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Retro 100%ing Mario platformers: What are your best and worst memories?

What is your POWER LEVEL?

  • POWER LEVEL 0: I haven't 100% completed any Mario game

    Votes: 4 11.1%
  • POWER LEVEL 1: I've 100%ed only the 'easy' games (Galaxy, 3D Land, etc.)

    Votes: 2 5.6%
  • POWER LEVEL 2: I've 100%ed a couple of Mario platformers

    Votes: 14 38.9%
  • POWER LEVEL 3: I 100%ed Yoshi's Island without a guide

    Votes: 1 2.8%
  • POWER LEVEL 4: I've 100%ed most Mario platformers

    Votes: 11 30.6%
  • POWER LEVEL 5: I've 100%ed Sunshine and every Mario platformer

    Votes: 3 8.3%
  • POWER LEVEL MAX: I've 100%ed every Mario game, platformer or not

    Votes: 1 2.8%

  • Total voters
    36

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There is no doubt that Mario has always been the gold standard of platformers. Any other platformer, whether 2D or 3D, will be pitted against the game design and feel of both old and new Mario games. There is however one area where Mario platformers have been a little bit hit and miss, which is the way these games treat you if you approach them with a completionist mindset.

Ever since the original Super Mario Bros. Nintendo has designed these games to appeal to different types of players. If you are a slow inquisitive player the game will reward your behavior with more lives (since you will collect more coins and 1-up mushrooms), hidden power-ups, and perhaps more important of all: the Warp Zone. The faster, more actioned oriented players will benefit more from the star power-up (maybe getting lives in the process) and will add their short completion times to their scores. In SMB3 the two main power-ups, the fireflower and the tanooki, are tailored to the slow and fast player respectively. However it wasn't until Super Mario World when the games started to shift their design to be more attractive for players who like exploration and collectibles.

The first three SMB installments had an arcade progression, where you couldn't revisit already completed levels and the game restarted after reaching the credits, but this changed in SMW with its less linear design. Revisiting levels was a big feature of SMW, as doing so allowed you to find secret exits (some of which are required to reach the credits) and to complete your Dragon Coin collection. Unlike its predecessors, the biggest challenge in SMW wasn't reaching and defeating Bowser, but to collect every single Dragon Coin out there.

EDIT: the Dragon Coin challenge only applies to the GBA port, the SNES original doesn't keep track of which coins you have collected.

Now if you have played SMW, you probably know that achieving 100% completion can be quite the painful task. This is because of two reasons:
  • Unlike most modern platformers with collectibles, SMW requires you to collect every coin in a level during a single run if you want to 100% said level. This means that if you finish a level and miss a coin, you can't simply replay said level, get the missing coin and obtain the 100%. Now, it's true that many games are designed around this rule, however...
  • Some of the Dragon Coins aren't positioned in a way that presents a fair challenge to the player, sometimes resulting in unfun trial-and-error scenarios. The most blatant example of this is a Dragon Coin that is on the middle of a pit and can be missed very easily, requiring the player to restart the level only to catch that coin.
So yes, the concept of 100%able Mario platformers didn't exactly start in a high note, yet SMW wasn't the last instance of this, as some of the subsequent Mario games offered some daunting 100% completion challenges. I'll try to list the most notable cases:

Yoshi's Island
smw2_1-7.gif

Can you spot the secret?

Yoshi's Island has the same collectible system as SMW, where you need to get every single collectible in a single run to 100% a level. The most controversial aspect of YI are hands down the red coins, which look extremely similar to the abundant, good 'ol yellow coins, resulting in needle-in-a-haystack scenarios. A lot of the challenges of 100%ing YI can be softened with items like the magnifying glass or the star packs, but what these items cannot solve is the fact that some collectibles are in places that are impossible to find without a guide (pic related).

Super Mario Sunshine
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in video game form. If you want to reach the credits you'll experience a nice vacation game with some awkward moments. 100%ing Sunshine, on the other hand, is only second to The Lost Levels. SMS has no shortage of awful levels and although some of them aren't THAT bad, others have this sweet trifecta of janky, hard and punishing which will make you ask yourself: "what were they thinking?".

Super Mario 64 DS
It's Mario 64 with the annoying 100 coins and flying cap levels, but with 30 more stars. A somewhat reasonable challenge.

Super Mario Galaxy 2
SMG2 has one of the hardest Mario levels in The Perfect Run, which requires you to beat the hardest level on the game without getting hit. There's also the 120 green stars before that, which don't require to beat the same levels over again like in SMG1, but still feel fillerish at times. Other than that, I think this game and SMG1 are the most reasonable to 100%.

Super Mario 3D Land
Just like SMG2, SM3DL has a super difficult level at the end, but I believe most people don't consider said level as brutal as The Perfect Run / Grandmaster Galaxy. One of the easiest / less tedious games to 100%.

New Super Mario Bros. U
The NSMB series is filled with super hard levels, but the "Don't. Touch. Anything" challenge stands above all and it's an amazing candidate for hardest official Mario level.

Super Mario 3D World
SM3DW has a very meaty post-game that ends with a very hard green star challenge and the very well-known Champion's Road, the most challenging level in any 3D Mario and perhaps the entire 3D platforming genre (barring poorly designed / janky crap like some Sunshine levels).
The thing with 3D World is that there are these seals you have to collect, and five of them require you to finish every single standard level, including Champion's Road, with a particular character (finishing every level with Peach gives you the Peach sticker, and so on). If you somehow manage to have three of your friends beat all the levels and then hold them hostage for an entire afternoon to finish Champion's Road, congratulations! you only have to beat every level only one more time. If you are a lone wolf you have to beat every level FIVE times to get the 100%. It doesn't help that Champion's Road gets even harder if you pick Toad.

Super Mario Odyssey
SMO has some very annoying moons, like the one that requires you to jump the rope 100 times. Most SMO levels are pretty vast and have tons of moons in them, some of which are very well hidden. There's also Darker Side, serving as this game's super hard last level, but I don't think it comes close to being as hard as Champion's Road.

What are your most memorable moments while trying to 100% these games? Which of these games have you 100% completed?
 
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Nailing Champion's Road and Darker Side are, like, peak euphoria when it comes to Super Mario experiences. It's quite the trip.
 
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The bloody jump rope in odyssey is the one thing I cannot do legitimately. Darker side of the moon, Champions road, Grandmaster galaxy? All cakewalk's in comparison to that jumprope.
 
Super Mario World is the only one I’ve ever found 100% of the secrets in (unless you count Super Mario Land 2 which is tiny in comparison). With SMW I was still unpacking some of the last ghost house secret exits months after I bought it, after playing very little else. Although that was partly down to only being able to afford a couple of games a year 30 years ago and it being the pack-in. It’s still probably my favourite Mario game.
 
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I 100%ed a couple of the easy ones and 3D World, which was a pain but ultimately worth it.

I don't usually go for 100% completion, but there's something about 3D Land that makes it irresistible to complete. It doesn't happen with any other 3D Mario.
 
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Best memory was 100%ing Super Mario World on a 60hz modded PAL SNES with a clicky-clacky Competition Pro controller. Those special stages were rock hard and I felt like a champ when I nailed them all. It was so cool seeing the coins spelling out "You are a super player" and the world map turning spooky and Halloweeny after finding every exit on every course.

Also fond memories of pulling off a weekend without sleep to get all the stars in Mario 64 with a buddy. We just took it in turns to collect them or play while the other ate or used the bathroom. 😄
 
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I've completed almost all of the Super Mario platformers to 100% completion. It's easier to count the ones I haven't than the ones I have. So the ones I haven't are:
  • Super Mario Bros. 2 (J), still need to try Worlds A-D, but I've only beaten the Famicom version and that requires beating the game another seven times
  • Yoshi's Island (if it counts as a Mario game), which I haven't even finished before
  • Super Mario Advance (Beat the main game with all Ace Coins, but haven't done the Yoshi Challenge)
  • Super Mario Advance 3 (see above, this one has extra levels)
  • Super Mario Advance 4 (beat all levels in the original, but haven't done the e-Reader levels)
  • Super Mario 64 DS (140 or so Power Stars out of 150)
  • New Super Mario Bros. 2 (DLC)
  • New Super Mario Bros. U (Challenge Mode)
  • Super Mario 3D World (4 Stars out of 5)
  • Super Mario Run (need to collect all the coins)
A few comments on some specific challenges:

I've collected all of the Dragon Coins once, on a file of Super Mario Advance 2. In the original release, I don't count them for 100% for two reasons: 1) the game doesn't track Dragon Coin collection stats, and 2) Dragon Coin progress is not saved and is reset upon turning the game off. They only serve as an extra means to get lives. But in Advance 2, where completion is tracked and every level now has the coins? It's fair game.

I intend to complete Lost Levels (All-Stars) and Yoshi's Island (SNES) for good this year. Might go to the other versions at a later point. I will likely abuse items and Save States for Yoshi's Island, and I will feel no remorse.

I've 100% completed Sunshine twice. I got the badge to prove that I got all of those stinking blue coins. They are, bar none, the worst Mario collectible. Totally meaningless out of 100%, incredibly hard to keep track of without a guide or tracker of some kind, and split across missions so that they're even harder to find.

I find Super Mario 64 to be a fun 100%, but I haven't done so on the DS yet. DS was the version I played the most as a kid, but since 2020 I've done 3 100% plays of 64 and none on 64 DS. Gotta try this some time.

I found Galaxy 2 in particular to be a very fun 100%. The Green Stars were a lot of fun to collect, a definite upgrade over playing the game again with Luigi in Galaxy 1. The Perfect Run is a devious level but one I was so happy to have beaten.

NSMB2 and NSMBU? Lol. A lot of those later challenges/DLC are just not fun. I've 100% completed the campaigns multiple times. I've had my fill. I'm good.

3D World is interesting in that its full 100% isn't hard so much as it is time-consuming? World Crown is a pain, yes. But the rest of the game comes down to slowly chipping away at it. I've done all levels with Mario, I'm at World Crown with Luigi, I gotta do the other three at some point. I'll do it at some point, but there's so many other games to play. I do prefer the 3D Land method of playing the game only twice, with the caveat that I don’t like how the final level is locked behind that requirement. I guess it's better than Famicom Lost Levels. Gotta beat the game 8 times to unlock even harder levels? Cool as a secret in the 80's, but with more games than ever to play, that's a bit much.

I played Odyssey again for the 5th anniversary and loved it to bits. Too many moons? No way, I loved getting all but a couple of them, and they felt more balanced than, say, all of the collectibles in Sonic Frontiers. I probably won't play Odyssey again for another few years, but it's firmly one of my favorite games and the replay and the second 100% solidified it for me.
 
There is no not completing a Mario platforming game 100% for me. I only think about these games in terms of 100% completion. Amazing series. Though I will say I don’t always think about this as strictly as VolcanicDynamo above me like beating Mario 3D World 100% with all five characters. I’ve beaten it multiple times, but I don’t feel I need to beat it as Toad or whatever. Only platformer games I haven’t finished are some of the Mario adjacent games like New Yoshi’s Island and some of the Wario and Donkey Kong Land games.
 
I don't think Sunshine is THAT hard to 100%. Just very tedious will all the blue coins and not being able to keep track of them. I did it with some friends once.

Never even gonna attempt to 100% 64 because most of the later levels are awful. You get like 1-2 stars from Rainbow Cruise and that's it, never touching that place again.

Galaxy is stupid because you have to play the entire game again with Luigi to unlock the last level. If you ignore the second playthrough, it's definitely the easiest to 100%. There's no super hard final level.

Galaxy 2 is very fun to 100%, but there's a few brutal levels, mainly the Perfect Run and Luigi Cosmic Clones Purple Coins. I've done it, but it's tough.

For, NSMBU I've 100%'d it twice. Very fun game, with couple really hard levels in World Star (looking at you, spikeball hell). Super Luigi U is the better game to 100% with how brief all the levels are, it's super fun, even the harder levels tend to fly by.

I powered through 3D Land 100% in like 5 days during a power outage. That was a great time, the final level is hard but doable.

3D World + Bowser's Fury made it so you don't have to beat every level with every character to unlock World Crown, which is a godsend. Champion's Road is a hell of trial, might be the hardest final level in the franchise, but thankfully, you can cheese some parts of it by abusing Rosalina's spin ability. That's the only reason I beat it.

100%ing Odyssey just isn't worth it IMO. Clear Dark Side of the Moon and then do Darker Side and that's plenty. Darker Side is challenging and an excellent showcase of the capture mechanic and Odyssey's controls. It's easier than Champion's Road, but also more fun.
 
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I've 100%'d Mario 64, both Mario Galaxies, and 3D World. Of those I'd only ever do Mario 64 again, the rest were fun once but otherwise it's a chore. I would never try to 100% Odyssey I'd hate the game by the end.
 
Let's see... I've beaten with 100% completion:

Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. 2 (USA)
Super Mario Bros. 3
Super Mario World
Super Mario Land 1
Super Mario Land 2
Super Mario 64 (N64 and DS)
Super Mario Galaxy
New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Super Mario 3D Land
Super Mario 3D World
Super Mario Odyssey

Have beaten but not 100%:

Super Mario Bros. 2 (JP): Sorry, this game is borderline kusoge. I think I beat world 8 on All-Stars but never went beyond that.
Yoshi's Island: I just cannot be bothered, 100% is insanely tedious in this game. I played the unlockable levels with a ROM save file, that's good enough for me.
Super Mario Sunshine: Don't like this game and definitely don't like it enough to get all the Blue Coins.
New Super Mario Bros.: I got all the Star Coins up through end of world 7 but for some reason stopped. Never cared to go back.
Super Mario Galaxy 2: Getting 100% in this game always seemed kind of daunting despite doing multiple playthroughs. I do want to complete it someday.
New Super Mario Bros. 2: Don't care for this game in general.
New Super Mario Bros. U: It's the best NSMB but I just haven't had the motivation to sit down and knock out all the Star Coins. I would like to eventually.
Bowser's Fury: I have like 5 Shines left and they're all like "collect the cats" which I find tedious. I did mean to finish this and probably will at some point.

I think that's it? 11/19 (12/20 if you count SM64 and DS as two separate games). Most of these games I had fun getting 100% in once but I don't think I'd do it again. I kinda sorta did it twice in 3D World on Wii U and Switch, but that's if you're not counting the stamps (aka beating each level with 5 characters), which I only did on Switch. I got every single damn moon in Odyssey, and although I enjoyed the senes of completion, I definitely would never do it again.

I dunno how you count 100% completion on the NES games, but for the main trilogy I've beaten all their levels. For stuff like the Advance series... man I dunno how you quantify those tbh, I'm just not gonna count them for my own sanity.
 
I 100%ed Sunshine last year using a guide for the blue coins, and it still wasn't really worth it. The rest of the game would be fine to 100% if it wasn't for those blue coins - in the end I just got through it to tick it off my list.

Never even bothered trying to do Galaxy. I find the 100%ing gimmick of "play the whole game again but as Luigi" mind numbingly bad, and I'm glad it's something Nintendo don't seem to do anymore.

Super Mario 64 has aged way too poorly in places, and the 100 coin stars on almost all of the courses are just never worth it for me anymore, so I can't see myself 100%ing that one ever again.

On the other hand, some of the 2D platformers like Super Mario World & NSMB DS are always joy to 100% for me. 3D Land also felt brisk and worthwhile. Will always have time to run through those types of games.

Odyssey was fun enough to do in terms of getting all the moons, even if I had to look a couple of the obscure ones up at the end, and I never truly 100%ed that game with purchasing all of the outfits etc.
 
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the only Mario game, to use the classification loosely, I've ever 100%ed was the campaign of Super Mario Maker 2. nice and short, obviously with a ton of variety too. I didn't even use Luigi ever because the one time I tried to get a Super Star I, um, died anyway

as for the main games, the only one I can imagine even attempting is 64. thanks to NSO I've participated in a 120 star run but didn't have the "controller" for much of it, especially towards the end. it was a very fun journey though and one I'd like to partake in on my own someday
 
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I think the only mainline Mario game I haven't gotten 100% on is Super Mario Sunshine, for reasons I believe everyone is aware of: those goddamn blue coins!

My worst memory by far has got to be the Odyssey rope-jumping. I legitimately thought I was never going to be able to get it, as I went through various strategies to avoid messing up the timing. Until I finally did it somehow as my heart was nearly exploding out of my chest with nervousness as I got closer and closer to the goal.

All I hope is Odyssey 2, or whatever the next Mario game will be called, won't have anything as nightmarish as that.
 
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100%ed NSMB DS when I was like 12 (and I have not played it since lol) and finally did Sunshine for shits and giggles when 3DAS came out. Every time I play 64 I think it's the time I'll finally get everything but I kinda dip out of it by the second story levels.
Almost got there in SMG2 and 3DW, don't really care to go back for it tbh.
 
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I think Super Mario 3D World is the one notable game that I've not 100%-ed (everything but Champion's Road IIRC); I've managed the final level in all of the other 3D instalments. Oh, I suppose if we count Super Mario 64 DS, I've not played that version of the game.

For the 2D games, I'm yet to have played New Super Mario Bros Wii, or Super Luigi U as a spin-off, but otherwise I think I've done all of the rest at some point.
 
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I have 100% a few Mario games in my time.

Super Mario 64- I can probably do that one in my sleep at this point.
Super Mario Galaxy 1- Easy but annoying considering how you have to beat the entire game twice.
Super Mario 3D Land- Mostly easy. Difficulty spike at the last level, but not insurmountable.
Super Mario 3D World- Mostly easy until you get to Champion's Road, which is probably the greatest difficulty spike that I have ever seen in a video game.
Super Mario Odyssey- Darker Side of the Moon wasn't that horrible. 100% the game was great the first time around, but really tedious on replays.

One of these days I will get around to100%'ing more Mario games.
 
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some collectibles are in places that are impossible to find without a guide (pic related).

I'd argue that this is definitely not impossible to find without a guide. At the very least, the fact that there's a breakable door to an under path should set off your Gamer Instincts and make you curious what's down there

That being said, I've never tried to 100% a Mario game because I would not have fun
 
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I've 100%'d Mario 64, Sunshine, Galaxy, and Galaxy 2. I got all the green stars in 3D World but that technically doesn't count as 100% since you need to complete every level with every character. With Odyssey I simply gave up. I think that game is a masterpiece if you play from the beginning to the credits, but the more I try to play after that the less I like it, so I tend to stop there.
 
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I 100% Mario 3 (Advanced), Super Mario World, Mario 64, Mario 64 DS, Mario Sunshine, Mario Galaxy, Odyssey, 3D Land, 3D World I got all green stars, but not all stamps. I may go back to 3D World to do that.

I love collecting random crap. Collectathons have always been my bag in platformers, and Mario collecting stuff has been no different.

I think the only ones I didn't are the ones I haven't played.
 
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Most of the 3D games, except for 64 DS (I think) and 3D Land.
The bloody jump rope in odyssey is the one thing I cannot do legitimately. Darker side of the moon, Champions road, Grandmaster galaxy? All cakewalk's in comparison to that jumprope.
I remember seeing more complaints about volleyball in discussions about the more hated moons, but I had fun with that one. Jump rope felt hopeless, and I know I'd have trouble pulling it off again.
 
Most of the 3D games, except for 64 DS (I think) and 3D Land.

I remember seeing more complaints about volleyball in discussions about the more hated moons, but I had fun with that one. Jump rope felt hopeless, and I know I'd have trouble pulling it off again.
My reflexes are not great, and never have been. I couldn't complete jump rope legitimately and I have nothing but sympathy for anyone who go to cheating.
 
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Most of the 3D games, except for 64 DS (I think) and 3D Land.

I remember seeing more complaints about volleyball in discussions about the more hated moons, but I had fun with that one. Jump rope felt hopeless, and I know I'd have trouble pulling it off again.

Volleyball was alright once you got into a rhythm. To this day I have no idea how I finished the Jump Rope challenge.
 
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I've 100%ed several Mario games, out of memory I can think of:

Super Mario World
Yoshi's Island (not sure if I ever used a guide, it was long ago)
Mario 64
Mario Galaxy 1 & 2
NSMB Wii
NSMB U
Mario 3D World (I did this the "loner" way, cleared each level with every character... even Champion's Road)
Mario Odyssey

Out of those, I agree that "Don't. Touch. Anything." from NSMBU is one of the most insane challenges in a Mario game. It was super fun though.
 
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Most of the 3D games, except for 64 DS (I think) and 3D Land.

I remember seeing more complaints about volleyball in discussions about the more hated moons, but I had fun with that one. Jump rope felt hopeless, and I know I'd have trouble pulling it off again.
Volleyball is easy to cheese with a second joycon, just move Cappy around to rebound the ball over and over.

For jump rope, as weird as it sounds, having the moped helped me. Like having a bigger visual was easier to time my jumps. I just drove it over to the jump rope and jumped with it over and over.
 
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I've 100% every game except for Super Mario 3D World because you have to play the game 4 times, and Sunshine because that game gives you zero motivation to do anything beyond the main content.
 
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I seriously believe that 100% Yoshi’s Island turns it from a 10/10 game to a 6/10. This would be so easily alleviated by just using the same collectible tracking system as the DKC games. Alas.

Anyway my proudest achievement is probably 100% 3D World on both Wii U and Switch with all five characters. Doing the Perfect Run on Galaxy 2 was also a pain in the butt, but worth it.
 
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