A fan collective is trying to clear every level of the original Super Mario Maker before Nintendo shuts down the servers.
Super Mario Maker was released in 2015 for the Wii U and allowed fans to upload player-made levels to an online hub, as long as they could actually be completed. In 2020, Nintendo confirmed it would be winding down support for the game, with the online hub closing on April 8.
The group known as ‘The 0%ers’ started their task of completing every level of Super Mario Maker in 2017, with more than 40,000 fan-created stages to beat.
Now with just over a month to go, ‘The 0%ers’ have 347 levels to go and have launched a dedicated website to track their progress. As it stands, the collective believes they will complete the game by March 6.
SMM1 daily countdown
Levels remaining: 388
Days remaining: 40
Projected completion date: March 6th 2024— Team 0% (@Team0Percent) February 29, 2024
Sharing their story on Reddit, Desantoos explained that the collective have already beaten some of Super Mario Maker’s most challenging levels, including tough precision level ‘Beast Needle’ and another that “literally requires a computer science degree” to complete due to players needing to create and utilise a complicated sorting algorithm.
However, there are still plenty of challenges ahead including ‘Beat The Herbs’, which requires split-second jumps, and ‘Muncher Stairs’ which needs pixel-perfect swimming to beat. Another unbeaten Time Attack level reportedly needs frame-perfect movements to complete.
I got another clear for team 0%!!! 750 levels left pic.twitter.com/VlIvb3w8wa
— Thabeast721🐀 (@thabeast721) February 23, 2024
Despite Nintendo removing any levels that couldn’t actually be completed, a series of updates over the course of Super Mario Maker’s lifespan means that some fans believe that a handful of levels may actually be impossible to complete, due to them requiring bugs or mechanics that no longer exist in the game. However, fans from across the world are coming together to work out ways to beat Super Mario Maker.
Once the servers for Super Mario Maker are taken offline, players will still be able to tackle any levels they’ve previously downloaded, but they won’t be able to access new ones.
In 2021, non-profit organisation The Video Game History Organisation said Nintendo’s approach to game preservation was “actively destructive”.
In other news, Toys For Bob – the developer of Crash Bandicoot 4 and the remastered Spyro collection – has confirmed it’s going independent.