Nintendo’s iconic plumber has made the jump into the real world thanks to a Mario 64 Mixed Reality project on Meta Quest 3. Using augmented reality technology, the Nintendo mascot can now jump, hop and clamber on your real world pipes.
Shared on the Oculus subreddit, one talented developer has converted Mario 64’s brilliant platforming into a mixed reality setting. Using a mixed reality headset, the plumber can hop around and on top of real-life objects such as a desk, stacks of books and more.
The prototype was made by mapping out an environment in Blender and importing the Mario 64 plugin, a tool that lets players control Mario in their 3D renders. Afterwards, the user connected their Quest 3 headset to the Virtual Desktop app and played the tech demo in the real world.
Unfortunately, this is just a proof of concept and doesn’t technically work outside of this specifically created setup. However, there is a possibility that someone could create a version of this app that plays within any real environment in the future.
As creator Ilbsidezll explains, “In theory, you could get it working on the fly. The Quest 3 does generate geometry for your space when using built in AR apps. Using that, plus the PC port of Mario 64, I'm sure you could build something that runs natively on the quest.”
The proof of concept creator does explain that the creation of such a unique game would result in a swift Cease and Desist order from Nintendo. However, the idea of a Mario 64 mixed reality platformer could easily become a reality if someone wanted to.
This Mario 64 tech demo isn’t the only mixed reality platformer around. In fact, Microsoft created a mixed reality platformer for its military-backed HoloLens platform back in 2018 with Young Conker. Based off the iconic Nintendo 64 character, the platformer generated obstacles and collectibles around your real world environment for Conker to collect. There have also been plenty of virtual reality platformers such as Lucky’s Tale and Moss.
With augmented reality passthrough to become even better on the Meta Quest 3 headset over time, the concept of a true augmented reality platformer could be really interesting. As other AR tech evolves, such as AR smart glasses like the XReal Air 2, we could see more software like this in the future.
The Meta Quest 3 headset is available to buy right now at major retailers.