Solution to Super Mystery World
This puzzle consists of five levels in the game Super Mario Maker 2, presented in a Super World. Each level has a single word answer. For the first four levels, the answer enumeration is given by the coins at the end of the level. The fifth level is a "meta" level whose answer is the answer to the puzzle.
At any time, pausing with + and pressing Y shows Mario’s moves for all powerups in the current Game Style.
It can help to watch the video that we released to teams after a time delay in case they don’t own the game, which shows a complete playthrough of each level.
1-1 Wigging Out (H76-C50-4JG)
Brief solution:
The title of the level suggests looking at the angry red Wigglers. Playing the level reveals angry Wigglers in the shape of letters, which spell out the answer, FUZE.
Detailed solution:
Room 1: Hold run and jump to enter the first door.
Room 2: Hold jump while bouncing on top of a Wiggler to give more height and jump over the spikes. Enter the pipe by pressing down. The angry Wigglers spell F.
Room 3: Enter the door by pressing up.
Room 4: Bounce on top of Wigglers and dodge the cannonballs by moving left and right until the bob-omb explodes, then enter the door. The angry Wigglers spell U.
Room 5: Bounce across and up the Wigglers to the top right, and enter the pipe. The angry Wigglers spell Z.
Room 6: Carefully collect all four red coins to get a key, and enter the key door. The angry Wigglers (including the ones falling out of pipes and down on the left) spell E.
Room 7: Run to the end before the Wiggler falls on our character, and jump into the goal.
1-2 Picture That (75H-5GK-BRF)
Brief solution:
Use the SMB2 mushroom to dig through clouds and pick up enemies. The solved nonograms form pictures of things seen in the level, along with braille letter(s). Ordering by appearance (of the actual object, not the nonogram), we have:
- ? Block (Z)
- Arrow Sign (O)
- Snake Block (M)
- Goomba (B)
- Flagpole (I, E)
This spells the answer ZOMBIE.
Detailed solution:
Get the SMB2 mushroom powerup. Hold down and press the run button to pick up clouds and enter the pipe.
Nonogram 1: Goomba, B
Section 1: Time our digging through clouds to dodge cannonballs and enter the door.
Nonogram 2: Arrow Sign, O
Section 2: Run quickly to the right, dig through clouds, and jump back up to avoid the Banzai Bills. Get the key and make our way back to the left to enter the key door.
Nonogram 3: ? Block, Z
Section 3: Pick up and hold the Banzai Bill, jump across to the right, and throw the Banzai Bill where we see the throw indicator (looks like a C). Jump onto the Banzai Bill we just threw to proceed to the right.
Nonogram 4: Snake Block, M (underneath the Bill Blaster)
Password Room: A series of objects with “?” Blocks underneath them. Hitting the “?” Blocks underneath the “?” Block, Arrow Sign, Snake Block, and Goomba each gives us a key. Hitting anything else will trigger a P Switch and kill us! Use the four keys to enter the key doors and proceed. The braille letters for these objects are Z, O, M, B respectively.
Nonogram 5: Flagpole, I+E (in the pipe at the very end)
End: pick up the Banzai Bill and jump onto the top of the flagpole for a 1-Up.
1-3 Luigi wins by doing nothing? (9N0-J5J-TXF)
Brief solution:
Win as Mario (or Luigi, if we select to play as him in settings) by doing absolutely nothing. During the level, we take damage four times (accompanied by a scream sound effect). At each of these times, jump, shield, swing the sword, and shoot an arrow to get to the key door as Link. Dash through the enemies in the subworld to get a message: “TIME MOD 26”. Use the times we take damage (or input an action) and convert to letters to get the answer, FIRE.
Detailed solution:
This is an Auto-Mario level, where we narrowly avoid death by doing absolutely nothing. However, near the end, we suspiciously obtain a key and fall past a key door. Entering the key door and the pipe leads to a secret subworld, where we see:
- A giant question mark formed with ? Blocks, and arrows pointing right. However, there is no way to get past all the Spinies and Koopa Troopas without dying.
- An area with a conveyor belt, a ? Block, and a Lava Bubble surrounded by coins. Hitting the ? Block plays the scream sound effect.
This is the same pattern as the start of the level, and the Lava Bubble falls on us, causing the very first scream sound. Notice that this happens precisely when our character is underneath the “?” Block in the subworld. This suggests we should jump right when we take damage, which reveals a Hidden Block with the Master Sword power up. Doing so correctly (without any other inputs) keeps us on the shell, allowing the Auto-Mario to continue. A trampoline flies and knocks the Master Sword into us, turning us into Link!
Once we are Link, we may realize that we can use Link’s dash attack to get through the Spinies and Koopa Troopas in the subworld. That means we have to beat the whole level as Link! However, if we proceed to do nothing and let the Auto-Mario guide us to the end, we know that we take damage three more times throughout the level, each of which will cause us to lose the Link powerup. Alternatively, trying to play the level normally at this point is very difficult, as there are many enemies and it’s easy to get hit.
Instead, we should use Link’s abilities three times to prevent damage, without adding any other inputs, to reach the end of the level and enter the key door:
- A Spike hits us with a Spike Ball. Block this with Link’s shield (hold down).
- A Goomba walks into us. Kill the goomba with Link’s sword (press X or Y). (If we instead shield here, Link is knocked backwards slightly into the range of a Fire Bar.)
- A Winged Buzzy Beetle falls on to us. Use Link’s arrow (press L or R) to hit the ON/OFF Switch, which switches the track above us. The Buzzy Beetle is caught on to the track and moves up, missing Link.
In the subworld, use Link’s dash attack (hold X/Y while pressing down) to dash through the Spinies and Koopa Troopas. A message is spelled out in Ice Blocks: TIME MOD 26, and four scream sound effects play. Enter the pipe to reach the Axe and finish the level as Link.
When we win by doing nothing (without the Master Sword powerup), we take damage four times (accompanied by screams). When we win as Link, we input four times (jump, shield, sword, arrow) to get the Master Sword and prevent taking damage. Looking at the time limit on the top right of the screen, we can obtain times for each of these moments. Take those times modulo 26 and convert to letters:
- Hit by Lava Bubble / Jump to get Master Sword (84 mod 26 = 6 = F)
- Hit by Spike Ball / Shield (61 mod 26 = 9 = I)
- Hit by Goomba / Sword (44 mod 26 = 18 = R)
- Hit by Winged Buzzy Beetle / Arrow (31 mod 26 = 5 = E)
The answer is FIRE.
1-4 Boo-m Boo-m Breakout (9BH-DBG-8JF)
Brief solution:
Break the Boos out of Boom Boom’s prison by ground-pounding seesaws, ON/OFF Switches, and running under Thwomps. After freeing the Boos, they spell out the answer to the level behind them with coins (which corresponds to the shape they form). The answer is CLOUD.
Detailed solution:
Story 1: Boom Boom chases after Boos. In each room, escort the Spike Balls to proceed.
Room 1: The Muncher is blocking the door. Ground-pound the seesaw by the Arrow Sign pointing down (by jumping and pressing down) when the Spike Ball is below the Arrow Sign pointing up. This launches the Spike Ball up and kills a Piranha Plant. Do it again to hit the POW Block, which kills the Muncher below. Enter the door that was blocked by the Muncher.
Room 2: Ground-pound to send the Spike Ball up to the slope, and time our second ground-pound to send the Spike Ball left and up into the POW Block.
Room 3: Ground-pound the left and right see-saws to send the Spike Ball into trampolines, and do it again in reverse to hit the ON/OFF Switch.
Story 2: Boom Boom has put the Boos in prison. Oh no! Ground-pound the ON/OFF Switch to continue.
Room 4: The ON/OFF Switch reverses the direction of the conveyor belts. Ground-pound the switch to OFF to send the Spike Ball towards the right. As it reaches the right side of the seesaw, run underneath the Thwomp to make it fly down, hit the seesaw, and launch the Spike Ball over to the right.
Time our ground-pound to switch ON the conveyor belt so the Spike Ball avoids the moving Hard Block and instead hits the POW. The Muncher dies, causing the Bob-omb to explode and allowing us to proceed.
Room 5: Ground-pound the switch to OFF to send the Spike Ball right. Run underneath the left Thwomp to send the Spike Ball up and right. Run to the right and wait for the Thwomps to reset. Ground-pound the switch to ON and trigger the right Thwomp to send the Spike Ball up and left into the P Switch.
Room 6: Boom Boom boss time! This time, the seesaw is within our reach. Ground-pound the switch to OFF and immediately ground-pound the seesaw to launch the Spike Ball into Boom Boom. Do this three times to kill Boom Boom and receive a key. Hit the switch to ON if it isn’t already and enter the key door.
Story 3: The Boos are freed! Hurray!
Story 4: The Boos form the shape of a cloud. By running carefully back and forth, the Boos can be lured downwards to reveal coins behind them, also spelling CLOUD, the answer to this level.
End: Ground-pound the seesaw on the left and jump up to the top of the flagpole to get a 1-Up.
1-M Gobeetle Desert (CKL-QWH-DQG)
Brief solution:
Use Yoshi and Buzzy Beetle shells to quickly traverse through this auto-scrolling level. Each section ends with collecting a red coin. Collect all eight red coins to enter the key door, which tells us what enemies to pay attention to, which can be associated with an answer in the first four levels:
- Dry Bones, who is undead and can come back to life like a ZOMBIE
- Lakitu, who flies in a CLOUD
- Bob-omb, who explodes on a short FUZE
- Piranha Plant, who breathes FIRE
In each red coin section, Buzzy Beetles or Buzzy Beetle shells interact with a number of these enemies. The number of enemies is the index into that enemy’s corresponding answer. Extract eight letters in the order of appearance to get BUZZFEED, something we did many times with Yoshi to beat this level, and the answer to this puzzle.
Detailed solution:
There are a number of indicators used in this level, consistent with those used in Kaizo Mario and Mario Maker levels. The straight tracks with a yellow P Block outline at the end tell us where to eat shells. The rectangular C-shaped track indicators tell us where to spit out or throw shells. Arrow Signs pointing up indicate jumping or double-jumping (by bailing off Yoshi mid-air with L or R).
4 Dry Bones, ZOMBIE, B
Jump on Yoshi and eat the shell. Jump up and spit out the shell to hit the ON/OFF Switch. Eat the shell as it bounces back. Jump up and spit out the shell to kill four Dry Bones and hit an ON/OFF Switch. Do this one more time, and then spit the shell into the lower conveyor belt to get a red coin. Extract the letter B from ZOMBIE, 4.
4 Lakitus, CLOUD, U
As the shell moves along the bottom of the level, it kills four Lakitus. Quickly run to the right, jump up and left, hit the ON/OFF Switch, and run back around to the right. Jump up and bail off Yoshi to hit the ON/OFF Switch above. The shell collects a red coin and stays in a hole. Extract the letter U from CLOUD, 4.
3 Bob-ombs, FUZE, Z
Eat the shell with Yoshi, then jump up and spit the shell to kill the Bob-ombs before they explode. If they explode, they cause the Muncher to fall on and trigger the P Switch, removing the floor and preventing us from proceeding. Jump up and eat the shell from the right, and then spit it into the red coin to reach the checkpoint. Walk across the munchers on Yoshi and enter the door. Extract the letter Z from FUZE, 3.
1 Dry Bones, ZOMBIE, Z
Boss time! The Bill Blaster shoots out shells. Hit the ON/OFF Switch at the right time to escort the shell down to the Big Dry Bones and kill it. Hit the switch to ON and run across as Yoshi. Eat the shell where indicated, jump up, and spit it into the hole to collect a red coin and hit the switch to OFF. Jump up and bail off Yoshi to reach the pipe, and enter it. Extract the letter Z from ZOMBIE, index 1.
1 Piranha Plant, FIRE, F
For a while, we can’t do anything. The pipe that we come out of gives us a Shell Helmet, and a Fire Piranha Plant shoots a fireball towards us. The fireball is travelling towards a frozen coin — if melted, the Munchers will fall on the P Switch and cause us to fall to our death. Instead, jump up where indicated and block the fireball with our Shell Helmet. We also collect a red coin at the same time. Extract the letter F from FIRE, index 1.
4 Bob-ombs, FUZE, E
Jump up into the muncher on the right. This lifts the Bob-omb, causing it to explode and reveal the path forward. If the explosion caused us to take damage, a pipe provides more Shell Helmets (jump into the Bumper to get the Shell Helmet). A coin below a Buzzy Beetle suggests jumping into it from below. By hitting the Buzzy Beetle from the left, we can launch it up and to the right. It then walks on to a note block, triggering another Bob-omb to explode. Escort another Buzzy Beetle in the same way, hitting it up over obstacles. Hit the yellow Blocks to make them spin, allowing the Buzzy Beetle to walk through them. Jump into a muncher to explode another Bob-omb to reveal a path for the Buzzy Beetle. The Buzzy Beetle walks on to another note block, triggering one final Bob-omb explosion. Run through the saw, jump on the Buzzy Beetle to make it hide in its shell, then grab it (holding the run button) and throw it up into the red coin (hold up and let go of run) to continue. There were four Bob-ombs, so extract the letter E from FUZE, index 4.
4 Piranha Plants, FIRE, E
Final boss! Who would win: a tower of Big Piranha Plants versus one shelly boi? Grab the Buzzy Beetle in the same way as before, dodging the Fire Bars. Bring the shell to the top and throw it to the right, causing it to kill one Piranha Plant and return to the hole at the bottom. Repeat this three more times to kill all Piranha Plants and obtain a key. Enter the key door, and collect a red coin. Extract the letter E from FIRE, index 4.
5 Lakitus, CLOUD, D
The end! A Buzzy Beetle shell flies towards a hungry Yoshi, killing five Lakitus on its way. Each time this happens, an ON/OFF Switch is hit below the screen. Wait to proceed into the door and collect a red coin. Extract the letter D from CLOUD, index 5.
End
Entering the key door shows the order of important enemies in the eight preceding red coin sections: Dry Bones, Lakitu, Bob-omb, Dry Bones, Piranha Plant, Bob-omb, Piranha Plant, Lakitu. (Note that Lakitu clouds are used on their own, since Lakitus fly through walls). Exit this room and enter the pipe. Jump on the Winged Buzzy Beetle and hit the tape between the goalposts to earn a 1-Up and beat Super Mystery World! Yoshi thanks us for all the Buzzy Beetles we fed him with the answer, BUZZFEED.