Weekly Regression

Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels is a platform game released on June 3, 1986, as a sequel to Super Mario Bros. (1985) by Nintendo. It was designed to be similar in style and gameplay for players who had mastered the original. Players control Mario or Luigi to jump between platforms and rescue the Princess from Bowser. It became the most popular game in Japan for the Famicom Disk System, selling about 2.5 million copies. Deeming it too difficult for North American audiences, Nintendo of America instead retrofitted another game as the region's sequel. The Japanese sequel was renamed as The Lost Levels in the 1993 compilation Super Mario All-Stars, the sequel's first international release. Reviewers regarded the sequel as an extension of the original's difficulty progression. The Lost Levels is remembered as among the most difficult Nintendo games and regarded as a precursor to the franchise's Kaizo subculture in which fans create and share ROM hacks featuring nearly impossible levels.