Summary
Who saidMariogames are easy? True, the plumber’s adventures are known for being accessible to people of all skill levels, but that doesn’t mean the Super Mario series is a walk in the park. If you’re going for 100 percent completion, get ready for some of the most ruthless platforming challenges you’ve ever faced.
Over the years,Nintendohas mastered the art of letting you choose your own difficulty. While newcomers have plenty of options to make Mario games easier, completionists can crank up the challenge by finding every well-hidden collectible, unlocking mercilessly tough secret worlds, and taking on brutal post-game content.
These Mario games are ranked based on their estimated completion times. However, your runtime may vary depending on your playthrough.
8Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels
Completion Time - Five Hours
Known in Japan as Super Mario Bros. 2, The Lost Levels is infamous for having the most punishing stages in the series. Devilish tricks are everywhere, including question blocks with poison mushrooms and harsh gusts of wind that hinder platforming. Things get even worse when you realize the game doesn’t end when you save Princess Peach.
You need to unlock five secret worlds to get full completion. You can enter World Nine right after defeating the final boss, but Worlds A through D become available only after you have beaten the game eight times. This requirement was removed in later versions, but if you’re playing the Famicom original, prepare for several runs ofthe hardest Mario levels.
7Super Mario Bros. Deluxe
Completion Time - 13 Hours
Super Mario Bros. Deluxe has a lot of completion requirements for a remake of the first Mario game. Each level has five well-hidden red coins and one Yoshi egg, which are difficult to find due to the screen crunch. On top of that, every stage asks you to get a ridiculously high score, requiring perfect speedruns while grabbing as many coins and power-ups as possible.
If that wasn’t enough, there are 20 pictures you can unlock by completing challenges, like beating every Bowser fight with a Fire Flower. Once you finally think it’s over, you realize the game also includes the Lost Levels. Time to play those nightmarish stages all over again.
TheYoshigames are known for being easy, but nothing could be further from the truth about the first one. Each level gives you a score out of 100, requiring you to find all 20 red coins and five flowers - many of which are cleverly hidden. And that’s just half of the completion requirement.
To get a perfect rank, you must also reach the goal with full health. Even the tiniest mistake can affect your score, so you need to master each level to avoid getting hit. Once you complete every stage in a world, you unlock an extra-difficult bonus level that will put your platforming skills to the test.
5Super Mario Sunshine
Completion Time - 29 Hours
Don’t letSuper Mario Sunshine’srelaxing vibes fool you. Delfino Plaza is hiding some excruciatingly ruthless missions. If you’re going for 100 percent, you must find all 120 shines. The only problem is that Sunshine has the most infuriating optional levels in the series, including the dreaded Watermelon Festival and the endlessly frustrating pachinko machine.
However, what drives completionists to rage-quit is collecting all 240 blue coins. Each world has graffiti scattered throughout, which you must spray to make the coins appear elsewhere in the stage. You then have a few measly seconds to find the blue coin before it disappears; otherwise, you have to backtrack and start all over.
Super Mario Galaxy 2 takes its title a bit too literally, featuring twice as much content as the first game. After you collect all 120 Power Stars and beat Bowser, an additional 120 Green Stars are hidden across the levels, requiring you to backtrack to every single galaxy and search for them.
Finding every Green Star unlocks Grandmaster Galaxy, a nightmarish barrage of enemies, lasers, collapsing platforms, and many other obstacles. But it doesn’t end there. Giving a staggering number of 9,999 star bits to Banktoad unlocks Grandmaster Galaxy’s Perfect Run, where you must beat the level again without getting hit.
BeatingSuper Mario 3D Worldis a breeze, but fully completing it is a different story. In addition to finding all 380 Green Stars, you must collect 85 stamps scattered throughout the stages. The catch? The last five stamps are unlocked after playing every level with each character, meaning you need to beat the game five times for 100 percent completion.
This is especially difficult considering the last stage, Champion’s Road, is one ofthe hardest final levelsin the Mario series. Since every character controls a little differently, you need to get comfortable with each play style to have any hope of reaching the final flagpole five times.
2Mario Kart 7
Completion Time - 49 Hours
Mario Kart 7 isa must-play 3DS gamefor fans of the series. But be warned - completing it is no easy task. This game introduced customizable karts, with 27 parts that can be obtained by collecting coins during races. There’s just one issue - getting every part costs a whopping total of 20,000 coins.
Since your coin meter maxes out at ten during any given race, you need to beat the game at least six and a half times to buy everything. To make matters worse, you can also unlock a gold steering wheel by playing with gyro controls 80 percent of the time. Let’s hope you like tilting your 3DS because you’ll be doing it a lot.
Super Mario Odysseyholds the record for the most collectibles in a Mario platformer, with 880 Power Moons spread across 17 kingdoms. However, the Odyssey’s moon meter maxes out at 999. To get every single item, you must buy 119 extra moons from the Crazy Cap shop for 11,900 coins.
The collectibles don’t stop there. There are 43 souvenirs and 55 outfits available in the shops, plus 1,000 purple coins hidden throughout the levels. Not to mention the three secret kingdoms you need to unlock, including the Darker Side of the Moon - a nearly 12-minute-long barrage of almost every obstacle in the game. Good luck!
