History ThatOneLevel / SuperMarioBros

* ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' lends itself to many a SelfImposedChallenge, one of the most common being getting every coin in each level of the game. There are a few levels that are annoying to do this on.

*** It is possible to get all the Tick Tock Clock stars without the clock moving ([[LetsPlay SuperJeenius having pulled it off in a Let's Play]], but it does require some very skilled jumps.

* The Grandmaster Galaxy by itself is merely tough. Its comet star, however, transforms it into a ''platform hell incarnate nightmare''. To elaborate: There are multiple sections to this galaxy, and you must pass all of them with only ''[[OneHitPointWonder a single hit point]]''. The first section involves riding Yoshi to swing across a field littered with mines, hovering spiked mole-things and a few homing Bullet Bill launchers, which forces you to rethink a mechanic that you've been using since the start of the game in order to get through. The next portion has you activating a grid of tiles by walking on them while sadistic robots each fire a long rang laser at you when you get close to them. After this, you must move across an electric-fence field by creating cloud platforms that are forced to sidescroll to the right. Then comes hopping across a road made entirely of either green tiles that begin to disappear if you land on them or red-blue tiles that flip whenever you spin; meanwhile, there are spike-topped giant-laser-halo emitters and octopi that shoot fireballs scattered across the road. Then you navigate through cruelly-placed moving electric lines with pull-stars while avoiding the flying Goombas. And finally comes platforms littered with a merciless gauntlet of Hammer Bros. plus a trio of Boomerang Bros. at the end that you must get rid of. So to conclude: Insane course, one hitpoint, and [[CheckPointStarvation no checkpoints at all]], thus meaning that one hit ''will send you all the way back to the start''. [[PlatformHell Abandon all hope, ye who enter here]]. [[hottip:*:It pays to learn how far Yoshi can grab in section 1, as quite a few flowers can be skipped. Finishing section 1 with a well-timed flutter jump will let you keep Yoshi, which is useful for getting section 2 done a little quicker and moving on. In section 3 you need to leave Yoshi but you can preserve two or even all three clouds at the end, which can be used at any point. But, the very next section has platforms that encourage you to spin, which uses the clouds. In section 5 the toughest part can be bypassed with a skillful long-jump + pull combination (which seems to be a deliberate alternative). Section 6, good luck.]]

* The boss battle with Kamella in Deep Dark Galaxy. The first part actually isn't that bad-it's the second leg where it starts to get really difficult. You have to fight her in the incredibly cramped crow's nest of the ship, dodging fireball attacks from Kamella ''and'' two more magic-using minions, all the while trying to catch a shell to use against her. Having to do it again in daredevil mode pushes the fight into just plain Nintendo Hard territory; and good luck [[spoiler: trying to do it as luigi.]]

* Don't forget World 8-4. Trying to get that last Star Coin without dying is CRAZY hard due to giant spiders dropping from the top of the screen and use of a Mini Mushroom.

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* 8-1. A massive DifficultySpike with an [[AdvancingWallOfDoom Advancing Smog Of Doom]], constant rocks raining down, lava plumes ''everywhere'' all make the [[LethalLavaLand hellscape scenery look authentic]]. Just see [[http://www.freelanceastronauts.com/view.php?id=846 what happened]] when the FreelanceAstronauts [[LetsPlay decided to try it with four players]]... HilarityEnsues.

* The boss battle with Kamella in Deep Dark Galaxy. The first part actually isn't that bad-it's the second leg where it starts to get really difficult. You have to fight her in the incredibly cramped crow's nest of the ship, dodging fireball attacks from Kamella ''and'' two more magic-using minions, all the while trying to catch a shell to use against her. Having to do it again in daredevil mode pushes the fight into just plain [[NintendoHard]] territory; and good luck [[spoiler: trying to do it as luigi.]]

** The Boss Blitz Galaxy Comet wouldn't be so frustrating if it weren't for [[spoiler:Bouldergeist]]. Anyone who has played the first one knows that [[ThatOneBoss he is a tough boss to beat]], and as shown in the sequel, he's even worse under a time limit. [[spoiler:While the first half is easy enough, he then grows hands and the frustration starts. Most of the time, he's either punching, pounding the ground, throwing rocks and Bomb Boos or creating stalagmites on the ground. Even when you get a Bomb Boo, good luck trying to hit him. The three other attacks almost always create obstructions that cost you precious seconds on the timer if the Bomb Boo you're currently holding hits these obstructions. If you do actually beat him, more often than not, most of the time you only have ''a few seconds left'' to beat the subsequent boss.]] What were the level designers thinking?

* There's a Daredevil Comet challenge where you have to go through Melty Molten Galaxy, which is covered in lava, without being hit once, leading to furniture being punched in frustration after missing a jump after going through the entire level for the fortieth time. Then, when you [[spoiler:unlock Luigi]], you have to race a Shadow version of yourself in several galaxies who's much, much faster than you are, makes nearly impossible jumps, and will cause you to miss jumps if you happen to occupy the same space as him.

* World C-4. There's a firebar at about the two-thirds point that requires almost inhuman timing (or being Super Mario, which, at that point, is unlikely at best) to pass. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TbIXluo7gc This video]] (0:30 in) makes it look easy, but it's really, really not.

* The tank level just before Bower's Castle is pretty wild, with cannon balls and bob-ombs littering the screen. Let's just say all of World 8, provided you don't have a suit and don't swim under the boats.

* On the plus side, the designers (no doubt aware they've made several levels that fit this trope), added an item made to bypass them: the P-Wing. Activating it prior to a level gives you infinite flight, letting you fly over the entire level. It works in almost every level, save the underground and water ones.

** Amazingly, this level becomes a literal walk in the park if you walk forward constantly without ever touching the run button; Lakitu's Spinies will never hit you. On the downside, this method requires you to time jumping-onto-a-wall-then-over-a-pit will ''extreme'' precision in two different spots.

* To single out a level which requires the Wing Cap, Mario Over the Rainbow is arguably the hardest level in the game. The player has to collect eight Red Coins in the air. Solid ground is minimal, and due to the angles, it can be really difficult to gauge safe landing spots. The Wing Cap must be refreshed every so often to have enough time to collect all the coins.

* Those darn mini-stages, in which every other platform is either moving, has tons of holes in, or is disintegrating beneath your feet, and in some cases the camera is [[CameraScrew swooping around so much]] that that jump you judged you'd make has now sent you plummeting off the edge. Not to mention that they all share the same [[EarWorm Ear-Wormy]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCwZPn2sJg0 tune.]]

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* [[spoiler:[[BrutalBonusLevel SW8-Crown]]]]. First off, [[CheckPointStarvation there's no checkpoint.]] The first half of the level consists mostly of narrow used coin blocks you must jump across. It's practically impossible to get across that part without a Tanooki Suit, and even with it, you're still gonna die a few times. Or more. If you survive that part, you're pitted against [[QuirkyMiniBossSquad Boom Boom and Pom Pom]] at the same time. Then you go through one of those green roller coaster stages with bombs and complicated jumps galore. Then you're thrown onto a block I like to call [[PlatformHell Hell]], where you must run to the other side while dodging [[EverythingTryingToKillYou fire, lasers, enemies,]] and a [[TheScrappy Giant Cosmic Mario]] who won't let you stop and take a breath. If you didn't have a mushroom or other item on you at that part, [[UnWinnable you're most likely dead.]] THEN... [[spoiler:[[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming you get to ride across the rest of the level while watching the green floor unfold, spelling out "THANK YOU!!"]]]]

** Rainbow Ride (a really difficult area as it is) has another notably hard 100-coin star. There are plenty of coins in the area, but they're spread amongst several divergent pathways, and to get all the coins you need, you must go down each pathway and then backtrack so you can go down another. The layout of the course - a series of platforms in the sky with large distances between them and only flying carpets for navigation - does not make this easy, to say the least.

* "Endless World of Yoshis/Crazy Maze Days". Doing the same damn section of killer spikes and falling three times is incredibly annoying.

* In YoshisIsland 1, the final secret level, aka Endless World of Yoshis/Crazy Maze Days. The first part isn't so bad, although it does have fast auto scrolling. However the maze part is worse. Not only is there a long shaft filled with instant death spikes you have to dodge with split second timing (entirely blind I may add), but to get 100% completion you need to beat this section THREE TIMES. There's just one midway ring after it, meaning that if you mess up before the cave (and given the confusing layout of the place, you probably will), you'll have to do a significant amount of the level over. After that there's a cave with some rather mean tricks as well as a replica of the intro with Kamek attacking Yoshi throughout. It's also a MarathonLevel. And the last flower is literally right before the goal, so if you forget about it/run out, you're playing the whole thing over.

** "Welcome to Yoshi Tower!" is a AutoScrollingLevel of NintendoHard puzzles and lava. The worst part of it is that there is not one single middle ring in the entire level. This means that not only does one mistake mean you're doing the entire level over, but you'll also have to scramble for every star you can find in the stage if you're trying to max your star count in order to get 100%. (Here's a tip: go into the level with a full supply of red eggs and then nail all those enemies at the beginning for all the stars you can get.)

* Level 7-4 is an [[UnderTheSea underwater]] FixedScrollingLevel which herds you through a veritable maze of deadly, immobile, [[InvincibleMinorMinion invincible]] [[ElectricJellyfish Jelectros]] while all the while a [[MookMaker Blooper Nanny]] follows you, spawning [[GoddamnedBats little Bloopers]]. Pray that you have a Frog Suit in your inventory.

* "Poochy Ain't Stupid", World 1's extra level, is a ''goddamn lie'', featuring [[LethalLavaLand lava for practically the entire level]] and [[FixedScrollingLevel automatic side-scrolling]] to go along with the introduction of Poochy, a dog that, if you unlocked the extra stage before proceeding to world 2, is a new mechanic.

* Stage 5-5, the Cave That Never Ends is an obnoxiously difficult [[FixedScrollingLevel forced-scrolling stage]] that very nearly lives up to its name. The level is a constant barrage of challenging platforming sections that are far too complex to make split-second maneuvers practical, yet that's what you have to do... you know, because of the autoscroll and all. There are several spots where you have to clear a path to a coin or flower and then backtrack so you can follow the path, only to find that you can no longer get to it because you didn't stay ''quite'' far enough ahead of the scroll. And then once you do finally get to the exit ring, you find out you passed it quite a while ago, but the scrolling wouldn't let you go to it until just now.

** "Welcome to Yoshi Tower!" is a FixedScrollingLevel of NintendoHard puzzles and lava. The worst part of it is that there is not one single middle ring in the entire level. This means that not only does one mistake mean you're doing the entire level over, but you'll also have to scramble for every star you can find in the stage if you're trying to max your star count in order to get 100%. (Here's a tip: go into the level with a full supply of red eggs and then nail all those enemies at the beginning for all the stars you can get.)

** "Hurry and Throw!" has two ungodly horrible sections. In the first, you have to dodge enemies and spikes while locating and depositing three number balls, all while the stage is [[FixedScrollingLevel autoscrolling]]. But this one is a ''looping'' autoscroll stage which just keeps taking you around and around the room until you find the exit. While this does give you some margin for error, it also gets annoying quick. For the second, you'd better have Peach or Mario, cause you're gonna have to do some master-level platforming. You have to make your way to the goal ring by bouncing off the backs of Paratroopas, all while collecting the usual crap and dodging obstacles like firebars which rotate in the air. Seriously, who designed this place?

* 9-4 is no walk in the park, if only because it's a FixedScrollingLevel and, if you're going for the star coins, the hardest one to get is at the end. The second one is also difficult unless you can freeze a Bob-Omb and throw it at the coin; otherwise, the platform has the be at ''just'' the right height and then you have to jump off of it and then make a perfectly timed wall jump so that you'll get to the coin and make it back to the platform safely - all while the level continues autoscrolling.

*** [[FourIsDeath It's more appropriate now, don't you think?]]