Top 10 Hardest Super Mario Levels of All Time
Mario games are known for being fun, creative, and usually pretty accessible. But every once in a while, a stage comes along that feels like it was designed to crush your soul. You know the ones. The levels that take your extra lives, your patience, and maybe even your sanity. The ones where every jump has to be perfect, the enemies feel like they're out for blood, and the finish line always seems just out of reach. Even years later, these levels still frustrate even the most skilled Mario fans.Some of these stages push your platforming skills to the limit, requiring pixel-perfect jumps and split-second timing. Others throw in gimmicks that turn everything you know about Mario games against you, like forcing you to survive with a power-up that makes movement a nightmare. Then there are the levels packed with hazards. Bottomless pits everywhere, waves of enemies, disappearing platforms. The only way to win is to memorize every inch of the stage.
If you've ever spent hours trying to beat a single Mario level, you're not alone. Vote for the levels that gave you the most trouble and see how your picks compare to the rest of the Mario community.
I finally beat it! I must say, it was very difficult, long, and frustrating at times, but you can feel the hard work pay off when you finally beat it (that is, if you ever do). You can just feel and remember getting each individual star, beating Bowser twice, getting every green star, and beating the Ultimate Test as you draw closer to beating the Perfect Run.
When you finally make it, you look back and realize how incredible the journey was and how you finally beat this extremely difficult level. A great (but frustrating) way to cap off this game for the people who fully complete it.
I've been trying to tackle this for months, but still nothing. It's just unforgiving. Right from the start, you have to battle some Fire Bros. and then go on these small platforms and run across them while also dodging Chargin' Chucks.
That's not even the hard part! Then you have to fight three Magikoopas on platforms that disappear, go through a series of beep blocks (I think that's what they're called) that change every half a second, do parkour off of piranha plants, do a "water" maze while swimming past spikes, and much more brutal challenges.
If you manage to get past all of that and more, you're treated to running across dash boards while trying to collect key coins and jump over electrical beams. On top of all of that, there are no checkpoints. So, remind me how this is harder than the Perfect Run?
In this level, Mario must activate his P-Balloon powerup, a temporary powerup that turns Mario into an actual balloon, and navigate a horizontal maze filled with ridiculous amounts of enemies! The catch is after only one hit, Mario loses his P-Balloon and plummets into the pit below.
Tubular is a fairly short level, but trying to navigate through a maze of obstacles to the Giant Gate before the effects of the P-Balloon wear off... Let's just say it's some pretty hair-pulling stuff.
The enemies are placed ever so annoyingly, and their projectiles are programmed specifically to impede your forward progress. This level is made even more brutal by the speed at which the P-Balloon runs out, which in this level seems far quicker than it was in other levels.
Three levels that are harder than 98% of every official Mario level. The catch? It's Coin Rush, so you have to do all three in a row with no save. No power-ups exist in any of the levels either. It's extremely well-named.
This is so underrated it's ridiculous. It took me over 100 attempts to beat this, and I can now flat-out say this is harder than any other Mario level I've ever beaten, even harder than Champion's Road.
This should be number 2. Dying at any point in the three levels takes you back to the beginning. You can use the white Tanooki suit to get through it easier though.
To be fair, this is a challenge mode level, but it's almost impossible. You have to complete the stage without gaining a single point. This means you need to pull off several frame-perfect jumps in a row. I've seen sadistic ROM hacks that are more forgiving than this.
This needs to be higher! You need perfect frame jumps to avoid touching coins or enemies!
World 8-2 is truly the most difficult level in the whole Super Mario Bros. Especially that huge gap where the player will have to time their jump right, or they will fall and restart the level.
In this level, Baby Mario and Yoshi must hop on the back of Poochy as they make their way past a dangerous, lava-colored floor with enemies attacking at every angle. The level itself is auto-scrolling, so players will need to stay alert.
But throw in the fact that Baby Mario and Yoshi have to balance themselves on a small, constantly moving Poochy, and things get serious. It also doesn't help that the lava kills Yoshi instantly.
Poochy doesn't like to cooperate with you in this level. He often moves faster than the auto-scrolling camera, and sometimes he stays completely still during high-pressure situations where you need to move quickly out of the way.
You'll be disagreeing with the title of this level after a couple of playthroughs.
Might as well lump the rest of World C with this level, since after this, you have C-4, which is 7-4, only much harder with a ridiculously impossible sneak-under-a-fire-stick section. And if you lose all your lives there, you have to do C-3 again and again.
Anyone who's made it past World C is a god among Mario players.
Green springs, constant wind, and Lakitu equals me being sad.
I once hit a Lakitu on my way down from falling.
Woah, this one was difficult. The original star wasn't even that hard, but trying it again without any checkpoints and not being able to get hit once? It makes it about 50 times harder!
Even though the original level wasn't bad, it is very likely you got hit once in that level, meaning you have to do better than you did originally or else you have to go all the way back to the beginning. Seriously, the number of times it took me to beat this level is crazy!
As I was working to get all 120 stars, I would play this a few times, get frustrated since I died so much, move on to a different level, come back to it, and repeat the process until at some point I finally beat it. Honestly, I just tried backflipping onto the question block while climbing up the tall spire and then backflipping again to the top. If I hadn't done that, I might have died that time too.
It's a fairly helpful trick, but with or without it, this level is very hard and takes some serious practice to beat.
The Newcomers
This level is so difficult. No checkpoints, and if you don't get six hearts, you're screwed. I'm never going to beat this level. If you've done this level on your first try, you're probably a zombie who plays super expert.
This level is HARD. It gets easier, but at the Koopa part, I don't know what to do. A hint would be really nice.
Yeah, this one was pretty hard, but it never seemed as daunting as a few other stars in the game to me. I died just as much, but I was always confident that someday I would beat it, and I was right.
I ended up beating every star in the game, but I was legitimately worried about the Lava Spire Daredevil Run in Melty Molten Galaxy, the trash level in Dreadnought Galaxy, and, strangely enough, Purple Coins on the Puzzle Cube from Gusty Garden Galaxy. A lot of the purple coin stars were hard, but that one gave me the most trouble, which is weird since I never see anyone else struggle with that one.
Whatever, Luigi's Purple Coins was a good challenge! This game is easy at first, but it has some serious challenges later on.
Why does every hard level in Super Mario 64 seem to play the Athletic Theme? Anyway, in this level, Mario must collect eight red coins in the clouds throughout the level. The catch is the coins can only be grabbed by flying around the level using Mario's Wing Cap.
Now, don't get me wrong, flying around with the Wing Cap is amazing, but in this level, flying leads to rage. If Mario isn't fast enough before the Wing Cap runs out and plummets into the sky below, he will land back outside Princess Peach's Castle near the moat, meaning the player will have to travel all the way back up to the top of the castle just to attempt to complete this ridiculous level again.
Long level, short time limit, very few power-ups, so many enemies, that huge gap near the end of the level, and no checkpoint. All of those make World 8-1 one of the most difficult levels in the entire Mario franchise.
A very long level with only 300 seconds. This level is really difficult.
This level wouldn't be so difficult if it wasn't for the short timer.
Here are some tips I found when playing this level:
1. When an extinguished platform starts to glow reddish, it means it's about to re-ignite.
2. The boat can only be steered if it's either super slow or completely stopped.
3. Right before Bowser breathes fire, you can dive and you will completely avoid it.
Lava plus instant kill fire and spikes plus awful boat mechanics equals a really hard level.
First a roller coaster ride, then Bowser. It's hard!
This level is made out of nothing but massive pits, Bullet Bills, Koopas, and Hammer Bros. All of that is already insanely hard, but imagine trying to pull all of this off with only 300 seconds on the timer, and the fact that this is the longest level in the game!
Timing your jumps is the key here to beating this level!
Super Mario Sunshine was, for the most part, a really relaxed and laid-back game. That is until the Secret Shine Challenges come in. Some of them were an enjoyable challenge, but then some, like Challenge 14, were the annoying kind of difficult.
Just getting there is excruciating, then you've got to actually do it. I did not finish the game on my first playthrough partially because of this challenge.
The trip to this stage is hard enough. The actual stage is much worse. Mario has to hop on a pad while that pad is on a river and try to collect eight red coins. The catch is the river is poisonous and an instant death.
It's the star coins. I can't get them all. Gonna have to call in reinforcements to play 2 and 3 player.
It was literal hell to get through the level. Don't even get me started on the star coins!
This was the bane of my existence.
It took me a long time before I could finally beat expert. I gotta say, once you complete it the first time, it's easy to redo again. This is nothing compared to Super Expert, which is much harder.
Ugh, not this. I was so desperate to get all the costumes, and it took me ages. Just looking at it brings back bad memories.
I have the 3DS port, and I tried this, and...it's impossible! There are so many trolls, and don't get me started on Super Expert. Dear Lord.
That feeling when you get all the coins except for one, and you slip and have to restart. Enough said.
Just aim and don't overuse the FLUDD. Beat this on my second try ever.
The only two that are hard are the boat one and that stupid one with the small ships. I always think the wrenches are platforms!
I have yet to do the insanely fast doomship on level 8 without a P-Wing.
In the first part of the level, the player will have to avoid Kamek and his spells. The hard part is Kamek throws his staff wildly. Baby Mario and Yoshi will have to reach a key, which will unlock the second part of the level.
Once there, the duo will equip skis, still trying to avoid Kamek.
Once you work out the 12:00 hand trick, it's a bit easier. But then there are stars that still require the movement.
Try getting the Red Coins with the clock running fast and using the touch controls on the DS remake.
It's hard enough, but I dare you to play it with the crappy controls of Super Mario 64 DS. I DARE you!
I find this harder than Tubular.
It's not as hard as most of the top 10, but I think this one is a pain among the pre-N64 era levels.