mario parkour01

For those who don’t know, parkour is a non-competitive sport where people propel themselves through their environment by running, climbing, and flipping their way across city structures like a giant jungle gym. A couple of days ago, Nintendo of America released a documentary-style video called “Finding Luigi: Legend of Parkour,” likening the amazing jumps and flips that the character can perform to the real-world practice of parkour.

Around the same time, fans of Nintendo put together their own parkour video, “Mario Bros Parkour,” wherein two sporty guys play the parts of the famous plumbing brothers as they flip their way through a 3-D enhanced world.  Read on for a peek at both of these awesome videos!

Nintendo’s parkour production introduces Luigi, aka “The L Man,” as a master of parkour. It’s certainly true that the lean, green, goomba-stomping machine jumps both higher and farther than his stout older sibling. They interview Luigi’s friends, fans, and parkour professionals for their opinions on this mysterious master of the sport.

The fan-made video takes a different approach. Mario and Luigi, played by Christian Russell and Ronnie Shalvis respectively, take on the world in a free-running challenge. 3-D effects turn everyday objects into obstacles straight from the Mario games, allowing the pair to effectively break blocks, collect coins, stomp enemies, and utilize warp pipes. Remixed music from the original games give the video an extra air of nostalgia, though they do toss in some short references to the somewhat newer games, Super Mario Sunshine and Super Mario Galaxy.

Even though both of these videos originated in America, they’ve been getting some positive attention around Japan and particularly impressed the people over at Japanese site, Game Spark Global Gaming News. But remember, no matter where you hail from, leave the parkour to the plumbing professionals and don’t try this stuff at home, unless you’ve got an actual 1-Up mushroom on hand.

Source: Game Spark (Japanese)