The Super Nintendo offered gamers of the 90s some of the best games ever made, but it also offered up an array of the most difficult ones. Some of those games were actually one and the same, while other titles were perhaps just too trying on a player’s patience to rank up there among the system’s best.
There were also some Super Nintendo games that weren’t overly challenging as a whole but still unleashed some brutally difficult levels within their otherwise palatable confines. Those levels are the ones that are burned into the minds of those who played, not just because they were so tricky, but because they had to be played over and over again to be beaten.
7 Tubular – Super Mario World
Getting through all 96 levels in Super Mario World is an incredibly fun experience that can also be incredibly trying at times. Chocolate Island and Valley of Bowser are loaded with levels that require remarkable patience, pinpoint precision, and many visits to the Top Secret Area for ample extra lives, but it’s in the Special Zone where Mario legends are really born.
All the Special Zone levels are a serious challenge but Tubular is an extra level of agonizing. The Power Balloon is the main focus in this one, and that thing is just not all that fun to use. Pair its awkward navigation with an endless array of projectiles to avoid, and this level is nothing but painstaking pandemonium from start to finish.
6 Rocket Rush – Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong’s Double Trouble!
There’s no shortage of challenging levels throughout the Donkey Kong Country series. In general, this challenge mostly adds to the quality of the games and makes them even more memorable. However, a select few levels go above and beyond in their efforts to keep players humble, and in doing so they cross the line from “wow this is tough” to “am I even having fun anymore?”
The final level in Donkey Kong Country 3, Rocket Rush, is perhaps the ultimate example of that line-crossing. Players navigate a barrel rocket through narrow confine while being tasked with avoiding endless obstacles as they attempt to maintain control of the awkward vessel. Building muscle memory is key, but it certainly doesn’t guarantee any sort of victory.
5 Stage 8 – Super Castlevania 4
Fans of the Castlevania series appreciate fear and often revel in it, but the kind of fear elicited by the final stage of Super Castlevania 4 isn’t of the recreational sort. It’s more like abject terror.
Stage 8 is a merciless marathon of enemies, obstacles, traps, tricks, poison pools, awkwardly-timed eyeball drips, flame-spewing skeleton creatures, shifting spike platforms, and oddly enough a comparably easy Frankenstein’s Monster boss at the very end. Sure, he’s pretty easy, if one can manage to get to him…
4 Extra 1: Poochy Ain’t Stupid – Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island
It’s fascinating how many of the generally agreed-upon greatest titles in Super Nintendo history also contain some of the most brutal levels. Oftentimes the truly difficult titles can be polarizing among fans for the exact reason that they’re so difficult, but games like Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island manage to appeal to a wider audience by providing a balanced challenge that still includes some vicious levels down the stretch.
The Extra levels, in particular, are truly something else in Yoshi’s Island. The first of them, Poochy Ain’t Stupid, tasks players with making their way through a lava-laden obstacle course while keeping Poochy the dog safely in tow. It’s like adding another ball to an already tricky juggling act, which deepens the frustration in a way that most other levels simply can’t match.
3 Stage 6 – Contra 3: The Alien Wars
Any fan of brutal difficulty should have a taste of at least one game in the Contra franchise at some point in their lives. Every one of these titles offers a harrowing journey through worlds of bountiful enemies, endless projectiles, and gigantic, merciless bosses. Konami’s 16-bit masterpiece, Contra 3: The Alien Wars, is one of the best among them, and one of the most challenging.
True masochists can crank the difficulty up to Hard in Contra 3 to not only get a tougher challenge throughout the entirety of the game but also to get an expanded final level that amounts to one of the most brutal video game gauntlets ever crafted.
2 Final Stage – Super Return Of The Jedi
Every one of the Super Nintendo Star Wars titles is excellent, but that fact has faded over the years in part thanks to just how unrelentingly difficult they all are. The graphics are great, the level designs are cool, and the connection to the films feels genuine, but it's exceedingly hard to enjoy any of these things amid all the constant Game Overs.
Any fan dedicated enough to find their way to the final level of Super Return of the Jedi will find themselves in the hardest one of them all. Escaping the Death Star in the Millennium Falcon is a cruel task full of eye-straining, nauseating Mode 7 mayhem. Part of the difficulty is the repetitive visuals. Players never know how far along they are and when they’ll have finally escaped, they just need to hold on for dear life and try not to die.
1 Stage 7 – Super Ghouls ‘n Ghosts
There’s no avoiding this 16-bit Capcom classic when discussing the Super Nintendo’s trickiest titles, or tricky titles in general, really. While it’s also considered one of the best and most beloved titles on the console, there is a certain level of torment that this game puts all players through that can’t be denied.
The final boss, Sardius, is super difficult all on his own, but simply getting to him by clearing Stage 7 is perhaps even more difficult than that. The level itself is no cakewalk, but having to make it through with the wonky and awkward bracelet weapon makes it even more torturous.