Now if you want a really fun challenge in the Legend of Zelda, try playing the game without a sword. You really can do it; every enemy in the game except Ganon can be killed through alternate means. I've done it several times before for fun, although I've never quite managed to finish the Second Quest that way. You better know darn well what you're doing before trying it though!

And for the record, Mario 3 is definitely not that tough. Moderate difficulty. As others have said, no one who grew up in the 80s would have called it a "hard" game.

I LOVES SMW!!! my favorite mario game...

Seriously, Togepi.  I got SMB3 when I was eight years old, and I didn't complain about the difficulty.  Did I die?  Yes, I died a lot.  But it's also very easy to get extra lives.  I built up a huge number of extra lives, I could die ten times in a row and not break a sweat.  Maybe it's harder on the GBA screen?  

That is not "stupid hard".  Contra, now -- the later stages are stupid hard.  I only beat that game because of the Konami Code.  TMNT is stupid hard the whole way through; I don't remember if I even beat the second stage -- I definitely didn't beat the game.  

Life Force rocks.