Mario gets sadism

April 13, 2007 10:13 AM

The most sadistic user-created Super Mario Bros level ever. I cried with laughter.
posted by humblepigeon (68 comments total)

As did I. The level is brutally unforgiving. The hidden blocks killed me.

I think the player started to give up toward the end. I have to give him props for getting that far though.
posted by Dr-Baa at 10:17 AM on April 13, 2007

Oh, how I wish this couldn't so easily be seen as a commentary on my life.
posted by PhatLobley at 10:18 AM on April 13, 2007 [6 favorites]

Uh...header image NSFSqueamish
posted by DU at 10:22 AM on April 13, 2007

Uh...header image NSFSqueamish

Sorry. Looks like it's just some guy's blog. Here's a direct link to the video.
posted by humblepigeon at 10:27 AM on April 13, 2007

The trip down the warp pipe cracked me up. Nice find.
posted by boo_radley at 10:27 AM on April 13, 2007

NP: I was OK, though surprised.

The video is great. I wish my kids new what this game was so I could show it to them.
posted by DU at 10:30 AM on April 13, 2007

I love that he often doesn't even make it to where he failed last time. This makes me think of going to work, and life in general.
posted by Megafly at 10:38 AM on April 13, 2007 [3 favorites]

Obviously this level design was a collaboration between the Nintendo replacement controller industry and Old Scratch himself.
posted by Challahtronix at 10:39 AM on April 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

The video editor has a good sense of comic timing.
posted by DU at 10:41 AM on April 13, 2007

I remember that level....oh...I used to play that for HOURS in college and do different just just as stupid shit over and over again like him. I'd be on a roll then fly over the edge of something or hit a hidden coin or run into a flame that I KNEW was going to be there!

That was hilarious. It is a metaphor for life, sort of .
posted by aacheson at 10:43 AM on April 13, 2007

I saw this Wednesday night but I can't post yet. This is amazingly hilarious.
posted by Pope Guilty at 10:50 AM on April 13, 2007

It is a metaphor for life

The part where he patiently prepares for the swinging fireball stick, jumps and hits the hidden coinbox?
posted by phaedon at 11:00 AM on April 13, 2007

I do not understand how people have the patience for stuff like that.
posted by rsanheim at 11:01 AM on April 13, 2007

It's pure slapstick, except in the form of computer games. Sometimes you just know he's going to hit a hidden coin block, and you sense that he does too, but that's just part of the fun. I love when he's pensive, or when he jumps around to test the locality for hidden blocks.
posted by humblepigeon at 11:02 AM on April 13, 2007

It's kinda depressing that the player doesn't beat 1-2. :(
posted by yeoz at 11:04 AM on April 13, 2007

Aujourd'hui, maman est morte. Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas. J'ai reçu un télégramme de l'asile: Mère décédée. Enterrement demain. Sentiments distingués. Cela ne veut rien dire. C'était peut-être hier.
posted by Falconetti at 11:12 AM on April 13, 2007 [4 favorites]

It's 1986, I'm in the first grade / I'm working really hard to get Mario laid / I gotta save the princess, so he can get the pussy, believe me / Mario would get that ass, so fuck Luigi
posted by phaedon at 11:15 AM on April 13, 2007

The first time he hit the hidden block was hilarious. 1-1 was a lot easier once you realize that there's a mushroom and that the top is breakable. I wonder if there are hidden traps up there.
posted by smorange at 11:19 AM on April 13, 2007

That was great.
posted by sweet mister at 11:20 AM on April 13, 2007

this cracked me up. the bits where you seem him pace back and forth unsurely and try to test the air for hidden coin blocks... so amazing, especially when he finally just goes for it and hits a hidden coin block to his death. unbelievable.

but here's what cracks me up the most: in 1-1, there's that moment where he gets a very difficult mushroom, and cracks the block over his head. if he'd just jumped up that hole he'd opened he could have run across the rest of the board unscathed and gotten the top of the flagpole, too. but he nevers tries it again. who's laughing now, pagliacci!
posted by shmegegge at 11:23 AM on April 13, 2007

hahah, awsome. The levels not just hard sadistic really covers it. Just when you think things will work out something comes completly out of left field. The warp pipe is awsome.

I think the level could be beaten using a "single step" emulator
posted by delmoi at 11:25 AM on April 13, 2007

SisyphusFilter.
posted by JHarris at 11:25 AM on April 13, 2007 [6 favorites]

This was a sorely needed moment of hilarity during a bad day at work for ol' me. Loved it.

Right at the beginning when he makes it past the jellyfish thing and through the small crack, and jumps up and down a couple times to celebrate... priceless.
posted by ORthey at 11:26 AM on April 13, 2007

Oh ... wow ... and I thought Ninja Gaiden was hard ...
posted by EatTheWeek at 11:37 AM on April 13, 2007

This was SO less funny back when I was the one playing it for hours on end. Excellent, thanks! (And I'm only into minute 2 so far.)
posted by iguanapolitico at 11:42 AM on April 13, 2007

I literally jumped out of my chair when he beat 1-1. That makes me sadder than this person.
posted by ColdChef at 11:46 AM on April 13, 2007

Man, that's awesome.
posted by Vorteks at 11:50 AM on April 13, 2007

Is it just me, or is anyone else prepared to claw their own eyes out rather than face the prospect of sitting through a twenty-three minute video of a game of Super Mario, even a super-sadsistic one?

I mean, I played arcade and computer games too ... have I just gotten that old?

Sigh.
posted by chuq at 11:51 AM on April 13, 2007

Video-Game Characters Denounce Randomly Placed Swinging Blades

"WASHINGTON, DC–A coalition of video-game characters representing the nation's leading systems appeared before Congress Monday to decry "the pointless, deadly presence" of spinning blades in video-game landscapes."
posted by sindark at 11:54 AM on April 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

Sisyphus indeed! After that frustration, here is some more straight forward comic relief.
posted by JBennett at 11:55 AM on April 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

And this is tagged with snes? What's that about?
posted by kbanas at 12:00 PM on April 13, 2007

am i the only one who can't get the video to load? it gets abuot 30 seconds into it then stops :(
posted by empath at 12:02 PM on April 13, 2007

chuq -

It's worth it even if you only watch 3 minutes. Seriously.
posted by ORthey at 12:03 PM on April 13, 2007

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don;'t you also stay big after a level? So if he'd gotten the mushroom, then run along the top, he could have done the same in 1.2
posted by Deathalicious at 12:05 PM on April 13, 2007

Air is much much worse. You need to take advantage of glitches to get through, making tool-assisted speedruns the only way to finish.
posted by CrunchyFrog at 12:08 PM on April 13, 2007

chuq, I only made it three minutes. It was funny but I need the other 20 minutes of my life to, umm, wash my hair or something.

Falconetti, does your post mean something I'm not getting? (Poor, forgotten) Babelfish Altavista translated thusly:

"Today, mom died. Or perhaps yesterday, I do not know. I received a telegram of asylum: Mother deceased. Burial tomorrow. Distinguished feelings. That wants nothing to say. It was perhaps yesterday."
posted by who squared at 12:12 PM on April 13, 2007

Evil, diabolical, hilarious.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:14 PM on April 13, 2007

who squared: Those are the opening lines to Camus' The Stranger/L'Etrangere.
posted by kalimac at 12:15 PM on April 13, 2007

Excellent... now I want to see a sequel.
posted by Flashman at 12:22 PM on April 13, 2007

Yeah, did anyone actually make it further than 3 minutes? I love/loved me some Super Mario, but these days I can't see myself playing it for 20 minutes, let alone watch some poor soul go nuts trying to play it for that long.
posted by ghastlyfop at 12:43 PM on April 13, 2007

Aujourd'hui, maman est morte. Ou peut-être hier, je ne sais pas. J'ai reçu un télégramme de l'asile: Mère décédée. Enterrement demain. Sentiments distingués. Cela ne veut rien dire. C'était peut-être hier.

= L'Etranger ("The Stranger"/"The Outsider") by Albert Camus

I didn't even need a translation I'm such a Camus fanboi.
posted by cowbellemoo at 12:50 PM on April 13, 2007

L'etranger is the French "Catcher in the Rye." I think it was posted to say that, in a funny way, this mod is put together the way Holden Caufield and the guy from L'etranger saw the world, as a hostile place where it was almost futile to struggle, because to strive brings pain.
posted by autodidact at 12:54 PM on April 13, 2007 [2 favorites]

Hhe. That was funny. I LOL'ed when he went down the pipe and fell to his death.
posted by Effigy2000 at 12:55 PM on April 13, 2007

This video has inspired me to make a lifestyle change. For too long I've been Mario. I think from now on, I'm going to be the hidden block.

And in keeping with that theme, I'm not going to tell anyone around me that I've made this change. They'll find out.

Eventually.

[evil laugh] Bwahahaha [/evil laugh]
posted by quin at 12:57 PM on April 13, 2007 [7 favorites]

Yeah, did anyone actually make it further than 3 minutes?

I started skipping through to see if he passed the level.
posted by delmoi at 12:58 PM on April 13, 2007

Ha, ha, ha, ha--

[buffering]

--ha, ha.
posted by spiderwire at 1:06 PM on April 13, 2007 [3 favorites]

it's like Ninja Warrior, but with pixels.
posted by Dave Faris at 1:11 PM on April 13, 2007

Oh my god, I can't even watch it. Do you know how long it took me to beat level 8-4? Fucking months, man.

Suddenly I'm 9 years old again. Funny how that sensation of frustration doesn't change.
posted by sugarfish at 3:52 PM on April 13, 2007

Metafilter: a hostile place where it was almost futile to struggle, because to strive brings pain.

-or-

Metafilter: I LOL'ed when he went down the pipe and fell to his death.
posted by stenseng at 4:30 PM on April 13, 2007

I never finished it. I have to live with that every day of my life.
posted by Joey Michaels at 4:33 PM on April 13, 2007

I watched the whole thing, and now I'm horribly disappointed that they didn't finish that last one.
posted by Many bubbles at 4:44 PM on April 13, 2007

I never imagined SMB could be so funny.

I thought it was funny when my next-door neighbor used to make mario dance on the ivy.
posted by callmejay at 4:50 PM on April 13, 2007

sticking with the French thing ...
posted by YoBananaBoy at 6:09 PM on April 13, 2007

I'm amazed at myself -- I'm having trouble watching, and I thought it would be empathy, but gosh darn it, I'm LAUGHING every time he hits a hidden block. Like keeling over. I don't know what it is about it.
posted by cavalier at 6:34 PM on April 13, 2007

Ok, 6 minutes in and the cringing starts to rise. Whew.
posted by cavalier at 6:45 PM on April 13, 2007

To see some real video game manipulations: http://tasvideos.org/
posted by jmd82 at 8:23 PM on April 13, 2007

AHHAAAGHHHHHAAAAAGGGHHHHHH!
posted by Divine_Wino at 9:34 PM on April 13, 2007

I haven't laughed out loud at a video post for a long time. Thank you for this.

Oh, and shouldn't the tag be NES, not SNES?
posted by kisch mokusch at 12:20 AM on April 14, 2007

For some reason I can't get it to let me see more than a minute's worth - am I doing something dumb? aside from wanting to spend 20 minutes watching someone else play computer games...
posted by prentiz at 2:46 AM on April 14, 2007

I have always found it more fun to watch someone with talent and experience playing Mario Bros, rather than playing it myself. It's been many years, but this video is an example as to why. I'd never have figured out half the puzzles that guy did. And then to have to repeat several moves flawlessly after figuring it out, just to discover almost blindly the next hurdle. Wow.
posted by ZachsMind at 8:03 AM on April 14, 2007

It's painful to watch. I think for the sake of the viewer it could have been edited to remove some of the mistakes - at some point it goes from being funny watching him die to just being hard to deal with.

Exactly the same pain I felt back when my older brother first discovered the "turtle on the stairs" secret to collecting unlimited lives. I could sit and watch, but I knew, deep inside, that no matter how long I watched him play and die, it would not be my turn for a long, long time.

Perhaps this is part of why I keep watching? 20 minutes in to it, and it still isn't my turn.

(On top of everything else, my brother had this godawful habit of stealing my turn - "Oh, sorry, my game was over but you had left the room out of sheer boredom, so I started again. Don't worry, it will be your turn eventually.")
posted by caution live frogs at 9:19 AM on April 14, 2007 [2 favorites]

I kind of want to play this. Anyone know where to download the rom?
posted by wocsid at 9:58 AM on April 14, 2007

Okay, I finally finished. You could really tell he was getting tired, and there weren't any edits, were there?
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 5:55 PM on April 14, 2007

I kinda want to play this too...
posted by every_one_needs_a_hug_sometimes at 7:47 PM on April 14, 2007

Now available with commentary.
posted by CrunchyFrog at 10:02 AM on April 17, 2007 [2 favorites]

Thanks CrunchFrog! I couldn't get the initial link to load, so the Video Google link is awesome. But the commentary...god, I can only watch it in 3 minutes bursts 'cuz I can't stop laughing. "Who put that there?! Fuck!"
posted by myopicman at 5:37 AM on April 19, 2007

For anyone still reading this....

The guys over at Select Button have found a copy of the ROM! There's some instructions involved, but for those up to the challenge:

Thread (look a little way down for info)
posted by JHarris at 2:41 AM on May 5, 2007

Also, further down that thread are YouTube links to the remainder of the game (it ends at 1-4).
posted by JHarris at 2:44 AM on May 5, 2007