Given enough time, creative players will find new and unique ways to challenge the games they love and conquer them in interesting ways. Such was the case recently when Twitch streamer Rudeism finished Super Mario 64 using a custom-made controller with just one button.
Rudeism accomplished this feat and posted his success on the r/ Gaming Subreddit on April 4, 2019. Using a controller that’s little more than a box with a big red button, Rudeism mapped every single action Super Mario 64 to the button and went on a run of the game which was streamed and recorded on his Twitch channel across various sessions. Though the run takes a lengthy amount of time, Rudeism keeps a video on his controller and interactions in the bottom corner of the streams that shows just how he does it.
The unique nature of Rudeism’s interface lies in the frequency and length of his button presses. A long button press followed by a short button will make Mario move right. A short press followed by a long press will make him move left. Three short presses will crouch or uncrouch. By learning his own frequencies and press styles by heart, Rudeism created a system by which he could actually proficiently play the game with that one button. It has to take incredible concentration and muscle memory to remember all those frequencies, but 70+ hours worth of Super Mario 64 probably makes for very good practice.
It should be mentioned that this isn’t the first of Rudeism’s interesting gaming endeavors. Among his previous streams, he’s also created a motion controller out of an eggplant to play Tetris and wielded a frying pan controller to challenge Dark Souls. It all gets the same treatment with Rudeism showing how his controllers work to interact with the games, so we’d say each of them are well worth a watch.
Some of the best gamers out there never stop finding new ways to play with their favorites. After all, players are still setting high scores in classic Donkey Kong. That said, Rudeism takes the cake here for ingenuity and certainly deserves praise for not only taking on the challenge of one-button Super Mario 64, but also finishing it. Good game.
Want to follow Rudeism's latest gaming efforts? Be sure to follow his afforementioned Twitch channel and follow him on Twitter!
