Respect the level of cruelty, insanity, and sheer masochism on display here, but this is mostly just an insanely hard "veterans pack" for the original game that really doesn't add a whole lot. I can see the appeal back then, but this only works if it was like an arcade game, like an extra eight set of levels you play right afterwards to give yourself that extra level of challenge.

But it's not that, it's a brand new game and Nintendo's quick realization of the difficulty being too high was one of the smartest things they've done. Some of the levels here are just obtusely designed to the point of frustration - which is the point but still - and to actually get to the truly hard levels, beating the game eight times is just... yeah, no thank you. Not today. Thankful for it's release as a novelty, but other then that it's a clear black sheep in a series known for high quality.