2D Mario games, are quite simple games.
All we have to do to beat them, is to jump at the right times, and to run to the right.
We already took a look at whether the left button is even needed to beat new super mario
bros u.
But after beating the game with the minimum amount of left presses, I started to wonder
if it is actually possible to route the game without the right button.
To beat the game without ever going into the direction the game wants us to go.
So as you probably can imagine, not only does this make the game insanely challenging, but
it also makes stuff we always took for granted incredibly complicated.
So today we are going to take a look at all the nasty little complications that appear
when playing the game with only half our moveset, and we are going to find out what the absolute
minimum amount of right presses needed to beat new super mario bros u is.
So are you ready?
Let's do this!
Okay so there are a lot of evil little problems waiting for us during the run, so let's
best start at the beginning.
The very first problem we face, is the very first input in the game.
As soon as the small intro cutscene ends, we find ourselves on the world map, and have
to press right in order to reach the very first level.
Yup, the first input is already a right press.
So there are two types of nasty right presses that are definitely required in order to beat
the game, namely right presses on the world map, and right presses to enter pipes in a
couple of stages.
I'd like to call those right presses, meta right presses.
Meta right presses are all the sneaky right presses that happen during non gameplay sections
of the game.
We are going to avoid them whenever possible, but they aren't our priority.
The main focus today is to beat the game with as little gameplay right presses as possible,
right presses that actually happen while platforming through the various levels.
Getting the amount of required gameplay right presses as low as possible is the goal today.
Nonetheless we are going to try to minimize the meta presses as well, and the very first
one is the one required to reach the very first level.
Luckily 1-1 is easy to beat without painfully pushing the ouching right button.
This level already showcases the three main options we have in the game to go to the right
without pushing right.
First and most importantly, wall jumping off magical platforms.
As soon as we play the game on anything that isn't a wii U gamepad it becomes possible
to summon helpful magical blocks into the level by tapping anywhere.
Those platforms can be used to wall jump, which gives us a decent amount of right momentum,
and allows us to get closer to the flagpole.
This is our main form of movement for the run, but it has a huge drawback.
Tapping the screen and then jumping off a platform takes ages.
So whenever the game forces us to act fast we have a problem.
Luckily this isn't the only way to get momentum in the game, because we are also able to obtain
momentum by slope ground pounding.
This time we team up with all the slopes in the game, because whenever we ground pound
on a slope it accelerates mario into the direction the slope is facing.
This is incredibly useful, and we will happily slide down each and every slope we encounter
today.
Hooray!
Thirdly and finally, acorn suit updrifting gives us a decent amount of right momentum.
Whenever we press ZL while wearing our cute little acorn costume, mario shoots upwards,
and gathers horizontal speed moving into the direction he is currently facing, which is
right by default.
This is by far the best option we have to go right, but sadly we lose this option as
soon as we take damage.
Most of the levels on our route don't feature yum yum acorn mushrooms, but this problem
can luckily be avoided by finishing all levels with a specific amount of time left.
If we touch the famous flag pole at the end of a stage while the last two numbers of the
timer display a 77 we are rewarded with a helpful acorn mushroom, which means that we
have the option to regain a lost acorn outfit at the end of almost all levels.
Okay, so 1-1 doesn't require any right presses, but we need another meta right press to reach
1-2.
1-2 is where stuff becomes super complicated, not because anything in the level is tricky,
but because the optimal world map movement routing becomes a bit tricky here.
So 1-2 features a secret exit that first leads to an underwater level, blooper's secret
lair, and afterwards directly to world 5.
We obviously want to take this shortcut because it saves tons of meta right presses and avoids
a lot of tricky levels in world 2.
We are able to reach this secret exit without any big problems, the problem is blooper's
secret lair, because the stage sadly takes place underwater.
We can't move underwater without pressing right.
As it is known, wall jumping doesn't work while taking a bath, nor does slope sliding
or dressing up like a squirrel and pressing ZL.
We don't have the tools to make it through this level.
Luckily we have another option to beat the underwater level without hitting right, and
this is where this little dilemma starts to become interesting.
If we pick up one of the adorable baby yoshis, then our swimming moveset changes.
While carrying a baby yoshi we are able to dash forward underwater by pressing ZR.
This makes beating underwater levels without pressing right possible.
The only problem is, we have to get our hands onto a helpful cute baby yoshi.
Luckily one of those adorable baby dinosaurs lives directly behind the yoshi hills stage.
How convenient.
Getting our hands onto this tiny dinosaur takes a couple of meta right presses, one
to reach the crushing co… *sigh* to reach the world one tower, two to get the yoshi
and another two until we reach blooper's secret lair.
That's the best solution I found, while routing this, but as it turns out, this isn't
the best possible way to handle this little problem.
Huge thanks to youtuber Everything ABC.
We were chatting a little bit about how I tackled this problem and he actually found
a way to not only beat blooper's secret lair without pressing right, and without grabbing
the pink baby dino, but he was actually crazy enough to route the level with the minimum
amount of directional inputs.
No right no left no up no down.
Yup!
The trick everything ABC used was the multiplayer mode.
He basically used the fact that our plumbers move a little bit while they are bubbled in
multiplayer to make it through the whole level without the d-pad.
The link to the whole clip of how he did it is in the description and I highly recommend
checking it out, it's super bonkers!
Anyway this makes it actually possible to reach level 5-1 with only 5 meta right presses.
Hooray!
5-1 is a really relaxing stage for our very important cause.
Not only are there tons of slopes in the stage, that allow us to go right with ease, but the
gigantic enemies in this beautiful jungle level are conveniently placed in such a pattern
that makes it really simple to keep our momentum just by jumping on top of them.
5-2 isn't much of a problem either.
At the end of this poisonous swamp stage we are supposed to quickly platform over a descending
brick block bridge.
Generally speaking, having to do something quick is very bad for us, but luckily this
section can be somewhat cheated by carefully placing magical blocks below our favorite
plumber.
We are making really great progress here!
Next up is the snake block tower already.
This stage was quite problematic while playing the game without pressing left, and naturally
the level becomes quite easy when doing the run the other way around.
We simply once again build a magical bridge below mario to reach the boss.
Sadly, however we are forced to go through two pipes in this tower, which brings the
meta right press count up to 7.
The jungle ghost house features the secret exit to the seventh world, and once again
gives rise to almost no problems.
It's really easy to do the level with only half our moveset.
Ladies and gentleman, we still haven't pressed right during gameplay once, and we are already
in the seventh world!
So when I started to route this I really wasn't expecting that the game can be beaten without
the option to run towards the flag-pole.
I honestly expected that about a third of all levels are impossible.
But here we are.
Almost in the seventh world and our gameplay counter is still at 0.
Maybe, just maybe, it actually is possible to do all the platforming challenges in the
game without the right button.
Just maybe.
Anyway we need another meta right press to reach the secret level para beetle parade.
And this level, is where everything starts to go downhill.
Holy fuzzy.
We aren't prepared for para beetle parade.
The problem here aren't the parading para beetles, the problem here isn't the bottomless
pit nor the gigantic bullet bills.
The problem here is something different.
Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce you to our new arch enemy.
Autoscrolling.
Autoscrolling, hates us.
So the thing is the following.
We really can't play fast without the option to go to the right.
We always have to set up a platform at the right height, then we first have to walk towards
the platform and only then we are able to wall jump.
This takes seconds to plan and to execute.
As long as we aren't under pressure this allows us to play the game almost in a normal
way.
It takes forever, but we aren't at a real disadvantage.
But if we are forced to act fast, then, well, holy fuzzy!
So the auto scrolling in para beetle parade forces us to act fast.
As soon as we hit the screen border the auto scrolling starts to push us to the right.
That would generally be welcome, if it wasn't for the fact that there is no way for us to
get any right momentum afterwards.
There is basically a death zone at the left side of the screen, as soon as we are in this
area we can't place platforms to wall jump off anymore and we soft lock.
To make matters even worse, the beatles act as sloped surfaces.
The best way to cancel our momentum is to do a ground pound, but ground pounding the
beatles is basically suicide because we slide off.
So whenever we want to cancel our momentum we first have to ground pound, and then to
cancel our ground pound before we hit a beetle.
All the while we are never allowed to set foot into the death zone, while the whole
level auto scrolls us towards our doom.
I was stuck here for many many hours.
The first strategy I gave a try to make it through this nightmare was just to accept
the softlock, and to get carried by it to the end of the stage, while ignoring all challenges
in the level, and just bridging mario to the top.
In theory this should be possible, as long as we never lose our acorn suit, because the
acorn suit would allow us to end the softlock by tapping ZL.
But sadly I wasn't able to reach the end of this dumb beetle parade, without taking
damage because there are two gigantic burning bullet bills, that spawn in from the left,
and always damage us.
There is just no easy way around it, we have to play the level in the intended way without
pressing right.
So it is possible, thanks to acorn boosting, but it took me hours to get this, and the
real problem here, isn't that this stage is difficult.
The real problem is, that from now on almost all levels are a nightmare.
We need a meta right press to reach 7-1 and are already facing the next catastrophe.
7-1 is another auto scrolling level.
Not only is there a pipe which forces us to do meta right press number 10, but there are
also stupid cloud platforms that move at a fixed speed, and make beating the level incredibly
hard once again.
The worst part here is this section, where we are supposed to run through a small brick
block corridor, while the cloud slowly travels forwards.
It is possible to make it through this corridor, with a perfectly timed wall jump and a lot
of patience, but once we made it through the platform is just gone.
I tried racing the platform here many many times, but I wasn't able to win the race,
it took me forever to realize, but luckily the platform here can actually be ignored.
All that we have to do is to wait on this little question block until the brick blocks
go away, and then to fly forwards while praying that this evil killer squirrel misses us.
This little trick allows us to make it through land of the flying blocks rightless, which
opens up the path to the next level, and to the next problem.
7-2 starts tricky and ends horrifyingly.
First we have to make our way over a couple of rotating platforms.
This isn't too bad since the platforms can actually be used as slopes to give us momentum,
all we have to watch out for are the jumps in between a coupe of piranha plants.
But then we face one of bowser's nastiest minions.
Then we have to deal with a lakitu, while we jump on top of shrinking mushrooms.
The platforming alone is really difficult, but doing well timed jumps while a lakitu
throws endless waves of spineys towards us is close to impossible.
Seriously, where does the lakitu even find all those spineys?
The only way to beat this level is to play incredibly patiently.
If we jump off ten platforms in a row we are able to pop a boost star and to defeat lakitu.
Sadly this isn't a permanent defeat since he respawns after about 30 seconds, but it
gives us enough time to do a couple of tricky jumps before we repeat the process.
This is incredible tedious, but it allows us to beat 7-2 rightless as well.
Hooray!
Next up, my favorite level slide lift tower.
*sigh* So slide lift tower, is, uhm really easy!
Thanks to acorn boosting we are able to play the level almost in it's intended way, which
makes it still a bit annoying, but possible.
The same is true for the ghost house which we are able to reach after meta right press
number 11.
Here only the section where we are entrapped in this rotating block thingy is challenging,
but this section can easily be cheated.
All that we have to do here is to press down and we slide perfectly beneath all the evil
chasing ghosts until the end of this section.
The staircase is no problem either, since this time we are able to, well, to just go
down.
That's so satisfying!
Ludwig's clockwork castle features the next problem.
The moving blocks here, are set up in such a way that it is impossible to make any progress
without running to the right.
They just always align in a pattern that makes it impossible to reach the next section.
Luckily a solution for this problem exists!
As it turns out we are able to change the pattern in which the platforms are aligned.
If we tap one of those stupid blocks it stops for a moment.
Because of this we are able to perfectly set up all blocks here, so that they make it possible
to pass the stage rightless.
Hooray!
The airship stage is luckily super easy, which means that we made it to the final world,
and still haven't pressed right during gameplay once!
There are only five more levels standing between us, and a rightless victory.
Meteor Moat is beatable but super annoying.
It's basically playing the lottery.
Making it through the level itself is easy, but there are randomized fireballs that drop
down from the sky.
Those may or may not drop down in such a pattern that they hit us while we jump or they don't.
We are able to improve our odds a bit by tapping them, but often they just spawn directly on
top of us.
There is nothing we can do here.
We just pick up all the power ups we can grab, and platform towards the end of the stage
until the evil RNG lines up in a way that allows us to beat the stage, eventually.
The magma river cruise is another level that features a form of terrifying autoscrolling.
This level is one that had me incredibly worried before playing it, and on paper this worst
boat trip ever sounds like the recipe for disaster, but it ended up being quite easy.
There is another meta right press required to enter a pipe at the end however.
8-3 isn't too problematic, nor is the red hot elevator ride.
Here we cheat this red hot and presumably elevator by just building a magical bridge
towards the top.
At the end this level features a pipe, which forces us to do the 13th and final meta right
press in the game.
This means we actually made it to the final battle…
Before we reach bowser and find out whether the ugly turtle king kills our run or not
we have to make it through this section where bowser jr attacks us with his dumb clown car.
This area is surprisingly tricky, the best strategy to make it through here I found,
was to try to stay above bowser jr for as much time as possible, and to use his ugly
head as a way to reset our ZL boost, so that he isn't able to crush us.
And then it's time for the final showdown.
It's us or bowser.
It's a successful run versus failure by turtle.
It's all or nothing here.
So … allright.
This boss fight was by far the hardest part of the don't press left run, and doing this
again, but this time without the right button has me incredible worried.
I just can't imagine a way to do this fight without going right.
So there is a reoccuring theme with the left/right runs, something I noticed up until this point.
Namely: All the levels that caused us headache without going left ended up being surprisingly
easy without going right.
And most surprisingly, the final battle is no different.
Ladies and gentleman, it is possible to defeat bowser without the right button.
I wouldn't go as far as to call this fight easy, but it is very much possible.
The way his shell phase is setup just allows us to dodge him, and there is a spot up in
the air where his clever AI always decides to miss us.
This means that we actually did it.
Ladies and gentlemen, New Super Mario Bros U can be beaten without ever pressing right
during gameplay!
The game is beatable with 0 gameplay right presses!
Hooray!
That was quite a challenge.
So yeah, here we have it, it takes 0 gameplay right presses and 13 meta presses to beat
new super mario bros U.
Hey, it's ceave from the current present the previous future and the actual past here.
I just quickly double checked everything and noticed that I forgot to count a meta right
press required to enter a pipe in para beetle parade which is actually called flight of
the para beetles in red luigis version of the game.
This brings the total meta right press count up to 14.
Also, as it turns out, Everything ABC decided not only to route bloopers secret lair without
directional inputs, but he is actually currently working on routing the whole game without
the option to go into any direction ever.
I can't wait to see how this works out, the link to his video will magically appear
in the description as soon as his video goes online.
So with that being said, let's travel back in time again.
I hope you enjoyed this little video, if you did don't forget to leave me a thumbs up
and maybe you feel especially like not looking forward today and want to hit the subscribe
button as well.
I hope that all of you have a wonderful new year and to see you soon.
Goodbye!
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