3/5 ★ – Empyrean's review of Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels.

Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels has a reputation for being punishingly difficult, too hard to be enjoyable, and the inferior sequel. I disagree with all of the above. For starters, yes it’s hard. There’s a lot of bullshit, no question there. The Castle puzzles especially are pretty vexing. But is it TOO hard, or as similarly difficult as other “Nintendo Hard” games? Absolutely not. Whilst Lost Levels is definitely challenging and serves its purpose as “more of the same but for pros”, it’s still mostly fair. There isn’t anything here that I feel couldn’t be done without the need of save states, which I cannot say for something like Castlevania 1-3 or Zelda 2. And yes, I prefer this to the other SMB2. A Mario game where you can’t kill enemies by jumping on them? Get outta here. Side note: whilst I did enjoy my time with this game, I didn’t enjoy it enough to finish it an extra SEVEN TIMES to unlock the last four bonus worlds. Fuck that.