He tried a couple of times but couldn't even get past the first wall.
The only good news was that, according to the game's mechanics, entering a door and leaving the level at that moment would refresh previous items, allowing for repeated attempts.
But even so, when a turtle shell was thrown at a wall halfway through, it also hit and killed him.
Then he checked the fastest completion record, which was 36 seconds by the uploader.
This meant that, even without mistakes, this level took 36 seconds to complete!
Looking at the path ahead filled with spikes, he had to admit one thing: he couldn't beat this level right now.
He wasn't new to Mario; he had played all sorts of Mario games.
He understood basic and advanced moves like shell jumps and using shells in corners to get extra lives.
But three consecutive shell jumps, and considering the flawless parkour that followed, he knew how difficult it was.
The comments in the live stream were already going crazy with laughter.
"Brother Jie, stop trying. Don't put yourself through this. Let's go back to normal difficulty!"
"Hilarious! He threw a shell at himself and died! Killed myself!"
"Seriously, can you really throw three shells at once? That's too hard!"
"Brother Jie, Brother Jie, go check out Boss Lucas's official account. There are lots of guide videos!"
While Little Jie was still trying one by one, he soon noticed the comments.
Boss Lucas released guides!?
Little Jie looked surprised.
He knew Boss Lucas had done everything before.
But he had never made guides.
After all, the fun of a game is exploration.
Although many players prefer fast-paced gameplay, like following guides for puzzle-solving in some games.
From the official game developer's perspective, they wouldn't create guide content.
But why did Boss Lucas make guides for this game?
Little Jie became curious. Although he didn't particularly like watching guides, this was a new game, and even though it used Mario mechanics, he was still unfamiliar with many parts.
He paused the game temporarily and switched over to Boss Lucas's official account.
He saw several video attachments below the official account.
Little Jie clicked on the first video attachment.
A line of text appeared on the black screen.
'Shell Jump Demonstration'
Shell Jump!
This was the level he was stuck on!
A little blue mushroom character, clearly very clever, appeared on screen.
And this map was exactly the Zack map Little Jie was playing.
The path ahead had two doors, three black flowers, a turtle, and a row of spike walls.
Then Little Jie watched as the little blue character ran forward, took a running start, and consecutively stomped on two turtle shells on the ground, launching them into the air.
Using the rebound force from the first shell, he jumped and caught the airborne shell again, repeating the previous action.
He performed a three-stage aerial shell jump, leaping over the tall spike wall. Then he stepped on the shell to grab the falling turtle, which had been turned into a shell. At the same time, he stepped on a chestnut below, using its force feedback to jump forward. In the air, he threw the shell at the wall to perform another shell jump, moving forward.
Various aerial shell jumps, using momentum to bounce, and carrying a nearly exploding bomb.
After completing the level, the video screen went dark, and a line of text appeared: Did you learn it?
Silence, still silence.
What kind of guide video was this!?
Little Jie in front of the computer was completely bewildered.
Learned it?
Sorry, I failed!
How was anyone supposed to learn this!?
Every step was clearly visible, but seeing clearly didn't mean being able to do it!
Not only Little Jie but also the viewers in the live stream were stunned.
They were happy to see Little Jie floundering in the level before.
But the official video released by Lucas had completely shocked them.
They fell into deep self-doubt. Was this humanly possible to learn?
Was this a platformer game?
"What the heck, what the heck, what the heck, I let out a 'what the heck'."
"What just happened, I blinked!"
"A three-stage shell jump, it can be done like this?"
"Seriously, is this a guide video? Who could learn this!"
"Could it be that all the extra difficult levels require this kind of operation?"
Many viewers watching the live stream were equally stunned by the video.
Meanwhile, Little Jie was still watching the other videos, since he had come this far.
Judging by the time, these videos were clearly not all released by Lucas at once but were updated bit by bit.
They were all operation videos for "Super Mario Maker".
For example, consecutive spring jumps, and parkour gameplay combining spin jumps and shell jumps.
Of course, there were also extremely precise micro-operations of squeezing through small gaps that made countless players feel their brains were going to explode.
"This... this isn't just random luck, is it? It's precise to the pixel, how tormenting is that!?"
Watching a short ten-second video, Little Jie was completely dumbfounded.
If he felt there was still hope of passing the shell parkour level after practicing, then looking at the content in this video, he felt this was definitely not the level he was playing.
In the video, Mario jumped over a gap by stepping on the edge of a brick block. Above the brick block was a Piranha Plant.
It looked like it wasn't possible to stand on.
At the end, a Zack screenshot explained the principle.
That is, if a brick block is 8 pixels, the Piranha Plant takes up 6 pixels.
With the Piranha Plant on the brick block, there is one pixel left on each side to stand on.
If the character only grazes that one pixel, they won't touch the Piranha Plant and die.
Sounds simple, right?
Simple my foot!
Was this an operation anyone could do?
Especially the later levels filled with countless spikes, which looked like dead ends but were jumpable.
Little Jie returned to the game and used the zoom function to observe.
He could indeed see the pixels, but the key was how difficult it would be in a normal game!
......
In the Nebula Games project room, Rachel, Anna, and others looked at Lucas, who was making "promotional" material, with speechlessness.
"Boss Lucas, although you are very skilled, can players really learn these operations?" Anna asked her inner question.
"And are our official levels too difficult?" Rachel also asked.
The overall feeling was:
Brain and eyes: "That's it?"
Hands: "F*ck!"
"Don't underestimate players. Look at this player named White Fatty, not only did they pass the super difficult parkour level, but they also broke the record."
"And this player from the NHC team also passed the micro-operation level. This is only the first day, what does that mean? The difficulty is not high at all, it's actually too low. You'll know what 'inhuman' is when you see the levels players create later." Lucas smiled slightly.
"Also, didn't we prepare some more casual levels for normal players, like music levels?" Lucas said with a smile.
In reality, it was just as Lucas said.
Players who got "Super Mario Maker" and those who had played a lot of Mario games were amazed by the game's difficulty and techniques.
As for normal players, it was like returning to when they first encountered "Minecraft," exclaiming: "This game can be played like this!"
Players enjoying the co-op multiplayer mode were also having a great time, feeling the atmosphere was very good.
Especially with some music levels and fun gameplay levels, many players expressed their feelings.
Indeed, before Boss Lucas announced "Resident Evil: Village," he gave them another satisfying meal!
The super difficult levels were not for them, the ordinary players.
But the multiplayer and easy modes were really casual and fun!
Countless players were laughing and having fun.
Until about a week after the multiplayer mode was launched, many players, after getting used to it, suddenly realized that the difficulty seemed a little off.
(End of chapter)
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