Level UP — Pixel art of Mario throwing a Pokeball at Bowser over a lava pit while a small character watches

Level UP

2015viral videoclassic

Published September 5, 2026

Level UP is a YouTube animation channel run by an animator known as Nelly that launched in late 2015, producing 8-bit skits that toss Nintendo characters into absurd crossovers and physics-bent scenarios. Its Super Mario racing short and later Baldi's Basics mashups pulled tens of millions of views apiece, turning the channel into a go-to source for gaming parody animation.

youtube culture memes animation memes nintendo memes gaming pixel art memes

Overview

Level UP builds short 8-bit animated skits that drop familiar gaming characters, mostly Nintendo mascots like Mario, Luigi and Donkey Kong, into weird crossover setups or apply real-world logic to genre conventions1. A typical short runs a couple of minutes, pushes pixel-style sprites through gags that a normal Mario level would never allow, then cuts before the joke overstays its welcome2.

The channel's identity leans on recognizable IP mashups: a Baldi's Basics and Sonic the Hedgehog crossover became one of its biggest hits, and a Mario and Donkey Kong role-swap short racked up huge numbers on its own3. The tone is playful rather than edgy, which is why parents let the videos autoplay for kids and why the animation style spawned a wider ecosystem of copycat channels chasing the same 8-bit crossover format1.

Origin & Background

Platform
YouTube
Creator
Nelly
Date
2015

The channel was created by an animator identified as Nelly and went live on November 15th, 20153. Nothing was uploaded for over two months. The first video finally landed on January 28th, 2016, introducing an original character rather than the Nintendo cast the channel later became known for1.

The breakthrough came about five weeks later. On March 6th, 2016, Nelly posted a skit of Nintendo characters racing through a Super Mario level, which pulled in more than 15 million views and set the template for everything the channel made afterward2.

How It Spread

After the March 2016 racing short broke past 15 million views, Level UP kept iterating on the same crossover formula and stacked up a catalog of high-performing gaming parodies2. The Baldi's Basics x Sonic the Hedgehog mashup climbed to roughly 22 million views, and a short flipping Mario and Donkey Kong's roles reached about 21 million, making both bigger than the video that first put the channel on the map3.

By January 23rd, 2019, Level UP had passed 900,000 YouTube subscribers3. Nelly also launched a sister channel, Team Level UP, as a showcase for other animators working in the same 8-bit style, and it had built up over 123,000 subscribers of its own by that point4. The affiliate setup let the brand extend beyond a single creator without diluting the main feed's output pace.

The channel's reach also seeped into general internet slang around gaming, where 'level up' was already used as shorthand for gaining experience or hitting a personal milestone5. Level UP's videos slotted neatly into that vocabulary, which helped the shorts get shared in gaming communities well outside YouTube's recommendation feed.

How to Use This Meme

Level UP itself is a channel, not a template anyone can 'use', but its format is easy to spot: take two unrelated game franchises, animate a short skit in 8-bit or 16-bit pixel style, and let the joke come from the collision. Fan channels often copy the convention of pairing a wholesome Nintendo lead like Mario with a chaotic guest like Sonic or a horror-game antagonist, then resolving the gag in under three minutes.

Frequently Asked Questions