'Super Mario Bros. 35' Evokes Nintendo's Strained Relationship With Fan Developers

In early 2019, game developer and Youtuber Infernoplus had an idea — what if he took a classic video game and gave it a contemporary twist?

That game was the original Super Mario Bros for the Nintendo Entertainment System, and to lend it a modern touch, Infernoplus — who prefers to go by his online username — wanted to turn it into a Fortnite-inspired "battle royale" game. "I had kind of jokingly said at the time you can make anything into a battle royale," he tells NPR. "Every single game publisher in the world wanted to make one at that particular moment."

The battle royale genre sees a large number of players compete against one another to be the last player standing.

Using some code borrowed from a prior game design project, Infernoplus got to work. He designed a map-editing tool that allowed him to painstakingly re-create the original levels. Then, he