Checkpoints are usually handed out as a reward for progress, but in this Mario Maker stage, the creator decided players needed to earn it.
Not everyone is a fan of the 100 Mario Challenge mode in Mario Maker; there’s no guarantee you’re actually going to play a “good” level. Thankfully, I’m more interested in finding interesting levels. (Or, at least, soul crushing ones for the barbaric amusement of people tuning in.)
One such level is マリオの修行1 by S_Rikuto1024, amusing for two reasons:
- It managed to make an underwater level entertaining.
- The checkpoint made me cackle and despair.
You can see the checkpoint in the screen shot above. Unlike most checkpoints, this one isn’t placed in Mario’s direct path. It’s possible to keep on trucking through the level and not trigger the helpful save.
But to reach the checkpoint, the level deploys a unique challenge.
It, uh, didn’t go so well for me that time.
The question facing the player is whether it’s worth the risk. The checkpoint lets you skip half the stage, yes, but it also means you might have to play the beginning of the stage all over again, too. A quandary!
I decided it was worth the risk.
Good job, Patrick.
You can watch me play through the whole level here, by the way:
You can reach the author of this post at patrick.klepek@kotaku.com or on Twitter at @patrickklepek.