Classic Nintendo games are (computationally) hard

Author(s)
Aloupis, Greg; Demaine, Erik D; Guo, Alan Xinyu; Viglietta, Giovanni
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Abstract
We prove NP-hardness results for five of Nintendo's largest video game franchises: Mario, Donkey Kong, Legend of Zelda, Metroid, and Pokémon. Our results apply to generalized versions of Super Mario Bros.1-3, The Lost Levels, and Super Mario World; Donkey Kong Country 1-3; all Legend of Zelda games; all Metroid games; and all Pokémon role-playing games. In addition, we prove PSPACE-completeness of the Donkey Kong Country games and several Legend of Zelda games. Keywords: Nintendo games; Video games; Computational complexity; NP-hardness; PSPACE-hardness
Date issued
2015-06
URI
https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/121347
Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Journal
Theoretical Computer Science
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Citation
Aloupis, Greg et al. "Classic Nintendo games are (computationally) hard." Theoretical Computer Science 586 (June 2015): 135-160 © 2015 Elsevier B.V.
Version: Original manuscript
ISSN
0304-3975
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