Top 10 Toughest Levels in Super Mario Games

Sure, there are many stages that players can breeze through, but every while there comes along a Mario stage that's so brutal and infuriating! Even today, they're still a challenge for many Mario addicts! So, let's go back and remember these Top 10 Stages in Mario Games!
The Top Ten
1 The Perfect Run - Super Mario Galaxy 2

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.

The Prankster Comet for this galaxy is unlocked when the player collects the galaxy's Comet Medal and deposits 9,999 Star Bits to the Banktoad. The player must redo the The Ultimate Test mission, but under Daredevil Comet conditions. There aren't any Checkpoint Flags in this mission and, in the first area, the Paragoombas have been replaced with Choppahs and more mines have been added. Additionally, after defeating the Boomerang Bros. at the end of the level, rather than the Power Star appearing, a Launch Star appears that takes the player to the Gate-like planet where the Power Star and Rosalina are located.

Much more Challenging than Champion's Road, At least there, you can take Multiple Hits and that one has Checkpoints, this may not be as Long, but the more Anxious you get, the more likely it is that you'd mess up and If you die, even at the final Planet with the Star and Space Waifu (Yes, you can still die here) You will go Back to the Very Beginning. This Level also Started this Trend, thank Perfect Run for Creating the Modern Ones.
None of them come close to this Level's Difficulty Though, I literally Broke my Wiimote from pure Anger the Level was that Hard.

You only have 1 life and no checkpoints and most enemies are hard to defeat without dying. You also can't touch any spikes or anything so you have to go around them. Yoshi is also pretty hard to control. All in all this is the hardest Mario level ever.

2 Champion Road - Super Mario 3D World

Here are some notes about the characters.

Mario: Balanced in everything.

Luigi: Super high jump. Falls slower than the other characters. Slightly faster than Mario, making him the second-fastest, but takes slightly longer to build up speed. Slippery shoes.

Peach: 2nd-slowest. Can float for a few seconds. Average jump.

Toad: Fastest character. Jumps slightly lower than Mario, and also can't jump very far.

Rosalina: Slowest character. Below-average jump. Spin-jump allows her to gain extra height and attack enemies without a power-up. Somewhat loses ability when she gets a power-up.

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 3 magikoopas on platforms that disappear, go through a series of beep blocks (I think that' 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?

World Crown in Super Mario 3D World only opens if you've collected every single green star, stamp, and got to the top of the flagpole in every single level in the game. This is very similar to The Perfect Run except that there are no checkpoints! This level also contains six super difficult sections and yet, it's probably the longest level in the entire game! If you die, you HAVE to go back ALL THE WAY BACK to the beginning. Don't even expect to get it on your first try. If you did, then you're probably a wizard. Oh, and if you don't have a tanooki suit, you're pretty much dead.

Champion's Road, still have yet too beat this... Cap this in I guess...

The first section of the level contains floating colorful blocks and Octoombas on top of dark purple blocks that move from side to side. After that, a Clear Pipe takes you to an elevating section with three Fire Bros. On top of it, players must run across blocks that are only one Block wide and must either defeat or dodge the several Chargin' Chucks (which can also run across these blocks). A Warp Box then transports you to the next section. The next section requires you to run and time their jumps over Beat Blocks that alternate in double time. After traversing the Beat Blocks, you go into a Clear Pipe cannon that tosses them into an arena with respawning crumbling blocks and three Magikoopas. You must defeat all the Magikoopas in order for a Warp Box to appear. After the area with the Magikoopas and the crumbling blocks, you must travel across gray platforms while also avoiding swinging spiky pillars and ...more

3 Tubular - Super Mario World

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.

I could never beat this level as a kid, and even now it may take me multiple tries... By far the hardest Mario level I ever played.

I've been stuck on this level for ages once, can't express how much I hated this level back then.

4 The Impossible Pack - New Super Mario Bros. 2

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 Champions Road.

This should be number 2. Dying at any point on the three levels takes you back to the beginning. You can use the white tanooki suit to get through it easier though.

Impossible is definitely the right word to describe this. I've had this game for around 5 years, and still haven't beat it

5 Don't Touch Anything - New Super Mario Bros.U

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 romhacks more forgiving than this.

This needs to be higher! You need perfect frame jumps to avoid touching coins or enimies!

6 World 8-2 - Super Mario Bros.

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.

7 Poochy Ain't Stupid - Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

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, 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, evidently. He often moves faster than the auto-scrolling camera moves, 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 playthroughs of it.

Just the title scared me, if it said "Poochy Isn't Stupid", I wouldn't be as worried, but Nintendo wanted to prepare us. Is it me or should this not be in World 1?

Should be so much higher!

8 World C-3 - Super Mario Bros 2 Japan

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 + Lakitu = Me is sad.

I once hit a Lakitu on my way down from falling...

That wind, enough said

9 Lava Spire Daredevil Run - Super Mario Galaxy

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 amount 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 so I would 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 backflipped again to the top, and if I hadn't done that, I may 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.

This...was the hardest Power Star under the White Comet to get in this game without a doubt. Why? Well, because instead of being dropped off near the Sinking Lava Spire Planet or somewhere else close to the Power Star, you have to try to complete the ENTIRE LEVEL without taking damage or screwing up.

This was pretty easy, the prankster comet should've had something to do with Through the Meteor Storm, not the Lava Spire.
Imagine having to speed run Through the Meteor Storm, or maybe race the Cosmic Clone on the Star Ball, that would be a challenge.

This level wasn't the hardest star in the game for me. It took me about 20 minutes, compared to 30 minutes for the Rolling Gizmo galaxy.

10 Final Level - Super Mario 3D Land
The Contenders
11 Luigi's Purple Coins - Super Mario Galaxy

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 SOME DAY 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.

After completing the game for the first time, a series of Purple Prankster Comets appear in almost every galaxy, giving the player the option to go through remixes of certain levels in the galaxy, forcing them to collect 100 Purple Coins. Sometimes under a time limit. This is the hardest of them all, because all 150 of the Purple Coins are on a giant eight-bit Luigi planet. The tricky part is once Mario lands on one of Luigi's sprites, it shrinks more and more until it disappears, forcing the player to collect two-thirds of the Purple Coins while only touching each sprite ONCE! >:^}

Everyone please listen, this is the type of star that seems impossibruh at first, I failed it more than 10 times, which by the standards of Mario galaxy, is a lot. But as you work out how to do it (longjump, spinjump, jump to save platforms instead of walking, and not worrying about the timer) it is the type of star you become good at. After the first win, it will seem like it was always a piece of cake.

The second game's was harder. I got like ten game overs on it. The one in the second game was the single last star before I unlocked the Grandmaster Galaxy (The Ultimate Test and The Perfect Run).

12 Wing Mario Over The Rainbow - Super Mario 64

Why is it every hard level in Super Mario 64 seem to play the Athletic Theme, huh? Anyway, in this level, Mario must collect eight red coins in the clouds all 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 Capand 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.

This is the level that explains why I like the red star more.

Only level in the game that I actually HATE!

Is impossible to beat!

13 Corona Mountain - Super Mario Sunshine

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+Instant kill fire and spikes+awful boat mechanics=really hard level.

First a roller coaster ride then bowser its HARD!

Of course the virus mountain is here!

14 Fire Bar Sprint - New Super Luigi U
15 World 8-1 - Super Mario Bros.

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.

16 Rainbow Road - Super Mario Kart

Remember in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, where you could just time your drifts and the level became a joke? Haha, not here.

I put this on there because it is the hardest track in the whole entire game.

This isn't a level! this is a track! And super Mario kart isn't a mainstream Mario game!

The original Rainbow Road tests skill.

17 World 8-3 - Super Mario Bros.

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 a whopping 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!

How is this bs number one!? I can beat this anytime anywhere small on my first try no problem and I'm not the best player. the secret is to move very quickly and speed run the level and to run right over hammer bros without stopping because once you get onto the screen they are on they take a second to load the hammers so you can easily jump over them if you don't hesitate

18 Secret Shine Challenge 14 - Super Mario Sunshine

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 were like Challenge 14 and 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 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, while trying to collect eight red coins. The catch is the river is poisonous and is an instant death.

I beat this level on my first try, no joke, I'm serious.

19 World 9-7 - New Super Mario Bros. Wii

It's the star coins. I can't get 'em 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 star coins!

This was the bane of my existence...

This level wasn't necessarily hard, but getting the Starr coins for world 7 to earn it was hell

20 100 Mario Challenge (Expert) - Super Mario Maker

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 look 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

Troll levels + Insane puzzle levels + 10 second levels + Frame perfect jump speedrun levels + Insta death levels + Just plain hard levels = Raging. Lots and lots of Raging. Don't play this unless you are a masicist.

21 World 7-4 - Super Mario Bros.
22 Pachinko Machine - Super Mario Sunshine

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 ever try.

23 Darker Side - Super Mario Odyssey

This level is so difficult. No checkpoints and if you don't get 6 hearts, you're screwed. I'm never going to beat this level. If you're done this level, first try, you're probably a zombie who plays super expert.

You used to be able to skip this entirely, but it's been patched out. even then, it's honestly kind of easy

24 World 8 Doomship - Super Mario Bros. 3

The only two that are hard are the boat one and that stupid on with the small ships. I always think the wrenches are platforms!

Dry dry desert is harder

I have yet to do the insanely fast doomship on level 8 without a P-Wing...

25 Kamek's Revenge - Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

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 with skis, still trying to avoid Kamek.

Not that hard...

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