SUPER MARIO THREAD

Welcome to the SUPER MARIO THREAD! If you've ever beaten a MARIO game and craved for more levels, no matter how hard or straight up weird they are, then you're in the right place. This is all about wild, creative, sometimes brutally hard, sometimes brilliantly silly fanmade adventures that take our favorite plumber and toss him into worlds Nintendo never dreamed of, with brand new worlds, custom power-ups and platforming challenges that'll test your muscle memory. So grab a power-up, keep an eye out for hidden warp pipes, and let's run through some of the wildest hacks the community has cooked up. New journeys are waiting, let's-a go!

SUPER MARIO THREAD

NEW SUPER MARIO WORLD 1: The Twelves Magic Orbs Powered-Up

Let's start with NEW SUPER MARIO WORLD 1: The Twelve Magic Orbs Powered-Up 'cuz this thing is massive, it has twelve main worlds, 93 levels and 276 Star Coins if you’re a completionist. Right off the bat, the VLDC graphics and custom music give it a fresh coat of paint that doesn't feel slapped on and the world map has an expansive vibe where you actually wanna explore. The plot's your typical Bowser steals magical stuff affair, but honestly who plays MARIO hacks for the story? What you're here for are the sixteen new power ups, and yeah, some of them are cool while others feel gimmicky as hell, like the cloud one, it's clunky and annoying to aim, and the Super Leaf uses the SMB3 tap to fly input, which gets tedious when you're used to SMW's cape. Still, the level design is mostly top notch creative motifs, solid obstacles and only a few duds like the minecart or slippery ice levels. Difficulty's a mixed bag, most parts are great but sometimes feels is dipping into some borderline kaizo level while bosses are pushovers except for Bowser, whose fight and castle actually feel climactic, and the optional hard mode cranks up the pain with a faster timer, no power up cushion and star coins moved to nastier spots, so that's there if you hate yourself. Plus, after grinding all Star Coins, you get a secret postgame world with two more levels, which is a nice cherry on top. Definitely one of the better long haul romhacks out there.

NEW SUPER MARIO WORLD 1: The Twelve Magic Orbs Powered-Up
BASE	SUPER MARIO WORLD
CATEGORY	Brand new game
MANUAL INSTALLATION REQUIRED?	No
RELEASED	2015
UPDATED	2023
DIFFICULTY	Intermediate
AUTHOR	Pink Gold Peach

NEW SUPER MARIO WORLD 2: Around the World

Moving onto the sequel, NEW SUPER MARIO WORLD 2: Around the World. This one trades the power ups overload for a heavier focus on Pink Gold Peach's ASM tricks like custom sprites, blocks, uberASM effect and a cleaner choconilla look that mixes vanilla SMW graphics with some fresh custom stuff. It contains sixteen worlds and over 90 levels, so yeah, it's still a beast, but the difficulty got patched down after launch 'cuz it's harder than the original. The level gimmicks are relentless in a good way; every stage tries something new, like wall jump segments without a power up. Visuals are some of the best in the scene and the custom music slaps. That said, the world maps themselves are kinda bland, not much exploration or interesting layout and the secret exits feel predictable and later parts drag into a slog. Still, right now the challenge is mostly fair and the final marathon level is a brutal yet satisfying endurance test. Not quite as charming as the first game's power up madness but technically tighter and more consistent.

NEW SUPER MARIO WORLD 2: Around the World
BASE	SUPER MARIO WORLD
CATEGORY	Brand new game
MANUAL INSTALLATION REQUIRED?	No
RELEASED	2016
UPDATED	2019
DIFFICULTY	Advanced
AUTHOR	Pink Gold Peach

Flutter!

Now let's talk about Flutter! It throws out the original SMW2's chill exploration vibe and replaces it with a mix of puzzle platforming and kaizo lite punishment. They ditched baby Mario entirely, so there's no crying, thank God! And they tossed red coins too, so all you're collecting are flowers, which autosave as you go thanks to an instant retry system that also turns stars into HP. There a thirty levels spread across three worlds and every stage leans hard on obscure Yoshi's Island mechanics, glitchy object interactions and stuff you never knew was possible in the vanilla game. The difficulty curve is all over the place: early game throws thinky puzzly rooms at you that force you to internalize weird quirks, then late game ramps into fast paced demanding platforming with perfect flutters and slippery physics, so save states will become your best friends. That said, if you've already mastered every inch of Yoshi's Island and crave a hack that abuses its mechanics in clever surprising ways, this is a blast.

Flutter!
BASE	SUPER MARIO WORLD 2: Yoshi's Island
CATEGORY	Brand new game
MANUAL INSTALLATION REQUIRED?	No
RELEASED	2024
UPDATED	2025
DIFFICULTY	Kaizo Lite
GROUP	Blue Leaf GbreezeSunset Lazy Medic

CELESTE MARIO'S ZAP & DASH! DELUXE

If you thought what you'd seen was already a technical feat, CELESTE MARIO'S ZAP & DASH! DELUXE is legit witchcraft on the NES. Someone took the original SUPER MARIO BROS. engine and grafted CELESTE's dash and wall jump mechanics onto it, and it works like a dream. The run button's gone because of controller limits but Mario's base speed feels snappier anyway, so you barely notice. Level design is short, sweet and shockingly clever, mixing CELESTE-style platforming challenges with Metroidvania vibes, hidden moons to find, message blocks instead of signs and even a power up that reveals secret passages. The DELUXE version adds eleven minigames plus an awesome FAREWELL course, and there's a sound test so you can loop that gorgeous Corridors of Time remix from CHRONO TRIGGER without interruption. Difficulty's pretty approachable for the main quest, way easier than actual CELESTE but the postgame content like the MARIO MAKER mode challenge, will wreck your hands. Presentation is crazy for a NES romhack: custom aesthetics, palette swaps, Mario's outfit changing instead of hair color and it all feels polished as hell. Genuinely one of the most impressive NES hacks out there.

CELESTE MARIO'S ZAP & DASH! DELUXE
BASE	SUPER MARIO BROS.
CATEGORY	Brand new game Full revamp
MANUAL INSTALLATION REQUIRED?	No
RELEASED	2023
UPDATED	2025
DIFFICULTY	Intermediate
AUTHOR	w7n

Daisy's Crazy Adventure

Daisy's Crazy Adventure is short but sweet, you finally get to play as Daisy, rescuing her pookie from Tatanga, yeah, straight outta SUPER MARIO LAND. It's a choconilla hack with four worlds, only 17 exits but every single level introduces a new gimmick: wall jumps, double jumps, looping platforms, you name it, the level design is clever without being cruel. The music slaps too, with tracks from Shovel Knight and some lovely SUPER MARIO LAND remixes. Difficulty's mostly chill and fun, letting you explore and mess around but that last world originally had a brutal spike that made people rage quit, thankfully the author patched it to be way more manageable, even so, don't expect a cakewalk, precision jumps and timed obstacles still show up. It's on the shorter side, which might leave you wanting more but that just means no filler. Custom ASM and bosses are solid and the whole package oozes creativity. If you just want a relaxed clever playthrough with a cool protagonist, this one's a gem.

Daisy's Crazy Adventure
BASE	SUPER MARIO WORLD
CATEGORY	Brand new game
MANUAL INSTALLATION REQUIRED?	No
RELEASED	2024
DIFFICULTY	Casual
AUTHOR	BlueSheep123

Excerpt from SUPER MARIO 256

Excerpt from SUPER MARIO 256 is probably the most ambitious romhack for SM64DS, it's said to include 26 main courses and 38 side courses, giving a total of 256 Power Stars and Star Coins, plus six playable characters (Yoshi, Mario, Luigi, Wario, Peach and Toad). Everyone can wall jump, Luigi's backflip got nerfed and Wario gets a shoulder dash instead of his midair dive. The power up list is wild too, you have the Bee Mushroom for flying, the Cloud Flower for spawning platforms, the Tox Box Flower that turns you into that rolling, plus the usual Mega Mushroom, Metal Cap and Koopa's shell. This demo only gives you one main course and some side levels, so it's basically a teaser, and that's the thing, this hack has been in development for years and the creator calls it his last impact in SM64DS hacking. The concept is massive and super creative with custom bosses like Kamella and a Goomba Gunner, unique level themes and even custom star select screens, but right now, it's more of a beautiful dream than a playable reality.

Excerpt from SUPER MARIO 256
BASE	SUPER MARIO 64 DS
CATEGORY	Brand new game Revamp
MANUAL INSTALLATION REQUIRED?	Yes
RELEASED	2017
UPDATED	2019
DIFFICULTY	Casual
AUTHOR	HayashiSTL

NEW SUPER MARIO RUN DS

NEW SUPER MARIO RUN DS is exactly what it sounds like, a short hack where Mario just runs automatically to the right, and you only control jumps and wall kicks. It's clearly inspired by the mobile SUPER MARIO RUN but slapped onto actual DS hardware, which is kinda wild for a first time hack. The levels are bite sized and designed around that autoforward flow, so you're just timing your jumps over pits and onto enemies. Difficulty is mostly chill, tho the tower level and its boss fight spike a bit and there are some goofy bugs like being able to run backwards or crouch-walk, but they don't break anything. The custom UI and Newer Team's tilesets look neat and the 1-UP House using level wrap is a clever touch. You'll clear it in half an hour but for an experiment trying to recreate SUPER MARIO RUN, it's polished and fun.

NEW SUPER MARIO RUN DS
BASE	NEW SUPER MARIO BROS.
CATEGORY	Reimagination
MANUAL INSTALLATION REQUIRED?	Yes
RELEASED	2025
DIFFICULTY	Casual
AUTHOR	J404AN

SUPER MARIO MAKER ADVANCE

Now let's talk about SUPER MARIO MAKER ADVANCE, or LEVEL MAKER as it's called now, this is a limited but polished demake of SUPER MARIO MAKER for the GBA as the name suggests. You get the bare essentials: Goombas, terrain, [ ? ] blocks, coins, springs, mushrooms, lava and a goal. That's it. No more enemies, no pipes, no fancy gizmos but here's the wild part: the dev scrubbed all the MARIO branding and swapped the plumber for Walter White, which is hilarious and kinda cursed. Sharing levels works through save files and there's texture pack support so if someone finds one that restore the original assets, I'll try my best to inject it. It feels barebones compared to the real thing but for a GBA homebrew, it's an amazing take.

LEVEL MAKER
BASE	Homebrew
CATEGORY	Demake
MANUAL INSTALLATION REQUIRED?	Only for levels and textures
RELEASED	2026
DIFFICULTY	Customizable
AUTHOR	Game of Tobi

SUPER MARIO EXPEDITION

SUPER MARIO EXPEDITION 2

SUPER MARIO EXPEDITION and its sequel are bite sized mods that each add one brand-new world, and all of them feel like official levels. The level design is super polished with that classic 3D LAND vibe where every course introduces a fresh gimmick and then builds on it and the Star Coins placement encourages actual exploration. The first game reuses 3D LAND music but the second one an entire OST that slaps. The only bummer is the lack of levels, you'll finish in 20 minutes but for anyone craving 3D action, these mods are a treat.

SUPER MARIO EXPEDITION
BASE	SUPER MARIO 3D LAND
CATEGORY	Brand new game
MANUAL INSTALLATION REQUIRED?	No
RELEASED	2022
DIFFICULTY	Casual
AUTHOR	Cyboo

SUPER MARIO EXPEDITION 2
BASE	SUPER MARIO 3D LAND
CATEGORY	Brand new game
MANUAL INSTALLATION REQUIRED?	No
RELEASED	2025
DIFFICULTY	Casual
AUTHOR	Cyboo

SUPER MARIO STAR ROAD

Last up is SUPER MARIO STAR ROAD, this thing takes SUPER MARIO 64 and packs over 120 stars, more than 30 new courses and nearly 50 banger tracks, most of them remixes from other MARIO and RPG games that weirdly fit the SM64 soundfont perfectly. It nails the SM64 vibe with a hub full of secrets, 15 main stages, and a difficulty curve that starts comfy then spikes into «THOSE FUCKING BEES!» with their jank hitboxes and levels like Mad Musical Mess will test your patience with tight platforms and awful camera angles. The camera in general is a sore spot, levels weren't built with it in mind, so you'll fight it more than the platforming. Some stages are way too big, others have weird collisions but when it hits, it hits real hard. The creativity in themes feels like a true expansion pack and the sense of discovery is pure N64 magic. It's aged, sure, and other hacks blow it out of the water technically, but STAR ROAD's legacy is untouchable.

SUPER MARIO STAR ROAD
BASE	SUPER MARIO 64
CATEGORY	Brand new game
MANUAL INSTALLATION REQUIRED?	No
RELEASED	2011
UPDATED	2021
DIFFICULTY	Advanced
AUTHOR	SKELUX
3DS PORT	AloXado, s4ys & Aspie Weeb

That's a wrap on this run through the SUPER MARIO romhacking multiverse… for now! These hacks show how wild and creative this community gets, but y'know, there's always another level to warp to. There's a lot romhacks already flagged for this thread in the future, so keep those save states handy. In the meantime, if you've got a hidden gem I missed or a dream hack you're dying to see covered, shout it out, I'm all ears. 'Til then, catch you on the next course!