Super Mario Maker

[Captain Occam]

Note: I'm not sure if this belongs here or in "Off Topic". A mod can move it if it's in the wrong section.

Does anybody else here play this game? When I was a teenager, I wanted to eventually work in the video game industry, so I appreciate having the opportunity to design levels and share them with other people online. On the other hand, it's hard not to think of this game's release as a somewhat cynical move by Nintendo--they no longer have to hire anyone to design levels for the 2-D Mario games, because now they've got people such as myself doing it for free.

The most recent level I've created in Super Mario Maker is inspired by a particularly memorable Wikipedia sockpuppeteer. In this level I suppose Mario could represent a member of ArbCom, searching for a way to stop Echigo mole's socking.

[Johnny Au]

I play Super Mario Maker as well.

My signature courses involve a gimmick of some sort. For example, one of my courses involve hitting the correct invisible block and reaching the flagpole within 20 seconds.

[Captain Occam]

I play Super Mario Maker as well.

My signature courses involve a gimmick of some sort. For example, one of my courses involve hitting the correct invisible block and reaching the flagpole within 20 seconds.

Most of mine are a blend of puzzles and action challenges. It takes a lot of determination to finish them, but people who've managed it seem to think they're well-designed.

I'd be interested to try some of yours. Can I have a link to your bookmark page?

[Johnny Au]

I play Super Mario Maker as well.

My signature courses involve a gimmick of some sort. For example, one of my courses involve hitting the correct invisible block and reaching the flagpole within 20 seconds.

Most of mine are a blend of puzzles and action challenges. It takes a lot of determination to finish them, but people who've managed it seem to think they're well-designed.

I'd be interested to try some of yours. Can I have a link to your bookmark page?

Here is one: https://supermariomakerbookmark.nintend ... -0028-6752 (this one is the one with the invisible block; normal difficulty)

Here's another one: https://supermariomakerbookmark.nintend ... -005B-0FD6 (this one is in the clouds with raining coins everywhere; super expert difficulty)

There's this one: https://supermariomakerbookmark.nintend ... -01B3-B838 (it is similar to that of the aforementioned one with the invisible block, plus the need to fly with Cape Mario; expert difficulty)

Finally, here is my first attempt at making a course: https://supermariomakerbookmark.nintend ... -001B-DF7E (normal difficulty; easier than all of the above)

[Captain Occam]

My level "Echigo Mole and his Socks" now has an interesting story connected to it. About a month ago, a video game streamer named Foxen45 came across this level during the 100 Mario challenge while following a "no skip" rule, which meant that he was stuck with my level until he either finished it or ran out of lives. With the help of several other people, finishing my level took him five and a half hours.

He never actually solved the level's final puzzle. What he did instead was perform a nearly-impossible kaizo trick that allowed him to bypass it. (That's the term for insane acrobatic feats it's possible to make Mario perform with frame-perfect timing.) The original video of him playing it is here.

More recently, I showed up in his stream and offered to tell him my level's actual solution. Over the past month, my level had acquired a near-legendary status among his stream's watchers, and it took some effort to convince the other people in his chatroom that I really was the person who had made it. When he originally played the level, he complained constantly about how confusing it was and said that he hated it, but the second time around he had nothing but praise for it. His second attempt at the level, with me giving him instructions, is at 8 hours and 22 minutes in this video.

There's now a discussion at Reddit about the kaizo trick he used to finish it the first time. Apparently the existence of this technique was already known, but the situation in which Foxen45 pulled it off represents the upper limit of what's possible to do with it.

Echigo mole (T-C-L) is site-banned and most of his sockpuppets are blocked, but I suppose his trolling is now immortalized in this level and the various videos and discussions of it.

[Konveyor Belt]

Unfortunately, the new one on 3DS doesn't have course sharing or anything of that sort, and I'm not about to drop $200 on a wii u just for it.

[Johnny Au]

Unfortunately, the new one on 3DS doesn't have course sharing or anything of that sort, and I'm not about to drop $200 on a wii u just for it.

You could always wait for next year when NX comes out, which would mean that the Wii U would be more affordable.

[Captain Occam]

My level "Echigo Mole and his Socks" ended up being popular enough that I eventually made a sequel: The Return of Echigo Mole. This level was featured as the final level of a collaborative project called the Perplexing Puzzles Project, so it's received quite a bit of attention. Here are a few places it's been covered:

https://www.reddit.com/r/MarioMaker/com ... trapteryx/
https://perplexingpuzzles.github.io/level11/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6d6H4Ii7_E (In this YouTube video, the person playing the level talks a little about the sockmaster this level is named after.)

Both of the times that I've named levels after Echigo mole (T-C-L), who used to be Mathsci's arch-nemesis, Mathsci has acted out and received a lengthy block shortly afterwards. I can't decide whether I think that's a coincidence or not. He's always paid a huge amount of attention to my online activity, so I think it's more likely than not that he's been monitoring what levels I upload, but it's harder to understand why he would get upset enough about it for it to affect his behavior in this way.