Classic Nintendo Games are (Computationally) Hard
Computational Complexity
2015-02-10 v3 Computer Science and Game Theory
Abstract
We prove NP-hardness results for five of Nintendo's largest video game franchises: Mario, Donkey Kong, Legend of Zelda, Metroid, and Pokemon. 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 Pokemon role-playing games. In addition, we prove PSPACE-completeness of the Donkey Kong Country games and several Legend of Zelda games.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1203.1895,
title = {Classic Nintendo Games are (Computationally) Hard},
author = {Greg Aloupis and Erik D. Demaine and Alan Guo and Giovanni Viglietta},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1203.1895},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
36 pages, 36 figures. Fixed some typos. Added NP-hardness results (with proofs and figures) for American SMB2 and Zelda 2