‘Super Mario Bros.’ Comes To Life In Central Park With Microsoft Hololens [Video]
A 28-year-old developer was playing around with the Microsoft Hololens when he suddenly got the idea to recreate Super Mario Bros. for augmented reality. Abhishek Singh spent about a month working on this demo, which was a replica of the iconic first level of the Super Mario Bros. game, and he used Unity 3D to develop the interactive game. This takes augmented reality games like Pokemon GO and elevates them to an entirely new level of reality with the use of the Hololens.
The level starts off just as you probably remember it: giving you the choice between one and two players. Once the selection is made, the world of that first level fills in around you, including such memorable and iconic things as the Goombas (which are still defeated by jumping on them), the question mark blocks, big green pipes, and more. If you’re familiar with the level, then you will see right away how impressive this demo really is, especially since it includes everything you would expect out of a Mario Bros. game.
In the video, Singh is in Central Park in New York City when he decides to record the video of his creation — and he went all out even dressing up like the famous plumber. Of course, only Singh with the Microsoft Hololens can see the game around him, and the video in the corner shows you what he looks like to all the passersby in the park as he jumps over imaginary obstacles and on invisible Goombas and punches at the air to get coins and power-ups.
However, the most interesting part of the video is certainly the game itself and the immersion that the Hololens can bring to the augmented reality gaming experience. Considering this level was built in just under a month by a young developer, it stands to make us all curious as to what Microsoft may be able to do with this technology in the future. In the beginning of the video, Singh points out that this YouTube video is unedited — there is absolutely no post-production work done on the recording, and that means what you’re seeing here is exactly what he was seeing as he played the game.
“In Mario since all the action tends to start happening further out in front of you, I didn’t find the limited field of view to be a hindrance. However I did find that if people aren’t familiar with the level they might miss a few things.”
Unfortunately for all the gamers who would absolutely love to get their hands on a Microsoft Hololens just for this Super Mario Bros. recreation, it is not available — at least not right now. However, Singh has considered the possibility of making the coding public so that developers (both professional and hobbyist) will be able to play around with it and potentially improve on it as well. The main reason he has not made it available for download already is due to copyright concerns, but after this video, it wouldn’t be surprising if Super Mario Bros. was one of the first major gaming titles to become available for the Hololens.
Would you want to try Super Mario Bros. in real life? If you’ve ever wondered what that would be like, this video is probably the closest you’ve ever gotten to knowing the answer! Do you think Nintendo should (or even would) allow Microsoft to use this as an official download one day?
Tell us your thoughts in the comments, and share this crazy story that reminds us just how far technology and gaming have come since that Super Mario Bros. level was originally released.
