Super Mario Bros U, is one of my favorite
Mario games. Every couple of months I return to the game
and beat it. But I usually not only beat the game, but
also challenge myself to beat it in a certain way, to make the playthrough more interesting. I’ve beaten the game deathless, I’ve beaten
the game without ever picking up a power up, I’ve learned the speedrun and challenged
myself to beat the game within a certain time window. Stuff like that, it just keeps the game challenging
and interesting. So for my latest playthrough I thought it
would be fun to try to collect the least amount of coins possible, while still beating the
game. I gave this a try not knowing what I just
did. So today several weeks later I’m finally
done routing this. In this video we will take a look at all the
challenges that await us if we try to collect as little coins as possible, and we will finally
find out, what the least amount of coins required to beat NSMBU is. So are you ready? Let’s do this! Okay so what’s the basic plan? If we want to actually theorycraft a route
through the game, where Mario collects the least amount of coins possible, but still
defeats bowser, then we need to cleverly use everything the game gives us to work with. We will enter most of the levels with the
acorn suit, and just try to use the insane air movement it provides to dodge coins. Mario Bros U features tons of secret exits,
that allow us to skip levels, the first one in world 1-2, which should make it possible
for us to skip a lot of dangerous stages. If we are stuck with using the acorn suit
we still have the option to either use marios small hitbox, as small mario to dodge coins,
we can eat a delicious mini mushroom, to get even smaller, and we have a joker in case
of emergency. The strange pink mini yoshi, that gives us
insane additional movement options, for optimal dangerous coin dodgery. If we want to determine the minimum amount
of coins required, then we first need to route the game in the optimal way. Doing this is surprisingly difficult, because
new super mario bros u features tons of different paths towards its last stage. The first thing we need to do is to do a normal
playthrough of the game, where we just try to find out, which levels are really easy
to do coinless, and which stages are problematic and should be avoided if possible. Then we need to find out, which secret exits
are available to us coinless, and which stages can be skipped this way. So with this information we are able to plan
a route, that minimizes the stages that are problematic. All we need to do afterwards is to grind each
and every level on this route for hours, while picking up the least amount of coins possible. Once all of this is done we should know the
minimum amount of coins, that is required to beat new super Mario Bros U. So let’s first take a look at the route
I came up with, and let’s collect all the levels that are problematic for whatever reason
in a list and discuss those afterwards. The first routing problem already appears
in world 1-2. We can’t take the secret exit here, because
the path to the second exit flag is inhabited, with dangerous but shiny coins. There is no way to get through this path without
collecting several coins, trust me I tried. That’s a huge setback early on, on our journey
to route the game with the fewest amount of coins possible. The shortcut would have taken us directly
to world 3, skipping a huge part of the first, and the entire second world. That’s pretty bad, but at least the rest
of world one features no problems otherwise. World 2 is where we run into our first unavoidable
coin. We’ll take a look at this one in a second. We can leave world 2 via the secret exit that
takes us directly into the jungle. We can skip a significant part of the jungle
by using another secret exit, and most of the levels here are pretty straight forward. The only one that worries me is the seesaw
bride stage, because the coin layouts here are pretty nasty. World 6 features 3 stages that are definitely
impossible without collecting a single coin, but world 6 also features the highest amount
of secret exits and after a little bit of experimentation I found a route that avoids
all levels that force us to pick up a coin. There is however one stage in this world that
contains coins in a horrible layout, that may force us to collect some anyway. We only need to do 4 stages in the seventh
world thanks to the secret ghost house exit, but three out of these four stages feature
stuff that really has me worried. The last world luckily is a little bit easier,
only red hot elevator ride is problematic here. Okay so now we got a plan. We have seven coins that we are likely forced
to collect. First let’s clear all stages without collecting
a single coin that are not on this list, so that we don’t have to worry about them any
longer. We sadly can’t go over each stage in detail
because otherwise this video would be several hours long, but a lot of those levels are
pretty challenging. There is nothing in them that makes them super
over the top exciting, they just often require really precise play to dodge all coins. There is a link to the raw footage of me clearing
all those stages coinless in the description. Cool, seven coins left. Luckily, we can immediately remove one of
those coins. The coin in seesaw bridge. Turns out I just saw a bunch of rotating platforms,
covered with coins and panicked. I actually planned to bring a pink yoshi into
this stage, so that we are able to fly over some of the later platforming challenges completely
ignoring all the coin circles that threaten our scientific cause, but as it turns out,
it’s actually surprisingly easy to make it over those platforms coinless, as long
as we use the acorn suit. So that’s one coin off of our list hooray! Six to go. The next one to get rid off is the one in
Land of the flying blocks. Land of the flying blocks sadly not only contains
flying blocks, but tons and tons of flying coins as well. We have to make our way through this stage
while riding this cloud train. But there are several coin layouts in this
stage that are impossible to dodge while on top of the cloud. The coins just fly towards us in patterns
that sometimes simply can’t be dodged. So figuring that one out took me forever but
it’s actually possible. All we need to do is to load in the coins
early, by either not activating the platform at all, or by racing faster than the cloud
platform moves, to load all coins is early, so that we are able to stay in a spot, where
they can’t assault us, while still being fast enough to take the platform. That’s another coin off of our list. Five to go. Next stop Red Hot Elevator Ride. The problem here is the following. We have to ride this red and presumably hot
elevator to the top of the stage, but as soon as a bob omb, a goomba or a coin is on top
of the elevator, the elevator stops. So usually we’d pick up the coin and forget
about it, but we can’t do that for obvious and very reasonable reasons, so as soon as
a coin lands on the platform we are pretty screwed. But there is a trick possible in this stage
that I learned about while watching the speedrun. If Mario is too far away from the platform,
the elevator secretly moves upwards without him. But if the elevator secretly moves upwards
the coins on top of it don’t. That allows us to remove coins on top of the
elevator in the first part of the stage, which makes it possible to beat this part, without
collecting any coins. The second part of the stage is luckily far
easier, because in the second half more and more bob ombs drop onto the platform. Usually bob ombs are more dangerous than coins,
but not today! So we can remove another worrisome coin off
of our list which leaves us with four! We are making really great progress so far. Let’s take a look at the one coin that defnietly
can’t be avoided. At the beginning of world 2 the path diverges
and we have two levels to choose from. The one is Perilous Pokey Cave, the other
one is Fire Snake Cavern. But both of these stages aren’t really great
options. Perilous Pokey Cave is really easy to do until
the very last room. But the very last room features this super
horrible part. Here we need to enter this pipe. And that’s a huge problem, because all the
platforms below are inhabited by silly achievement run ending coins, and we can’t simply fly
into the pipe, because there isn’t enough distance between the coins, and the pipe. But the other option, Fire Snake cavern, is
just straight up stupid. This stage starts with a pipe, and as soon
as we leave this pipe this sneaky coin takes us by surprise. There is literally no way to dodge this dumb
coin. I tried for over an hour, but it’s impossible. No idea what nintendo was thinking when placing
this coin. So we are basically soft locked at this point. In 2-2 we can’t leave the level because
we can’t reach the exit pipe, in 2-3 we can’t even enter the level without being
assaulted by a coin, and skipping world 2 is no option either, since the secret exit
entrance that would skip it, is besieged by a bunch of worthless coins. Sadly we’re stuck here. The best solution, is it to just bite the
bullet in fire snake cavern, to eat this stupid coin, and to do the rest of the cavern coinless. So that’s one we can’t get rid off, three
left to investigate. The first one is in Fuzzy Clifftops in World
6. Fuzzy Clifftops is a nightmare, the stage
features tons of bottomless pits, fuzzys on tracks that are surprisingly difficult to
keep track of, Incredibly annoying coin layouts, that move around to make things even worse,
platforms that cycle up and down between shiny yet deadly coins, and worst of all, tons of
coins on tracks, that are completely unpredictable. It took me a while to route the first part
of the level, luckily we have access to yoshi here who, uhm, uh, he, uhm, helps I guess. And then the stage confronts us with this
area. An area that I’d like to call, the Fuzzying
Coinfeeder Cliff of Yourrunendshere. Holy Fuzzy, that part. So there are eight fuzzy's that fly in completely
unpredictable patterns around here. The area is too big to just fly over, there
are these moving platforms, that not only have coins above, but also below them, and
the coins are laid out in a way that makes it impossible to run over the platforms. There is simply too much going on too fast
to really keep track of it. So I grinded that part for hours, and I actually
made it through it, but I’m still not entirely sure how I did it. Mario landed on this platform, took damage,
and then somehow slipped miraculously below all these looser coins, without touching any
of them. I guess the Do Silly Things In Fun Games Gods
were graceful this time, another coin off of our list. The next coin we need to investigate lives
inside the Slide Lift Tower. This stage is problematic for our very important
scientific cause for two reasons. The first problem is at the end of the stage. The last coin layout in this castle, requires
us to wear the acorn suit in order to dodge it, but directly before, is this area. Here we are supposed to jump over a fire bros
fire ball, but the area where we are supposed to evade the fireball is filled with shiny
yet deadly coins, so this jump is way more challenging than usual, directly at the end
of the level. That wouldn’t be too bad if it wasn’t
for the other problem in this stage. *Sigh* So let’s talk about ninja coins. Ninja coins are evil sneaky and scheming coins,
that ambush us in situations we least expect it. They make us believe a path is safe only to
immediately assault us, as soon as we aren’t able to dodge them anymore. They shoot out of the ceiling, they jump out
of the ground, they suddenly appear out of thin air, they are horrible bad depraved coins,
and they are willing to do anything to end our run. But we can’t let them win. The whole tower is inhabited with those objectively
evil ninja coins. It’s even possible to pick up coins through
the floor here. It’s a nightmare. So what we need to do is to jump through the
tower in a really strange way, that actually dodges all those assaulting coins, without
losing the acorn suit until the end. That one took me forever, but I actually managed
to leave this horrible tower coinless. Hooray! I hope we never ever encounter a ninja coin
again! So with that, there is only one last coin
left to investigate, and this one, is located in Ludwigs Clockwork Castle. This stage has two troublesome areas, and
both feature sledge bros, because *sigh* of course they do. The first one is here. The problem here is that we can’t fly over
this ugly turtle because of these coins, but taking the path below is really challenging,
since the sledge bro causes earthquakes that cause us to fall into this pit. Solving this, is luckily easier than first
thought. All that we have to do is to leave our helpful
acorn suit at home for once, and to just run below those coins as small mario, which makes
this area still challenging, but absolutely doable. The next part however. Let’s call this area, the EatACoinOrIllCrushYa. If we want to make it through the EatACoinOrIllCrushYa
without eating a coin, we need to do the following. We first need to jump here and let the crusher
pass, then we have to do these surprisingly tight jumps over the coins, but we need to
do them fast before the crusher comes back, while also watching out for the stupid sledge
bros who causes earthquakes and throws hammers. And then we have to repeat the exact same
process once again. So that may sound pretty challenging but not
impossible at first glance. And I would agree with you, if it wasn’t
for the fact that this sledge bros always throws it’s hammer at the same time we have
to jump up here. I did this about 20 times, and hammer, over
hammer, over hammer landed on poor Mario's head. It was almost re-traumatizing. So I wasn’t able to pull it off. The hammer is timed in a way that makes me
pretty sure, that it’s impossible to make it through this part as small Mario. To be honest, I took that one pretty personal. There is absolutely no way that I’d accept
a sledge bros to force us to eat a coin. A magikoopa, maybe, but definitely no sledge
bros. So I tried tons of different things to make
it through this part, and I actually found a solution. The Mini Mushroom! With the mini mushroom, marios hitbox is actually
so mini that he’s able to run below the coins. This allows us to make it through this area
so fast that we can actually skip pausing in this hole, and are able to leave it, without
a single coin. Hoooray! We got the game down to a single coin. Isn’t that fantastic, we proved that it’s
actually possible to beat new super mario bros u with only collecting a single coin. Whoooo .. ooo .. o
am I kidding. God that’s frustrating. A single coin. One, Single, Coin. It’s only one coin standing between us and
proving that New Super Mario Bros U can actually be beaten coinless. That’s so frustrating, we’ve come so far:
“We made it through the Fuzzying Coinfeedercliff of Yourrunendshere, we dodged countless tricky
coin layouts, the sledge bros weren’t able to stop us, neither was the red hot elevator,
we sacrificed yoshi, all for the greater goal of beating the game coinless, we even escaped
an ancient Ninja coin tribe, and now this run ends because of this incredible dumb undodgeable
coin in world 2. That’s so stupid. So I decided to look into our world 2 coin
softlock once again. Trying to find a way through this tunnel coinless,
is pointless, that’s just straight up impossible, and I decided not to try to search for a way
to dodge that dumb silly stupid and wreckful coin any longer, because the situation between
us is already pretty tense, and I don’t want things to escalate. So I decided to search for a way to enter
this pipe coinless. I tried it as mini mario, I tried jumping
off of yoshis back, I tried flying in, I tried flying in while using the weird pink yoshi,
I searched for a pow block or a spring or anything that might help us here. But none of these ideas worked out. But then, then I remembered something, something
I’ve seen in the speedrun of the game. In this stage speedrunners, enter this pipe
through an angle that is seemingly impossible. Once Mario enters the pipe, the game moves
him into the position where it wants him to be, in this case it even moves him through
a blooper. So as it turns out, pipes can be entered by
pressing upwards, while hitting the corner of them. I tried to find a setup that allows us to
enter the pipe, that is standing between us, and a perfect route, and after a lot of trying
I found something. If we spin jump as acorn mario, wall jump
at the highest point of the spin, fly towards the pipe, and activate our upwards boost the
moment we are at the corner of the pipe, then we are able to enter it, without collecting
any of the coins at the bottom. That’s it! Ladies and Gentlemen we just proved that new
Super Mario Bros U can be beaten coinless. It’s actually doable! Mario is able to rescue his beloved princess
completely broke. Hooray! For anyone who wants to give this route a
try, there is a link to the raw footage of me beating each level without collecting a
coin in the description. So I hope you enjoyed this little video, if
you did, don’t forget to leave me a thumbs up and maybe you feel especially like it has
been proven that NSMBU can be beaten coinless today, and want to hit the subscribe button
as well. I hope that all of you have a wonderful day,
and to see you soon. Goodbye!
Insane mode: NSMB2 coinless
Wait, this isn’t Gamechamp3K
I love how about halfway through the video he makes it seem like a no coin run just isnt possible....and I believed him! Then he swipes that rug from under your feet so fast. Long live acorn Mario!
Yes, with KH3 and New SMB being released in January, I’ll barely have any money left.
New speedrunning category?
Anyone got a TL;DW?
I've been watching this guy over the past month. I absolutely love his stuff.
What’s up with Mario having the fanbase with the deepest knowledge about the games? There is Pannenkoek2012 for Super Mario 64, Stryder7x for Paper Mario and this guy for NSMB and Super Mario Maker
Super fun and interesting to watch. This kind of run is an interesting mix of speedrun techniques and a nice study of game design due to the nature of self-imposed challenges. The YouTuber made some impressive critical thinking and utilized very solid problem solving techniques that act as a testament to his creativity and analysis.
It was an absolute joy to watch him study his problems and see how he discovered his solutions. Absolutely wonderful.