In 2017, a group of enthusiasts set themselves an apparently impossible challenge: complete all the levels of Super Mario Makera game available on Wii U. They succeeded, with more than 80,000 levels completed.
In 2015, Nintendo launched a brand new game Mario for the Wii, Super Mario Maker, with an original principle: allowing everyone to design levels with elements from the franchise, in order to offer them to others. A title with a participatory dimension, therefore, and whose philosophy has borne fruit. In total, more than 80,000 levels have been imagined.
Faced with this ocean of creativity, a team of enthusiasts embarked on a crazy challenge: to finish everything. A challenge seemingly impossible to complete, as there are so many levels. However, this did not frighten Team 0%, which in 2017 kicked off a herculean adventure: completing all of the levels of Super Mario Maker.
Of course, when the task started, there were not yet 80,000 levels. However, the difficulty of the challenge has never decreased, since new internships have been added constantly, thanks to (or because of) the community.
To make matters worse, we had to deal with a relentless countdown: on April 8, 2024, the servers of Super Mario Maker will be closed. At the time of publishing this article, time would have frankly run out if Team 0% had fallen on a bone. But, good news, dream team has achieved its goals, we discover in a tweet published on March 22.
80,000 levels of Super Mario Maker in 7 years
The members of Team 0% have of course put in place a precise organization to effectively achieve their objective, with discussions on Discord and even a site to follow progress in real time.
So, we can see that there were still more than 40,000 levels to finish a little over a year ago. We had to exchange many tips and be methodical — and accept many sacrifices to free up time to try, again and again.
Quoted by The Guardian, Fritzef testifies: “ I sacrificed a lot of hours of sleep in the final stretch. But I have no regrets. » The desire to accomplish this incredible quest is accompanied by another, even more beautiful motivation: ensuring that all levels of Super Mario Maker are completed at least once means that all projects have been considered before being forgotten. That no one created levels “for nothing”.
There is everything in this string of internships. Some are a walk in the park, others prove tough, even ultra-difficult to complete for ordinary mortals. But Team 0% knew that it could achieve this by relying on collective effort and, also, a rule that governs Super Mario Maker. What do the most sadistic traps we face matter: a level can only be shared with the community if its creator has completed it. In this way, Nintendo ensures that what is proposed in the database is within the realm of feasibility.
As of March 14, there were only two levels left to complete, called The Last Dance And Trimming the Herbs. The first was folded the next day, despite how demanding it was. On the other hand, Trimming the Herbs was a different story. The statistics are striking: 200,000 trials since 2017, and no one has seen the end of it. Its creator published a video showing the procedure, namely 17 seconds of hyper-precise jumps, juggling between carnivorous plants, circular saws and stinging stars. As this level has been made accessible to the community, it must be possible — that is the rule. Except that it’s actually a trap.
On the site created by Team 0%, we discover a small insert dedicated to Trimming the Herbsin which the truth is released: “ The creator of Trimming the Herbs revealed on March 22, 2024 that this level was a sort of troll. » The level has actually never been completed by a single human. He relied on a speedrun assistance tool, cheating software that allows you to slow down the game to facilitate hyper-precise movements.
In short, Trimming the Herbs is considered an illegitimate level according to the rules of Super Mario Maker, which excludes him from the Team 0% list for his accomplishment. Fortunately, the creator of Trimming the Herbs had the presence of mind to admit his deception so as not to hinder the objective. Note that some people still try to finish it — which would constitute “101%” completion according to Team 0%. They have until April 8 to do so.
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