Hold Up, Did a Mario Wizard Just Break Reality in 'Odyssey' After 8 Years? Bloody Hell!
AI Gaming News Author · Polygon ·
After eight years of dedicated effort, a Super Mario Odyssey player known as GamesJam has finally achieved the 'impossible' Lakitu 'freedom glitch' in the Sand Kingdom, brilliantly exploiting leaf physics and moon collection mechanics to break the character free from its confines. This feat highlights the incredible persistence and ingenuity of the gaming community, proving that no digital barrier is truly unbreachable when 'Mario sickos' are on the case.
Right, so apparently Super Mario Odyssey had an 'impossible' trick that dedicated players have been chasing for *eight years*. EIGHT. YEARS. You know that feeling when you cast a spell and it works a bit too well, blowing a hole in the fabric of reality? That's what some absolute mad lads (and lasses) just did, proving that when gamers say 'impossible,' they usually mean 'we haven't found the right sequence of cosmic events yet.'
I've been tinkering with this story all morning, and bloody hell, it's wilder than it first appeared. We're not talking about your casual Mario player here, mate. We're talking about the 'Mario sickos' (and yes, that's a compliment from the original source, Polygon, and I'm sticking with it!)—the ones who'd probably still be trying to beat levels without pressing 'A' even if the Switch 2 spontaneously manifested as a sentient, game-playing toaster. These are the digital archaeologists, the glitch hunters, the folks who squeeze every last drop of juice out of a game, long after the rest of us have moved on to the next shiny thing.
Their current obsession? 'Freedom' glitches. Sounds a bit dramatic, eh? But essentially, it's about breaking characters free from their pre-programmed digital prisons. See, in Odyssey, Mario's Cappy mechanic lets him possess (or 'capture') various creatures – Goombas, Chain Chomps, you name it. But these transformations usually come with a digital leash, right? You can't just take a captured Chain Chomp for a stroll through another kingdom; Mario usually reverts back to his fleshy self. Freedom glitches are about severing that leash, letting the capture run wild, defying the very boundaries the developers set.
Now, the community's had some wins over the years. We've seen RC cars and Letter captures roaming free in the Metro Kingdom. But some of these escapes are harder than finding a quiet corner at a LAN party. Remember the Moe-Eye in the Sand Kingdom? One player, in 2023, spent a grueling 14 hours trying to pull off its freedom glitch. Fourteen hours of pausing, fiddling with loading zones, just inching a virtual cyclops forward. It's the kind of dedication that makes you wonder if they're trying to solve the game or achieve enlightenment. Casual onlookers might just see a guy pressing 'pause' a lot, but underneath it all, it's a testament to player determination, pure and simple.
But the Holy Grail, the Moby Dick of freedom glitches, has been Lakitu in the Sand Kingdom. Eight years, folks. Eight years of theories, abandoned attempts, and muttered incantations. A player known as GamesJam took up the mantle this past January, brainstorming and testing like a mad scientist in a digital lab. As fellow glitch hunter Relaxmas told Polygon, "Freeing Lakitu in Sand seemed like a lost cause. The walls around the oasis are way too high and Lakitu is basically a brick wall when you try to push him with other objects." Fair dinkum, sounded pretty impossible.
GamesJam tried everything. Dropping leaves with Glydon. Clipping onto the map in just the right way. Nothing. For months, it was just throwing digital spaghetti at a wall, hoping something would stick. But a sneaky suspicion lingered, a whisper from the digital ether: the palm trees. Their wonky physics, specifically. If you stand on the leaves during a cutscene (which, cleverly, stops in-game time), those leaves still accrue momentum. Think of it like a spring loading up, even if the world around it is frozen. And what two things reliably stop time? Triggering a moon, and picking up a moon. Ding! The eureka moment hit like a perfectly aimed green shell.
Here’s where it gets proper wizard-level intricate. GamesJam combined those leaf physics with the kingdom’s roving moon. There's a bird that flies around the perimeter, eventually bringing a moon down into the oasis area. In a stroke of genius, GamesJam smacked the bird to spawn its moon *under* a palm leaf. All the while, they’re playing in two-player mode – crucial, because it detaches Cappy’s actions from Mario’s. So, Mario collects the moon, which momentarily freezes the game to congratulate him. But in that split second, as the leaf under Mario is accumulating all that spring-loaded momentum from the 'frozen' cutscene, Cappy (controlled separately, remember?) swoops in, grabs Lakitu, and pulls him just high enough. The leaf, now effectively a catapult, springs into action, launching Lakitu clean over the oasis walls! Voila. An eight-year impossible dream, shattered in a few precise frames.
Now, you might be thinking, "Setting Lakitu free is cool and all, but... why?" Why spend years on a character you can enjoy perfectly fine under normal game rules? GamesJam admits it's not even useful for speedruns, though it does slot into a niche challenge run where players try to beat the game without pressing ZL and ZR. Is that exciting? Depends on who you ask, but judging by the community's reaction, it's a bloody triumph.
But the real answer, the one that resonates deep in the core of any true gamer, seems to be a simple, profound, "Why not?" As Relaxmas puts it, "I’m very proud to be part of a community that will go to such lengths to squeeze every ounce out of our favorite video game." And honestly, mate, that's what it's all about. It's not just about beating the game; it's about understanding its deepest secrets, pushing its boundaries, and proving that sometimes, the most impossible challenges are just waiting for the right digital wizard to cast the perfect, chaotic spell. A huge hat-tip to GamesJam for their incredible persistence and ingenuity!
This fascinating journey into Super Mario Odyssey's hidden depths was first chronicled by Polygon. You can read their original reporting at.
Tags: SuperMarioOdyssey, GlitchHunting, GamingCommunity, PlayerIngenuity, NintendoSwitch
Original article: Polygon