News

Fan Spends 7 Years To Create Super Mario Bros 5

Nintendo won’t be making a Super Mario Bros 5, so a dedicated fan took matters into his own hands — and the results are epic.

Published

4 years ago

September 27, 2022

Nour Nasir

fan spends 7 years to create super mario bros 5

A Mario Bros fan known as “Metroid Mike 64” has finished a massive project over 7 years in the making. Mike used Mario Maker 2 to build the new game and has unofficially given the 2D platform game the Super Mario Bros 5 moniker.

Metroid Mike heavily utilized the World Maker update for Mario Maker 2, which allows users to stitch together multiple levels into full games, including world maps. The dedicated fan brought together 40 courses spread over 8 worlds, with, according to Mike himself, “24 courses from Super Mario World, 14 from SMB3, and 2 courses from SMB.”

This Super World features 40 full courses spread across 8 worlds. 24 courses from Super Mario World, 14 from SMB3 and 2 courses from SMB. There are no courses from NSMBU or SM3DW, only the classics. So if NES/SNES 2D Mario is your jam, this game is for you. pic.twitter.com/y1hFPXhRW5

— Metroid Mike 64 (@MetroidMike64) September 25, 2022

The unofficial game comes from a fondness of the NES and SNES era of games, with obvious nods to some of their hallmark bosses, world maps, and puzzles.

“[I’ve been trying to] provide players with something Nintendo should’ve done already, and a full Mario game within Super Mario Maker 2, that’s fun as heck,” says Metroid Mike 64.

The response to the epic project has been overwhelmingly positive, with Mike’s announcement generating 4,000 retweets and 25,000 likes at the time of publishing this article, with users highly praising the attention to detail and satisfying gameplay.

Also Read: Nvidia Announces New Flagship RTX 4090 & RTX 4080 GPUs

Many people on Twitter have pointed out the oddity of a fan having to take matters into their own hands since Nintendo hasn’t released a 2D Mario game since 2012. Although the console giant has made games in that timeframe, none have been in the classic 2D format that fans seem to love so much.

If you’re a fan of the classic 2D SNES and NES games yourself, you can take Mike’s Super Mario Bros 5 for a spin by typing in the Mario Maker 2 ID, 0G9-XN4-FNF.

News

Microsoft Plans $10 Billion-Plus Gulf Expansion Despite Iran Conflict

Security is shaping Microsoft’s approach, from resilience work with governments to what it will say about how the money splits by country.

Published

4 days ago

September 24, 2026

Nour Nasir

Microsoft

Microsoft is planning more than $10 billion of investment across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait through 2030, Vice Chair and President Brad Smith told Reuters, calling the spending schedule aggressive. The Iranian conflict that began on February 28 has not persuaded the company to scale back.

“We’re sustaining all the investments we planned to make before this conflict started, and we are in fact adding to them,” Smith said. The $10 billion-plus total does not, however, show how large those additions are.

The investment, which Smith described as part of Microsoft’s continued infrastructure expansion, is aimed at cloud and AI infrastructure and at the company’s growing regional operations. Microsoft also intends to put more than $400 million into subsea and terrestrial connectivity across the Middle East by 2030.

The spending fits the region’s own ambitions too. Gulf governments have been investing heavily in AI infrastructure as part of a push to diversify their economies beyond oil and gas and turn themselves into global technology hubs. Major cloud and AI providers have been drawn in part by the land and relatively low-cost energy on offer.

Microsoft is widening its partnerships with regional AI companies, though not on identical terms. In 2024, it invested $1.5 billion in Abu Dhabi-based G42 for a minority stake, and Smith currently sits on G42’s board. Saudi Arabia’s Humain and Qatar’s Qai are working with Microsoft on selected priority areas, but Smith said the company does not plan to make capital investments in either.

Also Read: Egypt’s Mobile Wallets Are Booming, But Cash Still Has Power

The conflict has added another strand to Microsoft’s work in the region. Since it began, Smith said, the company has supported regional partners with digital resilience assessments, and it is now working with Gulf countries through a digital resilience initiative focused on preparedness and the protection of critical data.

So far, the company has given no country-by-country breakdown of the investment, citing security among other factors. So while the headline figure is public, how Microsoft divides the spending among the four countries is not.