Happy Mar10 Day: Remember This Level?
Happy Mar10 Day! It's an annual celebration created to honor the Super Mario series. Mar10 is a fun play on the date, March 10. In honor of today's celebration, I decided to reminisce about perhaps the weirdest Mario level that has been created: The chuckster level from Super Mario Sunshine.
In the fifth episode of Pianta Village, titled, "Secret of the Village Underside,", Mario must hatch Yoshi in order to uncover the entrance to the secret level that is located underneath the village. Now, usually the secret levels take away FLUDD and Mario has to rely on his platforming skills to get the Shine Sprite. In this level? Mario still doesn't have FLUDD but must now rely on "chucksters" to get to the Shine Sprite. Chucksters are Piantas that, when you talk to them, will literally throw you either backward or upwards a certain distance. So the secret level revolves around literally being thrown to the finish line. The catch? If you don't talk to the chucksters at the right time and angle, you will be thrown into the black void, thus losing a life and having to start over.
Even though the level design is weird, it's actually pretty good. It requires patience, but once you understand how it works, it's not that bad. If you are familiar with Super Mario Sunshine, which is a good game, you know it has its weird and odd moments, and this level is one of them. Additionally, it is kind of funny to see poor Mario chucked to his death if you do not talk to chucksters correctly. I've laughed countless times watching gamers playing this level and, with their timing being just off, seeing Mario thrown to his doom.
The wacky level design is a reminder of why we love the Super Mario series nearly 40 years later. Happy Mar10 Day!
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