A professional Super Mario 64 player has managed to finish the Wii Virtual Console version of the game without once pressing the jump button.
The impressive feat, achieved by Twitch streamer Marbler from May 17th to May 21st, took 86 hours of game play to complete.
YouTuber Bismuth has an excellent video summarizing the trickiest sections of the playthrough and how they were overcome. He aptly describes the A Button Challenge (or ABC) as “more of an infinitely intricate puzzle rather than a test of skill.”
For those not deeply involved in the Super Mario 64 speedrunning community, it can be difficult to understand how the highly complicated technical exploits work, but seeing them performed in the video may fascinate you regardless of your technical knowledge of the game.
The ABC run dates back to around 2007, but participants have mostly used emulators in order to accomplish solutions that are not possible with a controller. Marbler’s recent effort marks the first time the challenge has been completed on a console.
As for why it was performed on the Wii, the Virtual Console version contains a unique bug that allows the player to manipulate a specific platform in the Bowser in the Fire Sea stage, which is required in order to progress without jumping. This trick alone takes over 70 hours to pull off, taking up the majority of the 86-hour run.
This is just one of the many insane workarounds used to get Mario to each Power Star without his jump abilities. If you think you’ve seen everything possible in Super Mario 64 after its 28 years of existence, prepare to be stunned.
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Written by Reece Heather
A lifelong Nintendo fan and a longtime editor at Zelda Universe, Reece will forever be grateful that he somehow dodged the Naughty List of Christmas 1998, when Santa delivered the life-changing gift of a Nintendo 64 with Super Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, and Mario Kart 64. When he's not playing games, Reece is usually reading Punisher comics, delving helplessly into the weirdest depths of anime and manga, or spending time with his cocker spaniel Gracie -- the goodest girl ever!
