
The difficulty in the Soda Lake level is due to the relentless "Torpedo Teds", underwater Bullet Bill relatives that are exclusive to this level. They are dropped from torpedo tubes and can travel through walls and are always deployed in Mario's (or Luigi's) direction. It doesn't help matters that Blurps are constantly swimming towards you, some of them in packs. This level is absolute madness, there's so much crap coming at you, you're trying to dodge one thing after another.
We see you Sherry, stay strong pretty lady.
How about one more Peter Cetera song, this one a duet featuring another great voice.
The next difficult level in Super Mario World that was a serious thorn in my side is the Fortress in the Valley of Bowser. You can see the Fortress here on the map, just above Mario.
Look at this comment about Lemmy's Castle from a gamer on YouTube, this says it all about how difficult this level is, he died 51 times before he got through it. I feel his pain, this level torched me for about that.
Lemmy's Castle is brutally difficult because of the Skewers (Spike Pillars). This level is Skewer Hell. They start off dropping at the normal speed, and then they start dropping fast. The Skewers are positioned next to spike and lava pits and if you're timing is off by a hair, the Skewers will force you right in.
The lava is where it gets really ugly, the Skewers are dropping at breakneck speed and getting past them without being forced into the lava or being crushed is a nightmare. At least you get a second chance with spike pits but not lava, if you go in, you're done. This section chewed me up and spit me out.
Reznors are the bosses of all the Fortresses in Super Mario World, you never look forward to fighting them. They are Four dinosaurs that stand on rotating platforms. They spit fireballs at you constantly. During the fight, the wooden floor blocks beneath you slowly break away. You must jump on their heads from above or hit their platforms from below while trying to avoid falling in the lava below.