We've seen some cracking courses in Super Mario Maker 2 over the past few weeks, but none have impressed us quite as much as this one.
A player going by the name of Helgefan has shared a course called The Cluttered Chaos-Calculator 2. It initially has you choosing two numbers between 0 and 9 and deciding whether you'd like to add them together or minus your second choice from the first. From there, it's absolute mayhem (and wizardry, we're pretty sure).
You can see the action unfold in this video below; the player is instructed to stand still after making their choices, and the calculator gets to work. There are characters and 1-Up Mushrooms flying all over the place, blocks are everywhere, and Mario is escorted from place to place with Snake Blocks. It really does feel like a huge machine is calculating something, and sure enough, the level ends with the correct answer exploding right in front of your eyes. Incredible.
As it happens, the course is actually an upgrade of a design Helgefan released in the original Super Mario Maker. Called The Cluttered Chaos-Calculator, it essentially did the same thing but with fewer numbers to choose from and a slightly less flashy design on the whole.
If you want to play around with The Cluttered Chaos-Calculator 2 yourself, you can do so by entering code: C81-8H4-RGG.
[source youtube.com]
Comments 66
This is so cool!
Honestly, I've never really fully understood the appeal of the SMM series from a creative standpoint - I just don't have it in me to create great courses.
However, I now feel that I really should give it another chance to play some of these incredible courses that seem to be churned out on a daily basis at the moment. Value for money doesn't even come close to covering the content I see produced from this game!
This kind of stages are the reason I'll never feel completely satisfied with Super Mario Maker or Super Mario Maker 2. I'm not as much creative as these people, not by a longshot, and my levels are too simple compared to these things.
This guy needs to be working for NASA or the CIA or someone.
This guy could probably could've probably cured cancer with his intellect but this works too
I'll stick to the one on my phone
Mind... blown.... that is too cool!
Does anyone have the slightest idea how that works? It seems to come down to the number and position of exploding bomb-ombs at the end.
Utterly speechless.
Bloody hell! That is very clever indeed!
Maybe it's just me but I'd find a well designed platforming level a lot more impressive.
People did this in Mario Maker for Wii U too.
I remember seeing YouTube tutorials on how this works.
WOAH. Made me anxious as I wait for the answer I already knew.
This is amazing!
I remember seeing a game theory ep on a calculator in SMM1
Removing all of my Mario Maker courses from the internet in shame
There was one on the original SMM too
Best 6 minutes of my life!!
@aesz um what? is it autistic because you don’t understand how it works?
@aesz sounds like a comment you’d hear down the boozer in 1985
A ridiculous Rube Goldberg machine within SMM2. Pretty sweet.
It's an autoscrolling level that does rudimentary addition and substraction with 28 possible outcomes.
I don't think it's a great Mario level, but it's a pretty complex piece of machinery (moreso than strictly necessary) and the display method at the end is a brilliant idea!
He designed the course on the same idea of how an actual calculator works. Be aware he just didn't pull this off easily; a lot of thought and testing went into it, possibly in the hundreds of hours like he claimed he did for the calculator course he did in the first SMM.
HOW?! how how how how how how HOW! This is utterly mind blowing. Just, HOW?! How the f* does this f*ing work?! GENIUS!
Pretty awesome if you ask me. For those that don’t get the appeal of SMM because you can’t design levels you feel are worthy of playing, I feel you. However, other people have made some fantastic levels you can play! Over 4 million so far. I typically spend a day playing levels (I like puzzle levels the most) then I take a few days off and come back to the game. It’s like a brand new game every few days with the new levels that are out. A number of them are Nintendo worthy with the design and polish. In fact, one player made a whole 32 level course with very good levels that you could complete each other normally and it also had replay ability with red coins to complete a totally different way. I think from an entertainment for dollars perspective, it is the most bang for your buck.
I remember the first version from SMM1... I was very impressed by that one... this one looks even more sophisticated.
The creator of this deserves recognition and I hope he gets something cool out of it.
Maybe Nintendo can hire the creator to help with implementing a "Restart from Checkpoint" option?
@Janus1986 without going into too much and revealing too many details you're essentially right, the positioning of the blocks you break will affect the outcome at the end. The whole thing is so awesome though, and beyond my ability by far.
That's one slooow but IMPRESSIVE calculator.
@Robzilla @Moroboshi876 giving up on your levels because of this guys ingenuity isn't rational, though hopefully you're joking.
First, at least one person here said they'd prefer a standard platformer.
Second, do you stop running just because Ussain Bolt is faster? Would you stop playing games because you can't make money like some professional players do? Yeah I think very few of us will unlock every mii outfit in the game, let alone create a level like this, but we shouldn't let that bother us. Keep making what we can and I'm sure we'll get some hearts. In fact if you reply to this comment give your maker ID codes i'll play yours.
@aesz A bit autistic? That needs an explanation
@LavaTwilight Thanks for your kind words. I know where you're coming from, but I get bored really fast when I see I can't get interesting ideas. In fact, I haven't even booted this game up yet, and have to play some more SMM1 on Wii U in order to not feel like I wasted my money on that entry for the 10 hours or so I played.
I don't even know what I just saw, but it was awesome.
How does one have the attention to detail / foresight / technical know-how to make something that complex??? Really incredible.
@aesz somehow offended me? I'm not offended by your casual discriminatory remark. More like I'm mildly disappointed. I understand how it's meant to be a joke. It's just not a funny one. The 5+ down votes attest to that.
Anyway back on topic. The dedication to create this kind of level is mind boggling. I am in awe. I made a basic calculator out of logic gates many years ago (as a student) and I thought that was hard. This is another level entirely.
I was already speechless, but I was simply dumbfounded after they subtracted 9 from 6. Insane stuff!
This level was amazing. There are so many creative people in the Mario Maker community. Keep the creativity going!
I can't even imagine how one could figure out the minutiae of timings of all the moving elements to make this actually work. That's just insanity, but amazingly cool!
@Expa0 This type of level isn't about being fun to play, it's about it being a fun/puzzle game to make and displaying how intricate you can make such a system in the game makes one curious about how to solve the puzzle of making it work.
In that way, the "make" part of SMM isn't always about just making levels for others to play, it can also be the main game itself in terms of solving a puzzle of how to make solutions like this work. The output is then not so much a level to "play" but a demonstration you solved the puzzle.
...The insanely over-complicated puzzle....
@LavaTwilight The magic happens during that long wait on the cloud after the warp pipe while the checkered, winged track platform is doing it's thing (across the numbers), right?
I wouldn't want to do tax returns with it mind.
Anyone who has built even very simplistic puzzles using the tools provided knows how much effort it would take to build something like this. impressive and not something I'd be willing to even try to tackle.
That’s insane! How does anyone think of this ?!!! Amazing
so how do you work it?
@Mycroft That hurts my head to incomprehensible levels. The end result makes sense...but it's as though it would have been faster to figure that out just playing with it than all the attempts at graphing it out.
I always thought this was how normal calculators worked.
This is mad! It amazes me how these guys work out the physics to the point they can do this!
@Mycroft I was pretty much a straight F math student. Well, no, I guess D, if it were ALL F's I'd be in middle school for another 40 years.... It just felt like all F's. Except with specific teachers where I was a straight A math student. If it's not explained the exact way my brain needs it to be explained, there's no point even bothering in English, it's not ever going to happen, at all. If it's explained the exact way my brain needs it explained it's "intuitively obvious." I'm either a moron or a genius. You'll get a different answer depending who you ask.
The way it's taught here is beyond a disaster and is geared toward a specific student. It's nothing more than rote rule memorization. They don't explain why. They don't understand why themselves. They just know how to memorize and repeat formulas on pre-written equations. Trouble is for me, I can only work with why, and rote memorization of anything is a guaranteed failure....it's never going to work. I can figure out a formula based on a pattern I see and a problem I'm trying to solve. So the entire teaching system for math was pretty much "for someone else"....I could probably have accomplished more spending all those hours of my childhood skipping class. I just accepted at the start of each school year that the goal of math and gym classes was to pass by at least a tenth of a point from minimum.
Though the string thing still makes no sense to me having turned it into a math problem...I'm still not actually seeing a math problem even involved (granted, I had no audio on the video....)
@NEStalgia yeah exactly, and if you look carefully, each time a different input is entered then some of the shells are moving in slightly different ways
@Anri02 @TheLightSpirit @beazlen1 @AlternateButtons @aesz
I have friends who are on the spectrum, not just with family but people I consider my friends who are on the spectrum and I wasn't offended. I think what he was trying to say was that it looks so intricately complicated that it seems like it took someone a lot of patience and time to work out the details of it. The kind of dedication to detail that someone who is autistic may have.
Like I said I have friends who are autistic and actually they are all proud of it. I'm only speaking from personal experience, I can't speak on behalf of all those on the spectrum, but those I do know are proud of it. They wouldn't take offence at something like that.
Actually they'd be wise in that they'd rather not argue about it and just walk away from those who are.
That's definitely a slow calculator!
@LavaTwilight It's like the intricacy of a mechanical wristwatch in slightly bigger portions. You'd have to be aware of the frame timing for ever enemy and moving object used here to know where it's going to end up right when you need it to.
One thing is certain. Whomever made this really needs that updated Switch with longer battery life....
Yeah it's just the Mario maker 1 Level, i don't know if it's the same guy but if not, that suck
@NEStalgia exactly. Like the intricacies of a wristwatch, I may understand how it works, give me all the pieces and a blank canvas and I still wouldn't be able to recreate it.
I mean I could do something like that... as long as you were impressed with being forced the 2 numbers.
Finally! I've had these numbers lying around that I've needed to subtract for years
I understand the theory, that you can build logic gates in Mario Maker and use them to build simple computers, but I need to teach myself to code before I teach myself to make simple computers in Mario Maker.
@beazlen1 No it's autistic because whoever made it is smart as hell.
I can get my GED with this
@Expa0 just you trust me
@aesz My neice is autistic, and severely low functioning. I see her every day, and have taken care of her for years. She'll never lead a normal life and will need care for the rest of her life to help her with common tasks required for everyday life...
Personally I don't get too bent out of shape when someone just casually throws the word autistic around like it's no big deal... but it is at least a little annoying and I do understand how some people can get upset, especially if they are on the spectrum and struggle with autism themselves.
Here's an similar comparison... There's a common saying of comparing something bad to a "train wreck" like a bad movie or something. My grandma was unexpectedly killed by a train 10 years ago on a drive home from dropping my brothers off at school. When someone compares something to a train wreck in casual conversation, where do you think my mind immediately goes?
Anyway, you can say whatever you want... Freedom of speech and all. Just trying to shed some light as to why some may be upset. Hope this helps.
The number of comments on this article was at an obscene number. I'm just here to make it family friendly again. You're all welcome. I'm a hero.
the calculator is fun to watch, too bad actual calculators don't work this way.
now to upgrade the calculator. please add the ability to multiply or device numbers from one another. or even solve equations such as the Pythagoras Theorem. (A^2+B^2=C^2) example 3^2+4^2=5^2 (everyone knowing that the answer is 9+16=25
Mario would have a blast solving those equations....
I love the idea! I just wish it got to the answer a little quicker. Not sure if that's a design flaw, or part of the way Mario Maker 2 works. Still absolutely insane to watch.
@Deege
There's a bit of difference between using a figure of speech like train wreck to say something is bad and casually dropping "autism" to say someone is a bit obsessive or has a bit of a grasp of computer science. One is fine, the other is a bit of a dick move....
Very happy to see a backlash in this comment section. Too often people just let it slide.
Pure autism. That isn't an insult. And before you jump down my throat, my daughter is autistic. She's special and so is anyone who could ever come up with something like this.
@skywake Oh yeah, I don't take offense to the train wreck saying... I was just using it as another personal example.
I just uploaded my 2nd ever course if anyone would like to try it:
Hang Fire: KF2-GJL-NMG
The Game Theory channel on Youtube have a video explaining how an older calculator works, and I imagine this is similar, if anyone wants to take a look.
Lol, that's a cumbersome way to calculate something.
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