Watch someone beat the world’s hardest Super Mario World level

PangaeaPanga accomplished the feat using a Super Nintendo emulator that allows for tool-assisted speedruns—video game playthroughs that let a user advance through a level frame by frame, recording only successful advancement (and omitting every character death). PangaeaPanga says it took him 78,160 total recordings to get all the way through the absurdly punishing level, all the while thrusting Mario into a hellish nightmare of eternal death, rebirth, and incremental progression. When he finally escapes the samsara of his existence, Mario does not achieve nirvana, but he does get a “Course clear!” message, so congrats for that, little buddy. This being the Internet, there is naturally also a sub-sub-sub-culture that contends that tool assistance is cheating and says some other guy’s tool-free playthrough of a similarly grueling custom level is more impressive.