The classic Super Mario Bros. has gone through its fair share of remakes and crossovers, including the infamous Super Mario Bros. Crossover. A new crossover, titled Mari0, has just hit the scene, and it’s promising to create a portal between classic platforming and modern first-person shooters.
Mari0 is the latest brainchild from the two-man game studio Stabyourself, the masterminds behind “Not Tetris” and “Ortho Robot.” A crossover between Super Mario Bros. and the bestselling Portal franchise, Mari0 puts the portal gun in the hands of everyone’s favorite red plumber in a perfect remake of the classic blockbuster hit.
The game itself is a perfect remake of the original game’s levels, with the exception of the fully-functional portal gun now wielded by our hero. Mario’s portals can be shot on any surface with a two-block span, and behave exactly as they did in the original franchise. Anything that goes in one portal, including Mario, items, or enemies, comes out the other, preserving momentum all the while. Some edits were made to accompany this new gameplay, such as Bullet Bills now hurting enemies.
The game also comes packaged with an alternate map pack, styled after Aperture Laboratories, complete with Companion-Cube-button-pushing-door-opening goodness. A built in map editor allows for endless possibilities to be designed and shared with the world. Mario can also be dressed up, with thirty-three different hats and a good chance of more coming soon.
Perhaps the most intriguing feature of the game is its Co-Op capabilities, allowing four different players to join in the fun, each with their own Portal gun. While co-op is currently only local, images in the site’s screenshot gallery imply that online multiplayer is a work and progress and will come soon enough.
Mari0 can be downloaded for free from Stabyourself’s website, alongside links to other projects the team has worked on.