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Fan Reimagines Super Mario Bros. as an Unreal FPS – Gameplay

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A veteran level designer turned World 1-1 into a plunger-shooting first-person shooter for Mario’s big day.

Every March 10 — MAR10, get it — Nintendo fans mark unofficial Mario Day, and this year one developer marked it by blowing up the most famous level in gaming history. Sean Noonan, a level designer with credits on Far Cry and Watch Dogs, rebuilt World 1-1 from the original 1985 NES Super Mario Bros. as a fully 3D, first-person platformer-shooter in Unreal Engine 4. He called it The Super 1-1 Challenge, and IGN’s gameplay footage shows exactly why it’s been passed around all week.

• Sean Noonan released The Super 1-1 Challenge on March 10, 2020 (Mario Day), built entirely in Unreal Engine 4.
• Instead of a gun, players carry a red plunger-launcher to hit targets, take out Goombas, and smash question-mark blocks.
• The PC build went up free on itch.io under a “name your own price” model, timed specifically to the Mario Day release window.

From Far Cry Level Design to a MapCore Side Project

Noonan didn’t set out to make a viral Mario mod. The project began life as an entry in a MapCore game design challenge, the kind of community exercise level designers use to sharpen their craft outside the AAA pipeline they normally work in. Given his background shipping open-world shooter levels for Ubisoft-style franchises, reworking World 1-1 as a first-person environment was a natural stretch — but the tone he landed on was anything but a typical shooter.

A Plunger Instead of a Pistol

Rather than arm Mario with anything resembling a real firearm, Noonan built the combat around a red plunger-launcher gun. It’s used to pop Goombas, crack open blocks, and tag targets scattered through the level, keeping the project’s tone playful and non-violent rather than gritty. That single design choice is what separates The Super 1-1 Challenge from the dozens of “what if it was Doom” fan projects that treat the FPS conversion as an excuse for gore.

On itch.io it’s listed as “name your own price” — meaning zero dollars gets you the exact same plunger-launching, block-breaking run through World 1-1 that everyone else is playing.

Built for Speed and Verticality

IGN’s showcase footage runs through the level from a first-person perspective at genuine platformer speed, with players sprinting and jumping between floating platforms rather than walking a corridor. Unreal Engine 4’s lighting gives the bricks, pipes, and clouds a crisp, modern sheen while the textures stay deliberately faithful to the 8-bit original — a retro-modern contrast that’s become a signature move for fan remakes built in engines like this one, similar to the tech showcases developers have used to demo Unreal Engine 5’s capabilities. The run ends exactly where the NES version does: at the flagpole, capping off World 1-1 the same way it has since 1985.

Timed to the Day, and Free to Everyone

Noonan didn’t sit on the project. He pushed the finished PC build live on itch.io on March 10 itself, matching the release to Mario Day rather than waiting for a bigger platform or a publisher deal. That grassroots, pay-what-you-want release is part of a broader trend of solo and small-team developers using engine tools and graphics overhauls to reimagine decades-old games without needing Nintendo’s blessing — or a budget anywhere near one.

The build is still sitting on itch.io for whatever price you want to pay, plunger gun included, so if World 1-1 in first-person sounds like your kind of Tuesday night, it’s a five-minute download away.