History ThatOneLevel / SuperMarioBros

Please refrain from adding any {{Brutal Bonus Level}}s, {{That One Sidequest}}s, or {{Self Imposed Challenge}}s.

* 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''.

* 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. Oh, and it also has some of the most {{troll}}ish level design in gaming: there's a Warp Pipe at the very end, which you'd ''think'' would send you back to the start of the mini-stage to try again, but it actually sends you all the way back to Delfino Plaza and [[OhNoNotAgain forces you to do all of the above]] just to have another chance at beating the level.
* [[FanNickname "Pachinko Game"]] is a ''very'' close second to the Lily Pad Ride. 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 F.L.U.D.D., and a good half of the coins are in really hard-to-reach locations. 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. 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. 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. On top of everything else, 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 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. 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!''

* 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. Of course, there are obstacles here as well that can hinder you drastically. Also, [[CheckpointStarvation there's no checkpoint]].

* 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 F.L.U.D.D., and a good half of the coins are in really hard-to-reach locations. 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. 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. 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. On top of everything else, 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.

* "Super Mario Bros. W1-1?", functions as the standard BrutalBonusLevel. purports itself as a remake of 1-1. 'You immediately face a Hammer Bro, a stack of Goombas, and some Thwomps once you start the level,' and the road to the flagpole does not let up from there. Peach does not kid around when she says "creating this brand of chaos is ''Bowser's'' speciality".

** "The Shell's Secret", the sixth episode of Noki Bay. This is a long Secret Level where 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.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYDC4iAVi7o Getting a high score in 4-3 is the most infuriating thing about the first Mario vs Donkey Kong.]] ''Nothing'' comes close to the level of bullshit that is this level, and whoever designed it is a sadist. Given the way the first half of the stage functions, you have to have almost perfect timing at certain sections, especially in the second half, if you want to just ''barely'' beat the default high score by just one or, if you're lucky/good enough, two hundred points (Every second left on the clock is multiplied by one hundred and added to your score). Experience has shown that it ''is'' still possible to get the Star (which is needed to help unlock the Expert levels) by ''matching'' the default high score. Just don't expect the game to acknowledge it by highlighting your score, because you didn't actually beat the old score.

* World 7, Cannon Cove is a nice breather level after the hell that was world 6, even in plus mode. That is, however, until you hit the nasty brick wall of 7-7 with a hellish puzzle with capture kongs and an almost guarantee of getting your minis in the door out of order. That level is by far the hardest level in the game outside the BrutalBonusLevel set, and even then, it's harder than most of the NintendoHard bonus levels.

[[caption-width-right:350:''The Lost Levels''? Seems more like [[PlatformHell making this jump]] is a lost cause...]]

[[folder:Super Mario Bros.]]
* 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 4-4, the first of three maze castles. In the original version, there is no indication that you are taking an incorrect path other than seeing the same layouts again and again. Thankfully, the ''All-Stars'' version and the ''Deluxe'' port put in audio cues to inform you if you're on the right or wrong path.

[[folder:Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels]]
* World 2-2 and 8-2, not so much for being hard platforming-wise (they both become pretty easy once you've beaten them once), but for how difficult they are to figure out how to beat. 2-2 introduces the player to required invisible blocks needed to pass certain areas. Meanwhile, 8-2 abruptly ends with a pipe that warps you backwards until you figure out that you need to Koopa-jump to hit a block containing a hidden vine, something that only leads to a coin bonus in other levels.
* World 7-3. Those green springs that propel Mario and Luigi so high they go offscreen for several seconds? Let's put them on tiny platforms spaced really far apart over a BottomlessPit, followed by a couple single-block platforms with firebars. Oh, and add some [[GustyGlade wind]] too, just to be sure.
* The cloud stage in 8-3. You have to make big jumps and dodge [[EliteMooks Hammer Bros.]] ''Running'' Hammer Bros. In addition, there are [[InvisibleBlock Invisible Blocks]] designed to trip you up, one of which contains a PoisonMushroom. Oh, and there's that vexing Lakitu to deal with. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nZIpLlNEmo This video]] not only shows you how to easily get past the Running Hammer Bros., but makes the entire level look like a walk in the park.

[[folder:Super Mario Bros. 2]]
* 3-2 has an underground segment where you have a limited amount of bombs to blow up several walls. Running out of bombs and having to reload the section can get tedious really fast.

* World 5-1, where you have to cross a vast waterfall by hopping on the heads of rising and sinking Trouters, is a nightmare if you try to complete it with anybody other than the Princess (who can simply soar from platform to platform). If you really want to punish yourself, try it with Luigi and his horribly imprecise jumps. It is also the introductory level for the green Birdo, which doesn't spit any eggs, only fireballs. There's also one portion in the level where you can't see the ground and you have to do a leap of faith onto an enemy. If you miss, you find out that there was a floor there the entire time.
* 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's 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. 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 still won't get you out of trouble: there are Shy Guys and Snifits roaming the place, [[LedgeBats trying to knock you straight into a bottomless pit]].

[[folder:Super Mario Bros. 3]]
* 3-3 and 3-8. In both of them, there is water at the bottom of the screen, and most of the platforms in the level rise and fall at intervals. The problem is, [[DemonicSpiders Boss Bass]] is swimming across the bottom of the screen, ready to leap up and swallow the player whole in an instant. This is, by the way, the only enemy in the game that can instantly kill Mario or Luigi when they're not small. The game tries to help by giving you a Frog Suit in the Toad House to the right of 3-3, but the abundance of Cheep-Cheeps means that you may lose this valuable item very quickly. It doesn't help that one of the White Mushroom Houses is triggered by 3-8... In conclusion, Sea Side is a place where many a controller has been thrown.

* 6-5. The only way out is to grab a Koopa shell, fly up a narrow hole in the ceiling (which there are many of, but you have to figure out which one is the right one via TrialAndErrorGameplay) and throw it at the Nipper plants and Brick Blocks blocking the exit pipe. The worst part? The ground is cluttered with block-throwing Buster Beetles that you have to clear out first, and you can only hold the Koopa shell in your hands for so long before it eventually breaks free and instantly hurts you. There's a room that [[AntiFrustrationFeature provides a powerup every time you enter]] and respawns the Koopas to prevent you from [[{{Unwinnable}} getting stuck with no method of flight and/or Koopas]], but it also respawns the Beetles, naturally.

** Level 7-4 is an [[UnderTheSea underwater]] AutoScrollingLevel which herds you through a veritable maze of deadly, immobile, [[InvincibleMinorMinion invincible]] [[ElectricJellyfish Jelectros]] while several [[MookMaker Blooper Nannies]] follow you, spawning [[GoddamnedBats Little Bloopers]]. Spiked Cheep-Cheeps and Lava Lotuses are thrown into the mix as well to only make the journey more treacherous. Hopefully you have a Frog Suit in your inventory, or the journey won't be an easy one.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McEZ5ifAn-Y Level 7-7]]. You get a Starman at the start, but the ground is made entirely of damaging Munchers, so you have to run to the next ? Block before the invincibility expires to release another Star. Even then, if you immediately collect the Star when it appears, you won't have enough time to get to the next one - you'll have to let it bounce on its own for a little bit first. It's not too bad until the pipes start to get in the way, including one near the end where you have to crouch-slide underneath it if you aren't small.

[[folder:Super Mario World]]

[[folder:Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins]]
* Wario's (or rather, Mario's) Castle has many jumps that are nigh impossible without bunny ears. It's also [[MarathonLevel much, much longer than any other stage in the game]], and has [[CheckpointStarvation no checkpoint]]. Die while fighting the final boss (or at any other point for that matter), and you're doing the whole damn level over again from the beginning.

[[folder:New Super Mario Bros. DS]]

[[folder:New Super Mario Bros. Wii]]

[[folder:New Super Mario Bros. 2]]

* The secret exit of World 3-Tower. You have to be Mini Mario to access it, and that's CRAZY hard, because of all the Fishbones and spiked pillars in the area. After you get in the secret mini pipe? Dodge more spiked pillars and Fishbones.

[[folder:New Super Mario Bros. U / New Super Luigi U]]

[[folder:Super Mario 64]]

[[folder:Super Mario Sunshine]]

[[folder:Super Mario Galaxy]]

[[folder:Super Mario Galaxy 2]]

[[folder:Super Mario [=3D=] World]]

[[folder:Super Mario Odyssey]]

[[folder:Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker]]

[[folder:Super Mario Maker]]
* The levels shown in the Nintendo World Championships 2015 look ''VideoGame/KaizoMarioWorld''-esque and serve as a forewarning as just how difficult levels can be made. [[spoiler:[[BrutalBonusLevel They can be unlocked in-game after beating all other pre-installed levels.]] You want to be able to freely place Weird Mushrooms? ''Good luck''.]]

* "Be Brave & Get Up Close!" has a row of ? blocks in front of a huge tower of giant Chain Chomps. You have to try to get the invincibility star placed in the very last block so you can use it to knock out the Chain Chomps and jump over the remaining tower of Chain Chomp pegs and hit the goal, but the somewhat erratic behaviour of the Chain Chomps makes this practically a LuckBasedMission. You also have a short timer on this level as well, so you can't take forever either.

[[folder:Super Mario Run]]

[[folder:Super Mario Maker 2]]

[[folder:Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island]]

[[folder:Yoshi's Island DS]]

[[folder:Yoshi's New Island]]

[[folder:Yoshi's Woolly World]]

[[folder:Super Paper Mario]]

[[folder:Paper Mario: Sticker Star]]

[[folder:Paper Mario: Color Splash]]

[[folder:Mario vs. Donkey Kong]]

[[folder:Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem!]]

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McEZ5ifAn-Y Level 7-7]]. You get a Starman at the start, but the ground is made entirely of damaging Munchers, so you have to run to the next ? Block before the invincibility expires to release another Star. Even then, if you immediately collect the Star when it appears, you won't have enough time to get to the next one - you'll have to let it bounce on its own for a little bit first. It's not too bad until the pipes start to get in the way, including one near the end where you have to crouch/run underneath if you aren't small.

** Level 7-4 is an [[UnderTheSea underwater]] AutoScrollingLevel which herds you through a veritable maze of deadly, immobile, [[InvincibleMinorMinion invincible]] [[ElectricJellyfish Jelectros]] while all the while a [[MookMaker Blooper Nanny]] follows you, spawning [[GoddamnedBats Little Bloopers]]. Hopefully you have a Frog Suit in your inventory, or the journey won't be an easy one.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McEZ5ifAn-Y Level 7-7]]. You get a Starman at the start, but the ground is made of munchers, so you have to run to the next Question Block before the invincibility expires to release another star. Even then, if you immediately collect the star when it appears, you won't have enough time to get to the next one - you'll have to let it bounce on its own for a little bit first. It's not too bad until the pipes start to get in the way, including one near the end where you have to crouch/run underneath if you're in Super form.
** The second Fortress in World 7. Have fun having to constantly time jumps on pipes, which of course are inhabited by Piranha Plants and Venus Fire Traps. The pipes are tiny platforms, giving you a hectic time to juggle between between timing jumps and avoiding shots from the Fire Traps, and waiting for the Piranha Plants to retreat. The level also throws a tricky jump involving a Thwomp, and to make matters worse, the stage throws Boos at you to give you even more obstacles and distractions to manage. Unless you've been [[TooAwesomeToUse saving up those Hammer Bro suits]], you're most likely in for a rough time.

** The Airship level, following the Hand Traps, is a real nightmare: compared to the airship levels which end every previous world, it scrolls a ''lot'' faster and the "ships" are much smaller and spaced further apart, which is [[SuspiciousVideoGameGenerosity why you were awarded Raccoon Leaves in the previous levels]].
** The Fortress. [[OneOfTheseDoorsIsNotLikeTheOther So many doors...]] If that weren't enough, the boss is found through a door that is only accessible for a brief time by using a P-Switch. There is no indication of this, so first-timers will often time out. Even worse in the SNES version, where the two sides of the fortress are the same colour. Many a player has saved a Lakitu's Cloud for the whole game just to skip this level.

* #6 Wendy's Castle in Chocolate Island, until you get used to it. 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.

* ...the Valley Fortress. Not only does it have the same deadly spiked pillars as #6 Wendy's Castle, but toward the end of the level they move up and down equally quickly, requiring more than usually sharp timing and positioning. If you have a Cape, it becomes even more frustrating unless you can force yourself to tap the Jump button instead of holding it for even a fraction of a second longer than necessary; otherwise, Mario/Luigi will float for a while and throw off the timing.

* #7 Larry's Castle is not too difficult per se, but you only have a time limit of 300 and nearly half of that will be lost just riding the Snake Block to the second room unless you have very impressive skills with a Cape Feather and are able to skip this part. The second room is long and contains the ever-annoying Magikoopa. If you don't have the Cape Feather by this point, you'll be waiting for Magikoopa to blast through the turn blocks so you can advance, and this can take time if you accidentally take Magikoopa out. If you find the hidden midway gate and you lose a life, however, you can retry the level at the end of the first screen without the time issue being too big of a deal.

* That One Exit rather than That One Level, the secret exit in the Valley Ghost House can be frustrating to execute even when you know how to go about it. The key and keyhole are off the top of the screen and must be reached by generating a "staircase" of coins from a ? Block and turning them into solid blocks with a P-Switch; however, since the goal is off the top of the screen, creating the staircase is reduced to guesswork after a few seconds. Moreover, the entrance into the key area is only as high as small Mario/Luigi, so it is easy to fall at the final hurdle if you have a powerup and cannot duck through the entrance. Not helping is that most levels with secret exits are indicated by a red dot on the overworld instead of a yellow dot, whereas Ghost Houses don't have a similar distinction. As well, the secret exit is simply a shortcut to #7 Larry's Castle, a level that you can easily get to by following the main path, meaning that most first-time players would have no indication that the Valley Ghost House even has a secret exit to look for.

''VideoGame/MarioParty'' examples go on [[ThatOneLevel/MarioParty their own page]].

When [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros a franchise]] has been [[LongRunners running for over 35 years, has countless installments]], and features the most prolific {{video game}} character in history, you would expect it to have its tough moments. But these [[ThatOneLevel take it to another]] [[{{Pun}} level.]]

[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosWii https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/MarioWiiThatOneLevel.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"[[Music/JayZ If you have a Starman, toss it this way son. I got 99 lives and I'm losing every one.]]"]]

When [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros a franchise]] has been [[LongRunner running for over 35 years, has countless installments]], and features the most prolific {{video game}} character in history, you would expect it to have its tough moments. But these [[ThatOneLevel take it to another]] [[{{Pun}} level.]]

Mario Party examples go on [[ThatOneLevel/MarioParty their own page]].

!!!Main 2D Platformers

* 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, or by using Luigi's Back Flip.

* 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. 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 race against Big Penguin in Cool, Cool Mountain. One turn in particular is angled just such that you can't slow down without falling off, you can't go too fast without falling off, and sometimes the penguin you're racing will just bump you off the track if you barely make it past the turn.
* Dire, Dire Docks is another area which is just hellish in general, and it's all thanks to the horribly imprecise swimming controls. Luckily to non-HundredPercentCompletion-ist, only the first level is required to beat the game. To single out specific missions:
** Chests in the Current: You have to open four treasure chests in a specific sequence while underwater, but unlike the similar mission in Jolly Roger Bay, the chests are all facing different directions, and since they're clustered so closely together, you have to keep constantly swimming in circles and readjusting your angle so that you're lined up properly with the next chest. (Mario in this game lacks the ability to dive straight down, which if he had it would make this level significantly easier; sadly, that mechanic would not be added until ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy Galaxy]]''.) What makes this one ''really'' bad is that the final chest is located right in front of the whirlpool, making it next to impossible to open it without getting sucked into the whirlpool and dying before you can claim the star.
** 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 frustrating for something that sounds really simple.
** The 100-coin star: There are only 106 total coins in the level, so you really need to collect almost ''every'' coin. 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. 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 "Yoshi's Fruit Adventure", you have to squirt juice onto jumping fish to reach a series of platforms. This one is extremely frustrating because if you're just a tiny fraction off in one of your jumps, Yoshi falls in the water and dissolves, forcing you to go all the way back and get him again, and then cross the platforms again to get back to where you were. One trick which makes this level a lot easier is after you reach the first stationary platform, to jump off to the side onto a ledge and have Yoshi eat a coconut. This will cause his juice to turn the platforms pink and go straight up instead of moving horizontally, basically carrying you the rest of the way to the shine. Surprisingly few players seem to catch onto this trick, however.[[note]]This is especially strange, considering that the ''official guidebook'' outright tells you to feed Yoshi a coconut, meaning this is likely the intended solution.[[/note]]

* 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). 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 eighth mission of Pinna Park, where you have to ride the same roller coaster you fought [[spoiler:Mecha Bowser]] in and pop all of the balloons (20 in total) before the coaster completes 3 laps. Thanks to the poor, clunky aim, the rockets are ''very'' difficult to send off properly, so you'll usually end up having two or three stray balloons taunting you towards the end. You can only shoot most of them within one or two 3-second periods during the entire lap, so if you miss your chance, even if you have half a minute of ride left, you're boned.

* "The Red Coin Fish" is Noki Bay's eighth mission (noticing a pattern here?) which has you hunt down a fish made of several yellow coins and the eight red coins you need for the shine. First problem is you are underwater (so it is difficult to control with precision) in an area with limited coins to refill your health; secondly the fish loves to split itself apart and reform somewhere else and when split the coins move too fast for you to chase after them.
* The third mission of Pianta Village, "The Goopy Inferno". The entire village is covered in ''flaming'' goop, and worse, Shadow Mario swipes FLUDD as you enter. [[spoiler:You do get it back... right before you get the Shine Sprite.]] Even worse, the slightest touch of the goop wrecks the controls to the point of almost certain death. There are a number of different ways of dealing with the situation, all of which have their difficulties. The intended solution involves taking a long roundabout route underneath the village; however, it's really easy to lose your bearings trying to navigate through the maze of platforms, and those catwalks are really easy to fall from. A quicker path is to swim up the river into the pond and then repeatedly jump out of it, splashing water out to clean a path to the mayor's house. However, while you're trying to do this, Swoopin' Stus and that bird flying overhead keep trying to splash goop on you, and even if you can clear out enough of a path, you still have to do a perfect spin jump to the right spot to make it count. It's also possible to walk along the fences to clear the level, but this is debatably ''harder'' than the intended method due to the game's somewhat dodgy controls and one slip-up dumping you into an ocean of goop with no hope for escape. Finally, you can tiptoe around the left side of the village and climb to the top of the tree and then spin jump to the center of the village. However, this particular route leaves you absolutely no margin for error; slip up just a tiny little bit and you're screwed. (You'll either fall from the tree and plummet to your death, or you'll land smack in the goop and won't have time to extricate yourself before you die.)
* 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]]. 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:

** "The Secret of the Village Underside", the fifth episode of Pianta Village. Yoshi controls terribly anyway, but you have to somehow jump down to a platform you can barely see. Then you get the actual Secret Level, which instead of actual platforming, you just have to be thrown by Piantas. Sounds easy, but you have to be DEAD ON in your positioning and how you move the control stick, otherwise you're screwed! Actually, you may still be screwed anyway. At least the Red Coin mission is much easier thanks to FLUDD's presence.
* 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. 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. 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.
* The boat ride to Bowser in the last level. You must turn Mario just right and fire the FLUDD to propel the boat. It is very easy to crash the boat and tip you into the lava, an instant death. Then there's getting all the blue coins in that level for OneHundredPercentCompletion.

* [[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. 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. 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. 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. On top of everything else, 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.

* The four missions in which you have to race a Cosmic Clone to the star are all pretty unforgiving, especially when playing as Luigi, since his clone takes more shortcuts. The Sea Slide Galaxy's "Underwater Cosmic Race" is generally agreed to be the most difficult, as winning it is a matter of grabbing a Koopa shell before the opponent does the same. Fail and there isn't much you can do to catch up to him.

* 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. But there is a 30-second time limit, not helped by the long detonation times for the Bob-ombs. There is a nearly identical mission in the Dreadnought Galaxy. The sequel, which had the mission statement of being harder than the original, made the trash-destroying sidequests in the Rightside Down and Upside Dizzy Galaxies significantly easier.
* 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. In Battlerock, you have to do insane jumps over large electric fences, as well as having to constantly switch between two sides of a moving platform. In Dreadnought, the platform you're on goes upwards, sideways, and then upside down as you collect coins and dodge cannonballs. 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 one minute to collect 100 coins that are scattered in a bone pen with the pull stars. There are bouncy pieces of meat everywhere to throw you off course.
* The Gusty Garden Galaxy Purple Coin mission. You need to collect 100 purple coins (out of 150) on the "puzzle cube" planet from the first mission, in 2 minutes and 30 seconds. The planet is confusing to navigate, and one part has Purple Coins on thin ledges with [[CameraScrew wonky camera angles]].

* 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.

* 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.
* The Kamella Daredevil Run in Deep Dark Galaxy. This is the second fight against Kamella, who randomly teleports between each spell. 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.
* "Purple Coins in the Desert" doesn't have a time limit, but there are no checkpoints and it is easy to fall into the quicksand.

* The infamous garbage cleanup sidequest from the first game returns in Rightside Down and Upside Dizzy Galaxies, though somewhat easier. You have 20 seconds to use a Fire Flower to clean up the garbage-filled crates (for comparison, the original mission used Bob-ombs), with the only difference between the two missions being that the Upside Dizzy one has more crates.
* The Prankster Comet for Hightail Falls is a timed mission which uses the fast and unwieldy Dash Yoshi. Not only are there meteors falling everywhere, but they have also damaged parts of the level, giving less space to move around.
* Tall Trunk Galaxy's Prankster Comet mission takes place on the slide, where a robot has lost 140 purple coins scattered throughout it. The nature of the level means that there is no backtracking, and you lose a life if you fail to collect 100 coins by the time you reach the bottom.
* 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 is similar, but 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. Whereas in the normal mission you only have to collect five Silver Stars on what is a single side of a pyramid with the alternating blocks, the comet mission has a full pyramid to go around, with the Silver Stars scattered all around it. However, you do get Yoshi to help you.
* In Chompworks Galaxy, the second star can be a massive pain if you don't know how to use the Spring Mushroom. Unlike the first game, the level doesn't spend much time teaching the mechanics of the item.
* In "Cosmic Clones in the Chompworks", you have to race around a course holding down platforms to guide a Golden Chomp to the end of the course, where it will release the Star, while Cosmic Clones chase after you. 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, means running through where the clones are running around.
* The fast-moving, hard-to-steer Dash Yoshi returns in the Purple Coin mission in the Starshine Beach Galaxy. You have 35 seconds to collect 100 purple coins, out of 140 scattered across the main planet.
* "The Star In The Sinking Swamp" forces you to run on a super fast and unpredictable Snake Block that gives you hardly any time to react to its twists and turns. If that's not tricky enough, there are also several enemies in the way that make the star even harder to get.

* The Daredevil Comet for "Bowser Jr's Boom Bunker" requires you to traverse the the entire level, boss fight included, and adds an entirely new segment not seen in the original level.
* The second mission of Melty Monster Galaxy has a long, winding path where you need to steer Rock Mario, making sure not to fall off; your only relief is the easy-to-reach 1-Up mushroom and the large number of Star Bits along the course. Near the end, you have to bounce off two boxing ring ropes.

* 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 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 Flipsville final Green Star requires you to fall into it from the wrong side of a platform. It's located above a bottomless pit, so there is no shadow to judge your fall. 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 is located on the third planet, and you have to use the Cloud Flower from the first planet to reach it. Not only do you need to avoid taking a hit, but spinning more than twice will use up all three of your clouds, and you need at least one cloud to get the star. The second planet is really hard to get through under these restrictions, since it takes place on shifting platforms over lava with a bunch of rock-spitting enemies.
** 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 falling into the poisonous swamp underneath.
** The final Green Star in Melty Monster Galaxy requires you to roll through an extremely lengthy passage with the Stone Mushroom, already very difficult in its own right, and then you have to fall off the platforms and collide with the 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.
** There are two ways to reach the first Green Star of Stone Cyclone Galaxy. The easy way is to perform a precise triple jump without getting squashed by the fast-moving Tox Box. The other, more difficult strategy is to turn on the time-slowing switch, jump on the Tox Box, and then long-jump to the star.

* Jump-Rope Genius requires you to perform one hundred consecutive jumps in the jump-rope mini-game. This has been regarded by most as the most challenging Power Moon to get in practically the entire game. While all you need to do is get in sync with the rhythm, the rope eventually turns fast enough that holding the button down for even a split second longer than needed will result in a loss. There are a few techniques that can make the challenge easier, such as [[ViolationOfCommonSense doing it while riding a moped]][[note]]This makes it so Mario doesn't try to double jump, making it easier to keep in rhythm with the jump rope[[/note]] (provided you position it correctly) or throwing Cappy in mid-jump to get more hang time as the rope gets faster, but even then it remains very difficult. When most tell you to abuse the [[GoodBadBugs Talkatoo hoverlock glitch]][[note]]This glitch is fixed in the 1.2.0 update.[[/note]] or the [[GoodBadBugs Out of Bounds Letter Glitch]] to beat the challenge, you know you're gonna be in for a bad time.
* Beach Volleyball is just as bad if you're playing single-player, as Mario by himself just isn't fast enough to hit the ball at times. In order to reach one hundred hits, you must either learn to throw Cappy quickly and efficiently or jump into two-player and play as just Cappy or get a friend to help and put both characters to work.
* On The Eastern Pillar in the Sand Kingdom requires you to shake the controller to steer a Bullet Bill into a box far away, but shaking it means you can barely aim, and your timing has to be ''exact'' or you'll blow up too soon.
* The Master Cup Koopa Race in the Wooded Kingdom. The golden Koopa Troopa will skip the entire Uproot maze along Iron Road by doing a long jump across the BottomlessPit next to it, throwing his hat, diving into and jumping off of the hat, then throwing his hat again. While this isn't the most difficult of maneuvers, this is the only time it's essentially mandatory for collecting a power moon, and the distance means that you'll just barely make it even if you are good at it.
* The Lost Kingdom Koopa Race. This one is long, spanning from the Odyssey to the top of the mountain, and it is very easy to fall into the insta-death poison water or get hit by enemies. There is also a section that requires using Trapeetles to clear the way. To give an indication of how bad this section is, the Koopas all fail this at least once on the regular cup and the fastest skips this section by jumping off the mountain and using his hat to make the jump around it.
* The Koopa race in the Luncheon Kingdom. Most of these races are across safe terrain, with the challenge being simply to go faster than the Koopas rather than precision platforming. This one, on the other hand, has you scaling half the volcano, with rotating platforms, deadly lava, Fire Piranha Plants, and many other hazards to screw up your performance. Combine this with a likely lack of health, enemies that can temporarily eat Cappy until you defeat them, and the Koopas jumping across what seems to be thin air, and it makes for a rather frustrating challenge. There exists a much faster back route you can take that can avoid much of this and allows you to finish in less than 30 seconds, but it requires you to either know that it exists in advance or have enough luck/reflexes to act upon it on the fly, and calls upon advanced movement strategy that takes practice to perform.
* Iceburn Circuit Class S has the AI play near perfectly on a racetrack where one wrong move can send you bouncing out of control. This is especially so in the hairpin turn that concludes a lap, as they take the turn pretty far on the inside — if you bounce even further inside, you have a strong risk of landing offroad, which severely hampers your movement. No wonder the racer you take control of was scared to participate.
* "Herding Sheep in the Fog", a mini-level that opens up in the Wooded Kingdom's postgame. You have to herd a sheep across thin walkways over bottomless pits, with very few handrails. You need ''very'' precise angles on your cap throws, or the sheep will go flying into the abyss and respawn at the very beginning.
* "Diving From the Giant Pot" in the Luncheon Kingdom probably won't kill you, but it's still frustrating. To start, the name [[GuideDangIt doesn't tell you where to dive or that you're supposed to stay in a Lava Bubble]], which may cause you to dive off randomly, hoping to land somewhere with a Ground Pound spot for a Moon. Once you realize you're supposed to jump into the other small stewpot on top of the buildings, it doesn't become any easier, due to it being very close to the giant pot and falling aim already being quite difficult to control; not helping is the fact that finding and maintaining a workable camera angle can be extremely tricky. Expect to warp back to the top several times before you finally splash your Lava Bubble successfully in the goal.
* And then there are some Moons you can only get with Glydon. Doesn't sound too difficult? Well, his gliding turns into more of a fast dive mere seconds after you press the action button, making the objective difficult as you'll more than likely not reach your target by a mile. These missions can be made easier with the motion control boost that help maintain altitude... [[GuideDangIt but the game never tells you about it.]]
* "Secret 2D Treasure", a special 2D ''Super Mario Bros.'' style area in [[spoiler:the Mushroom Kingdom]], like the similar sections seen in previous kingdoms. However, this one has two gimmicks that make it much harder than before. One, the 'screen' moves on its own, and if Mario leaves said screen, he becomes 3D again and falls to his death, making it a literal AutoScrollingLevel that also punishes you for going too far ahead. This means lots of racing across narrow platforms before the auto scroll kills you, which is not easy with the amount of Bullet Bills thrown around. After this, it then goes into anti gravity mode, with ''Galaxy'' style planetoid gravity with moving 'screens' going around and Fuzzies to avoid. This is absolute hell to navigate, because not only are the Fuzzies and gravity wells not lined up well (hence forced hits from the former are common), but it's also rather glitchy too, meaning an unlucky player can seemingly fall to their death despite being perfectly lined up with the moving 'sky'.

* 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. 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.]]

* 6-5: Yoshi, the Terror of All Boos. This level is just plain obnoxious. It's home to enemies called Frame Boos, which you have to turn solid by hitting them with yarn balls and then riding them to higher platforms. The problem is that like typical Boos, they cover their faces when you face them, meaning that to nail them you have to ricochet a yarn ball off the wall while facing away from them. It's tougher than it sounds because not only do you have to be accurate in calculating your angle and making your throw, you have to do this while one or more of them are chasing you, not to mention that they have to be in the correct location when they get hit so that they'll be in position to carry you where you need to go. On top of this, there are platforms that work the same way: hit them with a yarn ball to make them materialize, but you have to be facing away from them for it to count; plus, these platforms only last a few seconds, so you'd better be quick about your business once you've made them appear. The capper is one particularly annoying room where there are three rows of the darn things to deal with, with doors positioned over two of the spaces which you have to make your way toward in order to progress.

* Getting [[HundredPercentCompletion 100%]] on ''any'' of the levels in World 5 is quite the feat. Taken UpToEleven with its BonusLevel where even surviving, much less getting 100%, is very difficult because of the PlatformHell. The deathtrap ''can'' be prevented but that's a GuideDangIt in itself.
** Level 5-7: [[PlatformHell "Shifting Platforms Ahead"]] deserves mention, as the need to time your jumps to avoid falling into the abyss while dealing with the moving platforms makes reaching the exit a frustrating ordeal, and completing it 100% a bigger nightmare.
* Nearly all of the extra stages in the first game are this, with the exception of World 6's (when using items), which is more like a pat on the back for finishing the game.
* The new Secret levels in the [=GBA=] port, ''especially'' Endless World of Yoshis/Crazy Maze Days for being extremely long, nearly PlatformHell and a maze to boot.
* [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "The Very Loooooong Cave"]]. It isn't the ''length'' of the level that makes this one a pain, it's that it requires a steady sequence of very precise jumps, which due to the continuous auto-scroll, you have essentially ''no'' time to prepare. Going for hundred percent? Bet you're looking forward to that part about 5 minutes in where you have to ride a ''rolling boulder'' across a lava pit to reach an alternate exit door, ''while the screen is auto-scrolling''. Slip and fall in the [[OneHitKill lava]], and it's back to the very beginning of the level for you! The very end of the level autoscrolls especially fast and has a series of pillars that you need to GroundPound to collect the last red coins. If you miss, you only have a fraction of a second to get yourself pinched between the pillars and the autoscrolling sides -- otherwise, instead of dying and going back to the last checkpoint, you must complete the level and start it ''again''.

* '''The final fight with Bowser''', ''''THE hardest''' final boss in the Mario platformer series.
** One, when you get to the final door, you have to run through this huge, completely empty hallway. It's really long and boring, so you're tempted to just throw caution to the wind and blindly rush through it to get to the boss room. Here's the surprise: It's a trick to get you to a lower power level. If you just run down the hallway without caution, then one of Bowser's randomly-spawning giant fireballs will hit you. It's even harder if you're doing this with a partner or a party, because you know that at least one member of your team will be jumping the entire way there to show off or something, which will predictably result in bouncing off the top of someone's head and right into a fireball. Thankfully, there's a few shallow holes where you can take cover in.
** Once you move past the hallway and into Bowser's lair, the initial[[note]] Read: ''Initial''[[/note]] battle itself is incredibly easy, almost an AntiClimaxBoss, but then [[TheDragon Kamek]] comes out of nowhere and revives him, turning him into a giant and turning the level into an autoscroller. Basically, you need to run through the remainder of Bowser's castle, which is, at this point, a LethalLavaLand ''unto itself!'' Also, Giant Bowser spits out giant, though almost painfully slow-moving fireballs. These fireballs can destroy platforms, which, if they hit a crucial platform at just the right moment, will either trap you or cause you to fall into the lava.
** The ''one'' saving grace of this part is that there are a couple of power-ups at the very beginning of this part. It's just that they're trapped inside a prison of stone platforms, which have to be hit with Bowser's fireballs to get to, and even if you get them, you might not come out of the stone prison fast enough and get lagged to death because it's y'know... an autoscroller.

** [[spoiler: 9-9 (Grey Mountains) pits you against both the Angry Sun and the Angry Moon. ''Simultaneously''.]]

* 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 more shortcuts. The most difficult of all of them is Sea Slide Galaxy's "Underwater Cosmic Race", which requires you to obtain a shell before he does to have any hope of winning, and this requires a precise long jump into the water.
* The Ghostly Galaxy's Daredevil Comet pits you up against ThatOneBoss, Bouldergeist, with only one hit point. You beat the boss is to throw three sets of three Boo Bombs at his center. Bouldergeist's main attack is summoning jagged rocks from the ground that are really hard to dodge.

* World 5-7: [[PlatformHell "Shifting Platforms Ahead"]] deserves mention, as the need to time your jumps to avoid falling into the abyss while dealing with the moving platforms makes reaching the exit a frustrating ordeal, and completing it 100% a bigger nightmare.

When [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros a series]] has been [[LongRunner running for over 30 years, has countless installments]], and features the most prolific {{video game}} character in history, you would expect it to have its tough moments. But these [[ThatOneLevel take it to another]] [[{{Pun}} level.]]

[[folder:Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island]]
* [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "The Very Loooooong Cave"]]. It isn't the ''length'' of the level that makes this one a pain, it's that it requires a steady sequence of very precise jumps, which due to the continuous auto-scroll, you have essentially ''no'' time to prepare. Going for hundred percent? Bet you're looking forward to that part about 5 minutes in where you have to ride a ''rolling boulder'' across a lava pit to reach an alternate exit door, ''while the screen is auto-scrolling''. Slip and fall in the [[OneHitKill lava]], and it's back to the very beginning of the level for you! The very end of the level autoscrolls especially fast and has a series of pillars that you need to GroundPound to collect the last red coins. If you miss, you only have a fraction of a second to get yourself pinched between the pillars and the autoscrolling sides -- otherwise, instead of dying and going back to the last checkpoint, you must complete the level and start it ''again''.
* World 5-7: [[PlatformHell "Shifting Platforms Ahead"]] deserves mention, as the need to time your jumps to avoid falling into the abyss while dealing with the moving platforms makes reaching the exit a frustrating ordeal, and completing it 100% a bigger nightmare.

[[folder:Super Mario 64]]
* 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, or by using Luigi's Back Flip.
* 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. 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.
* Tick Tock Clock is a nightmare. The level is ''long'' and painfully linear, and it's one continuous tricky jump after another after another, made worse by the fact that most of the level takes place on very thin platforms which are really easy to fall from. Plus, if you don't know the "trick" for entering the level, the whole level can end up requiring insane timing. Even if you ''do'' know the trick to stop the clock, two stars all but require the clock to be in motion so that the hands of the clock can carry you to the stars, at least in the N64 version[[note]]It is possible to get all the Tick Tock Clock stars without the clock moving ([[LetsPlay SuperJeenius having pulled it off in a Let's Play]]), but it does require some very skilled jumps[[/note]]. The level is also subject to randomly-spawned invisible walls that will most likely kill you if you're unfortunate enough to hit them on a risky jump. In the DS version, if you play as Luigi, all eight stars (including the 100-coin star) can be obtained while the clock mechanism is stationary.
* 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. 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 race against Big Penguin in Cool, Cool Mountain. One turn in particular is angled just such that you can't slow down without falling off, you can't go too fast without falling off, and sometimes the penguin you're racing will just bump you off the track if you barely make it past the turn.
* Dire, Dire Docks is another area which is just hellish in general, and it's all thanks to the horribly imprecise swimming controls. Luckily to non-HundredPercentCompletion-ist, only the first level is required to beat the game. To single out specific missions:
** Chests in the Current: You have to open four treasure chests in a specific sequence while underwater, but unlike the similar mission in Jolly Roger Bay, the chests are all facing different directions, and since they're clustered so closely together, you have to keep constantly swimming in circles and readjusting your angle so that you're lined up properly with the next chest. (Mario in this game lacks the ability to dive straight down, which if he had it would make this level significantly easier; sadly, that mechanic would not be added until ''[[VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy Galaxy]]''.) What makes this one ''really'' bad is that the final chest is located right in front of the whirlpool, making it next to impossible to open it without getting sucked into the whirlpool and dying before you can claim the star.
** 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 frustrating for something that sounds really simple.
** The 100-coin star: There are only 106 total coins in the level, so you really need to collect almost ''every'' coin. 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. 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.

[[folder:Super Mario Sunshine]]
* In "Yoshi's Fruit Adventure", you have to squirt juice onto jumping fish to reach a series of platforms. This one is extremely frustrating because if you're just a tiny fraction off in one of your jumps, Yoshi falls in the water and dissolves, forcing you to go all the way back and get him again, and then cross the platforms again to get back to where you were. One trick which makes this level a lot easier is after you reach the first stationary platform, to jump off to the side onto a ledge and have Yoshi eat a coconut. This will cause his juice to turn the platforms pink and go straight up instead of moving horizontally, basically carrying you the rest of the way to the shine. Surprisingly few players seem to catch onto this trick, however.[[note]]This is especially strange, considering that the ''official guidebook'' outright tells you to feed Yoshi a coconut, meaning this is likely the intended solution.[[/note]]
* "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! 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.
* 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). 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 eighth mission of Pinna Park, where you have to ride the same roller coaster you fought [[spoiler:Mecha Bowser]] in and pop all of the balloons (20 in total) before the coaster completes 3 laps. Thanks to the poor, clunky aim, the rockets are ''very'' difficult to send off properly, so you'll usually end up having two or three stray balloons taunting you towards the end. You can only shoot most of them within one or two 3-second periods during the entire lap, so if you miss your chance, even if you have half a minute of ride left, you're boned.
* 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 Red Coin Fish" is Noki Bay's eighth mission (noticing a pattern here?) which has you hunt down a fish made of several yellow coins and the eight red coins you need for the shine. First problem is you are underwater (so it is difficult to control with precision) in an area with limited coins to refill your health; secondly the fish loves to split itself apart and reform somewhere else and when split the coins move too fast for you to chase after them.
* The third mission of Pianta Village, "The Goopy Inferno". The entire village is covered in ''flaming'' goop, and worse, Shadow Mario swipes FLUDD as you enter. [[spoiler:You do get it back... right before you get the Shine Sprite.]] Even worse, the slightest touch of the goop wrecks the controls to the point of almost certain death. There are a number of different ways of dealing with the situation, all of which have their difficulties. The intended solution involves taking a long roundabout route underneath the village; however, it's really easy to lose your bearings trying to navigate through the maze of platforms, and those catwalks are really easy to fall from. A quicker path is to swim up the river into the pond and then repeatedly jump out of it, splashing water out to clean a path to the mayor's house. However, while you're trying to do this, Swoopin' Stus and that bird flying overhead keep trying to splash goop on you, and even if you can clear out enough of a path, you still have to do a perfect spin jump to the right spot to make it count. It's also possible to walk along the fences to clear the level, but this is debatably ''harder'' than the intended method due to the game's somewhat dodgy controls and one slip-up dumping you into an ocean of goop with no hope for escape. Finally, you can tiptoe around the left side of the village and climb to the top of the tree and then spin jump to the center of the village. However, this particular route leaves you absolutely no margin for error; slip up just a tiny little bit and you're screwed. (You'll either fall from the tree and plummet to your death, or you'll land smack in the goop and won't have time to extricate yourself before you die.)
* 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]]. 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:
** "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. Ironic in that its other secret level is a cakewalk by comparison in terms of the secret level proper.
** "The Shell's Secret", the sixth episode of Noki Bay. This is a long Secret Level where 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.
** "The Secret of the Village Underside", the fifth episode of Pianta Village. Yoshi controls terribly anyway, but you have to somehow jump down to a platform you can barely see. Then you get the actual Secret Level, which instead of actual platforming, you just have to be thrown by Piantas. Sounds easy, but you have to be DEAD ON in your positioning and how you move the control stick, otherwise you're screwed! Actually, you may still be screwed anyway. At least the Red Coin mission is much easier thanks to FLUDD's presence.
* 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. 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. 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.
* The boat ride to Bowser in the last level. You must turn Mario just right and fire the FLUDD to propel the boat. It is very easy to crash the boat and tip you into the lava, an instant death. Then there's getting all the blue coins in that level for OneHundredPercentCompletion.
* 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. 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. 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. 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. On top of everything else, 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.

[[folder:Mario vs. Donkey Kong]]
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYDC4iAVi7o Getting a high score in 4-3 is the most infuriating thing about the first Mario vs Donkey Kong.]] ''Nothing'' comes close to the level of bullshit that is this level, and whoever designed it is a sadist. Given the way the first half of the stage functions, you have to have almost perfect timing at certain sections, especially in the second half, if you want to just ''barely'' beat the default high score by just one or, if you're lucky/good enough, two hundred points (Every second left on the clock is multiplied by one hundred and added to your score). Experience has shown that it ''is'' still possible to get the Star (which is needed to help unlock the Expert levels) by ''matching'' the default high score. Just don't expect the game to acknowledge it by highlighting your score, because you didn't actually beat the old score.

[[folder:New Super Mario Bros. DS]]
* World 8-4. The entire level is filled with Scuttlebugs, GiantSpiders that constantly drop down from the ceiling and chase after you; and a good chunk of the level involves moving platforms over bottomless pits. You're going to have a rough time if you don't have a Fire Flower on you to compensate; and even then, the Star Coin placements are enough to throw most players through the wringer. Trying to get that last Star Coin in particular without dying is CRAZY hard since that requires the use of a Mini Mushroom, the power-up that makes you a floaty OneHitPointWonder. The Starman certainly helps, but it is not a free ticket to victory.
* 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. 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.
* World 8-Final Castle is a difficult final level in the series, but not because of enemies or tricky platforming, but rather its gimmicks. The first half of the level is a confusing, gravity-flipping maze that feels out of place in a 2D ''Mario'' game, while the second half is a path-picking level reminiscent of the original ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros'' where the wrong paths leave you in an infinite loop, and the one correct path is usually the most dangerous one to take.

[[folder:Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-Land Mayhem!]]
* [[spoiler:Just try to 100% complete S-1 in plus mode. Almost the ''entire level'' is made of girders.]]
* The Expert levels are no walk in the park, either, especially X-6, complete with those Thwomps out of stone. Worse: the goal is on top of one of those removable blocks. Just try to complete it, especially in Plus mode.
* World 7, Cannon Cove is a nice breather level after the hell that was world 6, even in plus mode. That is, however, until you hit the nasty brick wall of 7-7 with a hellish puzzle with capture kongs and an almost guarantee of getting your minis in the door out of order. That level is by far the hardest level in the game outside the BrutalBonusLevel set, and even then, it's harder than most of the NintendoHard bonus levels.

[[folder:Yoshi's Island DS]]
* Any of the autoscrolling levels are often considered this by many.
** World 2-6, "Donuts and Eggs", is a long autoscroller that sometimes loops, and although there is checkpoints in the level, it is often considered the worst level in World 2.
** Most of World 3-1, "Up The Creek", is a standard level, but at the very end of the level autoscrolls up a waterfall against the player's own will. It's a short section in a large level, but can be frustrating if you don't know what you're doing.
** The very next level, World 3-2, "The Goonie Coast Isn't Clear", is quite often considered one of the worst levels due to the fact that it scrolls the entire level. It's not the first section of the level that gets most, although it is a little frustrating ; it's the latter section that many consider to be [[PlatformHell extremely frustrating]] because this section is ''several'' times as long as the first section in the level and also partially loops in the fourth ship, if you plan on getting all secrets and a 100% for the stage. It doesn't help that some players consider the level's music to be an annoying and empty tune that seems to be taunting the player.
* World 4-7, "Teeth-Chattering Chill Zone". Let's see: You use Bouncies in combination with ice to slide past the crushing rocks, BUT those things fall and rise INCREDIBLY fast, so you're likely to DIE. Then, you have to do a tricky platforming section with lots of Bumpties and Bouncies to avoid, as well as some moving platforms. These Bumpties and Bouncies, combined with it being an ice level, often lead to you falling to your death. This section is so hard, some gamers never even get past this part before giving up in frustration. The final section is a ski jump section, which normally is a ScrappyMechanic, but here, it's actually the easiest part of the level.
* World 5-1, "Rompin' Stompin' Chomps":
** 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. 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). 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. Then once you do finally get to the exit ring, you'll find out you passed it quite a while ago, but the scrolling wouldn't let you go to it until just now.
* Stage 5-7, "Super Hard Acrobatics", lives up to its name and then some. Unsurprisingly, it's composed of vicious jumping puzzles and dodging on moving platforms. If this weren't bad enough, unless you specifically set yourself otherwise, you're probably carrying Baby Donkey Kong into the stage,[[note]]Getting the preceding stage's baby coin requires using Donkey Kong for the level's final section, and there's no opportunity to switch babies after that.[[/note]] which cripples your speed and aerial ability.
* Bowser's Castle (of course) gives you five different ways to go through it, depending on who you have on your back. [[SadisticChoice Every one of them]] is NintendoHard.
** Mario's route has you outrunning a giant Tap-Tap across small platforms. You have to keep running in order to avoid being hit, and your jumps have to be precise so that you hit all the collectibles as well as avoiding falling to your death. It's the most hectic route, but also the shortest, and isn't so bad if you can make your VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog instincts kick in.
** Wario's route depends on puzzle-solving ability rather than platforming skills. It's confusing, long, and tedious. There isn't much in the way of stuff that's likely to kill you, but you can easily ruin your chances of HundredPercentCompletion if you're not really careful how you progress through the level.
** 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. 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.
** Bowser's route has you crossing a bunch of tiny ice platforms, in some places bouncing off Koopas to progress, all while being constantly besieged with [[GoddamnedBats Gusties]] coming at you from all directions. They're usually right on top of you before you see them, giving you very little chance to attack or dodge them.
** 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. 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.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Super Paper Mario]]
* If you don't just hop on Website/GameFAQs, Chapter 2-3 is the ultimate in Scrappy levels. To wit - you have to play out extremely long, unbearably boring minigames to run up 1,000,000 Rubees to pay for a vase. Even though you really only need about 10,000 (the rest can be found once you've got that), it takes forever and a year just to get that much, and if a player does not talk to people much, then it is theoretically possible to go for the full million. Thankfully, every bit of that minigame work can be skipped over if you just hop on the Internet and figure out how to get the hidden stash of them without worrying about paying [=NPCs=] to tell you.
* 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. 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. 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.
* Chapter 5-3, a mine level that centers mostly around one long, enemy-filled room with so many branching pathways, several of which are ''hidden'', that it becomes extremely easy to get lost and forget which doors you've already explored. Not to mention the fact that at one point, in order to progress, you must go through one of the automatic MinecartMadness sections while flipped to 3D. The player doesn't find out about this until the end, at which point they're forced to ride back, flip to 3D, and go through it again, meaning they need to sit through the minecart ride ''two more'' times.
* Chapter 7-1 is a definite breather, but 7-2 will have anyone grinding their teeth. Does a vertically-ascending MarathonLevel sound bad enough? No? Well, how about setting it in a BlackoutBasement and including a fetch quest that forces you to redo the bulk of the level? [[{{BlatantLies}} You're gonna enjoy this one]].
* 7-3 isn't any better. It's even longer than 7-2, it's ''very'' jump-centric, and the entire level revolves around finding the right apple to [[spoiler:free Peach from a sleeping curse]]. Luckily, the GuideDangIt can be mitigated by hopping on the Internet to find out which apple it is. Also, it's vertical. Don't forget that.
* 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. 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.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:New Super Mario Bros. Wii]]
* 2-1 and 2-2 aren't that difficult if you're just playing through normally, but become this if you try to get all the Star Coins. The third Star Coin in the first can really be a pain to get, especially if you're not very good at timing a throw of a shell. In the second, it's the Spikes who will give you trouble.
* 2-4, also known as the level with that wretched sandstorm. A good chunk of the level will be spent pinned down against a wall, waiting for the wind to stop blowing. Just getting ''through'' the level is a pain, but getting all the Star Coins ''and'' the secret exit as well is an exercise in patience, considering how easy it is to slip up and die, ruin your chances of getting them, or both. It doesn't help that the secret exit is at the ''end'' of the level.
* Getting used to the ice can make for a DifficultySpike in 3-1 that can make it seem like a ThatOneLevel.
* 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. 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.
* 3-Castle is very difficult when you have to deal with the ice-covered snake blocks. It's even worse in multiplayer!
* World 5, especially the acid river in 5-4, and especially if you're a moderately talented first-timer who found the secret exit in 1-3 and [[OhCrap decided to skip ahead...]]
* 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''.
* Ludwig's Fortress, in single player. It's clearly a stage designed with groups of people in mind, since it is hell trying to juggle tons and tons of Bob-ombs raining down on you by yourself while you slowly rise left and right.
* 8-1. A massive DifficultySpike with an [[AdvancingWallOfDoom Advancing Smog Of Doom]], constant rocks raining down, lava plumes ''everywhere'' all make the [[LethalLavaLand hellscape scenery look authentic]]. Just see [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WSHBYkx1xs what happened]] when the LetsPlay/FreelanceAstronauts [[LetsPlay decided to try it with four players]]... HilarityEnsues.
* Either as a coincidence or a FourIsDeath kind of thing, 8-4 is also pretty unbelievable. BlackOutBasement... ''underwater''.
* 8-5 has you riding on a moving platform controlled by tilting the Wiimote. You have to do this while avoiding lava plumes and Bob-ombs raining down, and good luck getting all the Star Coins.
* '''The final fight with Bowser''', ''''THE hardest''' final boss in the Mario platformer series.
** One, when you get to the final door, you have to run through this huge, completely empty hallway. It's really long and boring, so you're tempted to just throw caution to the wind and blindly rush through it to get to the boss room. Here's the surprise: It's a trick to get you to a lower power level. If you just run down the hallway without caution, then one of Bowser's randomly-spawning giant fireballs will hit you. It's even harder if you're doing this with a partner or a party, because you know that at least one member of your team will be jumping the entire way there to show off or something, which will predictably result in bouncing off the top of someone's head and right into a fireball. Thankfully, there's a few shallow holes where you can take cover in.
** Once you move past the hallway and into Bowser's lair, the initial[[note]] Read: ''Initial''[[/note]] battle itself is incredibly easy, almost an AntiClimaxBoss, but then [[TheDragon Kamek]] comes out of nowhere and revives him, turning him into a giant and turning the level into an autoscroller. Basically, you need to run through the remainder of Bowser's castle, which is, at this point, a LethalLavaLand ''unto itself!'' Also, Giant Bowser spits out giant, though almost painfully slow-moving fireballs. These fireballs can destroy platforms, which, if they hit a crucial platform at just the right moment, will either trap you or cause you to fall into the lava.
** The ''one'' saving grace of this part is that there are a couple of power-ups at the very beginning of this part. It's just that they're trapped inside a prison of stone platforms, which have to be hit with Bowser's fireballs to get to, and even if you get them, you might not come out of the stone prison fast enough and get lagged to death because it's y'know... an autoscroller.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:New Super Mario Bros. 2]]
* The Dash Mario (cannon) levels are extremely difficult (albeit a bit short) on-the-fly high-speed madness. You have to make extremely precise jumps across platforms through lines of enemies without being able to stop and take a moment to plan your maneuvers because Mario ''can't stop running''. The worst of the bunch is World Flower-Cannon, where you have to time a bunch of jumps off parachuting Bob-ombs which sway from left to right as they fall, plus all the rotating Amps you have to deal with. If you time your jumps off the Bob-ombs correctly, you'll dodge the Amps automatically, but it's extremely difficult because there is absolutely no margin for error. Using Raccoon Mario does take some of the edge off, however; you can immediately refill your Power Meter due to the constant running and spend most of the stage just flying.
* The secret exit of World 3-Tower. You have to be Mini Mario to access it, and that's CRAZY hard, because of all the bone-fishes and spiked pillars in the area. After you get in the secret mini pipe? Dodge more spiked pillars and bone-fish.

[[folder:Paper Mario: Sticker Star]]
* 1-5 is a fairly moderate level, but trying to get past the Lakitu throwing Spinies everywhere can be frustrating for some gamers because you're more than likely to end up touching one; and you can't jump on them, since they have spikes. They also deal ''5 damage a hit'', when the most health you can have at this point is 25 HP. Hope you've saved non-jumping stickers up for these moments.
* 2-3, "Sandshifter Ruins". The level is a large, confusing mess of paths and chambers that mostly relies on trial and error. Go down the wrong route, and you're shot all the way above the ruins and you have to start all over. To make matters worse, it's the only level in its world that has multiple exits, and both of them are mandatory.
* World 3. The world is so long that it's not an exaggeration to say it's ''longer than the previous two worlds combined.''[[note]]The first world has 6 levels, while the second world has 5. World 3? '''12.''' And the levels are looooong.[[/note]] Most of the entire world is spent backtracking and trying to find the four pieces of a Wiggler, all of which run away and try to fight you at one point, and love to dodge your attacks (though, at only 15 HP apiece, they aren't that bad). Also, nearly every single level in the world is covered in poison, which hurts you to step in it (and if you battle while in it, expect to randomly take damage and screw up your perfect bonus), and infested with [[GoddamnedBats Ninji]]. The creepy music starts to get old after a short time. Leaflitter Path is a BlackoutBasement because of how dark and foggy the place is, which makes it easy to walk into poison. The Bafflewood is TheMaze (though you can set markers for the first few path branches). In Rustle Burrow, [[NoGearLevel you lose your hammer, Kersti, and your stickers. All of them.]] And the local Scuttlebugs are all over the place, and the miniboss of that world can't be hurt except by destroying its web, and each attempt will be responded with an unblockable 8 damage. Gauntlet Pond is also really long, and has segments with jumping on swinging logs across a huge poison lake. Then in Whitecap Beach you have to fight Gooper Blooper, who, like all the bosses in this game, is ludicrous without abusing its weakness. Yeesh.
* 4-3 "The Enigmansion", no doubt. You have to defeat 100 Boos in order to complete the level. Fortunately, some are fought together as a group... but they're hard to defeat. The hardest Boos to defeat are the five that battle you disco-style, and the sheets of 82 Boos combined together (you find two conveniently-located Flashy Infinijumps in the level, for good reason). It's a large level, and it can get extremely frustrating trying to find that [[LastLousyPoint Last Lousy Boo]]. Once you've gotten all 100 Boos, you're done with this level, right? ''Wrong.'' Now you have to put the book away in the basement. But then Kamek appears and turns all 100 Boos into one giant Big Boo, who only has one attack: jumping onto you and grabbing you. Sounds easy at first, but then the lights come on and you can't directly attack it. Hope you have lots of Spike Helmets or the Vacuum for this battle; you'll need either one of them. What a long, frustrating mess it is.
* 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. 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''. 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. 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!''. 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.

[[folder:New Super Mario Bros. U]]
* Frosted Glacier-Ghost House/Swaying Ghost House, just for the sheer GuideDangIt factor. The door to proceed is hidden behind a false wall—with no indication that said wall is anything but a wall, especially considering it feels perfectly solid if you don't have a P-Switch activated—in not one but two rooms, although the second at least gives you a hint...hidden behind another wall. The secret exit is even worse: [[spoiler:the room it's in requires being fairly fast just to get to the regular door, and getting to the secret door allows you only a very small margin of error...even if you figure out that this time, the door is hidden behind the ''ceiling''.]]
* 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. The Star Coins? Easy enough to find, but good luck getting them all without taking a hit.
* Peach's Castle-1/Meteor Moat. The level in and of itself isn't that bad, until you get past the checkpoint. After that, you start getting bombarded by the meteors, while at the same time dealing with rising tides of lava and a crap load of Dry Beetles. It gets worse if you're going for the star coins, especially the third. But if you're trying to get at the secret exit, good luck not raging.
* 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. 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. 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. 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. God help you if you're going for gold.
* The two Special challenges that are featured in Peach's Castle-Castle 1/Red-Hot Elevator Ride:
** The first one (Elevator Out of Service) features you as P-Wing Mario, thus making the object to reach the top of the castle without the elevator. This wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for those damn Bowser Amps. Yeah, it's that's bad.
** And then there's the second one. You can ride the elevator this time, but you can't let ANY enemies OR coins land on the elevator. If even one of those touch the elevator, it's game over. It's too bad there are TOO many enemies and coins in this mission. The only thing that prevents from being impossible is that you get to be Ice Mario for the entire time - but unfortunately, it's also game over if you lose the ability to shoot ice balls.
* 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. Also, if you have no real life friends, or you can't have them come over, forget it. Even if you can multitask, you are ''need'' two players or must have godly reflexes. Especially 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.]]

[[folder:New Super Luigi U]]
* 3-T (Shish-Kebab Tower) is almost impossible to complete as anyone but Nabbit. The pillars move in and out at insane speeds. This, combined with the time limit, Luigi's high jump, and slippery physics, can easily end your game.
* 8-2 (Magma River Cruise) takes the annoying acid moat level from Wii, puts it in a lava world, and adds the most annoying enemies in the game. It's a good thing that you can skip this level, though.

[[folder:Super Mario [=3D=] World]]
* 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. 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.
* 6-Tank (Bowser's Bob-omb Brigade). You will ''need'' to know where to throw bombs and how to do it quickly if you want most of the items here.
* 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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).

[[folder:Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker]]
* [[spoiler: Mummy Me Maze Forever is similar to the Mummy Me chases earlier in the game. Except for one thing: Now you have to clear 50 rooms while avoiding up to three Mummy Mes, and other enemies that get in your way. Like all the other Mario [[BrutalBonusLevel brutal bonus levels]] these days, if you die, [[CheckpointStarvation you must start the whole thing all over again.]] What sets it apart from Mario's other [[BrutalBonusLevel brutal bonus levels]], however, is the fact that you cannot run out of lives, meaning your frustrations with this level can GIVE you extra lives if anything, though 99 lives is the maximum limit.]]

[[folder:Yoshi's Woolly World]]
* 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. 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.]]
* 5-8: Snifberg the Unfeeling's Castle. Almost the entirety of the stage is covered in FrictionlessIce, and it's filled to the brim with ice blocks that slowly roll on an axis like the giant blocks in Shifting Sand Land. Expect countless deaths from getting pinched by one as it rolls over while you're trying to get out of its way. Then they become enormous and then they roll ''fast'' into the foreground in such a way it's difficult to judge their depth. The collectibles aren't easy to reach, either. At least the boss isn't that bad once you figure out his weakness.
* 6-5: Yoshi, the Terror of All Boos. This level is just plain obnoxious. It's home to enemies called Frame Boos, which you have to turn solid by hitting them with yarn balls and then riding them to higher platforms. The problem is that like typical Boos, they cover their faces when you face them, meaning that to nail them you have to ricochet a yarn ball off the wall while facing away from them. It's tougher than it sounds because not only do you have to be accurate in calculating your angle and making your throw, you have to do this while one or more of them are chasing you, not to mention that they have to be in the correct location when they get hit so that they'll be in position to carry you where you need to go. On top of this, there are platforms that work the same way: hit them with a yarn ball to make them materialize, but you have to be facing away from them for it to count; plus, these platforms only last a few seconds, so you'd better be quick about your business once you've made them appear. The capper is one particularly annoying room where there are three rows of the darn things to deal with, with doors positioned over two of the spaces which you have to make your way toward in order to progress.

[[folder:Super Mario Maker]]
* The levels shown in the Nintendo World Championships look ''VideoGame/KaizoMarioWorld''-esque and serve as a forewarning as just how difficult levels can be made. [[spoiler:[[BrutalBonusLevel They can be unlocked in-game after beating all other pre-installed levels.]] You want to be able to freely place Weird Mushrooms? ''Good luck''.]]
* "Zig-Zag Lava Bubbles" fills the entire screen with bouncing Lava Bubbles. Extremely precise movement through thin corridors is required, or you ''will'' die.
* "Be Brave & Get Up Close!" has a row of ? blocks in front of a huge tower of giant Chain Chomps. You have to try to get the invincibility star placed in the very last block so you can use it to knock out the Chain Chomps and jump over the remaining tower of Chain Chomp pegs and hit the goal, but the somewhat erratic behaviour of the Chain Chomps makes this practically a LuckBasedMission. You also have a short timer on this level as well, so you can't take forever either.
* "Even Trampolines Dream of Flying" consists of mostly nothing but a bottomless pit with winged trampolines as your only means of getting across, it doesn’t help how not only are they constantly moving, hardly give you any time to position and bounce properly and bouncing on trampolines is extremely wonky. You will die ''A LOT'' while playing this level.
* This trope is actually exploited by the game itself. In the 100-Mario Challenge, courses are pulled from the Course World based on their completion rate.[[note]]Which is a ratio based on deaths and quits vs. wins.[[/note]] On Expert and Super Expert difficulty, the courses usually have a completion rate in the single digits, meaning that players will receive levels that are considered ThatOneLevel by ''other'' players.

[[folder:Paper Mario: Color Splash]]
* Dark Bloo Inn, although to a lesser extent than the following ones. The level has you finding six ghost toads and helping them by doing fetch quests. The problem is that one of the toads can only be found in a specific time frame, the toads are invisible and can only be found by painting them and it is slightly difficult to tell where they are (you have to look for something moving on it's own) and some of the fetch quests are annoying. Finally, the level is actually a TimedMission. It will [[GroundhogDayLoop reset if you take too long]] and [[GuideDangIt the game does not tell you this until after the loop occurs once.]]
* Colbalt Base revolves around a memory game. Completing it normally is not too difficult but in order to get the Thing that is in the level (which is required to defeat Wendy) you have to complete the whole thing flawlessly. Hope you have a good memory and you also need to have the right cards to answer the questions. These are given to you by a friendly blue Sniffit at the start of the level but he is easy to miss and will not give you the cards if you do not have space for 30 cards.
* Violet Passage, probably the most irritating of the three. Featuring an UnexpectedGameplayChange where you take control of a ship and complete a series of tasks that require precise timing with controls that make this harder than it should be. Additionally, your hints for what to do use nautical terms and are a little vague at times. Thankfully, there is a MercyMode if you fail too many times.

[[folder:Super Mario Run]]
* Black coins:
** The second black coin in 1-4 requires doing a perfect leap and spin off a Dry Bones from ground level. There's no room for error, and it's counter-intuitive since you actually have to time your leap so you hit it just before you finish vaulting over the Dry Bones. Easy if you have Luigi, though.
** The fourth and fifth black coins in 3-3 are each awful for their own reasons. The fourth actually requires you to use the bubble mechanic to redo part of the stage after smashing a block to allow a shell through, while the fifth requires using a spring to bounce through a one-block hole. Doesn't matter what character you're using here, it's frustrating all the same.
** Getting the second black coin in 4-1 is easily the most frustrating special coin in the entire game. It requires jumping off a P-switch, wall-jumping onto a single brick, jumping towards another single brick, wall-jumping off of that, and back up onto the pipe containing the coin. The timing window for this is simply a few seconds and allows for absolutely no error, requiring a full restart of the stage for every attempt. The Yoshis make this easier as their Flutter Jumps make it easier to access the pipe.
** 6-4's first black coin is hell if you're playing as anyone but Toad. It's in a ? block situated over a gap just high enough that a regular jump will clear the block. You need to carefully time your jump to clip the edge of the block. Too little and you miss. Too much and you vault over it. As Mario and Luigi, grabbing a Mushroom makes doing it even harder. Toad's higher speed makes it easier to hit the block, as he can get right under it.
* Toad Rally:
** The airship. It combines Ninjis, gaps, and cannonballs to make a run where even the slightest mistake will hurt or kill you. This is the bare minimum. If you've beaten the World Tour, add flame spouts and Rocky Wrench to the list for added annoyance.
** The ghost house is tolerable at first, but once you've beaten the game it gets a lot worse. The puzzle aspects from the later versions are tacked on, so you have to figure those out on top of trying to get coins. It's also fairly stingy with Toads, owing to the lack of tricks you can pull off.
* Unlocking Star World levels. Of all the challenges necessary for unlocking the levels, the challenge for Star-6 tops them all. You have to collect 400 coins in 1-2, a level where they're separated into different paths and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwarcZlSyu4 an absolutely optimal strategy will get you 426]]. There is no margin for error here. You have to backtrack and make the run perfectly to achieve it. Toad alleviates the problem slightly, but not by much.
* Remix 10:
** A few of the Remix courses require you to use the back swipe mechanic to slow your character if you want the medals, which is incredibly unreliable on smaller devices.
** Of particular note is a variation on Wall-Kicking it Underground, which has the medals placed in such a way that the second medal requires a pixel-perfect jump to avoid getting stuck on an alternate path where you can't reach the third. If you're very lucky, you'll wind up there with a Starman and avoid the headache, but it's usually the first or second of the ten just to make sure you can't use that trick.

[[folder:Super Mario Odyssey]]
* The Lost Kingdom is full of poisonous water that instantly kills you, it's made up of islands that are easy to get lost in and provide little to no sense of direction, most of the enemies are either spiky or immune to your cap, the latter of which throw Cappy back like an explosive (which has a ''very'' tight time limit to dodge or jump over and is required to get to some areas and Moons, but can be easily crouched under) and the entire island plays a piece of music that can quickly become annoying. The tone of the level is [[ThisIsGonnaSuck set nicely]] when you arrive and Klepto makes off with Cappy, and you can't even to go to previous kingdoms until you've collected the quota of Power Moons. Likely a deliberate example as [[spoiler:Bowser sends you crash-landing here after the game promised the highly promoted Metro Kingdom as your next stop]].
* The Luncheon Kingdom is surrounded by lava, and, as usual, falling in causes Mario to go flying in pain. Unfortunately, you cover a ''lot'' more distance than you did in older games and Mario isn't as easily controlled. This is not good when the map is full of small platforms, so it's entirely possible to overshoot the platforms completely by mistake. (Or worse: Fall off, then Mario goes ''the opposite direction''.) What's more, there are also several areas with ''very'' narrow platforms you must hop onto, and if you miss, then you fall into the lava -- which might as well be an instant death trap since you'll likely not have any way to recover (at least, not without accidentally hitting the lava ''again''). There is also the primary gimmick of navigating the area with Lava Bubbles. A captured Lava Bubble will disappear if it hits anything other than lava. Naturally, this means any slip-up in sections requiring you to jump over solid ground are likely to send Mario into the lava.
* Jump-Rope Genius requires you to perform one hundred consecutive jumps in the jump-rope mini-game. This has been regarded by most as the most challenging Power Moon to get in practically the entire game. While all you need to do is get in sync with the rhythm, the rope eventually turns fast enough that holding the button down for even a split second longer than needed will result in a loss. There are a few techniques that can make the challenge easier, such as [[ViolationOfCommonSense doing it while riding a moped]][[note]]This makes it so Mario doesn't try to double jump, making it easier to keep in rhythm with the jump rope[[/note]] (provided you position it correctly) or throwing Cappy in mid-jump to get more hang time as the rope gets faster, but even then it remains very difficult. When most tell you to abuse the [[GoodBadBugs Talkatoo hoverlock glitch]][[note]]This glitch is fixed in the 1.2.0 update.[[/note]] or the [[GoodBadBugs Out of Bounds Letter Glitch]] to beat the challenge, you know you're gonna be in for a bad time.
* Beach Volleyball is just as bad if you're playing single-player, as Mario by himself just isn't fast enough to hit the ball at times. In order to reach one hundred hits, you must either learn to throw Cappy quickly and efficiently or jump into two-player and play as just Cappy or get a friend to help and put both characters to work.
* On The Eastern Pillar in the Sand Kingdom requires you to shake the controller to steer a Bullet Bill into a box far away, but shaking it means you can barely aim, and your timing has to be ''exact'' or you'll blow up too soon.
* The Master Cup Koopa Race in the Wooded Kingdom. The golden Koopa Troopa will skip the entire Uproot maze along Iron Road by doing a long jump across the BottomlessPit next to it, throwing his hat, diving into and jumping off of the hat, then throwing his hat again. While this isn't the most difficult of maneuvers, this is the only time it's essentially mandatory for collecting a power moon, and the distance means that you'll just barely make it even if you are good at it.
* The Lost Kingdom Koopa Race. This one is long, spanning from the Odyssey to the top of the mountain, and it is very easy to fall into the insta-death poison water or get hit by enemies. There is also a section that requires using Trapeetles to clear the way. To give an indication of how bad this section is, the Koopas all fail this at least once on the regular cup and the fastest skips this section by jumping off the mountain and using his hat to make the jump around it.
* The Koopa race in the Luncheon Kingdom. Most of these races are across safe terrain, with the challenge being simply to go faster than the Koopas rather than precision platforming. This one, on the other hand, has you scaling half the volcano, with rotating platforms, deadly lava, Fire Piranha Plants, and many other hazards to screw up your performance. Combine this with a likely lack of health, enemies that can temporarily eat Cappy until you defeat them, and the Koopas jumping across what seems to be thin air, and it makes for a rather frustrating challenge. There exists a much faster back route you can take that can avoid much of this and allows you to finish in less than 30 seconds, but it requires you to either know that it exists in advance or have enough luck/reflexes to act upon it on the fly, and calls upon advanced movement strategy that takes practice to perform.
* Iceburn Circuit Class S has the AI play near perfectly on a racetrack where one wrong move can send you bouncing out of control. This is especially so in the hairpin turn that concludes a lap, as they take the turn pretty far on the inside — if you bounce even further inside, you have a strong risk of landing offroad, which severely hampers your movement. No wonder the racer you take control of was scared to participate.
* "Herding Sheep in the Fog", a mini-level that opens up in the Wooded Kingdom's postgame. You have to herd a sheep across thin walkways over bottomless pits, with very few handrails. You need ''very'' precise angles on your cap throws, or the sheep will go flying into the abyss and respawn at the very beginning.
* "Diving From the Giant Pot" in the Luncheon Kingdom probably won't kill you, but it's still frustrating. To start, the name [[GuideDangIt doesn't tell you where to dive or that you're supposed to stay in a Lava Bubble]], which may cause you to dive off randomly, hoping to land somewhere with a Ground Pound spot for a Moon. Once you realize you're supposed to jump into the other small stewpot on top of the buildings, it doesn't become any easier, due to it being very close to the giant pot and falling aim already being quite difficult to control; not helping is the fact that finding and maintaining a workable camera angle can be extremely tricky. Expect to warp back to the top several times before you finally splash your Lava Bubble successfully in the goal.
* And then there are some Moons you can only get with Glydon. Doesn't sound too difficult? Well, his gliding turns into more of a fast dive mere seconds after you press the action button, making the objective difficult as you'll more than likely not reach your target by a mile. These missions can be made easier with the motion control boost that help maintain altitude... [[GuideDangIt but the game never tells you about it.]]
* "Secret 2D Treasure", a special 2D ''Super Mario Bros.'' style area in [[spoiler:the Mushroom Kingdom]], like the similar sections seen in previous kingdoms. However, this one has two gimmicks that make it much harder than before. One, the 'screen' moves on its own, and if Mario leaves said screen, he becomes 3D again and falls to his death, making it a literal AutoScrollingLevel that also punishes you for going too far ahead. This means lots of racing across narrow platforms before the auto scroll kills you, which is not easy with the amount of Bullet Bills thrown around. After this, it then goes into anti gravity mode, with ''Galaxy'' style planetoid gravity with moving 'screens' going around and Fuzzies to avoid. This is absolute hell to navigate, because not only are the Fuzzies and gravity wells not lined up well (hence forced hits from the former are common), but it's also rather glitchy too, meaning an unlucky player can seemingly fall to their death despite being perfectly lined up with the moving 'sky'.

[[folder:Super Mario Maker 2]]
* "No Jumping Allowed!" takes the most basic mechanic from the series away from you. You cannot jump a single time (unless you grab the flag before you land), and if you do, you will automatically fail the level. It's not just jumping - falling off a ledge or even stepping down a single block is instant failure. Mario's feet cannot leave the ground under any circumstances or it's a failed level for you.
* "Chain Chomp Chiller" takes the same concept as "No Jumping Allowed!", only this time you have to run past a whole field of Unchained Chomps without any use of headgear to protect yourself from them. While the winged Chomps have a higher jump, allowing a bigger (but still not an awfully big) timeframe for you to run past them, the final parts of the level pit you against Unchained Chomps ''without'' wings, leaving you only some springs for you to use, meaning you either have to backtrack to get more springs, or run at nearly pixel-perfect timing. Assist Mode might just be the only thing that'll get you through this level if you're not very good at dealing with Unchained Chomps.
* "Dash On, Dash Off" is one of those levels where you have to, as suggested by the name, rush through it and activate ON/OFF switches, and perhaps jumping over some large gaps. What adds to the challenge is there's a ''strict'' 30-second time limit, and you better not screw around as much or otherwise, the timer will run out on you by the time you make that jump to the last switch.
* "March of the Rookie Toads", tasks you with bringing ten Toads over to the goalpole, who follow eiher you to your very move, or behind another Toad doing the same thing, who can get trapped in a bubble in one hit. If that doesn't sound hectic enough, Fire Piranha Plants on Lakitu Clouds also shows up as well, meaning if you aren't very careful with how you jump, half of the time you'll spend on this level is dealing with the Toads who were caught by the Sun swooping down on them, if they weren't caught by a stray Goomba or any other enemy that shows up throughout the level. However if you use Assist Mode and steal the Lakitu's Cloud with Starman, it suddenly becomes a breeze.
* "Super Mario Bros. W1-1?", functions as the standard BrutalBonusLevel. purports itself as a remake of 1-1. 'You immediately face a Hammer Bro, a stack of Goombas, and some Thwomps once you start the level,' and the road to the flagpole does not let up from there. Peach does not kid around when she says "creating this brand of chaos is ''Bowser's'' speciality".

* Ever tried B-3 with Mario? [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obuUuMhlEK4 This video]] makes it look easy, but the jump off the green Koopa Paratroopa (around 20 seconds in) is ''insanely'' difficult to execute with Mario.
* World C-3 is just like 7-3 (the level with the wind and green springs), only with a Lakitu that makes the level much harder. Not only does it often place spinies where you need to land, but if left unkilled, can prevent required springs from spawning (at least in the Famicom version; the SNES version doesn't seem to have that problem, though that version removes the checkpoint).
* 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. 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 D-1 ''begins'' with two rows of bricks and a pair of [[DemonicSpiders Hammer Bros.]]. Only this time, the upper row is longer than the lower and therefore unreachable, even with Luigi. Since the Hammer Bros. don't stay under the bricks at this point and instead rush towards the player, the only way to pass is to either ''hope'' that none of them decided to spawn on the ground, or wait for them to rush you and then [[GoombaSpringboard bounce off]] one of them onto the upper row of bricks, which is next to impossible as you'll very likely land onto one of their hammers instead. Should you somehow survive those shenanigans, you then have to cross a BottomlessPit by bouncing off a ''horizontally'' flying Koopa. Oh, and that aforementioned upper row of bricks? It extends halfway across the pit.

* The ([[BrutalBonusLevel thankfully optional]]) level Tubular, which forces you to play as a balloon version of Mario/Luigi, having to float in between Chucks [[MeaningfulName chucking]] footballs/baseballs at you, three waves of Super Koopas, and lava-spewing Volcano Lotuses. There's no solid ground (getting hit even once will make you fall to your death), [[CheckPointStarvation no halfway checkpoint]], and the P-Balloon won't last for the whole level -- you must periodically get a new Balloon powerup in increasingly hard to reach areas, and balloon form is VERY hard to steer. Fortunately, it's possible to use a Blue Yoshi and a Cape in order to get through the level without having to use the balloon power-up once. It's tricky to pull off, but compared to going through the normal level, it's cake.
* Harder than Tubular (if you think platforming is harder than balloon flight) is [[MeaningfulName Outrageous]], which is not only full of enemies, but seems specifically designed to combat the easy option of flying over it.
* Awesome is another particularly difficult Special World level to fly through, which is full of shell-kicking Koopas and other hazards. There are probably as many enemies in this level as there are in any other level in the game. Additionally, it's [[SlippySlideyIceWorld one of two dedicated ice levels in the entire game]], meaning that it's harder to maneuver without falling, especially towards the arches at the end.
* Funky, the final Special World level, isn't as hard as Outrageous or Tubular, but it can throw people off with the 200 time limit on what is the longest single-room level in the entire game (32 screens, which is actually the longest a single sublevel in [=SMW=] can possibly be). Unless you get Yoshi (from a high hard-to-reach block or carrying over from a previous level) and eat the time-raising green berries, you will be rushing to get through this level and the hordes of enemies.

* There's a reason why the following levels were chosen to be the signature {{Brutal Bonus Level}}s of the game:
** 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. 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.
** "Poochy Ain't Stupid", World 1's extra level, is a ''goddamn lie'', featuring [[LethalLavaLand lava for practically the entire level]] and [[AutoScrollingLevel auto scrolling]] to go along with the introduction of Poochy, a dog that, if you unlocked the extra stage before proceeding to World 2, is a new mechanic.
** "Mystery of the Castle?", the World 2 secret level is a difficult maze with several of the entrances to its hidden rooms located ''off-screen''. The final red coin is also carried by a Fly Guy, meaning that if you're not fast enough, you're doing the whole level over.
** World 2's extra level "Hit that Switch!!" is an utter nightmare. If you're aiming for 100% completion, it feels like the level designers confused "making a 'complex' level" with "making a level that makes you remember and do ''way'' too much shit, all on several sharp time limits back to back." ''If'' you manage to reach the end... it pulls you into a nearly {{Unwinnable}} situation -- simple as that.
** "Go! Go! Morphing!", the World 3 Secret Level doesn't seem so bad at first, but towards the end will challenge you with several unintuitive puzzles on the Drill and Helicopter morphs' strict time limits. One Drill puzzle doesn't seem solvable under the time given unless you realise that the Helicopter's blades can clear soft soil above them, a scenario that doesn't come up anywhere else in the game, so most players will assume they screwed up and reset by mistake.
** 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. 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.
** World 4's secret level "Fight Toadies w/ Toadies" is no pushover 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 real 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 you 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 beginning.
** 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 on, and thus bounce off of, 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 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''.
** 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 a lot 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.
** World 6's Extra level "Castles - Masterpiece Set/Ultimate Castle Challenge" is an absolute gauntlet of thorns and moving platforms that give the player nowhere safe to stand still and catch their thoughts. You'd better have ultra fast reflexes if you don't know the method of cheating it.[[note]]The thorns can be destroyed with eggs and watermelon seeds, so just stock up on a few green watermelons from the bonus games.[[/note]]

* Anywhere that requires you to use the Wing Cap, due to the steep learning curve for the flying controls. They're a lot more tolerable after you get used to it, but they still remain hard.
* ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' lends itself to many a SelfImposedChallenge, one of the most common being getting every coin in each level of the game. There are a few levels that are annoying to do this on.
** 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, and only ''slightly'' less so without the Metal Cap. 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.
** LethalLavaLand: Coins vanish when they touch lava. The player has to choose between using the shell and its imprecise controls, or going without and taking tons of damage, being oh-so-careful to time the coin collection ''just right''. The volcano portion of the level has an enemy who must be punched down into the lava (which is about 10 stories up), at which point the player must then ''jump in after it'', with perfect timing and perfect accuracy, and ''then'' make it back to the tiny platform nearby while you're flailing about from the lava so you can live to tell about it. It's even harder than it sounds.
** Tiny-Huge Island has by far the largest number of coins out of any level in the game: 191. For perspective on that, the second-highest coin count is 154, in a game where every course must have at least 100. In a world completely infested with bottomless pits. Plus, there are two additional coins that are impossible to obtain by normal means, [[http://kotaku.com/the-super-mario-64-coin-that-took-18-years-to-collect-1617679248 one of which took 18 years to be reached, and only by a glitch.]]

* 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. 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]]:
-->"Wow, Wing Mario over the Rainbow just screws all of the [[SelfImposedChallenge challenge runs]]. Can't be done coinless. Can't be done capless. Can't be done cannonless.[[note]]Since this comment was made, it has since been [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCzBOGHf_a0 completed cannonless]].[[/note]] And can't be done in [[WebVideo/Pannenkoek2012 0x A presses]]. It's also [[https://youtu.be/h7xoxf_BrXw?t=1h43m44s screws over RTA runners]], and it's hard for casual players."

* In general, any level with bottomless pits, lava, or in one case quicksand. They're relatively easy to avoid and get around most of the time, but it's still surprisingly easy for an enemy to push you into them, causing you to lose health, if not a life. This is especially annoying if you're trying to collect 100 coins, as your coin counter gets reset when you die.

* Every single one of the secret levels:
** "Welcome to Yoshi Tower!" is an AutoScrollingLevel of NintendoHard puzzles and lava. The worst part of it is that there is not one single middle ring in the entire level. This means that not only does one mistake mean you're doing the entire level over, but you'll also have to scramble for every star you can find in the stage if you're trying to max your star count in order to get 100%. (Here's a tip: go into the level with a full supply of red eggs and then nail all those enemies at the beginning for all the stars you can get.)
** "Yikes! Boiling Hot!" is a NintendoHard level of lava practically making up most of the level. The last section forces you to do a bunch of precision jumping while dodging lava-spitting enemies and an absolutely ''massive'' lava monster, who even if you can avoid being killed by him directly, will make things a lot harder by destroying the ground beneath you.
** "A Light in the Dark" has very little light/visibility and a hated ski section. Remember how hard the ski section was in "Kamek's Revenge"? This makes that one look like cake. The worst part is a spot where you have to clear a small hill and grab one flower and two red coins on the way down. What makes it so bad is that you have to jump at the exact perfect angle to make this happen, and there aren't really any indicators to help you judge exactly where and how to jump. If you're even a hair off, you'll either miss one or both of the coins, or you'll fail to clear the gap and fall into the abyss. Oh, and you before you finally exit this screen, there's another red coin right at the end which you need to make a quick jump right as you exit in order to grab it; if you aren't prepared for it, you ''will'' miss it. Nintendo Power's otherwise excellent strategy guide really lets you down here, as it fails to identify that particular coin as a red one.
** "Hurry and Throw!" has two ungodly horrible sections. In the first, you have to dodge enemies and spikes while locating and depositing three number balls, all while the stage is [[AutoScrollingLevel auto scrolling]]. But this one is a ''looping'' autoscroll stage which just keeps taking you around and around the room until you find the exit. While this does give you some margin for error, it also gets annoying quick. For the second, you'd better have Peach or Mario, cause you're gonna have to do some master-level platforming. You have to make your way to the goal ring by bouncing off the backs of Paratroopas, all while collecting the usual crap and dodging obstacles like firebars which rotate in the air. Seriously, who designed this place?
** Finally, there's "Yoshi's Island Easter Eggs", a MarathonLevel of [[PlatformHell Kaizo type evil puzzles]] (aka, lots of spikes of instant death and perfectly timed jumps needed). You know you're in trouble when there's a middle ring after ''[[SuspiciousVideoGameGenerosity every goddamned room]]''.

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

* 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 nearly identical to "The Secret of Ricco Harbor" from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioSunshine''. But the other galaxies...
** The Mario Squared Galaxy's Comet mission, "Luigi's Purple Coin Chaos", is similar to the hardest mission in the original game, except even harder. While there are no rotating platforms, the green Shrinking Tiles remain, there are Cosmic Clones which begin spawning the instant you get the first coin, and the time limit is reduced to two minutes. Also, you need to collect all 100 coins. If you plan to do this level, bring a friend; Co-Star Luma can keep the vanishing platforms there for you.
** 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 faster, and putting Silver Stars on it. That means [[CheckPointStarvation no checkpoints]]. You're expected to slow everything down using blue switches scattered throughout the level. The Comet mission gets rid of the Silver Stars, but it also removes the slow-motion switches.
** In Rolling Coaster Galaxy's "Purple Coins on the Rainbow Road", you have two minutes to collect 100 Purple Coins (out of 110) while riding on a hard-to-control ball, with no way to backtrack. Some of the coins are scattered about on the platforms in between slide sections, requiring ultra-precise maneuvers to collect them. As with "Tall Trunk's Purple Coin Slide" above, you lose a life if you reach the bottom without collecting enough coins.
** The [[BossRush Boss Blitz Galaxy]]. 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.
** "Cosmic Clones Wall Jumpers" is the Prankster Comet mission in the Flip-Out Galaxy. You have to wall-jump and spin with precision up red and blue walls that alternately flip in and out, while the Cosmic Clones are chasing you. There is very little room for error if you get hit whilw wall jumping. 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. [[spoiler:It is 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]].
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bndgujEJSTc The Grandmaster Galaxy by itself is merely tough.]] It is a multi-section level where each part poses a unique challenge, such as swinging through a minefield with Yoshi. However, the comet star, the final level in the game, requires you to traverse it with a [[OneHitPointWonder a single hit point]].

[[folder:Super Mario [=3D=] Land]]
* 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. Those Roulette Blocks over there? You're probably gonna get a mushroom. Admit it, you want to cry now.
* S7-2 is W6-4, a [[TemporaryPlatform Beep Block]] level, but with a Cosmic Clone chasing you which you have to dance around while waiting for those Beep Blocks to beep into existence, ''in addition'' to fast-spinning firebars and spiked pendulums. There's a Tanooki Leaf, but you have to collect timed red coins for it to appear (located above several Beep Blocks, of course).
* S7-5. Especially the first coin. All you have to do to get it is hit a block, jump onto it, and get it. In theory it's nothing, but in practice it's a lot tougher than it looks. It's an AutoScrollingLevel, so you get maybe half the time you need to do it. If you actually got it, you have to get ahead VERY quickly before the screen kills you, which is much easier said than done.
* 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. The less said about the star coins, the better.
* S8-2 is just bluntly a nightmare without the Tanooki Suit, and even with it, it's still a pretty big pain in the ass. Those rollers have a tendency of making Mario's motions borderline random.
* 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. 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.]]
* S8-Bowser. [[TimedMission 30-second timer]], [[DroughtLevelOfDoom no powerups]], [[CheckPointStarvation no checkpoint]], {{Lava Pit}}s that make every jump a potential instant death, [[BossBattle Dry Bowser still being in the level]], and you have to kill ''[[DemonicSpiders Hammer Brothers]] for clocks'', who somehow know to throw hammers over each others' heads so you can't GoombaStomp them without being hurt easily. You'd better go back and grab a couple of powerups from an earlier level before attempting this nightmare.
* [[BrutalBonusLevel S8-Crown]]. First off, [[CheckPointStarvation there's no checkpoint.]] The first half of the level consists mostly of narrow used coin blocks you must jump across. It's practically impossible to get across that part without a Tanooki Suit, and even with it, you're still gonna die a few times. Or more. If you survive that part, you're pitted against [[QuirkyMiniBossSquad Boom Boom and Pom Pom]] at the same time. Then you go through one of those green roller coaster stages with bombs and complicated jumps galore. Then you're thrown onto a block where you must run to the other side while dodging [[EverythingTryingToKillYou fire, lasers, enemies,]] and a [[TheScrappy Giant Cosmic Mario]] who won't let you stop and take a breath. If you didn't have a mushroom or other item on you at that part, [[UnWinnable you're most likely dead.]] THEN... [[spoiler:you get to ride across the rest of the level while watching the green floor unfold, spelling out "THANK YOU!!"]]
[[/folder]]

* World Star-4. You have almost every moon coin and you see that you missed the middle moon coin. What is so hard about it? The middle moon coin is in a tiny Mario pipe, that means you have to survive a BIG cheep cheep, Koopas, and an AutoScrollingLevel. If that is not hard enough for you, you have to get the middle moon coin as ''Mini Mario'', which makes you a OneHitPointWonder. You will [[RageQuit 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. After all that... ''Dry Bowser...''
* The DownloadableContent Nerve-Wrack Pack of the Coin Rush mode is basically this. No wonder it's rated five out of five stars in terms of difficulty. Each of the levels (the pack has three fixed levels) have a certain gimmick to it that makes the level a lot harder than it looks like.
** 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. Not only that, if you intend to go as Gold Mario to create some shortcuts to collect more coins, be careful to not destroy the only platforms that you can run on. If you intend to collect the Star Coins, hope that you have good reflexes!
** The second level is basically a volcano level full of Paratroopas and Podoboos. The main way to traverse across the level is to jump on the Paratroopas to go to the next part. The thing is, the Podoboos may be in your way, and that once you jump on the Paratroopa, it's basically finished, so you can only jump on each Paratroopa once. Make one wrong move and you'll be jumping straight into the lava. Oh, and there is a time limit of 100 seconds. So you better make a move quickly or else you're done for good.
** The last level is a Dash Mario level where the entire level consists of jumping on Bullet Bills. It's a very good way to get coins if you're Gold Mario, and if you thought the level was a bit too easy and short, go to the left of the first cannon and you'll find a secret route to another Dash Mario cannon. This is the harder version of the normal Dash Mario level, and it's the only way to get all 3 Star Coins.
* The Impossible DLC Pack is basically the Nerve-Wrack Pack turned UpToEleven. Heck, it's even rated as '''[[BrokeTheRatingScale DANGER!]]''' They're so hard that even doing them with White Raccoon Mario will give you trouble (all three levels have short time limits, and WR Mario can't get the + Clocks and can only get more time from the Checkpoint Flag, leaving much you with much less time to spare). Here's a quick rundown on all 3 of them.
** First level has you using a spinning platform to get through a sky section while dodging Crows and Lakitu, not too hard but annoying, then you get to a water section crawling with Chain Chomps and Hammer Bros which require pitch perfect timing to get past.
** The second level has several sections where you have to traverse up rotating platforms surrounded by Flame Chomps at awkward angles while dodging Spinies; these sections require perfectly timed jumps and have very little room for error.
** The third level has poisonous water (which can kill even White Raccoon Mario) rising and falling for the whole stage, and in your path are conveyor belts, gears, and flame jets and you have zero room for error with your jumps.

* Superstar Road-3/[[NintendoHard Swim For Your Life!]]. It shouldn't come as completely unexpected, considering all of the SSR bonus levels crank the difficulty level up, but this one is insane. You're chased for the entire level by Cheep-Chomp trying to suck you up (instant death). Along the way, you have [[BulletHell lots and lots and LOTS]] of spike enemies floating around in the water, fish swimming by, and pipes shooting jets of water in every direction that you have to weave your way through without touching anything. In water? Yes, you're swimming, significantly slower and more clumsily, of course, than all the killer aquatic creatures that populate this underwater hellhole. There are places in which, without a fire flower power up, you actually have to stop and lure the giant fish chasing you close enough to where you can '''just''' barely dodge its lunge, which will carry it into enemy obstacles in your path that you would otherwise be unable to pass. Oh, and good luck trying to collect those three star coins while you're at it. This level can be made slightly easier by having a Baby Yoshi with for the level as carrying him not only makes you swim faster, but can also eat most of the enemies blocking your way.
* Superstar Road-2/Run for It. It's a P-switch run with a total of seven switches throughout. The first few sections, even including Star Coins, aren't so bad once you've been through them a couple times...and then you get to the sixth switch. You have VERY little time to waste getting to the next one, and slowing Mario's fall by spinning in mid-air is all but required because unlike the rest of the level, you're standing on platforms that rapidly move back and forth and you can't afford to wait for them to be in a better position.

* 9-6 (Fire Bar Sprint) is ''even worse''. As the name implies, the level is infested with extremely fast-moving Fire Bars, with not a single power up in sight. The last five Fire Bars require nearly perfect timing. Of course, [[GameBreaker Nabbit]] is completely immune to them. To make matters worse, [[spoiler:the last Star Coin in the level requires you to ground pound bricks, which can't be done as small or mini Luigi.]]

* Star-9 (Cosmic Cannon Cluster) is the final level of [[spoiler:World Star]], and it's nasty. [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin As its name implies]], the level is filled with cannons. Not only that, but there are several Parabones (a skeleton version of Paratroopas) scattered throughout, usually around switchboards[[note]]platforms that only move if you're standing on them[[/note]]. While you're given a cannon to defend yourself, it's still overwhelming. The worst part, however, is probably the part where you are required to climb a wall, which is absurdly difficult[[note]]unless you have a cat suit[[/note]] because you have to jump off a series of cannonballs to get to the top.
* Mushroom-7 (Broken Blue Bully Belt) is a bit on the nasty side. It's a revamp of 7-4. 7-4 wasn't so bad, was it? Well, in ''this'' level, most of those rising arrow platforms are gone. As a result, the stage has a number of jumps that are all but impossible to make if you don't have a Tanuki Suit or a character with good jumping abilities. There is one in particular a couple platforms after the midway point where if you're using Mario or Toad, you don't have a powerup, and you don't know about the spin jump, [[{{Unwinnable}} well...]]
* 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). If you fall into the [[GrimyWater purple goop]], [[CheckPointStarvation you're doing the level over from the beginning]].
* Flower-8, Blast Block Skyway is a revamp of 4-3, Beep Block Skyway. Beep Block Skyway was tricky on its own with the blocks that changed every few beats, but its harder version ramps it up ''even further.'' Thought the blocks were tough when they changed every eight beats? Try ''every two beats.'' You have no more than a second to stand on a block before it switches, meaning it's a frantic mess all the way through. The very last segment, a long slide on two sets of disappearing blocks, becomes an overly long mess of jumping back and forth every second and losing any momentum you built up, causing it to drag out much more than it did before. The level gives you a Super Leaf, and you ''will'' need it.
* Flower-12, Boss Blitz. Not only do you have to defeat every boss in the game (except Prince Bully and Bowser) with sparse power-ups, but you have to do it in the span of eight in-game minutes, most of which is likely to be wasted during the battle with the Hisstocrats (yup, you read that right - you're gonna face both of them, ''[[DualBoss simultaneously]]''). Perhaps the most frustrating thing about this BossRush is that the level starts with a choice of five warp blocks (one per boss) making it all to easy to think that you are finished after these five. Nope, Moltey Bossblob is fought at the end and while he does not take as long as the Hisstocrat battle it still takes a bit of time you might not have.
* [[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''. To get OneHundredPercentCompletion, two of them need to be completed with all [[spoiler:five]] playable characters.
** [[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. It contains a sampling of almost all of the most difficult and/or frustrating obstacles and enemies, and [[CheckPointStarvation there is also no checkpoint at any point in the stage]], meaning if you die, you have to run through the whole gauntlet all over again.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bsb2nbQvWJI Captain Toad's Fiery Finale]]. The last Captain Toad level is actually pretty simple on paper. What makes this level so difficult is the rising and falling lava that you have to be really quick with, and platforms will rise and fall with the lava and the game forces long stretches of land between a few of these platforms that you need to run past else you'll hit the lava. In addition, there's a Fire Piranha Plant constantly spitting fireballs at you and one of the platforms you need to blow into the controller to move, and this one requires strict timing. [[spoiler: Although if you're careful you can tap the Fire Piranha Plant's fireballs to send them back and kill it, making the level just a bit easier.]]
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEY5WX26WbY&index=40&list=PLYpDU5ElRBfmwc4TnoT5Owx1sFD-A8eRj Mystery House Marathon]]. The last Mystery House is merely a culmination of previous Mystery Houses and purple blocks, as you need to fulfill ten second challenges to get a Green Star. The catch here is that there are ''thirty challenges'' in a row. There aren't any checkpoints. For each challenge you only get 10 seconds, and if you fail just one, you have to start from the beginning. Even if you stay alive, you still have to be as quick as possible. [[spoiler:Thankfully, like Champion's Road, the last one is the easiest, with the game simply making you do a very satisfying dash to the last Green Star.]]

[[folder:Yoshi's New Island]]
* 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. 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. 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%. 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''. 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. 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. 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. You gotta keep grabbing those enemies for egg fodder and nailing all those coins and winged clouds if you want to get 100%. 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. Yet again, there are no Middle Rings, so if you mess up, you're doing it all over again.
[[/folder]]

* 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. 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. 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. Naturally, there are other enemies to deal with along the way, as well as natural hazards like spiky vines and other plants. 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.
* Star-S: Wonderful World of Wool. An AllTheWorldsAreAStage MarathonLevel with once again not a checkpoint in sight. While the secrets aren't too hard to find (and considering how gargantuan this stage is, you'll very likely want to scoop them all up in your first run), the massive number of Piranha Plants and other instant-kill hazards that infest the stage will make short work of you, even if you equip Double Yoshi or use a power-up patch to make yourself immune to bottomless pits or fire/lava. What's that, Piranha Plants killed you in the World 5 section? Back to the World 1 section!

* All of [[spoiler:the Dark Side of the Moon]]'s sub-levels are remixed versions of sub-levels from other levels. Some of these are considerably more challenging than the originals, mainly because they are ''exactly the same'' as the originals, except you are deprived of the thing that made the original manageable (usually Cappy).
** Vanishing Road, originally from the Metro Kingdom. The original gave you a motor scooter to help you quickly race across the timed platforms. The remix doesn't. You have to be an expert at moving Mario quickly and skilfully because your margin of error is extremely small.
** Breakdown Road, originally from the Wooded Kingdom. In the original, having Cappy meant you could potentially recover from falling into the abyss and Capture a Bullet/Banzai Bill to easily make it back to the beginning/get the second Power Moon. In the remix, you don't have Cappy, meaning you actually have to make the return trip across the now mostly-destroyed Breakdown Road. Or if you want the second Moon on the bottom path, instead of simply Capturing the Banzai Bill as before, you now have to let it chase you ''while you do perfectly timed long jumps across single blocks''.
** Invisible Road, also from the Wooded Kingdom. ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, an invisible platforming challenge. The only way to see the platforms is if they are covered with damaging poison provided by poison-spitting Piranha Plants, and it ends with a battle against three Giant Piranha Plants. In the original, Cappy allowed you to clear the poison from your path and stun the Giant Piranha Plants for an easy kill. In the remix, you don't have Cappy and can do neither of those things.

* 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! 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, 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 beginning.

** 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. 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.

* World 5-7: [[PlatformHell Shifting Platforms Ahead]] deserves mention, as the need to time your jumps to avoid falling into the abyss while dealing with the moving platforms makes reaching the exit a frustrating ordeal, and completing it 100% a bigger nightmare.

** 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 real challenge is ''not'' bouncing too high and ending up off-screen where one can't properly gauge Yoshi's position.

** 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.

* Butter Bridge 1 can be quite irritating due to being an AutoScrollingLevel with small rising and sinking platforms (thankfully, the only ones that appear in the game), that absolutely tests your precision. It even has parts in the level that can be rendered {{Unwinnable}}. For instance, it's easy to screw yourself by raising a platform too high for you to reach and thus doesn't fall fast enough before the screen catches up, forcing to exhaust a life. One screw up, and you're doing the whole thing over again.

* World 4-2. You first have to survive a unrelenting ZergRush of Beezos on two hearts[[labelnote:Hint]]There's a trick to this: the Beezos don't spawn randomly but at predictable points. As [=SMB2=] has no time limit, you can simply advance slowly, triggering the Beezos (and the occasional Flurry) at a controlled pace.[[/labelnote]] 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''.
* World 5-1, where you have to cross a vast waterfall by hopping on the heads of rising and sinking Trouters, is a nightmare if you try to complete it with anybody other than the Princess (who can simply soar from platform to platform). If you really want to punish yourself, try it with Luigi and his horribly imprecise jumps. It is also the introductory level for the green Birdo, which doesn't spit any eggs, only fireballs. There's also one portion in the level where you can't see the ground and you have to do a leap of faith onto an enemy. If you miss, you find out that there was floor there the entire time.
* 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. 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. 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 3. The world is so long that it's not an exaggeration to say it's ''longer than the previous two worlds combined.'' [[note]]The first world has 6 levels, while the second world has 5. World 3? '''12.''' And the levels are looooong.[[/note]] Most of the entire world is spent backtracking and trying to find the four pieces of a Wiggler, all of which run away and try to fight you at one point, and love to dodge your attacks (though, at only 15 HP apiece, they aren't that bad). Also, nearly every single level in the world is covered in poison, which hurts you to step in it (and if you battle while in it, expect to randomly take damage and screw up your perfect bonus), and infested with [[GoddamnedBats Ninji]]. The creepy music starts to get old after a short time. Leaflitter Path is a BlackoutBasement because of how dark and foggy the place is, which makes it easy to walk into poison. The Bafflewood is TheMaze (though you can set markers for the first few path branches). In Rustle Burrow, [[NoGearLevel you lose your hammer, Kersti, and your stickers. All of them.]] And the local Scuttlebugs are all over the place, and the miniboss of that world can't be hurt except by destroying its web, and each attempt will be responded with an unblockable 8 damage. Gauntlet Pond is also really long, and has segments with jumping on swinging logs across a huge poison lake. Then in Whitecap Beach you have to fight Gooper Blooper, who, like all the bosses in this game, is ludicrous without abusing its weakness. Yeesh.
* 4-3 ("The Enigmansion"), no doubt. You have to defeat 100 Boos in order to complete the level. Fortunately, some are fought together as a group... but they're hard to defeat. The hardest Boos to defeat are the five that battle you disco-style, and the sheets of 82 Boos combined together (you find two conveniently-located Flashy Infinijumps in the level, for good reason). It's a large level, and it can get extremely frustrating try to find that [[LastLousyPoint Last Lousy Boo]]. Once you've gotten all 100 Boos, you're done with this level, right? ''Wrong.'' Now you have to put the book away in the basement. But then Kamek appears and turns all 100 Boos into one giant Big Boo, who only has one attack: jumping onto you and grabbing you. Sounds easy at first, but then the lights come on and you can't directly attack it. Hope you have lots of Spike Helmets or the Vacuum for this battle; you'll need either one of them. What a long, frustrating mess it is.

* This trope is actually exploited by the game itself. In the 100-Mario Challenge, courses are pulled from the Course World based on their completion rate[[note]]which is a ratio based on deaths and quits vs. wins[[/note]]. On Expert and Super Expert difficulty, the courses usually have a completion rate in the single digits, meaning that players will receive levels that are considered ThatOneLevel by ''other'' players.