Both Super Mario and Minecraft are landmarks in video game development, with both franchises going down in history as some of the most successful in the industry. With a sealed copy of Mario 64 selling for an extraordinary amount recently, and the Mojang-made blocky universe selling more than 200 million copies, it's evident that games don't need to be the most visually impressive, or have the biggest budgets, to do extremely well. With that in mind, one fan of both games has managed to put the two together.
Posting to Twitter a couple of days ago, a games programmer and modder, who goes by Dylan, is currently working on a project which brings Mario into the world of Minecraft. More specifically, the tweet says that this work-in-progress allows the open world sandbox title to actually run the Mario 64 engine. Alongside that, Dylan also uploaded a short clip which shows the polygonal plumber running around Minecraft's universe, interacting with the environment and even using his trademark N64 punch to attack mobs.
At one point in the video, Mario even jumps into a portal to take the player to Minecraft's nether realm, before eventually entering the End Portal to fight the Ender Dragon. Essentially, this mod seems to replace Steve with Nintendo's champion mascot, in an impressive looking add-on that looks pretty fun to play. Sadly, an additional tweet later on revealed that Dylan will not be making his mod available for public download. He says all he is able to do, for now at least, is post "silly videos" showing what he's getting up to in his Minecraft/Mario 64 crossover.
The reason he won't be making it public is down to Nintendo potentially cracking down on the unofficial add-on. Nintendo has been quite ruthless in the past with DMCA takedowns, removing hundreds of fan-made titles from games services like Game Jolt. It is a bit of a shame the modder can't upload it, so others can have a go themselves, but given the company's propensity for removing unlicensed content, many will understand his reasoning.
Of course, it hasn't stopped fans from recreating Mario elements using the blocky game's own building mechanics. Earlier this year, one fan was able to recreate Super Mario Bros. inside Minecraft, specifically World 1-1. This faithful recreation added every feature from the level, including a 1-Up and a fire flower. Such fan creations, along with Dylan's mod that will unfortunately not be playable by anyone else, show just how much the world of Minecraft and Mario seemingly fit well together.
Minecraft is available now for Mobile, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.