Green Demon Challenge

The Green Demon Challenge is a somewhat popular Self-Imposed Challenge for Super Mario 64 that revolves around the 1-Up Mushroom. The aim of the challenge is to collect all 8 Red Coins and the Power Star it spawns in some of the game's particular worlds while avoiding a 1-up Mushroom that homes in on you (the titular "Green Demon"). In normal gameplay, there are only four worlds where that particular type of 1-up can be spawned. The challenge is derived from the fact that the 1-up Mushroom in question is decently fast and can travel freely, testing the player's movement and knowledge of the stage as it requires complex and creative maneuvers in order to keep it away.

The challenge was rather popular in Japan for years after the game's release; said popularity spiked after the Game Grumps posted videos showcasing their attempt at it. Before long, it became the subject of its own ROM Hack, most notably played by YouTuber SimpleFlips. The hack mostly resembles the base version of Super Mario 64 with two critical differences:


 * 1) A homing 1-up now spawns in every world, and appears soon after Mario enters the stage.
 * 2) Both it and every other 1-up now reduces Mario's health to 0 if he touches it.

The ROM hack can be found here.


 * Names To Run Away From Really Fast: The titular Green Demon, in a literal sense.
 * ROM Hack: The challenge gained enough notoriety to spawn one.
 * Super-Persistent Predator: The 1-Up Mushroom can and often will clip through the walls of the stage to reach Mario, effectively turning it into one of these.
 * Weaksauce Weakness: In some stages it's possible to trap the mushroom behind certain walls, allowing the player to collect the Red Coins at their leisure.


 * Kaizo Trap: The mushroom can still catch Mario during his star-collecting animation. Downplayed in that things proceed as normal, and Mario will only actually lose a life after the player chooses to continue the game.
 * Meaningless Lives: The most recent versions of the ROM hack adds infinite lives.
 * Memetic Mutation: After SimpleFlips' playthrough, the Green Demon became one of many recurring community memes, and was one of the available options for views during a Crowd Control playthrough of Super Mario 64.
 * SimpleFlips himself created a stage designed around the challenge in Super Mario Maker 2.
 * One-Hit Kill/Poison Mushroom: All 1-Up Mushrooms become literal poison mushrooms that are lethal on contact.
 * Unwinnable: Dire, Dire Docks is considered to be unbeatable in this mode, as Mario spawns over the water, which slows him down too much to get away from the 1-Up Mushroom in time.