Super Mario World is still one of the best games anyone can play. It's that simple Mario magic: run through worlds, stomp on some Goombas and eat some Koopas with Yoshi. There's a reason so many people still play the game today; it's near-perfect, and while most games don't hold up five years after their release, Super Mario World is still fun to play a whopping 25 years later.
Like the rest of the Mario games, Super Mario World isn't what most people would call difficult. Sure, the later levels can get pretty brutal, but the first five or six worlds are typically a breeze to make it through. Nintendo wanted everyone to be able to play the game, not crush the hopes and dreams of players.
Even with the generous difficulty curve, it seems as if Nintendo didn't make Super Mario World easy enough: one player took to Craigslist, desperately hoping to find someone that could help him beat the Vanilla Dome...or, for those that don't know, one of the game's easiest stages.
Were this the game's final stage, it would make sense - the Valley of Bowser is an absolute beast - but this is the Vanilla Dome. It's the third stage in the entire game, and aside from being a bit tedious in select levels, no one would ever call it 'hard to beat.' It's the boring stage that comes before the good stuff really starts - if anything, Vanilla Dome is a stopgap.
If the Craigslist ad is being genuine, then this player sunk nearly 500 lives into beating one world, which may be the saddest World Record anyone has ever attained. Even the stage the Craigslist ad shows isn't difficult - take a look:
Most of the work is done for you!
On top of everything, the ad itself isn't that inviting. Bad jokes about wizards and the creepy promise of whisky and donuts make the entire thing uninviting...and is it really a good idea to call someone an idiot when you're requesting help for a 25-year-old game?
Maybe you should try to play more like this guy:
