Chapter 558: Mr. Chen, you call this a strategy guide video!? (Requesting Subscriptions, Monthly Passes)

After silently trying a couple of times, he couldn't even get past the first wall.

The only good news was that, according to the game's mechanism, the items from before would respawn the moment he exited the map by entering through a door, allowing for repeated trial and error. But even so, a shell thrown against the wall mid-way still ended up killing him.

Then he checked the fastest clear record: the uploader cleared it in 36 seconds.

Meaning that this map, if played without mistakes, would still take a whopping 36 seconds to clear!

Looking at the spike-filled path ahead, he had to admit one thing: this map was not something he could clear right now.

He wasn't a Mario novice either, having played various versions of Mario. Shell jumps, and using shells to farm lives in corners – he understood these basic and advanced techniques.

But a continuous triple shell jump, and seeing that the rest was a zero-mistake parkour run, he clearly understood the difficulty involved.

Meanwhile, the bullet comments in the live stream room were going wild with laughter.

“Brother Jie, don't try anymore, let's not suffer this humiliation. Let's go back to playing on normal difficulty!”

“I'm dying of laughter, he threw a shell and got bounced to death! I killed myself!”

“By the way, can you really throw three shells like that? It's too hard, right?”

“Brother Jie, Brother Jie, quickly check Chen Xu's official Weibo account, there are many strategy guide videos!”

Brother Jie was still trying each method one by one, but he quickly noticed the bullet comments.

Chen Xu released strategy guides!?

Brother Jie looked astonished. He knew that Chen Xu had done everything else before, but he had never made strategy guides.

After all, the fun of games lies in exploration. Although many players prefer fast-paced gameplay, such as following guides for puzzle-solving content in some games, from an official game perspective, such strategy guide content would not usually be produced.

But why was Chen Xu making strategy guides for this game?

Brother Jie grew curious. Although he wasn't particularly fond of watching guides, this was a new game after all. Even if it used Mario's mechanisms, there were still many areas he was unfamiliar with.

Pausing the game temporarily, Brother Jie exited and went to Chen Xu's official Weibo account.

He saw several video attachments posted below Chen Xu's official Weibo account.

Brother Jie clicked on the first video attachment.

Subtitles appeared on a black screen:

'Shell Jump Demonstration'

Shell jump! Wasn't this the level he was currently stuck on!?

A seemingly smart little blue Toad appeared in the camera. This map was exactly the one Brother Jie was currently playing.

The path ahead had two doors, three Piranha Plants, a Koopa Troopa, and a row of spike walls.

Then Brother Jie watched as the little blue Toad ran forward, continuously stepping on the two shells of the Piranha Plants on the ground with a running start, tossing both shells into the air. Using the rebound force of the first shell, he jumped up, retrieved the airborne shell, and repeated the previous action.

Through a shell relay triple jump in mid-air, he soared over the tall spike wall, then stepped on the shell to grab the Koopa Troopa as it fell into shell mode, simultaneously stomping a Spiny to use its bounce to jump forward. In mid-air, he threw the shell against the wall to continue the shell jump, advancing all the way forward.

Various aerial shell jumps, rebound jumps using leverage, and transporting nearly exploding Bob-ombs.

After clearing the level, the video screen turned dark, and a line of text appeared: Have you learned it?

Silence, still silence.

What kind of strategy guide video was this!?

Brother Jie, in front of his computer, was completely bewildered. Learned it?

Sorry, I failed to learn it!

How the heck is anyone supposed to learn this!

Every step was seen clearly, but seeing clearly didn't mean he could do it!

Not just Brother Jie, but also the audience in the live stream room were astonished. They were happy when they saw Brother Jie at a loss in the level.

But this official video released by Chen Xu completely shocked them.

They fell into deep self-doubt, wondering if this was something a human could even learn.

Is this a platformer game?

“Holy cow, holy cow, holy cow, I let out a 'Holy cow' sound.”

“What just happened? I blinked!”

“A triple shell jump, it can actually be done like that?”

“Is this really a strategy guide video? Who can learn this?!”

“Could it be that all the super-difficult maps require these kinds of operations?”

Many viewers watching the live stream were equally stunned by this video.

Brother Jie, on his end, continued watching the other videos, since he was already there.

From the timestamps, it was clear that these videos weren't all released by Chen Xu at once, but rather updated gradually. They were all operation videos for Super Mario Maker.

For example, continuous spring jumps, spin jumps + shell jump parkour gameplay.

And of course, there was the pixel point micro-management, squeezing through tiny gaps, which made countless players feel like they were going to have a brain thrombosis just watching it.

“This… this isn't just a blind guess, is it? It's precise down to the pixel point, how torturous must that be?!”

Watching a short ten-second video, Brother Jie was completely dumbfounded.

If it was the previous shell parkour map, he felt he might still have a chance if he practiced a lot.

But the content in this video, he felt, definitely wasn't a map he could play.

In the video, Mario jumped across the edges of blocks to clear the level, with a Piranha Plant on top of the block.

It looked like there was no way to stand on it.

At the end, there was also a screenshot explaining the principle behind it.

It explained that if a block was, say, 8 pixel points, and the Piranha Plant occupied 6 pixel points. With the Piranha Plant on the block, there would still be one pixel point on each side where the character could stand.

He only needed to make the character barely graze that single pixel point to avoid touching the Piranha Plant and dying.

Sounds simple, right?

Simple my foot!

Is this something a person can actually do?

Especially the maps behind it, filled with countless spikes, looking like absolute dead ends, yet he managed to jump across them.

Brother Jie returned to the game and used the game's zoom function to observe.

He could indeed see the pixel points, but the crucial thing was how incredibly difficult this would be in a normal game!

………………

In Nebula Games' project office, Ruan Ningxue and Yang Xin, among others, watched Chen Xu, who was busy creating 'promotional' material, all speechless.

“Mr. Chen, you're very strong, but are these operations something players can learn?” Yang Xin voiced her inner question.

“Also, aren't our official maps a bit too difficult?” Ruan Ningxue also asked.

In summary, there was one shared feeling:

Brain/Eyes: Is that all there is to it?

Hands: Damn it!

“Don't underestimate players. Look, this player named Fatty not only cleared the super-difficult parkour map but also set a new record.”

“And this player from the NHC Team also cleared the micro-management map. This is just the first day. What does that show? The difficulty isn't high; in fact, it's too low. You'll understand what 'inhumane' means when you see the maps players create later.” Chen Xu couldn't help but smile faintly.

“Besides, didn't we also prepare some more casual options for ordinary players, like music maps?” Chen Xu said with a smile.

Indeed, just as Chen Xu said.

Players who got their hands on Super Mario Maker, especially those who had played many Mario games, were amazed by the game's difficulty and techniques.

As for ordinary players, they felt like they were transported back to when they first encountered Minecraft, exclaiming: “This game can actually be played like this!”

Players in the multiplayer cooperative mode were also having a great time, feeling the atmosphere was quite good. Especially some music maps and fun level maps, which left many players with a deep impression.

Sure enough, before announcing Resident Evil Village, Mr. Chen treated them to another good meal!

Super-difficult maps were not for ordinary players.

But this multiplayer mode and easy mode were truly casual and joyful!

Innumerable players laughed and cheered.

However, about a week after the multiplayer mode launched, many players, after their initial familiarization, suddenly noticed that the 'water temperature' seemed a bit off.

(End of Chapter) <>