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Hardest rom hack beaten by human(s) ?

Kaizo mario world 3 and grand poo world 2 both seem really hard but several people have been able to beat these and even speedrun them so it should be possible to make something much harder than that and still have someone beat it eventually (given enough time).

Any current hack like that?
If pit hacks count, then ARMAGEDDON should hopefully suit your tastes

Seriously though, a myriad of hacks harder than the ones you described have been launched recently, such as Odd Sands, which is a hack I consider tougher than your average kaizo hack but still enjoyable. Also, a lot of people have 100%'d it.
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Hardest thing ever done in RTA? Fruit Dealer immediately comes to mind. (Footnote: this boss is originally only a small part of a much, much larger stage that I doubt anyone is interested in clearing legit. It wasn't made for that purpose, anyway.)

Another one that has me very impressed is Casio, an infamously difficult hack that took many very experienced players over 2 days of playtime to beat. The current WR sits under 19 minutes.
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i imagine since your examples are smw hacks, that you mean hardest smw hacks - so i'll move this to smw hacking discussion.

there are some weird suggestions thrown out here though. i don't think gpw2 is nearly as hard as kaizo 3 tbh, i also don't think odd sands is of the upper echelon of hardest kaizo hacks beaten by humans (which i take to mean rta, considering the references of speedrunning).

this question in general is hard to ask precisely, given different people find different things difficult. there's also a plethora of kaizo hacks that focus on mastering a specific form of tech, like tjb's cape hacks... or tjb's midair hacks... or tjb's anythings.

in terms of raw difficulty all around the board, i find casio mario world, hackers dreams (any of the levels released so far), and search for salmon are mighty hard.
Originally posted by idol
i imagine since your examples are smw hacks, that you mean hardest smw hacks - so i'll move this to smw hacking discussion.

there are some weird suggestions thrown out here though. i don't think gpw2 is nearly as hard as kaizo 3 tbh

Yes gpw2 looks easier than kaizo 3.
Originally posted by idol

i also don't think odd sands is of the upper echelon of hardest kaizo hacks beaten by humans (which i take to mean rta, considering the references of speedrunning).

yes i meant RTA.

Originally posted by idol
this question in general is hard to ask precisely, given different people find different things difficult. there's also a plethora of kaizo hacks that focus on mastering a specific form of tech, like tjb's cape hacks... or tjb's midair hacks... or tjb's anythings.

in terms of raw difficulty all around the board, i find casio mario world, hackers dreams (any of the levels released so far), and search for salmon are mighty hard.

I have noticed that many of these hacks mentioned as potentially being the hardest have pretty short world records.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C14eG82AcNQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5H19pfH1p4

https://www.speedrun.com/the_search_for_salmon/run/y82jx81y
I think this is a very interesting question, and infact it's something I've discussed a few times in various twitch chats. I don't think there's a "correct" answer however, as broken down below...

Since SMW hacking has began, there have always been people who have tried to "push the envelope" when it comes to difficulty in their projects. This sometimes happened unintentionally, such as people testing their older hacks with savestates (for example, Luigi's Adventure 2004's infamous final level and the latter portions of Hyper 6), though it sometimes was the intention and built into the design (ie Kaizo 1-3).

However, I think recently, difficulty has resulted from "Specialization" in certain fields. A hack like Casio is "hard", but as long as you have a grasp on platforming, given enough time it's possible to beat. However, in the case of hacks from tjb or Sheffy, the difficulty comes from very specific tech that has to be pulled off. I'd argue that tech specialization leads to hacks that are harder than those that focus on general platforming, because they're made with the assumption that the player has a deep understanding of the tech that they use. Mod Cape and Midair Mastery require tech that the average player probably cannot do without hours upon hours of practice, which contrasts with simply learning a level. However, of course there are people willing to grind and beat those hacks regardless.

As it stands, I don't think there will ever be a "difficulty ceiling", recently people have started to RTA clear hacks that were never intended for that, such as Horrifying Mario World, Original Cool or Cruel, and (not as recent) Mario is Stupid. However, those hacks are still moreso learning a level rather than "learning tech", the latter of which I think leads to harder hacks.

People will continue to create harder and harder works, it's an inevitable thing. I foresee more hacks like tjb's and Sheffy in the future, and more people trying to push the difficulty as far as it can go. It'll be interesting to see what tech can produce the hardest level, but I suppose we'll just have to wait and find out.
Originally posted by Heraga
recently people have started to RTA clear hacks that were never intended for that, such as Horrifying Mario World, Original Cool or Cruel, and (not as recent) Mario is Stupid. However, those hacks are still moreso learning a level rather than "learning tech", the latter of which I think leads to harder hacks.

Wasn't that just the first 3 levels in cool or cruel? (beaten by linkdeadx2)

Horrifying Mario World was fully beaten in 62 hours

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpYIL-i0v_k
Originally posted by Koopster
Hardest thing ever done in RTA? Fruit Dealer immediately comes to mind. (Footnote: this boss is originally only a small part of a much, much larger stage that I doubt anyone is interested in clearing legit. It wasn't made for that purpose, anyway.)

Another one that has me very impressed is Casio, an infamously difficult hack that took many very experienced players over 2 days of playtime to beat. The current WR sits under 19 minutes.


OMG, when I saw that fruit dealer vid and was on edge the whole time. The hammers caused flashbacks, then it just got crazier from there. Dude must be an android.
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