* AntiClimaxBoss: Bowser in the first game is exactly the same as the Bowser battle in ''Super Mario World.'' The only difference is that he is invisible. If you're familiar with this boss battle, it's actually not that tough.
* BetterAsALetsPlay: As with almost any deliberately frustrating game, but ''Kaizo'' takes it to new levels.
* BreatherLevel: The underwater level in the first game. Still difficult, though.
* CondemnedByHistory: After years of other bullshit ROM Hacks being made specifically to piss off the player, and quite the big backlash against these kinds of hacks in general by ROM Hacking communities, even outside of ''Super Mario World'', and [=LPers=] alike (quite a few big ROM Hack [=LPers=] have flat out quit playing ROM Hacks because they were tired of getting nothing but "''[[FollowTheLeader Kaizo]]'' [[FollowTheLeader clones]]"), the original Kaizo is, at best, seen as a relic of a bygone era, and at worst treated with nothing but bile for creating the mindset that "ROM Hacks need to be bullshit hard for the sake of being bullshit hard" in the first place. It would take nearly a decade for "''Kaizo'' clones" to recover, not returning to prominence until the appearance of hacks such as ''Invictus'' in [[TheNewTens the late 2010s]] and even then, they often include some form of AntiFrustrationFeatures like giving the player infinite lives, more generous checkpoint placement, and making the platforming challenges more clever and thought out than [[FakeDifficulty having to repeatedly make a pixel-perfect jump]] to keep things from feeling frustrating.
* CrossesTheLineTwice:
** The game’s difficulty is so ludicrous that the game crosses over from frustrating to funny and probably back to frustrating before going back to funny again.
** The infamous KaizoTrap. You're probably throwing your keyboard or controller out the window...and likely also laughing at the absurdity of being killed during the "Course Clear!" screen.
* DifficultySpike: A casual ''Mario'' player could most likely complete the first two levels of the first game. The third level is what separates the men from the boys.
* HilariousInHindsight: Many of the more ridiculous things in Kaizo Mario World are possible in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioMaker'', including the outright impossible, in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'', fight against Bowser directly. Admittedly, throwing hammers was relegated to his son.
* MemeticMutation:
** [[WebVideo/{{Retsupurae}} Slowbeef]]'s [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt2uyDqbA-Q SNES9X]]
** LetsPlay/ProtonJon's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua6pbz3ROvQ "100 seconds?" and "Move Faster Pokey!"]]
*** His reaction to the KaizoTrap is also hilarious.
* SequelDifficultySpike: The second game just [[DarkerAndEdgier increases the hellishness]] of the first one.
* SurprisinglyImprovedSequel: Depending on one's perspective, the third game is generally considered this; the level design is considered less gimmicky than that in the first two, and some traits that are regarded as eyesores such as stacked munchers are toned down (you can walk across many of them with Yoshi) or eliminated completely. Notably, for this reason the third game was the only Kaizo hack accepted as a submission on popular tool-assisted {{speedrun}}ning site [[http://www.tasvideos.org TASVideos.org]].
* ThatOneLevel:
** The original's second Special Stage, and ''not'' just because of [[KaizoTrap the trope it named]]. Special mention goes to the infamous [[CraniumRide Pokey segment]].
** Kaizo 2's third level, with constant munchers and mobile ropes. It's hard to the point that after the goal post is crossed, Chargin' Chucks applaud you for clearing it.
** The second-to-last stage in Kaizo 3. The second half is one giant Rube Goldberg machine of death, and if you screw up ''even once'', you will be unable to access the exit pipe.
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