- Retro Swap
- Posts
- Minus World 2.0: A Hidden Dimension Discovered in Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels
Minus World 2.0: A Hidden Dimension Discovered in Super Mario Bros: The Lost Levels
PLUS: Polyfighter: The Low-Poly Roguelike That Punches Way Above Its Weight
Fun Fact: Pokémon Red & Blue’s MissingNo. glitch came from the way the game stored data for encounters and sprites.
In today’s email:
Go from AI overwhelmed to AI savvy professional
AI will eliminate 300 million jobs in the next 5 years.
Yours doesn't have to be one of them.
Here's how to future-proof your career:
Join the Superhuman AI newsletter - read by 1M+ professionals
Learn AI skills in 3 mins a day
Become the AI expert on your team
LEGO’s Game Boy Set Levels Up Retro Dreams
When a set makes you hear that familiar “click–click” of an original Game Boy’s power switch in your head? That’s when you know LEGO has done something special. The LEGO Game Boy isn’t just a retro display — it’s a lovingly detailed, tactile recreation that brings the DMG-01 back to life, one stud at a time.
Why This LEGO Set Hits Different
From the moment you see it, LEGO’s Game Boy set nails the proportions and familiar design cues in a way that surprises given its modest piece count. What really makes it shine, though, is how everything from the D-pad to the contrast wheel, volume dial, and on/off slider is built to feel “right” — with careful tolerances, satisfying movement, and a little rubber piece under the D-pad to give that familiar resistance.
Even better? The set includes interchangeable lenticular “screen” tiles (so you can slide in scenes like Mario or Kirby) and click-in cartridges that snap into place — little touches that make you pause and say, “Yeah, that’s how it should feel.”
Builders have noted how the switches and wheels feel functional (within limits), and how the set lets you swap out the screen piece to change what’s “on display.”
History, Design & Launch — The Brick-by-Brick Story
A Nostalgic Canvas
The original Game Boy launched in 1989 and went on to become the portal for countless players into the world of handheld gaming. Rebuilding that legacy in plastic bricks is no small feat — yet LEGO’s designers seem to have leaned into it, using clever sub-assemblies, hidden parts, and mechanical play features (within the bounds of a display model) to convey that same “this is real” feeling.
Build & Features
Piece count & size: The set is relatively compact (somewhere in the realm of a few hundred pieces) but feels weighty and solid when done.
Functional details: The on/off switch slides with a satisfying detent. The contrast and volume wheels turn (no live effect on anything, of course). The D-pad sits on a rubbery element to give feedback.
Screen & cartridges: Lenticular screen tiles move subtly to convey animation, and the cartridges click securely into the slot — and switching them out is part of the fun.
Pricing & Availability
As of October 2025, the LEGO Game Boy is available globally under the price point of $59.99 USD / £54.99 in the UK. At that price, it’s one of the more affordable LEGO nostalgia sets in recent memory.
One caveat: while the main set is broadly available, certain cartridge designs or lenticular screens might be limited in region or retailer exclusives. Trade or import may be the way to level up your collection.
Modding Already?
Yes, already. Some fans have reportedly modded the set to play real games by installing microcontrollers and screens built into the shell. It’s early, but it shows how much community passion this set is inspiring.
Official price at launch: $59.99 USD / £54.99 UK (a surprisingly consumer-friendly price for a detailed licensed set)
Screen art options: Lenticular inserts include scenes like Mario Bros and Kirby sliding animations
Hidden detail love: The build includes subtle details like the fake circuit board, printed parts, and carefully placed logos
Not a play device (yet): As shipped, it’s a display/build model — though modders are exploring ways to make it “real”
Design philosophy: The LEGO designers leaned into tactile realism and mechanical feedback to evoke the handheld’s feel
Final Save — Time to Build Your Legacy
At nearly seven years into the 2020s, this LEGO Game Boy set reminds us why we first loved hardware: for the shape of its shell, the click of its buttons, the memories tied to each pixel. Whether you're a minimalist display purist or someone dreaming of modded circuits someday, this set is a love letter in brick form.
Polyfighter: The Low-Poly Roguelike That Punches Way Above Its Weight
When it comes to indie roguelikes, few manage to look as stylish and punch as hard as Polyfighter, a new single-player gem that just dropped this week on Steam and PlayStation 5. Imagine the chaotic brawling energy of Power Stone fused with the relentless loop of Hades—then wrap it all in a chunky, low-poly aesthetic straight out of a forgotten Dreamcast dev kit. That’s Polyfighter in a nutshell: brutal, beautiful, and brilliantly replayable.
A Polygon-Packed Brawler With Heart
Developed by the small but hungry team at Neon Tusk Studios, Polyfighter doesn’t try to hide its retro inspirations. Its blocky fighters, neon backdrops, and crunchy soundtrack harken back to late-’90s arcade cabinets and early 3D console brawlers. But beneath the nostalgia lies a modern gameplay loop: each run drops you into a series of procedurally generated combat arenas where every punch, kick, and parry earns you currency to unlock new moves, modifiers, and power-ups.
Death isn’t the end—it’s just another data point. Enemies evolve based on your playstyle, learning your combos over time. One run might see you cleaving through android ninjas; the next, you’re facing mirror versions of your own loadout, AI and all.
Gameplay Breakdown
Fight. Fall. Adapt. Repeat.
Each “cycle” in Polyfighter plays out as a tournament ladder—five rounds, one life. You’ll choose from a roster of six starting combatants, each with distinct move sets and evolving skill trees. As you progress, you can mix fighting styles, creating wild hybrid builds like a capoeira-brawler with sniper precision strikes or a sumo-mech that absorbs hits to unleash explosive counters.
Combat: Fast, physics-driven, with breakable environments and momentum-based damage.
Progression: Permanent skill unlocks tied to your “fighter DNA,” a clever meta-system that evolves across runs.
Replay Value: Dozens of hidden fighters, stages, and “retro trials” that remix mechanics into classic arcade challenges.
Launch Details & Exclusivity
Polyfighter launched worldwide on October 8, 2025, for Poly Fighter on Steam, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S, with a Nintendo Switch version due later this winter. There’s also a Japan-exclusive Deluxe Edition featuring an artbook, soundtrack, and alternate box art styled after ’90s Capcom fighters—an absolute must-have for collectors.
Quick Notes
Developer: Neon Tusk Studios (founded by ex-Ubisoft and indie dev alumni)
Engine: Unreal Engine 5
Inspiration: Power Stone, Hades, Virtua Fighter 3, and Jet Set Radio
Development Time: 3 years
Hidden Easter Egg: Inputting the Konami Code at the title screen unlocks “Polygon Zero,” a wireframe fighter modeled after the devs’ first prototype
Final Round
Polyfighter is one of those rare indie releases that doesn’t just tug at nostalgia—it reanimates it, then gives it a flurry of uppercuts. Whether you’re here for the roguelike loop or the retro arcade vibes, this one’s worth every retry.
Ready to test your polygonal grit? Grab Polyfighter today and see if you can survive the cycle.
After nearly 40 years, a new “Minus World” has been uncovered in Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels — and yes, it’s every bit as bizarre, secretive, and nostalgic as the original. Discovered by fans diving deep into the game’s data and physics quirks, this new glitch world feels like a lost artifact from the golden age of Nintendo trickery.
A Secret Lost to Time
For decades, the “Minus World” of the original Super Mario Bros. has been one of gaming’s most famous urban legends — an impossible underwater purgatory reached through a wall glitch in World 1-2. But now, a dedicated community of ROM hackers and preservationists has found a spiritual sibling hiding within The Lost Levels, the 1986 Japanese sequel known for its brutal difficulty and limited Western release.
The newly discovered world — dubbed “World -1” — can be accessed via a series of ultra-precise jumps and block manipulations in World 3-1 of The Lost Levels. Once entered, players are transported to a surreal, looping environment unlike any other stage, complete with warped tiles, erratic enemy patterns, and an endless cycle that echoes the original Minus World’s strange allure.
The Lost Levels’ Regional Legacy
Released in Japan as Super Mario Bros. 2 for the Famicom Disk System, The Lost Levels pushed the NES hardware (and players’ patience) to the limit. It wasn’t officially released in the West until the Super Mario All-Stars collection hit the SNES in 1993. This regional exclusivity made it the stuff of myth — whispered about in gaming magazines, yet largely unplayed by fans outside Japan until years later.
That mystique only adds to the thrill of this new discovery. Like the original Minus World, The Lost Levels’ glitch dimension wasn’t designed by Nintendo — it’s the byproduct of the game’s complex level data and transition logic, a perfect storm of 8-bit limitations and player ingenuity.
Gameplay Chaos Meets Digital Archaeology
What makes this find fascinating isn’t just the existence of a new hidden world — it’s the way it was unearthed. Modders analyzed tile maps, memory states, and warp routines to reveal how this dimension could exist undetected for so long. When entered, the game’s code attempts to load nonstandard level data, creating scrambled textures and unpredictable physics. In other words, it’s a digital fossil — a bug that became art.
And while it’s not officially “playable” through normal means, enthusiasts have already begun producing fan patches and emulator setups that allow players to safely explore the hidden level without crashing their game.
Quick Notes
The Lost Levels was too hard for the West — Nintendo of America rejected it in 1986, leading to Super Mario Bros. 2 (the Doki Doki Panic reskin) instead.
Originally released on the Famicom Disk System in Japan in 1986.
Western players didn’t officially see it until Super Mario All-Stars (SNES, 1993).
The “Minus World” bug from the first Super Mario Bros. became one of gaming’s earliest viral myths, even appearing in early gaming magazines and documentaries.
The new “Minus World” discovery was documented in October 2025, nearly 40 years after the original.
A Glitch Worth Celebrating
Whether you’re a retro historian or just a Mario fan who loves a good mystery, this discovery is a reminder of what makes classic gaming magical — the idea that even after decades of play, these pixelated worlds still have secrets left to give.
Fire up your emulator, polish those warp zone skills, and get ready to fall into another digital rabbit hole — because in The Lost Levels, the adventure (and the glitches) never truly end.
Want more retro discoveries like this?
Subscribe for weekly spotlights on lost levels, fan restorations, and pixel-perfect nostalgia.
Reply