ABZ Button Challenge

The ABZ button challenge, short ABZBC, is a challenge in which the sum of the numbers of A, B, and Z button presses is minimized. That means pressing the A button once will be better than pressing B once and Z once, or the B button twice, while pressing the Z button once will be better than pressing the A button twice.

Since the A button is used for making Mario jump, it tends to be the most frequently used button in this challenge. This challenge is about accomplishing as much as possible without and with each button press, rather than finding ways to virtually never use a certain button.

Another big factor are textboxes. Advancing through text requires pressing either the A or the B button, meaning that minimizing A, B, and Z presses also leads to minimizing text whenever that is possible with fewer button presses. The challenge is also optimally played on the European PAL version, where the language with the shortest text for a level can be selected after each Save and Quit.