Mario The Ultimate Test is one of those SNES romhacks that cranks the difficulty up to eleven—like someone took the original Super Mario World and decided to make every level a gauntlet. You start off thinking, "Okay, I've played Mario before, how bad can it be?" Then you hit the first jump and realize the platforms are just a little too far apart, the enemies a little too perfectly placed.

It’s not unfair, though—just brutal in that old-school way where you memorize patterns or die trying. The physics feel like vanilla SMW, so at least you’re not fighting the controls. And when you finally nail a tricky section, it’s weirdly satisfying. Not for the faint of heart, but if you’ve ever wanted to test your Mario skills to the absolute limit, this’ll do it.