5. “Gate Crashers” by MiracleWater

One of two levels in the top ten to get the Favorite Brain Teaser award, “Gate Crashers” twists Kaizo in a puzzly direction with a simple gimmick: You can’t pass by net-like gates without dying if you’re big Mario. So the levels become about clever ways of taking damage at the right moment so you can progress, testing both your Kaizo execution skills and your ability to read setups.

This is a design trademark of MiracleWater, who previously worked on many memorable levels in collaboration hacks like theJUMP series of games. “I’m a fan of Kaizo levels that incorporate a bit of problem solving into them, rather than being purely hard in execution,” MiracleWater says about the inspirations behind these levels. “Gaijin Mario, a Kaizo hack by Morsel, does this quite well and was the main inspiration for my entry. However, the winner of KLDC 2021 Lazy, has made some fantastic Kaizo levels that influenced my level as well.”