Secret New Super Mario Bros. Challenge mode: Elation to displeasure in fifteen seconds flat [Update 1]

by Jason Wishnov { Jul 3rd 2006 at 10:43PM }

First off, the good news. Your copy of New Super Mario Bros. has a heretofore completely undiscovered secret mode of play, dubbed "Challenge Mode" by the creators. Certainly, this mere sentence has already launched your hopes and potential delight into the ionosphere.

So, here's what's going to happen. You're going to take out your copy of NSMB right now, and turn it on. You're going to start up your game and go into the World Map pause screen. You'll then enter this button combination: L R L R X X Y Y. The screen will flash "Welcome to the secret Challenge mode". You'll enter a level of your choosing, and find out that what Nintendo considers a "challenge" is actually an almost inconsequential and possibly quite irritating facet of gameplay: in Challenge mode, the game will no longer allow you to backtrack in levels. You're going to then cry many tears of pain, for your hopes have been dashed 'gainst the sharp rocks of reality.

Okay, so it's a nice throwback to the old days of the original Super Mario Bros., and that's not actually a bad thing. Still, gamers these days prefer the option of backtracking for hidden coins and whatnot, and labelling such a minor addition as a secret Challenge mode is a bit of a faux pas, no?

[Update 1: Commenters are reporting that the code appears to function only once the game has been beaten. Why haven't you beaten it yet? Go go go!]

[Thanks, Lotsofno!]

Tags: Challenge Mode, ChallengeMode, LRLRXXYY, New Super Mario Bros

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Josh @ Jul 3rd 2006 11:25PM

Very nice. The replay value of the game was just extended by two minutes as I inputted the code, tried
World 1-1, inputted the code again to disable Challenge Mode, and beat World 1-1 once more.

Nice, and the game looks excellent on my new DS Lite. Very very nice...

Franky Digital @ Jul 4th 2006 12:17AM

This is awesome! Gotta love those infuriating but awesome challenges. Can't wait to see how much it changes the game.

Probot @ Jul 4th 2006 1:06AM

Nintendo games aren't really known for their difficulty, so I'm glad they added this in.

Metayoshi @ Jul 4th 2006 2:03AM

Seems more like a nostalgic thing to do than a "challenge" to me. I rarely even backtracked in NSMB (Ok, maybe to get some of the gold star coins). Truthfully, the only levels that would piss me off with this feature turned on are the vertical levels and if you die if you go down. I can't test this right now because my friend is borrowing my NSMB. If only I knew this sooner.

Jayenkai @ Jul 4th 2006 5:01AM

"my friend is borrowing my NSMB."
Hehehe... You'll never get it back ;)

Can't get this to work, by the way, but then I've not quite completed the game just yet. World 8-Mini Castle 2's stupid slow moving green thing keeps getting me killed.. But then I'm impatient so that'll probably be why.

Perhaps you need to complete the game before it works..?

ryan_rocks29 @ Jul 4th 2006 5:31AM

I have completed the game and i can't get it to work, very strange.

limerick @ Jul 4th 2006 6:20AM

I got it to work but I don't know what it does exactly. If I finish, say, World 1-2, I won't be able to get back to World 1-1?

Jayenkai @ Jul 4th 2006 6:34AM

No, it makes the game play like Original SMB.
Basically during normal gameplay, as the screen scrolls towards the right it will then lock, and not scroll back to the left again.

Take World 1-1 as an example. Hit the brick to launch the Mega-Mushroom. If you wander to the right to hit the goomba, and the Mega-mushroom hops off to the left, beyond the left hand side of the screen, you then can't go back to get it, because the screen won't move back that way.

That's the way OSMB did it..

FrenchPoodle @ Jul 4th 2006 9:51AM

Nice! I want to know how people find these things out? Like do people just sit tehre and try out button combinations? Its always amazed me!

But sweet for the tip I'll use it once I finnish the game to have more fun with it :-)

Marc @ Jul 4th 2006 10:32AM

Damn, I still don't have the game! (curse you savings that aren't enough for a DS lite!)

As soon as that game is mine, This "Challenge mode" will be vanquished!

Fortyseven @ Jul 4th 2006 3:13PM

Took me a minute to figure this out, and then I re-read it a couple times and finally the important words "pause screen" registered in my head. Doh.

Awesome. ;D

asurroca @ Jul 6th 2006 5:55PM

Neat idea. Somehow, it leaves me wishing that Nintendo had implemented something simliar the points system the Xbox 360 uses. It would be nice getting some sort of kudos added to your Wi-Fi score or something for beating this challenge mode...

Krunk @ Jul 6th 2006 8:46PM

Im playing through the game again in this mode and I found that world 2 level 3 you can backtrack, this is the underground pipe level. You cannot beat this level without backtracking.

andyr @ Jul 7th 2006 11:14AM

I have really enjoyed revisiting my love afair with Super Mario Bros (original) and Super Mario World. Both seem nicely rapped up in this package.

I had been hoping for some unlockables like this. Something more akin to the mirror tracks in Mariokart would have been more of an interesting challenge. Who knows perhaps we just need to find the right code.

Vance @ Jul 7th 2006 9:31PM

Hey, i read everywhere that to get to locked worlds 4 and 7 you have to defeat the boss of the last castle of worlds 2 and 5 as mini mario........ok............how the F do you do that? there is no way to bp thgem on the head as mini mario, and no other way to beat them. please help me, thanks

drew @ Jul 8th 2006 3:01AM

jump over them!

drew @ Jul 8th 2006 3:02AM

Jump over them!

oneshotbilly @ Jul 8th 2006 12:26PM

u have to ground pound them...

Wilerson @ Jul 9th 2006 10:23AM

If it's too hard, you may leave your mini-mushroom in stock and use it before the last blow in the bosses. But it is not SO difficult to defeat the bosses as mini-Mario, you just have to time well your ground-pounds.

What IS difficult is to beat the final bosses as mini-Mario. Hell, it took me FOREVER to do it.