The Super Mario Maker community faces its final boss

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

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  • Commenters note the article is outdated: “Trimming the Herbs” is now widely accepted in the community as a tool-assisted (TAS) / hacked clear.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.