3. “Mono No Aware” by FerpyMcfrosting

The concept of the awareness and acceptance of the transience of all things may sound too high-concept for a Super Mario World level, but that’s exactly what FerpyMcfrosting, creator of well-received Kaizo hack Super Cool World, created with “Mono No Aware.” It’s a brain-bending level where you run into a dead end and are forced to turn around, only to discover that the level changed off screen. Complementing this concept are a spooky tune and ghostly moving holes, capped off with a Boo Boss that takes advantage of the ephemerality of the environment.

For this level, Ferpy wanted to draw on inspirations outside of Super Mario World. “To put it simply I wanted to focus on a gimmick that’s relatively simple in concept but hadn’t been done in SMW before,” explains Ferpy. “I had found some existing code that could be used to make Mario teleport seamlessly, and I had the idea to re-purpose that to make a sort of non-euclidean level where you turn around and the level is completely different. Kind of inspired by games like Antichamber or Manifold Garden; I like that surreal and mind-bending approach to level design.” “Mono No Aware” is another recipient of the Valdio Award for excellence in beginner-difficulty level design.