History ThatOneLevel / SuperMarioBros

** "Mystery of the Castle?", the World 2 secret level is a difficult maze with many of its red coins located ''off-screen'', and the final one is carried by a Fly Guy, meaning if you're not fast enough, you're doing the whole level over.

** World 4's secret level "Fight Toadies w/ Toadies" is no picnic either. The primary mechanic focuses on making precise jumps bouncing off moving enemies, only to reverse the concept at the end with an auto-scrolling stretch of moving platforms and Bullet Bills, where the challenge is ''not'' bouncing too high and ending up off-screen where one can't properly gauge Yoshi's position.
** "The Impossible? Maze", the 4th extra level, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin lives up to its name all too well.]] There aren't many enemies, but good luck trying to find every red coin and flower for the perfect score! Even if you do figure out the maze, the level requires one to push crates down the right paths in the right order than can easily slip the wrong way by mistake, and missing one forces you to start all over again from the start.
** World 5's secret level "Items Are Fun" is the easiest level in the game ...if you run straight to the exit. If you're trying for the 100% score then it's a marathon level that requires a lot of thinking outside the box with items. Of note: one must figure out that Yoshi can jump and bounce on spiked enemies as long as they are frozen first, something also hinted at nowhere in the game.

* "The Sand Bird Is Born", a notoriously difficult level that is likely to be one of the first missions attempted by first-time players. Thought collecting 8 red coins was annoying enough? Try doing it on a moving object with flapping wings which, combined with the game's wonky physics, is very easy to fall off of! And when it turns sideways, good luck getting to a safe location in time. To make matters worse, if you think it's too difficult, it's actually one of the ''easiest'' of the infamously difficult sub-levels.

* 7-6, in addition to being relatively hard to find, is an auto-scroller that has you jumping on the heads of large Para-Buzzies for the entire level. There's rarely any solid ground, and most of the Para-Buzzies aren't that big, so one slip will usually send you back to the beginning. Oh! And [[CheckpointStarvation no midway flag]]. ''Enjoy''.

* The original ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros1'' had many gamers' first[[note]]If they don't consider 2-3 to be hard, or used the Warp Zone[[/note]] ThatOneLevel: World 4-1. You can't warp around it. And it presents Mario with his first encounter with [[DemonicSpiders Lakitu]], who is hard to kill, throws infinite enemies on you, and if you do kill him, he respawns ten seconds later. In an interview, Shigeru Miyamoto suggested that World 4 would have been the first world in ''Super Mario Bros.'' if they hadn't rearranged things late in the development. This is a truly scary thought.

* World C-4 is 7-4 with two blocks added next to one of the firebars, which makes it nigh impossible to pass without almost inhuman timing. And if you succeed, you're probably going to land in Bowser's fireball swooping by below. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TbIXluo7gc This video]] (0:30 in) makes it look easy, but it's really, really not. Fortunately, however, there is a hidden mushroom early on in the level, which you can use to MercyInvincibility your way past. It actually ''is'' possible to make it through as Super or Fire Mario without getting hit, though it requires truly incredible timing.

* World 5-3. The entire level is a hornet's nest of Bob-ombs and Sparks, and the majority of it has you hopping up and down and across a bunch of platforms trying to dodge said Sparks and Bob-ombs with hardly any room to maneuver thanks to the low ceilings. The first part of the stage has you jumping over blockades while an endless blitzkrieg of fast-flying Albatosses constantly bombard you with Bob-Ombs, forcing you to constantly dodge to stay alive, and that's the ''easy'' part of this stage. Next there is a underground section littered with Bob-ombs and a Red Panser waiting for you. Then there is a vertical platforming section where you have to dodge not one but ''two'' [[DemonicSpiders Blue Pansers]] (thankfully not on the same screen) rolling down the platforms, that [[RespawningEnemies respawn]] when you fall down a screen and climb back up, while showering you with fireballs. And just like you, both the Pansers ''and'' their fireballs [[WrapAround wrap around the edges of the screen]]. Once you get past all that, you have to ride two Pidgits' carpets past a bunch of dive-bombing Beezos without getting knocked into the abyss to reach the boss of the level. Having three or more hearts also equals trouble: there are Shy Guys and Snifits roaming the place, [[LedgeBats trying to knock you straight into a bottomless pit]].
* World 7-2, if you don't know where you're going. It is the final level, so the difficulty is justified, but it's also a MarathonLevel and TheMaze, especially if you want to get both power-up mushrooms. And depending on which paths you take, you'll also be facing up to three sub-bosses before Wart (the only other levels to have multiple bosses were 5-3 and 6-3, and just one extra one in both cases).

** World 5-9. What makes already difficult platform jumping more difficult? ''Diagonal'' [[AutoScrollingLevel autoscrolling]]. And once you think you've mastered that, [[DemonicSpiders Fire Chomps]] will appear and make sure things will only get harder.

* Soda Lake is an underwater level that features Torpedo Ted, a type of enemy that is (thankfully) only seen in this stage. Torpedo Ted is a longer Bullet Bill that's invincible and underwater. There are several spots that spawn them, they're quite fast (much faster than a swimming Mario, at any rate), there's almost no room to dodge them, and some spots ''require'' you to swim right through where they spawn. Those spots often require the utmost perfect timing to get through without taking a hit. And to even unlock this level, you have to reach the Cheese Bridge Area secret exit by flying ''[[GuideDangIt under]]'' [[GuideDangIt the normal exit]], or float under it with Yoshi and jump off him, sacrificing the poor creature.

** World 1's secret level (exclusive to the GBA port) "Exercise In the Skies" is just a small sample of the hell you're in for with the games bonus stages. ''Finishing'' the level is tricky enough, but a 100% run is an exercise in frustration. The first segment is tedious enough due to the player having to make a perfectly timed jump to reach the secret area near its midpoint (although the level at least allows you as many tries as you need to reach it), but the second part, where Yoshi has to cross a large gap while balancing himself on a tiny, fast rolling ball while only having a slim chance at grabbing the nearby red coins, is an absolute nightmare. And to top it off, the final segment has you scramble across a collection of falling rocks, where it's entirely possible to wind up in an unwinnable situation if you don't cross them fast enough.

** "Mystery of the Castle?", the World 2 secret level is a difficult maze with many of its red coins located ''off-screen'', and the final one is carried by a Shy Guy, meaning if you're not fast enough, you're doing the whole level over.

** World 3's extra level "More Monkey Madness" is full of goddamn seed-throwing monkeys that are placed on branches and vines above a pit, so they can easily kill the player. And you have 5 seconds to get past those monkeys and grab the Fly Guy hovering above a bottomless pit before it flies off with a red coin. ''Gaaah!'' It isn't so bad in the SNES version, since for some goofy reason there are 21 red coins in that level (20 is normal, and you need exactly 20 of them for 100% completion); however, the GBA port fixes this, leaving you no room for error. Then as one last kick in the teeth, the final flower is ''behind'' the exit ring, so unless you know it's there, you'll likely be futilely backtracking, or get the exit ring by mistake and have to start over.

** The 5th extra level "Kamek's Revenge". To obtain all those red coins, you first have to perform two whole screens of skiing and hit all the obnoxiously difficult to reach items with perfectly precise jumps, ''then'', you have to hunt down a bunch of them on a huge, nonlinear helicopter course (which happens to be timed -- run out of time and you fall to your doom). Miss just one coin, and your only option is to die and try the whole thing over again. Also, the first section of the stage, where you have to make your way across a whole bunch of tiny floating logs without getting knocked off by Kamek or the egg-throwing Green Gloves, ain't no picnic either. This level is so hard, even top players have complained that they can regularly solve all bonus levels with a perfect score in the game - ''except this one''.

* To single out a level which requires the Wing Cap, "Wing Mario Over the Rainbow" is one of the hardest levels 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. And that's not even mentioning the fact that if you fall off the stage (which does not actually cost you a life), you end up ''outside the castle'', and have to go all the way back up to the top to try again. The DS version takes some of the sting out of this - if you need to land, keep an eye on the lower screen and activate a Ground Pound when the Mario icon is directly over an island. Even this is not foolproof, though - the lower map gives no indication of height, so if you rely on it too heavily you may Ground Pound while ''under'' an island instead of ''over'' it - and if you are too high up when you Ground Pound, Mario will lose two or even four units of health. As explained by this [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNvNdw1yCXo&lc=UghzBu0GB0q3yHgCoAEC commenter]]:

* Rainbow Ride (a really difficult area as it is) has a 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, and to boot, there is (as always) a switch that activates blue coins worth 5 each for a short time. Not only is doing this perfectly necessary for 100, but it requires a speedy series of wall-jumps that is very easy to flub, resulting in an [[UnwinnableByDesign Unwinnable]] situation. And due to at least a few of the aforementioned blue coins being necessary to get the star, tough luck if you decide to take the Nintendo 64 Mouse Challenge, because that Star is absolutely off limits! The DS port makes blue coin part much easier thanks to the improved wall jump mechanics.

** The 100-coin star: There are only 106 total coins in the level, so you really need to collect almost ''every'' coin. And sooooo, sooooo many of them are underwater. And many of ''those'' are directly in front of instant-death whirlpools (in fact, there's a handful of those coins by the large black hole in the second portion of the course, risking you getting sucked in and sent back to the outside of the castle), so good luck collecting them all without dying! To save yourself some work, you might want to get this star at the same time as the red coin star, since you'll have to get all of those anyway in order to have enough coins to reach 100. Also notable, it is futile to attempt getting 100 coins before completing Bowser in the Fire Sea, as the moving poles that allow access to the blue and red coins won't be there since Bowser's Sub will still occupy the area.[[note]]Some skilled speedrunners have managed to obtain the red coins without the poles, but it's clearly SequenceBreaking that the game doesn't expect mortal players to accomplish.[[/note]] And again, to Nintendo 64 Mouse Challenge takers: ''forget about it.''

* "Wall Kicks Will Work/Mario's Super Wall Kick" is a brutally hard star to get. You have to activate a cannon, which is in the middle of a chairlift section, which is easy to fall off. Afterwards, you must fire yourself onto a small island. If you fire too low or too high, you risk falling off. And learning to wall-jump can be a pain, especially if you accidentally land in a bottomless pit. Fortunately, there's a SequenceBreaking trick involving a Spindrift that allows you to bypass the cannon section. The DS version also makes it slightly easier by widening the platform to the star.

* In "The Watermelon Festival" in Gelato Beach, you have to guide a gigantic watermelon down a cliff and along a beach past a horde of Cataquacks, who, if they get anywhere close, will knock the watermelon into the air, popping it. Oh, and the controls for guiding said watermelon are hellishly awkward. You can squirt the Cataquacks with FLUDD to stun them, but the area is so swarmed with them that for every one you can fend off, there are always two or three more coming at you from the other side. You can also use the dune buds to permenantly kill them, but only the ones on the beach proper can be killed this way (the one dune bud on the upper level goes ''down'', rendering it useless in terms of killing Cataquacks). And even if you're lucky enough to get past the Cataquacks to the dock leading to the juice bar, that's not the end of it, oh no. You then have to carefully roll the humongous watermelon along the incredibly narrow dock to the bar, with any misjudgement or errant nudge causing the watermelon to fall into the water and pop, forcing you to go all the way back to the top of the hill to start the hellish trip anew.

* The Secret Levels, 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. You also [[NoGearLevel lose access to FLUDD on your first visit to these Secret Levels]]. And they all share the same catchy [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvZWxiUfrNo tune.]] Some secrets aren't notorious for the levels themselves, but for how cryptic their means of entry can be, such as with Gelato Beach, whose secret level is the ''first'' which involves dune buds. You might be misled by the shine sprite glowing in the distant cabana, but that's actually for the region's final shine sprite, "The Watermelon Festival" (see above). The hardest Secret Levels are the following:

* To single out yet another Pianta Village mission, there's the "Fluff Festival Coin Hunt". It's another "collect the eight Red Coins" mission, but what makes this one so frustrating is that some of the coins are in extreme pain-in-the-ass locations. (Have fun trying to grab that coin on the ledge behind the beehive... or the one on the underground catwalks.) The worst one is the one at the top of the tall tree in the center of the village. You have to climb up the tree platform by platform, then use the Rocket Nozzle to get from the highest platform to the top of the tree. The problem with this is that the top of the tree is so far above you that you can't get to it with a simple Rocket jump; you have to get some extra height via spin-jumping and then rocket to the top of the tree from as high in the air as you can get. And if your jump is a little bit off, you'll likely hit the curved part of the treetop and end up sliding off the tree entirely, forcing you to make your way all the way back up the tree. Oh yeah, and to get Pianta Village's secret Shine, you have to get back to the top of the tree ''again''. Good luck. And after all that, where does the Shine Sprite appear? On a cloud, over a bottomless pit, farther away from the main level than you thought it was possible to go. To get there, you have to -- you guessed it -- climb the tree and let a dandelion carry you toward the cloud, then jump off at the right time. The cloud is fairly big, but due to the awkward camera angle, it's easy to misjudge where you are and fall to your death.

* By far the worst ''Sunshine'' mini-stage is Delfino Plaza's [[FanNickname "Lily Pad Ride"]]. First, you have to ride Yoshi across 3 barges to get to the island the entrance is on without falling into the water. And that's ''just to enter the mini-stage''! Once you get in, you'll find that you have to grab 8 Red Coins (many of which are in mid-air) while floating down an [[GrimyWater instant-death river]] on a barely-maneuverable lily pad that will ''dissolve'' when it's been active long enough. Oh, and the river is floating in the clouds, meaning everything outside of the stage is a bottomless pit. The best ways to finish this one are either to grab as many of the Red Coins as you can with the lily pad and then walk along the super-thin railing back to the start, or just try and jump to the coins from the railing and use the Hover Nozzle to land back on the ground.
* [[FanNickname "Pachinko Game"]]. You have to retrieve eight Red Coins in a giant pachinko board (which, for those unfamiliar with the game, is essentially an upright pinball game with no flippers). However, you have extremely limited movement with FLUDD, and a good half of the coins are in really hard-to-reach locations. And should you happen to miss all the pockets and fall to the bottom of the board, you're immediately chucked out the bottom where you fall to your death. And should you happen to bring the Rocket Nozzle with you instead of the Hover Nozzle... good luck getting more than four coins. The worst part is that ''you can't go left''. Not past a certain point, anyways. Those two ball-returns on the left side of the board? You have to cheat your way into them, because once you hit the center section, you can't go back. And if you're on the left, you can only move right. And the plunger will always shoot you past the top-left cup. The only real solution is to wall-kick up the starting chute and hope you can get just high enough that you can hover over. And the stage is buggy: The pins also seem to have random kinetic effects if Mario touches them, sometimes catapulting you across the pachinko machine in a random direction. Others seem to indicate the position of an invisible wall.

* World 8-Tower 2. The ENTIRE level takes place on a moving platform reminiscent of Castles 5 and 7 in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld''. It's [[TrialAndErrorGameplay unpredictable, tedious,]] and nerve-wracking. And of course, as if the task of staying on the platform weren't difficult enough, EverythingTryingToKillYou, whether it be spikes, Firebars, or rolling spiked balls. The very last Bowser Jr. fight at the end is also the harder version.

** The level features three different versions of the Chomp enemy, and they're ''all'' nasty. In the first section, you have to dodge huge, fast-moving Chomps which jump up and down in place while trying to collect red coins by throwing eggs really high into the air. Doesn't sound so bad? The screen is AUTO-SCROLLING while you're trying to do this. In the second section, you have to hover over gaps while even bigger Chomps are raining down on you from above. And if you can manage to get past that, there's the final section, where one of the "eats everything in its path" Chomps from the first game chases you, and he's much faster than the ones in the original game. If you're going for 100%, be sure not to miss the very inconveniently placed coins and flowers while you're scrambling for your life!
** The Baby Mario coin deserves special mention. First off, you need to know it's coming, because if you instinctively jump from the ledge above, you'll overshoot the coin with no way to get back. Then, because it's completely surrounded by breakable material, you have to shoot an egg at exactly the right angle; if you're a tiny bit off, you'll either destroy the ground underneath the coin or you'll leave a barrier blocking your way forward. Once you've cleared a path the coin, you must jump in, grab it, jump out ''onto a moving platform'', and then get through the rest of the level (if you die, you lose the coin). And all of that, while being chased by a Chomp with RubberBandAI.
* World 5-5, "The Cave That Never Ends", is an obnoxiously difficult [[AutoScrollingLevel 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.

** Peach's route is essentially this game's equivalent to "Animal Antics" from ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry2DiddysKongQuest''. You have to use her parasol to ride the breezes through sections lined with instant-death spikes, being very careful not to let the wind blow you into right into them. A particularly nasty section toward the end forces you to ride the breezes upward through a long diagonal shaft. And it ain't over after that; you still have to do some careful falling and fluttering through more spiked passages to finally reach the door that takes you to the next section.

** Finally, Donkey Kong's route is probably the most difficult of them all. It involves a lot of swinging on ropes while dodging firebars over a bunch of, you guessed it, instant-death spikes. If you're going for HundredPercentCompletion, there are two flowers in this section that are a real pain to collect. One of them forces you to throw an egg up a vertical shaft while swinging on a rope; the hard part is lining up and making your throw without letting the rope's momentum swing you into the spikes. The other is surrounded by spikes in the middle of a zip-lining section. If you don't know it's coming, you probably won't have time to grab it by the time you notice it. And even if you do know it's coming, it's very difficult to grab; you have to slide toward the bottom of the rope (otherwise you won't be in range to hit the flower with an egg), nail the flower with an egg, then ''very quickly'' climb back up the rope so that you won't hit the next set of spikes.

* Chapter 3-3 has [[DemonicSpiders those damned Crazee Dayzees]] in a rather annoying '''jump-centric''' level. They hit you when you're in the middle of a jump, and there's a good chance you will be knocked down and forced to do large chunks of the level again. And when you finally make it out of there and deal with this level's miniboss, you still have quite a bit of jumping to do... And it's possibly made worse by having a few ''Lakitus'' roam the sky, which you likely won't see until it's too late.
* The entirety of Chapter 4 can be very annoying, due to being a SpaceZone chapter that uses UnexpectedShmupLevel in both 4-1 and 4-3. 4-1 is also TheMaze, and all the rooms look almost identical to each other. On the other hand, 4-3 is nothing but a pointless fetch quest that deprives you of your ability to attack until you complete it. While 4-2 doesn't use either of those elements, it's still annoying, as it is a long level with space physics. And once you reach the end to get a key item, you're forced to backtrack ''all the way to the beginning'' to proceed. To put the annoyance into perspective, 4-4, a GravityScrew TheMaze MarathonLevel, is probably the least annoying level in the Chapter. As a bonus, your guide through the chapter is a {{Jerkass}} who treats your characters like dirt, only adding to the annoyance.

* The entirety of world 8 can fall into this. A monochromatic maze where every door is the same, and going into the wrong one is punished by an enemy. Even then, 8-4 stands out: You only have access to Mario, so kiss Bowser's OP fire blast goodbye. Half of the maze is a never-ending 3D loop of doors. And running out of 3D deals damage to you, so you're punished by taking damage. At least the very last boss is not too hard.

** The Bubble Blast Galaxy. The bubble, already a hard-to-maneuver OneHitWonder, must be navigated through a maze of electric fences. The first objective is to collect five Star Chips within five different areas, all featuring you riding the bubble. And then after you collect them all, you'll be launched to an area where your bubble has to dodge Bullet Bills that home on to you, as well as guns that shoot electric balls.

* 3-4 is also known to be difficult, since it takes place mostly on giant moving blocks of ice. One wrong slip and you'll be crushed or fall into a bottomless pit. And because of a thing the developers did with the secret exits, you're forced to play through it ''twice.'' Thankfully the second run is much easier than the first.

* 9-7 (pictured above), even by [[BrutalBonusLevel World 9]] standards, is flatly unbelievable. Almost all of the level past the start is made out of ice blocks that melt when hit by fireballs. There are Fire Piranha Plants popping out of every pipe, ''in clusters'', throwing fire that will burn away your platforms. And if the platforms aren't positioned over bottomless pits, they're covering Munchers that will happily damage you. Cue {{Unwinnable}} situations happening if you mess up. And none of this takes into account the collection of the Star Coins. To make it achievable through anything other than luck or unholy skill, you must have a Fire Flower two-thirds of the way through the stage, run right (on ice), ''stop'' (also on ice), turn around (on ice once more), throw a fireball to the left, jump down and grab the Star Coin, jump back up, and ''then'' run forward before the Fire Piranha Plants melt all the ice blocks in front of you. See that image at the top of the page? That's what happens 99.5% of the time you go for the second Star Coin.

* S7-1. It's basically 3-4. Wasn't so bad, right? Well, this level may not have any previous obstacles or enemies, but they are replaced with Boomerang Bros. throwing boomerangs at you when you are on a tightrope with little space to dodge, and with only 30 SECONDS. Oh, and you'll have to kill enemies to get time, and waste some getting Star Medals, since they are NOT on your path. And those Roulette Blocks over there? You're probably gonna get a mushroom. Admit it, you want to cry now.

* S7-Castle. It is INSANELY hard, frustrating, and the absolute farthest thing from "fun" or "enjoyable", being the first level to have both a 30-second time limit AND a Cosmic Clone ([[IGotBigger and a giant one to boot]]). If that isn't already enough to start [[GoMadFromTheRevelation giving you nightmares]], knowing that you actually have to let the clone go ahead of you to smash through pillars (and then jump and go ''under'' it when it jumps!) might. And the less said about the star coins, the better.

* S8-3. It's a rehash of 5-Castle. 5-Castle wasn't so bad, huh? Well, S8-3 is. You start out with only 30 seconds on the clock, and you can't stop or turn around because a [[IGotBigger Giant]] Cosmic Clone is chasing you. And the star coins (and time bonuses, to a lesser extent) are VERY inconveniently placed, more enemies are added, and all item blocks are no more. [[RageQuit You're gonna cry.]]

* World Star-Castle. Sounds easy? Trying watching your ass from the Koopalings, who can turn you into stone like Medusa. Only the brown background walls will protect you from turning into stone. And after all that... ''Dry Bowser...''

** The first level is basically a level full of P-Switches that you have to press in order to continue. The P-Switch turns the nearby coins into platforms for you to run onto the next switch, so you have to press the switch quick and then go to the next switch before time runs out. And not only that, if you intend to go as Gold Mario to create some shortcuts to collect more coins, be careful of not destroying the only platforms that you can run on. If you intend to collect the Star Coins, hope that you have good reflexes!

* 4-5. Not too bad at the start, but the ski lift part is ''really'' annoying. First off, there are ''so'' many enemies (mainly Paragoombas and Fuzzies), and to avoid them, you have to sway left and right, but swaying your ride only lasts for a few seconds. Also, to collect coins or hearts, you have to press the A button when the top of your ride is under that item. And the ski lift part is ''really'' long.
* 5-3. You've got an annoying Cheep-Chomp trying to eat your raft. If it eats all five logs of the raft, it's game over. If you're swallowed whole, it's game over. And yes, the name of the level is right ([[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Long Fall Falls]]), the level is long. Worse yet, to access the secret exit of this level, you have to face the Cheep-Chomp AGAIN. And if you get the secret exit before the normal one, or if you get both and still have stuff to get in the level, the fish's AI improves, making the level even harder.
* 5-6, which is the home of the World 5 boss, Petey Piranha. It seems to be easy at first, but then when you get to the bridge, Petey Piranha appears and ''eats'' Kersti. Without Kersti, you can't paperize (so attaching the secret door of this level to its rightful place can't be done until Kersti is rescued). Then you cross half the level, and it's easy until you reach the Chain Chomp you have to battle. It can't take damage no matter WHAT item you use. You have to use a Baahammer to put it to sleep and then run off. Then you have to battle it again. You have to use useless items before it wakes up. Once it does, it goes ramming across the screen (you HAVE to have more then 10 HP here, since the Chain Chomp runs into you with no stopping, and you lose 10 HP for that). Then finally, you reach the boss, Petey Piranha. He has 300 HP. It's hard. But what makes it worse is that you can't use the Battle Spinner, because you need Kersti to operate that, and Kersti is in Petey's body. And with the royal sticker on his head, your stickers do little damage to him. Your only bet on beating him is to use Infinijumps stickers. At least you get Kersti back at the end of this level.
* Getting the Toad from 1-4 back to Decalburg counts as this. If you fall off the ledge, start all over again. If you touch an enemy, START ALL OVER AGAIN. HOLY CRAP. And the Toad won't jump over the enemies either. You have to fight them to get the Toad back to Decalburg. You'll have an easier time at the World 1 boss than this crap.

* Soda Jungle-Tower/Snake Block Tower. "Snake block" levels are nothing new, but this time, you have ''two'' sets of blocks to keep track of, one normal-sized and one giant, and they move around lots and lots of Amps and Ball 'n' Chains, some of them in configurations that are nearly impossible to dodge. And the Star Coins? Easy enough to find, but good luck getting them all without taking a hit.

* Peach's Castle-Castle 1/Red-Hot Elevator Ride. The entire level takes place on a rising platform that can be controlled by tilting the [[UsefulNotes/GeneralGamingGamepads Game Pad]] or Wii Remote, but this one stops moving if more than one thing is on it. Goombas, Bob-ombs, even ''coins'' can bring it to a halt until they are disposed of if they land on it. This wouldn't be so bad, but you must also contend with constantly rising lava below, meaning that if the platform stops rising for too long, Mario will instantly die from the lava. And like Snake Block Tower, the Star Coins are in plain sight but very difficult to get and remain unscathed. The level [[CheckPointStarvation has no midway point]] either, so if you die from the lava, a bolt of electricity, a wayward Bob-omb, etc., enjoy starting the level over from the beginning and losing any Star Coins you happened to collect.

* Superstar Road-8/Pendulum Castle, which is possibly intended to be the hardest level in the game, even for the [[BrutalBonusLevel Superstar Road]]. The level is absolutely full to the brim with Donut Lifts and swinging Ball 'n' Chains that are only avoidable in precise locations, usually in tandem. And just like the other Superstar Road levels, [[CheckPointStarvation there's no midway point]]. At least this one seems somewhat more of a [[NintendoHard fair challenge]] than most of the levels listed here.
* The Coin Collection challenge, [[PunctuatedForEmphasis Don't. Touch. Anything.]] As the name implies, you can't touch anything but the ground itself. No stomping on enemies, no hitting ? Blocks, not even touching any coins. And here's the [[SarcasmMode fun part]], most jumps are made deliberately so Small Mario/Luigi/etc. can get through, you have to hold that jump button ''just'' right to avoid getting those coins. Oh, and good luck with the Lakitu who chases you halfway through the level. And God help you if you're going for gold.

* Boost Mode Challenges in general become this to players that have families that don't play video games that much. Especially if you play with people who don't play the game that much, and god help you if you go for gold on timer-ranked levels OR if you try to play these successfully with a younger sibling. It gets worse and worse depending on your family's experience. An example: A young brother that is mostly available because your parents are mostly busy and/or someone doesn't care, take a sister for the second one. The baby brother can't place platforms for his life, resulting in the PlatformHell trap with the Coin Block over a pit happening. And also, you have no real life friends, or you can't have them come over. Even if you can multitask, you are FORCED for two players or must have godly reflexes. Especially for going for gold on some levels like "Icicle Falls". God HELP you if you go for gold under ALL of these conditions. Even a 1 star difficulty level becomes this under these conditions. [[SarcasmMode Thank you, Nintendo.]]

* World 3-2 (Chain-Link Charge) will probably be one of the first levels that you will seriously rack up the deaths on. It has many segments with moving fences, most of which block your way or force you to make quickly-timed jumps if you don't have the Super Bell. If you do, you can climb on the fences... but you can't climb on forever. The second Green Star is brutal, since you have to make some very tricky jumps past two moving fences right before the checkpoint, so if you mess up you're doing the level from the start again. And after that it goes upwards through segments where the fences move against you over clouds and a lot of enemies. Oh, and by the way, ''it's an auto-scrolling level!''
* 5-6 (Cakewalk Flip) isn't so hard if you're just playing through. If you're going for the collectibles (''especially'' the stamp and third Green Star), on the other hand...those ''bleeping'' Ring Burners ''in conjunction with flipping platforms''... and that's with one player. Any more than one player, and the level becomes unmitigated chaos, with the platforms flipping every time ''anybody'' jumps.

* World Castle-3 (Red-Hot Run). This level consists of boost panels that speed you up during the level. Sounds fun, right? Nope. Big problem here, the ledges are somewhat thin, and it's very easy to lose control and accidentally fall off the path at no fault of your own, leaving only a small margin for error. It may be merely hard on its own, but getting 100% completion on this level (meaning getting all 3 Green Stars and the Stamp) is an absolute recipe for disaster, as they are located in the easiest areas to fall off. You also only have 100 seconds, meaning that the margin for error may become smaller at any point. And, of course, there are obstacles here as well that can hinder you drastically. Also, [[CheckpointStarvation there's no checkpoint]].
* [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Castle-Castle]] (Bowser's Lava Lake Keep), if you're going for all collectibles in one run. The second star requires a Cat suit (which isn't even available in this level, so you have to enter while wearing one, and if you lose it, you have to leave and acquire another), while the third can only be retrieved with the boomerang suit, and the only ones in this level are far before and far after where the star is. So you have to juggle two different powerups past firebars, fireballs, bombs and DemonicSpiders. And the icing on the cake is that the checkpoint is located just before the narrow fireball-infested bridge leading to the third star, so you have to skip the checkpoint and go back and activate it ''after'' retrieving the star, lest the star becomes unobtainable until clearing or leaving the level if you die or lose the boomerang suit.
* Bowser-7 (Grumblump Inferno) is the lava equivalent to [[VideoGame/MegaMan1 Guts Man]]'s lifts. This level is the last regular level in the main game, and [[DifficultySpike it lives up to the position]]. The gimmick of the level is large rectangular blocks in [[LethalLavaLand lava]] that tumble end over end and force you to keep running to the next side. They tumble rather quickly, and you must be pretty careful with your positioning and timing when running; too far forward or back, and [[OneHitKill say hello to the lava]]. The cubical blocks are bad enough, but some of them are rectangular, so the distance you need to move isn't always the same. And they don't just move in straight lines but go along twisty paths that make frequent 90-degree turns. [[SerialEscalation And because Nintendo just loves you]], you will have to do all this ''while'' dodging Hammer Bros and Fire Piranha Plants in some places. And then there's the collectibles... Let's just say one of them is hovering above a one-block thin pillar, with a Hammer Bro on it. The only mercies you're given are that the level at least gives you a Tanooki Suit... and the music is great. It says something when the final castle (boss included) is substantially easier than this insanity. And whatever you do, do ''not'' ground pound the blocks, even out of frustration--if you do, they get angry faces and move faster (though you have to do this if you're attempting a speed run).

* Flower-3, [[TheLostWoods Piranha Creeper Creek]] [[BlackoutBasement After Dark]] is a revamp of 4-2, Piranha Creeper Creek. Piranha Creeper Creek was a pretty reasonable stage and fairly fun. Its harder version, however...well, it starts out simple enough, with more Piranha Creepers and some torches to light with fireballs. Then you reach the second section of the level, and suddenly you have to cross moving and rotating platforms with Firebars and Piranha Creepers on them and Fire Piranha Plants shooting at you. ''And that's not even the hard part.'' The second Green Star is found in this area, and if you want it, you must light all the torches in this section ''while'' dodging all the enemies and projectiles on these moving platforms, and the torches are ''not'' in convenient locations. The game does give you a couple extra Fire Flowers, but lose those and you've ruined any chance of getting the second star (and the third). And if you fall into the [[GrimyWater purple goop]], [[CheckPointStarvation you're doing the level over from the beginning]].

* [[BrutalBonusLevel World Crown]]. If you manage to get absolutely everything else, World Crown will open up, and it contains the last three stages of the game: one platforming level, one Captain Toad level, and one Mystery House. You can do them in any order, but all three are ''brutal''. And to get OneHundredPercentCompletion, two of them need to be completed with all [[spoiler:five]] playable characters.

* World 4-Secret, "See Poochy Run!". Yes, ''that'' Poochy. The Scrappiest of {{Scrappy Mechanic}}s is back. This one is instant death spikes the entire way; you have to either leap over them or duck under them while Poochy runs beneath you. As bad as he was in the first game, at least there the controls were very precise and Poochy handled relatively smoothly. Not so here. You have to stand on him for a moment to get him to start moving, and once he's moving, his momentum tends to keep him moving forward regardless of which way you're facing. Your timing of your jumps has to be ''ultra'' precise, because the dog is extremely unforgiving this time around. Oh, and there are spinning spike balls that you have to deal with as well. And no Middle Rings. Have fun.
* World 5-Secret, "Snow Go Mountain". It's a vertical level where you make your way upward to the exit. So what's the problem? You have to "climb" by continually bouncing off the backs of Bullet Bills. The only solid ground is sporadically appearing number platforms that disappear as soon as you step off them. In other words, ''there is absolutely no margin for error whatsoever'', since if baby Mario gets knocked off your back, or you lose progress by falling, there's really no practical way to save yourself, and even if you can manage to avoid dying, you're still screwed, since with the number platforms probably gone by this point, some of the Bullet Bills will be spaced too far apart to give you a chance to climb back to where you were. And then there's the final section, where you have to jump two or three Bullet Bills at a time without getting hit or losing any progress by falling. It's bad enough just making it to the end, let alone trying to do it while trying to collect everything for 100%. And again, no Middle Rings at all, so one tiny mistake means doing the whole thing all over again.
* World 6-Secret, "Leapin' Lava Meltdown". The first half of the level is running and hitting switches to create platforms to move forward. If you don't make it to the next switch in time, you fall into the lava. What makes it so difficult is that the timing is ''extremely'' unforgiving. Enjoy speed running? Good, because you have ''just enough time'' to reach the next switch and ''no more''. And that's assuming you break your neck getting there, don't miss a single jump, and nail all your egg throws perfectly without having to stop to line up your aim. And speaking of eggs, you have to begin the level by throwing a Metal Eggdozer, which cleans out any eggs you currently have in your inventory, meaning that stopping to pick up more eggs will have to be added to your hectic schedule. And the level is structured so that you have to grab every egg you come across. Once you get past that, the rest of the level is a RiseToTheChallenge sequence where you have to keep moving upward using rotating platforms trying to stay ahead of the rising lava flow. And you gotta keep grabbing those enemies for egg fodder and nailing all those coins and winged clouds if you want to get 100%. And once again, time is extremely tight, so you have to keep moving and grab everything as quickly as you can. Yet again, no margin for error whatsoever. And yet again, there are no Middle Rings, so if you mess up, you're doing it all over again.

* 5-6: Up Shuttlethread Pass. In this stage, you're constantly shifting between the "front side" and "back side" of the level, not unlike the earlier level Duplicitous Delve. ''Unlike'' in the delve, you can't see between the two sides of the stage. The stage itself is ''heavily'' mazelike, and you'll have to flip between the two sides of the level constantly to progress. Since your perception of the whole stage is mirrored every time you flip sides, it's very easy to become disoriented. And since it's a vertical level, accidentally falling can undo ''loads'' of your progress as you must climb back up. The level can easily become a MarathonLevel if you try to sniff out every secret. Perhaps it's not for nothing that this level has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-yoI2pFQRw the quietest and calmest music in the game.]]

* 3-S: Woollet Bill's Last Ride. It's an AutoScrollingLevel in the clouds, where a single Woollet Bill leaves a trail of clouds you must run alongside to reach the end, which moves very fast. In addition you have to watch out for endless hazards and keep a good supply of Yarn Balls to collect the 10 main collectables (5 flowers and 5 wonder wools) of the stage. Fall, get crushed, or accidentally kill the Woollet Bill? You're forced to die and start the entire level over, losing everything you grabbed in your previous run. And like the other secret levels, it has [[CheckpointStarvation no checkpoints]]. [[SarcasmMode Good Luck]].
* 4-S: Naval Piranha 2: Now It's Personal! It's another optional unlockable level, and it ''more'' than follows the series's tradition of bonus levels being absolute pains in the rear. In this one, Naval Piranha is chasing you throughout the entire level, and getting hit by her is instant death. And she's ''fast'', making the whole level insanely hectic. You can hit her with a wool ball to make her back off for a moment, but she recovers extremely quickly, so it's not as much of a breather as you would prefer. And naturally, there are other enemies to deal with along the way, as well as natural hazards like spiky vines and other plants. And of course, since this is a Yoshi game, there's also all the collectibles you have to try to grab while you're scrambling to stay alive (the magnetic badge helps a bit with this particular task, but it's still difficult). Like the other secret levels in this game, there are [[CheckPointStarvation no checkpoints]], either.

** The airship. It combines Ninjis, gaps, and cannonballs to make a run where even the slightest mistake will hurt or kill you. And this is the bare minimum. If you've beaten the World Tour, add flame spouts and Rocky Wrench to the list for added annoyance.

* Finally, as in the last few games, ''Super Mario Odyssey'' has its own BrutalBonusLevel at the end. Named [[spoiler:Culmina Crater and based on the Darker Side of the Moon]], you run through different areas representing almost every part of the game you've been to, requiring all your skills to traverse. It's a ''very long'' level with ''no checkpoints'' at all, meaning if you die, it's back to the start. It gets especially difficult in the foggy area with the traversing platform which has a Pulse Beam in the middle and Burrbos that never stop coming until you make it to the other side: as they can't be jumped upon, you need to either throw your hat or use the Pulse Beam to clear them out, with the problem being that the Pulse Beam is just too close for comfort. One false move... And back to the beginning of the area with you. And near the end of that section, you have to climb to the top area by using wooden walls that oscillate in an inconvenient pattern, which not only takes some time getting used to, but also puts you at the risk of falling into the abyss if you mistime your leap while being on the right side.

** "The Impossible? Maze", the 4th extra level, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin lives up to its name all too well.]] There aren't many enemies, but good luck trying to find every red coin and flower for the perfect score! Even if you do figure out the maze, he level requires one to push crates down the right paths in the right order than can easily slip the wrong way by mistake, and missing one forces you to start all over again from the start.

** World 4's secret level "Fight Toadies w/ Toadies" is no picnic either. The primary mechanic focuses on making precise jumps bouncing off moving enemies, only to reverse the concept at the end with a gauntlet of moving platforms and Bullet Bills, where the challenge is ''not'' bouncing too high and ending up off-screen where one can't properly gauge Yoshi's position.

** The 5th extra level "Kamek's Revenge". To obtain all those red coins, you first have to perform two whole screens of skiing and hit all the obnoxiously difficult placed items with perfectly precise jumps, ''then'', you have to hunt down a bunch of them on a huge, nonlinear helicopter course (which happens to be timed -- run out of time and you fall to your doom). Miss just one coin, and your only option is to die and try the whole thing over again. Also, the first section of the stage, where you have to make your way across a whole bunch of tiny floating logs without getting knocked off by Kamek or the egg-throwing Green Gloves, ain't no picnic either. This level is so hard, even top players have complained that they can regularly solve all bonus levels with a perfect score in the game - ''except this one''.

** World 4's bonus level "Fight Toadies w/ Toadies" is no picnic either. The primary mechanic focuses on making precise jumps bouncing off moving enemies, only to reverse the concept at the end with a gauntlet of moving platforms and Bullet Bills, where the challenge is ''not'' bouncing too high and ending up off-screen where one can't properly gauge Yoshi's position.

** "The Impossible? Maze," the 4th extra level, gets a special mention here, as [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin it lives up to its name all too well.]] There aren't many enemies, but good luck trying to find every red coin and flower for the perfect score!
** World 5's secret level "Items Are Fun" is the easiest level in the game ...if you run straight to the exit. If you're trying for the 100% score then it's a marathon level that requires a lot of thinking outside the box with items. Of note: one must figure out that Yoshi can jump and bounce on spiked enemies as long as they are frozen first, something hinted at nowhere in the game.
** The 5th extra level "Kamek's Revenge". To obtain all those red coins, you first have to perform two whole screens of skiing and hit all the obnoxiously difficult placed items with perfectly precise jumps, THEN, you have to hunt down a bunch of them on a huge, nonlinear helicopter course (which happens to be timed -- run out of time and you fall to your doom). Miss just one coin, and your only option is to die and try the whole thing over again. Also, the first section of the stage, where you have to make your way across a whole bunch of tiny floating logs without getting knocked off by Kamek or the egg-throwing Green Gloves, ain't no picnic either. This level is so hard, even top players have complained that they can regularly solve all bonus levels with a perfect score in the game - ''except this one''.
** World 6's secret level "Endless World of Yoshis/Crazy Maze Days" from the GBA port. 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), 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, a race against the clock as baby Mario, and finally a secret second exit leading to a replica of the intro with Kamek attacking Yoshi throughout. It's a MarathonLevel to say the least.

* Hightail Falls involves using the unwieldy Dash Yoshi to to run along walls. (There is no special gravity in the main path of the level.) Even worse is the Speedrun Comet, a timed mission which also gives you less space to move around.

* Cloudy Court Galaxy has a secret mission, "Silver Stars In The Purple Pond". You go to a massive bowl filled with dark matter with an array of clouds floating over it. You are chased by four Cosmic Clones who copy your moves, and if you get hit you lose the Cloud Flower powerup and fall into the dark matter.

* The Daredevil Comet for "Bowser Jr's Boom Bunker" requires you to traverse the the entire level, including the boss fight and an entirely new segment not seen in the original level.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwHrLYQwQyM Champion's Road]]. The final platforming level of the game, it serves at the ultimate test of your skills in the game and more. The first part of the level starts off rather simple, with the player avoiding Octoombas while jumping across pits and fighting Fire Brothers on solid land. However, next up is fighting a group of Charging Chucks over alternating, one-character-wide platforms; a mistimed jump or a Charging Chuck hit into a gap between platforms means death by bottomless pit. Following that is a section of auto-switching blocks like the ones seen in worlds 4-3 and Flower-8, but that switch at a rate even faster than Flower-8, requiring either long jumps or using a Tanuki suit to float over the platforms in order to get across. Your reward for getting past the switching blocks is a fight against three Magikoopas on a platform made of blocks that fall away when the player characters walks on them (though luckily the platforms respawn after a bit to allow the Magikoopas to be killed). Next, the player must traverse through a set of swinging spiked poles set all over another bottomless pit, with those swinging poles guarding moving platforms that allow the player to advance further, and Fuzzies strewn throughout the path just to make your life harder. Following that is a section where the player must combine wall-jumping and jumping off enemies to get to the top of a tower, followed by a section where the player must swim in a moving block of water while avoiding spiked surfaces, including several moving spiked blocks. The final challenge of the level has the player traverse across platforms made of nothing of boost pads, make several jumps while going at full speed and pick up five key tokens to unlock the box to travel to the final part of the level. The catch? That entire path of boost pads has Ring Burners parked along every side, including ''four'' such burners guarding the key tokens. [[spoiler:Luckily, once the keyblock in the boost pad area is accessed, the level takes it easy on you, with a victory lap across a lengthy invisible pipe that spells out "THANK YOU!" and a flagpole area where the final collectible (the level's Stamp) is there for easy taking. The Green Stars (the other collectibles) are also placed at easily accessible locations at the end of certain areas, ostensibly as a reward for getting past that particular section of the level.]] [[CheckPointStarvation There is also no checkpoint at any point in the stage]], meaning if you die, you have to run through this gauntlet all over again.

* One Daredevil Comet challenge replays an entire mission from Melty Molten Galaxy, [[LethalLavaLand which is covered in lava]], with only one hit point. It is the only Daredevil Comet mission that does not take place during a boss fight.

* Luigi's Purple Coins is a mission in the Toy Time Galaxy whose objective is to collect 100 purple coins, out of 150, in 3 minutes. There is no lava, unlike the flipside of the planet, only a green slime that is instant death (by contrast, you bounce off lava and lose a bit of health), and all platforms either disappear or start rotating once you step on them. Needless to say, planning your route is required, as any mistakes are immediately fatal. In an interview in Nintendo Power, one of the developers outright said that it was ''the'' hardest level in the game.

* Cloudy Court Galaxy is an easy level on its own, but how about the secret mission, Silver Stars In The Purple Pond? You go to a massive bowl filled with dark matter with a system of clouds floating over it. To make matters worse, a Cosmic Clone spawns behind you for each star you get, so that will mean that you will have up to FOUR clones chasing you. So, in other words, you have to get the stars without taking a single hit OR retracing your steps. If you take a hit, you fall through the clouds, and into the insta-kill dark matter Mario goes. If you turn around, the clones will get you.
* If you didn't hate the Cosmic Clones enough already, "Cosmic Clones in the Chompworks" will make you curse them to your very soul. In that level, you have to race around a course holding down platforms to try to guide a Golden Chomp to the end of the course where it will release the Star. Not only is it hard to stand and wait on the platforms the right amount of time while the clones are chasing you, but the layout of the level makes you retrace your steps quite a bit -- which, of course, means running smack through where all the clones are running around. Once you eventually succeed, the sight of all the clones instantly disintegrating and turning into Star Bits is extremely cathartic.
* In Chompworks Galaxy, the second star can be a massive pain if you don't know how to use the Spring Mushroom. Even worse, the level doesn't spend much time teaching you the mechanics of the item, so if you haven't played the first game, you will be very frustrated by the end of this level.
* Clockwork Ruins Galaxy has you traversing a series of giant rotating cogs. This wouldn't be so bad, but gravity does ''not'' keep you in place, so you have to keep moving around the edges of the platforms in order to stay in a position where you don't fall to your death, and at the same time, keep moving forward so you can proceed through the level. And as if that weren't enough, you later have to go through it again to collect Purple Coins. While there's a timer on the level. Ouch.
* The Daredevil Comet for "Bowser Jr's Boom Bunker" is a rarity as it doesn't just force you to fight the boss. It forces you to complete the entire level, which includes an entirely new segment not seen in the original level! It's not as hard as the "Lava Spire Daredevil Run" from the first game, but it's definitely up there.
* The World S galaxies take BrutalBonusLevel to a new level of player frustration. The closest the world has to a benign galaxy is the Twisty Trials Galaxy, which is identical to "The Secret of Ricco Harbor" from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine'' (although the Prankster Comet dials up the speed fourfold). But the other galaxies...
** The Mario Squared Galaxy's Comet mission, "Luigi's Purple Coin Chaos", takes a contender for the hardest mission in the original game and manages to make it even more annoying. On top of the Purple Coins to collect, the vanishing green platforms[[note]]The rotating platforms are gone, but that's only a consolation[[/note]], and Cosmic Clones which begin spawning the instant you get the first coin, you have to do it all in '''two minutes'''. If you plan to do this level, bring a friend; Co-Star Luma can keep the vanishing platforms there for you. In the previous game, there were more Purple Coins than you needed; this time, you need every last one.
** The Stone Cyclone Galaxy. It's the result of taking the third mission of Beach Bowl Galaxy from the first game, making the Cyclone Stone the only planet, making everything on it move '''five times faster''', and putting Silver Stars on it. That means [[CheckPointStarvation no checkpoints]]. Of all levels to reincorporate the time-slow gimmick on, they chose THIS. That's why it's so fast; you're expected to slow everything down. It's pretty bad when the hardest galaxy in the game is ''a level from the first game, which wasn't that hard to begin with.'' And then there's [[spoiler:Green Star 1, put in a very devious spot]]. The only consolation is that the Comet mission gets rid of the Silver Stars, but it also removes the slow-motion switches.
** In the Rolling Coaster Galaxy's "Purple Coins on the Rainbow Road", you have to collect Purple Coins while riding on an extremely hard to control ball, with no way to backtrack. And you have to complete it in under '''two minutes?!''' Some of the coins are scattered about on the platforms in between slide sections, and if you aren't ultra-precise in rolling over them, you ''will'' either run out of time or be forced to leave them behind and possibly fall short of 100.
*** Tall Trunk Galaxy's slide area has a similar Purple Coins challenge, and it's just as frustrating.
** The [[BossRush Boss Blitz Galaxy]]. Sure, fighting [[spoiler:Dino Piranha, King Kaliente, Major Burrows, Bouldergeist, ''and'' Fiery Dino Piranha]] is simple enough, but then the Comet mission slaps you with ''a 5-minute time limit'', which means you'll have to rush through the already difficult two last battles. If [[spoiler:Bouldergeist is stingy with spawning Bomb Boos in his final phase]], you might as well send Mario off the edge of the platform and start again.
** If you thought the Cosmic Clones were through with you after Chompworks, try "Cosmic Clones Wall Jumpers" in the Flip-Out Galaxy. It's you having to wall-jump and spin with precision up alternating red and blue walls that slide in and out while those sadistic clones chase you down. And since there's hardly any room for you to wall jump without colliding with them if you get knocked back down, getting hit once costs you a life. There's also the MercyInvincibility-ignoring SpikesOfDoom that you won't have the time to wait out, which causes you to bounce around as if on fire if you touch them. Also, [[spoiler:it's the only Comet Mission to contain a Green Star, which is to the right of the final wall jump section, essentially requiring you to complete it ''twice'' for HundredPercentCompletion]]. Thank God there are checkpoints.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bndgujEJSTc The Grandmaster Galaxy by itself is merely tough. Its comet star]], however, transforms it into a ''PlatformHell incarnate nightmare''. 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 range 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]]. [[note]]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.[[/note]]
* Fleet Glide Galaxy. You thought Fluzzard was hard enough to control? Now you have to use him again. There's just one problem; ''you die whenever you touch a wall''. And there's lava everywhere. God help you if you miss the Life Mushroom, as that's the only thing that keeps you alive. But the hardest thing about the level is obtaining the ''Comet Medal'': Like before, you have to pass through five gates to get the medal, but all five are out of your way. The hit points system is rather irregular, maybe counting one bounce off a wall as a direct hit, and the next as harmless, and to add insult to injury, you're forced to skip a Life Mushroom to go through the first gate. After all that, you're guaranteed to feel nothing but absolute dread for the Prankster Comet your efforts just unlocked elsewhere.
** Both of the Fluzzard races can be frustrated if you aren't a master with the controls, as the AI for the opponent birds is surprisingly good.
* The Beat Block Galaxy, by itself, isn't hard: a set of yellow blocks and a set of green blocks alternate being solid, and you just have to listen for the musical cue for each switch, which happens every eight beats. The comet mission has you repeat the mission in double-time... except that it's ''[[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard actually quadruple-time]]'', with the blocks alternating every two beats. It's a good idea not to jump toward any block that is solid, as it most likely won't be anymore by the time you reach it. As if this wasn't enough, whereas in the normal mission you only have to collect five Silver Stars on what is a single side of a pyramid with alternating green/yellow blocks, the comet mission has a ''full'' pyramid to go around, with the Silver Stars scattered all around it. You do get Yoshi to "help" you out, although an ill-timed flutter jump can send you falling to your doom as well.
* The second mission of Melty Monster Galaxy. The passage you're trying to control Rock Mario down is a twisty (and oftentimes narrow) path with gaps, and as if Rock Mario is not easy to control, towards the end you have to bounce off two boxing ring ropes... With an easy-to-reach 1-up early on and crystals with Star Bits all along the path, extra lives will come readily to you, which is good, because you ''will'' die a lot.
* Slimy Spring Galaxy subjects you to large amounts of swimming without being able to get any air, which can be a huge pain when you juggle dodging dozens of enemies and trying not to drown.
* Hightail Falls forces you to learn how to use the unwieldy Dash Yoshi perfectly to get through some of the later segments of the level. Even worse is the Speedrun Comet which gives you less space to move around in, and you have a tight time limit to finish the entire level in.
** Even worse is the Purple Coins star at Sunshine Beach where you have to use Dash Yoshi to collect 100 coins in ''only 35 seconds''.

* Green Stars in general are a pain, as some range from just waiting on a platform to dissipate from beneath you, to overcoming odd camera angles and controls thanks to gravity so you can leap to your death. Some green stars are ''literally'' a pain, involving such [[ViolationOfCommonSense shenanigans]] as ''getting hurt'' to get rid of a [[PowerUpLetDown powerup that prevents backflipping]] or (unless you're Luigi) jumping into lava to ''burn-bounce'' into the star. That said, some individual Green Stars are worth singling out.
** The first Green Star of Stone Cyclone Galaxy is nearly impossible to get without cheating. For starters, they positioned the star so high that it's impossible to get even with your highest jumps. To make things worse, they also positioned it in the route of the impossibly fast Tox Boxes, so even if you get close to the star, it wouldn't matter, because you'll be squashed. The only way to get it requires precise timing, by first turning on the time slow switch, and try to jump on the Tox Box. If you mess that up, you have to cross the platforms back to the switch, which is made [[FakeDifficulty needlessly difficult by the speed of them]], and try the strategy again, which, more often than not, squishes you flatter than a pancake. (Worth noting that you can get the Green Star with a well-timed triple jump from the elevated part of the platform. You still have to time your movements around the Tox Box's path, though, so it's still a pain in the ass to get.)
** The first Green Star in the Boo Moon Galaxy. You have to ride an extremely fast moving platform going at running speed, then long jump off to the star in a split second, hopefully not hitting the instant kill poison underneath.
** The Flipsville final Green Star. You have to fall into it from the wrong side of the platform. It's not above land, so there's no shadow to judge your fall, and if you miss, Mario is instantly killed by flying off into space. The CameraScrew for this star is so bad that it was once the image for this Wiki's FakeDifficulty page.
** The final Green Star in Shiverburn Galaxy. The star is located on the third planet, and you have to use the Cloud Flower to reach it. The problem? The Cloud Flower is only found on the ''first'' planet. You have to get the Cloud Flower and make it all the way to the third planet without taking a hit or ''spinning more than twice'', since spinning uses up one of your three clouds, and you need at least one cloud to get the star on the third planet. And the second planet is really hard to get through under these restrictions, since it takes place on shifting platforms over lava while a bunch of rock-spitting enemies are trying to kill you. If you mess up at this point, you have no way to refresh your clouds, so you have to do the whole thing over again.
** The final Green Star in Melty Monster Galaxy is pretty sadistic as well. Rolling through an extremely lengthy passage with the Stone Mushroom, unable to slow down or stop, having to move in a line that's as straight as possible or you'll end up falling into a hole, or crashing into a wall and bounce off it, and then, at the very end of the course, you have to ''fall off the platforms'' and collide with a star suspended in mid-air. You have to be moving in a very precise direction and fall off at exactly the right spot to catch it, and it's almost impossible to accurately guess where you have to fall off, and even harder to control it well enough to actually get it right.

* There's a Daredevil Comet challenge where you have to go through [[LethalLavaLand 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. There's also the controller-breaking madness of having to climb the huge rock spire at the end ''while it sinks into the frickin' lava''. And there's that god forsaken section with the [[ScrappyMechanic pull stars.]] All other Daredevil Comets thankfully take place during a boss battle, which helps mitigate any fatigue upon failure. [[ClassicVideoGameScrewYous Not this one]]. Folks can debate whether or not a theoretical Daredevil Comet challenge with the Fiery Pirhana would be more or less difficult with sincerity.
* 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.
* The Ghostly Galaxy's Daredevil Comet pits you up against ThatOneBoss, Bouldergeist, and because of the Daredevil Comet, you cannot get hit even once. The way to beat the boss is to throw three sets of three Boo Bombs at his center, but you have so little control of where the bombs will go off that half the time Bouldergeist's arms will take the hit, lengthening the fight. And since Bouldergeist's main attack is summoning jagged rocks from the ground that are really hard to dodge, you will be playing that level for a while. Best to just skip it unless you want OneHundredPercentCompletion.
* Luigi's Purple Coins is just as hard as that one. In this level, there is no lava, only a green slime that is instant death (by contrast, you bounce off lava and lose a bit of health) and all platforms either disappear or start rotating once you step on them. Needless to say, planning your route is required, as any mistakes are immediately fatal. Also, there's a time limit, but since you're much more likely to die by being forced to fall into the green slime by the disappearing/rotating platforms, it may as well not even be there at all. How bad is it? In an interview in Nintendo Power, one of the developers outright said that it was ''the'' hardest level in the game. When the ''developer of the game'' finds it difficult, you know you've got a hard one.
* While not as infuriating as Luigi's Purple Coins, Sling Pod Galaxy is ''evil''. Using the Wii-mote to launch Mario into small targets and time shots around obstacles made for controller breaking not-fun, because there's ''zero'' room for error - if you don't aim right at the middle of the next pod, you'll fly off into space millimeters away. And star bits in excess of 9,000 (not [[MemeticMutation joking]]) were earned, thanks to the developers always making sure there were enough of them to give you an extra life every time you died.
* This one is more like That One Minigame. In the Battlerock galaxy, during the second star mission, you can access a secret area with piles of trash on it and a robot who wants you to clear it up by throwing Bob-Ombs at them. This wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the 30-SECOND TIME LIMIT, the fact that those Bob-Ombs take FOREVER to explode, and that the only way to really get all of the piles of trash is to throw them on 5 small yellow spots on the ground. Fun. Then, in the Dreadnought Galaxy, you get to do it all over again, only this time there are 6 little yellow spots for which to aim and NO INCREASE IN THE 30-SECOND TIME LIMIT. For added amusement, try playing these levels as the less sure-footed [[spoiler:Luigi]]. It says a lot that the sequel, which virtually had the mission statement of being harder than the original, made trash-destroying significantly easier. This could be Nintendo's way of admitting that the trash-destroying missions in the first game were an example of FakeDifficulty; they wanted the second game to be hard, but they wanted it to be because of ''[[NintendoHard real]]'' difficulty.
* The Battlerock and Dreadnought Purple Coin missions are very similar -- in both missions, you have to travel on a moving platform and collect coins while dodging cannonballs and other obstacles, and in both cases, if you miss a coin, there's no way to go back and get it. It's a toss-up as to which of the two is more difficult. In Battlerock, you have to do insane jumps over super-huge electric fences as well as having to constantly switch between two sides of a moving platform (which, thanks to the weird physics, makes it much, ''much'' harder than it sounds). In Dreadnought, the platform you're on goes upwards, sideways, and then completely upside down as you're struggling to collect coins and dodge the cannonballs, which come at you even more relentlessly than the ones in Battlerock. To add to this, since this is 3D, you can easily miss the coins by forgetting that the platform also has depth. Fortunately, if you take too much time collecting coins on one of the stationary platforms, another lift will come along.
* The Ghostly Galaxy Purple Coin mission. You have a whole ''one minute'' to collect 100 coins that are scattered in a bone pen. With the pull stars. And there are bouncy pieces of meat everywhere to throw you off course. [[{{ThisIsGonnaSuck}} Good freakin' luck]].
* The Gusty Garden Galaxy Purple Coin mission. It's another "Get 100/150 coins within the time limit" mission, except you're on the puzzle cube of the first mission of that galaxy, and it can be confusing to get to an area you want to. And to add to it, you only have 2:30 to complete this mission. Thank god you don't have to collect them all, because one section is really painful; there is a part of the cube with Purple Coins on such thin ledges it's extremely easy to fall off, plus the camera goes wonky in that area. And finally, the clock will still tick even after the Star appears, and it's very confusing to get to the area it's found - made even harder because you'll probably only have like 45 seconds left on the clock.

** The Loopdeswoop Galaxy. Tilt the Wiimote a bit too much, or not quite enough, or speed up in just the wrong place, and it's into the void with you. Over and over again.
** The Rolling Gizmo Galaxy, which forces you to cross very thin platforms, dodge Bob-Ombs, and ride moving platforms while rolling on a ball and crossing the void. It's practically a DeathCourse, which [[EverythingTryingToKillYou Everything Trying To Send You Over The Edge]]. To add insult to injury, you're required to hop on a block that rotates around the platform to get to the final Star Ball blaster, which is an extra tricky bit of maneuvering. Make no mistake -- you ''will'' die -- over and over!
** The Bubble Blast Galaxy. Why? [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin You probably know]]. This is another level featuring that ''freaking'' bubble, and it's back in full force. There are electric fences everywhere, as well. The first objective is to collect five Star Chips within five different areas, all featuring you riding that bubble. And then after you collect them all, you'll be launched to an area where your extremely fragile bubble is forced to ''move as fast as possible'' against Bullet Bills that ''home on to you''. You've also got those guns that shoot electric balls to worry about, too. Woe is you.
* The four Cosmic Comet missions are all pretty unforgiving; you race a clone of yourself to the star, which is harder than it sounds because the clone is faster than you, doesn't make mistakes, and in the case of Luigi's clone, takes shortcuts. The most difficult of all of them is Sea Slide Galaxy's "Underwater Cosmic Race", where there is simply no margin for error - you absolutely ''need'' to get a shell before he does to have any hope of winning, and this requires a very precise long-jump into the water in both placement and timing. No matter how many times you've beaten this game, this level still strikes fear.
* The Kamella Daredevil Run in Deep Dark Galaxy. The fight doesn't seem like it would be a huge pain, but this is the second-fight Kamella, who randomly teleports between each spell, making it extremely nerve-wracking and dangerous to fight her when she goes onto the deck, and the crow's nest section of the fight is almost a guaranteed HP eater, due to the multitude of fireballs from the boss and her Magikoopas, and the possibility of Kamella teleporting right into the middle of the platform when you least expect it. If you're really unlucky, one of her fireballs might hit you ''as you climb the pole up to the second half''. Much rage is to be had.
* Levels like Bouncing Down Cake Lane and Matter Splatter Galaxy will be absolute torture if you can't use the [[ScrappyMechanic spring mushroom.]]
* Several purple coin levels like in the Honeyhive, Beach Bowl, and Dusty Dune galaxies take an incredibly long time to do, which means that if you die at one point, you will lose ''all'' of your progress. The Dusty Dune star is particularly frustrating given how easy it is to fall into the quicksand.
* If you suck at chasing down Star Bunnies, then Snow Cap Galaxy will be a massive pain, given that you have to chase down several in a tight time limit on a planet covered almost entirely with snow that will slow Mario down to a crawl.
* There are also several segments in otherwise unchallenging levels that can prove to be truly frustrating:
** The Cyclone Stone area in Beach Bowl Galaxy is a tough gauntlet filled with Thwomps and Tox Boxes, especially when you have to beat it when all of the enemies movie incredibly quickly. And of course, Nintendo ''had'' to remake this area for the sequel even harder than in this game.
** The final segment of Freezeflame Galaxy in which you have to use an Ice Flower and skate over platforms of lava. While skating is rarely annoying in this game, it's not at all ideal for the precision platforming you have to do to get to the end of this area, as the amount of platforms available for you to stand on get smaller and smaller.
** The Star Ball area in Melty Molten Galaxy, which forces you to make it through a tough obstacle-course filled with moving platforms, falling meteors, and tons of pitfalls.
** The pull star section in Dreadnaught Galaxy is just as bad as the one in Melty Molten Galaxy, if not worse. It's a complete and utter BulletHell as Mario has to make it through a barrage of cannonballs, and one hit will send him falling all the way back to the beginning.
** The first segment in Dusty Dune Galaxy will prove to be a massive pain if you can't quickly learn how to use tornados.

* World 4-2. You first have to survive a unrelenting ZergRush of Beezos on two hearts before making your way to the next area, where you have to jump on slippery platforms and whales spouting up water [[EverythingTryingToKillYou (which hurts you unless you stand on top of the spout)]]. The whales make for very small platforms, meaning precision is an absolute must and to make matters worse, there are Blue Shy Guys running on top of the whales to give you even less room. The final area you're faced with a long stretch of spikes, and theres no way to cross without using the CraniumRide on an enemy, all leading up to an encounter with a Red Birdo... on ''ice''.

** While most of the Stars are tricky, but doable with patience and some precision platforming skill, the stage's red coin Star throws any semblance of "skill" completely out the window. It's called "Timed Jumps on Moving Bars", but it would've been more accurate to call it "Lucky Clockwork Pachinko!" because you ''can't'' jump across them; the way they're timed, they all go vertical at the exact same time (unless you enter at mid-speed, in which case the bars simply go bonkers and move ''completely at random''). This basically leaves you to drop down the hole at the top of the area where the red coins are and pray that you bounce off the spinning bars in such a way that you get knocked into one or two of the coins without getting thrown into the abyss in the process. The ordeal is a [[LuckBasedMission luck-based nightmare]] that will suck up lives like a Hoover; it's rather telling when it makes the ''actual'' Pachinko stage from ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine Sunshine]]'', itself considered ThatOneLevel, look like a cakewalk in comparison, since in that stage you at least have some control over where Mario goes.

* World 2-3 (and, by extension, its "revamp" as World 7-3). At first it seems like you can just run across the bridge and outrun the Cheep Cheeps, but then you get to just before the end, where there are three small platforms. If you don't slow down, you can easily miss all of them and lose a life. However, if you slow down too soon, you will get snagged by a leaping Cheep Cheep. ''VideoGame/NESRemix'' forces you to do this level full speed the whole way. Additionally, in [[VideoGame/SuperMarioBros35]], these are especially difficult because not only do you have to focus on the Cheep Cheeps ... you also have to focus on non-native enemies sent by other opponents too, which could include Piranha Plants, Hammer Bros, and even Bowser himself. Better hope your 20 coin roulette gives you a Star.

* World 2-3 (and, by extension, its "revamp" as World 7-3). At first it seems like you can just run across the bridge and outrun the Cheep Cheeps, but then you get to just before the end, where there are three small platforms. If you don't slow down, you can easily miss all of them and lose a life. However, if you slow down too soon, you will get snagged by a leaping Cheep Cheep. ''VideoGame/NESRemix'' forces you to do this level full speed the whole way.

* In "The Watermelon Festival" in Gelato Beach, you have to guide a gigantic watermelon down a cliff and along a beach past a horde of Cataquacks, who, if they get anywhere close, will knock the watermelon into the air, popping it. Oh, and the controls for guiding said watermelon are hellishly awkward. You can squirt the Cataquacks with FLUDD to stun them, but the area is so swarmed with them that for every one you can fend off, there are always two or three more coming at you from the other side. You can also use the dune buds to permenantly kill them, but only the ones on the beach proper can be killed this way (the one dune bud on the upper level goes ''down'', rendering it useless in terms of killing Cataquacks).

** Hazy Maze Cave: Several coins must be obtained by defeating the bat enemies, which have a tendency to hang around over bottomless pits. Another type of enemy (Mr. I) must be defeated by running quick circles around it on small platforms. One such platform requires pixel-perfect maneuvering considering it's barely larger than the enemy. It also has the difficult mission "Metal Head Mario Can Move"/"Metal Head Wario Can Move". Getting to the room with the star is easy. Getting ''across'' the room, which requires two consecutive long jumps between a very thin ledge over a bottomless pit, is not. The DS port makes it even harder [[DamnYouMuscleMemory due to the less precise controls]] and the fact that unlike most of the game's thin ledges, its width is ''not'' altered to accomodate the new controls or any flubs you make.

* Until you get used to it, #6 Wendy's Castle in Chocolate Island is this. The bone-throwing Dry Bones and the Grinder buzzsaws will be the least of your problems, what with the spiked pillars (which, by the way, are not treated as normal hazards, but rather as solid walls, meaning they will kill you instantly if you get caught under them and you cannot [[MercyInvincibility run your way through them]]. Even after the midpoint, there's still a precarious platforming section with shifting terrain and many Li'l Sparkies and Hotheads rotating on the perimeters.

* Every single one of the secret levels is this:

* Tall, Tall Mountain is mostly a cakewalk and even the trickier platforming segments and the monkey star are more irritating than truly hard, but the hardest star to get on it is Blast to the Lonely Mushroom due to the trial and error involved in it. You have to use a cannon to reach a very far off star floating above a giant mushroom on the outskirts of the level. Your aim has to be absolutely perfect, or Mario will miss and fly to his death. However, there are two SequenceBreaking tricks you can exploit that make it a lot easier--you can use a Fly Guy to simply spin over to the Mushroom, or Long Jump to the mushroom from a ledge near the rolling log. The star is also considerably easier to get in the game's DS version, as you can simply have Hoot the Owl carry you to it.

** The 100-coin star: There are only 106 total coins in the level, so you really need to collect almost ''every'' coin. And sooooo, sooooo many of them are underwater. And many of ''those'' are directly in front of instant-death whirlpools, so good luck collecting them all without dying! To save yourself some work, you might want to get this star at the same time as the red coin star, since you'll have to get all of those anyway in order to have enough coins to reach 100. Also notable, it is futile to attempt getting 100 coins before completing Bowser in the Fire Sea, as the moving poles that allow access to the blue and red coins won't be there since Bowser's Sub will still occupy the area.[[note]]Some skilled speedrunners have managed to obtain the red coins without the poles, but it's clearly SequenceBreaking that the game doesn't expect mortal players to accomplish.[[/note]] And again, to Nintendo 64 Mouse Challenge takers: ''forget about it.''

* Sirena Beach as a whole has left a bad taste in many a player's mouth. The first mission is a fight against ThatOneBoss that eventually becomes a ZergRush that would rival that of [[Videogame/SeriousSam Serious Sam's encounters]]; this is followed by a romp through a brutal secret stage. Then you have to navigate the [[GuideDangIt maze-like hotel]] with the first step in it bordering on InsaneTrollLogic, followed by a LuckBasedMission with wonky physics leading to ''another'' secret stage, followed by a luck-based boss fight, followed by a boring clean-the-goop mission with a strict time limit, followed by chasing Shadow Mario through said maze-like hotel, and ''then'' finishing off with finding 8 red coins in the resident TimedMission... [[RuleOfThree again in said maze-like hotel]].

** The Manta Ray's Reward: You have to trail behind a manta ray and [[PassThroughTheRings swim through the rings]] that he releases as he moves through the water. To get the star, you have to swim through five consecutive rings, which due to your inability to turn on a dime while in the water, and the fact that they vanish after a couple of seconds and if you miss just one you have to start over, is really amazingly fricking frustrating for something that sounds really simple.

* Sirena Beach as a whole has left a bad taste in many a player's mouth. The first mission is a fight against ThatOneBoss; this is followed by a romp through a secret stage. Then you have to navigate the [[GuideDangIt maze-like hotel]] with the first step in it bordering on InsaneTrollLogic, followed by a LuckBasedMission with wonky physics leading to ''another'' secret stage, followed by a luck-based boss fight, followed by a boring clean-the-goop mission, followed by chasing Shadow Mario through said maze-like hotel, and ''then'' finishing off with finding 8 red coins in the resident TimedMission... [[RuleOfThree again in said maze-like hotel]].

* The Secret Levels, 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. You also [[NoGearLevel lose access to FLUDD on your first visit to these Secret Levels]]. And they all share the same catchy [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvZWxiUfrNo tune.]] The hardest Secret Levels are the following:

* In "The Watermelon Festival" in Gelato Beach, you have to guide a gigantic watermelon down a cliff and along a beach past a horde of Cataquacks, who, if they get anywhere close, will knock the watermelon into the air, popping it. Oh, and the controls for guiding said watermelon are hellishly awkward. You can squirt the Cataquacks with FLUDD to stun them, but the area is so swarmed with them that for every one you can fend off, there are always two or three more coming at you from the other side. You can also use the dunes to permenantly kill them, but the timing to the dunes is real wonky and you also can't get too far away otherwise they'll stop chasing you, AND there are so many of them, it will take FOREVER!

* Sirena Beach as a whole has left a bad taste in many a player's mouth. The first mission is a fight against ThatOneBoss; this is followed by a romp through a secret stage. Then you have to navigate the [[GuideDangIt maze-like hotel]], followed by a LuckBasedMission with wonky physics leading to ''another'' secret stage, followed by a luck-based boss fight, followed by a boring clean-the-goop mission, followed by chasing Shadow Mario through said maze-like hotel, and ''then'' finishing off with finding 8 red coins in the resident TimedMission... [[RuleOfThree again in said maze-like hotel]].

** "The Hotel Lobby's Secret", the second episode of Sirena Beach. Getting to it involves some tricky platforming while spraying the Pink Boos with water. In the actual Secret Level, you start off having to use multiple Winged enemies as {{Goomba Springboard}}s, wall jump through some brick blocks, go on a narrow path of sand blocks, then ride a rotating platform to the end.

** "The Shell's Secret", the sixth episode of Noki Bay. This is a long Secret Level about every obstacle except for Sand Blocks and glass cubes appear. You also have to wall jump a couple of times to progress, and one of them is above the BottomlessPit.