There is one uncleared level remaining in Super Mario Maker, with 18 days to go before the servers shut down

ryven@lemmy.dbzer0.com to Games@lemmy.world – 578 points – Is Super Mario Maker Beaten Yet?
issmmbeatenyet.com

UPDATE: Ahoyoo has confirmed that Trimming the Herbs was uploaded with TAS tools, meaning that The Last Dance was the final legitimate level all along! Congrats to kazeihinn on the Last First Clear! The journey continues in Super Mario Maker 2...

ORIGINAL POST:

Team 0% is attempting to clear every level in Super Mario Maker before the servers shut down on April 8. (New level uploads have been disabled since 2021, so there is no danger of new levels appearing at the last minute.) As of a few days ago, only a single level remains: Trimming the Herbs, uploaded in 2017 by Ahoyoo. (See also Ahoyoo's original upload video.)

The level is short but extremely precise, requiring Mario to use Bob-ombs to precisely remove Piranha Plants and collect coins while navigating a tight space filled with spikes. There have been over 200,000 attempts so far! If you have a Wii U and feel like you might be a Mario master, this is your opportunity to pick up the final First Clear in Super Mario Maker history.

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The real story here is that the servers are being shut down. Games like these deserve to have the ability to run their own third party servers. To this day I can still log unto a number of Unreal Tournament (1999) community servers and frag until my eyes bleed.

I'm sure one day they're going to be selling those user created levels back to the users who originally created them.

You're probably right. I'm starting to think Nintendo is fully rotten to the core.

They're just a corporation.

Which is to say they're all rotten to the core when it comes to profits.

I already switched my Wii u over to the pretendo network. Uploading and playing levels already work in super Mario maker.

It's still far of from a drop in replacement, but miiverse, wara wara plaza and som in game things are working.

pretendo.network

It's weird, because I despise these Nintendo-style game murders, but love the Mario games... How can something so bad, make something so good? One need only look at Nintendo's complete and utter lack of respect for us the players and the games they kill with impunity to make a very solid case to increase our rights in preserving ALL of our video-game legacy. Legalize all sources for reverse engineering! This has gone far enough.

How can something so bad, make something so good?

Engineers create value, then the suits monetize it.

Don't worry too much, the scene probably will pick this up and we will have custom servers (I keep playing Jump Ultimate Stars DS online, and its servers closed in 2014).

But yeah, Nintendo makes a really low effort to preserve almost anything.

Yeah but a lot of DS and Wii games got lucky because most of them were hosted on Gamespy, so getting the hands on the actual software was fairly easy.

A select few Nintendo proprietary games had to be completely reverse engineered, like Gen 4 and 5 Pokemon.

Although I do expect Mario Maker won't be too difficult.

If you play the old games, you aren't buying the new ones. Simple as that for Nintendo.

Third party servers aren't always enough. Microsoft managed to ruin 3rd party Minecraft servers.

I still pop into UT99 games every now and then. One of the greatest games ever made

So if I own this game we won't be able to play it anymore?

Welcome to modern gaming

Technically, you’ll be able to “play” it, but without the online aspect of levels other people created there wouldn’t really be much of a point.

If you have a hacked Wii U or use an emulator then there is a community level repo I’m told

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Feels like I saw the ads for this game just yesterday. I want to trust these proprietary services won't disappear with my work, but I simply can't. Some people say 10 years is a long time, but not me.

I think it's that 10 years is a long time, it isn't when it comes to something we love. A truly loved game is a game you'll want to go back and play 20+ years later. 10 years is when games just start feeling nostalgic.

On the last day we'll just have the level creator log in and clear it on his 1st attempt.

Turns out they found the person and they want nothing to do with it. Seems the creator went through something of an addiction which allowed him to gain a super power in just one particular uncommon Mario mechanic, resulting in this level. As best I can tell, he had to get away for his own well being.

The level creator cannot clear their own level from their account. Also, the level creator would not be able to beat this level very easily.

And they consider the creator beating the level from another wii u not a legitimate clear.

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Did Mario Maker have any kind of safeguards against users publishing troll levels that were just physically impossible to beat? Since there's only one uncleared level left, I assume so, but I would've thought that the easiest way to verify a level could be beaten would be to make the creator beat it themselves before it could be uploaded.

I would've expected either loads of unbeaten levels or no unbeaten levels at all, but having only one unbeaten level is interesting...

Yes. You have to beat your own level to upload. It’s right here in the post. You can even see the video of the guy doing it

Oh, so I guess the "uncompleted level count" just refers to "uncompleted by anyone except the creator."

The creator's clear check doesn't count towards the level being cleared, so these levels are uncleared. I think if the creator plays it on the uploader account it wouldn't count either.

The one uncleared level refers to the 0%team clearing every maker level with that being the last one they have to do.

Is it here in the post? I've looked all over and can't find mention of that. There's the video of the author clearing it, but that doesn't imply that all levels are beatable.

Sorry, yeah, it is intended that all levels are beatable. To upload a level you must prove that it is beatable by clearing it from the beginning without dying, and then clearing it again from each checkpoint (if there are any) to prove that it can also be cleared from any checkpoints.

Hacked levels have existed that cannot be cleared, but they can be reported and Nintendo takes them down. They should all be taken down by now, but in any case if it's obviously impossible (the goal is completely blocked by impenetrable walls) Team 0% marks them as hacked on their spreadsheet in addition to reporting them, so they wouldn't count.

In this game you can download levels and see the full level in the editor, so it isn't possible to make a level that is "practically" unclearable using hidden information. Any things like hidden keys, "passcode" sections (where you need to hit blocks a certain number of times in order to manipulate things hidden off screen), etc. are trivially defeated by viewing the level in the editor.

I know I've seen "cryptographically secure" levels (as in, you can only possibly beat it within a human lifespan if you know the specific "combination" or "cryptographic key"), but maybe only in Super Mario Maker 2.

And I'm not sure if in 1 you can inspect the whole level. The SMM2 cryptographically secure ones I've seen rely on mechanisms that must remain off-screen the whole time or else it's trivial to derive the key.

It's only in SMM2, which doesn't allow you to edit other people's levels. And actually there is now a 3rd party tool to view SMM2 levels so those levels are now exposed as well.

In theory there are unbeatable levels. With some updates Nintendo fixed glitches, hit boxes, etc. Usually, when you play a level that was uploaded on an older version of the game, you get the old behavior. But there was one update, which did not adhere to this, and which did cause some levels (designed with now fixed glitches) to be unbeatable now.

But this project isn't about beating all levels, it's about beating all uncleared levels. Since those glitch levels probably were beaten before the patch OR you might be able to play them on an older version of the game (if the server allows it), these shouldn't be a huge problem.

I believe you had to complete it before publishing

The creator has to beat it to upload and

people can download a level to open in editor and see everything

That way it’s not a random pipe to win

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Many years back, I manually dumped thousands of Mario Maker 1 levels and uploaded them to the Internet. It's sad that the servers will be shutting down, and I knew this would happen, which is why I did it even though it took a long time manually downloading them one-by-one and then copying them off of my softmodded Wii U. Still though, it was worth it, knowing the game will live on to some extent even after the servers are shut down.

Internet archive?

That's a good idea tbh. I should probably do that.

edit: It has been done, it is done uploading, it also includes levels I obtained elsewhere from other downloads, I won't link it here tho.

You preserved a lot of people's hard work and creativity just like that. You're awesome!

I already mentioned pretendo in a comment. But for anyone how wants to play super Mario maker on there Wii u after the shutdown. You can switch networks (you of course need to (soft)mod your Wii u).

In super Mario maker uploading, playing uploaded levels, death point, world record and staring them works. There is still a lot missing. But you can still play.

Some games and features are behind a payed beta(which I hate). But all super Mario maker stuff is free.

Seeing wara wara plaza alive on my Wii u is amazing with random Mii's and post from miiverse.

I've never played this version. What are the red balls that bounce around, and has mario always been able to spin jump on piranha plants?

The red balls are lit Bob-ombs. While lit, they can be carried, thrown, bounced on (with spin jumps), and kicked (when touched any other way), and obviously after a short time they explode. Thrown, dropped, kicked, or bounced Bob-ombs kill enemies and collect coins.

Yes, in Super Mario World the spin jump allowed you to bounce on dangerous enemies including Piranha Plants, and actually the Super Mario Maker version is nerfed in some ways: in the oringal SMW you could also spin jump on certain things like fireballs and saws that you can't in SMM.

Doesn't that video show someone finishing it? Or is it uncleared by everyone except the creator or something?

You need to beat the level to upload it, and I suspect it's a clear check upload - however, separately, the game tracks first clear and world record after a level is uploaded.

My understanding is that the goal is to clear every beatable level that doesn't have a first clear (and some that have been cleared by known hackers, but I think those are all cleared legitimately already)

That video is a TAS, no human has cleared the level.

Forgive my ignorance, as even a quick search failed me, but what is a TAS?

 

UPDATE - thank you all for answering my question so well!

Tool assisted speed run. People write programs to run the game over and over, and by doing that they can prove or disprove potential strats, routes and such and then humans can try them.

Tool Assisted Speedrun

Using a script to automatically press all the buttons on the exact right frames so that you can automate a speedrun.

That video is rumored to be a tas. The only proof of TAS we have is salty egos. It would have also been as hard to TAS on the WiiU at the time than to just practice the level.

Also the creator has another bomb based level where he shows off his skills. It’s technically easier but uses the same tricks as this one.

There’s no serious reasons to believe he didn’t clear it correctly.

It would have also been as hard to TAS on the WiiU at the time than to just practice the level.

What do you mean by that?

Ahoyoo was known to be a good player, particularly with bombs (his other level, bombs5, is the same kind of tricks).

In 2017, there was no emulator capable of running SMM1 properly, and there was no controller for it to TAS with. So in order to TAS the level, he would have had to build an Arduino, learn to code, detect somehow when the level starts, send inputs to the USB port, enter the right inputs, and try and work out timings which are actually very difficult even in old systems, and very time consuming.

The best players currently are making progress on the level with around 20 hours of practice. Ahoyoo likely had hundreds of hours on this level alone (as the creator even, just to make the level), and it's said he spent thousands of hours playing the game obsessively. Spending more time to TAS would have been counter productive. If not impossible without an emulator (for reasons that are very technical TAS'ing a modern system is close to impossible without a camera and some AI).

Now there is a theory that he could have cheated the video (with editing) and cheated the submission process, but the cheats for submission were not widely known at the time (2017) and Ahoyoo wasn't known as an editor. So he would have needed help etc etc. That leave traces on forums that people likely would have found by now.

Being a good player and obsessed at the game as he was, it's more likely that he beat it fair and square, the way people are getting closer every day to beat it. So with all the evidence we know that accusation doesn't hold.

Edit: well that didn’t age well. I guess he DID have early access to TAS tools.

in 2017, the Wii U was an already open book for homebrewers IIRC, that's why I asked why considering TAS was almost no-go at the time.

thanks for thr write up though!

Wow, it's only like 15 seconds as well but it looks absolutely sadistic.

The website says 99.9% but also that the level was cleared by cardigacimeira?

Someone hacked in a clear (in-game). First time it happened to this level, but not the first time it happened overall.

Thanks for the additional detail, this is a really interesting project.

I’ve been glued to twitch and YouTube waiting to catch it when it goes.