Play Mario Royale Before Nintendo Kills it

You might be able to play World 1-1 of Super Mario Bros. with your eyes closed, but can you play it at lightning speed while other Marios hurl turtle shells at you? Maybe, someone else is probably better. You can find out by playing Mario Royale in your browser right now. Don’t wait too long, though. Nintendo is sure to get this game purged from the internet soon.

Each round starts with 75 players in a mad dash for the finish line, but that number will quickly drop by half. The game highlights you, but there are dozens of semi-translucent Marios around you playing the same game in the same environment. Some of them will run into a Goomba and others will fall in a pit, but even if you don’t make a mistake, you can’t win unless you’re fast.

Mario Royale is a race, but it’s not only about speed. The first three players to complete four stages randomly chosen from Super Mario Bros. or The Lost Levels end up in the winner’s circle. While two Marios can’t squish each other, they can use shells and power-ups to take out the competition. Only one person can get each power-up, though, making them very valuable. It’s all about how you balance the hunt for power-ups, speed, and awareness of the level.

You don’t need anything but a browser and a keyboard to start playing, but controllers are also supported. The keyboard controls are simple, as you’d expect from this game: WASD to move and space to jump.

Mario Royale comes from YouTuber and developer InfernoPlus, who acknowledges in the announcement trailer that he fully expects Nintendo to have a problem with this game. The company has a history of going after fan projects, no matter how fantastic they are. The game includes a disclaimer upon loading that points out the codebase is the property of InfernoPlus. Of course, Nintendo owns the characters and is sure to come calling before long. The disclaimer also politely asks Nintendo not to file a scary lawsuit. There are a few thousand people online playing the game as of this posting, so it won’t be long until lawyers get involved.

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