The original Super Mario Maker will effectively shut down in April, and a group of players is racing against the clock to beat every single level before the servers go offline.
Super Mario Maker on Wii U was, as Nintendo put it, "discontinued" back on March 31, 2021, meaning that no new levels could be uploaded after that date. But all the old levels remain available to play - until, of course, all Wii U servers shut down on April 8, 2024. That means there's a roughly one-month time limit for the community to prove it has what it takes to beat every level that's ever been uploaded.
A loosely organized group called Team 0% is working together to make sure no level goes uncleared, and they've built a website called Is Super Mario Maker Beaten Yet? to track the stats toward that goal. Back in February 2023 - the earliest date recorded on the site - there were 41,113 unfinished levels. Today, players have completed 99.62% of those remaining stages, and there are only 178 levels left to go.
Team 0% includes some extremely talented Mario players and speedrunners, and if you think that means those final remaining levels are ridiculously challenging, well, you'd be right. There's a YouTube playlist collecting whatever known footage of the unfinished levels exists, and it serves as an ode to the ridiculous limits level creators have been able to stretch Super Mario Maker towards. Just take a look at the level below - I can barely make sense of what's happening in it, much less imagine the skill it'd take to complete.
Of course, all these levels have been completed at least once before, since Super Mario Maker won't allow you to upload a level until you've beaten it yourself. (That's how clear videos for uncleared levels like the one above can exist.) Some impossible levels created through hacks or exploits have been uploaded online, but for the handful that haven't yet been deleted by Nintendo's moderators, Team 0% has already checked them out and removed them from the totals.
Team 0% players are still averaging dozens of clears a day, but the rate has been slowing down dramatically now that it's down to the absolute toughest levels. Still, at the current clear rate, Super Mario Maker will be beaten by March 9, according to the automated estimate on the Team 0% Discord - but that date has already been pushed back a few times in the days since I started following the group's progress.
If you've still got a Wii U hooked up (I do) and you think you've got what it takes to defeat some uber-challenging Mario levels (I do not), take a look at the remaining stages, grab a level ID, and do what you can to help Team 0% reach the finish line. Know that I'll be rooting for you along the way.
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