>>2751392From what I can remember from my first playthrough, the first difficulty comes in the last level of world 1, where you need to git gud at barrel blast timing and all that. I remember dying a lot there at first.
Second difficulty spike is indeed the 2nd world, the temple levels with the giant rock wheel, etc. Has some tricky parts that require good timing.
World 3 rises the difficulty again, it has more barrel levels, and a difficult water level. The bee boss is also hard (if you're not patient).
World 4 has the infamous snowstorm level, I say that one is another diffiulty spike/barrier.
Las 2 worlds have a lot of tricky levels too, like to one where you're riding floating platforms around. Water levels are also hard again.
I can probably breeze through the game now because I've played it a lot. I've learned how to jump in mid air after a roll to avoid falling, etc. But back in 1994, the game kicked my ass a lot at first.
