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Mario level that plays itself

Cory Doctorow at 4:45 pm Tue, Sep 11, 2007

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Break has a video of "The Only Mario Level That Plays Itself" -- a Mario level where the platforms, monsters, and special blocks impel Mario forward like a ball in a rube goldberg machine, knocking him back and forth and eventually delivering him safe and sound to the end of the level. It's hypnotic and often surprisingly witty viewing. Link (Thanks, Joe)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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  • palinode

    My brain wants to stop watching the video, but my hand keeps clicking on the replay button. Then my eyes get all involved with staring at Mario as he gets knocked back and forth.

  • strider_mt2k

    Great stuff.

    Very cool to watch.

  • Funny man

    That’s a funny one :D

    Great to see!

  • cyberscythe

    It is awesomesauce. I want this ROM, only to load it up and see it for myself.

  • Anonymous

    Break also has a much funnier Mario video, aka the level that NO ONE can play:

    http://www.break.com/index/super-mario-brothers-is-frustrating-part1.html

  • Vorteks

    There’s a playlist of 8 here on Youtube, by the same person. The video featured here is one of them.

  • Stacyj

    Agh, that was marvelous! Delightful and irresistible in the same way that a skillfully contrived domino course is. I especially loved that they got Yoshi involved in that second stage …

  • Anonymous

    “and at about 2:20″

    the video is only 2:23 long
    maybe you meant another time

  • Anonymous

    It’s certainly a fun and hypnotic video, but the level doesn’t fully play itself. There are several jumps that would only work with the controller adding velocity… and at about 2:20, you can see Mario on Yoshi walking to the left on the falling platform just before being bounced away. Sorry if that spoils the fun…

  • madnesscult

    This isn’t actually a real level — it’s a moded ROM.

  • Draconum

    But holy crap, it’s definately genius. I can’t imagine how long it took to put that together. Crazy insane.

  • Derek Quenneville

    It’s also not the only one – Joystiq has about a dozen different videos embedded on this page: http://www.joystiq.com/2007/08/22/dont-move-hacked-mario-world-levels-play-themselves/

  • SlyBevel

    Yeah, definitely a hacked ROM with a custom level, probably edited with the level editor that got Digged here:

    http://digg.com/gaming_news/_Super_Mario_World_level-editor

    But is no longer at the link that the Digg points to.

    Too bad.

  • Anonymous

    They have 3 different ones at CollegeHumor:

    http://www.collegehumor.com/tag:perpetual-mario-machine

    The one linked in this blog is no. 2.