also known as ''Asshole Mario'', is a series of three

ROM hacks Rom, or ROM may refer to: Biomechanics and medicine * Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient * Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac * ...

of the

Super Nintendo Entertainment System The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a Fourth generation of video game consoles, 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan, 1991 in No ...

video game ''

Super Mario World ''Super Mario World'', known in Japan as '' is a 1990 platform game developed by Nintendo EAD and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). The player controls Mario on his quest to save Princess Peach and Dino ...

'', created by T. Takemoto. The term "Kaizo Mario World" is a shortened form of the title The series was created by Takemoto for his friend R. Kiba. ''Kaizo Mario World'' features extremely difficult level designs on the ''Super Mario World'' engine. The series is notable for deliberately breaking all standard rules of "accepted"

level design In video games, a level (also referred to as a map, mission, stage, course, or round in some older games) is any space available to the player during the course of completion of an objective. Video game levels generally have progressively incre ...

and introduced many staples of later Kaizo hacks, such as placing hidden blocks where the player is likely to jump, extremely fast autoscrollers, dying after the goal post, and various other traps. These cruelties and the resulting frustration, as well as the skill level required, are both the purpose of the hacks and the appeal of any

Let's Play A Let's Play (LP) is a video (or screenshots accompanied by text) documenting the playthrough of a video game, often including commentary and (in some cases) a camera view of the gamer's face. A Let's Play differs from a video game walkthrough ...

videos made of them.

Gameplay

''Kaizo Mario World'' consists of three

side-scrolling A side-scrolling video game (alternatively side-scroller) is a video game viewed from a side-view camera angle where the screen follows the player as they move left or right. The jump from single-screen or flip-screen graphics to scrolling grap ...

platform games A platformer (also called a platform game, and sometimes a jump 'n' run game) is a subgenre of action game in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are characterized by levels wi ...

in which the player controls

Mario Mario (; ) is a Character (arts), character created by the Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the star of the ''Mario (franchise), Mario'' franchise, a recurring character in the ''Donkey Kong'' franchise, and the mascot of the Ja ...

Luigi Luigi (; ) is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Part of Nintendo's ''Mario'' franchise, he is a kind-hearted, cowardly Italian plumber, and the younger fraternal twin brother and sidekick of Mario. Like ...

. Being ROM hacks of ''

'', the hacks use many of the same game mechanics while also introducing and forcing the use of glitches to make progress in a level. The hacks are notable for pushing the limits of human capability and feature many frame-perfect tricks, which usually require

trial and error Trial and error is a fundamental method of problem-solving characterized by repeated, varied attempts which are continued until success, or until the practicer stops trying. According to W.H. Thorpe, the term was devised by C. Lloyd Morgan ( ...

gameplay. Each of the three ROM hacks starts by killing Mario during the opening cutscene unless the player performs a certain action.

History

The later games in the series did not have the same popularity as the original, but are still very popular games in both the

Speedrunning Speedrunning is the act of playing a video game, or section of a video game, with the goal of completing it as fast as possible. Speedrunning often involves following planned routes, which may incorporate sequence breaking and exploit glitches ...

, and

communities

ROM hacks

Reception

The original ''Kaizo Mario World'' ranks as the most downloaded Kaizo hack of all-time on SMW Central, the main repository for Super Mario World ROM hacking, with more than 51,000 downloads from the official repository. ''Kaizo Mario World 2'' and ''3'' are less prominent, but still rank 17th and 14th all-time with more than 10,000 and 12,500 downloads, respectively. In 2015, ''IGN'' stated about ''Kaizo Mario World'' – "It’s funny, impressive, and extremely entertaining. Kaizo Mario wasn’t the first mean Mario hack, but it was the most polished, and the first to understand that it’s not just about being as hard as possible. Punishing players is an art form."

Legacy

The Japanese word simply refers to

ROM hacking ROM hacking is the process of Modding, modifying a ROM image, ROM image or ROM file to alter the contents contained within, usually of a video game to alter the game's graphics, dialogue, Level (video games), levels, gameplay, and/or other elemen ...

in the gaming industry, since its literal meaning is "reorganize," "restructure," or "reconstruct," but ''Kaizo Mario Worlds prominence means that other ROM hacks have used this term to indicate an extreme level of difficulty, such as ''Kaizo Mario Bros. 3'', ''Kaizo Mario 64'', '' SMG2 The Kaizo Green Stars'' by Evanbowl, and the ''Kaizo Caverns'' ''

Minecraft ''Minecraft'' is a 2011 sandbox game developed and published by the Swedish video game developer Mojang Studios. Originally created by Markus Persson, Markus "Notch" Persson using the Java (programming language), Java programming language, the ...

'' map in Vechs's ''Super Hostile'' map series. This has led to the term "Kaizo Hack" defining a ROM hack of any game intended to be extremely difficult or unfair, intended to push the difficulty to the limits of human capabilities. Several of these have been featured live, both in races and in individual speedruns, at Games Done Quick events.
SMW Central
which maintains the most updated repository of ''Super Mario World'' ROM hacks, categorizes Kaizo into five categories. "Kaizo: Beginner," "Kaizo: Intermediate," and "Kaizo: Expert" are intended for ROM hacks in the ''Kaizo Mario World'' style that, while varying in relative difficulty, are all intended to be beaten by players in real-time without tool assistance, such as savestates or slowdown, necessary. "Tool-Assisted: Kaizo" ROM hacks are designed to be at the extreme limit of human capability, and are made with the intent that the player use tools as needed to make progress. Excessively hard hacks, such as the ''Item Abuse'' series, that far exceed human capabilities and are intended to be a specific challenge for tool-assisted speedrunners and theorycrafters, are categorized as "Tool-Assisted: Pit." ''Kaizo Mario World'' has also been the inspiration for many levels created within ''

Super Mario Maker is a 2015 platform game and game creation system developed and published by Nintendo. An entry in the ''Super Mario'' series, the game allowed players to create, play, and share courses based on previous ''Super Mario'' titles including ''Sup ...

''. Two of the most notable are levels created by PangaeaPanga titled ''Pit of Panga: P Break'' and ''U-Break'', the latter of which was recognized in 2018 by the Guinness Book of World Records as the most difficult level created in ''Super Mario Maker''.

Notes

References

External links

Fan-made download pageThe Complete History of ''Kaizo Mario''
{{Unofficial Mario media 2007 video games Mario fan games Platformers Super Nintendo Entertainment System games Super Nintendo Entertainment System-only games Video game mods Video games developed in Japan