standard level, short and sweet
July 16, 2019 12:09 PM   Subscribe

 
I actually yelped out loud at one point when watching this video. It made me viscerally uncomfortable.
posted by tofu_crouton at 12:18 PM on July 16, 2019 [10 favorites]


Is it possible to hate something so much that it loops back around to love? That's how I feel about this. Well done making the worst thing. That is impressive
posted by Maaik at 12:20 PM on July 16, 2019 [11 favorites]


I used to think I was pretty good at video games and back in the days of Super Mario there was little solid evidence otherwise. I don't think that anymore. Between the Dragon Warrior speedrun post, playing Zelda blindfolded, and this, yeah. I'm terrible.
posted by The_Vegetables at 12:28 PM on July 16, 2019


There are a few moments of usually-untested skill being displayed on this course. There is one section near the end where you must jump at a sprint, then fall backwards slightly at a time to diagonally step back in midair exactly two squares. The arc of that jump is, as far as I know, never used in any Mario game.

There are tons of little things like this, where you must jump up and over but then step back then forward. It's really well done.

#gamedesigner
posted by andreaazure at 12:29 PM on July 16, 2019 [14 favorites]


Just to add to the pain, there is a timer.

The player makes it with 2 seconds to spare.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 12:32 PM on July 16, 2019 [8 favorites]


Hahaha this is great. I actually started a 1-1, but deadly, yesterday but this is way funnier. I'm not even sure if it's worth making my other idea: BIG 1-1 where everything is double sized besides Mario. Still, both of those have to wait until my Snowpiecer level is done. Damn this game owns bones.
posted by GoblinHoney at 12:33 PM on July 16, 2019 [4 favorites]


This is worse than Endless Jingling.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 12:40 PM on July 16, 2019 [4 favorites]


The player makes it with 2 seconds to spare.

Not that it matters that much, because if the player doesn't make exactly those moves Mario gets roasted anyway.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 12:43 PM on July 16, 2019 [8 favorites]


I was thinking the same thing, Zarquon, although if I were sadistic enough to design this level I'd build juuuuuuust enough slop into some of the moves such that it would be possible to run out of time.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 12:49 PM on July 16, 2019 [2 favorites]


Hah! I saw this on twitter earlier today with a comment that was something along the lines of "the NYTimes avoiding the word 'racist'".
posted by Fish Sauce at 12:56 PM on July 16, 2019 [76 favorites]


*ugly laughing*
posted by gc at 12:59 PM on July 16, 2019


Thanks, I hate it.
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 1:18 PM on July 16, 2019 [6 favorites]


Does this remind anyone else of the laser tripwire scene from Entrapment?

Just me?

That's okay...
posted by TheHuntForBlueMonday at 1:19 PM on July 16, 2019 [2 favorites]


laser tripwire scene from Entrapment?

The lasers weren’t even the point of that scene...
posted by SaltySalticid at 1:38 PM on July 16, 2019 [5 favorites]


How many times did they practice this to get all the moves down just right. Designing the level and uploading it publicly is evil, but the play-through is impressive.
posted by asnider at 1:46 PM on July 16, 2019


I suspect that this was more a case of doing a run and then putting in flame wheels wherever Mario wasn't.
posted by Scattercat at 2:15 PM on July 16, 2019 [4 favorites]


God loves a wiseass.

This is wonderful.
posted by East14thTaco at 2:49 PM on July 16, 2019


Does this remind anyone else of the laser tripwire scene from Entrapment?

Or Baron François Toulour/The Night Fox and the lasers in Ocean's Twelve
posted by numaner at 3:35 PM on July 16, 2019


i mean, the music fits so well
posted by numaner at 3:47 PM on July 16, 2019 [1 favorite]


I love that this is basically the biggest meme on twitter right now
posted by capnsue at 3:47 PM on July 16, 2019 [1 favorite]


As someone who has died multiple times on the original level when I was a kid (I was never any good at the Mario games) this fills me with a nausea that I'm sure affects me at a molecular level. Regardless, I appreciate that it has been given to the world.
posted by Ashwagandha at 4:02 PM on July 16, 2019 [1 favorite]


I love Endless Jingling and I fire it up every December and laugh my ass off.
posted by SoberHighland at 4:08 PM on July 16, 2019 [2 favorites]


That made me mad.
posted by Chuffy at 4:11 PM on July 16, 2019


I showed this to my kid earlier today, and I think he's watched it 50 or so times since then.

He told me just now he doesn't think it is a real player playing. He has come to believe it is a bot of some kind playing the level. I mean, that's not possible, but it is certainly an explanation.
posted by anastasiav at 4:23 PM on July 16, 2019




He has come to believe it is a bot of some kind playing the level. I mean, that's not possible, but it is certainly an explanation.

It's possible. It's called a tool-assisted speedrun, or TAS. Basically you run the game in emulation and program it to execute a series of controller inputs. I doubt they went to the trouble for this particular thing, though.
posted by Automocar at 5:22 PM on July 16, 2019 [2 favorites]


WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE

I THINK YOU’RE GONNA LIKE IT
posted by sixswitch at 6:18 PM on July 16, 2019


ok. but.

imagine a version of this as a rails rhythm game.

you tap in time with the music and it automagically works, with continually delighting escapes.

get out of rhythm, and you burn alive
posted by sixswitch at 6:21 PM on July 16, 2019 [3 favorites]


That's an... amazing? ... work of conceptual video game art but I can't imagine that a human managed to navigate that unassisted. I'm with Scattercat in thinking that the fire ropes were added around an existing path or with Automocar in thinking that it was at least computer assisted.
posted by treepour at 7:07 PM on July 16, 2019


I’ve become fascinated with people who build and play “Kaizo Mario” games, and having watched a fair number of videos of people playing them I can say that it’s likely that the level in the video is both real and was beaten by a real person, who probably spent hours trying to beat it.
posted by potch at 7:55 PM on July 16, 2019 [3 favorites]


That was interesting. Is it a requirement that the level be beaten by the maker before it can be uploaded?
posted by um at 8:18 PM on July 16, 2019 [1 favorite]


This is the most anxious I have been all day, and I just chaired a 90-minute meeting.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 8:38 PM on July 16, 2019 [1 favorite]


Well my anxiety just got dialed to an 11.
posted by johnxlibris at 9:09 PM on July 16, 2019


Yes, um, creators must complete their level before sharing.
posted by heresiarch at 9:10 PM on July 16, 2019 [1 favorite]


EVIL EVIL EVIL and I love it.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 9:49 PM on July 16, 2019


I absolutely believe that was executed as shown by the person who created it, yeah. The subtle prankiness of the video is that it's documentation of the run in which the creator succeeded in beating their own creation, which is why the comparatively dull ending goes the way it does: they've earned the right to name and submit it it. And tag it with helpful labels.

On the one hand you could imagine it was a put on. On the other hand, there's no reason it would need to be; see potch's reference to Kaizo (and e.g. some previouslies on MeFi 1, 2, 3). This is just someone pulling some Rodney Mullen shit except on Mario Maker 2 instead of a skateboard.
posted by cortex at 10:07 PM on July 16, 2019 [1 favorite]


He has come to believe it is a bot of some kind playing the level. I mean, that's not possible, but it is certainly an explanation.

It seems like a speedrun with a slowed down emulator, so they can do frame-perfect moves, maybe with AutoHotKey scripts or similar.
posted by rhizome at 1:56 AM on July 17, 2019 [1 favorite]


Related and fascinating: how to create a Mario Maker 2 level where you lose if Mario ever looks to the right.

From the same creator: "While Mario Maker is probably not turing complete it’s actually possible to build all logic gates, which allows for some basic mario maker computing!"
posted by Johnny Assay at 4:38 AM on July 17, 2019 [3 favorites]


Does this remind anyone else of the laser tripwire scene from Entrapment?

For me, it would be more like the laser corridor scene from Resident Evil.
posted by Naberius at 5:51 AM on July 17, 2019


I uhm beat some Cuphead levels last night but now I am throwing my entire sense of accomplishment in the trash.
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 7:31 AM on July 17, 2019


should have sent a poet...
posted by French Fry at 7:34 AM on July 17, 2019


This isn't actually any worse than some of, say, Panga's levels. A kaizo player is going to die a few times even after they figure out the route, but it's not impossible to do as a human - see for instance I found this one in a quick google - he figured it out in about an hour and a half.
posted by wotsac at 8:42 AM on July 17, 2019 [2 favorites]


( I mean... it would kick my butt - I've barely gotten past normal 1-2, including all the times I stood there playing in the store as a kid)
posted by wotsac at 9:25 AM on July 17, 2019 [1 favorite]


For those of you who think this was tool assisted, here is a guy clearing the level basically from scratch (he'd seen the original video, but hadn't memorized it).

He is the 3rd person out of over 13,000 to clear it.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 4:18 PM on July 17, 2019 [1 favorite]


wotsac - jinx!
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 4:22 PM on July 17, 2019 [1 favorite]


Fun video to watch but it kind of reminds me of what I didn't like about the original Mario Maker: most of the featured levels end up being either really hard, depend on a trick, or showcase some specific level creating mechanic. If anything Mario Maker makes me appreciate how well the levels are designed in the Super Mario Bros. games.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 6:29 PM on July 17, 2019 [1 favorite]


It's obviously an homage to that time on Cheers with the lasers in Robin Colcord's apartment.
posted by Chrysostom at 12:26 PM on July 18, 2019 [1 favorite]


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