Classic side-scrolling platform games are rarely the subject of modern remakes, especially for first-person remakes using modern gaming systems. However, a game developer named Abhishek Singh apparently doesn't think so. Singh has now published a brand new video on YouTube that shows a working demo he has made specifically for Microsoft's augmented reality headset, the Microsoft Hololens. The subject of his demo is the first stage of the original "Super Mario Bros." video game that was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) back in 1985.
Full recreation
The demo itself fully recreates the entire first stage of the classic game, complete with bricks, Super Mushrooms, Coins, Fire Flowers, Super Stars, Goombas, and Koopa Troopas. The stage itself is rendered in full three dimensions, which means that players are basically able to walk around obstacles such as pitfalls and pipes.
The developer has also stayed quite faithful to the original stage when he created the demo using Unity3D. With the use of the popular game development platform, Singh was able to create an experience that was quite unique when compared to other "Super Mario" remakes but still quite familiar.
Virtual experience
The demo also superimposes clouds, grass, and other stage elements into the player's line of sight, which is rather disorienting, to say the least.
The same can be said during the last part of the stage, which included a virtual flagpole and a castle. The end of the stage also included the iconic fireworks that shoot out from the castle celebrating Mario's successful run.
Entertaining demo
In the video above, Singh is shown actually playing the demo inside Central Park in New York City.
To properly showcase how the entire game works, Singh is also shown inside a picture-in-picture view, allowing people to see him walking around the park without the virtual elements. The entire stage is hilarious to witness given that there are actually people walking around the park who are confused at seeing a guy walking around in full Mario costume and wearing a virtual reality headset.
The demo itself was likely created just as a fun project for fans of the original "Super Mario Bros." title. It is highly unlikely that the demo will expand into a full blown game seeing as that there will be a lot of issues when it comes to licensing it for commercial use. However, the demo does prove that classic platform games can actually work very well as augmented reality or virtual reality remakes.
