Super Mario is one of the biggest gaming icons in the entire world, both new and old gamers recognize this Italian plumber face, and most of the time, they don’t even have to be gamers. Nintendo has created an IP that will be with them for all time, a game that can span multiple lifetimes and still be going strong.
It started back on the Nintendo Entertainment System with Super Mario Bros. and has continued through the generations until its latest console, the Nintendo Switch, with Super Mario Odyssey, but out of all the games which are the hardest?
Updated on November 19th, 2020 by Patrick Mocella: When people think of Mario, most people think of joyful times from their childhood where they pick up a controller alongside friends and family and have themselves a grand adventure through the Mushroom Kingdom. While most of the games are timeless classics, we can’t say that they are a walk in the park. Whether it be because of unfair level design, unresponsive controls, or frustrating boss battles, not every Mario game is the innocently charming pleasure your brain may trick you into thinking they are. The difficulty can ramp up considerably when trying to 100% complete certain titles as well.
15 Hotel Mario
A Mario game that fans and Nintendo themselves would love to forget, Hotel Mario for the Philips CD-i is an awful chapter in this beloved franchise. From the awful cutscenes to the restrictive controls, Hotel Mario is not a place you’d want to sleep at.
But if that’s not bad enough, the game is also difficult to complete. This isn’t helped at all by the various Philips CD-i controllers which are all not designed with a Mario platformer in mind. Your progress can instantly be wiped out by an enemy coming through a door at an unfortunate time. Unlike other games on this list, this is one difficult Mario game that isn’t worth your time.
14 Mario Party 1
In terms of individual minigames, fans can make an argument for plenty of Mario Party games to be considered the hardest. However, most would agree that the original for the Nintendo 64 still stands out for its unforgiving design.
Not only are some of the minigames in this title simply brutal, but the controls aren’t as tight as later entries. Players are also forced to rotate the analog stick a lot, which as anyone who’s held an N64 controller knows, is not fun. Finally, having all your progress destroyed by Chance Time from another player is the stuff that nightmares are made of.
13 Super Mario Land
Notable for being the first Mario game on Nintendo’s very first Game Boy handheld, Super Mario Land is a weird case. It feels and looks like a Mario game if you quickly look at it, but it definitely has some elements that are quite unique.
One thing that isn’t special about it is its difficulty. Like other Mario games, its simple controls are easy to pick up, but things just feel different. Mario’s momentum is off compared to normal and the small sprites and screen size of the Game Boy make otherwise easy jumps that much more challenging. Thankfully, this game isn’t nearly as long as others, so its frustration lasts only for a little while.
12 Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Often regarded as the best in the Paper Mario franchise, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door is one of the GameCube’s finest RPGs with funny humor, a rewarding combat system, and great side quests. However, those wishing to complete the game fully might want to consult the help of a guide.
Aside from the usual confusion that comes with most RPGs, some of the boss battles in this game will leave you flustered and wondering where you went wrong in your character building. Luckily it manages to keep the player engaged the whole time and is worth the effort.
11 Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island
The often forgotten sequel to Super Mario World, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island looks like it should be one of the easiest Mario games on paper. After all, how can a game with aesthetics ripped out of a children’s pop up book be that hard?
The game lulls you into a false sense of security with its graphics, however. Many stages have unforgiving stage hazards and expect the player to make pixel-perfect jumps. We pity those who attempt to 100% this game as some of the collectibles are hair-rippingly difficult to find.
10 Super Mario Odyssey
The newest title of the series Super Mario Odyssey is difficult for one purpose alone, and that is for completionists out there, as they are 999 moons in total to collect. These moons could be hidden anywhere on the massive worlds inside Super Mario Odyssey.
Some moons are hidden under particular ground pound locations, and others are hidden high above the world and having to use a very particular set of jumps, which requires a lot of practice to be able to accomplish. Most of the moons are pretty easy to find. However, the last couple that is needed on a level will be exceptionally tricky to get.
9 Super Mario Galaxy 2
The sequel to Super Mario Galaxy was everything the first game had but just made better, and it’s hard to perfect perfection, as the galaxy games are some of the best Mario games. When it comes to difficulty Super Mario Galaxy 2 isn’t that hard, that is until the prankster comets overs over individual worlds.
The comets cause special conditions to occur on specific levels of that world. Such as a speedy comet gives you a time limit that the stage has to be completed under or the fast-foe comet that speeds up all enemies and obstacles on stage. These comets truly rank up the difficulty by quite a bit.
8 Super Mario 64
Ah, the first 3D Mario game, Super Mario 64, and truth be told it does show with today’s standards, but regardless it’s a masterpiece. It was difficult because it was unlike any other Mario game to date, there was no side-scrolling, you could go anywhere you wanted with reasons, exploring was possible.
Most of the levels are massive, and not having to follow what star could be acquired in mission, as exploring could lead to hidden stars that weren’t meant to be found until later on, or are hidden stars. However, they are a few missions that are very difficult, such as using the flying cap to collect 10 red coins that are scattered about the sky, and there is a time limit.
7 Super Mario World
Generally, this is one of the most accessible titles to play, and it’s not technically a main series title, but it’s genuinely an amazing game. However, in this game, there are quite a few secrets to find that lead to Star Road being discovered.
Upon most levels when playing, they are outlines of blocks that appear in large numbers; these can be filled in by finding a key in the level and taking that key to a keyhole, which is a hidden exit to the level. This alternate exit may lead to another route of levels to take, or it might lead to a colored block switch, which colors in some of the outlined blocks, and once all colored switches have been pressed, leads to new exits of certain stages.
6 Super Mario Bros.
Now this title is the game that started the legend of Mario, way back on the NES, but back in the day, it was a pinnacle of gaming history. Having only a set number of lives to get through eight harsh worlds with four levels in each world is no easy feat.
Even more so, when finding extra lives is scarce at best, and you’ll mostly only acquire them through amassing 100 coins throughout your run. If you die on a stage as long as lives are still left, you can restart that stage. However, if you happen to run out of lives entirely, then you’ll sadly go straight back to the beginning of world 1.
5 Super Mario Sunshine
Sunshine is easily the most hardest 3D Mario by far, as water is a primary mechanic in this title, and by using your water machine called F.L.U.D.D, you can do all kinds of awesome stuff.
But a few of these levels are some people’s worst nightmares, and instead of looking back at this title in nostalgia with fondness, they look back in horror with a grimace on their face. Such as riding down a poison waterfall on a leaf collecting blue coins and the pachinko machine level were you also having to collect blue coins with the worst camera in history. Or any level with a watermelon in it.
However, they are some good memories, like the levels with the F.L.U.D.D, as they were some truly amazing levels.
4 Super Mario Bros. 3
Though not the hardest of the 2D Mario games, Super Mario Bros. 3 was definitely a step in the right direction. Yes, there are a lot of game skips using warp pipes that can skip half of the game, but using those missed out on some of the best worlds the game had.
If you didn’t cheat and played the game through properly, it really is quite a challenge. It has difficulty in all of the right places, and that’s the best thing about Super Mario Bros. 3, that skill is definitely a factor in beating the game, not just experience.
3 Super Luigi U
Super Luigi U was designed to be a lot more difficult than its brother, New Super Mario Bros. U. It’s more geared towards experienced 2D Mario players than new arrivals, which New Super Mario Bros. U catered for instead.
The main reason why this is so difficult is that you play as Mario’s brother Luigi, as the title of the game implies, and Luigi handles a lot differently to Mario. Luigi is much harder to control, he’s more slippery and more floaty, but he’s got some advantages like his jump height, his speed, and he can hover after he jumps.
2 Super Mario Maker 2
This addition of Super Mario Maker 2 could be classed as cheating, as the main game isn’t hard at all. But what is hard is all of the user-created content people have made in this game. However, when it comes to user levels, their difficulty is second to none.
Some of the levels have a clear rate of 0.01% out of millions of people attempting to complete the course, and that’s actually insane. It takes an absurd amount of patience and practice to be able to be part of that 0.01% club. It’s either taking hours and hours to learn and beat that one level or take what’s left of your pride and quit.
1 Super Mario Bros. 2: The Lost Levels
The Lost Levels is the hardest 2D Mario of them all, and it’s likely Nintendo purposely made this Mario has infuriating as possible. For first time players of this, they’ve made his extremely hard as there is no way of knowing what’s coming next, it doesn’t give you the chance to react.
One example is that they’ve placed hidden blocks just before long jumps, so without knowing it’s here, Mario is going to bonk is head on the block and fall into a pit to his death. Even when you’ve played this title a few times over, and maybe after buying a new SNES controller, you might stand a chance of beating it, but this game is all about experience, not skill.
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