My 100 Video Game Challenge (2024) #24: Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels

Played on: Nintendo Switch Online [NES]

Explaining Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels and its origins is almost more fascinating than the game itself. To many video game enthusiasts, myself included, The Lost Levels is the perfect example of 'Nintendo hard'. This is because The Lost Levels stands tall among the oft-cited inspirations behind the birth of the 'rage game' (or, 'Kaizo', as they are known in Japan, approximately translating to 'modified'), a subculture largely dominated by online ROM hacks that are made to be played on Twitch streams and the like, which are intentionally designed by fans to be borderline impossible to complete.

In layman's terms; The Lost Levels is difficult. VERY difficult! They should have called this game, "Super Mario Bros.: There is No God, and All Are Punish-ed."

As a kid, I first ran afoul of The Lost Levels after I discovered it lurking within my Super Mario All-Stars cartridge for my Super Nintendo. To put into perspective how brutal this game is, that Super Nintendo compilation marked the first time that The Lost Levels was made available to anyone outside of Japan... Because Nintendo originally deemed it too difficult for non-Japanese players. Yes, it turns out that convoluted Japanese RPG's don't in fact have a monopoly on early Japanese developers believing that Americans, and by extension, Canadians, were too stupid, undisciplined and unskilled to play them, so they didn't bother releasing them in the West.

While we Westerners wouldn't have the chance to discover The Lost Levels until its Super Nintendo remake in 1993, buried within the aforementioned Super Mario All-Stars compilation, the game was in fact first released in 1986, exclusively in Japan. It was initially made for the Famicom Disk System, a Japan-exclusive floppy disk-powered add-on to the Japanese NES (the NES is designed entirely differently and called the 'Famicom' in its native Japan), and in The Lost Levels' county of origin, it is known by another name... Super Mario Bros. 2.

Yes, really! The Lost Levels is, in fact, the true sequel to 1985's timeless classic, Super Mario Bros. The Super Mario Bros. 2 we know here in North America is, in reality, an imposter, specifically a Mario-skinned variant of an entirely unrelated Japanese game called 'Doki Doki Panic'. In Japan, what we know as 'Super Mario Bros. 2' is actually called 'Super Mario USA'. This is a well-known fact among avid Nintendo enthusiasts, but still a fun bit of trivia for people who aren't quite as well-versed on the design history of the Mario games.

The reason why the game was dubbed 'The Lost Levels' here in North America is because its design style is almost identical to that of the original Super Mario Bros. Thus, Nintendo of America treated it more like an expansion to the original Super Mario Bros. that wasn't previously made available in the West, rather than a proper sequel.

Despite gamers originally only having access to The Lost Levels' 16-bit Super Nintendo build as well, the original 8-bit Famicom Disk System build of The Lost Levels, or 'Super Mario Bros. 2 Japan', if you will, was eventually made available in North America and other Western territories via the Virtual Console catalogues of the Wii, Wii U and Nintendo 3DS, and most recently, the Nintendo Switch Online NES catalogue. That Switch rendition on Nintendo Switch Online is what I finally decided to take a run at during a brief getaway to my family's beach house, seeing as I'd eventually crawled my way through The Lost Levels' brutal Super Nintendo build as a kid back in the 90's, after years of failed attempts to complete it, and even then, I could only do it with Luigi. More on that in a moment. I had never previously tried The Lost Levels' original 8-bit rendition from 1986. Surely, as an adult, I could get through the game a little faster, right?

Well, technically, yes, but boy, The Lost Levels still kicked my ass from every angle! Thanks to the built-in rewind feature of Nintendo Switch Online, I could at least cheese my way through a few dumb mistakes, but even with rewind on your side, The Lost Levels is borderline impossible to beat without some serious platforming chops! It took me that whole weekend to finally muscle through it with both Mario and Luigi, but at last, I've defeated the original 8-bit build of The Lost Levels for the first time, adding it to my long resume of conquered Mario games from throughout the years!

The Lost Levels features the exact same premise as the original Super Mario Bros., and indeed most mainline Mario games; Bowser, still currently known as King Koopa, has kidnapped Princess Peach, still currently known as Princess Toadstool, and it's up to Mario or Luigi to rescue the Mushroom Kingdom's princess from captivity with the Koopa clan. Interestingly though, The Lost Levels, contrary to its 1985 predecessor, doesn't feature a two-player mode at all. The game is one-player-only this time, possibly because Nintendo didn't want to be responsible for so many terminated friendships and broken marriages as a result of this game's punishing difficulty level.

Granted, this change could also be related to a design tweak for the eponymous Super Mario Bros. in The Lost Levels, namely that Luigi can now jump higher than Mario, at the cost of having less friction while running across levels. Yes, it turns out that the genuine Super Mario Bros. 2 pioneered the exact same Luigi hook as our false Super Mario Bros. 2, and Luigi being a better jumper, but also clumsier than Mario, is a trait that has been referenced again in certain future Mario games, even if Mario and Luigi still handled identically within the subsequent Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World. Mario, meanwhile, handles the same as he and Luigi both did in the original Super Mario Bros. throughout The Lost Levels, though the sprawling obstacle and platform layout throughout The Lost Levels definitely makes leaping around easier and less deadly when you play as Luigi. This is why I could only complete the game with Luigi as a kid, one time, and never again, after years of attempts.

While many hazards, enemies and obstacles throughout The Lost Levels are taken straight from the original Super Mario Bros., with this sophomore game being filled with identical Goombas, Koopa Troopas, Cheep-Cheeps and whatever else, The Lost Levels does add in a few new mechanics, all of which are purely designed to make players miserable. No subsequent Mario game has resurrected most of these mechanics to date, and for good reason; Because they suck, everyone hates them, and Nintendo intentionally designed the game that way; Because 1986 was a time of great anger in Japan, apparently.

These new 'mechanics' include sudden gusts of wind, which you must adjust your jumps for, lest you fall into bottomless pits, of which The Lost Levels has many. They also include warp zones that send you backward in the game, rather than forward, as they always did in the original Super Mario Bros., and any other Mario game that includes them. Finally, The Lost Levels also includes poisonous mushrooms for the first time in the series, which, rather than make Mario or Luigi super-sized and able to take an extra hit, they instead either shrink them to their small state, or, if you're already in that small state, they'll just kill you outright. Thanks, Nintendo. Believe me, The Lost Levels starts placing these poisonous mushrooms in all sorts of 'charming' spots as hidden surprises later in the game too.

One small measure of mercy is, unlike the original Super Mario Bros., The Lost Levels doesn't boot you back to the start of the game if you lose all of your lives and get a Game Over. Instead, it at least has the decency to feature checkpoints, and start you back at the beginning of a world, rather than the very start of the game. No, it's the mischievous warp zones that you often have to worry about eliminating your progress, but honestly, I'd avoid those as much as you can anyway. After all, if you beat The Lost Levels without using any kind of forward-moving Warp Zone, you'll get to access an infinitely looping ninth 'bonus world' after you complete the game. It's nothing special, but it is a little bit fun and weird, and would have definitely been an offbeat trip in 1986, with its underwater castles and arranged coin messages and the like.

Okay, so, I've talked a lot about the eccentric philosophy behind The Lost Levels, and its eventual journey to us English-speaking plebs, but the question remains... Is The Lost Levels a good game?... Ummm... Maybe? Yeah, that's really tricky to answer, even for myself, an adult man that's spent over 15 years writing reviews and media analysis pieces.

In terms of accessibility and fun factor, yeah, I admit, The Lost Levels largely sucks by modern standards. It's too needlessly punishing, and its difficulty curve is aggressive and horrifically cruel. That's before considering that The Lost Levels truly does feel more like an expansion than a true sequel as well, with almost all of its play mechanics, assets and overall presentation being completely unchanged from the original Super Mario Bros. Outside of the mushrooms now having faces, and the level backgrounds having a tad more detail, The Lost Levels is pretty much indistinguishable from the original Super Mario Bros.

BUT... That being said... The Lost Levels is not completely without merit. Its otherwise infuriating challenge can be truly appealing to masochists, and while its backwards Warp Zones, wind storms and poisonous mushrooms are all intentionally frustrating, they can also be weirdly funny when you fall victim to them, if you're not taking the game too seriously. It's certainly easier to take that stance when playing The Lost Levels via Nintendo Switch Online, where you can use the rewind feature to undo any mistakes that you don't want to commit to. Besides, that trademark Mario polish is still present here, frustration and all, making for an NES/Famicom Disk System game that at least feels good to fundamentally play, even if the entire game is designed to annihilate your progress and self-esteem as a retro gamer.

Is that enough to give The Lost Levels a respectable amount of appeal? Honestly, no, I don't think so. This is an interesting piece of Nintendo history, and I'm glad that its original Famicom Disk System build has been made easily accessible to North American players (if you're willing to pay for a subscription to Nintendo Switch Online anyway), but this is very much a game for hardened Mario experts only. Even with Nintendo Switch Online's rewind capability on your side, only a handful of dedicated players will probably be able to successfully rescue the princess here, let alone reach The Lost Levels' handful of hidden bonus worlds, which require multiple replays and victories and, yeah, unlocking World 9 was enough for me at this point. Even my patience has its limits!

So, to sum up, having finally completed The Lost Levels in its original 8-bit glory as an adult, my takeaway is that I think I should be kinder to myself during my next trip to the beach house. The game wasn't completely devoid of fun, and I did earn my stripes as an expert Mario player by seeing The Lost Levels through to its conclusion with both Mario and Luigi, but I think I'd probably rather revisit just about any other classic Mario game, if given the choice.

IF I HAD TO SCORE IT: 6/10