Solution: Peaches
Answer: SKI LIFT

Written by DD Liu and Nathan Pinsker

This puzzle is a series of levels requiring you to transform a given word into another word or phrase. You play as Bowser and his minions, who are sharing a Super Crown in order to impersonate Peach and attempt to run her cooking show. (The Super Crown is an item from the game New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe, but knowledge about the game or the Mario universe is not necessary for the puzzle.) Each character has a different power, and you'll need to find the right order of operations to complete each level.

The function of each power can be determined with some amount of playing around:

Image
Character
Power
Example
Bowser
Delete all instances of the alphabetically-first character.
BAOBAB → BOBB
Shy Guy
Switches all Rs to Ls and vice versa.
REROLL → LELORR
Bullet Bill
Changes the first character. (Can be charged to change it to whatever character you want.)
HONEY → MONEY
Boo
All vowels get replaced with the vowel before them, immediately followed by the vowel after them.
EUPHORIAAIOAPHIUREOUE
Wiggler
Changes the chosen character to the character after it, immediately followed by the character before it. (Can be charged to select whatever character you want.)
ZONED → ZOOMED
Piranha Plant
Switches the two halves of the word, and adds a space in between. (If the word has odd length, the second half of the original word will be longer.)
OFFTAKE → TAKE OFF
Blooper
Adds the chosen character after the first character and before the last character. (Can be charged to select whatever character you want.)
SAWED → SEAWEED
Lakitu
Moves the chosen suffix to the beginning of the word. (Can be charged to select whatever suffix you want.)
OVERSLEEP → SLEEPOVER
There are a few other rules in play that solvers may discover. One of them may be helpful (but not essential) for extraction:
  • If the phrase is longer than 20 characters, only the first 20 characters will be kept.
  • Spaces at the beginning and end of the phrase will be deleted.
  • Multiple spaces in a row will be replaced with a single space.

A solution for each level is given at the bottom of this page. After completing all levels, we receive this image:

The hint "hidden in today's episode" can be found by taking the first letters of each target dish. This gives the phrase USE EACH POWER AT LEAST ONCE. The level select screen, which shows the same cake, can be helpful for discovering this. Since the words on it transform from the starting ingredient to the ending disn name when a level is finished, when all levels are finished, the phrase can be read off of the larger letters on the cake.

Since we must reach GORGEOUS CAKE in 9 steps, this means exactly one power will be used twice. The final page also shows Bowser torching F to pay respects, which suggests that in reverse his power will effectively be "creating" an F somewhere in the word.

We can reconstruct the operations that were applied by working backwards, with some trial and error. The most constrained operations to apply are Piranha Plant's (which requires a roughly equal number of letters on either side of the space) and the Boo's (which requires all vowels to exist in specific pairs), so it's easiest to build a solution around being able to apply those two operations.

Here is the solution:

Power (in reverse)
New phrase
GORGEOUS CAKE
Lakitu
RGEOUS CAKEGO
Blooper
REOUS CAKEO
Piranha Plant
CAKEOREOUS
Wiggler
BKEOREOUS
Wiggler
BKEOREOT
Boo
BKIRIT
Shy Guy
BKILIT
Bullet Bill
SKILIT
Bowser
SKILIFT

The answer is SKILIFT, which also fits Toadette's second hint. Remember to get off when you get to the top!

Note that from step 2 (Blooper) to step 3 (Piranha Plant), you could also use the fact that spaces at the beginning of a phrase are deleted to get CAKEO REOUS rather than CAKEOREOUS. Using this gives SKI LIFT with the space included, which is effectively identical since spaces are removed from all submitted answers:

Power (in reverse)
New phrase
GORGEOUS CAKE
Lakitu
RGEOUS CAKEGO
Blooper
REOUS CAKEO
Piranha Plant
CAKEO REOUS
Wiggler
BKEO REOUS
Wiggler
BKEO REOT
Boo
BKI RIT
Shy Guy
BKI LIT
Bullet Bill
SKI LIT
Bowser
SKI LIFT

Author’s Notes

Like Portal games, games involving Peach often end with cake!

Unlike Portal games, since many of you reeeally seemed to want the extraction to come out of the last page, we made the extraction come out of the last page! We hope more of you believe in the cake now.

We considered playing 'Never Gonna Give You Up' on the final page, but thought that might prompt a few too many incorrect guesses.

A few of you have asked about the process of making this puzzle. It was coded using HaxeFlixel with substantial use of a library that Nathan wrote. We chose HaxeFlixel since it's simple to use, easily exports to the web, and offers great support for animation and other effects. The blooper's ink-spray was the hardest effect to code, and uses a device called metaballs. (At the time of writing, the Wikipedia page for metaballs says "not to be confused with meatballs", which we thought was amusing. Try not to get those two confused, I guess?)


Level Solutions

Note that levels had many possible solve paths. Getting an optimal length solve path was not necessary, as long as the number of moves was 10 or fewer. A good strategy for the harder levels is to work backwards from the target phrase, figuring out which moves are possible and trying to set it up so that Blooper or Wiggler can be used as often as possible to remove extra letters in the final phrase that don't appear in the starting word.

Level 1 (UNAGI → UNI)
Power (charge)
New phrase
UNAGI
Bowser
UNGI
Bowser
UNI
Level 2 (LARD → SALAD)
Power (charge)
New phrase
LARD
Bowser
LRD
Blooper (A)
LARAD
Shy Guy
RALAD
Bullet Bill (S)
SALAD
Level 3 (CLAMS → EGGS)
Power (charge)
New phrase
CLAMS
Bowser
CLMS
Bowser
LMS
Bowser
MS
Blooper (G)
MGGS
Bullet Bill (E)
EGGS
Level 4 (MAIL → ECLAIR)
Power (charge)
New phrase
MAIL
Shy Guy
MAIR
Wiggler (M)
NLAIR
Bullet Bill (D)
DLAIR
Wiggler (D)
ECLAIR
Level 5 (GOLD → AIOLI)
Power (charge)
New phrase
GOLD
Blooper (I)
GIOLID
Bowser
GIOLI
Bullet Bill (A)
AIOLI
Level 6 (HAY → CANDY HEN)
Power (charge)
New phrase
HAY
Blooper (D)
HDADY
Wiggler (first D)
HECADY
Piranha Plant
ADY HEC
Blooper (N)
ANDY HENC
Lakitu (C)
CANDY HEN
Level 7 (TURF → PARFAIT)
Power (charge)
New phrase
TURF
Bullet Bill (U)
UURF
Wiggler (first U)
VTURF
Bullet Bill (E)
ETURF
Lakitu (U)
URFET
Boo
OARFAIT
Bullet Bill (P)
PARFAIT
Level 8 (HERON → ONIGIRI)
Power (charge)
New phrase
HERON
Lakitu (R)
RONHE
Wiggler (H)
RONIGE
Blooper (I)
RIONIGIE
Bowser
RIONIGI
Lakitu (O)
ONIGIRI
Level 9 (EASEL → WATER EEL)
Power (charge)
New phrase
EASEL
Bullet Bill (W)
WASEL
Lakitu (E)
ELWAS
Wiggler (S)
ELWATR
Blooper (E)
EELWATER
Piranha Plant
ATER EELW
Lakitu (W)
WATER EEL
Level 10 (SHRINE → REFRESHROOM)
Power (charge)
New phrase
SHRINE
Wiggler (E)
SHRINFD
Lakitu (D)
DSHRINF
Boo
DSHREONF
Blooper (R)
DRSHREONRF
Bowser
RSHREONRF
Bowser
RSHRONRF
Wiggler (N)
RSHROOMRF
Blooper (E)
RESHROOMREF
Lakitu (first R)
REFRESHROOM
Level 11 (ETHICS → ANISE TAHINI)
Power (charge)
New phrase
ETHICS
Bowser
ETHIS
Lakitu (T)
THISE
Piranha Plant
ISE TH
Blooper (A)
IASE TAH
Lakitu (second A)
ASE TAHI
Blooper (I)
AISE TAHII
Blooper (N)
ANISE TAHINI
Level 12 (DEMON → LEMON EGGNOG)
Power (charge)
New phrase
DEMON
Bullet Bill (N)
NEMON
Piranha Plant
MON NE
Lakitu (E)
EMON N
Bullet Bill (O)
OMON N
Blooper (E)
OEMON EN
Blooper (G)
OGEMON EGN
Blooper (G)
OGGEMON EGGN
Lakitu (third G)
GEMON EGGNOG
Bullet Bill (L)
LEMON EGGNOG
Level 13 (SNOW → ASIAN SQUID)
Power (charge)
New phrase
SNOW
Boo
SNIUW
Blooper (I)
SINIUIW
Lakitu (second I)
IUIWSIN
Bullet Bill (R)
RUIWSIN
Wiggler (R)
SQUIWSIN
Piranha Plant
WSIN SQUI
Bullet Bill (D)
DSIN SQUI
Lakitu (second I)
IN SQUIDS
Blooper (A)
IAN SQUIDAS
Lakitu (first A)
ASIAN SQUID
Level 14 (DRESS → TONS OF NOODLES)
Power (charge)
New phrase
DRESS
Bullet Bill (F)
FRESS
Shy Guy
FLESS
Blooper (D)
FDLESDS
Blooper (O)
FODLESDOS
Blooper (N)
FNODLESDONS
Piranha Plant
ESDONS FNODL
Lakitu (first N)
NODLESDONS F
Blooper (O)
NOODLESDONS OF
Piranha Plant
DONS OF NOODLES
Bullet Bill (T)
TONS OF NOODLES
Level 15 (TIGHTS → CRAZY EIGHT)
Power (charge)
New phrase
TIGHTS
Bullet Bill (Z)
ZIGHTS
Wiggler (Z)
AYIGHTS
Wiggler (Y)
AZXIGHTS
Wiggler (X)
AZYWIGHTS
Wiggler (S)
AZYWIGHTTR
Lakitu (W)
WIGHTTRAZY
Bullet Bill (E)
EIGHTTRAZY
Piranha Plant
TRAZY EIGHT
Bullet Bill (C)
CRAZY EIGHT