Chapter 557: Three Koopa Troopas at the Start, Is This Even Playable for Humans?! (Requesting Subscriptions, Monthly Passes)

Seeing the discussion in the live stream's bullet comments starting to go a bit off-topic, Xiao Jie coughed twice and quickly steered the conversation back to the game.

"Woah, these controls are so responsive... it feels much more refined."

Xiao Jie maneuvered Mario into the first story-collecting level. After a quick input, he immediately noticed the difference.

He had already played all versions of Mario games on the Switch platform, and not just once. He was quite familiar with the feel of each different version.

However, the controls for this Super Mario Maker, while corresponding to different versions, gave him a very comfortable and incredibly smooth feeling.

He breezed through two simple story mode levels, primarily designed to give players an understanding of the game and introduce concepts like hidden blocks.

Many of the items in these levels were familiar to Xiao Jie from various Switch Mario games.

For instance, the regular mushroom, which makes the character grow taller and bigger, allowing them to smash or crack certain blocks by hitting them from below or ground-pounding them. Touching monsters or spike traps would block one hit of damage.

As for the Fire Flower, consuming it allowed Mario to shoot damaging fireballs and withstand two fatal hits.

Beyond that, the game also featured a Hammer Mario state, allowing him to break walls and throw wooden crates from thin air; a Cat Mario state for wall-climbing and pouncing; and a Cape Mario state that enabled flight after a running start.

He was generally familiar with these. Combined with different theme versions, the characters' abilities and characteristics also varied.

There were five different versions in total. In the first pixelated version, Mario couldn't carry items; the only operation available was crouching.

In the second version, although still pixelated, Little Mario could now carry things.

In the third version, Mario could perform actions like the spin jump. On certain flowers and stones, a spin jump would not cause damage, and he could also throw items vertically.

The fourth version offered even more control, such as wall jumps, mid-air spin hovers, and a ground pound that could defeat enemies below or smash bricks if Mario was in an empowered state.

The final version, much like in Super Mario Odyssey, allowed for spin jumps, backflips, and standing long jumps.

Furthermore, some specific items were exclusive to certain versions.

To Xiao Jie, this felt incredibly rich. Each individual version already had a lot of content, but this game integrated everything from all of them.

And there were many small tricks in the game, such as pipes of different colors spitting out items at different speeds.

The game had items like portals and pipes, but portals could only teleport within the current map, while pipes would lead into another dimensional world.

Simply put, the game was divided into the Underworld and the living world. The clear flags were always in the living world, while pipes led to the Underworld.

As for portals, whether in the Underworld or the living world, they could only teleport to where they were located.

"This content is just too rich! I'm going to try the Global Levels and see; this feels so much more interesting than before!" As a Mario enthusiast, Xiao Jie was a bit excited.

Even though there were many detailed operations across various Mario versions that he hadn't mastered yet.

He felt he could completely skip the new player tutorial.

Clicking to enter the Global Levels.

Soon, Xiao Jie saw the game interface for Global Levels.

There were four different options: Search Levels, Creator Leaderboards, Play Together, and Mario Endless Challenge.

Xiao Jie had already understood these from the information Nebula Games had previously released.

In short, it involved searching for other players' levels, cooperative and competitive multiplayer, rankings, and challenge modes.

In-game rankings ranged from the highest S+, S, and so on. When a player reached 6000 points, their ID name would turn red.

"Let's try this Mario Endless Challenge first. I'll pick the Normal difficulty," Xiao Jie thought for a moment before making a decision. He didn't immediately jump into multiplayer mode.

Because the game had just launched, there weren't many player-created levels yet.

So, the maps were mostly official ones from the game itself.

Playing multiplayer and single-player didn't really have much difference, and he could also get familiar with the maps. That way, when he did go into multiplayer, if he encountered maps he had already played, wouldn't he have an intelligence advantage?

Looking at the four difficulty options: Easy, Normal, Hard, and Super Hard.

After some thought, he decided to test the waters with Normal first.

He selected and confirmed, and with Mario's energetic "Let's go!", the game officially began.

Depending on the difficulty, Mario started with a fixed number of lives from the first level. On Normal difficulty, he started with 5 lives. The total number of lives would slowly increase, up to a maximum of 99, by collecting lives within the levels, or players could face a total wipeout; it was up to them.

"Seems a bit too easy?"

Initially, Xiao Jie was a little cautious, but he soon found that the Normal difficulty maps weren't all that challenging for him.

For a complete beginner who hadn't played platformers much, it might indeed be somewhat difficult.

But he had already played all the Mario games on the Switch platform.

Even though the actual controls had many subtle differences, his experience was there.

After one level, not only did he not lose any lives, but he also picked up 3 extra life mushrooms, bringing his total lives to 8.

Entering the next level, a different stage from before.

Xiao Jie started cautiously as he did before. Although he accidentally lost one life in the middle, he still jumped his way to the finish line. And just like before, he collected 3 lives along the way, increasing his total to ten.

Xiao Jie didn't continue on Normal difficulty; he exited directly.

"I'll skip Hard too. Should I try Super Hard first to test the waters?" Xiao Jie had a bold idea.

He exited and selected Super Hard mode.

At this point, he noticed something: Mario's lives in the game had jumped from the previous 5 on Normal to 30.

But after entering the game, he was dumbfounded.

"What is this?! Three Koopa Troopas at the start!? Shell jumps?"

A tall spike wall stood before him, and on the ground were three Piranha Plants. On top of the Piranha Plants were three living Koopa Troopas.

Also, two doors were placed in front of the spawn point.

One door was on the ground, and one was in the air.

Xiao Jie walked into the accessible ground door, then immediately fell out of the airborne door.

And even more critically, that wasn't all. In front of the three Piranha Plants and Koopa Troopas was another spike wall, and through the visible area behind it, he could see corresponding switches, Goombas, Koopa shells placed on the Goombas, and a series of spike floors.

So, this was a map where his feet couldn't touch anywhere else throughout the entire level?

"Is this damn map even made for humans?"

Looking at the map before him, Xiao Jie was completely stunned.

He instinctively uttered a bewildered triple question.

He was utterly dumbfounded, wasn't he?

Was this the world of Super Hard difficulty?

(End of Chapter) <>