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Mari0 - TV Tropes

️Tue Mar 06 2012

Mari0 (Video Game)

Mari0 (2012) is a fan-made crossover between Super Mario Bros. and Portal created by German developer Maurice Guégan.

The premise is simple: you're Mario, and you have a portal gun. You can play through the classic levels from the original NES game (but with portals!), try and solve the Aperture Science-themed puzzles based on Portal and Portal 2, or even make your own levels. There's a Co-Op Multiplayer mode too—up to four players can play simultaneously, much like in New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

The game is available as a free download at its homepage on Stabyourself.net. An updated version known as the Special Edition was in the works, but due to years of Development Hell, it was cancelled with only a public beta in 2014 ever being released. In early 2018, development of a sequel based on Super Mario Bros. 3 was streamed on Twitch, but with little news since then, don't hold your breath.

This game contains examples of:

Ascended Glitch: The exit pipe the brings the player to the flagpole in 1-2 has an intentional non-solid tile in the upper left of the vertical pipe, in which the player can portal themselves up to it while big, slide through, and go down the first pipe in the Warp Zone^note to enter the Minus World. The player can also use the editor to clear a wall through the exit pipe and get to the Minus World easier.
Co-Op Multiplayer: 4-player simultaneous, and each player gets his/her own portal gun.
Crossover: Not just Mario and Portal, but one of the cheats swaps the Portal Gun for a Minecraft pickaxe.
Downloadable Content: A handful of mappacks are available, including The Lost Levels. Thankfully you have the Portal Gun this time. Subverted in the 1.6 version since they are actually pre-packaged rather than downloaded (but the menu still lists them as DLC).
Dungeon Bypass: In addition to the ones present in the original game, the portal gun allows you to creatively get around some obstacles. Use portals for a perfect 5000 flag catch every time, portal behind Bowser to hit the axe, portal Bowser behind you to do the same, and many more.
Easy Level Trick: Only one player needs to reach the goal to complete the level in a co-op game. This can be used to bypass several companion cube puzzles.
Game-Breaker: Invoked with the default Super Mario Bros. mappack. Taking a Teleport Gun into a game not designed for it makes pretty much every obstacle trivial to bypass, but it's fun, so who cares. Obviously, this is not the case in the Portal-themed mappack or any of the DLC maps (besides the Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels remake), since they're designed with the Portal Gun in mind.
Game Mod: These appear from time to time on the forums, taking the form of additional map packs and major mods that add more items/enemies/objects to the game. Alesan's Entities is one of the more notable ones.
Hoist by His Own Petard: Hammer Bros. can be killed by their own hammers sent through portals. Humorously, this used to extend to the hammers of other Hammer Bros. as well; a pair of them often thinned themselves out when the one in back started throwing. This was patched in version 1.4.
Knockback: An unlockable cheat has Mario ricochet behind himself whenever he shoots with the portal gun. Potential abuse of this can allow players to soar across levels, made much easier if combined with the cheat that allows slowing down time by using the mousewheel.
Konami Code: Entering it at the title screen unlocks the cheats without having to complete the Super Mario Bros. levels first.
Level Editor: You can make your own levels by selecting the "new mappack" option. Or, heck, you can just edit the levels of the preinstalled mappacks, the game won't stop you. In the original release, the editor isn't that complicated so you're basically limited to just making layouts using the Super Mario Bros. and Portal elements, but at least you can add your own tileset. The Mari0: SE update was almost entirely focused on expanding the editor to add advanced features like cutscenes and custom enemies, though sadly due to the game's cancellation, you'll have to deal with bugs and general unintuitiveness.
Nostalgia Level: The entirety of the original Super Mario Bros. is available. The Lost Levels is also available (under the DLC section).
Ratchet Scrolling: Averted Trope despite the game being based on Super Mario Bros.; you can go backwards in levels.
Retraux: 8-bit graphics, obviously, to duplicate the style of the original Super Mario Bros. Averted with the Portal objects and tiles, as they're more detailed.
Shout-Out:
- Most of the hats are from Team Fortress 2. There's also the eponymous striped top hat from The Cat in the Hat.
- Some of the loading lines that can appear when the game starts are "Loading Game Genie", and "Yay Facepunch", and "Tanaka, thai kick".
- Several to My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  - One of the loading lines is "Raising coolness by 20 percent".
  - The very last hat is Rainbow Dash's mane. The graphic for it is internally known as "bestpony".
  - One of the cheats allows for performing a Sonic Rainboom. This automatically applies the aforementioned hat.
  - In Mari0: SE, the nine default background colors are sky, water, black, light blue, purple, white, orange, yellow, and pink.
Suspend Save: At any point, you can pause your game and create a one-use save. (The only other way the game saves your progress is that reaching a world allows you to start a new game from the first level of that world.)
"Untitled" Title: One of the DLC maps is called "The Untitled Game".
Virtual Paper Doll: Mario's sprite is customizable and can be recolored however you like, and you can even give him a variety of silly hats, mostly from Team Fortress 2.