Super Mario Bros. Adapted For Hololens, Then Played In Central Park

Microsoft's Hololens augmented reality headset may not have had a widespread consumer release yet--and it may never have one. But that didn't stop someone from getting one and taking advantage of its hardware to recreate Super Mario Bros. in it.

Abhishek Singh built the iconic first level of Mario to work in augmented reality, giving himself a first-person, three-dimensional view of the game. Level 1-1 has likely been recreated more times and in more ways than any other level in video games, but Singh's version is definitely an awesome new look at it.

Singh took his demo even further, however, by dressing up as Mario and proceeding to play through it on the sidewalks of Central Park in New York City. It's pretty hilarious to see a grown man wandering down the trail in a headset, punching blocks and jumping on Goombas. You can see the trailer above; it has both a first-person view and a side view.

This isn't the first time that Mario's been ported to Hololens, although it is the only first-person version. Last year, an inspired developer created versions of classic NES games that run on the headset. You can read more about them here.

Although Hololens is still fairly impractical and way out of most people's price range, it's encouraging to see possible applications of augmented reality in action. This is especially exciting considering that other tech companies--most notably Apple--are making big investments into the hardware.