11 Years Ago, The Hardest Mario Game Released (& Speedruns Were Never the Same)
Today is the anniversary of a game-changing Super Mario Bros. title that, since it’s debut 11 years ago, has been challenging players with some of the most grueling courses imaginable. Climbing ladders, avoiding barrels, and rescuing the girl was the original gauntlet for the Italian plumber we’d fondly come to know as Mario. With his first appearance in the arcade in 1981, it’s safe to say there’s not a single millennial alive that has ever known a day in which the famous video game mascot hasn’t existed. Mario has left an indelible mark not just in the video game space, but on popular entertainment culture at large.
In 1985, he started barreling across side-scrolling worlds pounding bricks, squashing Goombas, and dropping Bowser into a lake of fire every chance he could. In time, players would begin competing to find the speediest methods dropping the proverbial axe on the final world’s Bowser in record time. Secret pipes that enabled players to skip entire worlds were found and the chase for the ultimate speedrun had begun.
Super Mario Bros. 2 and 3 saw a similar level of competition that upped the ante with incredible feats from skilled players and hidden flutes that ferried Mario forward to late-game levels. Eventually, Nintendo got wise and capitalized on this thrill that was simply born among players for the sake of difficult Mario challenges. On September 11, 2015, almost exactly 30 years after the release of the original Super Mario Bros. for Famicom and NES, Super Mario Maker was released on the Wii U in celebration of the plumber’s 30-year legacy.
Super Mario Maker Wasn’t Supposed to Be This Hard
Instead of giving players a new set of side-scrolling challenges, Nintendo simply handed the tools to players to make their own levels and share them amongst each other. Of course, Nintendo couldn’t determine how cruelly fans would actually use these tools towards one another.
You didn’t have to be game developer or programmer. The “tools” were a simple drag-and-drop. Nintendo made use of the Wii U’s touch pad to allow players to make placements with a touchscreen. Patches of ground with all the textures available across past 2D Mario games could be painted onto the screen effortlessly. Bricks could be dropped into any configuration. Coin boxes would contain whichever Mario power-up or surprise hostile enemy that your heart desired. Fireball traps, movable platforms, and every Mario hazard to-date imaginable could be employed on a whim.
The Mario games of yesteryear were created for accessibility – they were challenging but actively tested to ensure they weren’t impossible for all but the best players. Anyone who was determined enough could feasibly beat a Mario game without breaking a sweat. Fans of Mario Maker weren’t so thoughtful. Instead, Super Mario Maker became a potentially nightmarish place that upped the ante the way players had always wanted. This time, the players were in control of the challenge.
Then Came the Most Impossible Mario Levels Ever Created
Some players are gluttons for punishment. Super Mario Maker proves that quite distinctly. Soon, level difficulty graduated from grueling obstacle courses to nearly impossible bouts of well-timed leaps and bounds to evade an entire 360-degree view of pure death-laden terror. And when I say well-timed, I mean by the milli-second. Fireball streams would circle platforms in an exact pattern that only allowed for a solitary movement path that had to be executed with pristine accuracy. It was no joke, and world creators were absolutely brutal. But that’s also what made Super Mario Maker so thrilling. It gave fans seeking a death-defying (in-game, of course) challenge an opportunity to create their own and experience others.
Check out a few mind-blowing courses right now:
It’s an odd system when you think about it. Super Mario Maker ultimately turned crushing failure into entertainment. To this day, countless videos of fans defying the odds can be found accomplishing the unimaginable with gnarly Super Mario Maker creations.
Of course, it’s the type of entertainment that requires patience and the desire for that ecstasy of finally landing the challenge. Or perhaps, you had could be the creator who garnered a certain level of satisfaction by creating a level only you could beat (for a time) and challenging others to rise to the occasion.
Super Mario Maker Wasn’t a One-and-Done Affair
Super Mario Maker’s popularity despite the Wii U’s commercial failings endured. In fact, the game was so beloved that Nintendo delivered fans a follow-up on the Nintendo Switch in the Summer of 2019, just four years later. Super Mario Maker 2 brought players several additional tools to change-up the game both literally and metaphorically. Slopes, snake blocks, on-and-off switches, and so much more presented the world of Mario Maker with a new set of hurdles fans could toss at each other. The game also included the Super Mario 3D World style alongside more environments.
Super Mario Maker 2 also provided fans with more ways to play. Co-op features were added as well as a single-player stretch of 100 levels designed by the OG Mario Makers themselves, Nintendo. Players could even make custom world maps. Of course, players continued crafting levels that felt fit for the denizens of the seven circles of Hell.
Super Mario Maker proved to be a Nintendo title much bigger than the console it originated on. It’s been eleven years since the game released, and its easy to see how this creative title has influenced the entertainment space. It’s a game that made it’s mark by turning players into creators. Those creators then became competitors, and many competitors would ultimately prove to be content creators. Even The Super Mario Galaxy Movie acknowledged the imprint that Super Mario Maker has left on the franchise. While the original Super Mario Maker no longer has the ability for course uploads, Super Mario Maker 2 still continues the legacy that its predecessor began. And, if we’re lucky, we could see Super Mario Maker 3 one day.