which mario games are not easy?

https://i.imgur.com/IQXHpkWl.jpg

VS. Super Mario Bros. is a two-player VS. System version of Super Mario Bros. (1985, NES) which was released in 1986.
This game is harder than the original Super Mario Bros., with fewer warp zones and power-ups, and more enemies. Six new levels were created for the game, all of which were reused in Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels.

- Various ? Blocks, especially those that contain power-ups, are often either moved to much harder-to-reach places, or even removed altogether, or the power-ups are replaced with coins.
- The Koopa Troopa at the ending staircase of 3-1 is replaced with a Goomba, making an infinite 1-Up exploit impossible[2].
- The invisible block used to reach the floating pipe in World 8-4 is moved one block higher, requiring a long jump to reach it. Also, the area where Mario/Luigi fights Bowser now has bricks above, making the area between it and the bridge narrower.
- The Warp Zone in level 4-2 has been modified from the NES version to remove the warps to Worlds 7 and 8, allowing warping only to world 6; there is no way around the extremely difficult levels imported into Worlds 6 and 7.

At some point in the North American localization of VS. Super Mario Bros., the game was to be called VS. Mario's Adventure. The only remnant of this earlier title is an arcade flyer with a trademarked name.

https://www.mariowiki.com/VS._Super_Mario_Bros.

hurrah to Mario
our only hero

adam you have to play celeste

it is the spiritual heir to SMB1 and SMB3.

i say these words knowing full well the implications

The Koopa Troopa at the ending staircase of 3-1 is replaced with a Goomba, making an infinite 1-Up exploit impossible

listen no disrespect for those who regularly exploit the infinite 1-up staircase, but at the same time massive disrespect

i thought this thread was gonna be full of stuff like this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGifOBXov7U

KM i will have to check out Celeste. thanks for the tip!

also the infinite lives trick even more necessary when considering these additional changes:

Depending on operator settings, the player may now start with two lives instead of three and the timer may be set to run faster than the NES version's timer did. The coin counter now has three digits instead of two, meaning that Mario/Luigi may have to collect more than 100 coins (can be set to 100, 150, 200, or 250 by the operator) to earn an extra life. After a game over, depending on operator settings, the player may continue with four lives instead of three.

i watch some ppl who stream a lot of mario games on twitch, and this last year was something of an outstanding, banner year for rom hacks imo, mostly super mario world for snes. if you aren't super familiar, the idea of a rom hack is that the creator can completely rearrange/redesign nearly everything in a game -- levels, sprites, music, enemies, the overworld, new bitmap graphics, new game mechanics entirely written in nintendo assembly code.

i remember trying some hacks many years ago and they were all completely unaesthetic + unwieldy to play. there have been a fair number of notable ones like ITEM ABUSE, but recently there have been a couple cool ones i've really enjoyed playing, i particularly like things like mario's keytastrophe and super mario logic, which turn mario world into series of one-screen puzzles, but with a level of execution that feels like a talented game designer put enough actual thought care + time into it to where it's satisfying to get through each level. most of these hacks are made by ppl who are still playing + finding new things in games that are 20+ years old; the passion runs v v deep.

some of the coolest hacks i doubt i'll ever get a chance to play myself because the level of difficulty is absurdly prohibitive (and this is coming from someone who LOVED the path of pain in hollow knight). they still can be very fun to experience, and thankfully somehow there are people in this world who can afford and even get paid to put in the hundreds of hours it can take to beat some of these on a blind playthrough (the final boss alone from the game in the last video i posted itt took a streamer i watch sixteen hours to beat), but the level of extreme difficulty is often balanced by interesting surprising + humorous design choices that can keep even a run with hundreds or thousands of deaths entertaining. a big part of what makes this fun is the fact that there's a decently sized community full of some very cool people making + playing these, which has its own culture, inside/running jokes, metagame, sense of competition, etc.

a couple of the more notable hacks:

invictus
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0Jz-EWtI18
https://www.smwcentral.net/?p=section&a=details&id=18238
this game was created by an australian streamer who put together a v funny montage of other streamers submitting to this games avalanche of subtle + brazen trolls, watching a straight playthrough of the game is pretty sweet too. all of these hacks have sweet aesthetics, this one might be the best though, everything feels like it's been placed for maximum effect, even parts that are completely unfair are always way more funny than they are cheap.

storks apes and crocodiles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wvPoT7_AlQ
https://www.smwcentral.net/?p=section&a=details&id=17281
this one came out more toward the beginning of the year and might have been what set such a high standard for everything that's come since. every little detail is so particular - no overworld! no clever level names - no level names at all! bosses that feel like they're out of wario ware! a castle whose rooms are randomly selected each run! little functionless restorative rooms with chill music to break up the action. absolutely killer soundtrack full of deep cuts + jams. really choice hack, tasteful. A+

return to subcon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTEAMnoXWpU
this is a vanilla super mario bros 2 hack - vanilla meaning containing no sprites or mechanics that weren't available in the original game (the above smw hacks are, of course, 'chocolate'). smb2 is one of my all time favs and there aren't really any other hacks of it that have found any audience within this little niche of a niche, this one is cool because it takes what is a pretty loose game so far as physics and mechanics go and requires much more from the player, tighter and more precise inputs and routings. each level is tailor made for a specific character + so you don't get to choose, other than that it's just a really nice remix of very basic elements. super well done.

fly me to the stars
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oE3-Vr7RvnM
this just came out, it's made by a biology grad student who took 'carl sagan' as his online pseudonym and it's very space/time-y. it's based around absurdly difficult maneuvers with the cape flying mechanic which make for very entertaining looking runs, it's new enough though that there aren't very many polished runs of each level out there. the level names: "is space infinite?" "is time infinite?" "was there a start?" "is there an end?" "who are we?" "we are the cosmos"

there are a bunch more. gdq is going to have runs of quickie world + gracie world which i'm looking forward to. hopefully one of the above hacks gets in too, i think it's possible but i dunno

also for real worth checking out is this brand new one from creator 'team dicks', it's a gauntlet of 100 hyper glitched out rooms and puzzle trolls, couldn't find a youtube video but this vod is ~gaming content~ at its absolute best, no joke: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/357193326

you know, for those who get into this sort of thing :)

awesome post!

i remember trying some hacks many years ago and they were all completely unaesthetic + unwieldy to play. there have been a fair number of notable ones like ITEM ABUSE, but recently there have been a couple cool ones i've really enjoyed playing, i particularly like things like mario's keytastrophe and super mario logic, which turn mario world into series of one-screen puzzles, but with a level of execution that feels like a talented game designer put enough actual thought care + time into it to where it's satisfying to get through each level. most of these hacks are made by ppl who are still playing + finding new things in games that are 20+ years old; the passion runs v v deep.

all of this resonates with me. i saw some hacks a few years ago but i haven't really looked into it since. the ones you posted are great! and i'm really curious about the one-screen puzzle ones for sure.

isn't Super Mario Maker designed for exactly this?

yes + no, yes in that it's nintendo's official level maker, many of the more standout ppl in the mario maker community + hack communities overlap, there absolutely have been a ton of cool + creative mm levels, and the meta for mario maker has def influenced the direction of these hacks, etc.

no in that mario maker is comparatively ultra rigid in what it allows you to do. there's only one way to win a maker level, touch the flag/axe at the end. there's no such thing as long form content, no level playlists, no title screens overworlds endings etc. there are a decent number of enemies and obstacles in maker but there are many hard limits. you can't make the ground slope, for example. you can't really do anything nintendo doesn't intend for you to do, they even scrub the levels for glitches and have banned creators for creating levels that exploit unintended mechanics. it's like speaking a language with a thousand word vocabulary, you can for sure do a lot with what's there but it doesn't touch what's possible. compare with the last twitch link I posted which (SPOILERS) starts off with an unexpected 5 minute long autoscroller section of overworld(!) before going into a funny tutorial screen then dumping hours of levels on the player that end not when you get from point A to B but rather when you clear a certain amount of sprites from the screen, with complete control of the pacing, etc. just a very different level of control over the user experience!

probably the biggest difference for me is no custom music in mario maker, the music really does so much

Thanks esby, these are all insane & great

(particularly that last one w/the puzzle rooms)

Mario 64 romhacks are a fun rabbit hole too though there's only a couple ones with any semblance of polish due to how much more work 3d is

ooh just remembered another good one.. completely unprecedented at the time, catching this live was like the video game troll equivalent of seeing a ronaldinho goal:

https://youtu.be/f5nF9-yikOM?t=482

I like stupid challenges the best

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=348pvm-p9tI

Good revive. I’ve been watching smw streamers a lot this year. esby already mentioned JuzCook (Invictus) - I like every single video he puts on youtube. Another great streamer you mentioned is GlitchCat (return to subcon) whom can beat the hardest humanly possible levels ever made for smw. You also linked Grand POOBear, another all around fun guy to watch.

I’ve been toying with making my own hack levels. The latest version of the level editor allows you to combine horizontal and vertical stages so I have been testing a long, perilous slide down a steep slope in a narrow cave while with an “auto-walking” patch so you can’t turn around midslide.