One Button Challenge

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One Button Challenge
Abbreviation OBC
Individual stars collectible 3
Overall stars collectible 0
Is beatable No
Star Details
BoB

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WF

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JRB

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CCM

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BBH

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HMC

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LLL

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SSL

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DDD

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SL

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WDW

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TTM

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THI

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TTC

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RR

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Secret

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Castle

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Bowser

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The One Button Challenge, OBC for short, is a heavily restrictive challenge where the player is only allowed to use one button on the Nintendo 64 controller. The player decides when and how often to press, hold, and release the single chosen button, but all other inputs are off-limits. This contrasts with other challenges, like the A Button Challenge, in which one button is off-limits and all other inputs are allowed.

The challenge defines buttons as the controller inputs that are either pressed or unpressed at a given time, including the face buttons, D-pad directions, shoulders, and trigger. The Control Stick is not counted as a button due to its geometric input space; using only the stick is instead tracked under the Buttonless Challenge.

Because the B button is the only known viable button choice to complete any mission, the OBC is effectively a subset of the A and Z Button Challenges, and the opposite of the B Button Challenge.

Buttons

The Nintendo 64 controller has 14 different buttons.

A lets Mario jump. While jumping is fundamental in normal play, here Mario can only jump in place at the starting point, not move horizontally. If Mario spawns in water, as in Dire, Dire Docks or the Secret Aquarium, the button lets him swim forward until he reaches land or is stopped by a wall. None of these functions are known to be productive from any starting position without other controls.

B lets Mario punch, grab, and throw. Punching moves Mario forward slightly, which is the only viable way to move horizontally on land. (In water, grabbing also moves forward; as before, this alone is not productive from any starting position.)

Z lets Mario crouch. Again, without other controls, he can only do so in place at the starting point. The button does nothing in water.

Start pauses and resumes the game. Pause buffering can manipulate the global timer, which can only slightly affect game state without other input. Pressing the button is required to progress past the title screen, and can then load file A without any other input, but becomes unproductive afterwards.

R switches between Lakitu Cam and Mario/Fixed Cam. The camera angle can have niche impacts on the game state, as in the Behind Camera Anywhere glitch. However, switching camera modes is not known to be useful without also controlling Mario by using other inputs.

C◀▶ rotates the camera, and C▲▼ enters and exits First-Person Mode. While entering First-Person mode does change Mario's action, it does not let him move around and therefore does not control him in a useful way.

The D-pad consists of four buttons ▲▼◀▶ that have no use during normal gameplay. Neither does L.

Disadvantages

Only using one button imposes many disadvantages and restrictions:

  • A full-game run is impossible, because Start cannot dismiss the starting textbox and any other choice of button cannot progress past the title screen. Therefore, this challenge can only be analyzed on a single-star basis.
  • Punching, the only reliable method of moving forward, is extremely slow, which leaves Mario highly vulnerable to enemies and other obstacles.
  • Punching only moves Mario forward.
  • Punching moves Mario with a set spacing. Timing successive punches does nothing to change the set of positions that Mario can attain, without outside interference such as from enemies.
  • Vertical movement can only be done in specific circumstances.
  • Mario can only turn in specific situations, such as getting hit by an enemy.
  • Mario can only climb steep slopes in specific circumstances, such as while running around on fire.
  • In most courses, Mario reaches a dead end where he cannot move anywhere or falls to his death.
  • Platforming is virtually impossible due to not being able to jump or move quickly.
  • While holding an object, Mario cannot move or perform any action besides throwing the object.

Stars

Three stars have been collected in the One Button Challenge so far, all in Shifting Sand Land using the B button.[1]

No. Course Star Btn. Presses Time Ref.
1 Shifting Sand Land In the Talons of the Big Bird B 1,374 18:02.07 [2]
This star is only present when selecting the first mission, which lacks one of the tornadoes near the four pillars. Instead, a Fly Guy can redirect Mario's angle towards a pillar, then burn Mario to have him run up the pillar. From there, Mario can punch off of the pillar to land on the Fly Guy and twirl onto the pyramid and land with a precisely pre-manipulated angle. After punching into the water and redirecting Mario's angle with slopes and a Pokey, he can punch to one of the pillars which is near a Crazy Box. After waiting for Klepto to move into position, we then use the Crazy Box to jump into Klepto and fall onto the star.
2 Shifting Sand Land Shining Atop the Pyramid B 1,450 22:20.21 [3]
By using the tornado to get onto a pillar, then using a Fly Guy to get on the pyramid, we can then use another Fly Guy to burn Mario and have him run up the pyramid to the small cubby with the star. Because Mario's angle is facing slightly towards the star, by punching the wall next to the star over and over for 2 minutes straight, Mario eventually gets close enough to the star to collect it.
3 Shifting Sand Land 100 Coins B 9,048 8:16:06.27 [4]
Because we cannot collect enough coins normally, we instead have to use the Breaking/Disappearing Cork Box Glitch to collect extra coins, combined with manipulating Goomba RNG (to make them move to redirect Mario's angle) by repeatedly punching or having Mario fall asleep and then wake up (to create sand particles) to help collect enough coins to reach 100. It took pannenkoek2012 over 3 months to create the TAS for this star.

References

  1. ↑ pannenkoek2012 (25 October 2025). "Can You Get a Star in Super Mario 64 Using Only ONE Button?". pannenkoek2012. YouTube.
  2. ↑ pannenkoek2012 (10 November 2025). "SSL In the Talons of the Big Bird using Only the B Button (SM64 TAS)". UncommentatedPannen. YouTube.
  3. ↑ pannenkoek2012 (10 November 2025). "SSL Shining Atop the Pyramid using Only the B Button (SM64 TAS)". UncommentatedPannen. YouTube.
  4. ↑ pannenkoek2012 (10 November 2025). "SSL 100 Coins using Only the B Button (SM64 TAS)". UncommentatedPannen. YouTube.
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