3. Super Mario Bros. The Lost Levels
The old benchmark for 2D-brutality, even the game itself had a myriad of different region-specific titles depending on where you were based. Let's stick with The Lost Levels for now though, as that's what it's known as in the west. Well, that and "That damn Mario game that made me snap my controller". See, when you're crafting a 2D platformer - especially back in the 80s for the Famicom no less - you're going to be playing with a hell of a lot of all-new game design variables, none of them tested over time and almost none of them cast to the cutting room floor. Hence this initially Japanese-only release of Super Mario gaining infamy immediately as it appeared to be all the things left out the original release. Newcomer Luigi was thrown in to spice things up with a different-feeling sense of weight and momentum, and the combination of both he and Mario's standard jumps let the designers run wild with the layout possibilities. Nowadays The Lost Levels has become known as the one platformer in Mario's canon that hangs with the big boys, doing away with his plump n' cuddly persona for some rock hard pixel-perfect runs through a world that eats newcomers for breakfast.