Super Bowl XXIV coaches; rookie head coach George Seifert took over after Bill Walsh retired following the previous season's Super Bowl. The 49ers finished the 1989 regular season with a league best 14–2 record. The Broncos, who posted an 11–5 regular season record, entered the Super Bowl looking to avoid tying the Minnesota Vikings with four Super Bowl losses as well as the Vikings record of losing three Super Bowls in four years. This game remains the most lopsided game in Super Bowl history. San Francisco's 55 points were the most ever scored by one team, and their 45-point margin of victory was
Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels the R&D4 team to develop a sequel based on the same underlying technology, including some levels directly from "Vs. Super Mario Bros." "The Lost Levels", originally released in Japan as "Super Mario Bros. 2" on June 3, 1986, was similar in style to "Super Mario Bros." but much more difficult in gameplay—"nails-from-diamonds hard", as Jon Irwin described it in his book on the sequels. Tezuka felt that Japanese players had mastered the original game, and so needed a more challenging sequel. Recognizing that the game might be too difficult for newcomers, the team labeled the game's packaging: "For Super Players".