Play Cyborg Mario Online

Okay, so picture this: Mario, but he’s gone full Blade Runner. Instead of fire flowers, he’s got arm cannons. Instead of hopping on Goombas, he’s zapping them with lasers. Cyborg Mario takes everything you love about the original NES game—the tight jumps, the hidden blocks, that weirdly satisfying coin sound—and slaps a neon sci-fi coat of paint on it.

The first level throws you right into it: you’re still running left to right, but now there’s this weird mechanical hum in the background, and Mario’s sprite has these clunky robot limbs. At first, I kept trying to stomp enemies out of habit, but nope—your new arm blaster makes short work of them. The power-ups are ridiculous in the best way. One turns you into a hovering drone for a few seconds, another lets you shoot ricocheting energy bolts. It shouldn’t work, but somehow it does.

It’s obviously not official, but that’s part of the charm. The levels are just familiar enough to feel cozy, but the cyborg gimmick keeps you on your toes. By world 3, you’ll be chain-bouncing off robotized Koopas like some kind of 8-bit action hero. If you’ve ever wondered what Mario would look like if he fell into a vat of nanomachines, here’s your answer.