Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker – Mummy-Me Maze Forever

As mentioned in the review for Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, the game does end on a challenge level that probably no one asked for – the "Mummy-Me Maze Forever". In there you are getting chased by one or multiple Cosmic Clones of Toad wrapped in bandages. There are similar bonus games that appear from time to time, meant for you to collect some coins and lives, but those only last for one minute. This here lasts until you die or reach the end... on floor 50.

It's a very Mario thing to do. Often the Super Mario games, whether it's 2D or 3D, invite you to complete them with per-level collectibles, such as Big Coins or Green Stars, on a mostly moderate difficulty level. This can be very fun and addicting, but your efforts are usually rewarded with some special course or world at the end, where the difficulty suddenly spikes and you're playing something straight out of Super Mario Maker (well, it's arguably not that bad). To be fair, the Mummy-Me Maze Forever is completely different in gameplay, but it does deliver that typical endgame challenge.

And while I was replaying Captain Toad on my Nintendo Switch, I've dreaded to return to this special stage, knowing that I will have to go through it again for true completion... It's like facing a tall mountain after a relaxing journey through flat terrain. However, it didn't turn out so bad. While it took me still more attempts than I'm willing to admit, I stayed motivated to try this maze again and again until I finally beat it... once more.

There are a number of tips on the internet about this challenge (for example on Reddit), but the most important realization is to not get distracted by coins too much. The bonus objective asks you to collect 5000, but the final floor alone will give you around 2000, so there is no need to go out of your way to collect more coins. This saves you from wasting time and making mistakes. Maybe you want to get a bit of a buffer during the earlier, easier floors, but that's it.

Later on you want to be heading straight for the exit, which is always placed at the opposite corner from where you start. It takes a while for the Mummy-Mes to spawn on each floor, where I usually just stand still for a second or two and turn the camera around to potentially scout the quickest (or only) route.

Luck can be a deciding factor in this challenge. Each floor has a preset of what and how many enemies will appear, which is helpful to know in advance to not get flanked, but the layout of the maze and any items in it (like the occasional Super Mushroom or Pickaxe) are entirely randomly generated each time. And sometimes you just need to get lucky, so that the way to the next floor is very straight-forward.

Hugging the walls can be a life savior, especially when you're chased by multiple mummies and you end up in a dead end. But for the most part you want to make sure that it never gets to that. Also, staying too close to the walls may also get you stuck accidentally on a corner, which can result in a hit. The last 15 floors are especially evil, because the fourth Mummy-Me falls so far behind that he can easily blindside you whenever you have to take a turn, so heading straight for the exit is usually your best strategy. This means that the quicker you get an overview of the current maze, the better.

I'm also not sure about turning the headlight off. To me it never made a big difference, because you will have to get so close to enemies in your path that they will notice you anyway. And you certainly want to keep the headlines on in the floors with Boos on them, because this is the only way to stun them.

The other enemies can be stunned with the touchscreen or motion-controlled pointer, where it's easier with the latter. With most enemies you don't have to bother, but it can be critical with the Fire Flowers, which are the enemies that hit me the most often. And I highly recommend to run via the ZL button (which has to be remapped in the system settings), so you never have to take your thumb off the right analogue stick. If you have someone to help you, you could also cheese things with Assist Mode.

Your efforts will be rewarded with a crown that Captain Toad or Toadette will be proudly wearing going forward. Well, since you most likely have already completed the rest of the game, this won't see much usage, unless you are saving it for the DLC courses in the Special Episode, like I did. And this will be the last topic about Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, coming tomorrow.