The Super Mario Maker community faces its final boss
Super Mario Maker’s final unbeaten Wii U level, “Trimming the Herbs,” was ultimately revealed to have been cleared using tool-assisted input, leading community trackers to disqualify it and recognize an earlier course, “The Last Dance,” as the true final legitimately beaten level. From there the conversation widens into criticism of Nintendo’s shutdown of online services and deletion of user-created levels, raising concerns about preservation of games as cultural artifacts, user rights over their own creations, and the ethics of selling online-dependent games that later become unplayable. Several commenters argue for legal reforms—such as “right to play,” source-code release after support ends, or limits on copyright—so that communities can host their own servers and ensure long-term access to both commercial games and user-generated content.
Status of the “final boss” level and TAS revelation
- Commenters note the article is outdated: “Trimming the Herbs” is now widely accepted in the community as a tool-assisted (TAS) / hacked clear.
- With that disqualification, “The Last Dance” is treated as the final legitimately beaten level; all valid levels are now cleared.
- Some players are still attempting “Trimming the Herbs” for the challenge, even knowing the original clear was TAS.
- The global tracker shows 100% because hacked or illegitimate clears are out of scope and such levels are excluded.
How the TAS was likely done and difficulty discussion
- Multiple comments describe plausible methods: microcontrollers or Pi/Arduino devices driving a controller, or playing inputs back on a hacked Wii U.
- Debate over timing: syncing frame-perfect inputs is non-trivial due to clock drift and RNG, but the level is only ~17 seconds, so brute forcing sync runs seems feasible.
- The clear video looked ordinary, which helped it evade suspicion; only deeper play revealed extremely tight frame/pixel precision and RNG manipulation.
- Some top players had long suspected a TAS due to the precision and 2017 tooling situation.
Level analysis tools and “unbeatable” designs
- In Mario Maker 1, downloaded levels can be opened in the editor; external viewers exist for Mario Maker 2.
- “Lucky Draw” is cited as a near-unbeatable RNG level (≈1 in 7 million clear rate).
- Discussion of RNG differences: MM1 uses fixed RNG, while MM2 continuously feeds player input into RNG, enabling “secret code” style levels.
Preservation, Nintendo, and user-generated content
- Strong criticism of Nintendo for shutting servers and destroying access to user-created levels; many see this as cultural loss and anti-preservation.
- Some argue it “can’t be that expensive” to keep servers for a small player base; others cite security, GDPR, and maintenance burdens.
- Several note that fans have already archived levels and built replacement/community servers and archives.
Rights, regulation, and ethics
- Proposals include:
- “Right-to-play” laws or self-hostable servers once official support ends.
- Tying copyright to ongoing availability (“publish or lose it”), or forcing release of server code / removal of DRM when services shut down.
- Stronger data portability and UGC protections so platforms cannot delete the only copies of user works.
- Counterarguments stress that buyers were always on a hosted platform, companies aren’t obligated to preserve services indefinitely, and full open-sourcing can be complex due to third-party IP.
Archival scope vs ephemerality
- Some insist nearly everything should be archived because future significance is unknowable.
- Others argue much online content is ephemeral “junk,” and preserving absolutely everything is unrealistic; selective preservation and accepting loss are seen as practical.
Miscellaneous
- AI/ Gymnasium-based clears are suggested but rejected by others as against the spirit of “human-cleared” levels.
- Smash Bros. Ultimate’s auto-deletion of custom stages is mentioned as another example of corporate destruction of player-made art.