What is a Kaizo Mario?

Complete the game Mario is just one thing - many people have done the very same thing of cleared the entrance to the top franchise of Nintendo. But have you ever go through a fan-made Mario hack? Just try to survive the first moment of the game, and then try to complete the introduction level. Just bear in mind that dying many times is part of the experience haha.

Those fan-made or Mario “Kaizo” games is Maro game with difficulty level tune to a crazy high level. In these games, even the most diehard experts in Mario will find it difficult with those pixel precise jump with the difference of death and life. Get to the very first Kaizo Mario, or more well-known as Asshole Mario. A ROM hacker names T. Takemoto from Japan has made it in 2007. The whole creation is such a hellish gift - with the direct transition mean " make your friend play my hack game". But I guess that Takemoto wouldn't know that his creation will lead to the spawning of a whole genre of trap-filled games and millions view of those gameplays on YouTube. And since the rise of Kaizo on the internet nobody has any new of him too.

Maybe the mystery behind the whereabouts of Takemoto will remain forever hidden. His legacy continues to live on till today. It has become a tradition that Kaizo players will make the experiences for their friend to "enjoy", like digital ribbing of video game. Just in the same way that good friends dare each other, player of Kaizo will challenge others to beat a certain Mario hack game in the community.

Grand Poo World 2

In 2019, the whole Mario community is focused on the new Grand Poo World 2,  a new concoction of DKBarbarian. He is well regarded in the community as one of the best Mario designers right now.  He got noticed from his levels in Super Mario Maker back in 2015.

According to DKBarbarian, with Super Mario Maker create a level has become very streamlined and straight forward, anyone can create a Mario level with it. However, there are also limits and restrictions on all the items like stage size, number of objects on one screen ... Those are the kind of limits that player doesn't have to worry about on a more specialized program.

The story of DKBarbarian is that after fell in love with custom levels of Mario, he goes on to make more by himself. Those of his most known creations come under the name of GrandPooBear, a game speedrunner friend of DKBarbarian.

Even better

After a year with the help of a small technical team, Grand Poo World 2  is now ready to play. The first entry - Grand Poo World-  was a perfect combination of spectacle, challenge, and trolls to players.

Grand Poo World 2 follow the same path - there are also many secrets in this new entry. According to many, it is amazing and clever platforming obstacles which will challenge the best players. In one level that I remember, player's mission is to hit a clock to freeze the enemies but to hit the clock you have to get through a - let's say - not a very easy passage.  Even the trolls in this new entry are upgraded too. For example, in the first level, there is that random pipe which hides in that goddamn place just to mess around. A level inside a level with no checkpoint. Anyone know that might temp to skip the pipe but doing that missing out a big secret too. The best part is the reward when you got to the final line is you get thrown back to the starting screen, what's a troll.

But what makes Grand Poo World 2 really different than the rest of Kaizo Mario is that it's a total nightmare which will break your patience. The challenge is much more than just reflexion- it's more about cognitive abilities. To reach the true ending of this game, you have to solve a puzzle of breaking the fourth wall. You may be good in Mario, but to beat Grand Poo World 2 you also need pen and paper to decipher the code. Look at the background, the environment and even outside of the game to look for clues.

An even more hellish future

DKBarbarian said that the development process of the game takes up to a few thousand hours, and that was nothing straightforward.

The hard work of him has paid off: Grand Poo World 2 was highly praised by the whole community. But it is just a starting point, the Kaizo community has just warmed up.