10 Super Mario Levels That Were Just Plain Unfair
3. World 8 Airship - Super Mario Bros. 3
Retro Mario games absolutely loved throwing in an auto-scroller or two to keep things a little bit more painful than they needed to be for their players. Normally these kinds of levels are at their worst when plopped underwater, but Super Mario Bros. 3 had a real thing for its Airship levels.
Sure, a P-Wing power up will go a long way in helping with the bulk of the problems here, but the fast pacing of the level's scrolling still means that one wrong move will probably result in a death. Nintendo combine some pretty evil Monty Moles with the fire of the airship's engines to make a series of inch-perfect jumps and sudden, sharp movements that stand as the only way of getting from one end of the screen to the other.
Throw in more than a few loose wrenches and a couple of cannonballs and the most unfair formula for a 2D Mario level comes together quite nicely. The music is unsettling, the background is pretty terrifying and the whole nerve-shattering feel of the level sets up the game's finale superbly.