Mario

Sega has slipped a new Sonic the Hedgehog hoverboard racer into its latest Olympic Games game. It’s one of three “Dream” events in Novermber’s Switch exclusive Mario & Sonic at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, along with third-person shooting and something called “Dream Karate”. 

Brilliant Mario Maker 2 Designer Makes Courses Unlike Any Mario Game

The suite of building blocks offered by Mario Maker 2 means there’s no shortage of creative users out there fine-tuning a wide array of levels that would likely never be seen in the original series. But one of my favorite creators is uniquely capable of making me forget that what I’m playing is technically still…

Player Makes Duck Hunt In Mario Maker 2

They say legends never die, so it makes sense that Duck Hunt seems immortal. The NES Zapper classic has lived on, homaged in games like Halo 5 and featured in the last two Super Smash Bros. games. Now, an anonymous hero has also brought the fun of Duck Hunt to Super Mario Maker 2. The…

Mario Maker Contest: Pipes,Pipes And More Pipes

Mario loves pipes. He travels in them, jumps on them and leaps over them. As a plumber, pipes and Mario are forever linked together. So let’s celebrate Mario and his wonderful pipes. Your Challenge This Week: Create levels that feature pipes! Theme: Pipes You can use any theme and game, just make sure your course…

Mario’s Iconic 1-1 Level Is Way Harder When It’s Vertical

Super Mario Maker 2’s many player-created levels can range from intense deathtraps to clever first-person dungeons. There are also a lot of riffs on the very first Mario level ever, World 1-1. It’s a solid template to build on, one of the most iconic levels in all of video games. That’s why even the slightest…

Mario Maker Contest: International Cat Day, Winners!

Last week I asked you wonderful people to create some cat-themed Mario levels in celebration of International Cat Day. It was time to honor our cats by turning a plumber into a cat and throwing him at some enemies and jumps. It is the only way to celebrate cats. I got..some levels. Compared to previous…

Shaved Mario Is Making Me Feel Strange

Here is a very simple, but very effective mod for Super Mario Odyssey that shaves Mario’s moustache for the entirety of the game. Cutscenes, gameplay, everything. It’s gross and I hate it. And yet…I also cannot stop looking at it. At how young it makes him look. Like this is the Young Super Mario Chronicles.…

Mario 64 Expert Climbs One Of The Game’s Trickiest Levels Without Jumping

Scott “pannenkoek2012″ Buchanan is a Super Mario 64 expert known best for achieving memetic status thanks to a complex trick that involved “parallel universes” to complete. Buchanan is a master of the “A press challenge,” which involves clearing levels without jumping. He’s back at it again with a new, spellbinding way to climb to the…

It’s Been A Spectacular Few Days For Mario Speedrunning

The Super Mario games are among some of the most popular in all of speedrunning. From console to console, Mario has been pushed to his breaking point. The last few days have formed a watershed moment for Mario speedrunning as new records in Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario 64 move into uncharted territory and…

Twitch Uses Mario Reference To Let Viewers Know Ninja Left

Last Thursday, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins announced he was leaving Twitch to stream exclusively on Mixer. Twitch has subsequently added a tongue-in-cheek reference to the original Super Mario Bros. at the top of his channel to mark the popular streamer’s departure. “The Ninja you’re looking for is in another castle,” a banner at the top of…

Mario Maker Level Locks You In A Room With A Goomba And Your Darkest Thoughts

A lot of the Mario Maker levels that go viral are pretty universally deranged. They’re usually levels made in the “kaizo” style, impossibly hard courses for expert-level Mario players to speedrun. It’s easy to see why these are widely shared online: We like spectacle. Mario games are easy to parse—a tiny plumber is running from…

I did another Mario Maker I wanted to try to do something non-linear this time. I was almost done making it when, while playing around with the parts in the editor, I hit on the idea to use it to pay homage to my favorite YouTube video ever. I really want to make a short…

Everything We Know About The Viruses In Dr. Mario World, Including Their Lethality

Dr. Mario World was released recently and I’ve been playing a lot of it. The latest game in the series, Dr. Mario World is the first built for mobile phones and features new and old viruses. But how deadly are these differently colored viruses and where did they come from? And how many different types…

‘Shop Contest: Freelancing After Making, Winners!

Construction work is hard work. So last week I asked you wonderful Kotaku readers to show me how the Mario Bros. make more money on the side. I got a whole bunch of…strange jobs. I’m not sure how well these pay, but I write about video games for a living. What do I know? Our…

Legendary Mario Player Is Building Some Of The Hardest Mario Maker 2 Levels You’ll Ever See

It’s a good thing you have to beat a level before uploading it in Super Mario Maker 2, or else who knows what kind of twisted horrors longtime player PangeaPanga would be coming up with? Panga is a member of the Kaizo community, a group of bafflingly skilled Mario players who make and speedrun through…

Dr. Mario World Is Classic Puzzle Gaming, With The Good And Bad Of Mobile Gaming

Nintendo’s mobile games have ranged from the simplified platforming of Super Mario Run to the light strategy gacha Fire Emblem Heroes. It’s only natural that the company would move out to puzzle games. At least initially, their upcoming game Dr. Mario World is a fun little blast of brainteasing, but comes with a few of…

‘Shop Contest: Freelancing After Making

Super Mario Maker 2 was recently released and I’ve got Mario Maker 2 on the brain. I also wonder if making levels pays very well? Probably not. So construction Mario and his bro must work some side gigs to help make ends meet. Your challenge this week: Show us what Mario and Luigi do when…

Put Some Checkpoints In Your Mario Maker Levels

I’ve been playing Super Mario Maker 2 nearly every night since the game was released last week and I’ve encountered some really fun and well-made levels. But I’ve also noticed an annoying trend in many player made courses. It seems a lot of level creators are uploading levels without any checkpoints. Maybe some creators are…

Apologies in advance, as I expect my latest Super Mario Maker 2 level to occupy much of the video game discourse for months to come. I anticipate many a thinkpiece. If you want to try for yourself, it’s 7JF-QBH-34G. Just know that you, the “player,” are implicated in all that happens.

Mario Maker 2 Online Multiplayer Is Laggy, Too Basic, And Tons Of Fun

Super Mario Maker 2 is the first Mario game to include online multiplayer, and it’s exactly what you’d expect from Nintendo: The tech kinda sucks, the implementation is extremely bare-bones, and despite all of that, it’s a lot of fun. You can access the various multiplayer options by going into Course World, the online portion…