Imagine a level of Super Mario World so hard that over 11,000 separate playthroughs happened before a single player finally beat it.
That level exists in Super Mario Maker, thanks to the imagination of user PangaeaPanga, who created the level, called "Bomb Voyage," which certainly lives up to its threatening name.
The level proved so hard that tens of thousands of gamers attempted it, but only one managed to actually beat it, all the while recording gameplay so that proof of his accomplishment could go up on YouTube.
"Out of about 11k attempts globally, this is the first clear that anyone's gotten, besides the uploader of course," wrote Bananasaurus Rex on the accompanying YouTube video. "I don't post public videos too often anymore but I thought this was cool enough to have to share. Definitely the most insane level I've beaten so far."
As seen in the video, it took Bananasaurus Rex a few tries before getting through the whole level, which is peppered with lots of Super Mario-sized threats, including bombs, carnivorous plants and Buzzy Beetles. The level also included other hazards Bananasaurus Rex traversed to get through the level, including floors and ceilings covered with spikes, falling platforms and bouncing off shells at just the right time.
The course creator, PangaeaPanga, initially created a similar super-hard Mario level for his YouTube channel and posted it, stating that it took nearly three years to put the original course together. Now, though, with the release of Super Mario Maker, he's taken his course-making skills to the next level, although this new level only took five hours to make, but then another nine hours to play to prove that it could get beaten before upload.
Nintendo released Super Mario Maker on Sept. 10, and within a week, Nintendo celebrated over one million course uploads by Super Mario Maker users, including those by PangaeaPanga.
Since its release, gamers have become even more creative, even extending the game beyond its original design by discovering a feature that can turn the game into a musical instrument.
"We think this is a game that will showcase people's sense of imagination," said Takashi Tezuka, the executive officer of Nintendo's entertainment analysis and development division to Polygon. "Seeing the courses made by [those folks] made us realize it had much more potential than even we imagined."
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