The Secret To Beating A Mario Level Without Looking

Wanna be able to beat the first level of
Super Mario Bros 3 without looking? This guy figured out a really cool trick: jump along with the music.

Pretty impressive, huh? Hardly the hardest level ever, but again: Riggs’ eyes were facing away from the whole
video game part of the video game. Can’t stress that enough. He made it look like a breeze, too, thanks in large part to his song-based timing.

That’s not to say the insidiously catchy tune is part of a
Da Vinci Code-style conspiracy that goes to the very highest levels of Nintendo, some long-buried treasure map to guide intrepid wrong-direction-facers through the level. Rather, it just fits the level’s pace well, so if you’ve memorized a jumping pattern, it’s easy to recall by way of matching it to the music. And let us not forget that there’s ample research that suggests music aids in memorization

In reality, though, Riggs put quite a bit of time and effort into perfecting his pattern before he turned it into the world’s most utilitarian slowjam:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-A2cc_vT9M

So yeah, it’s not easy. The end result is pretty great, though. Also, Riggs’ song is totally stuck in my head now. It’s surprisingly pleasant, though, so I don’t mind all that much, even if the wording kinda makes it sound like he’s singing about vaulting over fecal matter.